In memory of Jim

On Tuesday morning December 29, a dear friend of ours suddenly and unexpectedly passed away leaving behind not only his wife Miyo and daughters Jamie, Leslie, and a son Brett who is serving a mission in Korea, but a mourning commuinty of neighbors and a host of "proficient" tennis players. I am posting some video clips from a fishing trip that our families took together in remembrance. My boys still talk about it to this day.

Jim, coach, friend, there aren't words to describe how much we will miss you!

What are friends made of?...

Sugar and spice

and everything nice.
That's what friends are made of!

Once a month, I get together with the best kind of ladies. We say we're only going to lunch for an hour and it ALWAYS ends up being at least two.
(Who are we kidding?)

And once a week, after a grueling game of tennis we somehow manage to drag ourselves to a restaurant for lunch (below, at the Cowboy Grub).  I'm tellin' ya, it's tough...all that laughin' and jokin' around can really put a thick layer of sweat on!  (Tennis?  Ya, there's some of that going on too..)

At the end of this year, FRIENDS are what I've been the most grateful for...they last forever and I never have to dust them!

Brian's Baptism

Brian was baptized and confirmed a member of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

on Saturday, December 5 by David.

A bitter sweet day...Our last...no more...but how exciting!

After the baptism, we all went back to our house for lunch. 

Dave just can't get enough of these cute little nieces!

Neither can Bradley

Okay, neither can Morgan

The Patriarchs

David's grandma has been to all of our kid's baptisms.  David went to Ogden to pick her up on Friday, we took her to a Christmas concert that night.  She slept the night in Morgan's room and after the baptism on Satuday, (and a good long nap) David took her out to dinner at the Lion House before taking her back to Ogden later that night.

Uncle Lee and Grami.

Rock and Linda (Brian's adopted grandparents) also have been to all four baptisms over the years.  They're our best friends and we love them SO DEARLY!!!

Just gotta love those cousins!

We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family so close by to be able to share wonderful moments and make lasting memories.  Brian will remember this day with a smile.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

So this is our last 8th birthday party forever.  And when it's the last 8th birthday party forever, what do you do?  You party 'til you can party NO MORE!!!! 

And this is his story.

It was a wintery, blustery, snowy day. 

But beautiful in every way.

At 12:30 sharp that cold afternoon,

the 'peruvian possee' gathered in the kitchen saloon.

They filled their bellies with junk food galore

because eating anything healthy would be a bore!

The party clown was funny and clever

and the birthday boy soon began to realize that this would be the best day ever!

"Yes!" he exclaimed, with vigor and vim,

as I caught this picture with his greatest grin.

Then off to the pool, we zipped in a hurry.

Over the hills and through a snow flurry.

to sit on a bench....

while mom took some pictures...

and more pictures...

("Come on!  Hurry up!  We want to swim!")

Now finally the fun can begin!

And they played and they played...

'til they could play no more...

because daddy's arms became too sore.

And so this little boy, ends his best 8th birthday ever story

with smiles and happiness and a treasured memory.

Happy Halloween

Okay, so some of us were scarier than others for Halloween. Brian and Bradley didn't think that their costumes were 'Halloweeney' enough because they already play 'army men' almost every other day of the year anyway.  Brandon really didn't need a mask to be scary (hee, hee) so the cape gave his cotume away and as for the rest of us, well, we did our best...

King Tut had another engagement that night so I had to make do with Dave...but Dave, where's your costume? (Ha!)

Beauty and the Beast...which one is witch? (Okay, that was funny, admit it!)

The birds and the bees for Halloween?

Gumbi and his sidekick...the two are inseperable! (That would make for a funny movie, don't you think?)

Hope everyone had a great night! 

Hillcrest Highschool Tennis

Morgan played varsity tennis at Hillcrest High. This was her second season. She played singles #2 and had a great year.

Clockwise: Jen (captain), Kelsey (singles #1), Jenny (alternate) and Morgan (singles #2)

Cute girls!

Bradley finally got up on two skiis this summer. Whew! I was beginning to wonder if he was a Baker.

This summer, we went to San Diego, as always, and we went to the Wave House on Mission Beach to do some surfin'. We had too much fun! Of course, the real surfin' was just across the boardwalk, and we did plenty of that too, but we just had to try this!