Thanksgiving 2008

What do you get when you put together 14 kids 8 adults and a lot of good food? A Great Thanksgiving! This year my family, including my Mom and Dad, joined the Garcia-Young clan and their friends the Saunders' from Wyoming to celebrate Thanksgiving. Ben and Holly Kroutil joined us for a short time as well. The food was a great compilation of everyone's efforts, especially the hosts. We were very grateful to have such wonderful friends to invite us over and to be able to have my Mom and Dad with us as well. One of our favorite parts of the meal was the pies. Karen made her famous apple pie, my Mom made her yummy banana cream pie, and I made pumpkin (Brian's favorite) and chocolate cream pie (my favorite). You can never have to many pies! Just ask me!

At this time of Thanksgiving, I recognize that there is truly much to be grateful for. In a time of economic uncertainty and many new changes upon us, I am especially grateful for every little thing that we have been blessed with! I am thrilled that Brian has a good job, and that we can still afford our home (as many people in our neighborhood have lost theirs). I have a wonderful family whom I love dearly and I learn from daily. Most of all, I am grateful we have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives, which gives us hope and encouragement and has taught us to prepare ourselves for whatever may lie ahead. I am grateful to have leaders who are in tune with the spirit who guide us in the things we should do to find joy in our journey. I am very grateful that we can have the spirit in our home, that we may enjoy the peace that it offers us, provided we let it! (ha/ha) Overall, I really have no complaints. The only things I could complain about are things that are my own fault anyway. I guess I still have a lot of work to do! Thank you to all my family and friends whom I love and care for so much. You've had such an impact on my life and have helped in making me who I am today. (I hope your not too disappointed) (ha/ha). All my love- Jessica

I love to see them playing

While working in the kitchen I glanced around looking for Colby who was normally hanging on my leg about this time. To my great pleasure I found him sitting on the floor with his sisters. The girls were teaching him how to roll a ball back and forth instead of just hogging it. He would take turns sitting in front of each of the girls playing and then they finally they let him into the circle. As I worked I could hear the constant giggling and chattering of the kids.

One of my favorite things to see is my children laughing and playing together. In this particular instance there was even a valuable lesson of sharing and taking turns being taught. I am so proud of my wonderful children. I am very grateful for the wonder examples they are for each other. I know that I am their mother and slightly biased, but they are the best.

Yeskidettes Jungle Book Play

This Season Jade and Cambrie both were involved in the Yes Kidettes Production of "The Jungle Book". Their friend Claire Pace made it also. So after a solid 6-8 weeks of driving back and forth to practices in different parts of downtown Modesto, and of course no two kids ever seemed to have practice at the same time because they all had different parts, they finally had their big weekend of performances. When we finally got to see the show I was so impressed. I can't believe they can pull that many kids together in such a short amount of time and make it look so good. It was especially enjoyable for us because throughout the entire show, we had a child on stage. Either Jade or Cambrie were on the stage the entire time and a lot of the time it was both of them. Jade was a Monkey in King Louie's crew, a star and a flower, and Cambrie was a bumble bee. Cambrie even had a little speaking part which she was very proud of! She ran up to Mowgli the man cub and said "Awh, come on what's wrong?" I was so proud of both of them, they did a great job. It has been interesting to see the confidence that they have gained through this experience. Even from the small part Jade had in the last YES performance, she had much better confidence and stage presence when trying out for this one. She even had a call back for the part of Ashanti. In the end I was very glad they had the opportunity to be in the show. Even if it meant the tripling of my gas bill, the juggling of Colby's nap times, the rearranging of carpools, and the lack of dinners provided during that time, I think it was a great experience!

A Quick Stop In

One of the great parts of living in the "city" with parents who live in the "country", is that when they to do any big shopping, they come down to where we are. Consequently we get little surprise visits more often. This stop in happened to be after Nana got a new cast for her hand that she had surgery on. All the kids love when Nana and Papa stop by. Lucky for them Colby was in rare form tonight. (ok so maybe not so rare) but Colby was on one of his kicks. He was just being silly and thought it was funny to imitate what Papa was doing. Papa would make a face and he would make a face. Then Papa would make a face and shake his head and hands and Colby would make the face and do this shaking thing that he does when he grits his teeth. It totally cracks me up! Of course if you laugh he keeps on going! Anyway he was enjoying putting on a show and giving loves... and then some. I love that my kids have the opportunity to get to know their grandparents so well and be able to play with and love on them.
Check out these little video clips of Colby imitating Papa, and then giving him loves. That is until he realizes that I have a camera on him and then he just wants to pose.

Prop 8 part 2

The greatest of blessings were never given without overcoming a little adversity right? When we did our last street walk to support Yes on prop 8 we had organized another walk for Monday, the day before the big election. We had quite a few people who said they were going to be there as well. As Monday approached we quickly found that it had a really good chance of raining Monday night. At first I thought they might cancel the walk, but after talking to Bob Rawe the regional coordinator for prop 8, he mentioned that it was snowing when the pioneers crossed the plains and that didn’t stop them. Brian’s thought was that doesn’t mean they weren’t crazy either. Ha/ha So anyway, out into the rain we went. Originally I was thinking of just keeping the kids in the car and letting them watch a movie while we stood outside with the signs, but they protested that idea. Especially Jade and Cambrie, since they didn’t get to help the last time. So out we all went. Except Colby of course, I wasn’t about to deal with him on a busy street in the rain. I was so impressed with all the people that were there rain or shine to support this cause. There were actually quite a few other kids out there, and everyone was getting drenched, which to the kids was pure fun. Some of our signs started to fall apart in the rain, so we turn the kids into human signs, while protecting them only slightly from the rain. We took the plastic yard signs and cut holes in the tops for their heads and then put it over the top of them. They loved it and almost all the kids wanted one. Jade and Savannah Pace and a few of the other had made up a little cheer that they were hollering at the top of their lungs. “Yes on 8 is really great” over and over and over again. I have to admit my favorite sign was the one Jen Miyakawa made from yellow foam core board. She cut out the word Yes and the number 8. It was way cute! I loved seeing the enthusiasm and dedication that everyone there had. I am so grateful to live in a community of people with whom I share common views and interests. There was even a guy who when he saw what we were doing came over and asked to join us. How cool is that!! Yea for Yes on Prop 8!!!