Authentic Thai

I got a call from one of my favorite companions from my mission, Sister Wasanaa Ratchasud, now Herrin. The first invesitgator that we taught together and who was baptized lives in Springville now. His name is Chris Beckham. Since his baptism he has married a woman named Julie who is a returned missionary and they have two boys with another boy on the way. Chris's dad, Jim Beckham was a huge help to us while we served in the area of Norwalk together. He had a big van and was always willing to take us where we needed to go. He also would take investigators up to the LA Temple in his van. So it was great to be able to teach his son Chris and see him get baptized. They are in the top picture. The bottom picture is of Wasanaa's cute kids, Makayla and Eli. We all gathered for authentic Thai food at Wasanna's house..it was great.

Miles is Walking!

Yea..Miles took a couple of steps on Christmas Eve but when we tried to get him to walk again he wouldn't. Dave and Cicely brought him over to Mom and Dad's today and said that just that afternoon he had decided to start walking. So here are some of his first steps...

No more Pictures!

Miles had just awaken from a nap here and was done with me taking pictures..

Just in case you miss Pancho

Dickson Dinner

Oh how we love the Dicksons. On the Saturday before New Years the Dicksons took Lib, Brad and me out to dinner. We met at Thai Gardens on 9th East. It was so nice to just hang out and be together. We started doing this three years ago at Christmas time. As we left the restaurant it started to snow...

Christmas is here!

Miles made Christmas! He really didn't understand what was going on with all of the presents but he had fun..here he is listening to some music with one of his toys and snapping to the music which is what he does when he hears music.
Mom's lovely tree on Christmas morning.
Mom.. has been looking for a clock forever. So for Christmas I bought her a clock..it is just like mine..but I think it will look good in her kitchen.
Here are Brad and David sampling one of the mexifornia treats that you sent to us.. I liked these the best, they were the hard crunchy pastry like stuff that you sent.
What? The cutest dog ever, here with his special toy from Sister Cain.. Miles woke up Christmas morning at about 6am.. I know this because I slept in his room. So I got up with him and tried to keep him entertained until Mom and Dad took over at about 6:45. I went back to bet in their bed until 8:30 or so. Anyway Miles had had it by 9 am and went down for a nap at about 9:30. We opened up our presents while he was asleep and saved his presents in a big pile for when he got up from his nap. He got up in time to eat what he could of rolled pancakes, bluberries. He loved them.

Here he is with his big pile of presents, do you think he was interested?

Nope, he would rather climb on to the fireplace and play with Pancho's toy. This is Dave and Cicely reading their card to him and opening a present for him as he looks and listens from the fireplace. They said in their card "please always be a good boy and never give us any trouble"..it was funny. Still not interested in presents, just prancing around instead.

One of his presents was a play cell phone..he seemed to like that. Here he is in the little rocking chair that used to be yours. The Sheneman family post presents, hanging out with Sadie..

Grandma getting ready for all of the family to eat. Her only request was that we all come over and play games. Aunt Ruthie with a beautiful trifle.

Mom took this picture on Christmas night after all of the snow was shoveled...

Love you Aly..hope all is going well in your new area.

Christmas Eve

This was Chrismas Eve at about 4:45 pm in front of my house, the big snow storm was just starting to come in. That morning at the gym I was watching the TODAY show and the weather guy said that the only place in the nation that will get snow tonight on Christmas Eve will be Salt Lake City. I was thinking, Yea, I live there! Sure enough it started as I left my house and by the time I got to the Dicksons for a visit it was slippery and accumulation of at least 3 to 5 inches. I got stuck at their house and Terry and Daniel had to give me a push to get out of my parking space. At about 6 I headed to Mom and Dad's house and I couldn't get up the hill. David came down in his Subaru and rescued me and took me up to Stacie Mascaro's house near Wasatch Drive so that I could deliver a little gift. People were all over the place, sliding off of the road and getting stuck. Dave's car was amazing and it never had a problem. It was a magical Christmas Eve with the snow falling..
Here is David talking on the phone with you on the pre Christmas call...
Miles and Grandma hanging out on Christmas Eve.
This is Miles in the red room. David has adopted your shuffle iPod and was trying to find your charger. We went through your boxes but couldn't find it. We found this hat though and put it on Miles and he decided to climb in this bin and go for some rides.

Aly.. This is video right after we saw Miles take a couple of steps on his own. We tried to get him to do it again but it didn't work. He loves to play with Pancho's ears and try to poke him in the eye.

We had way too much fun putting Miles in this grocery cart than I think he did...

A Cain Gathering

Wow.. This is my first post for December. On Sunday the 23rd everyone came to my house for dinner. Everyone contributed, I bought a spiral ham from costco, Mom made potatoes

and dessert, Cic a salad and Annie carrots. Lib and Brad brought Ticket to Ride. We had fun..this was before dinner. Dave and Cic brought the pac and play so that Miles could go down to sleep and they could stay longer.

This is after dinner, Brad is telling some engaging story about something, I forget what. Oh, I remember, he is talking about the movie I am Legend with Wil Smith, a very intense movie. Look at my cute Red polka dot mugs that Michelle gave me for Christmas..
Here are some tired parents, pretending to be asleep...

Boo-radley's 33rd!

We celebrated Brad's 33rd Birthday on the 24th. It was great fun. It was a cake and climbing party. He finished the climbing wall in the garage so everyone was invited to enjoy a little climbing on his birthday. Mom and Dad's neighbors (the one with the cats) were getting rid of their old blue couch so Lib and Brad put it in their garage so that people could sit and watch. It worked great. We had a space heater in there too..and some hot chocolate. I didn't climb, but David C., David D, Brad, PJ, John, Doug and Annie all climbed. They played the game where you keep adding different holds to create a climbing sequence. If you fell off you were out. It was entertaining to watch.

Miles trying to climb, grunting and all.
David did really good..I will have some actual video for you soon.
Brad.. the best of all..he is like a little monkey..
Dave Dickson with his climbing skills..
Cicely and I had fun watching it all..

Lib made this great pumpkin cake from a recipe that she got when they got married. We brought the cake out and sang in the garage. It was fun times and of course we missed you!

Happy Turkey Day!

Shawn, Kathy and Zach came. Look how big and tall Shawn looks here. He has been working construction until the spring when he will get his mission call. Libby is excited to eat..

Perfect Thanksgiving feast.. The happy newlyweds. There weren's a lot of cousins this year, because it is the off year when everyone is visiting their in-laws..so it was kind of nice to have a smaller group.The lovely hosts sitting down after helping serve everyone..Happy 91st Birthday to Grandpa..I love this picture. Pumpkin cake for Grandpa's Birthday..I found the recipe in everyday food. It was great, I made it for practice and it turned out so good that I made it for Grandpa's Birthday. There was a lot leftover though because everyone had pie!
He did a good job blowing out his candles..Three generations

We played a round of Ticket to Ride with funny group, me, John (Brad's friend), Aunt Debbie, Matt and Brad.. Here Brad is explaining things to a pensive Matt..

We missed you..but it sounds like you had a great Thanksgiving. Good job on creating your own Turkey Run.. Love and miss you..

Happy #26 Davie!

At the Cheesecake Factory..Look we gave Mom a new Boston sweatshirt to replace her old standard.

Gathering together at the Cheesecake Factory. Luckily we put our names on the wait list at 3:30 pm and only had an hour wait!

Ahh the famous soap cake. Look how cute it is. Cicely did a good job, unfortunately it tasted like Tide.

So instead of cake we just finished off the cheesecake that we had ordered to take home.

David opening up our gifts.
We love you Aly!