Elder Stewart's off to Washington

All of my immediate family and grandparents got together last Thursday night to see where my brother Karl would be going on his mission. We were excited to find out that he will be serving in the Washington, Tacoma mission and will report on March 12. We're so proud of Karl's example, our boys really look up to him. We know he will make a great missionary and have many opportunities to learn and grow as he serves our Heavenly Father. We love you Karl!

Winning Attitude

Parker received the Winning Attitude Award along with two other students in his class for the second quarter. We were able to watch him receive his award during an assembly at the school. It was such a sign of the times when the principal had the kids receiving the award stand and smile so they could get their picture taken by the swarm of camera wielding moms (me included!).

California Update

Thanks for the great suggestions everyone! We have decided to change our plans slightly. We're going to stay in the Los Angeles area for this trip and save San Diego for another time. That way we can take our time exploring Disneyland/California Adeventure and maybe add in the aquarium or a harbor cruise. We'll let you know how it goes!

California Dreamin'

We're starting to get excited about our upcoming trip to Anaheim in February! We were able to book a timeshare room a year ago. The rooms next to Disneyland seem to be hard to arrange because the area is so popular, we feel lucky that we got it! We'll have a little kitchen so that will be really helpful in keeping some of the food costs down (hopefully!). Also, I've been looking at prices for tickets at some of the parks and I think we're going to get the Southern California CityPass. It includes a 3-day park hopper Disneyland ticket, one day at the San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park, one day at Sea World, and one day at Universal Studios (don't know if we'll use that). We'd love any input you have on other spots to hit while we're there!

Also, we're thinking about using RideMax to help us get the most out of our time at Disneyland. Has anyone used it before?

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a wonderful and merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

The kids used puppets as Grandma read the story of Christ's birth.





For the last few years we've made a craft on Christmas Eve. This year the kids colored wood ornaments. They turned out really cute!