Happy 2016!

Yay! It feels good to now be blogging in the current year!

We started the New Year by welcoming our exchange student "Gwenda" from Australia. It was a short gig of only 10 days and Emma REALLY wanted to do it. It turned out to be a great experience :) We scored! She was very polite, sweet, and easy-going.

At the airport...


It was a little embarrassing because she was brand new to our country and while we were walking through the airport from the terminal to the car, there was a crazy lady yelling at the top the of her lungs for the police (who were not succeeding in trying to calm her down) to stop touching her and hurting her. Welcome to America!!

We did lots of fun things with Gwen while she was here. We celebrated her and Dana's birthdays (she had turned 16 on the trip). As you can see in the video, she was a good sport!

Putting "Vegemite" on toast for us to sample.


She loved the trampoline...


We had some fun getaway plans for the weekend, but here's what the forecast looked like...

When their group went to visit the Grand Canyon, it was snowing so hard, they couldn't even see it. However, most of them had never seen snow either, so they had fun with that too:)

January 2, 2016, the same day we greeted Gwen at the airport, my grandpa passed away in the morning. It was very bitter-sweet. It's sad to see a loved one go, but when they are so ready and so long without their spouse, it makes you feel happy for them to move on to better things at the same time. We weren't sure what to do. We had obligations to Gwen but I really wanted my whole family to attend grandpa's funeral. In the end, we decided to split up. I took the little girls to California, and Dana, Emma, and Eli stayed here with Gwen. It wasn't a perfect scenario but it worked out. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Car Selfies...

Windmills


Finally arrived at my mom's. We all love going to visit "home".


The funeral was very special. He wanted it no longer than 45 mins and we were pretty darn close to that. (I think we just went over).
I loved his table and seeing all these things that reminded me of him so much.


He only had one sister- Aunt Kathy.
David, Nancee, Kathy's daughter Lori, Kathy, Mom, and Steve.


My grandpa had all his grandchildren at his funeral which I thought was pretty cool.





Mom's house was pretty jam packed all weekend. Sally decided to bless Viviana with everyone there at mom's house:)

(So sad to not have my good camera anymore!)

So many amazing priesthood holders there to help with the blessing :)


Everyone enjoyed time looking through memoirs. I love this old letter. Name, city, state. No house number needed.


So sweet! He loved trains and continued to love "toys" throughout his life. Some of my favorite childhood memories are riding on his motor boat in Big Bear.


It was a great weekend saying goodbye and being with family, but eventually we had to drive home and start back with our normal routine. The girls didn't want to leave, and to be honest, I wouldn't have minded staying a while longer either.

Once we were back we had to say good bye to Gwen :(
I wasn't sure what to get her as a gift. Somehow I thought of a "sock poster". What 16 yr-old doesn't love socks right? It turned out pretty cute...



She was alot of fun and now we have a friend over seas that we can keep in touch with thanks to Facebook!

The rest of January...
I got to watch Eli do awesome in Cross Country...


I did alot of subbing...


All 4 of my kids are still okay with me subbing their own classes :)


And finally, as per routine, we practiced piano.

I feel pretty proud to report that both girls are still taking lessons.
Not proud of them (although they're doing great), proud of me that I haven't thrown in the towel!
I have definitely wanted to at times!
I LOVE music in my home.