Avery holding the Blattman's new little girl. She loves taking care of her.



Mikaya painting with water colors.




Both Curtis's dad and my dad have loved road biking in the past. Curtis was able to benefit from his dad's hand-me-downs; road biking shoes and his shirts. Road bike shoes are not cheap! My dad gave me a road bike that he had found at a second hand store. He used to own some bike stores, so he knows exactly what to look for. He let Curtis sell the nice leather bike seat that was on it, on ebay for about 85$. So Curtis is going to get me some road-biking shoes with that. So thanks to our dads, we've hardly had to put much money into a sport we both really love! (except for the bike that Curtis made for himself)
Riding my bike has always been one of my favorite things to do, but I've just started riding an actual "road bike". For our date the other night we went on a 15 mile ride. Near the end, when I was almost at a stand still, and feeling a little too confident, I tipped straight over with my feet still in the harnesses. It was a busy 4-way stop, and I was pretty embarrassed, but couldn't stop laughing at myself and what had happened. Luckily, I only got a few bruises. I hope I at least made someone's day.





I don't take my camera as many places as I used to. So I snapped the next four pics with my cel phone. This is just in a grocery store, but I thought she looked so cute!


Avery swinging at our favorite park.



Mikaya at the beach.


At our pool.


Spencer and Rachel let us use their time share that they weren't going to be able to use. We took a family vacation there and also spent a few days at Disneyland. Thank you Spencer and Rachel!




I think these pictures are so funny. I had to take a quick break from the funnel cake at Disneyland, in order to capture this scene. The pictures speak for themselves.




Avery and Coral on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Avery had a blast going on the roller coasters. Mikaya on the other hand didn't want anything to do with roller coasters, until at the very end she decided, on her own, that she was going to go on Space Mountain. Previously, I was thinking that Avery would want to go on Space Mountain, but would think it was just a bit too fast and not want to go on it again. So to think that now Mikaya also wanted to go was crazy. We were all shocked and said, "Are you sure? You know it's really fast." After checking her height to make sure she was tall enough, we all got in line, and with confused smiles we all got on Space Mountain. Needless to say, she didn't want to go again. Avery loved it and wanted to go million more times.



I don't have a picture, but we went on the Haunted Mansion ride, because the girls love it, which slightly surprises me. As they pack everyone in the first room and play some scary music, the ceiling rises. There is a loud noise and a flash and all you see is a skeleton hanging from the top of the ceiling, by it's neck. At this point, when it's dead silent, Mikaya yells out, Aahh! It's a skeleton!!" Everyone in the room laughs. Then she says loudly, "Don't worry Avery, it's not real!" Mikaya is so funny, but so levelheaded at the same time.



We were at Disneyland on our anniversary for our family vacation; so I had Avery take a quick picture of us. Curtis and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary about a week earlier, though. We went to a beautiful hotel because we had won "a night's stay" there, at Curtis's Christmas party, a few month's ago. Curtis was the MC at his company's Christmas party and was calling out the grand prize, a stay in a beautiful hotel by the beach. He looked down and was glad it was not his number on the ticket. It wouldn't be good to win the grand prize when you and a few others were in charge of putting the whole thing together! So, relieved he called out the numbers on the ticket, as I saw they were the exact match to mine on my ticket. I was thinking, "Oh no, this doesn't look too good!" Luckily it's a small company and everyone knows Curtis wouldn't really rig the winnings!




Mikaya and I watched as Avery, Coral, and Curtis rode the rapids on Grizzly Bear Mountain.









Coral and I riding some rented beach cruisers from the hotel.







We celebrated three birthdays while my parents were here, Curtis's, my mom's, and my dad's. We had fun going swimming, to the beach, taking walks/bike rides, going out to lunch, and shopping.


Playing cups. They were pretty good at it!




A talent show for my mom's birthday! We had a blast singing songs to the piano, singing with the guitar, and watching the girls dance.


My mom did Avery and Mikaya's hair like she used to do mine.



Going to the beach with my mom.


I thought Mikaya looked like Princess Buttercup in her red boots and dress right before she goes into the fire swamp. (The Princess Bride is my favorite movie)


Our pool.


A game Avery and Curtis came up with for family home evening. Coral's taking the picture. She looked just as crazy.

It was so fun to celebrate Christmas in our new home. What an wonderful Christmas gift. Avery thought that getting a little bit of "Silly Putty" was pretty nice too.


Coral helped Avery write a letter to Santa. They left some cookies for Santa, and of course, some carrots for his reindeer.



Watching the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" movie on Christmas Eve.


Our good friends Sooyoung and Dan came over to see our new house.


Curtis, Mikaya, and I were able to go to Avery's Christmas party at her new school. Mikaya especially liked this magnet board where she could write out her name in magnetic letters.

A Canvas as Big as a House

Coral's bathroom is very red, I know. It's actually not quite this bright and I think it turned out pretty cool for a teenage bathroom. She picked out the color and the beautiful shower curtain. I was glad she picked red. Red is my favorite color, and I wasn't going to paint any other room quite that bright, so it worked out perfectly. We put a few calendar photos of London in some frames and hung them up.




Our kitchen.





Curtis demolishing a rock water feature in our backyard/patio. We are going to plant a vegetable garden there instead, along with hopefully some orange trees, to the side.


I don't know if this happens to everyone, but I always seem to know my calling before I get it. I don't know why this is. We got called to teach in the primary, and I just knew we were going to teach Avery's class. The following week they let us know that Curtis and I were in charge of Avery's class, which has 9 energetic awesome boys and two wonderful girls, one of which is Avery. I'm so excited to spend some extra time with her and to team teach with Curtis.



Curtis taking the mastic off of our fireplace with a wire brush attached to his power tool. We thought we were up pretty high, with our extension ladder. The only fear that I've noticed that Curtis has, is of heights. I thought it was pretty fun to watch, since I've never seen him fearful of anything.




Me taking the mastic off, a little higher up.



We rented this ladder from home depot. I don't know if the photo shows it, but it was super heavy & massive. I didn't know exactly what we were getting into.







We only had the ladder for 24 hours, so we painted until 5:00 am. Curtis changed the chandelier for me while we had the ladder. It was a fun memorable experience, but I'm glad it's done.



I had to stand on the top of the ladder and reach with a paint extender poll to reach the top. I had to really concentrate, because one little mistake could have ended not so well!



I'm glad we all love the color, because it's not going to be changed for a while!








Our dining room.



Coral and Avery going for a walk in the rain.