OUR 2009 RECAP

Hi Everybody!!

We hope this letter finds you doing well and on your way to a happy and healthy 2010. Since we all know I don't have the patience to mail Christmas cards, here is our New Year letter...

One year ago we were living in a converted 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bathroom house on Keynote St. in Long Beach, Ca. In July our lease expired so we had to move. We began house hunting in January. After a lot of sorting through foreclosures, even more phone calls to the world's most fantastic Realtor (Dave Crandall), and fax after fax to representing Realtors we finally entered escrow the end of June. We moved into a friend's house in Rowland Heights (for the duration of escrow) the last days in June. During this move we didn't even bother unpacking everything. Just the bare necessities. It was a long and time consuming escrow that devoured all of our summer. August 17 we officially moved into what is now our home in Lake Elsinore, Ca. We now have 6 bedrooms (that are packed right now), 3 bathrooms, an open kitchen, a play loft, and a couple living rooms. We also scored one of the biggest lots we could find. Nate and I are in heaven just having our own master bath! We have plenty of room for the dogs and kids to play on our 1/3 acre! We are also loving our location. We are an hour from the beach, Long Beach, LA and San Diego.

The last day of June we went to Lake Powell with the Smith clan. Jeff and Sandee were kind enough to have us all stay on their houseboat for a few days. We enjoyed it SO much. It was a much needed break from the home buying stress! Jeff, Sandee and I all water skied everyday. I was very pleased to find that I haven't completely lost my skills. Jeff even let me drive his new boat for him. Let me just say it was AMAZING!! Let me also say that Sandee is the best driver ever for tubing. We launched all the kids into the air, and flipped the big boys (the dads) multiple times. Good times!

Cyanne got up on skis for her first time as well as mastered knee boarding and the tube. I'm not sure who's child Foster is, but he didn't enjoy the water sports nearly as much as the rest of us. He spent most of his time in Grandpa Steve's fishing boat and going on hikes. Ressa loved the tube and jumping off the house boat, while Ammon just loved jumping off the boat and tubing... maybe we have another extreme sports kid! It was a great time had by all, and was so very much fun seeing all the nieces and nephews that we haven't seen in SO long!

From Lake Powell Cyanne went to Montana for the summer. She stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Smith. She was also lucky enough to spend time with Great Grandma Mettie! She spent a few days with Jim, Denise, and great Grandpa Harry and ventured out on a camping trip with Grandma and Grandpa Harkins too. Uncle Sean took her on a date to see Harry Potter in his new jeep. Something she seemed to enjoy greatly. She spent a couple days floating the Blackfoot River (which made me quite envious), fished a lot with Grandpa Steve, and even went on horseback into the Montana wilderness with Steve and her cousins. All in all it was a summer filled with new experiences for her.

School started the week we moved into our house. This is Ressa's first year in school! She is loving being a big kid now, and is really doing well with it. She loves her teacher and adores the girls in her class. Foster and Cyanne both are making friends quickly and are enjoying their teachers. They are currently in the school running and reading clubs. Cyanne actually made the honor roll for the first term! We are so excited for her. Hopefully she can keep up the good work! Foster is making advancements and we are hoping he will be on honor roll this next term. Ammon is loving being the only kid in the house. He spends most of his time playing with the dogs and making messes. I prefer the first option, but boys will be boys!

The end of August my best friend from growing up, Brandi, moved in with us. It started out being a temporary situation, but has grown to a semi-permanent one. We adore having her around and the kids love her. She is great about taking them on "dates" as well as allowing us to go on dates. Of course, I LOVE having her around, and am so glad that we are finally in a position to help her!

At Thanksgiving my mom decided to come down. She enjoyed her time with us so much she has decided to give SoCal a try and move here. For now she is staying with us. She should be starting her new job in the next week, and seems to be excited. Again we are happy to finally be in the position to help!

I am still "just" a mom. I keep considering making a career change, but it is afterall, nice to stay home and do whatever strikes me. I stay home and hold the fort down while Nate commutes into Cerritos for work. He has been working for nearly 12 years for Saturn in Cerritos. Now that Saturn is dead in the water he is preparing for a change. The owners of his store have secured Kia and Subaru as well as a new location caddy corner from where he has been. He will continue on in the service department under the same ownership/management. We are hoping that this will be a seamless transition!

Love,
Nate, Tara, Cyanne, Foster, Ressa and Ammon Smith

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas Everybody!!


My year has run away with me and I'm afraid that I'm finishing the year with quite a bang. I officially forgot when Christmas was and keep thinking I have another few days to take care of business... as you can tell I'm writing to you on Christmas Eve. I am offically out of time. The shopping is done, and the cooking is started, but packages have yet to be wrapped. Today will be full of fun! Oh, and a great big Happy Birthday to Sean. We are hoping your mountain top adventure goes well!

We have SO much to be gratefull for and hope that the coming year will treat us all well. Our thoughts are with all of our friends and family,

Merry Christmas!

NOT CYANNE!!!!!

The end of the first trimester has come. That means report cards have come home. All the kids did pretty well. Ressa is achieving many of her goals, Foster is slightly behind in his English skills (but is making progress), and Cyanne made the HONOR ROLL!

For the first time in her life Cyanne had all B's. She met all her reading and testing goals, and after a rocky start to the year has become quite the student. She loves being in Mr. Baskent's class and seems to be making some great friends.

As a reward she spent last weekend in Long Beach with Hannah (our old nieghbor). The girls had a great time running errands with Ms. Sharon and Mr. Jim, watching movies, going out to lunch, and just hanging out.

Cyanne is very excited to try to do better. Her competative drive has kicked in. She says she wants to have at least 2 A's next term, but straight A's would be better! We will see how that goes, but in the mean time she has surprised us all!

WHAT ARE YOUR BLOG ADDRESSES?

I'm disappointed to tell all my friends:

I have lost all your blog addresses. First our laptop crashed-- we have yet to fix it. Then my dumb phone crashed with all my contacts being wiped clean. Therefore, I have lost track of all my friends I like to peek in on. I remembered Kristin's just because the name is so her, but if any of you would leave your addresses either under the comment section or email it to me I would be grateful. We really miss everybody!

Tara

QUILTING... NEVER AGAIN

Foster's class decided to make quilts. Some of the moms know how to do it and all, but I have never done it before. Foster, of course, tells his teacher I can do it since I'm "an awesome sewer". Thanks Foster. All the kids took in their choice of material and then were given 20 squares from their classmates (did not get a square of their own). It is random, but I think turned out as well as can be expected!

This is the finished project of his class reading/picnic quilt. It took forever and I won't be sorry if I never do it again. Big thanks to Brandi's mom Genie who walked me through the process!

HALLOWEEN!

As most of you know Halloween puts me in my element. This year we decided to go easy on my sewing (due to little time and our just settling in). We were a family of zombies. Brandi and I had WAY too much fun with this one, and are already brain storming for next year!

I went as a lifeguard, Nate was a business man, Brandi was a runner, Cyanne was a soccer star, Foster was Foster, Ressa was a sweet zombie, and Ammon was a beach going zombie. Brandi bloodied up the clothes with the kids and I did all the make up. We were rocking the trick or treating! We are thinking about framing some of these pics. Enjoy!

Family picture:


Stay out of the cookie jar:


Just a taste?:

Soccer zombie:


Foster zombie:


Sweet zombie:


Beach bum zombie:


Crazy dad zombie:



Me and Brandi:


Even little zombies like loves:


When we were done in the neighborhood we stayed out on the front porch to hand out candy. Next thing the masks were out and we were scheming on how to scare teenagers. Cyanne successfully scared a couple (wearing Nate's big scary mask)when she jumped out from behind his chair. The one threw his bag of candy on the floor and yelped, while another screamed and almost landed in my lap. It was a great night.

Ressa didn't get in on the scare fun, but she modeled the mask for us:

SHAUNTE SAID TO UPDATE... HERE I AM!

I spoke to Shaunte' this morning. The coversation didn't last nearly as long as needed to get all the details out, but it seldom does when you have kids at home. She checks in here often, as do some of the rest of you, and would love to have me update. Today is a relativley calm day so here I am!

We are all loving our house! The idea of us owning it has finally started to settle into our heads. We have begun watering the dead lawn (mostly to keep the dust down), Nate purchased a weed wacker and knocked down all the weeds in the back, we had our first Halloween in our new area, the kids are starting to meet new friends, and my sewing room is finally all set up (the bare bones were functional before, but now it rocks)! I still have to paint it. The walls are all stark white, but I haven't discovered what color or colors I want to use. Soon I hope!

Our next project is to plant grass in the front and back yards. Nate also has to get the sprinkler system working. I will be getting some rose bushes and planting them over the next few months. They always remind me of Grace so of course they are my favorite. This area is great for them and they bloom nearly year round!

Here is the shock that nearly dropped Jen to the floor... I finally bought a vacume! We have always has wood floors and I never owned one. Now that the whole house is carpet we broke down and got a canister vac. I am loving it! It is fantastic for the stairs because it is light. The kids are hating it though... lots of legos and barbie shoes have met their end by being sucked up.



We have been so busy getting the house unpacked and figured out we haven't done anything too amazing. I also haven't had too much time to get on the computer or phone. Check out the other posts, and eventually I will start catching up with everybody!

Hope everybody is doing well!