Who does this remind you of?

DJ's hair had finally gotten out of control, so I resorted to cutting it. I admit, he's still cute, but he looks so different. (People don't recognize him, including me. I mistake him for Michael from behind.)








One thing that has struck me over the last couple of days is how much he reminds me of Jared, when Jared was that age. I've never really seen the resemblance before, but I sure see it now. I guess he is a Curtis.

Lets go play in the street!

Today we had a very small birthday party for Jared. After all of the festivities were done, the kids wanted to go out front and play. We love where we live because it only has houses on one side of the street and is very quiet. We allow the kids to play from one stop sign to the other. (there are only five houses on the street.) The kids all are protesting and Austin belts out, "Please mommy, can we play in the street?" Next, they'll be asking to play in traffic!

HALLOWEEN!!!!!

What a night we had! The kids could have gone all night long! Jared, being the ham that he is, used the fact that it was his birthday to get more candy! He would run from house to house letting everyone know that it was HIS birthday! Got to give him kudos for that one.

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!!

Grandpa and Grandma came to visit! We had a great time and we miss them. We can't wait for them to come again (hint, hint). We had a chance to tour the OU campus, watch a Sharks game (on TV), scrapbook online (now Grandma's addicted), eat out several times (Weight Watcher???), visit Tinker Air Force Base (mostly to run errands), and go to the Little River Zoo here in Norman. Our kids got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa and they loved it. DJ is finally giving up searching the house every time we mention them. The other kids pray faithfully for them. (That's how you know you're loved at our house. If you make the prayer multiple times, you're really loved.)

Thanks for coming, Mom and Dad! You're welcome back anytime!

Fire Evacuation

Kendra, Dave, Murphy, Jasper, Simon, Vinnie and Mo were evacuated at midnight during the Grass Valley Fire on Monday, October 22. The police and fire marshals came down the street with blowhorns telling people to get out of their homes immediately because of a mandatory evacuation. Taking the animals and two cars, loaded to the gills with personal belongings, they left the mountain for the second time in four years.
We feel so fortunate to have my sister in Hacienda Heights who always welcomes us in. They arrived at one o'clock in the morning. We are not so positive that Jan's dog, Kirby, was as open to having so many four footed guests as was my sister and brother-in-law.
This evacuation was so much better than the last, as we had set up an e-mail account with all of our church friends and we had the rimoftheworld.net website. We knew from those who were not evacuated, the state of our home and our area.
Once again we were blessed to have our home safe. Sherry was in San Jose the entire time and so never felt the effects of the evacuation. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she did not have access to a televison and was only able to find fire news on the internet. Thank goodness for that.
People keep asking us if it is enough to make us want to move from the mountains, but it has had the opposite effect. It makes us realize how many friends that we have there and what a beautiful part of the world that we live in. Our entire ward was fasting for a friend who was to have cancer surgery on Monday and I have to wonder if that spirituality and the prayers of the faithful kept us and our neighbors safe. We feel so furtunate.

Derek and Family Happenings

I think we have been communicating well enough that all of you know that we are back from Korea and living in Oklahoma while Derek gets a Masters, so I'll start at that point.

We arrived here a few days before Derek started school, found a house, registered our kids for school, I flew back to get our kids from Utah, our first shipment of stuff arrived from Korea, we unpacked, school started, our storage from AZ arrived, we unpacked, got rid of lots of stuff, our second shipment from Korea arrived, and we unpacked. All this just in time to allow us to get caught up in PTA events, Fall parties, field trips, classroom volunteering and in between Derek goes to class and does homework. It's a bit crazy, but we are having fun!

Our kids our growing up fast. Jonathan is six and loving Kindergarten. He has a wonderful teacher, who appreciates his personality. Nina is four and also loving school. She goes to Pre-K five mornings a week for 2 1/2 hours and wishes it were weekends, too. She hates holidays and has to be really sick (or have Grandma and Grandpa visiting) to stay home without tears. Michael is three, sort of potty trained, and his always cynical and pessimistic self. He has the cutest smile (he looks so much like his dad) and one would think he is happy based on his actions and appearance, but ask him and he'll quickly correct you. (OK, sometimes he does admit he's enjoying himself, but not often.) DJ is our terrible two-year-old charmer. He loves everyone he meets and they usually love him back. He is definitely two, though, which does not always charm his parents.

In summary, life is good and we are happy (even Michael)!