Christmas 2001

The highlight of our year was a van trip to California to see Wife’s sister & family. We packed a lot of fun in 8 days - going to the beach, Disneyland, Universal Studios & Sea World. But what we enjoyed the most was hangin’ out and watching the kids play.

Ashley just turned 14 and wants to learn to drive. I am trying to convince her that the legal age for driving and dating is 19 in Kansas. She also went to her first dance for all the 8th graders. Next year they will all be together so it was a way to get acquainted.

Joe still keeps us busy with his activities. This year he added saxophone (his dad’s instrument of choice). He enjoys playing and seems to have Dad’s musical abilities. Well it finally happened with so many kids. About an hour after returning home from my son’s basketball game the family needed to leave for a church but we couldn’t find Joe at home even after driving around checking all known locations. I commented as we drove off to church that when we found him that, “boy was he grounded”. A few minutes later my wife looked over at me and asked, “Did you bring Joe home from the game?” Boy was dad grounded.

Molly is in preschool and taking violin lessons. She has acquired quite the vocabulary and is using it to her advantage with mom. Currently she can talk her way from a 8:30pm bedtime to about 10:30pm time. Her big day of the week is a quick violin lesson, swimming with Grandma followed by a dinner at Coco Bolo’s and finishing the evening with dipping chocolate cookies. Grandma has decided to retire in order to keep up with the high grandchildren demands being placed on her.

Matthew turned two and is big, strong and sweet. In the grocery store an elderly gentleman was bending down admiring Matthew in the grocery cart seat saying what a cute boy he was. Matthew interpreted this attention from the man as wanting to play. Before I new it, Matthew grabbed a can of chunky stew in his right hand and cocked it behind his head, wanted to play catch with the nice gentleman, with a rush of adrenalin I dove back and grabbed the can. The man never new he was .04 sec from going to the emergency room.

The dogs continue to guard us and entertain us.

My sister and her husband moved back to town 4 house up from us. In all their excitement of picking out their new appliances for their new home, I talked him into a must buy commercial grade Lincoln Impinger II PIZZA oven. Thing weighs 600lbs but makes darn good pizzas. I think my pay off is providing free sauce for the rest of my life.

Husband had discovered he can sing opera in the shower. Wife makes sure everyone is fed and watered. We recently upgraded from a queen to a king size bed. Found out if we sleep width way we can fit the whole family in bed. I still think the key to having enough room in bed is a lock on the door. We continue in our same jobs. We wish you much joy and happiness in the new year.