The "Sonseeker" girls in 1994(?) (My church youth group) 

So glad winter is over

I am so sorry for forgetting about my blog for so long. My time has been consumed by springtime gardening, work, kids with homework and my newest project: Jackie and I are planning a reunion for our high school church youth group. These are people I haven't seen in years and I'm very excited to get back in touch with them. They made my high school years fun and we grew close during our many trips. We went to Mexico every Easter and did a "Play Tour" every year, too, where we put on our church play. Plus, we spent most Thursday nights and Sunday mornings together. These people were my family. If you're interested, I had to start a myspace to get this all started (it's the lastest craze!). This is my address:
www.myspace.com/tktahoe

I'll try to be better about blogging. Especially since I found out a friend of mine from England (Hi Shaun!) has been a regular reader. Don't get me wrong, you are all special too, it's just neat to know we can keep in touch with people so far away through this little site!

Gabby, our new addition. 

A new addition to our family...

So, we gained a cat. This was not planned. She adopted us. We had a four day weekend so we took the kids to visit Phil's sister, Lori, in Redwood City (just south of San Francisco). We drove to Monterey and visited the aquarium, too. The kids enjoyed it. Anyway, when we got back we discovered this little kitty in our yard. She came running up to us meowing. She was very friendly and it was so cold out that we decided to let her inside for the night. (It was going to be in the teens that night and she would have frozen to death, especially with the snow). We took pictures and figured we'd try to find her home the next day. To make a long story short, we did everything we could to find her home. We put up flyers, contacted the animal shelters and local vets, Phil even put flyers at each door on our street and the immediate neighborhood. We had no takers. In the meantime she won us over. She is very lovey, and great with the kids. She is learning to get along with our other cat Smokey. He's a little intimidated by her (even though he outweighs her by 10 pounds!), but I think they'll be ok. She's been to the vet and they say she's healthy. They were surprised we couldn't find her home because she seemed so well cared for, definitely someone's pet. Oh, and one more possible surprise, they thought she might be pregnant. Boy, I hope not! They said her stomach was a little bigger than they would have expected, but they did an ultrasound and didn't see anything. We're hoping for the best! So, we named her Gabby because she's a talker. Oh, and she has this really scratchy, loud voice. Oh boy!

Anyway, that's been our excitement recently. Other than our house giving us grief, (a leaky ceiling caused by poor ventilation and condensation build up, and most recently, 3 inches of standing water beneath our home caused by all the rain lately and poor drainage in our landscaping), life is good. Oh, the joys of being a home owner!

Just wanted everyone to know we're still here. I haven't taken the time to sit down and blog for a while. Something new for me!

Smokey, our first kitty. (Mirror image fun!) 

Lori, Phil & the kids "in" Monterey Bay! 

Christmas Photos

I never realized how hard it is to get four kids to look happy all at the same time! Especially when you want to take a family photo. I always had only Kayla so I could wait for her to smile nicely. Too bad I'm not a computer pro and can't cut and paste without it looking terrible! Oh well, we got a pretty cute picture after I put Phil in charge of making them laugh! Something involving picking his nose and putting it on me. Hey, whatever works, right? But, unfortunately, our Christmas card will only have the kids in it. Too much trouble to get us adults looking good, too!

. 

Oh, the horrors of having your picture taken! 

Handing Over The Reins

We started decorating for Christmas this weekend. It was fun. Every year before this I've let the kids help decorate the tree by hanging the unbreakable ornaments after I took time hanging the garland and breakables. But this year I thought, what the heck, I think it’s time to hand it over to them. They’re getting old enough to be careful and really enjoy it. So I left it entirely up to them (except the part that was out of reach of course) and they did pretty well. It's so cute. The garland looks like spiderwebs and all the ornaments are clumped together, but oh well. They had fun and they're so proud. It takes all the restraint I have to just let it be and not fix things! Quite a challenge for me!

2005 

Spider web decor 

Boys Are Weird

There are certain days when I convert back to my childhood and remember how gross and weird I always thought boys were. Today was one of them. I think I have good reason though. My three boys thought it was hysterical to lay on the ground and let our cat lick the insides of their ears. They would lay there as long as I would let them or until the cat got bored. Gross! Check out the pictures!

Oh, I also posted a couple photos from our early Thanksgiving get together at my parent's house. Isn't Mason getting big? The two unfamiliar people around the campfire are my mom's friend Chris and Pobby's girlfriend Kat.

Father & Son 

Roasting Marshmallows 

Wes, Jake, and Smokey 

Boys are weird... 

Boys... 

I'm A Slacker

Hi all,
I want to apologize for being a complete and utter slacker. For some reason the two or three minutes it takes to post on my blog has become too time consuming for me! Seriously, I check my email and read everyone's blogs almost daily. I, however, never seem to have the time to post. Sorry...

We had a fun holiday. The kids looked so cute. Kayla was a fairy princess, Andy was a ninja, Jake was Batman, and Wes was Spiderman. It was pretty cold so the kids had to bundle up. Not an easy task when your daughter's costume consists of her ballerina dress up clothes! Our neighborhood, specifically our street, was apparently the local hot spot for trick-or-treating. For about an hour and a half we hardly got our door closed before the doorbell rang again. I estimate we had about 40 kids stop by for treats. Our neighbors were very festive-lots of decorations. Our kids built a pumpkin man and sat him outside our front door. That's about all we did. It was fun. The kids had a blast running (literally) from door to door along our entire street. We all have stomach aches from all the candy lately. Yuck!

I have to end this post quickly. Kayla has been going to a youth group at our church on Thursday nights. It's called Awana's and she's really been enjoying it. They memorize bible verses and play games. She earns patches and things similar to girl scouts, but they are earned by learning verses. It's pretty neat. The boys have been going lately and seem to enjoy it, too. We pick them up from their mom's house and return them when it's over. She seems ok with it. I'm glad, it's a good experience for them. We all got to build pine box derby cars last weekend and they will be racing them soon. So, anyway, I have to run because Kayla needs to practice her verses.

I'll try to post more often! Love, Terri

Halloween 2005