Happy Golden Birthday...........

Andrew's golden birthday is tomorrow! He will be 11 on the 11th. First, I must say that I thank God every day for the gift of Andrew Beard in each one of our lives. He is an example to me of unselfishness and kindness.

His desire for a birthday party was to take some friends to Sky High, a jumping arena in our area, and then to have dinner at In 'n Out Burgers. On Wednesday, we took Andrew and 5 friends to both of these places, and they had a great time. It was nice to be able to take 8 kids out to a rather crazy location and yet not have any "episodes." They were great examples of what a group of Christian guys should be :)


Opening gifts after a burger and shake dinner.


Andrew exiting the foam pit.

Andrew entering the foam pit.


Wesley loved taking the lead on the dodgeball games.


Sadly, today, Andrew tried to do another front flip, but this time it was on a trampoline. He hit his head. I am thankful that there was no major damage. I do believe he will wake up on his birthday morning with quite a black and blue face :)

A Christmas surprise

We have been travelling for Christmas this year. Our entire family flew to the mid-west on December 11th to spend time with both of our families----the Sturgills and Beards. I have so many pictures that it would overwhelm my blog.

However, I do have one special surprise. I was looking forward to having a white Christmas. When we got to Wisconsin, it was unseasonably warm (warm in WI is when it is more than 30 degrees). While I was happy to not have to endure the cold, I was disappointed that we had absolutely no snow. Brooke has never played in snow, so I wanted her to get her first experience.

We went down to Rockford, IL for a family gathering, and when we woke up one morning, it had snowed overnight. We were surprised, and I was ecstatic. The snow did not last the whole day, but it gave us a morning of fun!

We then headed to southern Indiana, and again, there was no snow. The picture of Andrew below illustrates the unusual weather. But, again, one morning, we woke up to snow falling. It was nice to see it actually coming down. Again, it only lasted one day, but gave us plenty of time to enjoy. My mom had people praying that her California grandchildren would get snow for Christmas. Several of them told me that the weathermen were not expecting this snow. Truly, a miracle from God for this California crew!

We got enough snow to make snow cream---YUM!!!!

Fall Pictures

As the week of Thanksgiving approaches, I am starting to anticipate our trip to the mid-west. We will be leaving for 4 weeks for Christmas! We are going to be seeing family and friends in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Tennessee. We are all looking forward to the snow. It is the first time in my life I really wanted Wisconsin and Indiana to get TONS of snow!!!!!!

So, I realize that I needed to post some of our fall pictures. I love fall! It starts to cool down in Southern CA, and the crisp ocean air is refreshing.

The first pictures were from when my parents visited in October.

A friend from college contacted me that she was visiting the area. It was great to get together for dinner with her and her husband. Liesa (Woywoda) Guenther and I were great friends in our first year of college, but it was great to re-connect in person.


The kids had Thanksgiving chapel yesterday. Andrew's class was doing some recitations, and they were asked to dress up like either Pilgrims or Indians. Andrew took it upon himself to create a Pilgrim outfit (this is one of my least favorite things to do---costumes), and I was pretty impressed with his results. Of course, Wesley thought he looked more like a black leprechaun, but he was the hit of his class.

Brooke gets baptized

Yesterday was an exciting day for the youngest member of our household! A couple of weeks ago, when I learned that we would be having a baptism service on October 2nd, I asked Brooke if she was ready to be baptized. She had attended the last class for kids on baptism, and she had completed a workbook on it, and we had talked about it with her. However, fear was the main reason that she gave for postponing this event.

When I asked her, she initially stated, "I don't know. I think I will be very afraid." I told her that sometimes it is scary to do the right thing, but I wanted her to consider doing it, and I let her think about it. She came back to me a few moments later, with a very brave face, and she told me that she had decided that she should get baptized now.

After she was done yesterday, I told her how glad I was to see her get baptized, and how proud I was of her for doing the right thing even if it was scary. She said, "It really wasn't so scary. I am proud of me too.......Well, not too proud :)"

I am thankful for her testimony in front of our church and even more in front of her classmates and friends each day.

First Birthday

I remember each of my kid's first birthdays, vividly. They did not do too much with opening presents, but they sure loved to dig into their cake. Well, we had another first birthday this past week. It was our puppy's first birthday. He had much the same reaction.

Yes, we celebrated our dog's birthday. We do not know his exact date of birth, but we did some speculating and calculating and have decided upon September 15th. We were very excited.....he was unaware. I know what you may be thinking, but hey, there does not have to be much reason for us to have cupcakes and a bit of a party!!!!

The kids suggested using peanut butter for frosting; yes, Buddy LOVES peanut butter! He licked the entire top of the cupcake before devouring the rest of it!


Wesley wrapped his present in newspaper, but Buddy was not interested in the present. He wanted more cupcake. We opened it, and he eventually ran off with the orange bone, a squeaky orange bone.

I think in the picture above he is still licking peanut butter off of his face. Happy Birthday, Buddy! We are happy to have you in our home.

Beginning of another year of school

They are getting older, as we all know happens, but I am most readily reminded of this each year when I send them off to their first day of a new grade of school. It especially surprised me that my youngest is in third grade. I am thankful for the great Christian school that they are able to attend. They all have good friends and amazing teachers with a strong academic program. Wesley is in 7th grade; Andrew now entering 5th grade (last year of elementary); and as I said before, Brooke is going into 3rd grade.


Though starting school was a big part of their month, I think the biggest hi-light occurred this week. The Cowboys do their pre-season training in our town, and Gary recently learned that the New Orleans Saints would also be doing some of their pre-season training in our city. Wesley's favorite player is Drew Brees, so we were quite excited to tell them about it. Gary took them on Thursday, but they could not get any signatures. Yesterday, I took them after to school to get bracelets that let them in for autographs, and Gary took them back after practice. When I came home Friday night (I had my own girl's night out!), they were ecstatic about their signatures. Andrew got Drew Brees to sign his football jersey, and Wesley caught one of the player's gloves that he threw out to the audience during practice. The pictures below are some of my favorites, but Gary has enough to make a whole album :)

In the two above, the head is Wesley's head. He is getting autographs from Chase Daniel and Drew Brees. "GO SAINTS!" (That is Wesley's call).

Griffith Observatory

It is so often true that a person can live in a place but never do the "tourist attractions." While we live near one of the biggest tourist places in America, we do rarely visit these places. I have been wanting to go to the Griffith Observatory for awhile, so we ended our summer times with a visit. It was a cloudy day, but it gave a beautiful view of LA, and the clearest view I have ever seen of the notorious Hollywood sign. Yes, most of the people who were visiting were speaking foreign languages. We enjoyed our visit, and better yet, did not have to drive far to get home :)

Wesley's last year as a kid......

July 21st was Wesley's birthday. When he woke up yesterday, I told him, "Happy Birthday!", and I informed him that he was entering his last year as an official kid. After this, he will be a teen or an adult. He just smirked :)

Gary and I had been scheming to try to keep a surprise from the kids. We bought mountain bikes for Wesley and Gary. We gave Wesley his bike for his birthday. We also re-did Wesley's old bike and wanted to let Andrew use that for riding. They have plans of riding through many of the mountain trails that they hiked last summer.

We also spent some of the day at one of Wesley's favorite spots: Sky High Sports. We had been there earlier in the summer, but we wanted to revisit. Wesley and Andrew dominated the dodge ball pit!


Nothing like a big jump into a pit of foam!!! Sounds like fun no matter how old you are :)


Here is to Wesley and a great 12th year! We love you, bud!

Mid-summer check up

Wow....the summer is flying by, particularly since we do not have that long of a summer at our house. However, I have been bad at posting pictures, so I want to do a mid-summer catch up to share some of our pictures and events.

One thing that has been particularly fun for me was the fact that I, for the first time, have one of my children as one of my students in a college class. Yes, Wesley is only 11, but he was able to take my pre-algebra class for the summer. He has done amazing! Since he is tall and big for his age, he does not look totally out of place. He also has a friend joining him. Now, they want to take Elementary Algebra with me in the fall. I think that might conflict with their normal school schedule, though. He is off to an early start at getting college credits, but I really love his ambition! He has enjoyed having me as a professor, too :)

Over the weekend of the 4th of July, we took a get away to Orange County. It was quick, but it was an adventure! I do a calendar for the kids each summer, so they have activities to look forward to, and I have events planned out (which helps avoid the last minute "what are we doing today, mom?"). Enjoy the pictures!



Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Indoor Go-Kart Racing





Irvine Spectrum---we all rode on the ferris wheel

Wesley at Univerasal Studios Citywalk

Each of the kids got balloons---they were the coolest ever! Andrew got a
spider. Wesley got Buzz Lightyear, and Brooke got a monkey in a banana tree.

Sunset at Balboa Island

One important thing for me each summer is to get a good challenging Bible book. I do Bible studies with my small group through out the year, and I really miss that in the summer. Our Sunday morning group started a study with John Ortberg---"The Me you were meant to be". I ordered the book and started reading it this week. The following paragraph really challenged me, and I wanted to share it with you. I hope you are finding ways to be spiritually challenged this summer. From the book, "Me: the me I want to be....becoming God's best version of you"

"God designed you to be you. When your life is over, He will not ask you why you weren't Moses or David or Esther or Daniel. If you don't pursue your own life, He will ask why you weren't you. God designed us to delight in our actual lives. When I am growing toward the me I want to be, I am being freed from the me I pretend to be. I am no longer trying to convince people I am important while secretly fearing I am not.

Only God knows your full potential, and He is guiding you toward that best version of yourself all the time. He has many tools and is never in a hurry. That can be frustrating for us, but even in our frustration, God is at work to produce patience in us. He never gets discouraged by how long it takes, and He delights every time you grow. Only God can see the best version of you, and He is more concerned with you reaching your full potential than you are!"