Goodbye 2006...Hello 2007!

We have really been enjoying Desi's family this past week. On Friday Desi's Nana Daphne, Uncle Neil and Nelson Grandparents drove up from Escondido to have lunch with us at the Tortilla Factory. We then went down to Old Town Temecula and Daphne treated us to an hour at the children's museum, which we loved. Thanks Nana!
Couldn't resist a pic of this tree. The kids loved the museum almost as much as the adults!

Inside the kalidescope...

A family shot...notice Owen's quarters...Uncle Neil paid him a quarter a picture...this was the second shot!

Thanks so much to all our family for the great gifts and fun times. We are so blessed to be able to come stay out here in Temecula for awhile. To all our friends, thanks for driving over or out to see us...it's been fun. More pics to come...especially of Tim's party and those sunglasses!

Happy New Year
May you come to a place of peace with God and yourself this year...may you understand the call for your life and live it to the fullest. May God's blessings be upon you and yours. We are blessed with your friendships and count them as prized posessions...the only thing we can take into eternity are our relationships with one another. We encourage you to put more energy into people this year than things, possesions, or yourself and let us know how that changes your life!
~Rose

Not Missing It

I'm sitting here at Des's computer relaxing with a cup of tea after spending a good portion of the day in the car. We got money from Desi's parents and grandparents to go to Disneyland. Today was the day and we got off to a late start, thinking we'd stay late and see the fireworks. Well, Disneyland sold out. So, we drove all the way to Anaheim to have McDonald's for lunch. Traffic on the 91 came to a crawl on the way home and traffice on the 15 came to a complete stop on the way there...Yuck. So, for now, the main thing I don't miss about CA and Temecula/Murrieta especially is the surburban traffic. Pointless traffic for no good reason. That's all.

We're having a great time, enjoying Nana from Illinoise, and Uncle Neil from up north. Looking forward to seeing old friends at Tim's party on Saturday.

Denverites: I am bummed we're missing the 2nd blizzard...take pictures! Miss you!
~Rose

P.S. Micah...the camera is the BOMB!

Christmas Eve Snowfall

It started snowing this afternoon...just beautiful. Here's my last post till we get back.


Merry Christmas!
May you have joy this holiday season!
~Rose

This One's For You Josh

Not sure what to say. Desi wanted this pic posted for you Josh. Merry Christmas!
~Rose

The Aftermath

Here's a few more pics from the blizzard...
My legs in the middle of the street Wed night.

Shoveling our sidewalk Thursday morning.

The picnic table proved to make a great snow cave!

Owen had the right idea...stay in your jammies and when you want to go out, just pop on your snowpants!

We have not had mail delivered since Wed morning...got one package. Ed said he'd be back with the rest of our mail-yeah right! I hope we get mail today! The package was from the Ebert family. We decided to open it, since it was snowing and we'd be leaving on Christmas for CA. We're sure glad we did! Thanks Eberts -we love the nativity-lots of play time! Owen made his lego ornaments and hung them on the tree. And with all the snow, Desi and the kids made a big snowman yesterday!
Meet Frosty!

A couple walking down the street today stopped and took a picture of him.

~Rose

My How The Snow Has Piled Up!

Here's a few pics of our backyard taken today every few hours. Notice the big tree trunk...it's coming out of a planter bed that's three big bricks high...I thought this was a lot, I mean A LOT of snow for our backyard.

A few hours later...our picnic table is hard to make out.

It was so windy that our back yard acted like a bowl and the snow just piled up so fast.

Notice how high the snow is compared to our back wall!

More pics to come- fo' shizzil.
~Rose

Holiday Blizzard of 2006

It's official...all news channels are calling it the "Holiday Blizzard of '06" or something like that. The weather has DOMINATED tv today...nothing else is on! It started snowing this morning and has been dumping all day...I heard maybe 2 inches an hour. I LOVE it! Thank you God that I just went to the store and we have pleanty of food ;)
Our house this afternoon:

Josh called around lunch today and asked if he could spend the night. I thought he was joking, but the snowfall had been so heavy that he couldn't get home to Thornton. So Desi gets to have a slumber party with his friend.
Josh and Desi went out to help our next door neighbor Dan park his car. The snow was so deep he couldn't get his car in...the boys helped shovel snow and then pushed his car in.

The lights look so pretty with the snow on them...the snow gets all sparkely like glitter! Notice Dan's caddy...he ended up hitting the front of our van...little damage to ours and long scrapes all along his.

Hope just had to go out tonight...look at all that dumping snow!

~Rose
p.s. This is labeled under 'Crazy Hood Stuff' because we have never had this much snow in the city and the forcasters say we may get close to the record...we've had close to 20 inches and it's supposed to snow till tomorrow afternoon at least! I sure am glad we're not some of the thousands stranded at DIA!

What A Man!

Desi bought me a red cruiser before we were married and it got stolen from our back yard last summer. I was so bummed because I loved that bike and it had sentimental value. He and Hope were at REI awhile back and saw this Electra beach cruiser (with three speed internal hub). He wanted to get it for me, but it was ridiculuosly expensive. He looked on Craig's list just to see if he could find one and low and behold he found a used one for about half the price. It's such a sweet ride and my man is the best! Thank you Desi-I love you!
~Rose

It's Boo!

Remember Monster's Inc? The little girl in the movie...Boo? I think Emma looks like her when her hair is like this.

She's getting so big. Owen took this picture.
~Rose

The Perea's

Our friends the Perea's came out to visit us this weekend. We had such a great time with them.
They brought out birthday gifts for the kids...since they missed all the b-days this year...

and little cakes for each one...we sang to each child, one at a time.



Friday we enjoyed hanging out and David and Sharee made their famous family-recipe green chili and my folks and brother came over to partake with us and we all played cards. Saturday we exchanged Christmas gifts and they took Desi and the girls to see Charlotte's Web. Sharee and I went to a ladie's Christmas tea at Carrie's house. This morning we went to church and hung out here. While the boys watched the Broncos win, Sharee taught me to make her grandmother's German noodles.

David and Sharee, thanks so much for all you have done, who you are and how encouraging you are. The kid's gifts are great and the clothes are so cute! Looking forward to using the electronic catch phrase...I think it's coming to California! See you in a few weeks!
Love, Desi, Rose and kiddos

Our First Gingerbread House

Well, we finally got a gingerbread house kit from Costco. The kids totally loved putting it together!

~Rose

Youth Group Girls

Tonight our youth group girls were blessed with gift buckets full of girly supplies. These gift buckets came from a friends of Carrie's. We have youth group every Tuesday night. Bruce, Desi and Carrie lead it up at Carrie's house. Pray for these girls that God would work on their hearts, draw them closer to Himself, and help them to avoid temptations (of all sorts). They are all on differing levels...some know and love God, while others are struggling and some do not know God. Thanks for your prayers!



~Rose

Do You Know Your Neighbors?

About a week and a half ago, we gave out fudge and invites to our neighbors to come watch the football game and meet other neighbors. We handed out about 12 invites and had 7 people come, 3 of which we met for the first time! Three neighbors called to say thanks, but they were sick and one couple that were in the middle of car problems and could not come. I prayed that God would bring the people He wanted to and that we'd be able to connect with them. God is so good- He totally answered my prayers. Two gals, one with a 6 month old and one with a 2 year old, thanked me for doing this and could not believe that they lived on the same street for two years and had just met! Turns out they both work from home on Wednesdays...can we say playgroup? Pepper's brother John came and she called me to tell me she had a sinus infection and didn't feel good. She told me to keep my kids away from John, cuz he had a sinus infection too and he shouldn't get close to them! She told me that she hoped we were gonna stay a long time (not move), cuz we were the best neighbors and she loves us! It's amazing how a few little things, small acts of kindnesses can make such an impact on others. Our other neighbors who's garage backs up to our backyard, had a friend meet them here and Tanko introduced Desi as the best neighbor ever. Desi has helped him out with a few things, and it's made the biggest impact. This is not to toot my own horn. I am not prone to meeting new people. I'd rather just stay home and am not really comfortable doing things like this, but I know that this is part of what God has called Desi and I to do, so prayerfully and sometimes fearfully, I reach out. I encourage you to do the same in your neighborhood! Well, I am rambling now, but had to share this "won't you be my neighbor?" story with you. Thanks to all who pray for us here in Denver. We are blessed and can feel the love!
~Rose

My Kiddos This Week

Owen Boy!











Hope on Uncle Jason's motorcycle!




Emma Bear making Levi laugh. Levi's 2 bottom teeth poked through this week and are growing fast-Oh Boy!
~Rose

Girls From California

Our friends Courtney and Heather (her sister) took a road trip this week to move the Wiley's belongings here to CO. Courtney and her husband Ryan will be living out here now! The girls were in town and called to see if they could stop by yesterday. We really enjoyed hanging out with them and they stayed for dinner. All three kids just HAD to sit by the girls!
I took this pic...

Owen wanted to take a pic of us...just noticed Desi's nice greenery!

Hope took this one...she was enthralled (as were Owen and Emma) with the girls, but couldn't remember their names!

Thanks for hanging with us Heather and Courtney! Mama Jeanie, now it's your turn to come and visit! See you in a few weeks!
~Rose

Sometimes You Just Need To Do Things Even If You Don't Feel Like It!

This week Hope's math is measurement. The book we are using called for making a scale and putting various objects in to see which weighed more...such as 5 pennies, or 10 paper clips. We also had a worksheet with various objects and had to see how many pennies each thing weighed. So, I didn't want to make this scale because it seemed like a lot of time consuming work, when I have a TON of things to do, but I did it anyway and it turned out to be so much fun :)
~Rose
P.S. Jan, you asked about Emma's lovie....she found it at the bottom of her sleeping bag and she's doing GREAT without her paci! The airplane ride will be so less stressful knowing I won't have to look for a dropped paci on the floor!

4th Tooth Gone Missing

Hope's 4th tooth finally (hanging on by a string) came out Tuesday night. Now she can sing..."All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"

I'm just gald her "Nanny McPhee" tooth finally came out...it was awful!
~Rose

Goofy Kids

I asked the kids to take a nice photo in front of thetree and this is what I got-
Someone takes after his daddy...

Someone takes after her brother...












Someone just wants to look pretty all the time!













The three goofies!
~Rose

200th post and this one's a doosey!

Emma lost her lovie/blanket a few days ago. She really wants it, so we were tearing the house apart looking for it. I was in the basement and low and behold, I found a lighter and crack pipe (I think-not an expert on drugs) between the couch and daybed on the floor! CRAZY! For those of you who didn't read it, go back to to October Archives and read "The Biggest Scare Of My Life" posted on Oct. 7th. to find out how the crack pipe got there. I guess this guy wasn't drunk...he was high! Pictures of a crack pipe found in my basement seemed like a good post for my 200th post! Life in the city...never dull and I love it!


~Rose

Sleepy Heads

Poor little guy...just fell asleep in his baby's arms! Levi was tired too! Levi's been fighting some sort of illness since Monday morning and has not slept well all week. He's up like 3 times a night -torture! I pray he starts sleeping through the night again!

~Rose

Sabbath

Hope's 1st grade curriculum had us celebrating the Sabbath this past Friday. At sundown we gathered at the table and I lit the candles. It was supposed to be two, but we thought a bunch would be more fun. Eating dinner by candle light is great! I said a blessing, and then Desi blessed each child individually and then blessed me. He then blessed the wine and bread and we talked about the sacrafice that Jesus made on the cross for our sins. We partook of the bread and wine and then had dinner together. Sabbath is observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday and it's a time to rest. No work is done during this time! I think in today's society that would be pretty hard. It was really nice to start our evening that way and the kids loved it. I hope to do it again.
~Rose