Grand Canyon

This was a fabulous trip. We went to the Lowell observatory (twice, the first time the telescopes were closed since it was too cloudy), the Grand Canyon, Wupatki National Monument (Native American Pueblo ruins), Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, and Meteor Crater. It was a busy weekend but we were able to sleep long nights compared to here at home. We even got snow on the morning we were at the Grand Canyon.

 

Grand Canyon Trip

We are planning on going to the Grand Canyon this weekend. We are going to see several other sites while we are there also. It should turn into quite an adventure. We'll obviously post some pictures when we get back. Don't forget, you can always download these pictures or view them more slowly by clicking on the link to the right titled 'Family Pictures'.

Decorating for the season

Here is a collection of pictures that cover the whole season. It starts with a pre-decorations shot and covers most of the month.

Christmas Day

What a wonderful day. Bama and Papa stayed the night with us. We all got so many presents the day before that this was beyond icing on the cake. We had an awesome day and Isaac and Rebekah loved all of their presents. Magdalena felt like she got more than she should have but she is a wonderful addition to our family.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a whirlwind of a day. First we spent the morning with the Lehndorfer clan.

 

Later in the day we went to have Christmas Eve with the Rodriguez clan.

 

Finally, we went home and enjoyed the evening at home. Everybody got new pajamas (as is the tradition).

Parkview Ward Christmas Party

We had a wonderful ward Christmas party. There were old friends and many newcomers. The youth and children did a fabulous job with the play and, as always, there was all kinds of great food. Thank you to everyone who put so much effort into making this such an enjoyable event. As always, these pictures can also be viewed and downloaded at http://picasaweb.google.com/Lehndorfers.

St. Nick

Here are our photos from St. Nick this year. The pictures include both December 6th at our home and December 8th at Grandma and Grandpa Lehndorfer's home. We had a wonderful time and can't wait for Christmas. Enjoy!

Halloween Visit

We had our cousins over for the weekend. We went to the ward Halloween party, made Halloween cookies, and watched the primary program. It was a wonderful weekend.

Ward Halloween Party

Here are the photos we took at our ward Halloween party on Friday (10/26) night. Isaac was superman and Rebekah was a unicorn.

Pumpkin Patch

There were slim pickings at the pumpkin patch this year. Thankfully Bama already gave us a few pumpkins.

Oak Glen

Here was a wonderful trip to Oak Glen to pick apples, raspberries, and pears. We went with the Doverspikes and Viramontes.

Zion National Park

As you can tell my now I love this slideshow thingy. This was a short jaunt over to the park on our trip to Grandma Blanche's funeral. This place is absolutely beautiful. The hanging gardens were incredible. We hope you enjoy the pictures. They are all on our Picasa web albums if you want to look at them (http://picasaweb.google.com/Lehndorfers).

Grandma Blanche's Funeral

Here are the pictures from Grandma Blanche's funeral. It was a beautiful service. It was also wonderful to see all the family, especially several people we haven't seen for many years.

Tori's New Toy (part 2)

Here is a slideshow of the pictures we took when we bought the van.

Tori's New Toy

Check out Tori's new toy. It's a beautiful new brown minivan and she loves it.

June Lake Loop Vacation

Here is a slideshow of our recent vacation to June Lake Loop. Hope you enjoy.

What's New

Warren and I are just one month shy of our 6 year anniversary. We had big plans of leaving the children over night (a first), but our plans have been changed. I am going back to work this September. I have been offered a position as a Kindergarten teacher at a brand new school that is about... 10 houses away! This school is a parent choice (magnet type) school. While we will be focusing on high academic standards, we will also be focusing on art, yea, and music, yea. The children will study a new artist and composer every month. Included in there free education will be piano lessons and a second instrument beginning in the 4th grade. Can't beat that. I am excited to have been offered this great job. Isaac and Rebekah will be able to stay with Warren until lunch time and then they will go to a family day care (provided she is willing to do pre-school work I send) from about 11 am until 3 pm. Rebekah will be napping for 2 of those hours and Isaac will then have plenty of opportunity to keep up in his reading and writing.
Warren recently had a birthday. He is now an old 32. Just ask him. For his birthday, he got a seat for his bike, a bike helmet, and a new seat for his bike. So after he is done eating the HUGE Costco cake he brought home from work, he will be riding his newly equipped bike!

Too Fast!!!

This year is going by so fast. Our family went camping at June Lake last month and had a blast. Isaac wanted to fish just like Grandpa, so Warren borrowed a couple of poles and picked up his tackle box (didn't know he had one) and they were set. They didn't catch any fish, but we did get to go on a paddle boat. Everyone loved it, especially Bama!!! Isaac and Rebekah both did remarkably well for being gone for 4 days. Isaac is still trying to catch up on sleep and come down off his marshmallow rush. We are going to the beach in two weeks to be with Warren's family. I think Isaac may need his own bag of marshmallows after his last experience.

Rebekah's Birthday

Here is a video of Rebekah and Isaac getting ready to eat her birthday cake.

Rebekah

Check out Rebekah's page to hear about the latest news of our little girl as she gets ready to celebrate her second birthday!

What's in the Dirt?

PLANTS!!!!!!!!!!! Our beans/peas or something have popped up out of the ground. so have our squash plants. We are confused as to what to do with 10 plants in each hole. Thin them? Won't that take more time to reestablish a root system? One thing we definitely know is not to pour Miracle Grow on the plant.

We Are Wierd Again

In reference to our TPed home, we have had two very wonderful neighbors sympathize for us. I would say it was a Mormon thing to feel special waking up to Toilet Paper all over your house... but even in my 'worldly' upbringing only the loved, accepted people got TPed. Who would waste money on someone they didn't like?

We were TP'ed last night. I guess we are now part of some family. Maybe now we will start to feel even more like the high desert is home. :)

Running the Bases

We went to a local baseball game on May 2nd and Isaac, Tori, and Rebekah had the chance to run the bases after the game. Isaac even got a ball that was hit into the stands.

Thinking of Others

Today we celebrated Mother's Day with my family by having lunch and painting stepping stones. Everyone had a great time. My mom made us bracelets with ladybugs and butterflies. She had our children give them to us. Isaac brought mine to me and was so very excited. My younger sister's son (the blond sister, haha) brought her bracelet to her and everything was great. Until... Isaac noticed that my older sister didn't get her bracelet (her children want to give it to her tomorrow). It took some special grandma convincing to get Isaac to understand that she wasn't left out. Aren't we lucky =)

Color

I know white is supposed to be a color, but when I look at white walls all around me, I get weird. So, last Saturday Warren painted our hallway upstairs and the computer/playroom a pastel yellow. Why pastel yellow? Because it was a 5 gallon bucket of OOPS! paint at Home Depot for $20. Love the OOPS! paint. Great brands, low prices, and bizarre colors. Kind of fits our family =)
We have also lost some color in our garden. The brown sticks we planted hoping for berries and grapes have been returned after 2 months of brown sticks and nothing else. And the brown leaves we inherited after someone poured Miracle Grow on our strawberry plants have started to show some signs of green. Oh, yes and the full peach tree with about a dozen peaches and a plethora of leaves we planted is almost a brown stick with the same 12 peaches the size of a wad of gum and about a dozen almost still green leaves. We have learned in the past 2 months a few things about our yard. Number 1- peach trees don't like it here and number 2- miracle grow really means miracle kill.

Finished Backyard

Well, today we put the rest of the boards up for our fence in the backyard. And since we had help from 2 missionaries and a friend from church, we were even able to paint the new boards. We were blessed with beautiful weather without too much wind. We even put in a border around the garden. While it does add personality, its purpose is to help people not walk through the garden. We will plant some veggies this week. We bought 2 tomato plants, 2 bell pepper plants (1 red and 1 green), and a mild jalapeno. We have lots of seeds in packets and will probably go get some more from Home Depot next week. We really want some zucchini and pumpkins. We also have a trellis to put in the ground and were thinking we could put a grape vine on each side. So many options =) I guess all we really would like to happen is to have at least 1 of each fruit or veggie grow. So, with a complete fence, grass, 6 fruit trees, a swing set, digging dirt for Isaac and all the 'girls' who come to play, and dirt roped off for a garden and plants in hand, I would say that we have a pretty complete backyard. With in 10 years it should be really complete with a pool!!!!

Our Garden

Well, today we stared getting our garden ready. We planned on planting today, but after 3 trips to Home Depot, trip to a friend's garage sale and lots of wind, we were able to get the soil ready to plant within the next few weeks. It looks great!
I had an interesting spiritual experience during this event. Warren said hard work will do that to you. I was wearing gloves,to protect my non-outdoor working hands, and my shoe came untied. I left the gloves on (hot pot pads if you ask Rebekah) and tried to tie my shoe. It was very difficult. It made me think about our Spirit Bodies trapped inside our physical bodies wanting to go and do the work that needs to be done, yet trapped by the physical body living the worldly life. How trapped do I make my Spirit feel?

So Funny So Young

Last night Isaac was sent to bed and when I finally made it in there 5 minutes later, he was fast asleep. As I talked with Warren on the phone, I shared my shock that he would fall asleep so quickly. I called his name, Rebekah tried to talk to him, and I even slightly tickled him. He was out. Then I really tickled him just to check. And wouldn't you know it, he burst out laughing. He was awake the entire time!

Girl's Clothes

In fear of Rebekah not having enough clothes for summer, I have been buying Target and Wal-mart specials for the past few months. I discovered at least 2 dozen pairs of shorts and shirts and a total of 6 church dresses in 2 bags and a box. When I thought I was finished, I found a handful more of various items. I guess she will be fine.
This weekend will be quite the juggling act. On Saturday we are going to plant some vegetables in the garden to go with the grapes and berries we planted last month. By the end of the season, I hope to have squash, tomatoes, a pumpkin, and watermelon =) While planting our garden, Warren and I will have to balance our time pushing Isaac and Rebekah on the swings. We bought the fancy Costco swing set so they could play outside and be self entertained. They only want to swing... and swing... and swing...Warren and I have really found some interesting rhythms to push to.

Isaac and Sports

We decided that to fullfill Isaac's love for action that soccer and tennis would be great sports for him. Tennis allows him to run around hitting and soccer allows him to push other children out of the way =)

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