Winter Ball

So, last night was the Winter Ball at the High School. Samuel and a friend decided that they wanted to make dinner for their dates at our house and then head to the dance. I asked him several times during the week if they wanted help, but he would just say everything is under control. Well Saturday morning, I asked again if there was anything I could do to help, I offered to cook, James offered to act as waiter, but Samuel said no. I asked if he knew what the menu was, He said no. Well James and I left to go to the Temple we said we'd be back in plenty of time for their dates. I am very proud of Samuel. He and Dan went to the store, bought a Salmon and came home to cook. He even got Cameron to clean up the house and do the dishes. When James and I got home the table was set for all of us to sit down and eat. We laughed a little bit then James got a table and set it up in the Living Room with Candles and put on some quiet music so that they could eat alone without younger siblings and parents bugging them. Well the meal turned out very nice, the boys did a great job making the Salmon. They even had French Bread and Mashed Potatoes to go along with it. The girls seemed very happy with everything. When Samuel got home last night I asked how it was. He said he had fun, but the dance was Different. This was his first time going to a School dance. I wonder if he will go to the Prom in the Spring. We will just have to wait and see.

Stormy Weather and Blackouts!

Friday's Storm

Friday was quite an exciting day at our house! We had no plans to go anywhere, it was laundry day and the boys were finishing up scouting merit badges, so it was just a lazy Friday to get ready for school to start back this week. Well, for those of you who don't live in San Jose we had (I think) the worst wind and rain storm. Around 10:30am we lost power. I thought no big deal it will come back before dinner. I was wrong. We were without power until Saturday morning, just about 11am it came back on. Besides losing power we lost a big part of our fence in the back and a lot of branches from our trees in front. My kids are huge fans of technology and so when the power went out they had to find other forms of entertainment. So while we ate lunch we played a game that we got for Christmas. When it started to get dark we pulled out all of the flashlights and lit a bunch of candles. The boys were really good at keeping Kendall entertained in the dark. We played more games and ordered pizza for dinner. Shelby was lucky enough to go to a sleep over with her Achievement Day girls so she got to sleep in a house with heat. Anyway we all made it through the storm, we survived the cold, dark house and we were very thankful when the electricity was restored. I wasn't sure if the picturees I took would turn out since it was completely dark and I was going by flash and candle light. To my surprise they look fine, you can't even tell that the power was out.

Happy New Year!!!

In the past it has been our tradition to go out for dinner to our favorite Mexican restaurant, El Burro. But instead we threw together a party, at kind of the last minute. We had a great time with several friends and a lot of food and more chocolate to dip. At 9:00 we rang in the New Year with the East Coast. Which was perfect for the little kids. Shelby wondered why we were doing it early but she didn't complain, we still let her stay up and celebrate at midnight.

Looking back over the past year I have to say that we have been very blessed. We have been healthy, we have had no travel out of the country for James, The boys had great testimony building experiences participating in the Temple Pageant, We finished reading the New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants as a family and we were able to have the entire Cortez family in our home for Thanksgiving. We also have been blessed with great friends!!