Our Family

Diana and I met in February of 1998 and immediately connected. We both knew it was true love. The stars aligned, cosmic fireworks flew, answers to prayer confirmed and two months later, in April, we were married in Santa Barbara, CA much to the disbelief of family, friends and children! We are still madly in love and look to make life with each other better and better. Here we are almost ten years later with seven grown children, four adorable grandchildren (our fourth was due in December but, she came six weeks early!), the sweetest daughter in law anyone could imagine and four canines (three of them think they are fur people). Our family has brought us much joy, many growing pains and sweet memories over the years. This Blog will be a fun way for us to stay in touch and see what's new with everyone!! Especially, since we love taking and sharing photos of all our beautiful kids, grand kids and puppies!!!Enjoy! Scott and Diana

October 5, 2008

It's my favorite time of year!! General Conference. I love listening to the Prophet and the leaders of the church. Being in the sanctity of our home and hearing from these great men and women is such a blessing!!

It's time for a family update! Jordan started his senior year. BooHoo! My baby is not a baby anymore. He and his FB team are having a better year than last year!! Yeah! I still love watching him out on the field!! He turns Eighteen this month. Where did all the years go?

Our adorable grandson, Gabriel, turned three and got his blue skateboard he's been wanting for a year!! Virginia threw a darling Blue themed birthday party for him with his friends and family. Blue is his favorite color!!

Francesca is looking so cute as a pregnant mommy!! Virginia put on a lovely baby shower for her at Diane Dukes beautiful home. We had tea and yummy cakes and shared lot's of funny stories about being moms and everyone wrote sweet blessings on notes and wrapped them with sage in a piece of cloth and hung them on a cool stick to hang above the twins bed. She recieved lot's of cute baby gifts and aunt Beth showed up with the most amazing twin stroller and car seats!! I told Francesca she would need a garage just for the stroller!! ha! Then the family went out to dinner where Michele works, afterwards and had a fun time.

Preston and Alisha have taken some of the most beautiful engagment photos and have set their wedding date!! November 14TH in the Timpanogos Temple and their reception will be the next day at the beautiful historical Provo, Utah court house. Then they will have an open house here at our home on November 29TH. I am so happy for them. I've never seen my sweet Pres look so happy and I just love the way Alisha looks at him!! What a darling couple they make!! We feel blessed to have Alisha joining our family she is darling and has so many wonderful talents and most of all she loves Preston and is a wonderful young women who is strong in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Scott is leaving this week to promote his book at a big conference in New Oleans. Go gettum Babe!!

I 've been very busy with church projects, Primary girls activity days and having a blast watching Gabriel on Tuesday's, getting ready for the November reception and trying to turn our Afghan room into a room for a married couple to stay in!! Ha, now that we have so many married kids a twin bed just won't do anymore for visitor's!! I'm going to paint and stencil the walls in the Afghan room this week while Scott is out of town.

Mimzy got a puppy cut!! She looks adorable. CoCo and Marabella kept smelling her and checking her out when I first brought her home. She seems to like it. The guys like her hair short. I like her hair long but, it's cute short she looks SO tiny. Of course, two pounds IS tiny!!

We miss our kids who live away from home and treasure phone calls and pictures. I love it when Ashby wants to call us and asks if she can come to our house. Ohhh I wish she could just get on a plane and come play!! I'm looking forward to seeing them all in November!! Zoie is mobile and is cute, cute cute!! She turns one in November!! Andrew seems very happy in Oregon and loves his new job. He and Megan are doing well.

We are so blessed as a family.

Life is good even with all the problems in our country we have so much to be greatful for and to look forward to.

Jordan

Jordan
FB Senior year

Gabriel

Gabriel
Cake face! Yum!!

Francesca

Francesca
Baby Shower

Preston and Alisha

Preston and Alisha
love bugs

Preston and Alisha

Preston and Alisha

Cheryl and Ashby

Cheryl and Ashby
August 2008

Mimzy

Mimzy
her first puppy cut

Monday, August 25, 2008 I'm so far behind....




Here it is four months later since my last entry and sooo much has happened in our family!! Whew...I can hardly catch my breath with this crew!!!Francesca moved back to SB in March and got engaged to Michele, who is from Italy.Our oldest Granddaughter, Maya, turned six in April and starts first grade today!!Cheryl and Ashby came out for a wonderful two week visit in May and Preston was here for his friends wedding where he caught the garder belt!! Ryan flew in for a visit and we took Virginia, Maya, Gabriel and Ryan and his sweet girls with us to Disneyland and had the best day with everyone!!! Maya had a blast going on all the big rides, Ashby was fun and adorable, Gabriel enjoyed the carosel and being with his Mom!! Ashby was wide awake when the fire works were set off and ran all over the cafe singing Disneyland, Disneyland, Disneyland and entertaining everyone!! I loved watching their adorable expressions all day!! Can't wait to go back with the other grand kids when they get old enough!!!Preston's visit was fun he and I went to test drive some new cars and had a blast stepping on the pedal!!! I love having my kids home!!!Francesca and Michele had a beautiful garden wedding in our backyard on July 26 TH we are so happy for them. They are expecting twin boys in December!! We gained a new son in law and two new grandchildren!! We can't wait!! Megan and Andrew moved to Oregon the day after Fran's wedding for a new adventure in their lives!! They will be running a family coffee shop that Megan owns with her sister's. We are very sad to see them move but, excited for their new oppurtunity!! Zoie was crawling all over before they left and is cute as she can be!!! Andrew proposed to Megan a week after they moved to Oregon!! We are very happy for them and are waiting for an update on dates and details!!Virginia did some very entertaining dance preformances this summer and ended up on the front page of the SB News Press with her Brazilian dance team in June!! We love watching her!!Jordan spent his summer working at In and Out and at FB practice and hanging out with friends...well, I wouldn't say they just hung out. There were a lot of water balloons being tossed at the UCSB students!!James is living in Italy and giving English conversational lessons and working with his Aunt on decorative painting projects and still psssionate about photography.We took a family trip to Utah for Scott's family reunion and had a great time with his family and got to meet our soon to be daughter in law!!! Guess that garder belt stuff works... because Preston is engaged to a wonderful young woman and they have set November 14 TH as their wedding date in the Mount Timpanogos Temple!! Welcome to the family Alisha!!Maya learned how to swim in Aunt Lynne's and Uncle Larry's pool while we were there!!! She had fun playing with all the other great granddaughter's!! Michele fell in love with Utah!! Francesca had a wonderful time reconnecting with family!! We swam, had BBQues every evening, did a session at the Mount Timpanogos Temple with Beth, Megan, Lynne, Larry, Preston, Ryan and Cheryl and we enjoyed a day at Sundance picknicking and riding the tram and just enjoyed visiting and catching up!! Thanks Lynne and Larry for your gracious hospitality!! We loved the new pool and being with everyone!!!I stayed a few extra days to spend more time with Ryan, Cheryl, Ashby and Preston after Scott and the kids drove back home. I had a so much fun helping Cheryl and Ashby shop for and decorate her room!!! She loves her "marriage bed" That's what she called it after Ryan hung up the canopy for her!!! What a doll!!! Ashby told us she is going to marry her daddy when Cheryl asked why she said "because he is so toot!" We laughed so hard at her responce!! She is such a sweet little girl and soooo smart!! Great job Ryan and Cheryl!!!Meeting Alish'a family was a great highlight and I look forward to many more family times!!Scott and I are doing great and I'm about to start a new BFL program to get in shape for the November wedding!!! Yahoo!!Jordan is a Senior now....boohoo....I don't want to be an empty nester!!!! We are feeling very blessd to have so many wonderful and happy moments happening in our growing family!!!

Scott and Diana

Scott and Diana
April 18, 2008 Tenth Wedding Anniversary!

10 TH Anniversary

Scott and I celebrated our Anniversary at the Bacara Resort right on the ocean. It is one of the most beautiful resorts in the world and only a minute away from our home!! We spent our 5 TH Anniversary there and enjoyed it so much we decided to go back. Scott let the hotel know it was our anniversary when he made the reservations so, we got the first class treatment by everyone there. We had a beautiful room with a private lanai overlooking one of the many gorgeous swimming pools and cabana's just to the right of us was the ocean where we went for a walk on the beach and I collected shells. We had an exquisite 6 course dinner prepared by the chef just for us, at the Miro' resurant at the resort overlooking the ocean and at the end of the meal the pastry chef wrote Happy Anniversary in chocolate on our dessert plate. It was very pretty! We slow danced in the room had a great workout at the gym and had a wonderful couples massage at the spa. It was a lovely few days celebrating our life together. It is wonderful to still be just as in love as we were on the day we were married. Here's to many more wonderful years with each other!!

Jordan and Cookie 1994

Jordan and Cookie 1994
best friends

Sunday April 6, 2008

A lot has happened since my last post on Valentines.

I went to Kabul, Afghanistan to serve the women and children for two weeks. We had a successful trip funding many wonderful projects and helping a lot of women and children. I always come home with mixed emotions, happy to be home with my family, grateful for all that I have in this free country, yet, sad to leave the women and children behind that I have grown to love dearly. I look forward to going back as soon as I can. You can read my journals and see pix at http://disafghantravel.blogspot.com/

It is wonderful to be home with Scott, Jordan and the three Yorkies.

Our sweet Cookie boy is no longer with us. He was a very sweet dog and traveled the world with the boys and I and he lived through some pretty amazing situations, being dumped off in the red cliff mountains by some mean kids when he was a puppy and finding his way back home, being kicked down two flights of stairs in Germany by a vicious person and surviving being thrown threw the car in an accident I was in in Germany. Right after we moved to SB he was attacked by a large German Shepherd. I had to pry the dogs teeth off of him! I think Cookie had nine lives like a cat!! He was always sweet and loving and the boys and I loved having him. I keep looking for him and CoCo keeps wanting to go out in the garage to find him. He was Marabella's best friend when she first came to live with us and he tolerated the other Yorkies once they moved in. Once he lost his sight he wanted to spend most of his time in the garage in his "bachelor pad" we had for him. He would come in for an occasional love and still loved for me to hold him on my lap. He was so cute with our rabbits that the kids had over the years. He loved small animals and liked to snuggle with them but, he had a small dog "Napoleon" complex! When ever he saw a big dog he just had to make himself heard and act tuff!! I think he was the cutest Shitzu I have ever seen with his gold and white and blonde hair, brown nose and lips and his golden eyes. He was a great companion and I miss him. I hope he and Botero, our Pom we lost last year, are reunited and playing and soaking in the sun and saving a place for us. They became best buds as soon as we united our families in 1998. I would love to have another Shitzu someday but, I may loose my happy home if I get another dog!! Ha!!

Jordan is volunteering with the SB Fire Department Explorer Academy. He is enjoying it very much. He thinks this is what he wants to do as a career. He spent a week during spring break in Utah with his dad and the boys and Cheryl and Ashby and got to play in the snow!! He loves cold weather and snow so he was happy when it snowed the day before he left! He came home the day after I returned from Kabul.

The grand kids are as cute as ever. Zoie is growing and changing and looking more like her daddy every day. Gabriel says everything now and is the cutest little boy!! Maya spent her spring break at the office making books and doing lots of art projects. She spent Friday afternoon with me and we made jewlery, painted her finger nails and toes, made popcycles and played with the dogs and even did some yard work. She keeps telling me some day, I am going to get bored with Mimzy (our two pound Yorkie) and she wants me to give her to her when I do get bored with her, before, I sell her!! Ha!! I never get bored with dogs!! And Mimzy is my baby!!! She has been glued to me since I returned from Kabul!!

Ashby is coming to visit with her mommy in May!! I can't wait to spend time with them!!! She is adorable in her videos and pix and she sounds so cute on the phone and talks like crazy!! I love it when she says "Bye, my Nana" I hope Ryan can take some time off and see us, too!! My favorite video is of him playing with her on the carpet in their home!! What a joy it is to watch my son with his baby girl!!! Thanks for the cute video's Cheryl!! http://gobishopgo.blogspot.com/

Preston is working with his dad and Ryan and is enjoying the time with them. He calls every once in awhile just to let us know he loves us and appreciates us!! I love hearing from him.
He will be here in May for a friends wedding and plans to spend some time at home!! Yeah!

Francesca is finished with her program at San Patrignano and she has decided to move back to SB to be close to her family. She arrives on April 17 TH.

Life is good and we are very blessed to have all that we do. Scott and I will be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary on the 18 TH!! It feels like we have always been together. I appreciate his love and support so much! I'm so fortunate to have such a wonedrful husband and family!







Jordan

Jordan
Sundance, Utah

Zoie

Zoie

Maya

Maya
kindergarten 07-08

Ashby in the tub!

Ashby in the tub!