Lauren's 2nd Birthday Party!

Happy Easter 2008!

Easter weekend was so wonderful to put it simply.

The weekend started with being able to share my gratitude and testimony of the Lord's amazing Atonement and glorious Resurrection, and pay tribute of such, through music. In a spiritually powerful and uplifting concert combined with the Orange County Mormon Choral Organization (OCMCO)-(see link on our Blog side bar), I was able to perform my first concert of the 2008 season with the Orange County Mormon Orchestra at the Renee Segerstrom Concert Hall in Orange County. It was really beautiful and spiritually uplifting to hear and play in harmonious sound together songs of gratitude and praise for the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am grateful to have been able to play with them. I still thank Jim for letting me participate(course he just wouldn't say no ;) as the rehearsals take up a good amount of the mornings of 5 Saturdays before the concert. It was a personally fulfilling experience to play in an orchestra again, especially an orchestra that performs arranged hymns and sacred music for choir and orchestra (a dream I've always had-fulfilled). I also really enjoyed performing with my favorite stand partner (my long time dearest friend and violin buddy-to say the least), Marie Luedtke. I look forward to our next concert coming up on June 11th. Here is a shot taken the day of our concert that is in the Church News: (week ending March 29,page 14)

The rest of the weekend just really was icing on the cake (sorry Caitlin about my hot potatoes sliding into your icing on your cute and delicious cake). This year we had a lot of fun (I know I always say that) spending Easter Sunday together with family. We had such an over all beautiful day. (Lauren was feeling great, finally) ;) I say that because at some point in each month since January we've been sick. Then it takes 2 weeks to get better, one week well, then sick again. So it was nice to enjoy that weekend feeling healthy and well. Here were some precious moments captured from Easter Sunday:

Family going to church (Lauren in her Easter dress) ;)

"Look what the Easter Bunny brought"...however we caught an unforseen small Easter meltdown as she asks for some cake(we're not sure why?), but quickly recovers as Daddy drew her her attention towards what the Easter Bunny brought for her this year:

(Don't forget to MUTE the music on the side bar when you watch the videos.)

and Lauren's first Easter egg hunt with the cousins

There were so many great pics I need to spend more time to find out how to do a slide show.

Jim's Birthday Party! 3-0!

So it's been a while since I've blogged. We've been having a blast and many of you have been having a blast with us, so here's some pics and a recap of what we've been up to the last month:

Jim had his 30th Birthday and so we decided to celebrate with food and games-Wii style. Jim had a guys night at our place with nothing but good ol' pizza, hot wings, soda, and of course, the Wii. He had a great time with the guys that could come (the ones that didn't have newborns to tend to). Here's a shot of Kevin Wurtz and Paul Weitzel (we'll miss you) playing Wii boxing:

The next night, we went down to Irvine and celebrated with my family and also had a Wii party with Ball park food with a candle in the ice cream sandwich for Jim's cake (in effort to take Jim back to his youth to help him feel younger). We had a great time playing Wii Sports, Warioware: Smooth Moves, and Trauma Center New Blood (a Surgery game). Our nephew Ryan, took some great photos of the night: Thanks to all who came and made it a really fun party!

The following week of Jim's Birthday was spend with his family in Manhattan Beach. We had a relaxing time together and really enjoyed eating Joey's (Jim's request of Southern Barbecue).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM!