Rembrandt and Doughnuts... True Art at It's Finest

Which is more beautiful... I hesitate...

Brief and Unexpected Drama: The RGJ (surprise) printed the exhibit as free under Saturday. On the info it did say Noon Sunday, but it was printed under Saturday and I didn't check as well as I should have. Perhaps I was just too excited? Anyways, we got there and they weren't going to let us in (And hello.... I'm not paying $70 for all of us to get in, I was livid) however, they got the manager (hooray for me being a pest) and we were in! They had an amazing locust exhibit called "Swarm". And the Rembrandt exhibit was.... small. 90% of the etchings were very small. Obviously he was amazing and an incredible artist. I just wish there were some paintings there. That morning I had wanted to familiarize the girls with some of his work, and the famous works are more of his portraits. Of course, there were like 2 etching portraits there. Ah well. A lot of the etchings were religious subject of the life of Christ. Very beautiful.

Doughboy Donuts: Wow. Ramya. Seriously. BEST. DONUTS. EVER. We bought 6 and they gave us 5 free. Yummy.

Christmas Day at Milpitas

First off... we are spoiled. Yaya and Papa raid Costco for all the fine childhood goods. Theo Speedo and Val scour Wal-Mart for the deals and fun stuff. Yaya Sofia buys wardrobe and coats.

Nono, when he was alive, would get jewelery, which put Christmas way over the top and excessive.

Sigh. We don't deserve it. Our family is too good to us.

Costco princess dress up.

Did you know anything ending in 97 cents at Costco is considered clearance? Yes. Fantastic. These Tiana dolls were probably the hit of Christmas for the girls.

New camping chairs, just the right size from Theo Speedo and Val! How clever a gift!Christina and Christina.

We had a wonderful friend of Yaya's come over. Helen. What a sweet lady! It was such a pleasure to enjoy her company!.

Sofia and Sofia.

The traditional buffet.

Thanks everyone for a great time!

Traditional Christmas Breakfast

Delish!

Menu: Scrambled eggs with cheese, tater tots, sausage, bagels, muffins, doughnuts, fruit smoothies.... Yummy!

Halloween or Christmas?

Christmas this year was fantastic! Perhaps because ALL... yes ALL our gifts were deals!!!

Our children LOVE dress up. And that perhaps is an understatement. I encourage dress up because I LOVE creativity. Nothing is worse than a boring person with no imagination. Hence this year I was on the look out, and boy did I get lucky! I probably spent about $40 for 20 different costumes, dress up shoes (at least 10 pairs), necklaces galore, rings, hats... you name it. We've got it.

Pteradon attack!!!

Our first Christmas in our home was excellent. I thought I might feel sad, but I didn't. I knew JoJo was with us and that He enjoyed seeing us happy as a family.

The Night Before Christmas

From the Caubles! Very fun!

Christina wrote: Dear Santa, Puppy Please! I love you. Thank you. Christina
Maria wrote: Dear Santa, Please can I have a princess? Do you know Joseph's color coat? I love Mommy, Daddy, Maria, Nina. Thank you for everything. I love Alice Disneyland and the Tiki Room and I want Chip and dale. Love, Maria

We also read When Jesus Was Born in Bethlehem by Joseph Brickey. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. It is ALL scripture with really beautiful artwork. Also, we got this book for 10 CENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Grassroots books.
We sang some Christmas Carols and ended our night with usual family prayer.

Birthday time!!!

Can't wait to get a picture of these lovely gals at girl's camp one day!

5 is way too exciting!!

Such a great party with great friends!

Playdate with Carsen!

Concentration! And excellent team work!!

We are so lucky that we have great friends! Ang came over with the boys and we had a great time making a gingerbread train. Quite the little builders we have!

Where My Son's Body Is Buried

"Knowledge does away with darkness, anxiety, and doubt; for these cannot exist where knowledge is." Joseph Smith (History of the Church 5:340)

One of the greatest blessings is that Joe is buried right next to his grandfather Dan Ahtipis. When Yaya Sofia dies (hopefully not for another 40 years!!! But God's will always.) they will dig up Joe and then bury Yaya and re-bury Joe... like Yaya is holding him. I couldn't ask for a better spot. He's right by people who love and adore him. When we were choosing a gravestone Yaya Sofia wanted "Eternally in Yaya's arms" written on it. :) It was quite the moment... we couldn't decide what the hell we wanted on it... I mean really... we really, really didn't want to be doing that. But I can smile back at the moment because again, God had His wonderful and comforting arms around us. After 20 minutes, it just came to me as clear as day "Eternally ours." The gravestone really is beautiful, the granite is from California. I can't stand the cemetery as there is always goose crap everywhere. But I go whenever I go to the temple, because it's right by the temple. And it just happened to be covered in snow and was quite serene that day, so I took some pictures.