James and Karla Vanderpool Family

Amy and Alan are in town so you may ask what is the point of blogging? The principle of course, we can communicate this way too, and also Jonathan and Kari Jean are now in the groove and need to hear from us all. If you didn't know Dad and I went to court and volunteered to adopt the twins rather than let someone who doesn't love them have them but they said Thanks, but no thanks so you can all take a deep breathe, we will not be a family of 14 kids. Just what the world needs is more Vanderpools, especially little black ones. Well stranger things have happened. We a great time at the Peterson's on Alan's birthday, thanks for inviting us. Also, if you are reading Mindy, thank you for the Christmas bouget, I have only had flowers delivered to my house a couple of times before. What a lovely thing to do. Someone give Mindy a pile of money every year, will you, she is the best at knowing what to do with it. LOVE MOM

30

Happy Birthday sweetheart. I just wanted to wish the love of my life a very happy 30th birthday. It is amazing that I have spent almost 14 of those years near him. I love him and I am thrilled to be able to spend the rest of forever with him. We would love to have a birthday party for him on Saturday night if anyone would like to join us at the Petersen's. I love you Alan and thank you for working so hard for our family and making me happy.--Amy

done with finals

YEA I am finally done with my finals and am free for a short time. I will be attending ASU full time next semester in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering pursuing a Construction Engineering degree. Not to be confused the that Construction Management degree which even Peter could get. i am excited about that. Rieko is doing well and making preperations for Christmas and doing an outstanding job as a mother. Taiki is doing great and trying to learn to crawl. that is all for now. spencer

Sunday night studying

Once again it is Sunday night and Alan is studying away. I am wondering if there will ever be a time when Alan isn't preparing for finals around his birthday and Christmas. This does seem to get quite old. I really wanted to post some pictures of our fun evening sledding in our back yard from this week but my computer is not recognizing my camera. Technical difficulties abound here. It did snow about five inches this week and the kids have had so much fun playing in it. We have enjoyed a lot of hot chocolate and even had a couple of fires. I guess there are a couple of fun things to cold weather.

So Mark lost tooth number six two nights ago and the tooth fairy failed to come two nights in a row. Yesterday I cooked all afternoon for our ward Christmas dinner and completely trashed the kitchen. We sent the kids to bed and then I proceeded to clean the kitchen for almost two hours straight. In the morning I had to think of an excuse of why the tooth fairy did not come again so when we went down stairs for breakfast I was thinking on my toes and exclaimed, "who in the world cleaned up my kitchen? It must have been the tooth fairy. I guess she couldn't get your tooth because she was too busy cleaning my kitchen." Mark immediately took the bait and answered, "She is so small she must have had to use her wand." I asked, "How are we going to pay her for her services?" Bradley suggested we squeeze the money into the computer and send it to her that way over the internet. We do have quite the imagination at this house. I promise the tooth fairy will visit tonight and actually take the tooth and maybe even leave a little money.

Alan thinks he is king tonight. He actually made Mark rub his feet and then clean out between his toes. I was astounded and Mark would have done it happily if he hadn't seen the shocked look on my face. Now he is demanding me fetch him soda to help him jam more information into his brain about beta this and Alpha that and protease blah blah blah. I guess I will help him out. Good night all.--Amy

James and Karla Vanderpool Family: Happy thanksgiving

Hi Guy's,
It's so great that Matt and Mindy are doing that, they are doing so many great things, we should all get a big bunch of money every year or so. Oh wait I think I have made that wish before. Tara keeps hitting me up for a car for Christmas(where have I heard that before). The poor thing just can't come up with anything original, thats the breaks when you are number 11. We have thought alot about adding three more to our numbers but just can't seem to get up the nerve. But if we do we will blog it right here. Love, MOM

Incredible Generosity

I don't know if you have heard that we get to come home for Christmas after all. Matt and Mindy decided to be way too generous and scholarship us plane tickets. We tried and tried to say no we cannot accept, but they wouldn't take no for an answer. They finally said it would be a down payment on future orthodontic treatment and we found a pretty smokin deal on a little tiny airline that only flys to Vegas from here, so we very excitedly accepted. We will rent a car and drive the rest of the way. The trip is going to end up taking about as long as our drive from San Fran used to be. Something we were very used to. Thank you, thank you, thank you Matt and Mindy. It is a gift that we will never forget. Too bad I had already completely decorated the house. It took a good day and a half and it will be enjoyed for the next two weeks. We are leaving here the evening of the sixteenth and will arrive there early Saturday morning the seventeenth and then we leave the first of January. We can't wait to see everyone especially to meet little Allison for the first time.
There is no snow here yet Lindsay. It has snowed a couple of times but it melts within hours and there isn't enough to actually go play in. The bundling up of everyone is getting to be quite a pain. Especially since we go outside for such short periods of time. When I think we will just be cold and not put on all the hats, gloves, jackets or scarves we always regret it and come in very red and hurting. Yikes. Mom you are so right to be a desert rat. I can't wait to join you again.
Thanks again Matt and Mindy!--Amy

Hello All!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to be the first one in the family to Blog in December. It makes me special! I hope that everyone is having a great month so far, we'll see you all on Sunday for dinner! Amy- I am jealous that you get to be in the snow! And I wish I was there, I love the cold. Mark and Bradley are getting so cute! We miss you! ~~Lindsay