James and Karla Vanderpool Family

Well, it has been quite a day here, the twins left with their new family and we all had a good cry. Yasmine knew what was happening and was not happy but Dad gave them both blessings and it seemed to help. I had my first math test and bombed it, but still don't even care. Also it is Dad and my anniversery (37 years) and he has a high priest group meeting. I wish more people would post pictures, I love the one you put on. Love, MOM

Here are some snapshots from our day.

Beauty Queen? Highly unlikely.

I have been feeling like Eleanor and I needed to do something fun that was just for girls so when I saw the email for the Beautiful Baby (newborn to age 6) contest I signed her up. We got to go shopping and buy a new outfit and then spend half a day at the mall playing on the playground, eating, spending time together and then walk across a stage together. Eleanor being who she is made it quite difficult to get her to wear the new outfit and get her hair done and to actually walk across the stage. We had lots of fun playing on the playground and picking out gumballs and even riding on the carousel. When it came time to walk across the stage we were laughing and having fun (you practically have to trick her into doing anything that is not her idea). We went on stage and she immediately stuck out her tongue at the judges and giggled the entire 45 seconds we were up there. Everyone laughed. All I could do is smile and know that I could not expect anything different. She ended up getting second place to a little girl that was very poised and smiled and waved like a beauty queen. We did end up having a fun time and she got a trophy. Everyone ended up a winner in the contest. It was the first and probably the last of our beauty queen days. We do have the option of sending her to the state pageant where she would have eight different costume changes and need to submit four different pictures (headshot, full body, her advertising some product, and a snapshot), and I would need to go out and get sponsors and sell advertinsing pages for the program and it would only cost us about $1000 to have her ready. Sounds absolutely ridiculous and not up our alley. We are quite content to have had a nice day together. She will always be our little beauty and our little stinker.

James and Karla Vanderpool Family

Happy to say Granny and Herb are here and I have been good except for saying that a certain member of the family had better just shut up. Oh well, some of us never learn. We have several new games here and are playing regularily, and probably will till school starts and I have to nose it to the grindstone again. In answer to Peters question, perhaps you have to be old enough to understand death, not just see it. My question is, is Harry Potter special just because his mother sacrificed herself to save him or is he truely special? In my opinion he is the bravest kid I ever saw. He walks into every scary situation willingly, in places I would never think of going. That is the main reason I enjoy those movies, oh yea the special effects. I read Narnia years ago and loved it because the beasts in it were more human than most of us are. But I didn't think the movie captured the lion 's significance and dept very well. Dad however loved it. Thanks for blogging, I understand there are other people reading our bloggs, amazing!
Love,
MOM

Notice from the Department of Mystery:

This is me surfing. I am laying on the surfboard, making my way back to the break point to catch another wave. The belly rash I got that day mad me feel oh so smart.



Can anyone answer a question about Harry Potter? In the 5th book we are intruduced to Thestrals, right. Well according to Hagrid and Hermione, the only way you can see the horse-like creatures is to have seen death. Ms. Rowling made it clear that Harry could not see these animals until after witnessing Cedric Diggory's death. My question is did Harry witness his mother's death as a child? In the presence of dementors Harry is reminded of the last few pleading words of his mother before You-Know-Who tried to kill him. I would think that this would qualify Harry as a witness to death, but I could be wrong.





We are excited for Granny and Herb to be down in the Valley. Also, I can't wait to introduce Lindsay to Jonathan and to meet their little boy. It is an awful disappointment, though that we won't be able to see Kari too.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat na nagbasa ng sulat ko. Sana, meroong magco-comment dito. Ayaw ko kapag walang bagong sulat, kaya ito na nga!

Happy New Year

Can you believe it has been twenty days since I last posted? It is amazing. I just went through the pictures I took in December and thought I would post a few. The first one was of our first real snow. We enjoyed hot chocolate inside before going out to sled in the back yard. The next lovely picture of Eleanor is the result of telling her that I had chapstick in my makeup bag upstairs. Isn't Luke cute in his reindeer antleers? One of the best activities we did while at home was the hike up in fountain hills. I love being outside in the desert in beautiful weather like that.
We had such a wonderful time in Arizona. We already miss everyone. There just wasn't enough time to see everyone as much as we would have liked to. We did try to go and say goodbye to mom and dad but who knew they had church that early in the morning. Darn Arizona mormons go to church at all hours of the day. We were sad to have missed them and even more sad that we missed out on Dad driving us to Las Vegas. How did we not arrange that earlier?

We are back to the grind with school in session again and all of the fun responsibilities that come with a family. It looks like I am going to learn to be an aerobic instructor afterall. I start training in just a couple of days at the YMCA. I love that place. Alan says he is going to start going so he can shed a few pounds. He refuses to try Spencer's diet so he needs to do something. Eleanor is even more difficult now that we are home. All she wants to do is go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and play. I sure hope we both survive her childhood. I just don't know some days. Dinner time is calling, post agian soon.--Amy

James and Karla Vanderpool Family

Where is everyone?
Am I talking to myself? It has been a productive holiday, been getting our office all organized and stuff. Dad is almost finished with the entertainment center and it is gorgeous. I am looking for colors to paint it right now, and trying to get registeded to take pre-calculus next semester. Spencer had his tonsils out last week and he is still miserable. He tried to go to work but they sent him home. I think living on a liquid diet(even if it is ice cream) has made him get slimmer. I'm thinking about trying it, but just my luck I would gain weight.
Write somebody,
MOM

James and Karla Vanderpool Family

Hi everyone! Are you there Kari and Jonathan? It's Sunday and I think Amy and Alan left town withour even saying goodby, and that's without seeing them for a couple of days. Well we had a great time with them any way. Our church started at 8:00 am today and I love it, got us out of bed and busy and we even got a seat in the chapel by being only 10 minutes early, and we have such alot of time after church. It was a wild and wooley Christmas and we all survived with the skin of our teeth(sorry Alan). Tara is indeed going out with a 23 yr. old but I told her she is not going to get serious or any thing, if you are worried about this, ask Andrew, he's the perpetrator. Well the meat loaf calls!
MOM

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

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow"

So it isn't really snow snow but we have our first flurries! We are a little excited about that. We probably won't get a real good snow yet but at least there are signs that it does actually snow. If it is going to be cold at least you should get the beauty and fun of the snow. That's what I say at least. Nothing further.--Amy

Saturday night fun

Hello all. We had a nice Thanksgiving even though we couldn't be there. Alan started cooking at 6:30am and I started at 7am and we both finished about 4:30. We enjoyed the process but enjoyed the food even more. Alan's smoked turkey turned out fabulouso and the fried one was good too. It was a little different smoking in 34 degree weather but he did just fine. We had a great time at the Simister's home with 6 or 7 couples all of them ortho residents and about 12 kids. It was a lot of fun, food and noise, alot like home. We missed you all and hope you had a fun and thankful time. I tried to take some pictures of our day but they all ended up fuzzy. I guess I can't hold a baby and take pictures at the same time. Mark and Bradley are off to a little party at our neighbors with silly pajamas and crazy hair so I had them pose for some pictures. These are hot off the presses. I took them about five minutes ago. Happy blogging to all!--Amy

Just Saturday

Hi guys,
We had a great thanksgiving, Mindy forgot the dressing and Mom had to make fake gravy but other wise it was perfect. We ate outside on a u-shaped table that held everybody, the weather was perfect and the company was not perfect but trying. We just sold spencer's house for the second time ( who said loan approvals really meant that they were actually approved, or anyone looked at their credit report) and that only after being six weeks late. Let's hope this bank did their homework. We are all looking for more property to build on and having fun planning our hugh fortunes we will get from it. Why is it that never works out. Anyway Carri's house is really coming along and they might be in it for the annual Christmas morning feast. You know the one before the annual Christmas Afternoon feast. Do you think their is a reason we are all looking a little broad. I need to adjust my eating to all the feasting. Wait I forgot the missionaries are coming tonight for dinner and Rieko barbecued. Yum! Well maybe next week. I love you all, especially if you BLOG ON
MOM

Happy thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Amy and Alan, Kari and Johnathon, Colin and Cory, we hope you guys have a great day. Know that we miss you and are thinking of you guys. Alan your turkeys sound wonderful and we can't wait to get you and your talents back to our Thanksgiving table. Tell the kids that their cousins say hi. The boys keep asking to play with Mark and Bradley. We will try to get some pictures up soon.
Aaron, Jen and the tribe

Common Sense

Andrew, if you have to ask who wrote what- well, I can't even think of that possibility. I was reprimanded today for not being ready to take notes in lecture. Since when are notes mandatory? I pulled a couple of teeth from a 6 year old girl. She started waving her arms around while I was holding the needle by her face. What is the deal with kids these days? I almost had her horse whipped, but the threat of a lawsuit loomed large. So I just stabbed her in the eye- ok not really. Sheer legerdemain was adequate to the task. On another note, I let Amy know that during the Christmas break I will have a quota of bacon and sausage that must be filled. I don't think that's a bad goal. A man ought to set goals and achieve them- women too. Amy's goal will be to make sure I get the bacon and sausage. I have begun to prepare my turkeys. I have apple wood to smoke one. I will brine it starting tomorrow. I'm thinking of adding brown sugar in the brine for a sweet apple smoked turkey- sound good? I will be frying the other one with a creole garlic marinade. The problem is, the person in charge of planning the food for 6 couples only planned two pies. How in the world do I deal with that. That's what you get when you ask a really thin person to plan meals for groups. If you really want a good meal, have a fat person plan it. Hmmm who could that be? Oh yeah, me. Needless to say, we will be adding a couple pies to the ensemble.

Read this:
Raserchres at Cmadgibre Uivnrisety did a sudty on how we raed. Tehy funod out taht the spleileng of the wrdos was not vrey imortapnt as lnog as the fsirt and lsat lteetr wree crclortey plecad. Tihs is baceuse we do not raed by lioknog at lteetrs but by rcongzienig pettrans of wdors and lkoinog for thsoe ptertans. Pettry irnetetisng infarimoton.

I enjoyed the monologue a la multiple comments. This blog thing is getting better. I was reading a tragedy in the paper today. A group of democrats were going from one rally to another, and they all climbed in the back of a pickup truck. Travelling down the road, the driver lost control and went into a river. Everyone drowned as they could not figure out how to get the tailgate down. These kind of tragedies must be stopped. This does however remind me of another story.
A Republican couple, a Democratic couple and a Pig and Sow showed up to the hospital at the same time as each female was ready to give birth. Just as they gave birth, the electricity went out and mass confusion caused a mix up in the babies. The republicans were given the first choice of which baby to take. The couple both shouted, THE PIGLET, at the same time. The doctor looked up shocked and asked why. Apparently, the 50% chance of getting a democrat child was not worth the risk.

I hope there aren't any democrats reading this, oh wait, that's impossible, they don't read.

Happy Thanksgiving - Alan Mark Petersen