Baptism, December 28th 2008

Today, is one of the greatest days in my life...the girls and I got Baptised today by Papa at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We've been so blessed to have an open mind and heart to accept and have the gospel in our lives. We're blessed to have such wonderful children and we are thankful for Heavenly Father for giving us this opportunity to blend and grow together as a family here, now and eternally. I know God loves each and every one us, and we chose to be Baptised on our own free will (& the push from the Holy Ghost!!), to do the right thing and repent of our sins.

I was so amazed to see how many ward members came to our Baptism, and to see my coworker, Sister Humburg attend and give her Testimony. Devin gave his Testimony, and I swear if you were there, you would of been crying like a big baby. Devin was so heartfelt and touching, and I felt that love from him. His heart was speaking out to us and it felt great. He pretty much made everybody cry. I love you BB!

I give many thanks to Brother Hutchings who conducted the Baptism & made the awesome programs, Elder Hanson for giving talk on Baptism, Elder Larson for giving talk on the Holy Ghost, Brother Kauvauka for opening prayer, Sister Kauvauka for closing prayer and the children from primary for singing "I am a Child of God". It was wonderful, the whole experience.
Witness: Devin & Brother Humburg
Confirmed by the: Bishop Preciado, Brother Hutchings, Elder Larson, Elder Hanson, and Papa.

What an amazing weekend! Pictures will be posted soon.

Christmas 2008

Christmas was a blast! It was Devin's and I first Christmas together with our children (excluding Brenna because she was home w/her mom: Strep Throat). We spent Christmas down in Monrovia with Nana, Papa, Troy, Bonnie, Scott, Megan, Liz, Kris, Mariah, Jay, Megan, Grandma, Grandpa, and David.

On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, Devin drove down to Monrovia with the kiddies because I had to work. They went to Troy and Bonnie's and hung out there. Afterwards, they went to Krissy's house to sleep. Devin and Krissy stayed up till 2am to finish wrapping the kids presents.

On Thursday, Christmas Day, I got off work at 5am and had my co worker take me to the airport. My flight took off at 750am and landed in Ontario at 845am. I hate flying solo, especially when it's raining out. That's the scariest thing. What didn't help was that the news talked about how a plane in Chicago took off on the runway, hit some ice and slid off the path. Wow thats great, just great!!! Everytime I freaked out because of turbulence and shakes I kept reminding myself that i was only 10 ft from the ground, and it worked.

When I got to SoCal we headed over to Troy's house to open gifts. The kids were so happy! Nana gave us a cool chocolate basket and gave me a nice hand sewn blankie! I love it! I loved it so much that i fell asleep for 3 hours on the couch! Grandma, Grandpa and David came over and we all had Christmas Dinner together. We had turkey, funeral potatos, greenbeans, limabeans/bacon, rolls, jello, and ham. Everything was really good. Afterwards, Nana, Riah, Trin and Dasia played a card game and the game of Life. Afterwards we all went to bed.

Friday, we (As in all adults) went to go see "Valkryie". It was a good movie, depressing but good. Afterwards i went to Krissy's house to help decorate the girls birthday cake she made. It was a cute candy sugar loaded princess castle cake. Kris is soo sweet..i love that girl!



After we finished the cake and ate at Troy and Bonnie's, Uncle Allen and Sherry and their two daughters Chelsea and Malorie showed up from Utah. They were very nice and said many kind words to Devin and I. We then went to Krissy's house to watch "Baby's Mama" and went to bed.


Saturday, we drove back up to Sacramento. I got pulled over for speeding by CHP but they let us go. Nice!


Devin had to go to work and I had my second interview for my baptism with Mission President Dalton. He was very kind. He said I was so ready to be baptised. I am blessed :)


Devin went to work and I took Papa and the kids (Dee, Gare-bear, Trin, & Brenna bug) to dinner @ Applebees. Papa and I had steak and shrimp..hmmm soo good!! It was a very nice dinner. I got to have one on one time with Papa. Afterwards, we all went home and went to sleep. ZzzZzzz

More to follow.....................

Some cute pics of my niece...BABY LEIA!

Trinity's Birthday Weekend

Wow! This week has gone by pretty quick!! Christmas is in 4 days!! I'm so glad that we are done shopping..Wheeeew!

Thursday, the Elders brought over Brother Gom to discuss his knowledge on the Holy Land and decendants of Adam & Eve...pretty much in summary, church history. He brought some special 2,000 year old artifacts that was buried in jerusalem. Craziness! I've learned a lot at this discussion and everything pretty much clicked for me! Afterwards, the Elders asked me to be baptised and I said yes!! My Baptism will take place on December 28th..i'm excited, nervous, and anxious!

Friday, was Trinity's 8th birthday. We went to Milpitas and celebrated at the Macaroni Grill. We had a party of 7 adults - Devin, Me, Xinh, Grisel, Armando, Dan, Tara, and 10 kids - Trinity, Dasia, Brenna, Garrin, Dylan, Rocco, Fifi, Lala, Conner and Baby Leia. It was a nice dinner. Trinity had told Grisel she wanted a picture of her and Leia for her Birthday. Grisel couldnt find a pic of the girls together so she special ordered her birthday cake with Leia's picture on it.

This pic was on Trinity's cake

Saturday, I went to go try on some Wedding Gowns. Ulgh..i hate trying on dresses! It's a mess!! All the pain women have to go through to look good..haha...I tried on about 10 gowns and picked out 4 that i liked. Afterwards, we dropped the kiddies off at Grisel's house and went xmas shopping. Devin and I had to pick up about 10 more gifts for the kids..10 toys and 5 articles of clothing for each kid. Kids don't understand value yet so we figured lets go by Quantity.

Today, we all went to Church. Afterwards I made lunch at Devin's house and helped him clean his house (brat). Xmas is around the corner and we are all looking forward to being down in Monrovia with the family for the weekend. Yahhhoooo!

Friday!!

Today was a good day! First off, I woke up at 5 a.m today so I could study for my final in German History scheduled at 9am..hmm...i've come to the conclusion that procrastinating/power studying is not the best thing to do..So all in all i told myself, "if i dont know it by now, then i dont know it.." that quote kinda made me ease up a little...haha..anywhooo..

After Finals, I met up with my my snuggle bugga at the theatres and we watched "the day the earth stood still".. it was pretty good..i recommend it!

We did a little xmas shopping afterwards at Target..It's so hard to pick out presents for picky kids..anyways

Elder Hanson and Elder Larson came over for my 2nd discussion. I made them dinner - home made mac n cheese, breaded chicken and ceasar salad..hmm soo good..and finished it off with desert..we went over what was taught last week, repentence, attonement, baptism, and restoration of the church. We watched a video too, which i already had watched a couple months ago....afterwards, they hung out for a while and made fun of mochi thanks to devin..

Our Family photos

Hello Everybody! We made our Xmas cards! We took our photos in front of our beautiful Christmas Tree. Here they are!

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Happily Engaged

Save the Date! ~ August 15th 2009~
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Our kids were excited to take this picture. They
got tired of sitting uncomfortably and smiling so hard!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bling Bling
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Brenna took this picture
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Devin & the kiddies

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Christina & the kiddies

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Devin, Brenna & Garrin

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Christina, Trinity & Dasia

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Wedding, Missionaries, and X-mas Party

Today was a good day. I woke up this morning and went to school (yippee =P)..Afterwards Devin and I went to the Californa State Capitol to check out the grounds there for our wedding ceremony. We found a few neat sites that would do for our wedding. We also got a chance to walk inside the Capitol and listen to some Harp players play Christmas music while we were there. Fridays between 10am & 230pm is the only time Devin and I really have to be alone while the kids are in school. I look forward to this time slot..hahaha...

Anywho, afterwards we went to go check out some of the colors for our Bridesmaids. Claret is the official color. We checked out Bridal Mart but they did not carry our Designer line "Alfred Angelo" Mix & Match seperates.

We then headed up to Folsom and went to "Delarosa Bridal & Tux". They were sooooo helpful there and showed us 3 different designers "impressions, eden bridals and Alfred Angelo" shades of Claret (it was all the same..hahah). I am looking forward to them helping me with the gowns. They were awesome.

After we gathered the chitlins from school, we went home and cleaned Devin's house like crazy because the missionaries were coming! We finished up putting up 75% of the Holiday Decor right before they came over. The kids enjoyed the discussion and we are looking forward to the upcoming discussions.

Today they talked about the plan of salvation and used little puzzles to make it interesting for them. The holy spirit was known as Spirit Bob. Hahaha...

I also got a chance to talk to them about how I was also looking forward to learning and they didnt need to try to persuade me because i was passed that. I told them that I wanted them to teach me more so I can have a better understanding. They were shocked to hear that I had my own scriptures and that i've been doing my own research for the past 6 months. woo hoo!!

The missionaries will be coming back next Friday for the second discussion and Dinner that Devin offered to make..haah yea right, Devin cook? hehe love you!

After the missionaries left, we went to the Christmas party at the ward. We had a good time. I told a couple of the ward members that we were getting married and they totally jumped right in and offered to help. They had Drapes for the ceiling canopy, silverware, table cloths & extra help! I'm so excited!!
Sister Preciado made the whole ward sing The Twelve Days of Christmas but we had to "reword" it with something that the church offered to us..it was pretty hillarious. It kinda went like this:

On the first day of Christmas Green Valley Ward gave to me,
"a bishop and a fam-ily treeee"
"2 many meetings"
"3 hours of church"
"4 more meetings"
"5 slices of ham"
"6 weekends cleaning"
"7 scouts are hiding"
"8 years till baptism"
"9" (i forget)
"10 babies crying"
"11 future baptisms"
"12" (i forget)

We had a nice dinner and watched the youths sing & play musical instruments.
After church, Devin and the kids went home and now i'm at work. sigh. I wish I was home with the family.

First Presidency Christmas Devotional

This would be pretty neat to watch. I woudnt mind going to Utah to catch the Tabernacle Choir concert. I wonder if they travel to California? Hmm...

www.mormontabernaclechoir.org

First Presidency Christmas Devotional

Internet Broadcast

The First Presidency Christmas Devotional will be held on Sunday, December 7, at 6:00 p.m. mountain time, with subsequent rebroadcasts in many areas of the world. The devotional will feature the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square. Members of the First Presidency will be the speakers.
For more information about this event, including attending at the Conference Center, visit the Events page.
For information on worldwide broadcast times and options, see the broadcast schedule.

From www.lds.org

Thanksgiving Weekend 2008

This Thanksgiving, Devin, Dasia, Trinity and I spent our dinner with my extended family members Sister Grisel & her husband Ed (our groomsman!), their 2 boys Rocco 4yr & Dylan 6yr, Grandma Pam, Laura & her Husband Matt & Lilly-5yr & baby boy-1 month , Brenda & her boyfriend Joey & daughter Destiny- 5yr, and Ed's brother Matt with his wife & daughter 3yr & son 2yr. Garrin and Brenna spent Thanksgiving with their mother.

<---- Matt vs. Turkey

Dasia, Rocco, Trinity, Curly, Dylan, Destiny, baby boy, Lily

Grisel & Ed had rented a neat little 3 bedroom vacation home located in Paradise, Ca. It was pretty woodsy and reminded me of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It took us about 2 hours to get there from Cameron Park. The drive was pretty boring and i'm sure Devin got tired of me talking about our wedding..hahaha..The neatest thing about the house was that it had an indoor 15 person jacuzzi! The kids had soo much fun swimming!

Good times in the Jacuzzi!

Thanksgiving dinner was a blast! We brought over a 10lb spiral cut ham..it was soo good.. As soon as I arrived there, I was in the kitchen making brownies & Krissie's cucumbers! We didn't get there until around noon so Devin missed out on going shooting with the guys in Lassen Forrest. Dinner was served at around 4 pm. We had 3 different turkeys! #1 Baked turkey stuffed w/apples & onions, #2 Deep fried turkey & #3 super butter injected oven baked turkey. We had Ed's special stuffing made w/real cranberries (yuum), mashed potatoes, candied yams, biscuits, and crock pot ham. Everything tasted very yummy! I made a cool triple layer brownie which was sooooo good. It tasted like a Reese's peanut butter cup.

Thanksgiving Photos from Grisel's Camera: http://picasaweb.google.com/griselnoemilorente/Thanksgiving#5275083497528666754

The next day, the girls decided they wanted to stay with my family because they all were going to take a Field trip to Lassen Forrest to cut down their Christmas tree.

Fun times @ Lassen Forrest

Laura, Dasia, Brenda, Trinity, Dylan, Grandma Pam, Ed & Rocco

Trinity, Grisel, Brenda, Destiny and Dasia


Mornin' Sunshine!

Quick pic

Devin and I headed back to Cameron Park and picked up Garrin & Brenna around 2pm. We went to Costco and picked up 56 battery operated candles which came out to be only $27.98!! (for our wedding centerpieces). From there, we went to go watch "Madagascar 2 : Escape from Africa" at Century Theatres in Folsom. Afterwards, we went to Home Depot and bought our 7 ft Noble Fir Christmas tree for $40. What a deal! =P

For dinner that night, we all went and had sushi at "Kobe Sushi" in Cameron Park. On Saturday, Garrin & Brenna went to their grandparents house. Devin and I didn't really know what to do since we didn't have the kids. It was the weirdest feeling being without them! So...we went and got ice cream in waffle cones and went shopping. Afterwards, Devin and I went to work..what a looooooooong shift.

On Sunday (11/30/08), Devin and I went to Sacrament meeting and had a meeting with the Bishop. It turned out pretty nice. I officially met the Bishop's wife, Sister Preciado, the Bishop's first and second counselors and 2 missionaries who are going to give me the discussions beginning this Friday. I also found out that the second counselor, Brad Jeppesen, grew up with my Lieutenant Mike Goold and Rancho Cordova's Chief of Police Reuben Meeks and that the Bishop was good friends with Sheriff John Mcginness. What a small world!

I picked the girls up from my sis around noon and Theresa watched them while we went to work that night. What a long day!

Welcome

Hello Everybody! This is our first blog posting. After reading the Card family blogs, we've decided to copy everybody else and create one for our family.

Let me introduce you to our Brady Bunch family...

Our Kiddies

Dasia 9yrs, Garrin 8yrs, Brenna 6yrs, and Trinity 7 yrs

(Taken in March 2008)

My Love Bug

Devin & Christina
(taken in April 2008)

For those who do not know by now, We are ENGAGED! Wedding plans is coming along full speed! The wedding is scheduled to be held on Saturday, August 15th 2009...SAVE THE DATE!! I (Christina) am very excited and super duper happy...We are looking forward to sharing our lives together forrreeeeeeeever!