Happy Happy Birthday Emma Kait

Emma Kait turned 9 last week and we celebrated with a rainbow themed birthday party. Yes, that cake was made in my kitchen, and no I didn't use an entire box of food coloring. It was the hit of the party and all the girls were so excited to eat the rainbow cake. We had a family party in the evening with more rainbow cake and swimming. She said it was a perfect party!

Happy 14th Anniversary

Considering we have no digital photos of our wedding (the dark ages of the 90's), I thought I would post one of Jon and I before kids in honor of our 14th Wedding Anniversary today. I love you more today than yesterday. You are my support, you are my partner, you are my equal half in this life. I knew I was meant to be with you forever starting when I was 17 and I am so glad God blessed me with you. I love you Jon. Happy Anniversary.

Returning to the blog world

Shocking, I know. I have taken a 6th month break from blogging on my own page, but have found many fabulous blogs of others that I love to check in on. Of course the past 6 months has flown by, and much has happened in our lives, but the biggest change happened in the last few weeks as we "moved back" to our property on Paddock Lane to start our life here. The kids and animals are getting settled back in, the garden and pastures are growing like crazy, (come to think of it the kids are growing like crazy too!) and we are trying to keep cool. It feels like summer just started, but in reality school is less than a month from starting back up again. We just returned from our family vacation in Lake Tahoe and our 14th wedding anniversary is tomorrow. No wonder summer flies by. I'll try to post some pictures later tonight after we get home from a soccer camp for church. Don't worry my friends. I plan to not take such a long break this time.

View from a boy's lense

Jon and now Joseph love to take photos. Here are some they recently have taken from our Southern California trip.

Disney and AMA

With some Christmas money we received this year, we decided last minute to take the kids on a Southern California adventure to visit Jon's sister and family. The kids has a blast playing with cousins and we took them to Disneyland for one day and then Jon found out that the first AMA Supercross race of the season was the very weekend we were there in Anaheim, so Joseph, Dan and Jon went. I have to say what a wonderful invention DVD players in cars have been as we cruised down I-5 with no arguments or "when we we get there?" questions. We feel like we celebrated the end of 2008 with a great memory our kids will cherish. We haven't been to Disneyland since Ben was a baby and the other kids were 3 and 5. It was a perfect time to take them as the crowds were low and it was still decorated for the Holidays. Ben truly believed that the stars in Space Mountain were real and Emma got to meet Jasmine and Alladin. I loved staying up late and visiting with my precious sister in law Christa whom I have known longer than my husband. It was a wonderful trip.

Merry Christmas From the Stanphill Family

In an effort to simplify the season, we are sending out our Christmas greeting without the paper and stamps. We hope this finds you well and we are thanking God for His provision for us this year. Please scroll through the blog to get an idea of our year and all it held for us.









Benjamin: 5 years old, Kindergartener, quirky and has taken on school as his job. Loves to play with his cousins but can also be found lurking quietly in corners playing independently. Ben played soccer for the first time this year and has made some great new friends.




Emma Kait: 8 years old, 2nd grade, loves school and her teacher Mrs. Wenstrom. Emma started piano lessons this year with Rebecca's childhood piano teacher and continues to explore her artistic talents.









Joseph: 10 years old, 4th grade, lover of animals and very hard worker. Joseph helped re-roof the little house on our property this year and then re-roofed the kid's playhouse by himself.



Jon and Rebecca: Jon continues in his work for Granite Bay Excavating and has also recently returned to his roots in web/media development starting Structured Media Design. Rebecca voyaged into a new season of life with all the kids being in school this year and took a part time job teaching PE at the kid's school for 1-3rd grades. She has enjoyed some mornings of a quiet house, with a cup of coffee and a crackling fire.

We wish you peace and joy this Christmas.

As Promised

As promised, here is the link to our new business. Please feel free to check it out and if you know of anyone needing web design/media services, we would love the referral!

http://www.structuredmediadesign.com/