It's 2010!!

The year 2010? Sounds so futuristic!!

The holidays were so fun. We spent time in Seattle with my family, a few days up in Leavenworth, WA where we honeymooned, then spent new years back in Seattle. It was a good time and so nice to be with family and a chance to be up in the mountains of Washington.
On the 29th of December at the age of 94, my Oma passed away. It was great for my mom to have us home when this happened, it helped having a complete support system!
I'm so happy that my grandma is in a better place now. She'd been suffering from some dimensia in the past year plus a stroke. But even so, she exited this world listening to her favorite soundtrack "The Sound Of Music" holding both my grandpa's hand and my aunt Margaret's hand.
On the 10th of January we held the most celebrated memorial for her! We had over 300 people attend, my aunts & uncles all spoke & my dad and I sang.
My uncle Mac put on the most incredible slide show of my grandmothers life, showcasing her love of family, the outdoor adventures, gardening and traveling. This particular remembrance reminded me so much of myself, seeing how much I'm like her and my mom. So the best gift from it all was a better sense of self and reminding me of who I am and what I love in this life!

Here's a photo of my grandma from 1939 having cought a very large salmon.


I took this the day of her memorial - Mt. Ranier was out! My grandpa and grandma climbed this mountain with their kids in the 1960's.


3 generations of strong women. This was Christmas 2007.


Here are some more photos from our great trip:





My Dad had a great tree again this year, not one bad ornament on it!






Our drive through the mountains was a throw back to our college days living in cold wintery climates!!


This house is exactly what we would love our dream house to look like!!




My dear friend Alison and her baby Kaiton.


Now that it's 2010, it's a new year. That being said, there are many intentions we have set forth and look forward to creating. We'll keep you updated along the way.
For now, Happy New Year!

Love, The Kaitons

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! Love, The Kaitons.

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving came quickly! We drove to San Francisco and had a fun fun time.

Dad & Holly dancing in the living room at Vicki's.



We ate at the best Chinese restaurant in SF! We just told them to bring us whatever they wanted to serve us!


Nel & Jen making amazing mashed potatoes!


A quick family photo.


Holly, Scott, Nel and I went downtown for dinner at Little Joe's (GREAT Italian!!!) Then walked next door to Nordstrom and took a photo of the atrium inside. It was such a beautiful sight to see!




We decorated our small little tree! So cute!



We canned for the first time in our lives!!
We canned some homemade Marinara sauce!!





To wrap up the year...2009 has been good.
We've had lots of challenges that have left us stronger people and we now look forward to 2010 with lots of eagerness and excitement. We are so blessed to have such good health, great families, amazing friends and a marriage full of laughter love and fun!

We send our blessings out into the world and hope everyone savors the joy of the holidays!

Love,
The Kaitons

Happy Fall!

Hello and greetings!

Happy Fall!
We took a well deserved trip to Connecticut in October. The fall colors were breath taking and the company made us feel right at home.
Here are some photos from Charlie's wedding (Nel's childhood friend,)dinner at The Forrests and Yankee Candle factory.











We also took our first camping trip in California! Lord knows we've been here awhile, and finally we got out with Chuck, Martha & the kids for a little getaway. : ) After camping we went to the apple orchards in the Santa Barbara mountains where folks go to pick apples, pumpkins or make their own cider.





My job has changed for the best! I am now working with highly popular music in a music publishing company called Opus19. It's a sister company to where I was doing licensing, and it's a welcomed new change!

Nel continues to write and be creative. It's a joy to read his work.

My brother is in a new musical showing in Santa Monica. Dad is down this weekend from Seattle and we saw it twice over the weekend. Scott is so talented and it's pure joy to watch him perform.

I'm thrilled the holiday season is upon us, it brings up joy and happiness in my heart. Yesterday I purchased 4 vinyl Christmas albums to kick off the season! Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Duke Elington & Jazz Mix.

Until next time...we wish you lots of love and blessings.

Jen & Nel

September

It's tough this time of year.
September 25th and it's averaging about 105 outside.
Now that we've been here 5 years, I gotta remember that in SoCal August September & October are our summer months.

We've made our home so healthy lately! We are making great use out of our juicer by juicing veggie juice & got a great countertop water filter that removes fluoride, chlorine among other nasty things.
B.E.S.T. has been incredible since I've mastered the treatment and we've seen huge improvements in Nel's body aches/muscle pain. I'm looking forward to getting certified!!

I'm knitting more and more! Perhaps a few Christmas gifts will come out of it!?
I've also started exploring and experimenting with my glass art design. Looking for new ways to transfer the image to surfaces!

Next weekend we are headed to beautiful Connecticut for our friend Charlie's wedding.
We are expecting the weather to be in the 60's with crisps cool fall nights. We'll see family friends and also make a trip to the Yankee candle factory!

Til next time, happy fall!

Love, Jen & Nel

Summer Update

Here's an update from July & August!!

Nelly had so much fun playing baseball this year! He made a slew of good friends and was a solid hitter for The Dogs.
They made it to the playoffs but lost the first game in August putting them out of the race.
These photos are from their wooden bat game.



We have been cooking a lot and trying new recipes! I've posted the recipes on my facebook page with photos.
Here are a couple meals we made!




In July we had visitors from out of town! Ann MacPherson (my dads first cousins wife) came for moms weekend to see her son. And we all got together for an evening of improv!! It was great hanging with our friends Brian (Ann's son) & Simone, Ann, Simone's Sister Cozette, their mom Janice and our cousin Sarah (my dads cousins daughter). Truly a family affair!!

Our first year wedding anniversary (August 24th) rolled around fast!! We got so many well wishes from family and friends. The Saturday before we took a day to get out of town, and drove up to the Danish town of Solvang. We went wine tasting, ate lots of food, and enjoyed the shops.



Our Anniversary evening was spent at our favorite pub Timmy Nolans which is where we first met! I created a fun game for Nelly - he had to put pictures of events from the past year in chronological order and he surprised me with flowers at work.


This past weekend was hot hot hot - we averaged temperatures of 100 degrees and it was up to 109, 107 here in the valley.
The now famous Station fire began in the Angeles National Forest over the weekend and is visible from where we live. The fire is now under better control, and should be out by weeks end.

This photo above was taken on our drive out to Rancho Cucamunga to see a minor league baseball game (The Quakes) with some friends. The game was a nice break from the heat, and we enjoyed being outside of LA.



We've been hanging out as much as we can with Martha and the kids! They are growing up so fast and it's fun to be a part of it.
Sometime in August Adelee began calling me Jenny instead of "Nigh." She still calls Nel "BoBo" but she knows his full name is Nelson. Gordie is such a cuddle bug and loves his BoBo.

We're looking forward to falltime, and will update as we go along.
Jenny & Nelly