December in Bakersfield

Christmas time is coming and so I wanted to share a Bakersfield Christmas with you, since no one is coming home for the holidays.


This is your mom next to the tree that she decorated all by herself. It is beautiful. We decided to get another big tree this year. Notice how it dwarfs the animals and people by the manger.


Thanks to my contribution to global warming, this is what it looks like on 12/14/07 in heaven. Compare this to the photo on Alicia's blog.


Piko is making a somewhat blatant appeal for new toys. She brought these into the family room to show how much she is in need.


This is the Christmas present for your mom that I told you about. It is a new watering system for our trees that your mom has been wanting. I try to never disappoint her, even thought it cost thousands of dollars.


Finally, this is the Christmas tree that Sarah planted when she, Landon & Aiden lived with us this summer. I was going to cut it down and move it into the house but it had a very pungent odor.

The Buchanan Bash

We were very fortunate to be at the Scott & Alicia's house for Thanksgiving. They were wonderful hosts for all of the herd and even provided a water attraction on our last night. If you want to see pictures of Brielle, you will have to go to their blog, where you will find a plethora.


Scott & Alicia in their kitchen, as hosts of the meal.


Ava Elizabeth is the newest addition. She was blessed while we were there.


Two lovely ladies.

Brian Skinner

Most of you know our son-in-law, Brian Skinner. He married, and took full responsibilty for Laura. Ponder that undertaking for a minute.
I have noticed that he doesn't get much play on the Blogs. When we visit the Hughes, or the Buchanans or Landon & Sarah, the in-laws get equal recognition. Since the Skinners live so close, you don't see many pictures of him.
Today, it is Brian Skinner's day in the sun...


Now, I am not really sure what he did, but at Thanksgiving, he was seated at the little kids table with Kea. That is a celebration of its own.



We all know how much Brian likes to play with his kids. Here he is playing football with Blake.


Brian had the opportunity of being entertained by my baby brother, Tracy. Laura isn't really sure how much fun it is.

Picture Taking at the Allred's

Russ is printing our Family Business book with a new title and additions by his current partner. I had such an awful experience trying to get the photo studio at JC Penneys to take a picture of me for the new book, I decided to have your mom take the picture in the backyard. So, this is me.
Your mom took about 6 pictures but there were only two on the camera. I asked her to give me the camera to see if I could make it work. So, I took a picture of her to test it out.





This is one of my favorite pictures, ever. Your mom wasn't happy but she gave me permission to post it. Please click on it to enlarge the image. She is beautiful, even when she is frustrated with me. Maybe that is the reason I provoke this reaction.






This the picture we settled on. It seems to capture my inner essence perfectly.

San Diego

This is the tribute to Bob Hope in San Diego, in front of an aircraft carrier museum. We ate at a nice restaurant overlooking the harbor and could see two more aircraft carriers.

This is a statue that commemorates a famous photo taken at the end of WWII. I was going to reinact the statue with your mom for you all, but all of the tourists spoke Japanese. And, I don't. And, some of you would say, "Gross!" And, I am not sure I could convince your mother to do it.

We asked the mechanic about fixing the Mystique to see if it will last until Tawna launches. He said, "Do you mean the Mistake?"
Anyway, I thought this would be an appropriate vehicle to buy for Krista.
I took all of these pictures on my cell phone.

CHRISTMAS EXCHANGE 2007

Scott-----Bryce
Alicia-----Steve
Steve-----Tawna
Teresa----Sarah
Brian-----Jessica
Laura-----Landon
Jessica----Scott
Landon---Krista
Sarah-----Alicia
Bryce-----Laura
Tawna----Brian
Krista-----Teresa

Limit: $25
***Important Note** Jessica will be in UT for Thanksgiving. She said she would take gifts with her to Germany for Christmas. SOOO, Alicia and Krista and Brian, get your gifts by Thanksgiving and pass them over to our little Santa.

Happy Shopping!

I thought you guys would like to find out what has been keeping me so busy lately, so....

this one is for the allred's, because I took it and thought they migth like having it.


we went to moab, and I fell off my bike. I flew about 15 ft, and my bike made it another 10 ft after me, I was impressed. Basically, there were 4 -2ft drops of rock, and so I was going about 10-15 mph and bunny-hopping off these ledges, and I made the first 3, and then my front tire hit a rock, and so I flew off the last drop and my bike rolled end over end, it was pretty cool. And then I had 5 miles to go after that. I have the same type scars on my back and arms. Basically, we arrived fri night and hiked the delicate arch in the dark, which was cool, and then the next morning we went rock climbing and did about 15 miles of biking, it was awesome. my car on the way up, the other car had 4 guys, that is just how I roll....

the rock climbing, we came up a crevasse like this for about 200 ft
the pinnacle of the bike ride, this is after 4 miles of uphill, and then we went the rest down hill, it was awesome.
these are my roommates, we had a halloween party friday night, and I was the phantom, it was way fun but the party was not all that impressive.

In other news, I have joined a research group. Right now we are shooting lasers into a vacuum at a sample of metal and heating it to plasma state, and then taking readings of the radiation emitted as the metal cools. This week we are getting a professor from russia to come help us develop 3-dimensional x-ray technology, which is really exciting for me because that is what I will be doing for the rest of my life. Other than that, i have too many classes and am learning a lot, but oddly I am doing much better than expected in all of my classes, so that should be good sometime.

Things on display at our house

Now that you are awake...This is a self-portrait of Tawna when she is awake. She took this picture of herself sometime after 6 pm. That is the reason she is smiling. It is really dicey before that time.

This is the BEAUTIFUL plaque that Tracy made for our house. Things of note:
1. Tracy routered all of the lettering.
2. The plaque is oak.
3. The words are your mother's version of something we heard at a testimony meeting in Alicia's old ward (I think). The person who shared this was a visitor.
4. Since Evan and Brielle were not there for the family picture, I used something like Photoshop. I call it CPA Shop (Cut, Paste & Assemble)
5. I got mostly the face of the new additions. The pictures were big and the circle was 3".
6. Thanks to Jessica for the family picture.

This one shows where we put it on the wall. I wanted it somewhere that it would be noticed. I am very happy with how it turned out. Now, all we have to do is find a photographer that is willing to sell us a family portrait.

The First or Last, depending

First of all, I want to say that I would have posted these photos all together but I can't reduce the size of the photos. I need technical assistance. And why do I always get words, rather than pictures when I upload photos?

This is the perfect example of putting on the whole armor of God as you start your day. Jacob is headed to school, complete with helmet.

I love this picture of your mom in front of the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Florence. Michelangelo and Leonardo Di Vinci crossed this bridge when the lived and worked in Florence. Thanks again to Sarah for "The Agony and the Ecstasy."

Your mom took this picture of the flag on the Stock Exchange on Wall Street. It is good to be back in the cradle of capitalism. Were it not for the free enterprise system, Gutenberg would not have made the Bible available to the masses, the spreading of the gospel would have been crippled and computers would not be available for the church and genealogical work to expand, not to mention Blogs. We all must rage against the machine that would try to repeal the law of supply and demand!!!!

It's All About Roger

Which is the specimen of manliness, the one with his left arm at his neck or the right arm?

Please find the "Latter-day" saint.

This one is easy, who is enjoying himself more in NYC, the phantom or the BYU fan?

Church Things

This is the church in Harlem. It is about 3 blocks from Jessica's house and would be where she would attend if she weren't in a singles ward. When we would come to her house, we were about the only snowflakes on the sidewalk.

This is the branch in Ladispoli, Italy, where we went to church with Cecilia. There were about 20 Italianos and 15 gringos. They had this meal after church because a missionary was touring with his family. He had served there. The man in the dark suit closest to the camera is Presidente Massimo De Feo, the Stake President of the Rome stake.

This is the breath-taking Basilica di San Pietro. (St Peters). It was incredibly beautiful. You guess where one could feel the Spirit of the Lord.

Beautiful Things

This is Teresa in front of one of the many quaint towns on the Rhine

Sue and Brandon chillin' over a cup of hot chocolate while Teresa goes to get the car to rescue us. I love Brandon's eyes.

The bronze Ghiberti doors on the baptistry in Florence.

Some good pictures

Things to notice:
1. The castle on the hill.
2. The ferry (not fairy) that helped us find Steve and the boys.
3. A SMILE on Nathan's face. You don't see that much.

Singin' in the rain, just singin' on the Rhine.

One of Mr. Jefferson's punkins

Jessica's dream fulfilled, being Barbie.

VA

The whole clan in front of Thomas Jefferson's house at Monticello ("little mountain" in Italian)

Roger and Sue cuddling in Tom's flower bed.

Aiden, Sarah and Landon in front of the UVA rotunda. There is a fly fishing class going on behind them. One of the girls was in a dress and a pearl necklace.

We will call this one, "Aiden on the loose." UVA and Charlottesville were beautiful. L&S place was very nice. They were SO KIND and gave your mom and I their bed to sleep in.

New York, New York

We had a chance to view the mighty Buchanan in the NYC harbor. (Click on it for a better view)

This is me hugging our tour guide in NYC. She was wonderful but she hides out all day long. Oh, and Lion King was GREAT!

I love this picture of two lovely ladies. I especially like the accessories on both of them.

This is "Ground Zero." Your mom really enjoyed seeing the phoenix.