And a Happy New Year... Merry Christmas... Slap

Any Chamber Members out there should recognize that "quote"!

This has been a uniquely busy December.

First, we went to Utah for Evelyn Hope Lance's blessing. That was a wonderful weekend full of family, food, and fun. Check out Joanna and Jarom's blogs for details.

The next weekend was Stake Conference so we took the opportunity to go to Lodi and visit Justin and Anna. That was fun too, as Justin played a violin duet in church, we watched some Marsden productions videos, decorated cookies and went to their Stake Concert. Unfortunately, Julia wasn't feeling well so we left early.

The next week was concert week. Tuesday/Wednesday was High School Choir Concerts. Only one mad dash for a women's outfit! Julia was barely well enough to sing on Wed. Thursday was Violin Concert.

We ended up taking an extra week off from schoolwork because of illness and Nutcracker. Thank goodness because I made eight advent calendars, and three ballet bodices! Not to mention Tshirts and origami jewelry.

This weekend was Christmas and although my favorite schedule is Christmas Eve on Sunday. Christmas on Sunday worked out nicely. Christmas Eve we borrowed Rory's Pizza Tradition for dinner. Then had our program with various family members contributing. Gramma Jammas, the Nativity Play, and Claymation! Bedtime and Santa Set up were done by 11:00! Yay!We were awakened at 7:00 by our children who are finally past the wake up at 4:00 stage. We had just jumped in the shower so they had to wait a few minutes for stocking opening. After that melee we went downstairs for Santa presents. Jessica and clan showed up for the opening of the large pile. Our family rocks the homemade and gag gifts! Then we got ready for Church. Our ward Choir, enhanced by visiting Myatt/Schieb/Elliot/Lance singers did two lovely numbers with one rehearsal! The Lord will provide! After Church we nibbled on snacks, prepared dinner, and played some new games. We enjoyed ham, turkey, rolls, salad, baked mashed and dilly potatoes. Then we watched a new movie and went to bed.

The next day began the flu saga. So much for our plans for the week after Christmas, no shopping, no organizing, very little game playing, mostly upchucking, sleeping and sipping soda. We managed to watch a couple of movies and finally get a couple nights rest. But the exhaustion continues. Sorry to pass that along to all you wonderful Lances. Merry Christmas!

And the winner is.....

We have a three way tie for costume of the year. Everyone vote again please in the runoff. I can't get the poll to change so change your vote for one of these three:

Jarom etc

Justin etc

Jessica etc

You've got till Saturday is over.

Halloween Has Come and Gone

Once again the Lance Family Circus overwhelmed the world with their creativity. Place your vote for best costume or family costume. In no particular order:

Jarom, Stephanie, and Evelyn Hope as a Brand New Family!Janae as a Pocahontas wanna be
Julia as a cowgirl, Jake as her pony. No she's not Annie Oakley or Jessie from Toy Story, just a cowgirl!
Josh as a colonial revolutionary soldier
Justin and Anna as Peanut Butter and Jelly, this is slightly ironic as surely Anna is not eating pb&j right now!

Joanna and Cody as Nerds? That's not a costume!

Jessica, Rory, Sadie and Charlotte as Star Wars

Got Some Photos for ya!

Busy summer requires lots of photos. If a picture is worth a thousand words, here's 4000:

Well Well Well !

Isn't that a deep subject.

Dad thinks it's time we have a family letter or something to keep those of us here at 7015 Yorktown in touch with those elsewhere. Hence an update to the "Family" blog.

Dad upgraded his phone so he's been busy with that learning curve the past couple of days. It's the new Android Bionic. So far it has better things and more frustrating things to learn.

Mom and Dad have been volunteering at the temple one weekend a month. This is their second month. Mom still gets lost and doesn't always know where to go next, but loves being helpful. Dad has passed his veil worker training and really loves being there to serve.

It has been cool this summer, so cool that Mom just picked the first ripe tomato. Somehow the chickens managed to reach the other one through the netting. dang! At least they give us eggs back.

Julia and Josh started school a few weeks ago. Josh is doing a strength training gym class for PE. Janae and Julia have classes at Gav. Janae is taking night classes so she can keep working full time, Julia is taking beginning piano, an easy class to ease her into her course work for college. Jordan is working with Dad most days since he's getting a little better sleep. He looks professional in his painters pants.

Thats the update this far. There are no photos on this computer but we'll get some current photos up next week.

WARNING!!!

Extreme photo content! Don't worry I think you'll live. Sorry we haven't blogged since october so I'll start from there. So halloween was on a sunday this year so we just went to our ward party. So, I was Cinderella, Josh was a ninja,(all his friends copied him)Janae was a super baby(?), Jordan was a Hands of Blue, (or something like that) dunno what Joanna and Cody were, Jessica was Ursula(from The Little Mermaid) Rory was King Tritan(sp?) Charlotte was Sabastian (again, sp?) And Sadie was the little Mermaid!Ok photo time!Sorry, dunno how shrink the pic. Anyway this is THe Little Mermaid Family! Well, my computer is being messed up right now so ill finish the post later. Sorry! - Julia