2016 in Retrospect

2016 was exciting a full of changes for our family.

In January we celebrated Genevieve's first birthday and I reflected on our journey that brought her to our family.

In February we celebrated Valentine's Day and Chandler's basketball team won the championship game!

In March we signed a lease in Denver, CO so Brandon could start his own practice, but it fell through, and instead we signed a lease in Santa Ana, CA, Brandon put in notice at work, and we visited the Grand Canyon!

In April Brandon turned 34, and we spent the weekend in Oceanside, kid free, with the Wachs!

In May we started packing, Sterling graduated preschool with Miss Kris, we had a birthday party for the boys, and we spent Memorial Day weekend on the lake with our family.

June 1st the boys finished school, and the next day we packed up a big yellow truck and moved our family to California.  Chandler turned 9 on the 23rd!

In July we celebrated the Fourth of July and spent a lot of time at the beach!

In August Sterling turned 6, and his team won their basketball championship game, and the boys went back to school (Kindergarten and 4th grade!)

We spent September trying to settle into our new routine, while still taking frequent trips to the beach!

In October we visited every pumpkin patch we could find, spent a Saturday up the mountains, attended the ward and school Halloween parties and trick or treated with our friends!

Since there wasn't enough time in October, we visited one last pumpkin patch on the first day of November, and took pictures of the kids in their costumes.  We also celebrated Thanksgiving, Tate style.

December was all Christmas, all the time.  We visited with Grandpa Dave in Oceanside, hunted for the perfect Christmas tree, decorated Santa's room for the ward Christmas party, ate too much, and had a big family Christmas!

Family Pictures 2016

Merry Christmas 2016!

We had a wonderful Christmas.  My little sisters came home from their missions last March, so this was the first Christmas everyone has been together in a few years.  

Adam made Jared an outside game... 

Wrenn got trampoline...

The boys got little tablets and Minecraft... 

Merry Christmas from Sembrado Street!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Per tradition, here is my mom's family letter from Thanksgiving!

Dear Family,

I hope you all had a lovely holiday. Our house has quieted down, the turkey left-overs have all disappeared, even all of the pies are gone. Adam stayed the weekend, but went home last night. Nathan and family left this morning, as did the girls (taking Larry with them.)

Adam, the girls and their friend Samantha arrived Wednesday night. Jared and Jen celebrated with Jen's family and Nathan and Shirley were in Logan with Shirley's people. We started the morning by running around the lake for the Run for Kira virtual run. It's 1.25 miles around the Rancho lake, so it was perfect. Miranda and I went an hour earlier so we could watch Gigi and Sterling while the others ran. We were sad I was late ordering our T-shirts, but decided we could always run again when they arrive. We had eleven for dinner, which was a perfect number around our dining room table. The boys competed in their annual pie baking contest (Adam won with a raspberry/chocolate pudding pie, but Larry was a close second with a lemon meringue, and Brandon made a cranberry cheesecake Of course, we played lots of games and watched lots of movies. 

On Friday, I got started on my holiday decorating. It will be different this year because a lot of my decorations including my nativity scene (which is the most important) are hidden behind Bethany's stuff in our garage.  We also went shopping and to the Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them movie (we liked it, but didn't feel as connected to it as we did the Harry Potter movies.) Then the girls watched the new Gilmore Girls episode while the boys played games.

On Saturday, Larry and I and the girls went to the temple in the morning, came home we all went for a walk on the beach and stopped for ice cream on our way home. Nathan and family surprised us with a visit. They arrived home from Utah to find that their furnace didn't work and wouldn't be fixed until Monday. Rather than freeze at their house, they came to ours! For dinner, we made our traditional turkey pizzas. (These aren't pizzas made with turkey. Instead, we all make our own pizzas that are supposed to look like turkeys.) Shortly after that the vomiting started. The stomach flu hits us almost every year. We wonder if we can blame it on the card playing--it's so tempting to lick our fingers when we shuffle. Or maybe it's the pizza making where we're using our fingers to sprinkle cheese and lay out peppers... Sigh.

So Natalie, Miranda, and Sterling spent last night vomiting. They were supposed to leave  for Provo at six this morning. (Not Sterling, of course.) Larry ended up going with them since only Samantha was in any condition to drive. He's our hero. He'll fly home tomorrow morning. I was going to go--even packed my suitcase--but he doesn't mind driving in the snow and I hate it.

So, here we are, me and the Barnettes. Only Sterling is sick...so far. Nathan and family had intended to stay longer, but decided they'd rather be cold than sick. (I don't blame them.) And their landlord offered to bring them space heaters, so hopefully, they'll be okay (and not cold and sick, which is a possibility.) They're moving to Irvine in just a few days! Nathan is going to work for Google, which is super exciting, although a little sad for Jared and Jen because they'll be farther away from them, but closer to us!

We have so much to be grateful for...and we're grateful for all of you.

Halloween Costumes