Waiting for Christmas.............

The countdown blocks say only
one more day....

The house is decorated and the presents are
wrapped.....

The traditional pumpkin pie and
pecan carmels are ready....

and the gumbo is cooking on the stove....

The nativity is out in its usual spot....

And the newest holiday decoration is
also ready.......

(We just couldn't pass up this cute
nativity from our Alaskan trip this year)

Wayne is in his usual holiday spot....
waiting on Christmas.....

And do kids ever change?
This one just couldn't wait any longer!!!
(Yes, he is really asleep)

Hope your waiting is filled with hope and anticipation
this holiday season!!!!

Merry Christmas and happiest of New Years!!!
Love the Sorensen Clan!!!

I Love to See the Temple....

One of the men in our Branch in Jennings
loves to build small replicas of buildings
in Thailand, since that is where he is from.
He likes to share his unique culture in the form
of buildings and other Asian art forms.
It is very cool.

So for our Primary Sacrament Program
we asked him if he could build a replica
of the Houston Temple.

We have all been very impressed with his abilities
and especially since he built this from
just a few pictures.

Our Primary children loved it too.

We had a great program with lots of
talent from the cute children
in our little branch.

Great job kids!!!!

Spooky!!!

I love Halloween especially when our
son and daughter in law are so into Halloween!!
This year Chris decided to build some stilts to go
with his scary Grinth costume that he (I helped a bit) made
for Halloween last year.
If you don't know who Grinth is, then you will have to play
the computer game, Guild Wars, to find out.

We had fun spending the evening handing out candy with
Jen and her parents, while Chris impressed the
neighborhood children with his scary costume.

Do you just love the picture!!
I even captured the full moon in the background!!

And you just gotta love his eyes!!!

I loved this picture too because it looked like he
was about to eat Jen!!
But she doesn't look too scared!!!

Great job Chris!!!
We will be waiting for you to outdo
yourself again next year!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Pictures......21!!!!

It has been awhile since Matthew has sent pictures
so it is always fun to get some!!!
These are the Elders in his district.
(I love sepia pictures)

And this is one of the families that has
been recently baptized.

Matthew is turning 21 in November!!!
We are excited and so we are asking as
many of you who would like to send him a
birthday card!!! He will love it!!!
If you send it during this next week
he will receive it by his birthday on the 22nd.

Here is his address:
Elder Matthew Sorensen
Mexico Culiacan Mission
Rio Choix 888
Colonia Rosales
Culiacan, Sinaloa 80230
MEXICO

This isn't pouch mail so it will cost 79 cents.
A date hasn't been set yet but Matthew comes home
in January!!!!
It is getting close and we are excited!!!!

Funny Story...

This last Sunday, I was teaching our little Primary children
in our little Jennings ward the Primary songs
to get them ready for their
Sacrament Meeting Presentation.

I brought Lincoln Logs so they could build
a house (or a happy family) with them as we sang the songs.
I wanted to start out with "How Firm a Foundation"
because we were putting down
the foundation of the house!!!
But one of the little boys
(we had a total of 4 children) insisted
on singing "Bob the Builder"!!!

At first it didn't occur to me
what he meant but as soon as we
moved on to the second song he
became very happy!!!



We have now renamed "My Eternal Family"
to "Bob the Builder"!!!

He was so funny and cute that it totally
made my whole day!!!

"Diamonds are a girls best friend".....

....but first we have to find them!!!

This last weekend we went to the Crater of Diamonds
State Park in Arkansas with our
friends the Smiths, Neelys and Knowles.
It is a fun place where you can dig around in the dirt
and keep any diamonds that you find!!!
(Really!!!)
The largest diamond that was found in the park
was a 40 karat diamond found back in 1924!!!

We were told there was still plenty of diamonds
left to find and we were all convinced that we were
going to find some....
so we proceeded to dig.....
(Yes, the Smiths are in the background)

We were told that some of the biggest diamonds
had been found just laying on the top of the soil...
So Wayne proceeded to walk all around the park
looking for a little sparkle!!!

I got tired of walking around so I picked a spot
and dug up all the dirt around me.
But all I found was this cool green rock
which turned out to be......

.....a cool green rock!!!!
Actually they said it was Jasper!!!

We thought Michele might have found a diamond
when we saw her sparkly crystal....

...but it was a sparkly quartz!!!

Some of us like the Knowles decided to use the
sloushing method.
(I don't think that is the exact term)
They washed their rocks first to get all of the mud off
and then sloushed them around some more
and then looked for anything that sparkled....

...they just got dirty....
......but they looked good doing it!!!

The "Diamond Man," which we decided to call him,
found a diamond while we were watching him.
We could tell that he had been diamond hunting for awhile,
maybe because of the magnified glasses on the top of his head,
but mostly because he actually
FOUND ONE!!!

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at the quaint
little town of Washington, Arkansas which had been
the capitol of the confederate United States for a period of time.
We wished we could have looked around a bit more
this booming town with a population of 148,
but they were just closing as we arrived.

But we did go inside the court house which reminded
us of the court room in the movie,
"To kill a Mockingbird."
There was no balcony but it was a very
beautiful building with wood floors and ceilings!!!

We had a great time!!!

Trip to Washington

I just arrived home from my week long trip
to see my Dad, my sister Mary Jane and
her husband Rob.
(and I don't want to leave out Meathead, their cute
black and white kitty.)

Notice Dad's flower garden behind us...
the Dalias are especially beautiful!!!

Mary Jane took the week off from work
and the first day I was there we went
to Mt. Rainier. It was a perfect day with
not a cloud in the sky. We drove as far up the
mountain as we could get by car. Mary thought
we would be able to see snow on the ground but
it had melted away from the lodge where we ate
our picnic lunch.

We made a couple of stops along the way...

One at the top of this waterfall, which was very
cool. Mary and I hiked down to the base of the
waterfall...

...and then looked back up to see my Dad
waving his arms at us from the bridge.
(He is next to the man in the white shirt.)

At the lodge we found a chair build to
fit a King so we had Dad sit awhile
while we shopped in the gift shop.

To bad we forgot to bring his crown!!!

I think the weather was just made for us
because it was such a beautiful day.

The rest of the week Mary and I played.
We went to the state fair and ate traditional
Washington State fair scones with raspberry jam,
checked out the quilt show and sewing displays,
(for a couple of hours!!!)
checked out the animals,
(because dad was going to ask)
(and because it didn't feel like a fair if we didn't at least see a cow!!!)
and the flower and pottery exhibits.

We also went to as many fabric stores
as we could get away with and hauled home
an abundance of fabric!!!

The highlight of the trip was to see Eric,
my nephew and his wife, Stacy and their
adorable children, Alex and Rory...

...And my other Nephew, Brian and his wife,
Crystal and their cutie pie daughters
Jessy and Tessa.
(sorry Jessy is missing from the picture along
with Daniel who wasn't able to come)

We had a really great time and I
can't wait to go back!!!
(but I better start sewing so I can feel OK about
purchasing more fabric!!!)

Love you guys!!!

Harry Potter!!!

Yes, I am a Harry Potter fanatic!!!
So I talked Chris and Jen into going to the
midnight showing of "The Half Blood Prince"!!!
Chris even dressed up as Harry and looked really great!!!
But there was only one other person who dressed up
and she wanted a picture of the two of them together.
She made a really impressive Severus Snape.

My camera started to go fuzzy
(I think because the battery was low)
so the picture of Jen and Chris and I didn't turn out
but the movie was terrific!!!
I will probably go again with Wayne later this week!!
(did I say I am a fanatic!!)

"Rav 4 Us"

Woo Hoo!!!
We finally traded in our little white '99 Malibu
for a Toyota Rav4. It is so cool to drive and I love the color and
it looks so great in our garage!!!

In case you are wondering if we are copying Chris and
Jen's vehicle, I am pretty sure we
liked the Rav4s before they bought theirs.
But who cares, we both love our cars!!!

A Matthew Moment...

Elder Sorensen is in Culiacan, Mexico
where he is serving his mission and loving every
minute of it.
(Well, at least most minutes!!)

Here are some of the highlights from
month 17...

Knocking the big dog's doors....
(The servant asked him to leave)

Giving service by helping an investigator with
their laundry...

Getting bit by a child....

Shopping at the neighborhood mall...

All in a days work in the life of a missionary!!!!
Keep smiling Matthew!!! You are doing a great job!!!
Love Ya!!!

North to Alaska!!!

We just returned from a fabulous, two week trip to Alaska!!
Here are some of the highlights of our trip!!

We were accompanied by our friends the Smiths, the Neelys and the Knowles.
(Do we look cold?)

The cruise was fantastic!!
We saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way.

We stopped at three ports on the way to Anchorage;
Ketchican, Juneau, and Skagway.
Here is Wayne during one of our excursions. He is very intently
panning for gold!! He found a little but our guide thought
I had been the lucky one to have found the most!!!

On a bus ride up to the summit of one of the
mountains we saw a bear alongside the road!!
This was taken from the window of the bus.
The driver wouldn't let us get out to get a better shot!!
Amagine that!!

We also saw many glaciers while on board the ship.

This one is named Margerie and it is huge!!!
It is 1 mile across and 21 miles long!!!
We were able to stay and watch it for about an hour
while it popped, cracked and fell into the ocean!!!
It was amazing!!! I loved the icy blue color of the ice.

After we landed in Anchorage we took the train to the
Denalli State park where we spent the night
and came back the next day.

It was a beautiful train!! We rode in the top and ate
lunch and dinner in the dining car below!!
So cool!!

While in Denalli we visited the Husky Homestead where
Jeff King trains his dogs for the Iditarod dog sled race.
He has won the race four times. We got to
hold a couple of his 17 puppies!!!

And of course we saw wildlife along the way!!!

Caribou!!

Moose!!!

Musk ox!!!

We also saw whales but only from a distance.

Words can not express how beautiful and magnificent
this trip was. We had tons of fun!!!