Merry 2010 Christmas!

Last night, we did our old Sessions tradition of reading or the Christmas Nativity scriptures intermixed with many of the Christmas hymns.  I love reading this passage as well as singing "Real" Christmas songs.  It uplifts the soul and focuses us on the true spirit of Christmas.

I have really enjoyed the simplicity of Christmas since we've decided to just purchase one family gift.  It has helped us become more united as a family as we focus on what we believe to be most important (other than the birth of Christ) - time with family and building fond memories.  It's amazing how important this becomes when it's near impossible to get everyone together and you see time slipping away.  This is our last Christmas with Paul for at least the next 3 years (next year with his mom and the following two on a mission).

So after the Santa gifts, Anika came out all cheery knowing that there were still gifts to be had under the tree.  Kelly and I were busy making our traditional Christmas Crepes.  Kelly makes the crepes and the filling, while I made the mixed berry compote, sliced bananas, brought out the powdered sugar and canned whipped cream.  We were all stuffed (and I'm still not hungry)...but it was mmmm delish! 

After we tortured the kids by making them wait until dishes were done (and yes, the actually volunteered their services to move us along quicker), we got back to the gifts under the tree.  Anika with a grin from ear to ear.  We had a lot of fun guessing Gma Namba's gifts before we unwrapped them.  The dead give away was the David Archaleta CD. hehehe.  We also loved the bags of little gifts from Gma and Gpa Sakamoto.  The little pocket knives were dug out to help with the ribbons, bows and taped boxes.  Paul was advising Kelly as to what to order at the Olive Garden and Anika's head has been blinking non stop with that sucker in her mouth.  Kelly gave me 2 flash drives, a tea kettle for tea and hot cocoa and, a GPS - now I won't get lost (yes, the man knows me well)!  I gave Kelly two new pairs of work slacks, 4 new work shirts and, a sweater ( it's about time.  His were literally rotting off his body).  Paul got a new cell phone from us because we can never get a hold of him.  His first comment was, "Wow! Cool!  Now I can talk to all the girls I want to!)  Sooooo... for the grand finale, the family gift this year (drum roll)...... a new 40" flat screen LCD TV.  We figured it was time.  The one TV we use for games, movies, etc., randomly changes channels while you're watching something.  Not to good (especially when you're at the best part of the movie.  But it was really funny that when it first started to do that while Anika and Rhett were watching movies, Anika would blame Rhett thinking that he was purposely trying to annoy her by changing the channel. lol) 

Kelly and I devised a plan for our new entertainment cabinet.  We're just going to cut our old one down and make it so the TV will rest on top of it.  This way we will not loose cabinet space and it's FREEEEEEE!  That's always music to our ears.  Let's try that again...FREEEEEE!

Shane gave us a new Kinect for the Xbox.  So we've been grooving away to Dance Central and playin it up on Sports Central.  It's quite the workout and we're having a lot of fun laughing at each other's cool moves.

We called Ty for our to minute Christmas call.  It was nice to have us all on the line.  He sounds like he's doing okay considering that he's not around family for the holidays.  He commented on how he loves the Cal bears beanie we sent him and he also received a tie from a family he's grown close to in his ward.  I think he was rather floored by their thoughtfulness.  We can't wait to see him in a few weeks.

We hope all of you guys have a wonderful Christmas filled gratitude for our Savior.  Merry Christmas!

Naughty : (

Things were very rocky last night for Anika.  Hence, she was not expecting a visit from Santa.  Sad, sad day.  So at 9am we finally got up and opened our Santa stuff.  Because Anika refused to get up, I gave her her stocking in her room.  It was sparsly filled with some fruit and a note from Santa that simply stated that he was bound by the "naughty or nice" clause in his contract.  But that there were many people who love her and she could tell by the gifts they gave her under the tree.  Although Anika did not join us for the Santa festivities (she didn't miss much Santa just gives goodies - no toys and stuff).  I believe that this one jester of Santa not coming to Anika was harder on me. I spent most of my evening in tears as I put together every one's stockings.  I was sad that I couldn't give Anika what I'd bought for her and wanted her to have.  It doesn't pay to be naughty for the giver or the receiver.

Christmas Eve

Since Kelly has plenty of time to find incredible deals around SF, he also scored us tickets to a new chocolate factory in SF pier 17 called TCHO.

So we hiked up to Coit Tower (with Anika whining and pouting the entire way).  It was a clear perfect day we barely even needed out jackets.  We also headed off to Pier 39 to eat our picnic lunch and

enjoy the festivities. 

A Christmas Carol

Since Kelly has two weeks off (for furloughs), he's been keeping us on our toes by coming up with great things to do.  Wednesday he purchased tickets for all of us to see "A Christmas Carol" at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco ( buy one get one free!).  It was incredible and the kids loved it!  This was something we'd love to make a Sessions' tradition.  Since we were only a block away from Union Square, we spent the rest of the evening window shopping and enjoying the holiday atmosphere. 

When Paul finally flew in (he has several flight delays including mechanical issues) we headed over to the airport.  YAY!  He wasted no time in getting together with friends so we picked up his friend Ben at 11:30pm.  Paul has really missed his friends.

Engagement Off

Apparently, Michael and Diana have called off their engagement.  Even though Kelly and I are sad about this, we recognize the blessings that come from making difficult decisions before you dig yourself in a hole you can't get out of. 

Michael sounded like he was heartbroken. However, we could detect some excitement in his voice as we discussed the prospect of going up to BYU-I with Cory as a "free man". 

Trampoline!

 Earlier this week, my friend from work (Jody) asked me if we'd like their trampoline.  I thought, "Sure!  Anika has just gotten off Dr's orders for chipping her elbow doing a back handspring!  Let's see if we can do more damage!" 

So Saturday morning, Jody and her husband Brad, came over and we set up the tramp.  It's 15'x15' square!

Bummer is that Anika was given a choice earlier in the week and she chose to be on house arrest for a week.  I even warned her that the "Circus" may come and set up in our backyard and she would not be able to take part in it.  So as you can see, she got to watch all the festivities from inside, while I displayed my best areal splits, kung foo karate chops and, my "Oh what a feelin' Toyota jumps! 

Kelly claims that this is what I will be doing with my spare time when no one is looking!  I'm thinkin', "As long as we have this 70 degree California weather, everyone can look!" 

Hey lookie here!... Is Emily still jumpin?... Come on over, the jumpin's fine!

Mom vs. Anika

Lately I've had a lot of issues with Anika taking a shower. 

Evening Senario

Mom: "Anika are you going to take a shower tonight?"

Anika: "No, I told I'm going to take one in the morning."

Morning Senario

Mom: "Anika it's time to get up and get in the shower."

Anika: "I'm going to take one tonight."

Then Anika not only refuses to get up, she refuses to get dressed, eat breakfast,

make her lunch and, brush her teeth.  Every morning we fight.

Lately, as we run through the morning senario, I've been giving Anika choice

Mom: "You can choose either get up and get in the shower within the next 5 minutes

 or you can choose to make mom mad and pay the consequenses."

5 minutes later...Anika still in bed.

Mom is fuming...

Mom goes to the kitchen gets a glass of water and the shampoo,

dumps the water on her sleeping child and,

begins to shampoo Anika's head."

Anika is now irate!  She's screaming, fuming and, claiming that I now need to clean

up after my mess.

Mom "I'm sorry, cleaning up is part of the consequences you chose."

Anika has been getting up to take showers ever since.

I love choices!

We're Back Home!!!

Anika at Tidepools

Kelly and Emily hiking up from tidepools

At the tidepools

Disneyland

Dean, Brent, Garold and Kelly

Sessions Family Picture at Manhattan Beach



Kelly and Emily on the Beach

The Sessions.  Dean, Brent, Kelly, Shelly, Garold and Pauline

We spent the week of Thankgiving in Manhattan Beach, CA with Kelly's parents and family.  During the day we could be running around Disneyland (and staying at my aunt JoDell's house for the night) until midnight, taking long walks along the strand, hiking around tidepools (Kelly actually got in and snorkeled - he had a great time), feast away for Thanksgiving, we took family pictures, toured around the LA temple and, walked around Santa Barbara pier and Promenade.  I'm sure we did more, but our days were so jam packed with stuff, I can't hardly remember it all!  Let's just say, the Sessions know how to vacation.





Letter's from Ty

I thought you'd all like to read a part of Sunday's letter from Ty.  We are fortunate to be able to get letters from him almost every day.  Last week I had a parent/teacher conference for him and he's been doing really well.  When we last saw Ty (the 2nd week of October), he was trying to finish up his sophomore year.  He's now officially into his Jr year and the teachers see him finishing up the first semester of his Jr year by January.  So he should be caught up with school pretty soon.  Go Ty!!!

                                                                           *   *   *

November 14, 2010

How have things been? Wanna hear something awesome? I have done a whole semesters worth of english/grammar stuff in a week. I’d a quarter’s stuff in 1 day and I’m working on the last half of a quarter right now. That’s awesome and really fast. I just wish that my math and history could be that fast.

I’ve been thinking so much about missions lately. I want to go to so many places. I think that that coolest thing would be some foreign (mainly European) city. I don’t want to name any in case I jinx it. Crap I just thought of one that would be really cool. Knock on wood for me. For some reason in my mind going on a mission is what kicks everything else off. Once I do that and return life truly begins. I can’t wait for that but at the same time I’m terrified for that to happen. I need to get my stuff straight first. I don’t read or pray daily. I haven’t made that a regular habit yet and it’s something that I really need to start doing. Well I’m going to make a greater effort now to do that.

Okay. I need to go right now. Thanks for reading this guys. Love you all

Ty

Anika

 

 

Anika

Anika...Anika...Anika...Where do we even start with her.  From the very second we heard her scream (when she can into this world), we knew we were in trouble.  Our peaceful, quite, calm life was over and drama reared it's ugly head.

I am SO AWESOME!!!!!! I am like CHEESYMCKFIZZ!!!!!!!! (See what did I tell ya)

Anika is 11 years old and in the 5th grade at Highland's Elementary.  This is her last year in Elementary and I'm not sure she'll even make in into middle school.  Keeping up with Anika is a challenge, but somehow we've found gynmastics.  Kinda interesting, I signed up for a week of gymnastics as a summer camp.  The first day her instructer's called in the head coach and they wanted her in their program.  So for the past few years, gymnastics has been a driving force in Anika's life(9 hours a week).  Just this past year, she's been competing as a level 4 gymnist.  Although she has yet to qualify for the all-arounds, she has consistantly medaled in vault and beam.  She says that vaul is her favorite and she sports around in an "ivault" tee shirt.  Just over a week ago Anika chipped a piece of her elbow while doing a round off back handspring.  Not good.  It has benched her for the past week (with practices centered around the sports conditioning coach - Jay.)  We head off to the Orthopedic doc tomorrow.  We both pray that they won't cast it.  It don't think they will, she has good range of motion.

We love Anika and all the drama she adds to our lives.  Just the other day while I was volunteering at the school book fair, a lady approached me when she found out I was "Anika's mom." She said, " I love Anika!  She has the gift of making others happy - no matter who they are."    That's my Anika.



Rhett

Rhett just turned 14 and is currently in the 8th grade at Pine Hollow Middle School.  This is his last year of middle school and he can't hardly wait to attend high school next year. 

He's into all things screens, but is way pumped to start his weight lifting class this week.  He'll be pumping iron 3 times a week and he can't wait to show off his buffness to all the girls.

As we drove home after church, Anika mentioned that Rhett had been talking to a girl friend online. 
Rhett said, "It's not a girl friend." 
Anika "It is a girl and she is your friend." 
Rhett: "Having a girl friend means that you take her out and I can't do that until I'm 16." 
Anika, "But you date her". 
Rhett, "I haven't taken any girls out." 
Anika, "You go online and talk to her - it's online dating!" 
Kelly, "Ooh Rhett...online dating...I guess you've been inviting her

to go with you into a chat room!" Even Rhett laughed at that one! 

Life is good for Rhett.  He can find good paying work when ever

he wants it and gets paid about as much as Michael and Cory.  He took on the challenge after his Deacon's Quorum advisor told him that he could earn his own money and pay for his mission.  Rhett's pretty good and budgeting his money.  I've been surprised.

Rhett turns 14 !!!

Rhett's 14th Birthday !  His birthday dinner consisted of steak, garlic mashed potatoes and, peas and carrots (much to Anika's dismay, there was no salad to be seen).  Rhett wanted a vanilla cake and ice cream - so I made some dulce de leche to poor on top with whipped cream.  Yum!  Rhett was very excited to hear from family and for presents.  He got an xbox 360 from Shane, Money from me and Kelly and, Anika gave him an internet card to play on line.  Funny, Paul called just as Rhett opened his presents - I think he's just as excited as Rhett.  Soon they'll be playing on line together - like they were never apart! 

Halloween 2010

This is part of a letter Kelly wrote to Ty the on Sunday.  "We went to the Ward Halloween Party last night.  It was a lot of fun to get dressed up.  Mom and I went to the Hospice on Clayton Road looking for costumes and didn't see anything, so then we went to Goodwill also on Clayton Road in downtown Concord.  We looked there forever, and finally came away empty handed.  So as I was pulling the car out of the back parking lot, I saw another store that said it was a thrift shop, so we popped in there and absolutely hit the JACKPOT!  Mom found an old blue-sequined 80's dress with a black silky skirt attached.  She said it was truly hideous and perfect for her outfit, so we asked how much it was and the guy says $2.00!  So then we start looking for something for me, and Mom walks out with this totally pimped mustard-yellow double-breasted suit that was in pristine condition and looking like it had just come back from the dry cleaners.  Amazingly, it fit absolutely perfect, even better than most of my tailored suits, so we asked the guy how much and he says, $4.00!  So, we had our costumes.  I added a white turtle-neck, some gold bling around my neck, a cool hat, some white sunglasses, a purple feather boa and a purple cane, and I was completely styling!  You have to see it to believe it.  Anyway, we had a lot of fun with it.  The funny thing was that I would see guys dressed like this all the time in downtown Oakland when I used to work there.  Rhett dressed up like Men in Black and Anika like a baby and of course they both came home with waaay tooooo much candy!"

Wish I had pictures of Anika and Rhett...Their too cool for picture.

Ty

This is Ty.  He's been attending White River Academy in Delta, Utah since June 2009.  Eventhough Ty had great friends and a supportive family, he had a difficult time dealing with the challenges of having to deal with the divorce of me and Shane and having to adjust to his new home in CA.  The most difficult decision I have ever made, was to send Ty to a school where he could learn, grow and be happy because we couldn't help him.  It's been over a year since Ty has lived with us and we've seen a complete change in Ty.  I can't believe he's found happiness in a place with so much chaos.  He's working really hard to get caught up in school and is nearing the end of his stay at WRA.  Hmmm. I'll have to show you the original picture they took of Ty when he first arrived there.  It's shocking to see the difference of what Ty looked like back then and compare it to what we know him to be now.

It creeps me out to think that this was the Ty I knew.  It's amazing to see how happy he is now and how he can't wait to come home.  Paul put it best when he came out for our last parent weekend, "It's the same Ty - just happier."  

How blessed we were to have Paul come out with us this last parent weekend.  They have not seen each other since the night before we had Ty taken to Delta.  Kelly surprised Ty by pointing to a new kid standing behind him.  It was (as Ty put it) total disbelief.  Ty nearly took out the chair he was sitting in to get to Paul.  The two immediately embrassed.  It was a sight to see.  The two never had a loss for words and they both realized that their relationship was so much better than it was when Ty left.  After the first day of seeing Ty, Paul couldn't stop talking what their future could hold.  They both want to put in mission papers asap so they can come home and be roommates in college together.  Both are talking about becoming doctors - but who knows...they're both excited and are planning for the future.

Paul

This is my favorite picture of Paul.  He's currently 17 and is also with his mom.  It has been really hard having him so far away, but it has only made our monthly visits with him more sweet.  We have been fortunate that he and Ty have become best friends since our marriage.  The heartbreaking thing has been the time apart for the two of them (more on that later).  But they had an incredible reunion two weeks ago, when we went to see Ty. 

Cory

This is Cory.  He is 21 years old and just returned home from his mission last April.  Not only are he and Michael working together, they are both waiting for school to start up in January at BYU-I.  I can't wait for him to get up there and formulate how to ask a girl on a date.  Cory has yet to go out on a first date...but I have full faith in him.

Michael

This is Michael.  Last April he celebrated his 25th Birthday.  Can you believe it!  He's currently living with his mom in Orange County, CA where he and Cory work out of their home doing some kind of online techinical support.  A few weeks ago, Michael proposed to his girlfriend Diana.  They plan to get married in August 2011.  We are all thrilled to add her to the Bunch. Since I'm certain you will all want to see her and her ring, I'll post those as well. 

Here's the story...

This is me and Kelly.  We met over 5 years ago over the Internet.  I had my crazy rules for Internet dating like - 1. I never made first contact with anyone.  2. If you initiate contact with "You're Hot!" or something stupid like, "How You Doin'?"  then you're automatically kicked to the curb.  and 3. If for any reason I don't like you - you're gone.  Kelly defied the odds by plucking me from the bottom of his compatibility list.  I'm not kidding...I tried to find myself from his profile and I was almost dead last.  I'm still wondering if we had anything in common or if what the criteria for compatibility is!  Somehow that night, after messaging for hours, he conned me into giving him my phone number.  And that's the story.