We are missing our Rachel today!!!

We are happy that our brighteyed baby isn't sleeping on the job but is bringing light and joy to the people of Brazil. Happy 22nd Birthday Sweetie Pie.

CHRISTMAS WRAP

The traditional Christmas Eve party at 336 was attended, this year, by Mom, Dad, Jeffrey & Sarah with guests of the Larsens, Great Grandpa C. and Janice. All were happy for the Larsens acceptance of the invitation to potato cheese soup dinner, otherwise the nativity reenactment would have been a little unique with just Sarah and Jeff.
On Christmas eve night there wasn't a lot of jockeying for a spot on the couch.
Christmas Day was a fine, fine day at church in the morning (Mom was the rock accompanying all but one of the many musical numbers, including the Hallelujah Chorus... hallelujah it is over!)
On Christmas Day evening we made the traditional journey over-the-river-and-through-the-woods to great grandpas house in La Canada with all the other local aunts, uncles and cousins.
One of the highlights (after the soup bar) was the p.j. fashion show with all the teenage girls who got matching pajamas from great grandpa. - a cozy fleece.

Nine years!!! Really????

It is another beautiful day in California - very much like it was nine years ago. What a fantastic day. Jason and Stefanie - we love you and are so proud of the great things you are doing. Happy Anniversary.

So Happy It Happened!!

Happy Anniversary!

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A CHRISTMAS WISH FROM BRAZIL

In Rachel's Christmas package to 336 she included the following photos (and captions):

"Outside our apartment"

"The Lan (?) house where we send letters."

"Some condos in Candeas & Yorba in [the] Ward"

"A statue in Centro"

"A little ol' building"

"Some shops and Sister C. Silva"

"Park in Centro"

Sister Cornwall included a gift for each member of the family. The card explained that since she could not send us the wonderful fruit of Brasil, she thought she would send the next best thing --- a packet of, what appears to be, a fruit drink. It is a little larger, and thicker than a packet of Kool-aid. Each person got a different flavor, with some of the fruits pictured that are certainly foreign to U.S. (Good luck with the mixing directions in Portuguese.)

We had a wonderful conference call with all the family in the afternoon. We only had video for part of the call at 336 - so for the rest of the family this is a Skype screen snapshot of our dear Sister Cornwall

Christmas Eve!

Today was a very fun day. We started off with our Annual Christmas Eve Brunch...full of delicious goodness and great friends. Then we went to see Santa.....Bennett has been saying HO HO HO every time he sees a real or fake Santa...we wondered his reaction as we stood in line watching the boy before us kick, scream and cry. As soon as Robbie placed Bennett on Santa's lap his lip curled up and began to quiver as he reached back for us to get him. It was still pretty cute. Hey wasn't so happy to be there. Once we picked him up and held him in front of Santa he said Thank you for his coloring book and said HO HO HO. It was so cute!

So Grandma bought a picture....the only one that he wasn't reaching towards us or frowning in. 

He is such a sweet boy!

Unfortunately right before bed he had a little spill and has a little fat lip...which made for not so happy hanging of his stocking!

Now after his new Elmo PJ'S got put on he is all nestled and snug in his bed!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

EVERYTHING'S UP TO DATE IN KANSAS CITY

Mom and Dad gave themselves an early Christmas present flying to Kansas City Monday morning (thru Wednesday night) to be with Jason & Stefanie and fam .
It was exciting to see Paisley and Jarom - AND their new home in Grain Valley (which is just east of Independence, which is just east of Kansas City.)
Church members from the new Ward had moved everything from a storage unit to the garage on Saturday, so Mom & Dad were there to help move things to their new places.
Jason and Dad moved the big stuff - couches, beds, appliances, and lot's of boxes.
Mom and Stefanie unpacked and organized, etc....
Finally, with a verifiable home address, Paisley could register at her new school. Grandma got to go along to Sni-A-Bar Elementary, which has 5 kindergarten classes.

In the evenings, some people took a break. The kids loved to have Grandma read them stories...
... in the comfy living room....
... Did you hear? It is comfy!
In the morning Grandma and Grandpa looked out the guest bedroom (a.k.a as Paisley's room) window at the lovely scene. Sometimes there were flocks of geese or ducks and a few herons passing by.
Grandma got lots of time to hang out with Miss Paisley - as well as help unpack and help Grandpa install things.
Wednesday morning was a pretty day to go into the back yard and check things out.
The new dishwasher arrived Wednesday morning, so Grandpa installed it.
Grandma and Grandpa are so excited for the Jas Cornwall's new house and that their (nearly year long) sojourn with Jason commuting on weekends between central Kansas and Independence is over and has landed them in such a lovely, lovely place.

Click image to enjoy fresh Brazilian Corn

She Said YES!!!

Reesa and I would like to announce that we are engaged to be wed!

We are both very excited about this decision. I'm sure you'd like to know how it occurred so we will forthwith provide the story (with visual aids).

The events described occurred on Saturday, December 3, 2011:

With Reesa being home for the fall semester, we decided it would be wise for her make a visit to Provo in order to acquire housing and a job. Before she came, I told her I was preparing a "To Do" list for her visit. The list contained activities such as visiting the lights on Temple Square, going caroling, watching a few Christmas flicks, etc.. Another item was to go visit/check on our swing:

Reesa and I built a swing over the summer along the Provo River. It was on our summer 'To Do" list. (We like to make lists of things to do together).

We were both very excited about all the fun Christmas activities that we could do together. Reesa flew in the day before on Friday. Saturday was full of many errands, most of which were acquiring supplies for my art lessons. We had discussed the night before our tentative plans for the day. Amongst all the errands I needed to run, I brought up that I had a neat place for us to go to dinner. I also mentioned that "if we had time" we should go check on our swing to see if it was still there. We were hoping it hadn't broke or been cut down or something. So after we ran all the errands, we decided to go check on the swing. It was just getting dark as we were on our way. As we got out of the car upon arrival, we realized how FREEZING it was. We trudged on, clinging to each other for warmth. (It's a few minutes walk to the swing from the car). As we approached the location of the swing we noticed that there were some lights around the swing and that there was music playing. Reesa stopped, not sure if we were interrupting someone else's evening. I encouraged us on. The scene looked like this:

You can see the cold river, swing and a few lights. There was also something on the swing:

Flowers, made by the one and only Sarah Cornwall who just completed a Floral Arrangement class at BYU. They were beautiful. (Thanks Sarah). Reesa spotted these, picked them up and gave them a good sniff. Since music was playing (and since it was cold) we began to dance. After dancing a bit, I invited Reesa to test out our 'ol swing. Still working just fine. (I had full confidence). Reesa slowed down. I stood in front of her to stop her. Then I kneeled down

in the mud. I told Reesa that I loved her along with other heartfelt sentiments. I pulled a little box out of my sock (advice from my brother-in-law Dallin so that the girl doesn't notice a ring box shape in clothing). I then asked Reesa Tirrell to marry me. She said "YES, Of Course!" I slipped the ring on her finger and it fit! We embraced, smooched, and danced some more/kept each other warm. It was SO cold, but we still hugged and danced for a while longer. Finally we headed back to the car. It was rather dark when I asked and put the ring on Reesa's finger so she was VERY anxious to look at the ring via the interior car lights.

From there, we headed up Provo Canyon to Sundance for dinner. On the way we called both our folks to give the official news. We couldn't help but laugh and smile as we drove up the canyon. It was rather romantic up there.

We ate at the Foundry Grill. It was very delicious. They put us in a cozy spot right in front of the fireplace. It was very fitting for the occasion. We were hoping to see Robert Redford, but no luck.

This is the ring that I personally designed for Reesa. I wanted the ring to be a complete surprise. So without any ring shopping or assistance from Reesa, I had to rely on my knowledge of her and on my artistic skills to design a ring that she would love. I did a lot of research online looking at various styles. Based on the ones I liked, I did some drawings for a design of the ring. Having never been in a ring shop yet, I took my drawings into a custom ring design shop hoping I had enough knowledge and information to communicate what I wanted. They were very friendly and accommodating. I showed them my drawings and they helped me to specify the dimensions and shape. They took my drawing and made a wax model to be able to handle and look at roughly what it would look like. I chose a stone and gave them the go ahead for fabrication. When I went to pick it up, the ring was just as I had designed it. It was a very fitting operation for a picky, picky artist. Here are Reesa's words concerning the ring: "It's SOO pretty! I love it!" Another tricky part was the size. I did trace one of her rings while I was at her home in Washington, but that isn't always a reliable source. Fortunately, the folks at the ring shop are very knowledgeable and help me choose a size. We went bigger knowing that it's better to be big and loose than to not go on at all. The size ended up being a quarter of a size too big from her actual size (a size that needs to be adjusted anyways).

So everything worked out really well. We are still not sure on an official date, but we'll let you know as soon as we do. It will probably be in early June after I am done with my first year of teaching.

A special thanks to Sarah Cornwall, Sarah Kron, Jared Whipple, and Spencer Twelmeyer for their assistance with the swing "set." You guys are diamo.....I mean gems. Thanks.

Reesa Re-Posted this on her blog and added this to the end:

*From Reesa: I had no idea Jeff would propose during this trip. We hadn't gone ring shopping, so he got me good with this one. Which is exactly how I wanted it to be. I love surprises and this is by far the best one yet/ever. For context, Jeff is always scheming and planning lovely surprises for the two of us...finding a bit of fantasy in a real world. I was looking forward to the special dinner plans Jeff had planned for that evening and didn't even think twice that the trip to the swing was part of a more elaborate plan. He played it so cool the entire day that I had no reason to be suspicious. I was just looking forward to finding out if our swing was still there or not. Once we go there, I was so excited to see that our swing was still intact (which indeed it was as Jeff well knew beforehand). It's true that I thought we might be interrupting someone else's romantic evening but quickly realized that Jeff was responsible for the setting. Of course it was him. After he invited me to try out the swing I couldn't stop thinking about how surreal the evening felt. Being on our home-made swing over the river looking up at the moon felt more like a dream than reality. After a few minutes of swinging I started to slow down and Jeff was right there to stop me. It took a moment to realize what was happening after he got down on one knee. It was all very surreal and after a few sweet moments Jeff asked if I would marry him and of course I said "Yes!". It felt like a dream and the feeling has yet to fade. Despite the cold I didn't feel ready to leave the scene of the proposal for quite some time; I was waiting for the realization of what had just transpired to set in. Never happened. The rest of the evening was spent in euphoria.

I Heard the Bells on Temple Hill

The wonderful youth of the Arcadia Stake once again were invited to perform at the L.A. Temple Visitor's Center as part of the Center's Christmas concert series. There were beautiful lights and beautiful musical numbers.

Click image to enjoy fresh Brazilian Corn