Today is the kid's "Uncle" Brock's 27th birthday! They were very excited when I told them. Brock has been Jason and my good friend for many years and our kids have adopted him as their Uncle. Ethan especially has a very special place in his heart for Uncle Brock. :) 

Here is Ethan's birthday message to you, Brock!

"Happy Birthday Uncle Bwock! Did you know its your birthday today? I think you should buy a train set, because its so fun! And, we can watch Robots together... at my house. Its not scary. But, Rachel only likes Baby Einstein. I love you, Bwock! Come play at my park for your birthday! We will call your house phone and sing to you. This is from Ethan and Rachel, my sister."

Ethan's friend Jackson Kemper turns 3 years old today! Happy birthday to you, Jackson!! We hope you have a super fun day!

- The Arnolds

This week our church couldn't meet at our usual location at the high school due to the Cornfest going on. We had church out at the Griffith Ranch in Knightsen and a picnic lunch afterward. Choice moments:

Elvis is alive and preaching the gospel in Brentwood

We couldn't figure out what to do with the leftover cake, so Frank handled the situation

Last night we had our "End-of-the-Year" home fellowship at the McFarlands; yummy burrito dinner, fun with the wii and a delicious dessert Merari made for Keith's birthday. I took lots of pictures and mostly of everyone playing the bowling game on the wii, since they all looked so funny doing it.

Our home fellowship group opted to not take the summer off and we're planning to continue meeting through the summer and going through the book of Revelation... should be fun! Anyway, thanks to the McFarlands for the fun time and for opening your home up every week for us.

Love, J&S

We had a nice weekend, even though the kids were still sick.

Saturday morning Jason and my Dad went to the old house and finished cleaning out the garage, taking the cardboard and junk from the side yard, dumping it, and bringing over the final load of stuff to the new garage. We owe a big thank you to my Dad for all his help. He's giving us a TON of his time over the past couple of weeks and we're very grateful to him for his wanting to help us so much. He's not a fan of checking websites, so that was mostly just for you all to know and for my Mom to pass on to him though of course we've told him in person as well.

Saturday afternoon we did some odd jobs around the house. Jason ran a lot of errands and I stayed home with the kids, making sure they took nice, long naps. Saturday night we went to my parent's house for some yummy homemade soup Dad made. Ethan loved it and to my surprise, ate a whole bowl of it; veggies and all!

Today has been a nice day... the weather is warming up, but not too fast. It was warm, but very breezy out here. The kids are doing SO much better already, but Jason still stayed home with them and I got to go to church, since I had piano duty and a VBS meeting after church.

This afternoon our friends Peter and Julie Handel came over with Indian food for lunch! We had such a nice time with them. Julie and I were good friends growing up and it was great fun spending time with the two of them. We had fun talking tech talk, looking at Peter's iPhone (yes, I know, we're very lucky) and just catching up on life. Thanks for the yummy lunch, guys! Next time we'll head over your way.

Update (Jason): Julie posted some pix from the visit here.

Thanks to those of you who have been praying for our kids! I think we're on the mend and much quicker than the Doctor had thought. Apparently, this can last up to 3 weeks.

I'm hoping to get back to normal life this week. Our CBS Bible study is having its last meeting this Wednesday and then we break for the summer, so we're really hoping to make it to say good bye (for now) to our friends.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Enjoy the weather this week.

 

Today is our very good friend Lizzy Comb's 6th birthday! Lizzy is also one of Rachel's best buddies... one of the few little girls she allows to hold her. We love you, Liz! Have a super fun day!

-Mr&Mrs Arnold, Ethan and Rachel

We had a very nice New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Our friends Abe and Jess Green (from Sacramento) came down Sunday afternoon and spent the night here, to ring in the new year with us. We had such a blast with them and it was nice to be home, cozy in our house. We had lots of yummy food; I made our famous Mexican Chicken casserole for dinner, banana pudding squares for dessert and we watched movies, played games, watched lots of New Year's Day football and just had a blast hanging out together. My parents stopped by this morning to give Happy New wishes (and kiss the grandkids). This was our first time meeting their new baby boy, Chase. He's almost 2 months old and is a cutie pie for sure! He's got the cutest little button nose and he's such a sweet baby. In fact... I don't think I heard a peep out of him the whole two days he was here, aside from adorable baby noises. Seeing Chase reminded Jason and I how much Rachel has grown. She looked so big next to him! We all got to sleep in nice and late this morning - me especially, thanks to some Tylenol night time meds and my husband getting up and making everyone breakfast (thank you, Jase!) I can't believe its already January of 2007 -- feels like 2006 went by way too fast. I'm realizing that the more kids we have and busier life gets, the quicker it goes by. Another reminder for me to redeem the time! Happy New Year!!

We'd like to congratulate our friends Darrian and Christina Hale on the birth of their beautiful son...

Evan Riley
7 pounds, 15 ounces

You guys will love having two kids and one of each is loads of fun. We're very happy for you!

Blessings ~ J,S,E&R

Monday was a full day for us. We got up later than usual; Jason went into work a couple hours later and the kids and I took the morning slow. Mid-morning, I dropped Ethan off at my Mom's house and Rachel and I ventured to Watsonville to visit my friend Erin and her new daughter Gillian. We had a blast. It was so fun spending time with Erin and Gilly - we took a walk to a house that they're hoping to buy and then walked down to Starbucks and had coffee together, while the girls slept in their strollers. I stayed until around 7pm, so I wouldn't get stuck in traffic and then got home around 9:30pm.

 Ethan was here with Emily when I got home and it seems his snotty nose has turned into a full fledged cold. He's doing well, considering, but I'm hoping this one is shorter lived than his last cold. He goes in for his 2nd round of the flu shot at the end of this week, so hopefully that will help... who knows. I think we'll take the rest of this week slow and lay low until he's better. I'm really praying for a healthy Christmas and New Year this year. Last year was not one that's fun to remember.

Today has been a nice slow day; I had a morning piano lesson, one later this afternoon and then nothing for the rest of the night. Bible Study was cancelled until tomorrow night, so I think we'll have a quiet family night tonight. I do have some pictures from my visit to Erin's... I'll post them soon. -Stef

Today is our friend Jill Comb's 40th birthday!! We hope you have a great birthday and are glad to hear you enjoyed the cruise. Just remember... you might be 40 now, but I still think you look 35. I had to write your age on my calender this year, so I would remember.

Love you -J,S,E&R