Christmas, 2009

This Christmas, we were so happy to have Nick, Alia & Aiden spend a week in SLC; seeing Aiden and Ansley together was so fun. Karim, Heather & Ansley were able to be with us quite a bit, and my mom is now living with us; she moved to SLC from AZ in May, 2009. We enjoyed spending time with my sister Rhoda & her family as well as Josh & Carolyn. We had a wonderful time together!

July--2009

Well, finally updating again. This time we have pictures of our latest addition to the family, Aiden Nicholas Gonzales. Aiden was born July 15th at 2:51 p.m., weighing in at 7 lb 12 oz.

I am spending 6 weeks here in Houston; I arrived on the 15th, just a few hours after Aiden was born. I was able to spend time with them all in the hospital and now am enjoying helping out around the house and helping with Aiden when his needs are not food related! He is a sweet little baby, a good eater and a better sleeper during the day than at night. Hopefully that will change before too long!

December happenings

I have been enjoying the time I spend with Ansley. She enjoys looking out the window and going for walks. I took this picture today and thought it was very cute.

November update

We had a great Thanksgiving in Houston, TX with Nick & Alia. Karim, Heather, Ansley, Bud and I all flew down and my mom flew in from Phoenix. Andrea drove down from Stephenville with her cute little boys, and it was great to see them. We also enjoyed seeing Nick's family--his parents, Bobby & Allison, Chris, Kim & Evan. The babies were all so cute. More pictures can be found in my picasa web albums (link on the right)

October happenings

After returning from Houston on September 30th, Bud began investigating how we could get our grand piano moved to TX, as Alia now had room for it and could really use it with her students (Nick's students too)... It would cost quite a bit to have professionals move it, and the timeline was uncertain (it could take several months to get it there). So, we decided to take it down ourselves (have professionals help load & unload it), but we would drive it down. We didn't tell Nick & Alia what we were planning to do, so it was a big surprise on Saturday morning, October 18th when a Penske moving truck pulled into the driveway and Alia got a call (from me) that their piano had arrived. We had a fun time unloading everything and spending another week there (we had also packed up Alia's books, bookshelf, desk, etc); Bud found many home-improvement projects to keep him busy, so the week went fast. A few pictures are posted on my picasa web album.

September happenings

Towards the end of September (the 20th to be exact), we headed out on a little trip to take my mom home to Surprise, AZ. To get there, we headed west, through the West desert of Utah, through southern Nevada, and into California to visit my Aunt Ester (my mom's youngest sister) who lives there. We had a great visit with Ester, went to church with her on Sunday, and just had a great time hanging out & visiting. Bud also was able to visit his sister Nabila which was great for them to catch up with each other!
From there, we headed to Phoenix, and after a good day of driving (12 hours or so), made it to Surprise, AZ. Mom was happy to be home again, although knew that she was going to miss seeing the kids, grand-kids & great-grandchild who live in SLC.
From Phoenix, we flew to Houston to spend a few days with Nick & Alia. They had just bought a house, moved in over Labor day, and then "hunkered down" as they say in TX, for Hurricane Ike. They were without electricity for almost two weeks, but miraculously their power was restored the very day we flew in to visit them!! We were all very happy about that. We did get to see some of the destruction from Hurricane Ike, but didn't see the worst of it. Almost everyone had branches down, fences down and debris to clean up, etc. We had a great time visiting them in their new home and spending Alia's birthday with them (the first time in 10 years we've been able to do that!).... to see a few pictures of our trip, go to my picasa web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/joy.khader
the link is also to the right of this column.

September 12, 2008

Summer has flown by. We've had good trips, good visits with family & friends, and enjoyed beautiful weather! Most recently, we took a trip to Idaho to visit relatives and enjoy an evening concert on my cousin's "hill".... that he is transforming into an event site. He has made this hill a beautiful place (see pictures in my web album). I have also been tending cute little Ansley and going for good walks in the mornings. It has been a fun summer!

August, 2, 2008

Well, its just the beginning of August, and its very hot here in Salt Lake! My mom is here for the summer, and she made some fabulous apricot cobbler and apricot jam this week (from apricots off our tree)... yum yum! Wish we could share this treat with everyone! Also, since Heather has gone back to work, I am caring for little Ansley 2 days/week, and I am really enjoying that. She is such a sweet baby, and I love that I can help out with her.

Trip to Oregon--July 2008

My mom, Bud & I had a great trip to the wonderful state of Oregon July 16th through 23rd. We visited friends and family there and had a wonderful time catching up with everyone! To see pictures from our trip, go to my Picasa Web Album on the right hand side of this page. Here are some scenery pictures from our trip: the Columbia river, Multnomah Falls, and a beautiful sunset over the Columbia river.

Sunday, July 13

Sunday Brunch with Karim, Heather, Ansley, Carolyn, Josh, Greg & Rhoda..... we were trying out some new settings on our new digital camera, and they seem to have worked well!