SUGA' & SUGA'BABY: 2009

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Boo! Halloween

Pictures of my favorite trick or treaters!

USC vs Notre Dame...Worth the trip to Chicago! So I hear!

Stephanie, Scott and Lindsay with Sienna and Josie all came to Chicago for a little vacation. I was told they were coming to see me! ....but we all know what motivated the trip.... USC vs Notre Dame football game in South Bend that Tim had tickets for. But that is ok, I will take the kids for any reason they need to come this way!

Huge art statue in front of the Chicago Tribune building

Sienna looking beautiful in Nanny's jewelrly!

One of our outings -- The Shedd Aquarium -- Downtown Chicago

My family can be weird at times.....

Josie loving the bookshelf! and the videos!

Peek a Boo!

Sienna's first experience at American Girl Place -- she loved the horses not the dolls!

Jo Jo being darling as usual

Hot Mama Lindsay!!! You go Victoria Secret model!!

Oh my! Tim as a Victoria Secret model???

Thanks for coming Stephanie, Scott, Lindsay, Sienna, Josie.

"The Land of Play"

Once again Janis and I were together at mom's place in Arizona!

Our favorite thing to do is drive the golf cart!

Thanks for the great time mom!

"2009, A Celebration of Service"

Thank you to all of you who contributed and made or purchased blankets for our wonderful service project. Our goal of 2,009 blankets was reached! We actually were able to donate 3,009 blankets. Not bad for a 6 month period of time. Project Linus was thrilled with all of the fleece blankets that were made and Newborns in Need local chapter loved the receiving blankets, crocheted and knitted blankets. We sent all the handmade quilts to LDS Humanitarian Services.

We had a fun celebration that included a huge display of the blankets as well as our traditional "Cafe Rio" style dinner. 340 women attended the festivities before the Relief Society broadcast.

You can see a fun slide show of the event by hitting this link: http://gallery.me.com/jameszinn#100555

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Matthew and Abbey's Wedding

The wedding was absolutely wonderful. Thank you to all of our family who supported us. It would not have been a great without you. Abbey did a terrific job planning, coordinating and decorating the wedding dinner. I was really amazed at how such a young girl can put together such a great event.

Bravo Abbey!

I am posting a few pictures for everyone to see or you can go to http://www.brittaannephotography.com/ to see all of the professional proofs. Just click order prints and find Matthew and Abbey's name. There are some beautiful pictures. They make a great couple!

Congratulations Matthew and Abbey!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

BYU GRADUATION! CONGRATULATIONS MATTHEW!

For the record, we found out that Matthew could "walk" graduation 3 weeks before the actual event. We went back and forth, should we go, should we not, should we, should we not..........finally after I asked Matthew if he was going to "walk" anyway he said, "I don't have anything better to do that day, so I probably will." Needless to say, we now knew it was important to him and of course we went. What a great experience. Tim and I loved every minute of his graduation. He does still have classes to finish and we have our fingers crossed he will get into the graduate school of his choice. If not, welcome to the working world Matt! :0 We are proud of you.

Mother-daughter Get Away

Stephanie invited me to go with her to Orlando to spend 4 days together. Stephanie had a convention to attend and I had free time! Almost all expenses were paid by Steph's company~even better! We had so much fun. We stayed at the Swan-Dolphin Hotel. A hotel I have always admired from a far not thinking I would ever be staying at. The location was great to Epcot and we could take a boat to the back entrance. What a blast!! It was fun showing Stephanie around a park she has not been to. We truly enjoyed Soarin' and Finding Nemo. Disneyworld with its mini corndogs--I am not hard to please--and fun atmosphere was wonderful. Thanks Stephanie for the invitation and great memories together. Where is our next trip???

Where does the time go......

It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating the holidays. So much as has happened since then. We have another beautiful granddaughter who is a month old today. Tim and I spent a wonderful week in San Diego getting acquainted with her. Josie Dianne Rodriguez was blessed by her father with a beautiful blessing.....not to mention an amazing name! How the Lord has blessed their little family and ours. Her great grandfather was able to come and join us for this special day as well as Matthew. A wonderful baby shower was given by Aunt Joanne! Thank you! Now when Tim and I left Chicago the temperature was in the negatives...they were de-icing the our plane when it was time for take-off. That did unsettle me a bit..but we arrived to a week of 80 degree weather. San Diego is sounding like a nice place to retire!!! We were able to spend time at the Wild Animal Park and as you can see from the pictures that boys will be goys. Scott and Tim were playing with the Lions! We also were able to walk around Coronado Island and have dinner with Scott, Lindsay, Sienna, Josie, Matthew and his friend Abbey. The beach was beautiful and the sunset awesome. I got ot go to my favorite store at the Del Coronado Hotel Hotel and pick up a little something for the house :) Time was to short and we had to come back home to 9 degree weather! Spring I am sure is just around the corner….

Christmas 2008

How great is Christmas when you have family spend it with you? I would say G R E A T!!! We had 2 weeks to eat, shop, relax, play games, etc. with Stephanie and Matthew. Both were able to get off work and school to come home and spend the time with us.

The pictures tell the story of what we did together. My favorite is Tim humoring me with the "family gift" or maybe the "wasted gift" this year and following the steps to High School Musical 3 dance revolution! I think I got the response I was expecting from everyone....but I told them this was something we could do "together". A competition of sorts....well seeing that I had another "FALL" on Christmas Eve and claimed I had broken a rib or two, I wasn't able to get the competition going to well over the holiday so next family reunion, guess what we will be doing!!!

Matthew's favorite thing to do was lay on the couch with x-box controller in his hand and nap. Stephanie and I couldn't wait to go and see "Wicked" again and have dinner in the "Walnut Room" at Macy's in downtown Chicago. We loved our deep dish pizza from Lou's Malnati's and of course splured with filet mignon and gorgonzola sauce for Christmas eve dinner.

The only missing thing......was Scott and Lindsay and Sienna! But don't forget dance revolution will be coming your way soon!

Thanksgiving 2008

What a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Park City was the perfect setting for our family to gather and enjoy one another.

Scott, Lindsay and Sienna drove from San Diego to be with us. Stephanie and Matthew came up for the week also. We had a beautiful 2 bedroom villa with a kitchen and washer and dryer and 3 tv's! So everyone was well taken care of.

Nanny and Sienna made gobbler goodies together and papa worked puzzles with her. Stephanie and Lindsay and I made wrapped apples with homemade caramel sauce. Delicious! New traditions to remember.

Tuesday evening we went in to Salt Lake and had dinner at Macaroni Grill and then went to see "Savior of the World" performance at the Conference Center. I have posted a picture of "Cleapus" the star of the show!

Thanksgiving day we were invited to Uncle Mike's house for dinner. They have a beautiful home. We really enjoyed meeting Jonathon's new bride. A wonderful day. After we got back to Park City Scott, Lindsay, Stephanie and Matthew went to the early bird sales at the Park City Outlet Mall. They left at 10:00 pm and returned after 1 am! They found great deals. That made for some tired people on Friday. :) But we still walked Main Street Park City and went out to dinner that night.

We ended our trip by Tim and I stopping at the Red Iguana restaurant. It is a famous Mexican restaruant that has been featured on Food Network TV station. We had 30 minutes to eat chicken 'n mole and flautas. FANTASTIC!!!

So now we are back at home and ready to decorate for Christmas. Unfortunately, it is suppose to snow tonight and the outside lights might end up being a problem! But with a little encouragement I am sure I will get Tim to do his favorite job of the year. :)

Tim and I are looking forward to having Stephanie and Matthew home for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year. We have great anticipation for our newest little granddaughter's arrival the first week of January.

Wow, what a great life. I am so blessed.

October 8, 2008

It has been a couple of wild weeks for me. The dinner before the Women's Broadcast was terrific. We had 270 women attend. Alot of work, but worth it. Cafe Rio salad's were a big hit. yummy..that sounds good....we need a Cafe Rio in Chicago!

I had a great birthday. A week of celebrating, another great festival. Lunch dates all week. I also went to Chicago Botanic Garden's for bike riding and looking at all the beautiful gardens. The pictures of the large pumpkins are from there.

My last adventure for the week was to go to an apple orchard/pumpkin patch where the "great fall" happened. I am up and at em again after being sore for a few days. Just beautiful colors appearing on my body, especially my thigh! And no I didn't trip on a pumpkin!!!

Naperville Flooding September 2008

We had a couple of days of rain that just kept coming after Hurricane Ike did it's damage on the gulf. The first picture is of Centennial beach. A man-made beach that we enjoy in the summertime. The beach had closed before the rain and didn't have any water in it. But as you can see the water rose to the top of a 20 foot slide! Our bridges usually have 12 -15 feet between the bottom of the bridge and the river. The water rose to right below the bottom of the bridge. It was an exciting couple of days!

I hope this isn't what we have to look forward to for winter!