Three cute boys!

How sweet are they?!

Baby Alexander

It isn't possible to find a prouder aunt! On Monday January 26th at
4:09 am, Alexander Wayne Goral was born. He was 8lbs 3 oz and 21 inches
long. The best part (well, for me) was that I got to see him that same day
at 10:00! He was only 6 hours old! He is super precious, Jolene is doing
great and August seems happy, if oblivious to his new brother. Wayne is a
super proud dad! I was able to stop by the house a few days later and say
hello again. I tell you, being here by family is the biggest blessing in
our lives!

A day at the Getty with a special friend

A month or so ago, my friend, Jean, emailed that Emily would be visiting southern CA with her grandparents and wondered if we could work it out for the girls to see each other.  I jumped at that chance.  Emily is one of the first girls we met in Chico and she and Sarah have always gotten along so well!  I love that Sarah has a friend that is smarter than her, and Emily is that friend!  We decided to meet Emily and her grandparents at the Getty Center and Sarah was going nuts waiting for her to arrive!  Wow did those girls have fun together.  I don't know that they took in much from the exhibits, but they sure were happy to be together.  

The girls with Mr Getty!

Being silly in the children's play area.  Everyone else in there was under the age of 5 or a parent, but the girls didn't mind and they had so much fun!

The girls in the sketching room.  They enjoyed this little break and both seemed to really enjoy sketching.  Sarah did sketch this bust, but then both girls were drawing pictures of dragons!:)

The view of the city

The girls in the gardens

The best part was probably when they sat and sketched or when we sat in the garden and the girls went off and sat on the grass and just talked.  It was super hard to say good bye, they went back in the museum and we went to leave.  Both Sarah and I cried, went into the bathroom to clean up, then came out to get on the tram and there they were.  It was fun to ride the tram with them, but then Sarah got extra sad when we really said good bye.  We must keep these in touch with each other and plan another meet up soon!

Joshua's Award

Because our district has switched to "Standards Based Grading", they
can no longer do an awards assembly and give out awards based on academic
achievement. They decided they wanted to find other ways to recognize
outstanding students and have implemented a "character award" component into
the curriculum. Each month focuses on a new character trait and it is
discussed in class. Then depending on how the teacher decides, two students
are chosen in each class that represent that trait. Joshua was chosen for
last month with the trait of "Respectful". His teacher went on and on about
what a great example he is to the class about being respectful and how much
she appreciates him. It made both of us feel great!

Disney Date

There are so many great things about living back in Simi Valley, as I
sit here in January with the sun shining through the windows, I can't help
but list the weather! But, there are other, more important things that we
appreciate. The first is being able to see our families all the time! The
second is how great Donald's job is and how much we appreciate him having a
day off each week. He is getting so much done for me! A few weeks ago, we
left my mom in charge of getting the kids from school and watching them and
putting them to bed so that we could have a date day at Disneyland. We
don't go out just the two of us often, so when we do, we really enjoy it!
The weather was perfect and the park wasn't crowded. We had a great time
together. Thanks again, mom!

New Furniture

We finally did it, we picked out new living room furniture! When Donald
and Wayne were going motorcycle riding, I somehow convinced them to take the
old couch to the cabin and donate the broken loveseat! So, the living room
is empty until the new furniture arrives at the end of February and the kids
have been enjoying the open space! Nice fort, huh? Now I just need to
paint a little before the furniture arrives, then shop for a rug, lamps and
other accessories! Fun stuff!

School Friends

These are the sweetest girls! They met right at the beginning of the year
and have been such good friends. I love that Elizabeth has nice girls at
school to play with and I'm sad that they will all be going to different
schools next year! For now, we are enjoying them and I enjoy visiting with
their moms! (Hayleigh, Avery and Elizabeth)

The Goral Family circa 1980

My mom has this old family picture hanging up and when Donald was trying
to teach her how to use the scanner, she scanned it and emailed it to me.
What a good looking family!

Reagan Library Trip with Grandma Doris

Over Christmas break, we had the chance to take Grandma Doris to the Reagan Library to see the Christmas trees decorated.  They were just getting an exhibit on cars set up, so Joshua got to see the Bat Cycle too!  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the time together.

This is Sarah doing a recording they have set up to show how Reagan did it when he was an announcer.  It was fun to see Sarah on TV!

New Year's Eve 2014

I loved having our memory tree up all year.  It was so great to keep adding leaves to it every time we did or saw someone special.  It really helped me to reflect on how much I have to be grateful for, I hope it did for the kids as well.  We spent New year's Eve at the cabin with Wayne and Jolene and August, so I took down all the leaves and took them with us so we could read them and remember the old year before ringing in the new (at 7:00 pm with Elizabeth!)

Here is a list, in no particular order, of all of the wonderful things that were on our memory tree last year:

Sarah and Joshua spending the night at Auntie Brenda and Uncle Ash's

Elizabeth writing her own name

Elizabeth's Build-A-Bear birthday party

Learning to play tennis with Uncle Ash

Camping at Carpenteria

Spending the week at Grandma and Grandpa's

Easter Egg Hunt with August and the Gorals

Uncle Dennis, Aunt Cathy, and cousin Matthew visiting.  Swimming and s'mores were great.

Ziplining in Kauai!

Tubing in Hawaii!

Sarah making her first duct tape dress

Malibu Creek family hike

Donald taking Sarah on her first roller coaster and him getting to watch her on the loop

Watching Sarah and Joshua in the school play "The Best of Both Worlds"

Spending Spring Break in San Diego

Riding around Catalina Island in the golf cart

Hiking at Mt Pinos and exploring the cabin

Joshua and Elizabeth getting Hand, Foot and Mouth disease right in the middle of vacation.

Painting our sunset picture

Seeing Cousin Daniel, Uncle Rick, Aunt Karna, Uncle Greg, Aunt Barbara and Jackson all in one week!

Watching Joshua play "Josh" in Vacation to Mars

Taking Elizabeth to the beauty salon to get her hair done

Donald taking Joshua on his first roller coaster, California Screaming

Surprising Daddy with a 3D TV for Valentine's Day

Staying and playing at Cousin Michele's cabin at Lake Tahoe

Spending the week with Joshua ta Cub Scout Day Camp

Elizabeth losing her first two teeth (and many more!)

Going to the beach with Tommy and Joey

Going bowling and making new friends with the Rose family

Donald and Sheila's aborted trip to Disneyland and driving through the Hollywood Hills and enjoying a day at the Getty Center

Watching Sarah and Joshua sing in their "Decades" show

Going to Legoland

Sarah and Donald's special day at the water park

Getting the corn hole game and painting it.

Painting the office and getting Donald's diploma framed, finally

Watching Sarah's art skills improve

Stopping at the Cheese Factory to get Daddy cheese curds and candy for everyone else

Spending the weekend at Alisal Ranch

Trying to learn French on the drive to school

Getting caught in the downpour at NorthStar at Tahoe

Joshua having a special day with Grandma Doris

Joshua doing a perfect handstand

Backyard camping, just the kids!Seeing cousin Michele and her girls at Grandma Doris'

Elizabeth telling Donald about a butterfly going to church and learning about a butterfly Jesus and both of them laughing about a butterfly with a beard.

Having the Crosiers over for dessert and games

Getting to have Dennis and Cathy and all four of their kids over for swimming and BBQ on the 4th of July

The romantic dinner the kids prepared with the adults relaxed

Having everyone over for Father's Day dinner and swimming

Learning August would be a big brother

Playing Toy Story mania with the whole family

Sarah and Joshua cooking dinner and making breakfast

Having everyone over to swim for Aunt Jolene's Birthday

My 40th birthday party

Weekend trip to San Francisco, just Donald and Sheila

Joshua and Momma going to Mother/ Son science night

Sarah and Joshua's Lego dragon

Grandpa Bob and Uncle Wayne helping to make a new garden box

helping in Elizabeth's classroom

Helping in Joshua's class

Spending a whole week, alone, in Hawaii with Donald

Riding on the Skycab at the San Diego Zoo

Floating down the american River with cousin Michele and her girls

Saying good-bye to Maggie (June 19, 2014)

Uncle Greg, aunt Barbara and Jackson visiting and playing in the water out back

Walking home from church and gardening with Sarah

Date night at Disneyland - just Sheila and Donald

Elizabeth losing her two front teeth in time for Christmas

Uncle Wayne helping Joshua make his Pinewood Derby car

Going to tennis lessons with the kids

Watching Joshua play baseball

Watching Joshua do magic tricks

Getting family pictures taken

Going to the Science Center with Sarah's class

Having almost the whole family over for Thanksgiving

Spending a beautiful day at the Getty Villa

The whole family riding Radiator Springs Racers

The Pickett Family visiting

The Medrano Family visiting and swimming

Having the Bryant Family stay with us and going to Disneyland with them  

Watching Joshua get two hits in his last baseball game

Spending the night at Disneyland and seeing everything decorated for Christmas
Joshua wrote this poem and put it on the tree as well:
Thanksgiving Day Poem by Joshua
Thanksgiving Day is a day to play.  Thanksgiving Day is a happy day.  On Thanksgiving Day is a day to be glad.  On Thanksgiving Day you should not be sad.  I love Thanksgiving Day.  I hope you love it too.  On Thanksgiving Day I will be thankful for you!!!

It snowed the day before we went to the cabin.  It was starting to melt, but the kids still had a great time!

Donald's New Motorcycle-A Post by Donald

Well, ever since I went out with Wayne to Glamis, I have wanted to get a motorcycle to go out riding again.  Wayne started looking for a motorcycle for me and I started getting excited, until Sheila told me I had to have disability insurance first.  Good thing one of us is so practical!   So I busily got that process started, and once approved, Wayne had a nice used bike picked out for me!  We went down to LA to pick it up, and then spent the better part of another Saturday changing fluids and cleaning it up.  One week later, Wayne took me on his first real ride!  We headed up to Gorman to a place called Hungry Valley to ride the motorcycles.  I had a ton of fun, but my legs were total jelly that night and I could hardly stand.  And from the way I limped around for the next three-four days afterwards, you would have thought I ran a marathon. Regardless, I am looking forward to going riding again as soon as Wayne can take me and my new bike. Until then the bike just sits looking pretty in the garage.