Left-to-right: Krew, Charly, Penny, Douglas, Schofield, Jarren
The Sunday before Christmas we attended the church group where Sam grew up. They put on a beautiful Christmas program with lots of uplifting music and messages, and I had the pleasure of participating in Charly's baby blessing. Seth (Sam's brother) and his wife, McCall, are Charly's parents.
Doug and Margaret with their current posterity.
Sunday evening family dinner at the Coombs home.
Douglas is Grandma's constant companion.
We celebrated Sam's and Stacie's birthday while Princess Leia pointed her lightsabers at everyone.
Singing Happy Birthday to the two birthday girls.
Stacie and Sam - Happy Birthday!
Dessert
Christmas Eve (Day) sledding: Penny, Stacie, Jarren, McCall, Doogles, Daniel, Krew, Seth, and Grandma (taking the picture).
Here comes Penny!
Daniel and Penny
Doogles
Stacie and Penny
Seth and Jarren
Krew and Jarren
Krew pushing the sled uphill.
McCall and Jarren
Penny loved the neighbor's horse.
There's Grandma. Jarren is trying to figure out where everybody went.
Ah ha! He found Penny.
Reenacting the nativity story on Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning. Douglas opens his stocking.
Penny loves the chapstick from her stocking.
And Douglas LOVES his trumpet. He's been asking for a trumpet for months.
Elder (Nate) Coombs called home from his mission in Minnesota. Schofield gave him a big "Touchdown!" cheer.
Grandpa Doug received one of the coolest Christmas presents.
This post is a bit random. I have various photos and videos, but I don't want to create separate posts for them. Getting lazy, Daniel?
Mom doesn't think I should post these, but I want them for posterity. Mom's descendants should see one of the things that gave Mom some extra gray hairs. Playing the organ for Sacrament Meeting.
These are a couple of her practice sessions.
An old army buddy of mine sent me these two photos from 2003.
Doogles is getting good at coloring.
These two videos make me smile. Cute kids.
And last, but definitely NOT least . . . the beautiful birthday girls! Sam and Stacie turned 30 today. They went out for birthday breakfast . . .
. . . with Douglas
. . . and Kate and Penny, and I believe Grandma is taking the picture.
Another year has come and gone and our young, little family continues to grow and move forward with life, grateful for the many blessings the Lord has given us. Here’s a brief update.
Daniel: Continually works hard in the Middle East as well as visit other parts of the world for fun. In November he went on a trip to Peru with Sam’s dad, and was able to visit Machu Picchu as well as participate in temple work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Lima and Trujillo temples. He has now completed work in 99 different temples and hopes to visit his 100th temple next year.
Samantha: Stays home with the kiddos and enjoys any spare moment to read and do genealogy work. While she didn’t go on any exotic vacations this year, she enjoyed visiting family in California as well their family trip to Cedar City, Utah to attend the Shakespearean Festival. She also enjoys her visits to both Grandma Coombs and Granny Ogden’s house with the kids.
*Note from Daniel: Watch this video to find out what Sam really does
Douglas: Turned four this year and is a very pleasant and fun influence around our house. He loves all things space (planets, phases of the moon, rockets) and enjoys playing with the many neighbor kids on our street. He is also our music lover and is constantly singing a tune. Some days we think his life is a musical.
Penny: Turned one this year and has enough spunk for all of us. She wears her emotions on her sleeve and one always knows exactly how she is feeling. She is quick to try and do what Douglas is doing and loves to torment him too. She loves animals, especially dogs and cats, and her pink blankets. We love our adventurous girl!
Last, but not least, we are excited to welcome Baby Ogden #3, a girl, in late March/early April next year. Douglas was hoping for a brother, but we know that he will continue to be a great brother to his sisters and help to Mom, especially when Dad is working. We are curious to find out if this girl will be blonde like Douglas, brunette like Penny and Samantha, or a redhead like Daniel. At this point, anything is possible!
We are grateful to God for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. We hope that your family will seek to feel His love and peace this Christmas season and throughout the new year.
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Daniel, Samantha, Douglas, and Penny
Here are a couple of uplifting music videos for this Christmas season.
And this video has nothing to do with Christmas, but I love Douglas's British accent, so I'm including it here. This is Douglas reading The Hungry Caterpillar.
Taylor and Douglas at Temple Square
Sam and Taylor took the kids to see the lights at Temple Square
Sam told me not to be deceived by the photos. Apparently this was the only time Penny was happy. The rest of the time she was angry because she didn't want gloves on, but her hands were cold, she didn't want a coat or snow pants on, and she only wanted to walk on the sides of the flower beds, on top of the benches, etc. She didn't care about the lights.
Saturday, 8 December: Sam and the kids picked Stacie up from the airport and came home to make gingerbread houses.
