New Year

2009 began the same way 2008 ended. We received news that Grandpa Warren was not doing well. On Tuesday 1/13, Darle and I went to Roseburg to see Grandpa in the hospital. Mom and Dad met us there that evening. Aunt Carol and Uncle Gary also made the trip from California to be with Grandpa. On Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Grandpa passed away. There was a beautiful service held for Grandpa at their church in Roseburg. I would like to warmly thank Becky Mesa and Grandma Warren for all their hard work in planning his services and giving us all the opportunity to celebrate his life.

Here are some pictures we took after Grandpa's service.

Lots of dark curly hair.

Four Generations

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was bitter sweet. We were excited for our first Christmas in our new home but received some sad news Christmas morning. Darle's 96 year old Grandmother took a turn for the worse and would not make it to New Years. After opening our gifts we rushed down south of Salem to see her. Darle's grandmother, Pauline Legenza, passed away on December 26th, 2008.

December Surprises

When we adopted Riley we knew we would get another beagle someday. We had planed to get a female beagle and have a litter or two. We really wanted a lemon male to start with and we finally found Riley back in March of this year. We knew eventually we would want a Chocolate female beagle. Chocolate beagles are even more difficult to find than the lemons. I searched all over the country and found only two breeders that bread for chocolate puppies. One was is in North Carolina and the other is in Texas. Just before Christmas I came across across an LDS family from SLC who had recently moved just outside Salem. They had chocolate beagle puppies! This litter was going to be their bitch's last one. So we went to "look" at the puppies. Yeah Right! Needless to say we left their house with the last chocolate female and named her Bella. She is very different from Riley and soooo sweet! We have had her for eight weeks now and she is wonderful companion for Riley. She has the sweetest face with her green eyes. She is 15 week old now and she can sit, lay down, shake, and hi-five.

November Milestone

We hosted our first gathering in our new home to celebrate Darle's 30th birthday on November 22nd. Somehow we forgot to take pictures with our camera. But Mom Norton took pictures with her camera and shared copies with us. Lots of Darle's family came, as well as my parents. I told Darle I would make him whatever he wanted for his birthday dinner. Well he chose to have smoked brisket. So he actually ended up making his own birthday dinner. He also decided to experiment in making his own barbecue sauce. It was a vinegar based sauce that turned out wonderful. It was so nice to have everyone over to celebrate with us.

Our First Home

We moved into our first home at the beginning
of October. These pictures were taken before
we really got settled. There are now more
pictures on the walls and furniture has
been moved around.

This is our very open Kitchen. It opens into the breakfast nook and family room.
The doorway you see enters into the dining room.

I love the french doors to the master.

We now have so much room to walk around in the bedroom.

The window looks into the back yard.

The other two bedrooms are just standard. Sorry no pics.

The living room.

I wish we had a picture out this huge window in the

summer because we have a small covered porch with a

beautiful climbing vine growing up and around it.

You can kind of see a view from the out side on the

picture of the front of the house. The pink tile in this picture

around the fire place and entry is long gone.

Darle put down a slate looking tile.

Looking into the family room.

The dining room.

The window looks out into the back yard.

A partial view of the back yard and the back of our house

We love the neighborhood with all the trees and greenery.