Halloween 2008

This year Greg was Garth (From Wayne's World). Notice his dixie cup..."If your gonna spew, spew in this." Austin was a Zombie of some sort. He is all about "the scarier the better." Austin went trick or treating with the his cousins Nathan and Nicholas Baker. He had a wonderful night.

God Bless America

While I voted for McCain (What a Great American Hero), I truly was touched to witness history being made. It may not be the "fresh start" I hoped for, but it is a fresh start. He is our President and he will have my prayers. I can't help but be impressed with his ability to instill a feeling of optimism. I always am in awe when democracy works and no matter your political views we all get to vote our conscious, without the fear of reprisal. I hope the extremest on both sides can be tempered and for a moment come together as Americans. I am concerned about Obama's inexperience, I truly hope and pray he surrounds himself with good people and can govern more from the middle. I was relieved that the Republicans did not lose the "filibuster" so there is balance of power left. Checks and balances are essential to our country's democracy...no matter what party has the majority. Last but not least...Prop 8 passed, I feel this is good for the family unit, parental rights and the moral fabric of our society. Yet I am so weary of the ongoing hostility that this has invoked. It just confirms to me we all need to be more measured in our debates and show respect for one another as human beings, we are all God's Children. Demonizing one another, whatever your cause is, makes it less credible. Tolerance goes both ways. K. DONE OFF THE SOAP BOX!

Happy Birthday 21st Joshua Gregory

...And then there was "Josh-Kosh-B-Gosh," 1 year and 20 days after Tiff. Our #1 son. Josh was the easiest going, g0-with-the flow, best natured baby! Thanks for blessing our lives son.

Visits from the Older Ones...

Josh also unexpectedly made it home for a few days for fall break. What a wonderful time. Our house felt complete again, and Greg loved having his 2 older siblings home. He misses them when they're gone too long. Josh took Greg to the skate park and surfing (of course) and had some intense Ping Pong matches. Tiff took him shopping (of course) and baked him pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and served them with hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks. Austin of course got teased and "toughened up" by having all 3 of the siblings home. I do have one dilemma though; the older kids feel like Austin is the "baby and babied" therefore needs to be toughened up. They decided Kirk and I are getting worn down as parents and getting too soft, which probably is true. So given that is the situation, they have the right and duty to "help" with the parenting (as a teenager and 2 young adults do, since they are all so wise). This can drive me a bit crazy at times! Yet, since THEY were the ones that wore us down, maybe I should let them fix it all, ha! But I truly love them all and wouldn't have it any other way...being all under 1 roof again truly warms my heart. Also, since Josh also made it home, we decided to have an impromptu early B-day celebration for him...His B-day is on the 26th. He will be 21, yikes! We are blessed to have such great children!

A Great Fall Weekend

A chill was felt in the air, sweats were worn, and Hot Chocolate was made. USC football consumed another typical Baker Saturday. Tiff flew home for fall break for a few days. We picked her up from the airport and went straight the game. (After some stress of making to the game on time...Kirk was able to breathe) There we met the rest of the family, tailgated...then into the game...USC won, but it was well just an interesting game. I think the real highlight of the day was later that evening...Tiff and I went to drop off Greg to go to Fright Fest at Magic Mountain, after we decided to just "stop by real fast" at Target (Tarjay). Needless to say we were then for over 2 hours. Just trying on cute Tarjay clothing and looking at the home decor section. But warning: Target dressing rooms are scary. The mirrors, the lighting, just don't help the body image esteem too much. They accentuate every obvious flaw 50 times more...truly"Haunting!" Still there is nothing like a good Target run for "Girl Bonding" especially after a crazy Baker USC football game day.

Happy 22nd Birthday Tiffany LeAnn

Our first born, one and only girl is 22 today. Here's to you our Tiffers. The years have gone bye much too fast! We love you!

As Fall approaches...One look back to Summer

The Island of Majorca Spain

Here we stayed at a Castillo Hotel Son Vida, an old 16th century castle that was re-renovated to a luxury hotel. A few names of the Castillo Hotel Son Vida’s golden guest book: Prince Rainer of Monaco with wife Grace Kelly, Aristoteles Onassis, Antony Quinn and Claudia Schiffer. We visited beautiful a beautiful countryside of the Valldemosa Monastery and village. Chopin once re-treated here for awhile. (Notice the pic where Kirk and Co. where they are acting like well behaved and attentive "choir boys" on the tour in the monastery...again ,NOT!). Kirk did enjoy the beautiful terrace gardens and landscape though, and I enjoyed it all...including more shopping even though I didn't buy much due to the wonderful value of the US dollar right now, but looking is fun. One thing that made us laugh is you usually can count on seeing the "European women style of sun-bathing"...in other words "topless." One day though as a group of us were walking along a path near a cliff overlooking a small beach, we looked down, and low and behold we saw a MAN in all his glory frolicking backside in the water. Of course the tacky American's we are (Kirk especially...well me too) we had to gawk and take picture. (Even though the pic is somewhat obscure, it still is border line R-rated so I chose not to post it). But imagine a naked man on the beaches in Europe and no half naked women anywhere...ironic, Ha! Seriously though, We had a wonderful trip (even with some bad weather). Kirk's hard work with his company is greatly appreciated, and they make these trips so nice for us. We are beyond blessed, and "many thanks" to everyone who helped us make this trip happen!