The Catalan's

2011 Yearly Update HaHa

2011-12-21T09:22:00.000-08:00

Season’s Greetings

Winter (January-March) – The New Year brought in a new adventure for Naomi and Erik, as they were off to the wonderful Land of Oz. Naomi had the pleasure of gracing the Woodland Opera House stage for the first time as the adorable Sleepy-head Munchkin and Erik as the Cowardly Lion. Both had a grand ol’ time and the two were mentioned in the Davis Enterprise Newspaper as a father-daughter combination.

In February, Erik also sought adventure in the two-wheeled form. He purchased his first Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which has made his ride to and from work much more enjoyable. He also enjoys the gas mileage. Naomi, as you can see, really enjoyed the new adventure as well!

Spring (March – June) – Spring brought the opportunity for Gaylene to reach the end of a voyage that she began in the fall of 2010, the chance to complete a half-marathon. Waking up during the wee hours of the morning to get her miles in, Gaylene’s race preparations equaled the distance traveled from Long Beach to San Francisco along HWY 1. She capped off this incredible journey with her Pacific Coasters team by crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. We were so proud of her, and her persistence even inspired Erik to start running. Since her training began the two have racked up over 900 miles!

Summer (June – August) – Summer brought swimming lessons and Kaori’s chance to finally test the waters without the assistance of floaties. We were so proud of our little fish and she never wanted to leave the pool. Her skills greatly improved from last year, and so did Naomi’s. With nothing on the calendar and the girls out of school, we enjoyed one another’s company and took a family day trip to Bodega Bay.

At the end of the summer it was time to celebrate! Gaylene and Erik celebrated their 10-year anniversary, and spent the weekend in San Francisco. They enjoyed some of the sites that they visited during their honeymoon and reflected on the wonderful life and family they have built in the past decade.

Fall (August – December) – Leave it to the Catalans to try and cram as much into one season as they possibly can! In August, Naomi and Kaori were back to school. For Kaori, it marked her first day of Kindergarten. The first day nearly sucked her dry of what Mom and Dad would have described as an endless supply of energy; however, when day two rolled around she was ready to go. Our “baby girl” turned five on September 6th, and we can’t believe how far she has come!

After being in school for a little over a month, the family headed south for their first trip to the Happiest Place on Earth, DISNEYLAND! We spent four days and three nights jumping from Disneyland to California Adventure with Papa and Grandma, and were able to do everything we had hoped to do. It was a very magical time and when it was time to leave we were all exhausted.

With Halloween right around the corner and Disney on the brain, Gaylene took on the challenge of creating the girls’ Halloween costumes. It was her first attempt, but with a great imagination, and a real talent with the needle and thread, she conjured up some impressive costumes that were the envy of the neighborhood!

October found Erik back into the swing of things, returning to rehearsals for the first time since February. The break found him invigorated! He recently finished a very successful run of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. The show brought the opportunity for the cast to be on a local TV morning show, and also perform at the California State Captial’s 80th Annual Christmas tree lighting. Trying to take in as much theater as he can, Erik has as also accepted roles for two more shows (The Wedding Singer and South Pacific) that open in January and March of next year.

Overall, we have enjoyed our year 2011, and the many memories we created and the people we were able to visit and to see. We hope that 2012 will bring an equal share of memories and joy! Happy Holidays!

2010-07-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

Our year is half over! Yikes! What have we been doing!? Once summer hits its like the whole year is gone already. School seems like it was months ago and then once summer vacation is over it feels like it never happened. Then school starts all over again. I'm not even the one going! It's weird how your kids make you feel like you are going through it all over again.

We go to the pool 3 or 4 times a week, go the park nearly every day and play play play. It's exhausting for me but lots of fun for them. Gone are the days that you send your kids out and don't see them again till meal times and when the sun goes out. All the kids just came out and entertained each other. Oh well. Naomi will be in 3rd grade soon and Kaori begins pre-school:) Craziness. It goes by so fast. It's so important to stop being so busy to pay attention to what's going on right under your nose! Naomi is losing her little girl face and Kaori is losing her baby face. They are sleeping in bunk beds! My babies. They are really awesome kids. I'm very blessed to have them in my life:) Thanks wonderful husband. It's lucky they are so much like you.

Both of them love to dance and it's so fun to watch them. I remember having fun dancing, but it's nice that they got their talent from Erik who actually has the coordination to make it look good. I couldn't get enough of them during the Woodland Opera House dance showcase (their dance recital). I even watched the video of them at least ten times afterward. Kaori looked so tiny up on that stage. I was so proud of her just going up there and doing it for her first time. Both of them just seem so comfortable up on stage. Like they belong. Like I said, like Erik.... Maybe in my next life I'll be a dancer!

Erik did two shows so far this year. One was his best performance he's ever given, as
"Seymour" in Little Shop of Horrors. I was beaming with pride watching him too. How did I get to be part of such a talented family I wonder? He did one more show right after that and has since just been focusing on his school work. Nice for me cause I miss him when he is doing a show and the girls like it when he's around more, but he gets all restless and itchy to get into another one. But he is getting awesome grades in school, so that makes me proud too:) Nice job babe! I watched him typing out all this html text stuff, tweaking things on his web page that he is working on for school. I'm jealous that he knows what all that secret code means! It was really cool seeing his knowledge just coming out of his fingers. Love you:) I'm so glad that you have found something that you enjoy learning about:)

I feel like I go non-stop all the time with all kinds of things. I did however recently decide that it is ok for me to do something for myself for a few weeks and I decided that I wanted to take a cake decorating class! My friend asked if I wanted to take one with her and I said YES! I've been wanting to do that and now that there is a Micheals in town that offers quick easy time convenient lessons, why not? I made my first cake last night and it was really fun. Much prettier than some that I have attempted for the girls birthdays in the past. Learning just in time so that as they get older they won't know what an amateur that I am! Phew! I can't wait to make really cool flowers and stuff. Yay!

We recently got to spend lots of time with family, and even went to the beach! It was Kaori's first time and Naomi's in a long time. We really enjoyed ourselves. It makes me wonder why we don't go more often:) Kaori fell in the water TWICE and still didn't hate it, so that was good. Naomi could have chased the waves for hours. She had a blast. Not to mention they were lucky enough to have lots of people to play in the sand with. So, good times. I could make that a regular habit.

So here's to the rest of the year. We all know I won't get back to this blog until Christmas time:) We'll write our letter here and send pictures out.

2010, Here We Come!!

2010-01-03T11:42:00.001-08:00

We plan to make the most out of 2010, as we ended the year with the beginning of some new activities. But before we look forward to '10, let's take a look back at 2009, which was a busy one for the our little family.

Erik, ended '09 by starting the first of his two years to earning a Bachelor's degree in IT at University of Phoenix which he is very excited about. In November he was ecstatic to find out he was chosen for the role of Seymour in the musical Little Shop of Horrors, at Cosumnes River College. This is a role he has always wanted to do, but waited until he was extremely busy, and didn't really have the time to do it before he took it on :-) Erik was also involved in four other musical productions in '09, which included (starting the beginning of the year to most current) Alexander Who is Not, Not, Not, Not, Not, Not Going to Move (which he was nominated for a regional award, or Elly for Supporting Actor in a Young People's Musical) as the Father, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as the Pharaoh (and due to emergency casting one of the brothers for half of the show's run), Footloose (at Woodland High School, also a casting emergency, as you can tell by the venue) as Reverend Shaw Moore, and finally, in High School Musical 2 (Naomi and Kaori's favorite :-) as Troy Bolton. Erik was honored to receive the local theater award for Supporting Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Pharoah (the Elvis-like king in Joseph). This show also won the local theater award for Best Overall Production of 2009, an award his show, Streetcar, won in 2008. In addition to brushing up on his acting and singing skills, Erik decided he wanted to learn something new and earned his Class M1 Motorcycle License this summer. He was so excited that he went onto craigslist and bought his first motorcycle (an old, but reliable 1986 Yamaha Radian) and for his first ride, rode it home from South Sacramento.

Gaylene has kept herself busy at home watching Kaori, and also two other children. Being a stay at home mom is hard enough work by itself, but Gaylene seems to manage babysitting, as well as taking on other activities. This summer Naomi attempted her first year of fast pitch softball, and Gaylene took on responsibilities of Team Mom. Even though this was Gaylene's first year too, she was up to the task and did a great job. Also, this summer Gaylene took a trip by herself to Minnesota to attend and help set up her (nearly life long) friend Alison's wedding. She had a wonderful time and enjoyed being all by herself with old friends. At church she was called to be in the Nursery leadership. She went in and was a part of making a lot of necessary changes to help produce a better environment for the toddlers and has been proud of the improvement she has seen in their behavior and learning.

Naomi took on 2009 and didn't look back. She still enjoys spending time with her friends and reading everything in sight, but as mentioned before, she has taken on some other activities as well. She started off the year playing basketball with the YMCA. She did pretty well, especially considering she was on the younger side of the girls playing and had the help of Erik being one of the coaches. After hoops, she took on her first year (and maybe her last according to her :-) of fast pitch softball. She struggled to pay attention most of the time but showed some great skills when she could remember she was actually playing a game :-) Really, though, when she was focused she could hit the ball, field grounders, throw from second to first base and even catch pop flies. She took a few weeks out of the summer to continue her swimming lessons the fantastic Morley's Swim School. Also, thoughout the year she participated in ballet at the Woodland Opera House. She moved up to the next level, and showed a lot of talent (next year she will move up again). This is where Naomi is in her comfort zone, and she absolutely adores going to class each week and even going up on the Opera House stage for recitals. Naomi, also continues to excell in school. Her teacher even approached us to see if we were interested in moving her up another grade! We decided against it, but she is learning so fast and seems to take everything in with ease. She tested reading at a fifth grade level, and can't get enough of it for that matter.

Our little one continues to grow (maybe not physically, but we've got hope still :-) and learn. She loves playing with her big sister and gets along very well with the little ones, Olivia and Haven, Gaylene watches during the week. She loves to sing and dance and is doing well learning her numbers and letters in preparation for preschool in the fall this year, or next. Naomi is very helpful, and they love playing school where Naomi's the teacher and Kaori is the student. Also at the Opera House, she began ballet (in the beginning pronounced by Kaori as BULL-lay, so cute) and is actually doing pretty well. She is on the younger side for her class and being so small, she looks so puny next to the other girls, but she loves going to class every week, and showing everyone her "positions". She is a huge Tinkerbell fan, and both her and her sister could watch Phineas and Ferb (Disney channel show) all day long if they could.

We were fortunate enough to use Erik's company CFO's season tickets three times this season, to watch the Giants win (that's right they won all three games we attended :-) once with a dramatic bottom of the ninth comback walk-off three run home-run by Kung-fu Panda, Pablo Sandoval. We went once as a family, once with Erik's Dad, Vic, and once as just the happy married couple :-)

And mentioning the happy married couple, in August, we took an 8th anniversary trip to Monterey, and Santa Cruz. It was a lovely weekend! We made sure to visit the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, and also rode the third oldest Roller Coaster (three times :-) in the United States, The Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

In October we took a family trip to Utah to see Gaylene's sister's new baby girl, Brighton. She was adorable and we really tried to make the most of the time that we had in our short trip. In addition to getting to know our little niece, we had the chance to visit with Gaylene's siblings and their families. Becky and Randy took Erik golfing on a breathtaking (literally at times with the altitude ;-) mountain side course while Jason and Karen took Gaylene and the kids minigolfing nearby. We were also able to go fishing with Karen and Jason and eat our spoils (one fish- we were happy but Jason was dissapointed). Naomi was very patient on her line that never ended up with a fish at the end. We were impressed that she enjoyed it as much as she did. We also were able to visit the Museum of Ancient Life in American Fork at Thanksgiving Point (the dinosaur museum). It was really interesting and fun and a good place to take your kids. We got to stay afterward and watch a 3-D movie about dinosaurs (a private showing as we were the only ones in the theater). That was a lot of fun as well. We also got together with everyone and had dinner before we left and spent a lot of time jumping on Becky and Randy's trampoline.

We wanted to also recognize two very special people we lost during the year, Denise Lara and just two weeks ago, David Garsky. Both of them close to 4o and too young to go, but we will always remember them and the wonderful memories we had with each of them. Additionally, as the entire universe is aware of, Erik lost his childhood (and adulthood for that matter) inspiration Michael Jackson.

Well, that about sums up our year. It has been packed with stuff, and 2010 looks to be the same way. We're ready for it though, and we'll be sure to come out of it on top and with smiles on our faces and gratitude in our hearts. Thanks to all who have been a part of 2009 and created memories for us to enjoy and remember always. We love you all, and hope the best for you in 2010!

Look at how good we are at blogging!

2009-10-07T20:27:00.001-07:00

See how rediculous we are at this? Come on! We can do better!

Fall Colors

2008-11-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

So, I guess we are doing this by season! That's alright, it's more than we used to do!

Kaori is 2! Wow, it goes by fast. She's 2 and loving it! She has so much personality, she is so fun to be around. Everything she says is just adorable. Her current fave, "It's not fai-ya!" coupled with furrowed eyebrows, huge pouty lip and tightly folded arms. Granted, I do not like this and have to either ignore or reprimand, but I do turn away and have to compose myself to do either. She loves to sing. Her faves include Hairspray, HSM, HM, Natasha Beddingfield, Enchanted and WOW! WOW! Wubbzy!. She is finally getting into coloring, and has learned many of her colors. She began the journey with "I don' know, GREEN!" every time we asked her about a color of something. Now she responds still, "I don' know...", but with (70% of the time) the right color. She is definitely our favorite 2 year old!

Erik just finished another show, Damn Yankees. He really enjoyed the cast and had a lot of fun. The show was really great too. Very entertaining, with some real talent, Erik included! Its been fun that with Erik being in so many shows over the last year, I've been able to go to the theater often! and see shows that I've never seen. He just auditioned for another starting next year, so we have more to look forward to. How can you resist such angelic faces, really?

Naomi started Kindergarten! Wow! And things are still all up in the air. Our smartypants little girl is blowing everyone away at school. We're going to discuss "options" next week at our parent/teacher conference. She's visited one of the first grade classes and goes to another room for part of the day. Sometimes I feel like she should have been born to geniuses, though I'm grateful she's ours. She sure does learn and remember everything. I can't believe she'll be 6 soon. Her smile still wins me over and her laugh is contagious. Friends and family are very all important to her, and she misses the old ones, and gets excited about new ones. Her daily questions aren't "where are we going today?" they are, "who are we going to see today?". She loves to draw and write, and has currently "written" three "books" for herself. She has decided that a book needs twenty pages and writes until she fills them. Her drawing has really gotten better over the last few months and has impressed me and I love seeing what she brings home from school.

She loved Halloween and counted down the days till she got to dress up and get candy! Kaori really had fun with it too. We made them both skunks (lil' stinkers) and they were adorable. And Mom made another pinata, which they happily beat upon. We had fun.

Finally, The biggest and best thing this fall was the birth of Aidan Makoto Lukens to Erik's sister, Cristina. He is adorable, sweet, and precious. Labor was intense, the c-section quick, the recovery still in progress, and after being in NICU for a week because of infection, he's home with mom and dad:) Congrats to you CCC! and your bro and fam loves you too!

Summer's End

2008-09-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

Wow! Summer is over and SCHOOL has started. Naomi officially a kindergardener! So far so good and I just love watching her walk all in a line in her class. She blows me a kiss and waves bye and says "Bye Mom" every morning as she is walking away, totally happy, and its just so cute. She does it cause she thinks she is so big now. And she is.

This last summer she learned how to swim, going from tubes and floaties, to nothing at all. and I like to say that she looks more like she's drowning than swimming, but she can swim across the pool, using her arms and breathing. She "graduated" to the deep end during lessons and I was so proud. She was just happy that she got TWO jelly beans instead of one at the end of the lesson.
Erik has had rehearsals most of summer, and is in the middle of performing at the Woodland Opera House in "Tom Sawyer". It is a great show that Naomi loves and has seen three times, and plan to go and see it again. I really like it as well. It is a lot of fun. He'll start another one almost as soon as he is done, so he's been really busy.
Kaori turns 2 on Saturday! Where has the time gone?!? She is such funny, cute, little girl! After Saturday she won't be a baby anymore. Wow. She loves to sing about the monkey swinging in the tree laughing at the crocodile, the eency weency spider and the monkeys jumping on the bed. She's into wearing other people shoes, saying I don't know when you ask her anything, and when you ask her where something is, she says "right dehine you." She will copy anything you do or say. And when she is in trouble and you ask her if she wants to have a time out or some other punishment, she very clearly says while nodding her head, "yes!" She is just so darn cute!
I think that my favorite part of summer was watching Karen get married, meeting my nephew, Eldon's son, for the first time, and getting to spend a lot of time with family. And to top it all off, we got to see Becky and Randy again when they came to California to go to Karen's open house in Fresno, and went with us to not go paddle boating (that one was for you guys. Ahh, memories). Next year we have two more weddings to go to! Congratulations Cristina & Spencer and Alison & Shawn!
Man summer flew by fast! I have a feeling that this year will be even faster. I hope we slow down enough to live it well and make some memories. We love you friends and family and we think of you often!

2008: So far, SO good...

2008-04-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, we can't believe April is almost over! It's been a great '08 so far and we are having so much fun! Right now we're trying to decide on a place and when the best time to move would be in the next few months. We'll be staying here in Woodland, it's just a matter of what side of town. The girls had a fun Easter. Kaori was able to "find" some eggs and Naomi was all over the place. There wasn't a place you could hide an egg that she wouldn't find it (you know there's candy in them things). Naomi is gearing up for her first ballet recital next month and she's excited! Dad is trying to convince her to join him in his acting pursuits, and she's beginning to warm up to the idea. She is a natural on the floor, she sings and dances with ease, she just needs to overcome her fears of "people looking at her". Mom is testing the waters in finding a job. She has all the tools, it's just a matter of who the lucky establishment will be that will have the pleasure of her services. Dad is going strong with, #12 in the nation (best companies to work for Fortune Magazine), the Nugget Markets and is loving his job and the people he works with. He was asked by a friend to participate in the Opera House's "A Streetcar Named Desire" and is playing the small role of Pablo Gonzales. So that has been our year, so far. We're all just content and loving life together.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-30T22:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a holiday season it's been! We've enjoyed visits from so many family members, and extended family. During Thanksgiving we saw Karen and met her boyfriend, Jason. We also had a special visit from Jeff! We didn't see Eldon's, Becky's or Anthony's family but we did see Cristina. We met at Great Grandma's for a while and also the Grandparents Johnston. Naomi celebrated her fifth birthday and she was so thrilled. She got a Razor Scooter and loves to ride around outside. Gaylene also had a nice birthday, and we took family photos at the Picture People (who we highly recomend) that we posted here on the blog. For Christmas we saw everyone from Thanksgiving, and a few days after Anthony brought his family over and we had a FULL HOUSE!! It was crazy in here, but lots of fun, too. We enjoyed playing Wii games together, and our nephew Jacob brought over some extra controllers for the 360 and we made some ruckus playing Halo 3. It has been a lot of fun, but we're all ready to ring in the New Year!