Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa's brother, Donny, writes: A text conversation with a girl friend. Donny: How is lunch with Grandma? Her: Chicken noodle soup, sandwiches, now lemon tarts with hot chocolate. Donny: Aw, cute! I wanna have lunch with your grandma! Text me her number ... I'll have you cater it 'cause you're the best. Her: You stay away from Grandma! I don't share -- all the baked goods are mine. Donny: Too late! Your grandma just sent me a tweet! Apparently she got my info from the YouTube videos... She thinks I'm a really good dancer so I asked her to go dancing with me tonight. Then we are going to Polly Pies after. Then we'll probably watch "Charlie St. Cloud" together because she accepts me for who I am ... a sensitive soul trapped in the body of a Greek god. I made hot chocolate come out her nose onto Grandma, she was laughing so hard. 30 years old and still got it. Special thanks to being raised in a funny family.

Lisa's sister, Debbie writes: Utah is cold. Yeah, not much going on since we got Spock, besides playing with him. We spent a month finishing the back two rooms of the house we rent and they are still not quite done. We're getting paid by the manager for supplies and some labor. I spent last weekend 3 hours north with my sis and her family, because my parents came and my nephew Christian was in a play. I went snowboarding a bit, but I had smashed my finger in the car door and the slopes were icy, so meh. Got a new calling at church. I am the new Girls' Camp director. The 12-17 yr olds go camping for a week in the summer and I'm in charge. Mwah-ha-ha! I met them all Sunday and told them all they needed was a knife, because we were going to create our own shelters and catch and skin chipmunks for food. I think that might have freaked them out a bit :) In reality, they get nice big cabins and I'm in charge of making all the meals (really scary). My neighborhood is kind ...

Lisa's sister, Lori, writes: Ava catching tumbleweeds on the Columbia river.

Lisa writes: My little brother, Donny, is a good country swing dancer. He has several dance videos up on el interneto . You can watch them, but you might want to send kids and coworkers out of the room first. It seems the state of Southern California has a different idea of what constitutes "clothes" than the rest of the country. Less clothes video More clothes video Another fairly well-clothed video Donny writes: Sooo... we have 374 Facebook fans. We have over 2000 views on our web page so far. We have over 50,000 combined YouTube views in one year! Since our viewer ratings are so high, YouTube has put our videos in the #1, #3, #5 spots when you search "country swing dancing" which is the type of dance we do and is a huge craze across the nation right now. Now that we are in the top spot, our view count has been increasing by 25% a month... putting us at over 350,000 views by next Jan. Shannon has been proposed to in viewer comments 6 times... I have deleted most o...

Lisa's writes: My mom's two favorite guys -- Michael Ballam and Dad. Not necessarily in that order.

Lisa's sister, Debbie, texted: Spock planned a little welcome home present. He's doing his part to eliminate invasive species, like European starlings.

Lisa's brother, Donny, texted: Happy Valentines Day, Lisa! Hope you have a great day... It's nice having been raised around girls... I've already had my more than my fill of sweets and kind words. ;) Lisa texted: Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! Muchas smoochas! Donny texted: Oh sure, I send you a personalized, meaningful, heart-felt text... and I get Lisa spam as a response! Lisa texted: Think of it as Love Spam. Donny texted: I'll show you Love Spam.

Lisa writes: Christian and Grandpa (my dad). Christian was a member of the band in a local performance of "The Music Man." His mom says he has every word of every song from the show memorized. I'm sure that will come in handy years from now when he gets his shot on Jeopardy.

Lisa's mom writes (and sends the following pictures): Proud Mom and Christian after the show. We all thought Christian was the Best. It was so much fun for Grandpa and me to be able to attend both the matinee and evening performances on Saturday. We are very proud of your good work, Christian, and the joy you gave. Love you soooo much, Grandma and Grandpa Christian's friend, Stewart, won the role of "Wintrop" with his natural lisp. Christian - third from the left.... Christian on trombone in "Music Man" - He knows every word of every song. He told us he was singing "76 Trombones" in his sleep the other night and woke himself up! Aunt Debbie, Uncle Kellen, sister Madison with our star - Christian. Miss Marian - Vanessa Ballam and Christian Mom and Christian at intermission. Christian grabbed my hand and gave me a VIP tour of backstage and all six levels of dressing rooms, stage props, costumes etc. There were 90 on stage and many others behi...

Lisa's sister, Christi, writes: We have a hamster. This is one of his best tricks. I think he's kind of an adrenaline junky because he does it over and over and over... Apparently it brings him a lot of joy. And, obviously we are easily entertained. This is Madison filming on her iPod (compliments of her now favorite aunt Lori :)

Lisa writes: Mom is flocked.

Lisa's sister, Lori, writes: For Evelyn's sake we thought we would learn a little more about Chinese New Year. We're so grateful and happy she is part of our family. Chinese New Year is celebrated on the 1st New Moon of the year kicking off a 15-day celebration of colors, food, family, customs and festivities culminating on the Full Moon. This year Chinese New Year falls on Feb 3rd beginning the Year of the Rabbit. Weeks before the holiday people buy presents, decorate, and prepare food and clothing. Houses are cleaned from top to bottom to 'sweep' away bad luck. New Years Eve (Feb 2nd) brings a feast with traditional dumplings, games and midnight fireworks to ward off evil spirits. On New Years Day (Feb 3rd) customary gifts are given in Red Envelopes(usually money) to children and singles. Family and neighbors are visited with good wishes and to cast aside any grudges. Tributes are made to ancestors who have gone before. To our family and friends, we send you ...