Big Birthday Party Coming Up!

2 posts in one day...I'm really on a roll! I thought I would let you all (ie, Cherie) know that my dad celebrated his 60th birthday on April 5th. We're having the big birthday party on April 30th at Brian & Trish's house and of course you're all invited! If you can't make it, feel free to send an inspirational (or preferably just funny) message we can pass on to him at the party. I'll send you an update afterwards. TTFN!

-Sheri

Chris & Jul - trying to keep up with the California Penners on our behalf

I just realized after giving Cherie heck for not updating us, we have something to announce here in Ontario as well! Jul and Chris are doing their part to keep the Penner genes in Canada - Jul delivered they're fourth child on March 13th (at home, of course, while she was cooking dinner for the family and doing laundry...). Not only that, but it was a BOY!!!! We haven't had a Penner boy produced in Canada for a long time, with the exception of Josh. Technically the new baby isn't a Penner but we all know you can't breed that out. So they named him Ethan Christopher and so far he's been very good. We hardly even notice him when all the loud mouth, rambuctious sisters and cousins are running around. Here's a picture of Ethan with Maddie (his cousin). Congratulations Jul & Chris!

-Sheri

Fresno/Clovis Update :)

This post is by Cherie...on behalf of our Fresno/Clovis Penner crew! :)

Sheri, great call. Great call. We are definitely due for updates! Not sure if anyone noticed but our first year we started this blog in 2009 we had 57 posts! Now, in 2011, we only have ONE!!! I realize we are only in April, but I think we need to pick it up a notch. :) Well, I will make it two and hopefully we can count it for like 50 since I will try and update on a bunch of us over here.

One of the biggest and latest news around here is HP is cancer free!! The night we found out, we threw a mini party. Balloons, a sign, poppers and family created the perfect celebration. We even had Christy and Aaron on Facetime on our phones!

Two new babies over here to celebrate! Our little guy, Austin, was born February 27th. He is almost 2 months old now and fitting in perfectly in the family. Jon and Andrea had their little girl, Symphony Marie, a couple of weeks after Austin. We both didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, so it was SUPER exciting to see God's plan work out for both of us. Here is Symphony Marie We have had some big moves too! We are sooooooo sad and miss them sooooooooo much, but Christy and Aaron moved to Alameda, which is an ISLAND close to San Francisco. They seriously live on an island now. They are loving it. Both of them have new jobs. So far so good. Christy travels A LOT! She goes to Dallas, Florida and Denver, since her company has corporate offices at all locations. I am still praying they someday move back to Fresno, but as good as their situation is there, not sure if that will ever happen. But, it doesn't hurt to pray, right?? David and Arris (and their 2 kids...Jadon and Arrielle) just moved back to Fresno!!! HUGE move too. David got a job here and they bought a wonderful house. They have not lived in Fresno since high school days. So what is that? 12 years? 13 years? They have been here for maybe 2 months now. We are loving the play dates and extra family time. I know they are missing their world back in Oakland, but we are praying their roots will continue go deep here in Fresno. Jesse and Allie's little guy, Jed, is 5 months old now. We are having Jed and Austin dedicated to the Lord together on May 15. Symphony is getting dedicated the following weekend...just in case all you Canada family want to join. :) Andrea and I have been still doing our Letter Days. We are LOVING it!! And our little ones might even love it more. Probably not though. We are huge fans! This picture was from our N day. N for Nest! As far as other news...let's see...for the MacAlpine kiddos. They all doing great. Luke and Becca just celebrated one year of marriage. They bought a house and have 2 dogs already. Whoo Hoo! Chelsey, is going to school and being a dang good nanny for a family. I try to get her as often as possible. She is quite a popular girl! She did have a little heartbreak recently. We thought we were hearing wedding bells for her in the near future. God had other plans. Although I am not okay with her heart breaking, selfishly I sure do like seeing her a TON more!! I have missed that girl!!! Jeremy is doing school, working as a server at Cheesecake Factory and is owning his own home. He has a few roommates to help pay the mortgage. Works out well. Uncle Mac, Janice, Luke, Becca, Chelsey and Jeremy are all in Catalina Island on vacation for spring break right now! So jealous of them!

I think Charity is last but not least. Her and Neil are doing great. She is actually throwing a birthday party for Neil this weekend if any of you Canada family want to join. Come on down!! I am sure she doesn't mind me inviting you. :)

And just because I know you would enjoy family stuff like this. Bath time for Jed, meant Family Time at our house! Jeremy, Christy, Allie, Aubrey, Jesse and my mom!

Okay I think that is plenty. Hope you enjoyed!!! If you would like more updates regularly, Blake and my blog is HERE!

Lastly, I am not sure if everyone remembers the password and email to get in to this blog. Should we put it on here or should we send out an email to family? I know I check this on a regular basis and obviously Sheri does too. :) Who else does? Leave a comment on your opinion on how we should do this!! Miss you guys!!

Where are the updates?

Ok, so now I'm getting my family updates from Uncle Harold's Real Estate newsletters. I KNOW exciting things are happening out there - where's the info? Sheri PS. the most exciting thing that's happened to me lately is that we got a Nanny at the end of January. She's from the Phillipines and she's making our life so much easier!!

Ali's Engaged!

Hi Everybody!

There is definitely some exciting news that Ali has lacked to share! I'm sure you all know by now, but ALI IS ENGAGED!! I apologize on her behalf that she hasn't yet published the story/posted pictures... apparently going to school and planning a wedding is enough to handle!

So Ali's fiancee, Mike, proposed at the end of August - August 31st, I believe. He's a teacher and they were going to decorate his classroom... they spent the morning there and then decided to go leave and get some lunch. They drove to the park - Heart Lake Park, it was called, and Mike brought out the picnic he had prepared. After they ate he brought out his guitar... he had written her a song... followed by a little speech, and then he popped the question! Following the picnic they hung around the park, then went into Toronto for a dinner at a beautiful place in the Distillery District.. the broiler house. They finally came home at the end of a great day to the family for champagne/cake. It was great!

So that's the smooth story - what's funny though, is all the things that happened throughout the day. Ali had so many opportunities to figure out what was going on!

For instance, when decorating the classroom, she went out to the car to get more supplies. There, she found a bag that I had prepared for her with a bunch of fancy clothes (mostly mine!), some jewelery, a little make-up, etc. (For the dinner afterwards.) Mike had to make up a story as to why Mike had a bag full of my clothes in his car! ...I still don't know how he did it:)

Also, when inside the classroom, she was seconds away from opening up the pocket in Mike's backpack that had the ring - he had to somewhat tackle her to stop her from doing that!

There were also some funny parts in the day - As Mike played her the song, she wanted to sing along with it. So they had an impromptu jam session with Ali's engagement song. Then there were some construction workers that were starting some work right around the corner from them. Mike had to go and talk to them, explain that he was about to propose, and asked them to come back in a little while! They walked by and gave them a thumbs up :)

All in all they had a great day and came back SO happy. It was such a fun and exciting night. Here are some pictures when they came back to the house.

All the parents! Such close friends, which is so nice!

Telling the story and loving it!

Haha so excited! (The ring is beautiful, by the way! I don't have a close-up picture though!)

The happy couple!

Our family is getting bigger! My boyfriend, Luke, is on the left - some of you have met him, and I think you know the rest!

So there you have it! Congrats to Ali and Mike! We are so happy for you guys. Love you both!

- Emily (on behalf of Ali!)

Hi Penner Family!!

Hope you all enjoyed your summer. For us, I can't believe that it has left us already, I am still waiting for my surprise summer cruise from my husband! (Way to go Brian!)

Our lives are so busy and I don't know if you saw one of my personal posts, but Jon and I have an RV, which we affectionately call, "Cream Puff". We LOVE this 6mi to the gallon house on wheels. Just recently we had two days where we didn't have an event or concert so we took off to Pismo for some sand and clam chowder. You can see a few more pics on by blog if you wish. Below, however is a little video of Christopher hunting for crabs everywhere - it is adorable and a must see!

Love to all of you - Want to see pics Brian and Trish and A BIG CONGRATULATIONS ALISON - so excited for you - what a beautiful time of life it is!!!

Enjoy!

Love,

J, A and C!!

Living Vicariously Through Brian & Trish

Hi guys. I don't think Brian & Trish read this but for the few of us who still do, I thought I'd put a little update in on their behalf. It all started about a month ago when Brian called me to ask if I could get Trish out of the house one morning so that he could plan a "suprise" for her. I figured he was going to make lunch for her or something. Little did I know that he and his brother in law had been planning a 2 week vacation and cruise in Alaska for Trish and her twin sister for months already. Long story short, after Trish left my house that morning, Brian tricked her into coming to the airport (by pretending he had to pick up Uncle Harold!) and getting on a plane. They were at the park and fly in Toronto before she even had an inkling that anything was going on. Her first reaction was tears and horror at all the things she had to cancel for the next two weeks, but after she got over that it was nothing but happiness and fun. Trish didn't know until 2 days after she got to Vancouver that her sister was coming on the cruise - Brian and Tom arranged to meet at a restaurant where they saw each other for the first time and finally realized what was really going on. I don't have all the details on how great the cruise was but I know that Trish had a great time on her surprise trip. Kudos to Brian for actually keeping it a secret and pulling it off. Can you imagine your husband packing for a two week trip for you? I shudder at the thought. Anyway, it's a great story. Ask them about it sometime if you have a chance. Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all. Sheri