Here's our beautiful new kitchen. It's been basically finished for a while now, these last corner cabinets were added when Ryne was born. Thank you Thank you to Art and Eric for all their hard work!

Now I just have to work at keeping it clean and beautiful! Not an easy task.

Just the boys

Just some pics of the boys.

This is Lance's favorite place to be and Brendan loves to "tote" him around on his shoulders.














One day I had to take a phone call, so I put Ryne in his vibrating chair and left the room for "just a second". When I returned this is how I found my boys. Scared me for a minute then when I saw that "all was well" I snapped the picture.
















Can you tell that they're related.

Our Christmas Letter 2008

December 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

As usual we’re a little late this year with our Christmas Cards, but our family is doing great! We had our 5th and final baby boy on the 15th of this month. We now have our Basket Ball Team. Pun is intended. His name is Ryne Javen Ball. He was 7 lbs 9 oz and 20” long. He has blond hair and we HOPE blue eyes. This is Eric’s last chance to have a blue eyed baby. With Cindy’s Mexican blood, it sort of dominates the genes. It’s looking good so far, but only time will tell. The kids keep us busy, but I don’t have to tell you that.

Our oldest, Brendan is 9yrs. He loves his science and math classes in school. He is a high blue belt in karate (3 belts away from black). He loves golf, it got too expensive, so Eric bought a Wii game for Christmas with a golf game. It keeps him busy. He has also learned how to crochet.

Kristen is 7, she’ll be 8 on Valentine’s Day and baptized in March. (We’ll do the baby blessing then as well). She loves reading and is so smart…she takes after Cindy…she didn’t get it from Eric. Hee Hee. She loves to play the piano and sings all the time. She definitely got that from Eric!

Mackenzie is 5 and a ball of fire. She doesn’t like vegetables or potatoes, and it’s rare to find something that she likes to eat. She loves to sing and take care of her 2 younger brothers. She says kindergarten is “boring”. Secretly we think she’s enjoying it since she’s always the first one ready in the mornings.

Lance is 2 and isn’t so terrible. He is learning so many phrases, its fun to see him put together sentences. We are working on, as he calls it “potty choo-choo- training”. It’s going alright and hopefully we should have it licked in a few weeks. Cross your fingers. He loves to tease us and make us laugh. He is also in charge of putting the “plug” in Ryne’s mouth. Whenever Ryne makes a “squeek” he thinks he needs to have his pacifier.

Ryne…is too cute and so far is a great baby and very tolerant of all the noise (he doesn’t have much choice). Brendan calls Lance “PIP” and he calls Ryne “SQUEEK” because that is all Ryne knows how to do.

Cindy is very busy…as you can tell…with 5 kids. She has her hands full, but loves “almost” every minute of it. Her mother passed away last November, and that has been difficult for her, but she did spend the last 12 hours of her life holding her hand and being right next to her. She will cherish that moment forever.

Eric hasn’t changed too much. He still works at Caesars Palace as the beverage manager for banquets. He’s a Mormon who doesn’t drink, so they put him in charge of the booze. He doesn’t skim the profits. Little do they know he sneaks the occasional Dr. Pepper. His big project this year was the complete remodel of our kitchen. With the help of both Dads…Cindy’s and his…we were able to rip out everything except the walls and wood on the floor. We bumped the window wall out 2 feet (We had “real” air conditioning for a couple of days) and rebuilt our kitchen using cabinets that came from a good friends’ home. He was doing the same thing and his old cabinets (our new) were oak fronts will solid oak trim all the way around. We had plenty to work with and with a lot of cutting and pasting, we were able to have a completely new kitchen. Ours was in such bad shape with the drawers falling apart and the cracks in the cupboards and the cockroach city it really needed to be replaced. We finished most of it within a month but the final touches to the inside were finished the week Ryne was born. Massive undertaking. It wasn’t fun not having a kitchen for 4 weeks in the summer with a 6 month pregnant woman. But…we absolutely love it now! It was completely worth it.

We hope you are doing well.
Eric and Cindy are on Face book. And our email address is ecball@cox.net . We love to hear from everyone so keep in touch.

Thank you to all for your love and support. It would be nice if we could be as diligent in doing the cards. It’s always in our minds, but Christmas and the holidays are gone before we get a chance. This year was more hectic because of the baby. We didn’t even do our organ open house this year. We have a full size church organ in our home…and we do an open house with the sounds of the holidays every year. We just couldn’t pull it together this year to do it.

We hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday season and best wishes for an even better New Year.
Lots of love,
The Ball Family
Eric, Cindy, Brendan, Kristen, Mackenzie, Lance and Ryne

On December 15, 2008 we received a double present. Our precious little Ryne was born and also it snowed. It was a most glorious day. I know many of you may not like snow or get tired of it. But for us in Desert land it's WONDERFUL.

So when we do get enough that "sticks" we take advantage of the experience.
Brendan made this "mini" snowman. His name was Jack Jr. after the full size "Jack" of 2003. I'll have to find a picture of him...didn't have digital back then.

It was a very wet snow and not much of it but Brendan just HAD to get his snow gear on and go out in it.

The next day, since most of it had melted in town,we decided to drive out on the Red Rock Loup and take some family pictures. And yes, Ryne was with us, although he mostly stayed in the nice warm car.

Ryne Javen Ball was born on Monday, December 15th at 3:34pm. 7lbs 9oz and 20 " long. Both Cindy and Ryne are doing well. They came home on Tuesday after the mandatory 24 hours in the hospital for babies.

Sad News

Cindy had some very sad news the other day.

Last Saturday 11/8, Cindy received a phone call from her brother Mark saying that their mother was very sick and was taken to the emergency room in Eugene, Or. Cindy called me and told me she didn't know what to do. I was at work and I called my mom and told her the same thing. My mom called Cindy and told her to book a flight the next day and get up to see her mother, or she would regret it the rest of her life. She also told Cindy that she was coming down to help with the family and not to worry. Cindy, teary eyed, called me and we had her on a flight the next afternoon to Eugene.

She got to the hospital that evening and her mother was not conscious. Her kidney's had failed and she was on morphine to kill the pain. Reyna, Cindy's mother, refused any further care and didn't want to put her self through dialysis. She only had a few hours/days left to live. Cindy spent the night in the hospital and waited for the time to pass.

Brendan had made a hot pad from learning how to crochet. It was a small triangle about 3"x3". He gave it to Cindy to give to Grandma Reyna. Cindy placed the hot pad under Reyna's hands and told her that Brendan made it for her. Reyna gripped the hot pad and would not let it go. It was very touching to listen to Cindy tell Brendan about it.

On Monday morning around 7am, I received the phone call from Cindy that her mother had passed away just moments ago. She was in tears. I told her to call me back later when she could talk more.

Cindy spent the entire week up in Eugene, OR cleaning up her mother's things and sorting out what she wanted and didn't want. She has brought many things that are great memories of Reyna home with her. Many of her writings, and pictures, and crafts that her mother loved to display and keep with her.

Back in Las Vegas with my mom and Stacie (my sister) we spent the time cleaning up the house and making it spotless for Cindy's return. My dad also came down on Friday to help with some additional cabinets in the kitchen.

How blessed we are to know of the gospel and what it means in our lives. Even though she is 8 1/2 months pregnant and her emotions can get the best of her, even if this event hadn't occurred, Cindy is doing very well. She has her moments, but knows Reyna is happy now and is not alone.

I am sure Cindy will add some things to this when she has a few moments to her self.

Brendans' Forms Competition

Brendan had an exciting evening tonight. He participated for the first time in a Karate forms competition. We have had many "issues" with trying to get him excited about karate.


These were the top three competitors for his age group. And yes that is Brendan in the top three!

As you can see he received a medal! Can you tell what color it is? And don't ask who the girl is, she just got in the picture and wouldn't get out. And I thought Lance was a ham!

Well tonight he placed FIRST! So hopefully this will get him back interested in karate. We are SO proud of our guy!

We have some video, but our computer is acting up and with my track record for getting things posted, I thought it best to at least post the pictures.

Tomorrow night he tests for his High Blue Belt. Black will only be three levels away!