Party, party, party!

Let me just review the events of the last week or so...

Friday the 14th- Magellan Christmas party (Rachael- one of my laurels from a long time back- watched the kids and stayed the night). Saturday the 15th, Josh's 8th Birthday party in the afternoon, Neighborhood Christmas party in the Evening (Trish came up for Josh's Party and stayed til Monday morning). Sunday we had our family Christmas party here.  Monday we had a combined FHE with a few neighborhood families. Tuesday was Josh's 2nd grade program and I skipped the RS dinner to take Josh out for a family dinner celebrating his actual birthday. Wednesday we went to Dekker's Kindergarten program and to Clay's 30th Birthday party (kids went to Tio and Bryn's house). Yesterday was our mellow night- so we watched a Christmas movie with the kids. Today is the start of winter break for the kids. Josh had Brigham (his latest BFF) and then went with him and his family to see a movie, and Dekker invited his friend Braden over. Tomorrow we are going over to the Eaton family's for dinner and games. Sunday we're having Brea and Tom and Elise (cousin on Jake's side) and her boyfriend and hopefully another of Jake's cousin over for dinner. Then Monday is Christmas Eve (possibly getting together with my cousins again) and Tuesday Christmas!

1. Friends and family. I am SOOSOSOSO thankful that we are surrounded by such good friends and family. We may not have parents nearby- but we have such kind loving friends and family that make this season enjoyable.

2. Additional activities. We've also been making and taking gifts (as well as receiving  to neighbors, teachers, and friends. We are doing the 12 days of Christmas for one neighbor- and Josh loves to knock and hide each night and wait to hear their "Merry Christmas, Whoever you are!" each time.

3. Baptismal preparation. I was able to witness Josh's interview by the bishop for his worthiness to be baptized. I got tears a couple different times. Josh is very excited, and VERY prepared. He was so excited to talk to the Bishop about his testimony and the things he's been learning in preparation for his baptism. He explained the dispensations of times in a way the Bishop "had never heard and 8 year old explain so well before".

I love this busy time of year!!!

My kids are cute

1. Heard in the car yesterday:
Dekker: I have so many friends. Christian, Nathan, Logan, Ethan, Stevie...
Josh: Crystal!
Dekker: Yeah, I guess Crystal too
Josh: She's your GIRLFRIEND.
Dekker: No she's not. She has a crush on me- but I broke that love!

Haha!

2. Most morning I bring Titus in to bed to nurse before getting up. He lays next to me and has his breakfast- then when he's done he rolls over- scoots up to Jake and gives him "boob-warmed kisses" (that's what Jake calls them) right on the mouth. Jake says its his favorite way to wake up.

3.  We love Naomi- but she can be a grumpy pants. She lights to cry and whine to get things- a lot of times when we ask why she's crying she says, "You made me sad!" We've been trying to teach her lately that she needs to "choose to be happy and smile". Well, sometimes during they day if I'm working on something or frustrated with something I must make my own "frowny face" because I'll be in the middle of something and she'll tell me, "Mom, be HAPPY! Be happy to me!" Always a good reminder.

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Where did summer go?

This summer has gone by incredibly fast. I could sit here and write about so many things from this summer that I'm thankful for. I hate that I'm always playing catch up on this blog anymore! Instead I'll just write what I'm thinking about right now.

1. Josh is in 2nd grade! My first born is getting so big. It's a little sad to have him gone for so much of each day again- be we had such a jam packed full of fun summer that I don't feel too bad about it. In fact, the timing is pretty good since things just started winding down and I started to hear the "Mom- what can we do for fun now?" a lot. At least they don't say "I'm bored!".

2. Dekker is going into Kindergarten! He doesn't start until next Tuesday. So these few days where Josh goes and he doesn't are hard on him. He misses his play buddy. The nice thing is that he plays more and much nicer with Naomi when Josh isn't around- and she loves that. Sending Dex to Kindergarten won't be nearly as hard as it was to send Josh- since he went to preschool 4 days a week last year- it's really just one more day a week. And then I get time to focus more on my little two.

3. Father's Blessings. Tonight for FHE Jake gave Josh and Dekker there blessings. Naomi wanted a "turn" too. She sat up on the stool and folded her arms and squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head for the whole time. I couldn't help but peak. I felt an overwhelming love from our Heavenly Father for this, the only baby girl in our family. It really was distinct. I'm so happy she's part of our home.

I love my family.

Trip to California

1. Safe travels. The Tahoe passed 110k miles on our trip. Some of the weather stripping came loose, at one point the thermostate on the drivers side wouldn't work right, Naomi stuck something in and broke our DVD player, and by the end of the trip our car was a MESS- but there were no major car issues, and we had safe roads and travel- so I am very thankful for that.

2. Jake caught the Disney bug! Jake had never been to Disneyland and wasn't super excited to go. With his bad ankle all he could imagine was being uncomfortable standing in lines all day. Since he's just a big kid at heart though, I knew that once I got him there he'd have fun. That was the truth. He had a blast and even ended up being the one hurrying our kids onto as many rides as possible. And once we learned how to manage a line time app and fast passes- we really didn't have to do too much standing in line anyway.

3. Minnie meets Minnie. It was cute when at our Character Breakfast our Minnie met Minnie. She was being very shy of course and didn't want to get close to her- but she made the connection I guess, because later when we were in one of the gift shops she found some Minnie ears and latched onto them and wouldn't let go. She also sweet talked her dad into buying her a little Minnie pin. Oh- and  another favorite Minnie moment was on the first day when Jake let her pick out a sucker- as they were walking to the register she found a GIANT one, and without taking her eyes off of it she handed the smaller one back to Jake and with a big grin grabbed the big one!

4. Dekker at CARS LAND. Dekker LOVES the CARS movies and all things cars really- so when he found out CARS LAND would be opening two week before we got there he got super excited. That's where the lines were the longest of course- but luckily he has a sweet aunt and cousin who were kind enough to go first thing in the morning to stand in line and get fast passes for the Speedway ride. They got there as early as they could, stood in line for 45 minutes and the fast passes were STILL not till 4:40 that evening. We got to go though and it was Dekker's favorite ride.

5. Just tall enough. Josh was just tall enough to go on all the big roller coaster rides. The first one we took him on was California Screamin. He was so nervous- but such a good sport. Jake talked him into doing a lot of them. He said in the end that Star Tours and Space Mountain were his favorites.

6. Family, family, and more family! We got to see Mom and Denny, Garrett & Rachel with Charlie, Kari, and Kjerstin at Disneyland. Then we headed up to my Dad's for the forth. It was SO GOOD to see Kjerstin there talking to her dad again (Brian). And we got to see Brian and Erin, Sera and Shaun, my DAD and his crazy beard.

7. Enjoyed the Bybee Ranch. It'll be interesting to see what happens with that place. My dad still has it listed, but with all his retirement wrapped up in it, and the supressed real estate market, who knows if he'll ever get an offer that will be attractive enough to actually let go of the place. I know that when we are all there and enjoying it- he remembers why he worked so hard to buy and establish the place- but when he's there all alone dealing with the maintenance, finances, and legalities- it's another story. So it was great to be there and make more memories in that beautiful, magical place. We had fun fetching eggs from the chickens, picking raspberries, catching frogs, trying paddle boards, swimming, skiing, canoeing, jumping on the trampoline, playing in the sand pit, picking flowers, walking the vineyards and watching the sunset.

8. Visiting friends. My good friend from high school, Camille, and her family live in the bay area now. So she and her family came up and spent the 4th of July with us. She had her baby just two and a half weeks before so I got to meet her little tiny one. One the way home we also stopped in Reno for a break and visited Rebecca, who was my "companion" for the semester I spent in Guatemala. I haven't seen her in years- and so it was fun to catch up with her as well.

Memorial Day weekend

Before I get to our Memorial Day weekend...

1. Karina is back from her mission! She got back April 19th. She went home to Washington first of course, but came and stayed here with us May 7-18th. It was so great to catch up with her and reminisce on mission life. Jake was called to be our ward mission leader right before she got here too- so that was pretty cool. We had a little BBQ here in her honor. Took her shopping. And she helped watch the kids while I worked on our front yard and Jake and I got to go out on a date!

2. Rain can be good. It was cool, windy and rainy most Fri-Sun of Memorial Day weekend- but we still had fun Saturday we went up to the air show at Hill Air Force Base. On our drive there we worried maybe it was a bad idea because it was a hard downpour, but by the time we got there it had lightened up, so we decided to get out the umbrellas and jackets and at least go see a couple ground displays. The boys had a blast tromping through puddles and using an umbrella, and by the time we got on the base it had stopped raining and they began the air show. Since most people had left by then, due to the rain, we had front row spots! It was a lot of fun, even if some of them were really loud.

3. I'm thankful for my country and freedoms. We live near a cemetery, and since Memorial Day the place is COVERED in flowers. It is such a great reminder to think of those who have past, especially those who have died protecting our country and freedoms. Oh, and for Mother's Day Kari and I took some white lilies to Bradley's grave for my mom.

4. Nice weather! On Monday we finally had sunshine and warmer temperatures. Jake went golfing in the morning. Bryn and Jesus came by in the afternoon to tell us about their Europe trip and enjoy a little BBQ. Then we took the boat out for our first time this year in the evening. The boys dropped their poles in and tried (unsuccessfully) to catch some fish. The kids had fun sitting on the back deck of the boat and dipping their feet in. It was a beautiful evening- even if it did end with me dropping my cell phone into the lake!

5. New phone. At least the timing was right for me to have a credit for a new phone on our cell phone plan! The new EVO just came out, and so I looked into that- but it looked as if they were hard to get, and even with my phone credit it was going to be expensive. I found the fury though, that fit my cell phone needs just fine- so Jake went and picked one up for me yesterday.

6. Our front yard is looking so much better! After the excavation we paid someone to come and do the grading, topsoil, and some cleanup and decorative rock placement. Jake put in a few spicket heads so that we could run a basic above ground sprinkler system. Then we had to do some more of the topsoil moving, build planter boxes, plant trees, starts, and seeds. We're starting to see things sprout up, our sod is finally mostly green (for a while we were worried when about half of it looked like it'd died), and it's actually looking pretty nice!!!

Busy times

1. Garrett, Racheal and Charlie came to visit! They came for conference weekend- sort of. Racheal had a mission companion from South Africa who was going to be in town, and so they came to see her, us, and some other friends. It was so nice to visit with them! I guess that's the nice thing about being far away from family- you appreciate the time you DO get with them even more.

2. Yard excavation. We had our front yard excavated. The dug out the front yard and put in rock steps and a new rock wall. It opens up our yard SO much! We were all kinda mesmerized by the backhoe too- pretty cool to see all that rock and dirt moved around. Now we have to put in our spickets off of the secondary water source so we can plant grass and other stuff. Lots of work, but it's great to see much more potential.

3. Titus' blessing and Easter. We had both of Jake's sets of parents here. I was a little nervous- but it worked out well. The blessing was beautiful! Dot, Brea and I went shopping up at the outlets while the boys went fishing. Dot offered to buy me something new to wear for the blessing. I was SO happy when I actually found something at Banana Republic that fits my current body, that I can nurse in, that I'll be wear even after losing the rest of the baby weight, and that is flattering now! We did a BBQ and made taquitos Saturday night, and our traditional leg of lamb dinner on Sunday. Tio & Bryn, Brea and Tom, and Trish all came for the blessing too. It was a great weekend.

4. General Conference was amazing. A bit out of order- but really- I LOVED so many of the talks I heard, and the spirit I felt. I need to start going back and listening/reading them again, cause there was just SO MUCH that I felt was just for me!

5. TJ's smiles! I got nervous when Titus didn't seem to be making eye contact a lot- but then he started getting better. Then I was nervous because he hadn't smiled yet- but now he is doing that too. I'd read that you need to adjust milestone expectations for premature babies, but I was still nervous. I even got Jake nervous about the possibility of autism. I guess you never really can know this early- but it's been such a relief to have TJ locking eyes with us and smiling more each day.

6. Time with Minnie. Before TJ was born I tried to treasure moments with my baby girl. She can be a handful though- and it wasn't always easy. However, we started a habit of her taking showers with me. It was much easier than worrying about what she might get into while I was showering! At first she would just sit on the bench mostly out of the water and wait for me. Then she started copying me and wanting the wash cloth or pumas stone and stepping into the spray a bit. Then one day she reached up and wanted me to hold her. Something about that skin to skin time is just precious. Lately she doesn't get in the shower with me as regularly as she used to- but when she does she still reaches up to me for some snuggle time. She lays her head on my shoulder and I just treasure it. Oh how I love my little girl!