Yes on 8!

So I had to post these, because I am so proud of my kids, and their long suffering

hours at the few prop 8 sign waving days we went to. After the first time, they really did well, and had a lot of fun! These pics include Jakes friend JP Boyd, and one includes part of JP's mom and sister! Sorry, Becky! I didnt take these pics! Anyways, yeah for Prop 8! The unimaginable was accomplished and the long suffering was rewarded, even through the different trials we all suffered we all stood strong and beat the opposition back, so to speak. Anyways, it is really sad to see the issues that are continuing, especially the no on 8 people gathering at the LA temple! You know what really bothers me most though? All I hear is how sad, you people have broken hearts today and with prop 8, well you know what if it had gone the other way there would have been a lot more broken hearts out there! and would they have cared at all? NO! Would we have marched on their sacred places of worship or their homes? NO! I really am fired up about this. Why is it all about their rights? What about ours? We are just as entitled to believe what we believe and live as we would like to live as they are theirs. Sorry everyone, I just had to rant a little.

Jakes first field trip!

Here are pics of Jakeys first field trip ever! The kindergarten went to the Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin patch. They got a Tractor ride, a visit to the petting zoo, and a chance to pick out their own pumpkin! They all had a lot of fun, I went along, and was assigned my Jake, and another little boy named Gavin. The kids were exhausted once they got back on the bus, oh yeah that was another thing, this was Jakes first time ever riding on the school bus! He had a ton of fun, in fact I asked him if he just wanted to drive back with us (I carpooled with some friends in the ward) and he said no, I really want to ride the bus. Just wait, soon he will be begging me to drive him, I used to HATE the bus!!

By the way, this petting zoo was crazy! The goats were jumping all over me! I could not wait to get out of there! But the kids loved it, go figure right?


The whole class! cute, huh?

Another baby gets older!

So, my Lily is turning 3 this weekend! I am a little bit in shock. I dont know why, I know it is bound to happen and I expect and anticipate each birthday, but for some reason, when the day is here, it is mind blowing, that my children are older! So we had a little tea party with some of her friends this morning to celebrate her bday, and it was so much fun, but imagine 7 little girls pouring water for themselves, and passing cake and cookies around! The floor was not a very pretty sight, but Lily had a blast! This weeks cake happened to be the very first fondant cake I have ever done (that turned out beautiful), so I was excited to use it for this party. Anyways, Happy Birthday ma Belle!

Lily's Adventure

Ok so, I KNOW that this happens to at least one person in every family, but recently it happened to our Lily. Apparently she got a little bored one night when she was left at home with Daddy. So she started playing with erasers while watching TV with Grandpa. After awhile, Nephi noticed there were pieces of an eraser in her hand, and she was picking at her nose saying "ow, ow". Upon inspection, Nephi could see a large BLOCKAGE in her NOSTRIL. Well, her sinuses. Anyways.. they tried to get it out with tweezers, and it just pushed it back, so they made a surgical table out of the kitchen table so they could try again with the tweezers. Then Nephi grabbed a pen, a writing pen that is, started to pull it apart and told my Dad "This is gonna be gross". Then Dad with a puzzled look figured out what Nephi was doing, and said, "would you rather use a straw?" but, Nephi declined and proceeded to put the empty pen shaft into Lilys nostril and SUCKED! On the second try, he sucked it out! luckily without any boogers reaching his mouth through the pen. Enjoy the pic of the gigantic piece of eraser stuck in my little girls nose! You can barely see it in the pic, its the little dot in her hand. This is what I came home too, after a night out with my mom!

Trying to catch up!

I am so sorry to those of you that are avid and consistent blog readers, but we have just been way too busy! Every time I think wow, life is busy, it just gets busier! So, a lot has happened! I feel so bad, because I made it a point to video Cody learning to walk a few months ago, and I never even got it on my blog, so that was one huge thing my baby learned to walk a few months ago, he was about 10 and a half months. Then he turned one year old! Crazy, huh? Baby Cody, wont be a baby for too much longer.. That makes me a little sad to be losing my little baby boy.. but NOT THAT SAD! He really is a sweet boy, but he still drives me nuts sometimes! He loves his brother and sister, and is seriously sad if either or both of them arent around! Jake was involved in a lot of things this month, in the beginning of the month the kindergarten classes did a performance that was sooo cute, Jakey still sings all of the songs! He did really well, and had a lot of fun! Also his school, in leiu of Halloween they do scarecrow day, where all of the kids come dressed as Scarecrows, which was fun, but all month Nephi has been really upset with the idea of not celebrating Halloween at school, so he made Jake an Indian Jones Scarecrow. Jake loved the idea, because he wanted to show his teacher his hat everyday since school started anyways! So today he went to school dressed as an Indiana Jones Scarecrow! he really did look pretty cool, he even had a corn cob whip! it was pretty neat. Tomorrow he is going to attend his very first school field trip, he has never ridden on a bus before so he is pretty excited. They will be going to a pumkin patch, so hopefully I will have pictures of that up soon!

By the way YES ON 8!!! We will keep on fighting to preserve a good future for our children! We really have had a lot of fun helping in our small ways with the campaign we have learned a lot about ourselves and definitely have strengthened our testimonies!

Okay, so here are the cute pics:

My sweet one year old Cody

Indiana Jones the Scarecrow!

My more recent cakes, hello people! I seriously need to practice give me something to flex my creative muscles!

Cody's b-day cake

It was supposed to be a dinosaur, but it ended up as more of a dragon!

Kimberly's b-day cake, Happy 18th!

oh yeah, that was another major event! We surprised my newest adult sister with a trip to LA to see Wicked the night of her bday! Thank you Janice for the awesome tickets!

A quick Baja weekend

So, we are crazy and Thursday morning, we decided that we really really wanted to go to Baja. My grandpa had asked us to go with them on the 15th, but we just couldnt figure out how we could do it, there is just too much going on starting this week, so we realized Nephi had a couple days off, and we should just do it. So we went to Mexico with our kids, and spent a couple of days there! It was really a lot of fun, a little wierd for us, since it was the first time down there by ourselves as the only adults, but it was still fun, the most fun of the trip was the kids actually getting on the surfboard and riding some waves in. Jake especially was a shock, because normally he is afraid to even step in the ocean, but as you will see in the videos, the ocean is really tame, and perfect for the kids, and they loved it, now they think they are surfers! Anyway, check out my cute kids.

This video is of Jakeys first wave ever! Thank goodness for digital cameras and there video capability or I would have missed it! Doesnt he look like he was born to surf? (tell Nephi that, he is so proud and excited!)

This video is of Lily surfing, it isnt her first unfortunately because I am a big dork, and didnt have it on video when she first tried it, but here she is again, looking like a pro! or a frog... but darn cute!

Sorry it has been so long!

It has been way too long, sorry everyone! So much can happen in a little time, that it makes me sad that it has been awhile, because there have been a lot of blog worthy moments! So to begin.. somewhere near the beginning of the month, Nephi's cousin paid good old California a visit! Curt and Tiffany stayed with us the first night of their trip so that we could play at the beach the next day with them, we had so much fun with them, and our kids loved theirs. It really was one of those visits where I wished they lived closer! Oh and Tiffany if you are checking this out, I found swimsuits for little girls at the OTHER Target! They actually have a few more styles as of today! Can you believe it? Only in CA right?
This first pic is of Curt and Tiffany and their kids Tony and Courtney.

This pic is going to be one of my favorite moments, because somehow the kids figured out that they could make "sand angels" cute, huh? I think Tony had to clue them in on this one because I'm sure my kids have only ever seen the idea on TV. The So Cal version! I sincerely thought it was hilarious! My kids, have never even made real snow angels!

Okay, next on my busy agenda of late has been doing cake decorating classes. I took the same class 3 years ago, and had fun, but I never did anything with it, but I always wish I had, because I really do enjoy it, and I have always wanted to start a little business doing birthday cakes, but ultimately wedding cakes. So, this is the first cake I did for my class, cute isnt she? So, if anyone needs a custom birthday cake or special occasion cake, let me know! I really need the practice, and for now, I'm really only gonna charge just materials, so sincerely minimal cost, definitely cheaper than a costco cake, right? and cuter! So let me know!

Lastly, I wanted to update everyone on how Jake is doing at school, which thankfully is finally going much smoother. This week had absolutely no crying fits or visits to the office! Yeah! He is such a good kid, that this has all been kinda hard to take, but he is finally getting used to school! He is still really enjoying school, and he is so smart... seriously, I mean, I know I'm his mom and all, but I have a really good story! yesterday, while doing his homework, I was explaining to my Dad the kind of math they do, and how neat it was that he was actually doing math.. and so my Dad teasingly asked Jake, "So Jake, whats 2x5?" and he thought for a second and said"10". We all laughed and said haha lucky guess jakey. I asked him again and he answered the same with no hesitation.. and then my dad said, "well whats 2x4?" and he thought for about 4 seconds and said "8". Then we asked him 2x3 and he got that right too! So, when I say Jake is smart... he seriously is SMART! Sorry for bragging everyone, but I really am just so proud of the progress he is making, I thought for sure we might have major attention issues and therefore learning issues to deal with, so this type of progress is exciting for me. As I said before Jake LOVES school, he is adjusting well, and I am really enjoying taking him to school, volunteering in class, and having only 2 kids for a little while! Wow what a difference, let me tell you!

Laguna beach

This was actually from a couple of weeks ago, but I have been so busy, and I really wanted to put these pics up. So, Kelly and Richard Veirs invited us to spend time with them down in Laguna this year, and despite it being Lake Laguna, as the boys called it, we had soo much fun! Cody got his first ride on a bodyboard with Daddy and he had a lot of fun! Richard had little Owen on a bodyboard too, and they all looked so cute! I wish I had gotten it on video, but by the time I actually got the camera out and took pictures Cody was just about done. He rode several waves until he got splashed really good in the face, and then he decided he didnt want Daddy anymore. We love the beach and cannot believe it is already the end of summer! I almost entitled this entry as our last summer visit to the beach, but we already have plans for the weekend! What can you expect from a husband who practically breathes salty water?



Lake Laguna
Best Friends!
like the crack? we see it at the beach every time!
poor baby, he just cant help it if his mom liked the shorts so much she had to get them even if they were a little big!
sweet sand monster every time!

My First baby,and his First day of school!

My baby went to school! I am still trying to believe it. I am slowly coming to realize the magnitude of what has just begun, 18 some odd more years(including Cody) of school, and volunteering, PTA, field trips, projects, HOMEWORK! WOW! It is seriously a daunting future in that respect, but I have really been so excited for this day, which is probably why it all went wrong... Too much expectation, leads to nothing ever being able to meet it, right? It all began as a really good morning, I had offered to babysit my cousins little girl, Hailey, and that was going really well, the kids all played well, we had a nice smooth morning. Then at around 1045, we set off to walk to school, its just down the street, so I thought, this would be perfect, take the kids on a walk, the girls could play at the park, it all would continue going smooth. However, it happened to be the hottest day of the summer, and by the time we reached the corner of our street Lily decided she did not want to walk anymore! So, she proceeded to cry (loudly) the entire rest of the time. We get to the school, we are waiting for the teacher to let us in, and I notice that Jake is becoming a lot more whiny and nervous, which definitely is made worse because Lily is still crying (loudly!). We put his backpack down, put his lunch away, put his homework folder in the right box, and Jake walks over to the shade of a tree takes off his name tag and starts crying (quietly), more like whining. Great! Lily is still crying, Jake is whining, Hailey is still being good, but then Cody starts crying. I am really starting to freak out at this point, because I had yet to get a picture of Jake AT school. Anyways, I get the kids a drink of water, they calm down a little, even though they almost rioted when I began to walk away, and finally the kids start lining up to go into class. So thus, I finally get the Jake picture standing in line. Jake gets in line, smiles and waves, wipes his forehead a dozen times, because he is seriously sweating like crazy! and walks on in, with barely literally a glance behind. Then I, the lucky mom, walked home trying to push a double stroller with a 2 year old and a baby in it, and held Lily in my arms. Live and learn, right?

I go to pick up Jake, and I was REALLY nervous, because he was nervous, but kinda excited because this is a first still, and the teacher beckons to me, and tells me that she needs to have a "word" before I leave. GREAT!! My son, first day of school!! The Troublemaker. Turns out he had a hard day, because he wouldnt really follow directions very smoothly, rather rough actually, but it was seriously to be expected, because I know my son, and listening is a very rough area in his life. That is why we are actually going for a hearing test tomorrow... but that is another story. Anyways, the best part of the story is, that Jake, after having a hard day and all, ran up to Nephi when he got home, and said "Dad, school was GREAT!" he really was so happy, and is still so happy to be going to school. Which is awesome! My sweet troublemaker son! His first day of Kindergarten! Over. Done. Just the beginning!

family update

We have had a slight change of plans for our immediate future. We are going to be holding off on the move to Azusa for awhile, we are staying in Rancho with my parents, until further notice. Its good and bad all wrapped up into one, as all of you living with your parents well know! One exciting thing that comes with this news is that Jake will be starting school next week! at Golden just down the street from my parents, so we will be walking him to school! He is excited, but I must admit I am way more excited than he is :)
Life is good and we are as always infinitely blessed.

Picture Tag

Picture Tag!

yeah!

Alright, the rules are that you have to take ten pictures of the following things, just as I have! No straightening, no cleaning, and no making your kids look cute! That includes wiping noses! Then you have to tag at least five others.

It really was fun! Didnt take too long, I had just finished doing laundry when I checked Holly Hulls blog and saw that I was tagged! Anyhow it was fun, even funner because it is not my house, and its pretty! Still a little messy, in most pics, because keep in mind we are in limbo here at my moms, so we are jam packed in here. I'm just grateful I didnt have to take a picture of the kids room or closet! Enjoy!

1. The Fridge

I'm sure that my mom is glad that she just cleaned it out, not too bad for having my family of 5 and my parents and my 2 sisters.

2. The Closet

We are jam packed in here! but still pretty organized, huh?

3. Self portrait

Gross. Not exactly ready to go out. Or do I normally look like that?

4. Favorite room

This is my favorite room because it is the everything room, it has the most comfortable couches, toys, movies, kitchen right next to it. It has it all.

5. Kitchen Sink

Not too bad, but I think my mom will still kill me for showing you this :)

6. The Laundry room

nothing fancy, I love that it can be hidden away behind closed doors.

7. The Toilet

I hate cleaning the bathroom, and although it is not exceptional, I was kinda glad to show this, because I was the last to clean it, just recently too!

8. What are your kids doing right now?

Jake is playing Indiana Jones legos on the Wii.

Lily is being caught sneaking snacks, notice she is holding chex mix in her hands.

by the way, I did not dress her this morning. She dressed herself.

Cody is actually sleeping!Can you believe it? I think this actually might be the first picture taken of Cody while he is sleeping! Its not very often that it happens this long.

9. Dream Vacation

Hawaii, someday.

10. Favorite shoes

okay, so these are my favorite shoes, because they still look nice, and I feel pretty when I wear them. You know, less like a mom, and more like a woman. They have heels. The only heels I have left.

Alright, I am tagging Shauna, Alyssa, Kati, Carly, and Amanda, good luck guys! I cant wait to see the pics!

Raging Waters is sooo fun!!

We have been so blessed this summer! We have been having so much fun doing different things, but by far, the kids have been loving Raging waters! We have been a few times with Nephi, and then once we met our friends there. The group picture is with Melanie and all of the little monkeys we were watching, while Shauna took the big kids on a few rides! Yes thats right, she dragged my son too, and if anyone truly knows my son, he is a big wimp, and doesnt like to do anything unless he is used to it, like years used to it. So Shauna made him go on a group ride, I forget what its called, and he LOVED it! Yeah Shauna!

Cody, gets splashed in the face by these little squirt things and he loves it!


This is Jake with his friend Preston, Cool pic, huh?

Thanks for inviting us Shauna! We always have more fun with you and your group!

Visit from Kiki

So my sister surprised us all with a visit last week! It was so much fun! They literally surprised us though, we had about a nights notice. Her sweet husband kinda jumped on the opportunity and brought their little family down from Thursday to Monday morning. We didnt do a lot, we went to the beach, shopped, celbrated pioneer day! This is the second time my family has been able to spend time with baby Aidan, and the kids LOVE him, Lily loves to kiss him, and hug him, Cody seemed to breathe a sigh of relief during the visit, Actually come to think of it, he really was soo good last week. Sorry, you cant see my hair cut that well everyone, doing ones hair is not smart when you are on your way to the beach. By the way Kiki is what my kids call my sister, Aunt Kiki.