Fall & Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year felt different to me for some reason. It didn't feel like it should have been Thanksgiving yet and the week went by really really fast! And the day didnt't seem all that different than any other day of the week (except the large quantities of food that I consumed that day). But the interesting thing to me is that now that it is officially Christmas time, it feels a lot more like Christmas to me this year than it did last year. I wonder if it has to do with this year I have put more time and thought into thinking about Christmas than I did last year. Last year I remember having more of a "can't wait to get this over with attitude." I don't know, anyway, I am very excited this year for Christmas it will be lots of fun especially with Jacob learning who Jesus is and pointing at the tree and getting all excited when the lights turn on. And Brad and I will both be able to be there Christmas morning this year to see the look on his face when he sees and gets to open his presents! I am very excited for it all!

Well a couple of days before Thanksgiving Jacob's cousin, Rozalyn, from across the street came over to invite Jacob to come play in the leaves with her in her front yard. So we went over and they both had a great time. Jacob had fun throwing the leaves, but his most favorite thing was picking the little red berries off the bushes.

For Thanksgiving my Sister Lisa and her family came out from Southern California and we had lots of fun with them and on Thanksgiving day we had almost the whole family there we were just missing a sister and a brother. But they had other plans for the day, but we missed them. I was really tired and kind of cranky that week so I didn't really get around to taking too many pictures, Jacob also was teething that week and of course he decides that he wants to get all 4 k-9 teeth in all at once and of course his worst day was on Thanksgiving day, he had a fever and would not let me put him down. Making it very hard for me or anyone to enjoy the day. But we made it through and I did remember to take a few pictures of the feast...

And then this is what Iwas doing most of the day...

I really shouldn't complain I am sure there are plenty of other people that would have rather been in my shoes than cooking or cleaning and it could have been a lot worse! So I guess I am grateful for that.

That weekend I got sick and then Jacob got a little sick and then Brad got sick. And of course they all feel better and I am still sick but now I have a cold instead of the flu. But it still could be worse.

But despite being sick I somehow was able to muster up just enough energy to decorate for Christmas. Most of it Brad and I did while Jacob took his nap and then we wanted to let him help and decorate the tree, which he was very excited about. He is just like his mommy in the aspect of that the tree decorations never look quite right and I can always see a better place to put something so I am always rearranging and replacing something, and he does the same thing he will take something off and come and hand it to me or he will take stuff off and put it on the floor and then put it back on tree.

Backyard Shenanigans...

Not really...but do ya think that is how they came up with the name for the kids TV show Backyardigans? Hmmmm????

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, the landlords had finally made some progress on the landscape. We have been living with dirt for a front and backyard and it was messy dirt, nails, screws, wires, etc. scattered throughout it, so it was really hard to let Jacob play outside. But they got it cleaned for the most part and put in the rock landscape part and they are supposed to be planting grass, but I don't know if that will happen before next spring. But Jacob absolutely loves playing out there, he would spend all day out there if we would let him. The other day his cousins came over and they went outside and played and had so much fun!

I just love his boots. We really don't ever change Jacob out of his pajamas that often. I know, bad Mom! But sometimes it just seems pointless. :)

Look at those Basketball skills!

I am making some goals for myself as a mom. I am going to make a conscious effort to take him outside more often and let him play. He loves it so much outside and I don't want him to ever loose that. I don't want him to become addicted to watching TV and definitely don't want him to become addicted to computer games, (that one is more for his future wife:-)) Since I have the day off tomorrow, the TV is not even going to be turned on tomorrow, I am challenging myself to keep him entertained without help from the TV. We will see how it goes, it should be fun!

Halloween

We had a really fun halloween this year. Brad and I both got lucky and neither of us had to work. We started our Halloween festivities out with carving pumpkins a couple of days before Halloween. Jacob wasn't all that interested at first, but once I put his pumpkin on the ground and gave him a spoon and let him play with the insides of the pumpkins is when the real fun began for him. He didn't understand that we were trying to take the seeds and stuff out, it was much more fun to put them back in. Brad and I both tried to follow one of the patterns that came with the pumpkin carving set. Don't recommend doing those, they are way too time consuming, the carving tools on the other hand were awesome, especially the scoop.

So the plan for Jacob's halloween costume this year was to find a cow costume. The reason being that he LOVES cows. He sees a horse and thinks it's a cow, he sees a sheep and calls it a cow. Now of course we try and correct him, but he just really likes cows. He is really cute when he tries to moo. Anyway, you would think that a cow costume would be easy to find for a toddler, well we were wrong. The only cow costume I ever found for him was $40 and I wasn't prepared to pay that much for a costume. So at sort of last minute the Sunday before Halloween my sister suggested to do a mummy costume, it would be easy to just wrap him up in gauze and send him on his way. So I went looking for gauze the next day, by the time I got enough gauze to wrap him in, I might as well have bought the cow costume. So I went home to think about this some more. I realized I had an old sheet that was tan/cream color and I could just rip that into strips and wrap him in it. The next problem was that he would NOT hold still long enough to let me wrap him in it. So yet again back to thinking about this some more, by this time it is Wednesday and I was supposed to be working both Thursday and Friday, so I had to get this done that day, cause I wouldn't have time for it later on. I went back to the stores in a desperate attempt to find any costume that would work for him and wasn't over $15. But there was still nothing. I finally decided to search on the internet to see what I could find as far as instructions on how to make a mummy costume and found an awesome youtube video that had step-by-step instructions, but I had to sew each of the strips onto an old pair of pants and a t-shirt, so after a late night of sewing and an early morning of sewing I was finally able to get it done. Moral of the story is....I really don't know. But Jake was happy, Daddy was happy, and I eventually got over the sore neck and shoulders from sitting at the sewing machine for so long. I think that was the first time that my messy sewing actually ended making the project turn out better :)

It didn't take Jake very long to figure out that if he says trick-or-treat that he will get some candy in his little bucket. He didn't want to stop trick-or-treating. But once we gave him a piece of candy he didn't mind too much that it was time to come inside.

Jacob held on tight to his candy bucket, he thought we were going to try and take it away.

His favorite candy.....the dumdum sucker. He loved it!

Jacob got up this morning and looked out of the front window and saw the Jack-o-lanterns, and said 'trick-or-treat" and ran to the door. He wanted to do it all over again today. Sorry Jake, you are going to need atleast a year to recover from all of that sugar :)

We had a very fun Halloween this year and having Jacob with us at this age is what made it as fun as it was. Kids always make things funner!

Oh my!

I have fallen so behind in blogging, but in all reality, there hasn't been that much going on lately. I have been working a lot more so I have been trying to find a good balance between working and trying to keep things in order at home. Brad has been doing a pretty good job since he is home a lot more lately and he has been helping me out getting stuff done around the house when I am just being too lazy to get it done. :)

We just got back today from California. We went out to Victorville to see our sister in law (Gina) get baptized. We are so happy for her and we had so much fun. It was a last minute trip but it turned out to be very fun and relaxing for the most part. I feel bad because I brought my camera but when I finally went to use it the batteries were dead, so no pictures of Jake having fun will all of his cousins.

Jacob is doing good. He turned 18 months old on Sept. 22, hopefully we will get out this week and take some pictures, *fingers crossed* He has so much personality and he is constantly entertaining us. He has had some sleeping issues lately but we think we may have finally conquered them and gotten past it. Only time will tell. He is learning so quickly lately and is just picking up on everything we teach him.

Sorry no pictures. I usually only read other people's blog posts when there are pictures, so hopefully this interests someone out there :)

Just Playin'...

We are slowly getting settled into our new house. I am having a serious dilemma though, almost all of our walls on our side of the house are cinder-block (?spelling?), which means since we are renting I don't want to go and drill holes in the brick and have to worry about filling it when we move out. I have tried those sticky hook things, and they worked for about a week and then just last week we would all of a sudden hear a crash of some sort to find things falling off the walls. ARRRGGGHHH! I can't stand having bare walls! Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!

But on a happier note, Jake is getting used to his room and the house in general. He always wants to go outside, and everytime we take him out he thinks that he can just walk across the street to his cousin's house. It is very sweet that he loves going over there so much, but scary when he bolts toward the street. The other day we went out in our backyard (which is currently ALL dirt) and we were cleaning out his pool and getting it ready for him to swim in the next day and this is what happened:

I was a little bummed cause those shoes were brand new, but the fun that he had totally made up for it. The last picture Brad is spraying him off with the hose, he didn't really care for that too much.

Some of you may know...some not. But Brad just started working the night shift at his job. It will be a bit of a pay cut, but I am going back to work, almost full-time, and so we are hoping that will more than make up for the decrease in his paycheck. The only reason why it is going to be a pay cut is cause he won't be getting as many hours of over-time, so he is working 45 hours a week instead of 56. Last night was his first night and he said it was really hard to stay awake, but we are hoping that after a couple of weeks his body will have adjusted, so it isn't so hard. It's weird but I am kind of excited to be getting more hours at work. I know crazy, right? But I guess it is cause I really like my job and I also like all of the people that I work with.

Boring post..I know.

We are moved...

Well we finally did it. We moved into the new house we are renting. If I remember I will post pictures later on after everything is all in it's place. We are going to be sharing the house with my parents for about a year to help us get caught up on stuff that we fell behind on due to my hours getting cut back at work and cars breaking down and stuff that happens like that, ya know, LIFE! :) The funny thing is is that this is the first house that my parents bought after we moved here from Oregon like 15+ years ago and then the guy that bought it after us fixed it up real nice and is renting it out. My brother lives across the street from us so Jacob will be closer to his cousin and we also have a big backyard for Jacob to play in, just waiting for the grass to go in in about another month, which will be perfect cause that is about when it will start to cool down here. So all in all we are very excited!

California Vacation...

This past week we were lucky enough to be able to visit our family in Southern California. Brad's brother was getting married so we decided to make a vacation out of it and stay for a week, we would have stayed longer if we could but Brad had to get back to work. We had lots of fun, we played games, we went swimming, we went to the San Diego Zoo, and we sort of relaxed.

The day we were getting ready to leave, Jacob broke out with a fever, I thought he was getting sick again, but now I think it was just from teething, which is weird cause he has never had a fever before from teething, but the day the fever went away we noticed that a new tooth had broken through. But because of all of that he didn't sleep very well the first couple of nights and was VERY cranky the first couple of days and pretty much all through the rest of the week and of course the last night we were there he decides to be in a better mood and act more like himself again.

Anyway the first day we were there we had a bridal shower for the bride to be which was a lot of fun and afterwards all of the girls went out to lunch and just talked and goofed around.

Then the next day we just relaxed and caught up on some sleep and then Brad and I and Jacob headed out to my sister's house in Mission Viejo where we swam and BBQed.

Thank you Brad for being so modest :)

Then on Monday we planned as our Zoo day...Brad and I both were really excited to take Jacob to the Zoo while we were down there, we thought that since he was starting to notice things like the birds and dogs and different animals that he sees, and that he gets excited about them, that he would really enjoy the Zoo, well we were wrong :( He cried most of the time on the bus tour and he would get mad at us whenever we would stop the stroller to look at something. Looking back now it might not have been that bad, but it was soooo busy at the Zoo. All of the best exhibits had a TONof people by them, I couldn't believe the line there was for the panda (we didn't even want to attempt that). Jacob actually did better than I am making it sound, considering we had to wait in some sort of a line in order to see most of the exhibits. Then about 3 or 4 hours into our day at the Zoo Jacob fell asleep, which I figured he would probably do, but we had hardly done anything yet cause everything was taking so long to see, so we decided to pack up and go back to Lisa's (my sister) and swim and hang out there. We will try to attempt it another time that isn't in the summer with all the other tourists.

Jacob's favorites were the monkeys and the turtles. In fact he is now saying "turtle" it is pretty clear and very cute when he says it.

AWWW...he is all tuckered out...so cute and Brad is looking rather handsome as well. :)

That evening after dinner at a pretty good mexican restaurant with my sister and her family we went back to my sister's only to be welcomed by this....
Yes that is a dead rat, and that is my Bro-in-laws impersonation of a dead rat. (Some of you may understand most of you won't). For those of you who don't know Brad very well he has a very sensitive stomach and he did just eat a very filling mexican dinner....for more details on this you can visit my sister's blog here.

Tuesday was planned as our beach day but when it came time to leave for the beach, neither of us wanted to go...Jacob needed a nap, Brad and I were both cranky and on each other's last nerve that we were getting snappy with each other. So we decided to head out to Norco and spend the rest of our time there. Tuesday and Wednesday we just relaxed and tried to help as much as we could with the wedding stuff...Jacob was being difficult so that made it hard to help.

Then Thurday was the BIG wedding day we all headed down to the San Diego temple for the sealing and then afterwards headed back to Norco for the ring ceremony and reception. Jacob loved being outside, which is probably why he was in such a good mood. Jacob and I had lots of fun dancing, (Brad promised before the reception that he would dance with me and then he didn't :( he owes me!)

The happy couple

We left for home the next morning. We had a great time and although Jacob was the bully (he was biting and hitting his cousins) he did have fun with them. And if anyone has any pointers on how to get him to stop biting and hitting...please let us know!

Hopefully that wasn't too long for ya'all, but I don't know how to make those little picture collages or else I would've had a lot more pictures on here.

It's been awhile...

Well it has been awhile since I last posted. Probably because not much has been going on around here. Well not anything exciting.

Jacob is doing great! He sleeps through the night now and we have officially been done nursing for about 2 months now, and I have to say the process went a lot smoother than what I thought it would, so he must have been ready. He is learning how to throw tantrums, which I have recently learned if I just ignore him, than he usually stops after awhile. Although, there are times when it is hard to just ignore him, like church. He is starting to pick up on things that we do, like whenever I am cooking or baking I will usually put Jacob in his highchair so he can watch and whenever I measure out ingredients I would count out loud to him how many cups/tsps. I would be putting in. Well the other day I was holding him while I was measuring out sugar to make syrup and as I put the first scoop of sugar in I said "one" and then I started to talk to Brad so I forgot to say "two" so out of nowhere Brad and I hear him say "two". We both looked at each other, like was that coincidence or did he just count? So of course we started counting with him, if we say "one" he would say "two, three". So smart! Makes me realize that I need to start being more careful, with what I say around him :-).

This is a picture of him and his cousin Rozalyn. He likes to play with her, but he also likes to hit her and us sometimes too, so we have started doing timeout. Which he actually stays in the corner when we put him there and most of the time he will give hugs and kisses when we take him out to say sorry.

We are getting ready to go to California this weekend and we will be there for about a week for Brad's brother's wedding. So we are REALLY looking forward to that!

Splish...Splash...

It has been sooooo warm this week and I feel almost like we missed out on our beautiful Spring weather. I hope it cools down a little bit for awhile, but we are trying to make the most out of the weather before it gets too hot. Jacob loves to be outside, he would be one happy baby if we let him spend all day outside, I can't really blame him considering we live in an apartment. So last Tuesday we were on our way home from running some errands and Jacob had been a good boy so I asked Brad if we could stop at a park and let him run around for awhile before his nap. Well the only park that was really on the way home and that we knew where it was, was a park on our Main Street (some of you may know where this is) that has a splash pad and a little man made waterfall and creek, made specifically for kids to play in. We didn't really come prepared for Jacob to get wet, and he didn't have any shoes on (didn't want him to slip, and who knows what is on the ground) so we did let him run around a little bit near the splash pad and he thought it was the coolest thing. He was all smiles, so it was decided we would have to get him some water shoes so we could come back later in the week to really play in the water.

So we came back today and Jacob could not stop smiling....

He was splashing and running and was just so excited, I don't think I have ever seen him that excited before...

And these are pictures and a video from the splash pad. I could not believe how brave he was, he was just walking around like the water didn't even bother him. Well at first it did a little bit but he got used to it really quick!

It was a really fun day, and I know that there are a few of these splash pads around town, so I am sure that we will be visiting one of them atleast once a week. If anybody wants to join us please do!

Family Visit...

This past weekend Rob & Gina & Julianna (Brad's brother and his family) came to visit us and bring us their old washer that they so kindly gave us and delivered to us. We had SO much fun we went hiking in Zion National Park, fishing at Baker Reservoir, walked around the Temple grounds, and played games (Zonk to be more specific). It was fun to have family come and visit us (hint...hint...hint....to the rest of you) Here are some pictures...

Zion National Park...

Baker Reservoir...

The Red Hill and St. George Temple Grounds...



Jacob went crazy at the Temple grounds he was so busy just walking all over and exploring and looking at everything...he had so much fun, I don't know why Brad and I haven't taken him there before.

All in all we had a great time and Jake had so much fun with his Uncle and Aunt and Cousin, he is going to be so bored tomorrow. Tonight he was so exhausted that he started to fall asleep in his high chair while we were eating dinner before Rob and Gina headed home. This is what happens after a weekend of an irregular sleeping schedule and hardly any naps...

Poor little guy!

Sorry for the picture overload but we did so much this weekend and had so much fun!!! Thanks Rob & Gina for coming up, we had a great time and look forward to doing it again!!!