These Last Few Months

So the end of my pregnancy is fast approaching,and with only about a week 1/2 left before baby Jane’s arrival, I thought I would give a small update on what we have been up to during the last few months:

Camping at El Capitan in May (32 weeks)

Church Memorial Day Picnic (33 weeks)

San Diego Zoo, late May (34 weeks)

(Whew... I walked the entire San Diego Zoo at 8 months pregnant!)

Baby Shower, beginning of June (35 weeks)

Camping in Big Bear with our church fellowship class, mid-June (36 weeks)

Electrical Light Parade, California Adventure (37 weeks)

Jackson at his "Big Brother/Big Sister Class" at the hospital (38 weeks)

Beach Day with fam (probably the last for a long time) July 3, 39 weeks

9 years- no joke!

Today is our 9 year anniversary (yes we were married on April Fools Day- our choices were that or tax day…)! 

Beautiful boquet from my hubby

We stayed in and had fun cooking together.  Tonight the menu was top sirloin steaks, lemon green beans and cherries jubiliee for dessert!  Yum. 

My top chefs

Jackson, mommy & baby Jane

We had a short trip up the coast to Santa Barbara planned for this weekend to celebrate, but ended up cancelling it after deciding that financially it wasn’t the smartest thing right now.  Instead, we will be staying home and having a garage sale on Saturday! (That just oozes romance, I know…)  But hey- the more the merrier, feel free to bring things on over if you want to sell them.

Here’s to another 9 years (or 79 years) with my best friend!

Happy New Year (I’m Back)

Ha ha.  Yep, I know it has been almost 3 months since the New Year.  We have been quite busy!  I have really missed blogging, but wasn’t able to because my camera charger got lost in the move.  But I finally found it, and since I haven’t posted since November, I thought I would catch you all up on what the new year has brought us.  In order of arrival:

New Puppy (arrival date Christmas 2008)

This is Journey. She is a Wire Hair Fox Terrier and was an early Christmas present for Jackson. She is 90% a sweetheart and 10% mischevious!

New House (arrival date February 14, 2009)

We got ourselves a great deal on a repo! We feel incredibly blessed, but clearly have some work to do on the front and back yards...

New Baby (arriving July 2009)

We found out on Halloween (2008) that we are expecting!  We found out on February 20 that it’s a girl!  Jane Evelyn is due July 9th.  We couldn’t be more thrilled and are praising God for his perfect timing.  No pictures of her to share yet but I will share some things that are getting me excited about her arrival…

So much fun...

All Things Autumn

I have been absent from the blogging world lately, mostly because I was putting a lot of time into preparing to speak to my women’s Bible study.  But now that it is over I am trying to catch up with my postings.  In an effort to do that, this post will contain “all things autumn” that our family has been up to recently.

We paid a visit to Oak Glen...

...to pick apples...

...and pumpkins!

We brought our bounty home...

...and displayed it proudly!

For our fellowship class party at church, the theme this year was “Get Your Game On!” (and the theme could be interpreted any way you wanted).  So we decided to dress as our favorite board game “Settlers of Catan“.  If you are familiar with it you will get a kick out of this photo.  And if you are not, then just laugh at how silly we look (and to interpret it for you: Jim is brick, I am wheat and Jackson is the robber). 

Our little robber...

...and his threat.

Pumpkin carving time!

The finished product. (Yeah, we thought the mold made it look more scary too.)

My little policeman (taking his role very seriously)!

Jackson's preschool class

Jackson's proudest Halloween moment: while stopping for gas, we saw some police and they were nice enough to have their picture taken with Jackson (and give him some cool badges to hand out)!

Jackson loved that his Grammie got to go trick-or-treating with us!

Even though the weather has felt like Autumn is a long way off, the trees always seem to know what season it really is.

A little shaken up… (earthquake update)

Just wanted to update our friends and family who are out of state:  we are all fine-thanks for your calls and concern!  Jackson and I were outside during the earthquake.  It was pretty crazy- our bird feeders and hanging plants were swaying heavily, not to mention the ground rolling beneath us after the shaking stopped.  Jackson was crying and pretty shaken up.  After it was over we prayed together -thanking Jesus for keeping us safe, and then went inside to check things out. 

Each room had a number of things that had fallen on the floor- but not much that was really major.   As we were checking out each room, I began to notice a strange smell that I couldn’t put my finger on at first.  Then I started craving Bruschetta and when I came to the other side of the cabinets in the kitchen, I saw that a very large bottle of Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar, had shattered and splattered all over the entire kitchen.  (Nothing serious, just a very large clean-up-job.)

Then, moving on to our “Green Room” we saw that a very large stained glass panel that had been propped up in the window had fallen and shattered on Jim’s desk.  Looking more closely, we saw that it had fallen on to his laptop and completely trashed his laptop screen.  Ironically, Jim’s parents had just given us the stained glass panel over the weekend.  This past Saturday, as we propped it up in the window over Jim’s desk, Jim said “I sure hope we don’t have an earthquake soon…. this thing would crash right down.”

Most of all, we are thankful that we are all safe and that it was only a 5.8 (that I guess was recently downgraded to a 5.4 ?).

Journey To The Land Of Legos

I have been so busy and exhausted from doing 5th & 6th grade VBS at church this week, that I have not yet posted about last weekend.  But better late than never…

This past weekend my parents came to town to take Jackson (and they let us tag along too) to Legoland!  We had so much fun.  He was really the perfect age for it and loved every second!  Thanks Grammie & Papa!

This guy gave Jim's camera a run for its money!

Grammie & Papa were great boat drivers...

...and Jackson was a great pilot!

Some delinquent parents weren't watching their kid and look what happened...

Our pirates on Splash Battle

Jackson takes on Darth

Thanks, Papa & Grammie for a crazy, good time!

To complete the whole “lego experience” Jim thought that it would be fun to order Jackson some legos so that they would arrive right after we got home.  He won 20 lbs of legos on e-bay for cheap!  I think Jackson is set with legos for the rest of his life…

Mountain-O-Legos

Beautiful Day

On Sunday, we returned from spending a week in Arizona for my brother’s wedding.  It was a great time to be with family (although I wish I could have spent more time talking with you all…). We are so happy for Brock and his new wife Renee. 

Here are some pictures from the beautiful day!

Our visit to “The Captain”

Over the weekend we went camping at El Capitan campground near Santa Barbara.  We took some great friends with us and enjoyed the company, the weather and the beauty of God’s amazing creation. 

 

As soon as we arrived, Jim set up a 1 man tent (the smallest I have ever seen) so that the kids could have a tent to play in.

 

Jackson, Riley and Emily “lunching” at the campsite

 

Glo-sticks- a big hit with the kids!

 

The campground had a beautiful nature trail.  Here are some pictures from the nature trail:

 

The campground also had a great beach:

 

Some animal encounters:

 

Nearing sunset at the beach…

 

…these are a few of my favorite things!

This Mothers Day was for sure the best so far!  (Hey, I know there has only been three of them, but still…)

It started with the boys making me breakfast in bed.  I have no picture of that part of the day because 1) (yes, you guessed it) my mind doesn’t even think of things like that until AFTER I have had my coffee, and 2) it would have been too scary a sight (even with the cute boy, the adoring husband and the nice breakfast).

Then my husband had some fun presents for me.  A beautiful orchid…

And a cookbook that has been on my wish-list:  “Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Living in the Real World” by Lisa Lillien.  (I highly recommend it!)

 

Then it was Jackson’s turn.  I thought it was so cool that this year Jim decided that he would take Jackson shopping and let Jackson choose a Mothers Day present for me all by himself.  (A little background info:  Jackson has been very into “favorite colors” lately.  He loves telling everybody that his favorite color is Orange, Daddy’s favorite color is blue, Mommy’s favorite color is green, Grammie’s favorite color is red… etc.)  Jackson was so excited to give me his present this morning, and it was looking fancy -all wrapped up in a SpongeBob Squarepants giftbag.  (What’s funny is that Jackson doesn’t even like SpongeBob Squarepants, but I guess he figured that I might…)  I opened the bag to find this:

 

I was speechless!  (Wouldn’t you be?)  I mean, how do you even describe it?  Later, I tried to describe it to my mom over the phone, and the best I could do was: “A headless-green-pepper-with-arms cookie jar and spoon rest.”  Anyway, Jackson was so excited to see me open it and he kept saying “Momma, it’s your favorite color!  It’s green mama, your favorite color!”  I told him how much I loved it and that we would have to find a special place in the laundry room (a.k.a. garage) to display it.  The proud and satisfied look on his face was priceless.

Funny how the heart of the giver can transform one of the ugliest things you have ever seen into the most beautiful…

 

Later on… me and ”my baby” at Mothers Day dinner -a perfect ending to a fabulous day!

Our weekend: full and fun!

We had a very full weekend!  So full it seemed to be busting at the seams.  Here it is in a brief synopsis of pictures:

Fingerpainting on Friday afternoon

                Friday night: the boys making cards for the nursing home visit on Saturday.                      (Stickers, markers and crayons galore!)

Saturday morning: we went to a nursing home with our Sunday school class to visit with some of the residents.  We brought homemade cards and cookies, and Jackson brought his book “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” to read to them (with Daddy’s help).

It was a good time.  They seemed to really enjoy the company.  And our boys enjoyed it too (although it was nice to have mommy near by).

Then after a short nap, it was on to the grand opening of the new playground at church.  The pre-schoolers were invited as VIP’s to the ribbon cutting ceremony and to be the first to test it out.

Jackson tested it all out and gave it a big thumbs up.

Whew!  A full day indeed.