Fall

I love the fall!
Even though we live in California and there are really no seasons, I often wonder what it would be like to live in a place where the seasons actually change and you get to see the miraculous transformation in the world. I just love the colors of red, orange, yellow, brown and green, they are just so bold and create such a statement. Some might say that it is nothing spectacular others may say that they love it. Maybe one day I will get to experience myself.

Seeing the seasons change reminds of the wonderful times that lay ahead, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. I can't wait for the holidays to start. Luke and I were at Target and saw all the Halloween decorations out and it was just so exciting to see his face light up and tell me that he gets to go trick-o-treating this year. I think he finally is going to grasp the concept of the holidays. The magic and excitement that come with it. The season of caring and giving to others. Oh, it is going to be a great!

Return With Honor

My little brother Trent left this morning for his 2 year mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He will be serving in Raliegh, North Carolina and speaking spanish. He left on a plane at 6am for Provo, Utah and was picked up by friends to have one last good-bye and then entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) around 1pm.


But the real agonizing good-bye started the night before when he was set apart by our stake president, President Brennan. But before he arrived David and I were getting the boys ready for bed and decided that Luke and Logan needed to say goodbye and have one last hug and kiss. When Luke reached up for Trent he gave him a huge hug and kiss and told him that he loved him. David and I almost lost it then but then he took Logan and Logan just kept smiling and looking at him and leaned forward and gave him a very wet slobbery kiss! I took their picture because Trent said that he didn't have a good picture of them together, I think I got a good one. Look for yourself.




Later President Brennan and the Bishop Gregson came over after a youth activity around 9pm and talked with the family but mainly Trent and gave us some comforting and encouraging words. Before the blessing took place he wanted all the family members to go around and express thier love for Trent. David started and was of course so eloquent with his words and thoughts. I on the other hand fumbled slightly but expressed my love and encouragement. My appreciation for the example that he has set for David but also the boys. He is such a great uncle and surley will be missed by all. The bishop and then my parents followed and then it was Trent's turn to express his love for all of us. He went down the couch and started with Dave, expressing our feelings is hard for all of us, but when the spirit is so strong we are all overwhelmed with emotion.


I was extremely touched by Trents expression of love he had for me, how he felt that I was a great example as an older sister and how he could always depend on me. For me to hear those words it touched my heart. As an older sibling I have often wondered if I scarred my younger siblings with memories that will haunt them or memories such as those Trent expressed. It brings tears to my eyes and a warmth in my heart that I had made a difference. I know that for my brother Kyle that it is not the same. We have always had our different views, have tried to respect one another and showed our love. But Trent and I have always have had a special bond.


After we were all crying and weepy President Brennan set him a part as a missionary. We then said our good-byes and got ready for the night. Trent stayed up the whole night talking to his friends from Hawaii and finished packing and getting things ready. Dave and I got up around 5am to see Trent off. I decided that I did not want to go to the airport, it was already hard enough and I just didn't feel like making a fool of myself at an airport. I gave him one last hug and kiss and waved goodbye.

It has been a really hard day and probaly will be for a few days. I have been on the verge of tears and seem to be having a hard time just going into his room. My heart is very full and I am extremely sad but with many prayers this moment will pass and soon enough he will be home. I know that what he is doing is serving the Lord and spreading the gospel. Our family will be blessed for his faithfulness. I admire him hope to be more like him.

I love you Trent, see you in 2 years!

Happy 27th Birthday David!

My sweetheart of a husband turned 27 today! We spent the afternoon at his parents house having a late lunch and spending time with family. It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze, blue sky and scattered clouds.

David:

We love and can't imagine life without you.
You work tremendously hard so that we as a family may have a better life and we want you to know that your hard work and sacrifices don't go unnoticed.
The boys and I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday!

Love,

A and the boys

Holy Jim!!

I thought that it would be so much fun to hike Holy Jim's canyon over Labor Day weekend. What was supposed to be a fun 2 hour outing turned out to be a 3 hour nightmare. Driving to Holy Jim's is no picnic and I was so terrified that I would get a flat. Well we did, right as I turned the car to park I sliced my front left tire. We, I mean Dave changed the tire and we were ready to just go, when I went to turn on the car , the battery was dead! If nothing else could go wrong I don't know what. So Dave took the boys to see if any other hikers had jumper cables they didn't so we called my Dad to come and jump my battery. Well after 10 min of letting everything rest, (the boys had turned everything on in my car which I think may have drained my battery) it finally turned over. By then we were tired of Holy Jim's and just wanted to get home. On the way out we ran into my Dad and Mom and they followed us out. We made it home safely and don't plan on returning anytime soon. And always remember when in a dilema such as this one, always turn to the Lord in help, I think the day may have gone smoother if we as a family would have done that sooner. Well I guess we had to learn the hard way!

Baking Cookies

For our last day with the girls I planned a baking day. So we made 2 different types of cookies. A no-bake recipe and a sugarcookie recipe courtesy of Food Network.

We had a great time laying low and eating goodies. We sure will miss Megan and Camryn as they start school. But all fun things have to come to an end. The boys and I are looking forward to Christmas break to spend time with them again!

1st Day of Preschool!

Today was Luke's 1st day of preschool. I think everyone was excited for him to go today. Earlier in the day I asked him if he was excited and he said yes, then some hesistation wandered in his mine and then he started asking questions like, "Are you going to come too?" or "Can you stay with me and play?" I answered with, "No, this is your special school with Miss Carri and your friends." and "You don't want me to stay and play, you are going to have so much fun without me. You wait and see!" Sure enough when we drove up to Miss Cari's house and unbuckled him out of his carseat our conversation went like this,

Mom: Luke are you ready to go to school!?!

Luke: Yep, can I get out of the car?

M: Sure!

L: Alright see you later guys, you stay here!

Of course I didn'tlet him go by himself, we walked up to the door together got to see his new cubbie and he made a b-line for the pirate ship! I talked for a second with his teacher then said goodbye to Luke and gave him a hug. Dave said goodbye from the door, Luke was to busy already and off we went to have a 3hour block without Luke. It was enjoyable but I have to admit a little quiet. Later I went back to pick him up and asked him how it was he said fine, with a little hesistation. Miss Carri told me that she had to remind him who was the boss. I asked him if he liked Miss Carri and he said no that she was a MAN! I have know idea what that means! I then asked him if he wanted to go back he said "NO." I'm sure that was we get into the full swing of things he will love it. But I have to say that having Luke in school for just those 3 hours I did notice a change in his attitude and demeanor and lets say it was for the better! I just can't believe that we have a little preschooler. Time sure flies.

Disneyland 5k Fun Run September 5, 2009

One of my goals to keep me running was to have a race for the future. When I found out about the Disneyland 5k I was pumped and ready to go. Of course like all plans they get altered and I soon found excuses not to run, things come up and what not. But David and I still planned to run it no matter what! (Also it was a nonrefundable.) Our Day started at waking up at 5am, we left the boys at home with Nana and headed out to Anaheim, Ca. The race started at 6:45am but we wanted to have time to check in and get settled. Believe or not I was somewhat nervous, I don't know why, it was only 3 miles and its not like I was being graded, but I did have butterflies in my stomach. Of course when you go to D-land everything is magical so they started off the races with a very excited DJ at 6am getting people pumped, the Barbershop quartet and of course Mickey and Minnie in the fake fur! The Barbershop quartet sang the National Anthem which both Dave and I got chills and made us think that soon events like this may not be able to happen. With a crack and streamers flying in the air the race began! But we really didn't get over the starting line for almost 2-3min. We were kind of in the middle of the crowd. I would say that for the 1st mile David and I were just trying to weave our way through a ton of walkers. I tried to keep up with Dave but soon found out that was not likely to happen. I soon fell behind and just kept a steady pace by myself. I saw him for a brief moment and then he was gone! I thought that the run was so fun. It was really interesting to see the back lot of Disneyland and see where they keep things and how things work behind the scenes.


As we approached the finish line at Main Street USA I just couldn't help but feel proud and accomplished of myself because, even though I haven't been training regularly I still was able to finish and that was a great feeling. We all recieved a medal and some goodies at the end. My time was 33:27 an 11 minute mile pace slow but steady and that's all that matters!

Daves was 30min something he couldn't remember he said he could have definetley gone faster if the ocurse was wider and there were not so many walkers.

I would definetley do it again and can't wait to run my next 5k!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

We finally made it back to Disneyland again after a long hiatus (really only 8weeks). But we had such a good time. Now that the majority of the schools are back in session we didn't have to deal with the crowds only the blood-boiling heat. It has been so hot lately you really can't do anything but sit in front of a fan or go to a place that can afford to turn on their air-conditioning. We were able to go on a handful of rides and take some cute photos with some characters. Here are the kids (minus Luke he was in another of his dazzling moods that day) with Mary Poppins and Bert. Like the title says it was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Two steps at a time. . .

Logan sloooowly but surely is starting to walk. I don't know why I think that it is taking him a long time since my precious Luke didn't start walking till almost 15 mons. Anyway I was just taking video of them at random and I caught a couple of steps on video.
You can't see his feet but you get the idea!

Gone Fishing

To change things up a bit for the end of summer I decided, along with Dave to take the Luke, Logan, Megan and Camryn fishing at the Santa Margarita Lake. David and I earlier this summer went on a walk down by the lake and saw a father and son fishing. We were watching them and noticed that in the 5 min we were standing there they had caught like 4 fish. We thought that it was amazing how quick they were to bite. I decided to strike up a conversation with the dad and ask him what his secret was. He said that there really is none other than they like bread for bait. For me that made plenty of sense, kids and parents alike go to the lake to feed the ducks all the time and since they get the left over pieces of bread it probably triggers something in their brain that it is feeding time. I really wanted to make this a memoable trip and wanted the kids to catch something. Since fishing at Big Bear is such a downer I thought we might
try here and have better luck. So off we headed to the lake with a homemade fishing poles (we couldn't find our real ones they must have been thrown away), made out of bamboo sticks, fishing line, and a hook. Got some bread, a bucket and the other nessescities and started fishing. The first hour was a little bummer and we were getting discouraged but soon after some patience and tweeking with the bait we had success. I caught the first and everyone elses followed soon after. I thought that Luke would get a total kick out of fishing and actually catching something. But for some reason he really was just not that into it. Of course as we were leaving to put everything in the car he said I want to go fishing! Dave told him too bad that we had just been fishing the last 2 hours and he had missed his chance. That is so like Luke to go against the flow and decided for himself when it is the best time for him to participate.
We had a grand total of 8 fish Megan caught 4 of them! We could have stayed longer but we had to go. I personally would go again!
It was so much fun and we made some great memories.

Company Picnic

Monica (Mema, Mom, Dave's Mom, whatever you know her by) had a company picnic a couple of weeks ago down at Doheny State Beach. It was a lot of fun going a meeting the people that she spends most of her day with! The food was great, entertainment lively (African drummers) and the events for the kids super fun! We waited nearly an hour to have the boys face painted but it truly was worth the wait. Luke can you guess what he is? Spiderman! And Logan? A PUPPY! Ruff, Ruff! We had a great time and can't wait till next year!