It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's ..........

Superman at the beach! I think Saturday was officially the first day of fall and it just happened to be the hottest day we've had all year! 85 degrees!!! It was amazing. We have continued to have good weather since then but about 7 degrees cooler. I am just loving this weather. My mom and I took Ammon to the beach after church on Sunday for a quick walk before choir practice (no we don't consider ourselves good singers, we just wanted to support them). Ammon ran all over the place while my mom and I talked about how we couldn't believe how nice of a day it was over and over again.

Ammon went home and took a nap with my mom after church. While he was there he told her he was going to live by Kaden someday. She asked him, "aren't you going to be sad if you don't live by your Grandma?" He replied, "We don't have enough money to live here." Today he was riding home from preschool with his friend Brayden. He told Brayden, "I won't see you anymore." I thought he meant because we were going to drop Brayden off and I told him that he would see him tomorrow. Ammon said, "No mom, I meant I won't see Brayden anymore because I'm moving." I didn't think we talked about moving very much but apparently we do! I am starting to realize that I need to watch what I say around him because he listens and understands more than we think he does.















Ammon impersonating Chicken Little.



















If you could see up close you would see a single
tear running down his cheek. He didn't want to leave the beach.

Old Town

My mom has this great new schedule at work (she is a nurse). She splits her contract with another lady and they each are working one week on and then one week off. So she works for 5 days and is off for 9. It's great because I have someone to hang out with. Yesterday we went to Old Town Eureka. Old Town is a fun place to go because they have a lot of little random shops and a few good restaurants. One shop a few of you may have heard of is called Restoration Hardware. Every time I go into this little shop I am bewildered by the fact that it started in little Humboldt County and is now a huge company like Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. After we checked out RH, and dreamed about someday owning some of their furniture, we bought some fresh produce at the farmer's market and continued on to Hurricane Kate's. A fun restaurant that my mom had been wanting to take me to. It was nice to get out and do something different.

Ammon being crazy, again!

Addicted!

Last week Jody and I were watching survivor and in between commercials we would flip over to Grey's Anatomy. When Survivor ended a second hour of Grey's started so we watched it. After an hour of watching we were hooked! Friday night I rented the first season of Grey's and continued to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights watching it. We truly are addicted. I love the show and watching it with no commercials one after another is so much fun. Last night we stayed up until 1:30 in the morning and would have watched more but we ran out of episodes. It is the perfect show! It has romance, drama, suspense and humor. I also love the characters. It is nice to have a sitcom again because I am such a reality t.v. junky! I am also going to have to check out Studio 60, it looks like it could be another hit. Once I get caught up on Grey's I may have to also give Prison Break a try. How sad that I only have channels 1-13 but still find PLENTY of time to watch television.







































On Saturday I bought Cohen a Halloween costume at Old Navy. Ammon was disappointed that I didn't buy him one. Suprise, he had already decided to be Superman (I got him a wig at Target and he already has 3 costumes). Yesterday Ammon found Cohen's chicken costume and wore it all night. The costume is way to small for him but he loves it because it is so soft. He is the weirdest kid!

My Sweet Boys

Today I finally got my boys pictures taken professionally. I hadn't done it since last Christmas! Ammon was a little angel the whole time. He sat and waited for his turn and then when it was his turn he turned on the charm. Cohen lasted about five minutes and then I had to fight with him to take a few more shots. It got worse from there. I had to sit and pick out which pictures I wanted to order and he seriously screamed in my arms and on the floor for twenty minutes. I seriously think he could be Bi-polar. He can be the sweetest little boy and two seconds later will turn into a little devil! If you would like to check out the session click on the link!

What went wrong people?

Okay so many of you who thought you knew me were a little upset by the test (especially Jody). He called me a liar and said that I don't know myself! I didn't want to make the test too easy. Those of you who REALLY listen to me did pretty well and those who don't obviously didn't do as well. A lot of you said you had trouble picking between two answers. Clothes or Home Decor? Well I buy clothes even though I don't have a lot of money, I just find bargains. But if I had a lot of money I would probably by more. But I would love to buy furniture and things to decorate with. Another issue was between Parents and People. I love both magazines but if any of you paid attention to a previous post I did about an article in Parents you would have remembered how I went on and on about Parents. So sorry if I frustrated some of you but it was fun.

So life is back to normal again. Everyone is gone and the nasty fog has decided to unfortunately take hold on beautiful Humboldt County, making me want to move today! I decided that there are some wonderful, scary/weird, and not so good things about living here.

Wonderful:
* You can leave your home and know exactly how long it will take to get anywhere in town (no traffic) .
* You can get to the beach in 5 minutes. (though I rarely go!)
*It really is beautiful.
*I have a lot of friends from church and many who have kids my kids ages.
*My parents are 5 minutes away.
*Luzmila's Mexican Restaurant.

Scary/Weird:
*The hippies you see all over Arcata.
*PWT I see everywhere in Eureka (Poor White Trash).
*Pan Handlers that are creeping their way into McKinleyville.
*Tree Huggers (literally) !
* The price of homes especially compared to their quality.

Not So Good:
*Difficult to fly in and out of.
*FOG/DARK GLOOMY DAYS
*Weird people
*Not very good shopping or eating
*Not much of a job market

So there you have it folks, reasons while I will miss this place but will be so glad to move on. Let's just hope I will get that chance!

How well do you know me?

Take the quiz and find out! See Results.

Bowling to the Eighties

Friday night we took the fam to bowl at the very high class E&O Bowling alley and lounge. Just walking into the place made me feel blessed for the things I have in life. The guys duked it out to see who could win the title for the night while averaging scores just over 100. (Looks like our family won't be joining any bowling leagues.) Dad finally beat Alan in the last frame, who I must say is a pretty good bowler. So it was a great accomplishment. Lindsey and I spent our time taking pictures for the blogs. It's funny how we have become consumed with taking pictures for the blog lately. The picture I got of her bowling actually messed her up and sent her ball into the gutter (calculated move by me). We enjoyed being silly and crazy while singing and dancing to the sounds of Billy Idol and Van Halen.


We've had a great time with Lindsey, Al and Iz. I hate to see them go. While they were here we also played a few games of volleyball at the church. Lindsey and Alan against dad and I. They beat us two out of three. Then Lindsey and I played against the boys and beat them. I always enjoy playing volleyball when they come. We also went to Eureka a few times to hit up the mall, Costco and Target. Both of my sisters wanted to go to the mall when they came. I don't quite get it because they both have way better shopping than we do. I love it when people come to visit because I have something to do and people to hang out with everyday. But it's sad to see them go because it makes me realize how much I love and miss them. Someday I hope we can all live by each other.

The Infamous Shark Suit

If you notice in this first picture Ammon is wearing a swimming suit we like to call "the shark suit." It has life jacket material inside of it so it's a little puffy. Ammon would live in this suit if he could. I wasn't sure how good it's buoyancy capabilities were so I made Ammon wear a life jacket on top of it. Pretty uncomfortable if you ask me, but Ammon would do anything to be able to keep it on. When we got back to the cabin from the lake I got Ammon some clothes to change into but he ridicuously wanted to keep the stupid thing on. He would have slept in it if I would have let him. When he woke up in the morning the first thing he did was strip and put it back on. The funniest thing about Ammon is that he loves to wear these crazy things and he is SO serious about it. When we were leaving Trinity I told my dad to make sure it stayed in the boat. Some how my mom accidentally took it home and within a day of being back Ammon found it in the garage and would not take it off. A few mornings later he had the suit on and couldn't get it off quick enough to go to the bathroom and peed in it. So for now he isn't wearing it. Thank goodness! The picture above is also capturing Ammon acting like grandpa. Jody, me and my mom had gone to another cabin to try to catch the last few minutes of Big Brother. Ammon and Alexa went over with us. Ammon picked up my dad's glasses and walked over to Alexa, pointed his finger at her and said, "No, no, no. I'm grandpa. You listen to me. I am going to tickle you now." He did it over and over. It was hilarious.

This is a picture of Ammon saving his grandpa from the shark's. Jody was trying to get him to jump off the back of the boat into the water but was a little scared so instead he was "saving" his grandpa.

Lindsey and I looking all too sexy (Isobel joining it!).

Labor Day Weekend

Simply Adorable. Reminds me of pictures I had with my cousins.

Just the eight of us!

Notice where Cohen's hand is, he's just like his daddy.

I look sickly because I was.


We had a great time at the lake with everyone. We did things a little differently this time and stayed in cabins at Cedar Stock. The cabins were a nice change. They came with beds, a hot tub, and satellite television. So we didn't have to miss our show Big Brother. It was great to see everyone and fun to see all the cousins playing from sun up to sun down. I know they had a wonderful time together. My mom and dad had them stay in a smaller cabin with them each night, which was a nice break for the parents. They are pretty tight together and it will be fun to see them grow up. I had a good time relaxing in the sun, throwing out my back, and vomiting. Seriously I did have a good time but I didn't have the best of luck when it came to my health. It's nice to be back home and feeling good again. Luckily we have Lindsey, Alan and Isobel for another week before life gets boring again!

Sisters Unite!

At Last

Okay so remember that lack of creativity I was talking about? Well this morning I was making salsa to take to the lake with us and suddenly remembered that I had planned on posting recipes on my blog a few months ago. I obviously forgot because I haven't posted a single recipe. So today I am going to post a recipe for salsa. I got the recipe from my sister in law, Jennifer. I can't remember where she got it but Jody and I love it. It is very easy and delicious!

Salsa

2-20 oz. cans of mexican style stewed tomatoes

1/4 Cup jalapeno pepper slices

2 Tbls. of jalapeno juice from jar

2 gobs of fresh cilantro

juice squeezed from 1/2 of a lime

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cumin

2 heaping tsp minced garlic (in jar)

Now just blend all of these ingredients up.

I doctored the recipe up by chopping up fresh tomatoes and adding it to the mix to make it more chunky and fresh tasting. Enjoy!

I'm Slacking

I know that I haven't been doing very well with my posts. I go through times when I have a million ideas for posts I want to do on my blog. But then I get them all done and have a dry spell, like the one I'm having now. So I will just give a quick update on things going on in my life.

First and foremost, all of my family will be here this weekend. Lindsey, Alan and Izzy arrived late Saturday night and will be here for another two weeks. Kasey and her gang will be here Tuesday night and then we will meet Chris, Kalie and their kids at Trinity Lake this weekend. So it's a family reunion of sorts. I can't wait to be together with everyone and take tons of pictures that I can post on the blog.

Alex is on her own at college now and seems to be doing great because we don't hear from her much. She too might try to meet up with us at the lake. Ammon is doing great in preschool, it's like he's been going there for months. Cohen is beginning to learn how to walk. He has taken up to 7 steps with the coaxing of his dad, who unbelievably tried to teach him while I was away on my trip! Summer is dwindling down. This could very well be our last weekend at Trinity. So sad! My tan will slowly fade into a nice color I like to call pasty white and the next thing I have to look forward to is Thanksgiving, when we go to Snowbird Utah. Jody is back in school full time and I don't think we'll see much of him during the week because he is going to be very busy. He is also going to be applying for jobs and hopefully will be going to some interviews. It's strange not knowing where we could be living in the next year but also very exciting! So for now life is calming down. Hopefully my lack of creativity will leave and I'll be able to think up some new and exciting posts for you all to read. I love that everyone is beginning their own blogs. My list of daily reads is expanding by the day.

First Day of School

Ammon had his first day of Preschool today. He is going to the Child Development Lab at Humboldt State. My siblings and I also attended this preschool and it is wonderful. I was all prepared to stay with Ammon for an hour or so because it was his first day but he was off playing within the first few minutes. Ten minutes later I hugged him and said goodbye and he could have cared less. I guess it's a good thing. He had a blast at school. We gave his friend Brayden a ride home and they were in the back of the car talking and I heard Ammon say, "We go to school now Brayden, because we are big and we listen to our teachers." It was so cute.

I got home last night from Utah and was so excited to see my kids. It was hard to leave them but once I was gone I was fine. I had a great time being back in Provo. We stayed one night with Alex in her apartment at King Henry. King Henry is where Jody and I met. Being there brought back a lot of memories and feelings. I loved it. I hope Alex has as wonderful of an experience as I did. I also stayed a few nights in Salt Lake with my old roommate and friend Celeste. We stayed up until 3:30 in the morning one night talking about all the funny things we did and people we met in Provo. It was a wonderful trip and I am so glad I got to go. But when it was time to go I couldn't wait to get home to see my kids. My single days in Provo were some of the funnest in my life but I realized that I am so happy to have my own family now. I love being a mom and feel so lucky to have my adorable little boys and loving husband. I realized that there is nothing else I would rather do in life than be a mother and wife.

College Bound

Yes me too! Well not really. Alex, my sister, is heading out to Provo Utah tomorrow to attend Utah Valley State College and live in King Henry Apartments. Wow, are we in the twilight zone? I feel like it was just yesterday that I was doing the same thing. So for the last few months Alex has been grilling me about all my experiences in P-town. Any of you who have been there feel free to comment about things she can do or go see. She has asked me things like: where to workout, what is the funnest thing to do, which mall is better, where to get a job, how to pay bills, and the list goes on and on. She is a pretty random girl who has just in the last few months found enough courage to make her own hair appointments. Scary I know. But I think she will do fine on her own. During these last few months of reminiscing about my old college days I have been feeling a little envious of her. So about a month ago when for the tenth time I said, "I am so jealous, you are going to have so much fun" Alex thought of the most wonderful idea when she said,"why don't you come back with us?" That night I went home and somehow managed to talk Jody into it. So we are leaving tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. to drive little Alex back to Utah. The good things about going are that I don't have to say goodbye to Alex yet, I get to eat yummy food, see old friends, and sleep as long as I want to. I will officially be away from my kids for 6 days. I have only been away from Ammon for 3 days and no more than a few hours from Cohen. Right now I am excited but so sad to leave them. I keep kissing them and looking at their little faces and telling them how much I love them. This may seem a little dramatic but I am sure you other moms know how I feel. I just can't believe she is going. Luckily I have some things to look forward to. Lindsey, Kasey and Chris will all be coming home with their families over the next few weeks and I can't wait to be with all of them.

Dad and Jody packing her car up.

Like Father Like Mother?

Okay so lately everyone has been saying that my two boys, Ammon and Cohen, look identical. When Cohen was first born we thought he was the spitting image of Ammon but he quickly changed. He is much thinner in the face and body then Ammon ever has been and he has blue eyes. To me Ammon looks a lot like my baby pictures but I can see Jody in him also. I thought Cohen looked exactly like Jody but after pulling out some of my own pictures tonight I am seeing some of myself in him. I don't have baby pictures of Jody but Cohen does look a lot like them. One of the funnest things about having kids is seeing who they will look like. We always wonder if/when we have a girl what and who she will look like. So what do you think? Does Ammon look like me or Jody? How about Cohen? Do they look alike? I will post another picture of both of them at the same age tomorrow. Happy judging!

p.s. Don't you love the picture in the tub? Doesn't everyone have these? I know I already have a dozen or so of my kids with their cousins in the tub. Kasey looks like Kaden in this picture. Poor kid. J/K!!!

p.p.s. Congrats Benji! He was the winner of SYTYCD last night!

Happy Birthday Cohen

Cohen had his first birthday last week! Ammon enjoyed it more than he did but at least we got some cute pictures from it! His favorite part was eating the cake. We just got back from another wonderful weekend at the lake. I just have to tell one funny thing Ammon did. On the way home he was eating some ritz crackers and fell asleep with them in his hands. Halfway home I heard him getting some crackers out and assumed he had woken up. I looked back and his eyes were still closed. With eyes close he got a cracker out, ate it, got a second one out and ate that one. After his second cracker he was fast asleep again or did he ever wake up? My mom and I got a good laugh over that one!

Cohen loves this push bike Kalie got him.

The Never Ending Triplex

I wish they would have consulted me before they painted it!

Okay so many of you have probably heard about "the triplex." This is an investment my husband made with three other guys obviously to make some money. They bought the triplex last June, so it has been about 14 months. This thing was the nastiest place I had ever been in before they started working on it. I can't even begin to describe how nasty it was. So the plan was to totally gut the inside of it, change the floor plan, and put all new everything into it and this was all suppose to take 3 or 4 months. Yah right! Since March I have heard, "It will done next month." Fourteen months later I can honestly say that there is an end in sight. It has not been the easiest year because of this junker. Jody was going to school all last year, we had a new baby, and he was working. Then he would go out to Eureka to work on it in the evenings when he didn't have a softball game, church meetings, or school work to do. Basically I spent a lot of time with my parents and Alex. I know that it doesn't look like much but they have made vast improvements to it. Jody has also learned a lot considering he had never worked in construction before. We should be refinancing and putting it on the market this month. It will be wonderful to finally see the fruits of our labors! $$$$$$$

Good Times

We are back from our trips to Trinity Lake, Vacaville, Portland and Seattle. Life is slowly getting back to normal. Luckily I did laundry before I left and before I came back and I left the apartment in pretty good shape. So the worst was unpacking the car and cleaning it out. We had a wonderful time on our trip and enjoyed seeing our family. We started out Thursday night and drove to the lake. We stayed there until Saturday morning. We drove to Vacaville Saturday to go to my cousin Jami's wedding reception, which by the way was beautiful. It was fun to spend time with my grandparents, Rona, and her girls.

On Monday morning we got up and drove from Vacaville to Portland. We wanted to stop in Portland so that we could take turns going through the temple. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Jody and I were married in the Portland Temple and it just holds a special place in my heart. When I was there I kept remembering our wedding and the feelings I felt that day. I love going to the temple. Jody and I have made it a goal to go every month and I am starting to get addicted to it. I just love the way I feel when I am there and the way it puts everything thing in life in perspective. I come away remembering why I am here and what this life is about. Most importantly it makes me grateful for my family and the blessings I have been given. I am grateful to have a testimony of the gospel and can't imagine ever feeling pure peace and joy in my life without it.
After the temple we drove three more hours to spend five days with my brother Chris and his family. Well maybe I should say just his family because he had to go to San Diego while we were there and we didn't get to spend a lot of time with him. But I loved spending time with Kalie and her kids. I love that she is married to my brother, he really lucked out with her. If we lived close I know she would be one of my best friends. Madison and Kyle are adorable kids and Ammon loved being able to play with Madison from sun up to sun down. Poor Jody got stuck going shopping with us, going to a play group, and listening to our conversations about girl things. But he was a trooper and even watched all four kids so that we could shop at a store by ourselves.

All in all it was a fun, relaxing trip. I love my family and am so grateful that I am close with all of them. I only wish I could see them more!

Moving on!

Happy Day! Jody officially passed both summer classes and if all goes well will graduate in December! This has been a long time coming. When we first got married we came to McKinleyville to finish up school and move after two years. Well four years later, two kids, and too many odd jobs to list we are finally going to move on! When we first moved here the plan was for Jody to get his degree in business. Because he didn't have California residency yet he had to start at College of the Redwoods where he took a couple of business classes. After talking to our brother in law Matt who had decided to quit the whole "working for someone else" type of job and go to dental school, Jody decided to give it a try also. So he switched his major to Biology and began going to Humboldt. After his first attempt at the DAT and applying to 10 or so schools and not getting in, he decided to drop the dental school thing and look for something else. Meanwhile he was approached by a guy in our ward to become a real estate agent and work for him. Jody jumped on the chance to quit working at my dad's mill and make some real money. So within a few months he was a licensed agent. It has been a great job for Jody except that it has slowed down his progression in finishing school. We love the paychecks we get when a home closes but the stress of not knowing how much you will make each month and having deals fall through days before you are going to get paid isn't worth it. So Jody has jumped back into school full time and will now finish. Our plan has changed many times. But for now he hopes to get a job as a pharmaceutical sales rep and move near relatives in Seattle, Georgia, or Denver. But we have to take what we can get and hope that we will be able to move up. I just want to live near someone. I can't imagine leaving my parents alone in Humboldt County but hopefully they won't be far behind!