My new kitchen table

When we very first moved into our apartment Daniel and I went furniture hunting at all of the student housed apartment complexes near campus. When students move in and out here at UCSB and they can't take stuff with them (or if they get evicted from their apartment like a lot of the cases were when we first arrived!) they throw everything "away" (which means they stick it out in a big pile in front of the apartment complex and it's first come first serve!). Sometimes you can get lucky and find some really awesome stuff which was the case for us when we first got here. We furnished pretty much our entire apartment for free!!

Most of the stuff I like, but there are a few things that seriously need to be upgraded #1 my table and chairs and #2 the computer desk. The computer desk was actually the first piece of furniture we got for our apartment. Daniel found it on campus and carried it by himself all the way across campus to where he parked the car. The next morning his neck hurt so bad because of the weird angle that he carried it at! Anyway, my mom decided to buy new furniture and asked us if we wanted her old stuff. Of course we did but the only problem is it's all still back in UT and we don't really have any way of getting it all out here. We're hopefully planning on taking apart the computer desk that she gave us when we go out there to visit over Christmas and bring it back in the car and reassemble the whole thing. But the table and chairs set that she gave us is just too big to bring out.

So....I bit the bullet and decided to buy a new table and chairs set with birthday money I've been saving up. I saw a set at K-Mart that I thought was nice and conveniently it was on sale this last weekend. Daniel bought it for me after his shift on Saturday and we just assembled it today. I LOVE it! It's a million times better than the one we use to have. Our old one was so off balance that we had to put 2 books under one of the legs in order to make it level! This one has 4 chairs (two more than we use to have) and is a dropleaf so it doesn't really take up much room. I'm really happy I got it. I really think it opens up my living room more and creates more space.This is what it looks like with the drop leafs down. it fits really well in the corner and opens up the room. Then when we need to use it we can just pull it out more and put the sides up.

The wood matches all of our other furniture in our house and I really like the cute little design on each chair. You can't see it but it's on the bars under the table as well.

Hurray for fun new stuff on sale!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was so much fun this year. We were able to sleep in and hang out all morning then we went over to our neighbors house and had thanksgiving with them. We were in charge of the turkey and the gravy which was seriously the easiest thing. I woke up in the morning shoved the turkey in the oven and left it until it was time to go. Then when we were ready to go over there I took the drippings from the turkey and made the gravy and we were off! It was awesome :)


Uh, yeah! This was Daniel's doing!! Again we had a turkey that was about the same weight as John and we just so happened to have an extra pan laying around from the last time we cooked a turkey so Daniel shoved him in the pan and snapped some pictures! We have way too much fun with this kid. Later in life I'm sure he'll think his parents are totally weird. He better get use to it because we'll be embarassing him for the rest of his life!! Bwa ha ha ha!!!


We had a good sized group of people from our ward there. Everyone brought a part of the meal and we ended up with TONS of leftovers...mmm thanksgiving leftovers!


This is the Hodnetts, then us, then the Sparks family. They just so happen to be our home teachers which is fun. We're really sad too because the Sparks are moving sometime after the new year to Boston. They are a really fun couple and we'll be sad to see them go.

It turned out to be a great Thanksgiving this year. I'm sure grateful for the food, our friends, and my wonderful little family I got to spend the day with. :)

BFOM Christmas Concert

So as many of you know Daniel LOVES to sing! When he was in his first years of college he and some buddies started up this group called BFOM (Brothas from Otha Mothas) an all male acapella group. After his 3rd year of college he left on a mission and was gone from college life for the last 4 years. The group pretty much died out while he was gone. Since he's been back he held auditions and started the group up again. Last night they had their first concert and I got to take some pictures!




They had a pretty good variety of songs. They opened with one of their BFOM classics "For the Longest Time" by Billy Joel and Daniel was the one with the solo. After that they sang "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel, "My Girl", "Take On Me", "Ducktales" the cartoon theme song, "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, and a few christmas songs: "White Christmas", "Carol of the Bells", "Jingle Bells Medley", and then they oncored with "Silent Night".

I took my video camera with me that I was planning on setting up and leaving while I took some pictures of the concert but one of our neighbors came to the concert and offered to help videotape it. He was scared to hold the camera in fear of shaking it too much so he kept it on the tripod and tried zooming in and out and panning back and forth and every time it would squeak and look really choppy. I took over towards the end and took the camera off the tripod so only Jingle Bells and Silent Night came out decent! I totally would have posted the video footage of it but I don't have a converter to take the video footage from the camera onto the computer. Oh well, at some point I'll get it converted then I'll be able to post it. It might not be for a while but I'll get it eventually!!

Anyway, the night was really fun. The baby stayed at my neighbors house and slept the whole time! So all in all it was a pretty good Monday night. :)

Chamber Choir Concert

Last night Daniel had his first Chamber Choir Concert. It was really fun to dress up all fancy and leave the baby with a sitter and go out for the evening. Daniel had a 7 sec. solo during one of the songs which I managed to record on my cell phone. It's not the best of quality but whatever it still works.

Lucky 33!

Today I'm really excited because I realized that this is my 33rd post! Not that no. 33 is a major milestone of any kind but it just so happens that 33 is my favorite number, hence the reason I'm excited ;) So I've decided that in honor of this momentous occasion I'm going to list 33 of my favorite things...alphabetically!...

A-Apples and carmel dip! (for some reason I find it addictive! Plus I justify eating the carmel because I have apples with it! See?! Apples are healthy!!)
B-Beach (I hate getting in the water but I love to play on the beach)
C-Crocheting (I know it's an old lady thing but it's WAY fun)
D-Daniel (my awesome amazing husband!)
E- Eating a good home cooked meal (especially if my mom is cooking)
F-Flying home for the holidays (beats sitting in a car for 12 hours!)
G-Gardens (I have my own little garden plot here and I love to go out there and work on it.)
H-Harry Potter (I've never fallen in love with a series of books like I did when the Harry Potter series came out. I've read from book 1-7 all the way through at least 3 times now. I love them!)
I-Ice Cream (Starlite Mint to be exact)
J-John (my cutest littlest son John-John-John)
K-Kettle Corn (I like buttery popcorn too but there's something about the sweet taste of Kettle Corn that I love!)
L-Laying on the couch with my husband (either when there's a good movie playing or just to chill and spend time with him)
M- Movies (My top 3 are: Sleeping Beauty, Willow, and The Wizard of Oz)
N-Nephews (I love my two little nephews Logan and Tau...I miss my boys!)
O-Orange Creme flavored yogurt (I'm actually eating one as I type!)
P-Plumeria (my favorite flower)
Q-Quotes (one of my favorite things to do is quote movie lines with my sister!)
R-Rain (I love the smell of rain, I love watching it rain, I love dancing in the rain...I just love rain!)
S- Strawberries (my favorite fruit)
T- Three TV shows: Chuck, House, and The Office
U-Up do's (ok that one was a stretch but I really like to do my hair fancy sometimes, even though most of the time I just wear it in a pony tail! I would say my hair is my favorite feature about myself)
V-Victoria Secret lotion (yum! that stuff smells really good. I also like lotions from Bath and Body Works but mostly I like their hand soaps there)
W-Water (I like a glass of cold water way more than soda or even juice)
X-Xmas (Ok, so usually I don't like writing "Xmas" for Christmas but I couldn't think of anything else that started with an X that I like!)
Y-Yard sale-ing (nothing beats a good yard sale!)
Z-Zoo (I like the panda bears the best)

...ok I'm not completely stupid! I know there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, therefore I'll just add a few more things I love to make it to 33!

27- I love the color Red
28- I love going to plays more than going to the movies.
29- I love listening to good music.
30- I love it when my house is completely clean.
31- I love playing with my baby.
32- I love hearing the words "I love you" especially from my husband!
33- I love the number 33!!!

Family Pictures

We had our first family pictures taken yesterday. I thought they turned out pretty good...

Funny Faces!

Most people will post all of the really cute normal pictures they have to show how adorable their child is...Well I was looking through and organizing a bunch of pictures of John and I realized I have a bunch of really silly pictures of him that totally made me laugh!!...

Daniel's favorite superhero is Superman. In honor of that Daniel played around on photoshop one day and came up with this...Super John!

He started to goo at me which I thought was the most adorable thing EVER so I grabbed my phone and caught this expression! He was moving when I clicked the button so it's a little fuzzy, but hey for a camera picture it's not too bad!

I told him that he was holding a "Lemer" not a "Lion" but apparently he got a little confused!!

The glare of death directed at who knows what!

He just can't get enough of that pot of gold!

Wow...um...this one doesn't even warrant an explanation!

He really likes to stick out his tongue...again..and again...

and again...

and again!!

Sometimes he acts like a perfect little angel!

And other times he cries...

and cries...

and cries some more!!

But ultimately I think he's the cutest little guy in the world! And even though his hair is starting to thin out a little he still is amazingly adorable.

So there's my random blog post for the day!!!

Joe's Visit

Yesterday Daniel's dad Joe came to visit us and see the baby for the first time. It was such an unexpected visit too. He called Daniel on Saturday night and told him he wanted to come up to see us and go to church with us. He's staying in LA right now working on a construction job so he woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get here on time.



Joe thought John was so cute in his little white shirt and tie we put him in for church. Joe held him all through sacrament and John slept the whole time....oh sure when someone else holds him during sacrament he's good but when I hold him he fusses!
Joe definitely thought he was the cutest thing in the world. When he first saw him he said, "Wow, he's so solid!" ...I'm pretty sure he meant he's a big kid!


On Friday Daniel and I went on a fabulous date to Albertsons! Ok, ok so we just went grocery shopping but it was the first time we actually got to spent some time together so it felt like a date. Anyway, while we were there they had "Buy 1 get 1 Free" turkeys. Since Thanksgiving is coming up we decided to get a turkey...but what to do with the other one??...hmmm... We decided to get the two turkeys and practice on one now so by the time Thankgiving rolls around we would have the best turkey on the block!
We didn't realize until after we got home that one of the turkeys was the same weight as John! We took John in for his 1 month check up and he weighed 12lbs 8oz. Such a big boy! So with the help of Daniel's favorite program (photoshop) he created this masterpiece!! That's my boy!...and my other boy :)
The dinner turned out pretty good. We invited a new couple from our ward over for dinner and they said it tasted good. Not too bad for my first time cooking an entire thanksgiving dinner by myself! The couple that came over were really nice. They just got married about 2 months ago and the girl Alison is in the music department at UCSB with Daniel and plays the flute. Her husband Bryce is going to a local school in Santa Barbara for photography. I became instand friends with Alison because I found out she loves to crochet! Plus her husband does photography which as most of you know I absolutely love so we had a lot of fun getting to know them.

It was great seeing Joe and having the baby meet his grandpa. It was too bad Lavesi (Joe's wife/Daniel's stepmom) couldn't come too. She's such a fun lady. We're still trying to get to everyone so John can finally meet his family!

Voting

Can I just get up on a soap box for a second.... The last few days have been pretty crazy in a political sense. We just finished having what I think was the biggest most controversial election I've ever been alive for. I don't ever remember a time where SO many people have had so much to say concerning politics, and rightfully so. I believe every single person has the right to their own opinions. They have the right to think and vote in whatever way they feel best suites them. A major problem I'm seeing right now is when I hear people say "Oh, I'm not much for politics so I didn't vote, BUT I think...blah blah blah". I've had friends and family both who have done this and personally I think it's disrespectful for anyone to sit there and complain about how horrible a person will be in office, or how they think it's awful that a proposition or something passed or something didn't pass when they're not even willing to vote. That would be like me going to a potluck dinner and saying "Oh, I'm not much for making food, so I didn't bring anything BUT I think this dinner is terrible...blah blah blah"

...Ok maybe that analogy was a bit of a stretch but seriously, I don't think it's right for people to attack other people's points of view when they're not even willing to give their supporting vote on whatever side they think is right. I was extremely sad this year because I wasn't able to vote. I wanted to vote but I was stupid enough to procrastinate requesting a mail-in vote from Utah. (I couldn't get registered in California because I didn't yet have a Cali drivers license and I wasn't physically in Utah to be able to vote. I was registered in the state of Utah but because I wasn't there I couldn't vote...it's kind of hard to explain) Anyway with the move and then the baby I didn't get everything figured out in time. Does that mean I'm not allowed to have my own strong opinions about how the elections went? Heavens no. I'm allowed to think whatever I want about Obama and McCain and Proposition 8 and all of the other issues and people that were voted on. However, does it mean that I should be expressing those opinions to everyone and their dog and putting people down that think differently than I do? Absolutely not. I think it's disrespectful for anyone to do that no matter who they are. Unfortunitely I've seen a lot of people do this very thing which is sad.

Alright I feel better. Mainly I was just venting to get all of that off my chest. Kuddos to all of you who voted... I salute you!

Scariest Experience Ever!

Yesterday I was home by myself with the baby and I decided I wanted to go for a walk down to our garden plot and plant some flowers Daniel bought for me. I forgot to bring in the stroller from the car so I put John in the swing and ran outside as fast as I could to get the stroller. I usually don't leave him by himself but he was sound asleep and it was really windy outside and I knew I couldn't carry a baby and get a stroller out of the trunk of my car with ease. So I ran to my car and grabbed the stroller and came right back. I picked up my mail and walked back inside my house. I looked over at the swing and John wasn't there. My heart sank as I dropped everything and ran over to the swing. My first thought was that he had fallen out of the swing while I was gone, but no...my baby was no where in sight! I froze in panic and almost started screaming my head off when I heard Daniel upstairs say "Sweetie I'm home and I have the baby" I burst into tears and started sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. I grabbed John from Daniel and held on to him for dear life! What had happened was in the 45 sec. I spent grabbing the stroller from my trunk Daniel had come home for dinner on his bike from the opposite direction and we barely missed each other. When he walked into the house he saw the baby in the swing but didn't see me anywhere so he picked up the baby and walked upstairs to find me thinking I had just gone to the bathroom or was cleaning my bedroom or something. Right then I walked in the door and noticed my baby was gone. Just those few seconds from finding an empty swing to hearing Daniel's voice seemed like an eternity and were by far the most petrifying moments of my life.

So everything is fine...we're all safe and healthy but that sure takes the prize for being my scariest experience ever!!

Uncle Sean and Auntie Ayla!

On Halloween night 2 of Daniel's best friends came up from LA to visit us. We had such a fun time hanging out with them. We ate tons of food (the good kind and a lot of junk!) and we also left the baby with our neighbor and walked over to the campus along the main hang out street called Del Playa (DP) and saw all the crazys out and about!! I'm not kidding you it was like walking through the streets of Sodom and Gomorrah. There were thousands and thousands of drunk hardly dressed college students all over the place. I think they estimate every year having over 50,000 people go through that area on Halloween. The traffic to get there was terrible and every single cop in Santa Barbara was on duty that night. It was an amazing event to see. I was so happy to have my husband right there with me, especially when a guy wearing literally nothing but chaps and drunk as a skunk came up to me and tried to chat me up. Daniel took a short video of the scene on his camera but he's at school right now so I'll update this post later with the film footage so you all can get a taste of what it was like. All of us had fun together but I sure am grateful for my downstairs neighbor for offering to take the baby that night because I would have freaked out and gone home if we had him with us.

Anyway, Halloween was really fun this year...especially because we were able to spend it with friends. This is Sean holding John with his awesome Indiana Jones hat on!

Ayla tried to make a "mummy" costume, but by the time she was finished it just looked like she had got lost in the dryer! hehehe

We messed up John's hair and put a scar on his head to be Harry Potter but this picture is so dark you can't really see how incredibly cute his hair was....it really was SO cute.