Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was fantastic this year. Our wonderful friends (the Dorny's) invited us to spend the afternoon with them. Alexis made a DELICIOUS meal that everyone enjoyed.

John on his "date" with Emma. He wasn't a very good date I must admit because he kept leaving the table, stealing her food, and ended up pouring his water onto the table which soaked her food, outfit and the floor.

Joshua had a great time mostly sleeping on mommy.

...and getting eaten by daddy!

The next day we had desserts with our friends that live in the other family student housing complex. Jason and Sloan are in the Music program with Daniel. Jason's brother came as well. I made a delicious pumpkin cheesecake that was insanely good. Too bad all of the other desserts I made didn't turn out very tasty. Oh well, I still have Christmas to prove myself.

Thanksgiving Day 4 mile Run

On Thanksgiving morning I ran in a 4 mile race. This was HUGE for me because I have never done anything like this before in my life. I really don't like running. It's definitely not my favorite form of exercise. So why did I do it you ask? ....I don't really know. 1-Some other girls from my ward were doing it so I thought why not? and 2- because I knew it would get me out of my comfort zone and force me to work off this extra baby weight I packed on.
In September about a month after I had Joshua one of the girls from my ward told me about the race and asked if I wanted to do it with her. I agreed and started getting myself into shape. At first I went a little slow (come on I just had a baby!) then I started to do really well in my training, then I stopped for a few weeks when my family came to visit, then it was hard to motivate myself into wanting to get up early, so finally when it came down to the race I didn't feel ready. I was expecting to walk most of the way and the fastest I had been able to run a mile was 12 min running the whole time. I didn't know exactly what to expect but I decided to do it anyway. I had to push myself out of my comfort zone to it but I'm really glad I did. Sometimes it's good to force yourself to do something you wouldn't ordinarily do. The picture above is Lori, Jeannie, me, and Esther (and John making a guest appearance in the back) right before the .

The first mile was definitely the hardest part for me but then surprisingly it got a lot easier after that. I must have found my groove because before I knew it I was passing the half way mark then 3 miles then I was rounding the corner to the finish line. I ran, then walked, then ran, then walked pretty much the whole time. I started out running and finished running. My time was 50min 6sec. I was SO proud of myself. I definitely thought I was going to take over an hour and I exceeded my own expectations. This is Esther and I right after the race. I'm proud of myself for thinking outside my little box and doing something I wouldn't normally do. I'm glad I did it and the best part about the whole thing is I lost a total of 12 pounds from the time I started getting myself ready until I did it. I gained 42 pounds over the course of my pregnancy with Josh. I lost 20 pounds within the first 2 weeks and now I'm down 12 more. 10 pounds and one chubby flabby belly to go. I'll get there slowly but at least I'm starting.

Harry Potter

Never in all my life has a series of books wrapped me up so tightly before. I absolutely LOVE Harry Potter. I have read the books through once. However, I have listened to the books on tape (well, actually MP3) "performed by Jim Dale" at least 5 times through. Sometimes when I'm bored of listening to my same old same old playlist of songs I will randomly pick a book and start listening to it while I clean my house. I remember hearing about those books for the first time before the 4th book came out. It took me a while to get them but once I started I was hooked. When the 4th movie came out I left on my mission just a few days beforehand and was super bummed out about missing it. I don't like the movies as much as the books but I still like them well enough. When the 5th movie came out I had just got back from my mission and I went to the midnight showing with Daniel. That happened to be our 3rd date. We ended up holding hands for the first time during the movie and when he walked me to the car he put one arm around my waist and continued holding my hand....just remembering that night gives me butterflies!! When the 6th movie came out we didn't go to the midnight showing but we did go the day it came out to a matinee showing while our friend watched John for us. This time things are different. The midnight showing is happening in just a few hours from how (It's 10:30pm) and Daniel and I still have no idea when we will be able to watch it. He's really busy with concerts and performances coming up and we barely see each other every day let alone have enough time to catch a movie together.

So for now I will just have to be patient and wait for the glorious day in my future when I will be able to enjoy the first part of the 7th movie. I'm so glad they cut it into 2 movies so they will be able to include more of the story instead of barreling through the book (like in HP4).


For all of you reading this post that has already seen the movie.....LUCKYYYY!!

Joshua Rolls Over

Today (Wednesday November 16, 2010) at 1:25pm Joshua rolled over for the first time!! I had him on the floor with his diaper off and he started to push himself up on his side like he has been for the past week and a half or so. I rolled him over onto his stomach and walked out of the room for a second. When I came back he was almost all the way rolled over. I ran to get a camera and couldn't find it anywhere. I was talking on the phone with my sister and I was so excited telling her that he was about to roll over for his first time. Sure enough within a few minutes of teetering back and forth he rolled over. YAY! Today he is 3 months 2 weeks and 2 days old. (Interesting fact: John was 3 months 3 weeks and 1 day old when he first rolled)

Funny thing is when John rolled over from his front to his back for the first time I happened to be on the phone with my mom while I was changing his diaper. So both of them had little bare bottoms their first time rolling (my mom was pretty bummed out when she found out I was on the phone with Britt when it happened because she had just got off the phone with me before Brittanny called me today. It was almost the same situation 2 kids in a row!!)

However, I still have no proof. After I put a diaper back on him, found my camera, and sat there for the next 1/2 hour waiting or him to do it again he decided he was finished. "Been there done that" and he had no intentions of letting me capture "the roll" on film. But I will....one of these days....soon....I will.

Life is Focused Photography

Here is the guy's website (the one that took our family pictures on the beach). When you go to it click on "Galleries" then click on "Little One's" and you will get to see one more picture of Daniel hugging John. I think it is so precious....

http://lifeisfocused.com

Family Pics

A few months ago Daniel was browsing through the free list on Craigslist and someone had posted an ad saying he was a Brooks College student studying photography and needed subjects for his portfolio. We had pictures taken by Brooks students before and REALLY liked them so we decided why not?! Here is how they turned out....

We REALLY like them a lot.

Joshua is getting a lot better at holding his head up. He's not a huge fan of playing on the floor, but that might be because every time I lay him down his big brother jumps on top of him and squishes him to death!! I think he feels safer when someone is holding him. On the rare occasion that he does get time by himself on the floor (aka when John is strapped into his seat eating lunch, or taking a nap) I think he might actually like it. Today he was getting closer and closer to rolling over. More so on his back than his front but it was still fun for me to watch. We'll see how long before he's all over the place...John will be so excited once this kid becomes mobile!

...oh yeah, and he figured out a rattle today and ended up hitting himself in the face. After that he wasn't too keen to play with it anymore :)

Thrift Stores

I love a good thrift store. One man's junk is another man's treasure, right? Well, yesterday a lot of people's junk became my treasures after we took a trip down to some of my favorite thrift stores in Ventura. Daniel had the day off because of Veteran's Day so we took advantage of our time together and made the 40 min drive. We first stopped off at a few thrift stores then lunch at the Olive Garden, holiday shopping at one of my favorite stores in the world (the 99 cent store) and finished off our evening with a trip to the beloved Wal-Mart. Oh how all of these places seem like a treat to poor college students who have to drive 40 min one way each time we want to go to any of these places. It becomes a full day event! Needless to say we had a lot of fun, spent a lot of money, but came home with some really cool stuff. I love living here!!

Oh yeah baby, Life is good!

I think Joshua is going through a growth spurt. For the past few days he has either spent the whole day eating, or SLEEPING!

Tonight he fell asleep at 6:30 and is still asleep now. It's almost 11:30. He didn't even wake up when I took this picture of him. This is huge for me. I was able to clean my entire living room, kitchen and bedroom and STILL have time to post something on my blog before midnight. Wow!! Plus tomorrow is a holiday so Daniel will be home all day....and I have a clean house.

...I'm so happy right now :)

My secret love

As many of you know my husband is an Opera singer. I LOVE listening to him sing and I especially love it when he sings to me. I thought I would make that clear before telling you this: There is a secret compartment in my heart that is devoted to the voice of this man...

I fell in love with Josh Groban when I was in High School. His music actually helped me get through some very tough times in my life and to this day my heart still melts when I hear him sing. Tonight we had our Relief Society enrichment night where we had a wonderful dinner served by some of the older gentlemen of our ward, a service project (that I had to skip out on because I had to get my kiddos to bed), and a beautiful video presentation with pictures from some of the sisters in our ward to the song "Thankful" by Josh Groban. I have never heard that song before and I LOVED it. (Shocking I know seeing how I love his voice so much you would think I would be all caught up on his music and have everything memorized by now!) It was such a beautiful song to use as background music for the video.

One really funny thing that happened while I was there was at my table there was this little old lady who loved to talk. She recognized me but I couldn't really remember who she was (don't judge me I serve in Primary every week! I know everyone's children but sometimes I don't know who the adults are!!). Anyway, when the video got over this little old lady turned to me and asked who was singing the song. I told her that it was Josh Groban and she said, "Oh, I thought it was someone behind the curtain singing. There is a man in our ward who is a music major at UCSB who has a beautiful voice. I thought maybe he was the one behind the curtain singing. I love listening to him sing." I smiled and felt butterflies in my stomach and thought "He he he that's my husband!!". I never thought Daniel sounded like Josh Groban but wow that was a good compliment!

Hard Night

Yesterday I didn't post anything because I accidentally fell asleep while trying to get John to sleep! It's hard when Daniel has to work late or has to stay late to study because the bedtime routine doesn't ever go as smooth. I think John tries to hold out so he can see his Daddy before going to sleep. Daniel didn't get home until 1am so for about 2 1/2 hours John had a really hard time before I finally climbed into his bed with him and let him sob on my shoulder until he finally fell asleep. I ended up snoozing right along with him in the weirdest position on that tiny little bed. When I finally woke up at 12:50 my muscles were aching and I ended up leaving the dishes in a sink full of water and just going to bed. Some nights it's hard not having Daniel home, but I love him so much and I'm so proud of him for all of the things he does. I know it's not easy for him either being away from us and also being so busy. It's nights like these that make me appreciate the nights we do get to spend together.

Avatar-The Last Airbender

Daniel and I have our little shows that we watch together: Chuck, Glee, The Office, 30 Rock, Raising Hope (our newest addition to our list), and Avatar. Since school started Daniel has been really busy and it's been harder to find a lot of time to just hang out and cuddle while we catch up on our shows. Today was a very good day for just that and we finished the first season of Avatar-The Last Airbender and we started the second season. I absolutely love this show (...I love all the shows that we watch together!). I remember when it very first aired my brother use to watch it all the time and I always thought he was crazy. I just thought it was a stupid kids show and never wanted to see it. But now I have learned the error of my ways and I'm finding myself excited for those rare moments we get to spend time together so we can watch an episode or two. I miss Daniel when he is at school all day but it makes me value the time we have together even more.

One day while making dinner....

One day I was in the kitchen making this...

When all of the sudden I heard this...


John absolutely loves to climb all over everything. He's always been a really good climber which can be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time! We use to have a computer desk that my mom was throwing away and we needed one so we took it apart and brought it to California then reassembled it. The problem was it was not meant to be taken apart and put back together and still be considered sturdy. It wobbled and shook every time you even breathed on it. We eventually got a new computer desk that I LOVE. It has doors on it that can be shut and locked so everything inside will be protected from my 2 year old when I'm not looking. Plus it's very sturdy. Our computer desk chair on the other hand is not very sturdy when a 2 year old is constantly leaning on the back of it so he can take a look at what's going on in the kitchen. I hardly ever let John in my kitchen because I really don't like kids in my kitchen period. So John will try and watch me from either the baby gate at the entrance or leaning on the back of the chair looking through the little opening on the side. On this day he was leaning on the back of the chair and the whole thing came out from underneath him and crashed to the ground. It sounded worse than it was. I dropped what I was doing and ran into the other room to make sure he hadn't killed himself.This is the cornstarch I was using at the time of the crash. I didn't even realize I had dropped it until after I had come back.

He had a bump on his chin but thankfully nothing serious was wrong. It just scared me to hear this HUGE crash and piercing scream right in the middle of me trying to get dinner finished and my hands were full. After comforting him for a while I went back in the kitchen and found the corn starch all over the floor and the food was stuck to the bottom of the pan. I didn't care though. It still tasted great. When everything was prepared I came out and found John wearing a pink hat that Athea (a little girl from my ward) left at my house while I was babysitting her using the whisk as a trumpet!
P.S-He put the hat on himself!!

P.P.S-It was a really cute Princess hat!

The Hawaiian Wedding Song

Last summer (wait...not this last summer but the summer before) Daniel and I had the opportunity to sing "The Hawaiian Wedding Song" for a friend's wedding reception here in Santa Barbara. They didn't get their wedding video back until just a little while ago and they were gracious enough to share a copy with us. We had a lot of fun learning this song and singing together.

....Good times!

Dengue Fever

One time I was in the hospital for 8 days....

While I was serving a mission in Indonesia (I was in the city of Bandung at the time) I was bit by
a mosquito that gave me "Dengue Fever". {*The mosquitoes infected with the virus really do look like the one in the picture*}I remember on the Saturday night feeling a little achy and sore all over my body but I thought I was just tired from a long day of missionary work. The next morning my companion tried to get me out of bed and I woke up in more pain than I had ever felt in my life. It felt like every bone in my body was broken. I barely had enough strength to go to the bathroom then straight back to bed. My companion called the mission president and also the missionary couple that was serving in Bandung with us and told them I was too sick to go to church. I laid in bed freezing cold (which was a big red flag seeing how Indonesia is always SUPER hot and humid) trying not to move. After sacrament meeting the missionary couple came to our house to check on me and see if there was anything they could do. Sister Vandongen took one look at me and knew something was terribly wrong. They put me in their car and took me to the Emergency Room of a beautiful new hospital that had been completed 3 months beforehand. I had a REALLY high fever, low platelet and blood count (normal range is between 150-1,000 and mine was at 139), and a rash was forming on my body. They checked me into the hospital and pumped me full of fluids. And there I stayed for 8 days straight!


To make things worse the whole week I was in the hospital my companion was paired up with a recently returned sister missionary (an older sister who was retired) so she could still visit all of our investigators which left me at the hospital ALONE. Do you know how frightening it is to be by yourself when you're a so use to having someone with you 24/7? I have to admit I broke down and watched some TV (mostly nickalodeon and the discovery channel!) but don't worry I confessed everything to my mission president later (which he chuckled at me before saying his classic exasperated "Sister Mead" with that what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you look on his face!!) I had a lot of visitors all week which helped a lot too.

Elder Laulusa and Elder Sujono came to visit and brought me mosquito repellent, and guava juice they made themselves. Guava juice is supposedly really good for you when you have this disease.

Sister Yanti (right) Erlin (middle) and Yanti's mom (left-I can't remember her name right now) also made me guava juice and brought me an Ensign to read. *Erlin was the only person my entire mission that we found, taught, and was eventually baptized on Christmas Eve. *
This lady was so nice. She was one of the non-active people in our branch that we would visit every week. She found out I was in the hospital (after my companion showed up with Sister Mimi instead of me!) and that night she came to visit me and brought me bread. I was so excited to get that bread because I was not enjoying the hospital food at all.


This is the Branch President's wife(left) and Sister Yanti (right) who also brought me a bunch of food.

This is the old lady that lived right next door to us and her granddaughter. She was seriously the nicest person ever. She loved it when we would stop and say hi to her before heading out for the day. One day she let me borrow her cake pan to make a birthday cake for myself and we ended up staying at her house and talking to her and her husband for a little while. They were very strong Muslims but loved talking to a Bule *boo-lei* (white person). She kept grabbing my hand while she was visiting me and telling me how beautiful I was and she hoped I would get better soon.

This is Anas, Erika, Erika's friend, Margi, and Sister Mimi.

Lucy, Sister Dappalangga, and Sister Silen.

I don't remember their names except for Sesi (left) and Amber (standing next to Sesi). Sesi and Amber are sisters and that is their mom next to them. On the other side that is Sister Yanti's mom (back) and the Branch President's mom (front).
This is Elder and Sister Vandongen. They were my very favorite missionary couple I served with. I love them so much and I wouldn't have been able to handle that week without them.


This is the day I got to go home. All of the nurses loved me because not only was I a white person but I was a white person who could speak Indonesian fluently!

So to finish my story of what happened....

I continued to have a high fever for a few days and major body aches for longer. This disease is sometimes called the "Breakbone disease" because it literally feels like your bones are broken. There is no treatment for Dengue since it is a virus so the best thing they can do for you is keep an IV in you to make sure you are well hydrated and make sure that your blood count and platelet count doesn't get too low or you will need a transfusion. You can't even have an asprin to help with the pain which was annoying. During that week my Thrombocyte (platelet) count kept dropping. A normal range is about 150-1,000. I went from 139 when I was admitted all the way down to 89 and they were worried they might have to do a transfusion on me (this was on Friday night) The mission president called my mom and told her what was going on and my mom contacted her Stake President and told everyone she possibly could to keep me in their prayers and fast. My branch also fasted for me and miraculously the next day my blood count shot up and kept climbing. By Monday afternoon I was released from the Hospital. I was still pretty weak and it took me a while to get back into the swing of things but I was ok. The doctor was amazed that my count changed that drastically that fast. That's the power of fasting and prayer baby!!

"Daniel's Room"

Living in family student housing can be a bit crammed at times. The picture above is "Daniel's Room" on a good (clean and organized) day. "Daniel's Room" is the only place in the house where I have no control. I am not allowed to touch, move, change, or clean out anything in Daniel's Room. Everything has a spot and even if it looks cluttered and messy to me everything is in its perfect place according to Daniel. He knows where everything is and has a system of organization that is well out of my understanding. Some day I hope to have a house and in that house a room I can give to Daniel and let him do whatever he wants with it. Some place where I can close the door if I start feeling anxious about the state its in and just walk away. Until that time I must be patient and leave Daniel's Room the way it is even though sometimes it drives me crazy to look at.

I do love, however, the sweet set up we have in the entertainment category. If you notice in the picture there is a big computer screen, a laptop, a big TV, and a little TV. 4 places to watch things all of which are very important to have. The big computer screen turns into an extended desktop for the laptop. It comes in very handy when Daniel is writing a paper and can have his notes pulled up on the big computer screen as he is typing his paper on the laptop. I like to use it while I'm scrapbooking so I can scroll through pictures as I'm putting them together on the page. The big TV above the laptop can be plugged into the laptop as well which works FANTASTIC as movie central. Since we don't have cable the internet is the only way to keep up on our shows. It's the best thing ever to be able to lay in bed and watch movies and hulu on our "big screen" tv! Finally, the little TV is hooked up to the video camera we have set up in John's room. We use it as our nanny-cam at bedtime. It's an old-school video camera that has a "nightshot" button. Each night when we put John to bed we get to watch what he does in the time between us laying him down and saying "Go to sleep" to the point where he actually falls asleep. Sometimes it can take him hours (more like an hour) before he finally falls asleep and the whole time we watch him jump in and out of bed, grab all of the books from under his bed and try to read them in the dark, pile up every blanket in the room and try to jump on them from his bed, or my favorite: take cans from the food storage and pretend to talk on the phone with them. He always ends up in the weirdest positions by the time he actually falls asleep. I can't tell you how much fun it is to watch what a 2 year old will do in a room with the door closed when he's suppose to be going to sleep! The best part is each time he starts to get out of bed all we have to do is yell through "Get back in bed" and he'll jump right back into bed. Sometimes he tries to test the water by getting out of bed but having one hand or one foot still on the bed so technically he's in bed but can try to reach toys and books to play with! We'll have to press record one of these nights so we can get it on video tape. It's pretty hilarious. :)


This is our bed. I actually don't mind at all that we don't actually have a "real" bed. It's just a mattress on the ground with a mountain of pillows! I'm a pillow lover. I love having a lot of pillows around me. I love having our bed like this also because I don't have to worry about my kids falling off the bed and getting hurt since it's only a foot off the ground. I LOVE this picture of my two babies sleeping on me. This was the day we watched General Conference and I can't tell you how much fun it was to sit home on my throne of pillows cuddling with my 3 favorite boys in the world. Even though the student life we're experiencing now isn't glamorous and we don't have a lot of nice things I don't care about any of that because I have the most wonderful family in the world and I am a very lucky and happy woman!

Baby's First Halloween

This is John and Joshua on their first Halloween. It's so amazing to me how much they can look alike yet look SO different at the same time. Joshua's skin is lighter, he's bald, and he weighs more than John did at his age. However, their cries are the same and they give me the same cheesy smile which I love more than anything. I love having two boys and hope they continue to love and tolerate each other as they do right now.
...Here's hoping!

My November Challenge

There have been a lot of things lately that I REALLY want to post about so I don't forget but unfortunately it just hasn't happened yet! It's hard finding time to write down all of the things I want to because a) I get too busy b) I think of doing it then get distracted with something c) I get lazy or d) when I sit down to my computer 98% of the time I either have a baby crying on my lap wanting fed or I have a toddler jumping all over me wanted to press all the buttons or repeatedly click on the mouse. Somehow whenever I try to sit down to the computer something always seems to happen to where I have to get off and promise myself I'll find time later. When "later" comes I end up just checking my e-mail, browsing facebook for a while and checking out other peoples blogs instead of maintaining my own!

I am horrible when it comes to keeping a journal. There, I admit it fully. But somehow keeping a blog has been really good for me and has turned into my journal. This month is a really great month to be thankful for so many things. One of my friends is posting a scripture (and memorizing it!) each day on her blog and I decided that I would kind of do the same thing except just try to post SOMETHING on my blog every day this month. Some days I can guarantee will be shorter than others but I still want to post something. I have a lot of things I want to remember and what better place to share wonderful memories of my life than with wonderful people who care enough about me to read this blog!

Since yesterday was Halloween I thought I would share a little of how our weekend went....

John was the cutest little Superman I have ever seen!

Joshua pulled off Lex Luthor! I LOVE the baldy head :)

Daniel was Jimmy Olsen and I went as Lois Lane. A great family theme.

Saturday we had a Family Student Housing Halloween Party in the morning where I helped out taking pictures for the photo booth that the Tenants Association set up.

We printed out pictures right then and there for people to take home of their families and I think it was really fun. John was so sad the whole time because I was busy doing other things and wasn't paying any attention to him. He finally saw his best friend Eli and was fine after that.

When everything was over and we were cleaning up I walked back to my house to get a box and didn't know John tried to follow me. Somehow in between the park and my back porch (which isn't that far away) he fell and really hurt his finger. I could hear him crying and ran over to see what had happened and one of my neighbors said "He's bleeding". I grabbed him and looked at his hand which had blood all over it. I took him inside and started cleaning it off and saw that his fingernail was almost tore completely off (gross but true). The rest of the day he was not a happy camper and babied his hand as much as he could. Poor little guy!

You probably can't see it in this picture but it looked really disgusting!!

That night was the trunk-or-treat and John lasted about 8-10 cars before he got bored and didn't want to do it anymore.


Sunday was the Primary Program which turned out awesome! The kids sounded great and I had a lot of people come up to me later and tell me what a great job I did with them (I'm the chorister). It made me feel so good. Later on that evening we went "inverse trick-or-treating" and we "treated" people with a plate of eyeballs (white chocolate covered rice crispy treats made to look like eyeballs!) then we went a party with some of Daniel's school friends and John had a BLAST playing with their dog. He would run and jump up on the chair or couch every time the dog would come close to him and was surprisingly soft with him when he would pet him and loved it when the dog tried licking his hands. He was pretty sad when we had to leave.

We had a great Halloween this year!