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.