Jacob's Holiday Performance

Tonight we had the enjoyment of going to Jacob's school and seeing all the first graders perform numerous holiday songs. It was different this year to have all Christmas music compared to last year which was actually more Jewish related music due to the area we lived in. Jacob has been running around the house singing bits and pieces of "I want a hippopatamus for Christmas" and "Rudolph" and "Feliz Navidad" since he started school two weeks ago. All the kids wore santa hats and they were truly adorable. Owen loved the music and had a good old time most of the time dancing in his daddy's lap. Jacob is getting so big and so tall! He can't wait to see his grandparents next week! Here are some pictures and videos of the performance.

All ready to go!

SANTA CLAUSE IS COMING TO TOWN! (Note how PROUD Jacob is!:)

HAWAIIAN CHRISTMAS (Poor Jacob was so squished)

DANCING BABY

RUDOLPH! (Check out Jacob's NOSE. He said he did that for Owen:)

Owen Dancing with Daddy


This is Jacob and his new teacher Mrs. Winn. She is so so sweet and he loves her!

This is Jacob telling everyone "there is MY MOM right THERE!" I love him!

I had to share the cute card Jacob brought home today with his present for us. He made me open it now. Its a really pretty sun catcher type of ornament along with this cute card. His writing is getting better!

HILARIOUS!!!!

Enough Said.


This video is of me chasing him around the house. We did this for probably an hour straight the other day. He would laugh so hard he would literally fall over.

A Monkey for My little Monkey

Owen recently has become attached to a monkey stuffed animal of Nathan's. He has been making monkey noises for a couple of months now (in fact up until recently every animal made monkey sounds:) and right before we move in purging stuffed animals I found this monkey of Nathan's. Owen was delighted when I made him dance and make monkey sounds and a new friendship began. During our trip when he got upset I would be driving 80+ miles an hour down the road half turned around with that monkey dancing and making noises at him and kissing him it was one of the few things that made him stop crying. He slept with the monkey each night in the hotel room and the friendship grew. Now that we are in our new home he still sleeps with him at nap and bedtime. It is so cute to go in and see him all curled up using him as a pillow or even better snuggling with him with his little arms clasped around him. The first thing he does when he wakes is launch the monkey out of his crib. It is pretty funny. He likes to carry him around the house and make him make monkey sounds, give him hugs and most of all dance with him. I LOVE this age. So sweet and innocent. I wish he could stay 12 months for a while.....


I love that Owen will "cheese" with me for the camera! If you look closely you can see he even has monkey pjs on (a coincidence I swear:)

San Diego or bust!

We arrived here on my birthday (11/23) and spent the first week shoved in a La Quinta hotel room with all of us sick but Ian. It was not the most fun experience but we made it through and finally got our keys a week later.

Here are some pictures of our hotel living....





It is nice to move to a place where you know the area at least a little bit and don't feel so lost. We had a great afternoon down at Pacific Beach walking the pier and putting our toes in the Pacific Ocean. That was the number one thing on the boys' list of things to do. Now we are busy trying to settle into our new house slowly things are getting put away. I have yet to open the garage which is stacked floor to ceiling with boxes....maybe this weekend? At least we have internet! I was going throw withdrawals.






So far Jacob is enjoying school. His class was very receptive. I think a lot has to do with the fact we are in a military neighborhood so kids come and go constantly so its "normal" for there to be a new face.

Nathan is having a tougher time. He is bored as he is used to being in school. I picked up the paperwork to try to get him into the preschool that is run here for military. Ian is supposed to drop it off today. I am praying that by the time Christmas break is over he can start school a few days a week as well even if I can't get him in here in our neighborhood and have to drive him elsewhere.

Here the boys are celebrating being in our new house!





This picture has got to be my favorite of all. Nathan made friends with the movers unloading our stuff and took a break with them. They were SUCH nice guys and SO good to Nathan and Owen. I just thought this was too cute not to take a picture.



We are looking forward to attending our new church for the first time this Sunday as FINALLY we all seem to be better. Owen ended up having a sinus infection and has now been on antibiotics for almost a week and is pretty near back to himself. It was a long journey out here not without strife but we made it. It seems Ian's ship's readiness keeps getting pushed back and at this rate he should be home with us for quite a while, that is, unless they decide to send him temporarily to another ship...which could happen. For now though he starts school in January and at least through the summer will be in schools and HOME every night. For this, I am truly thankful.

Sisters!

The whole trip I was looking forward to visiting St George and seeing two of my sisters and my nephew, Corban. Finally we got there Saturday morning and spent the day/night with them. Unfortunately by this point Owen was absolutely miserable so we spent most of the time in the hotel but we still had a great visit and Nathan and Corban became fast friends. The boys are all looking forward to Christmas when they can cause trouble together again!

An attempt to get a picture of all four boys...what a joke! Hopefully they do better for family pictures!

Laura made me birthday cupcakes. Here is poor sick Owen with his:(





Laura and Jacob just love eachother. I am not sure if its from the bond they formed when he was tiny and we lived with my family or what but they just have so much fun. Jacob kept asking her if she could be his "ex girlfriend". We were all dying laughing.

Utah Lookout Views

On our way onto our next destination there were SO many awesome views of the rock formations and mountains. There were a number of places you could stop and get out but unfortunately Owen was asleep. Finally he woke up just as we got to one of the last ones. The sun was going to go down within the hour but I was determined to stop. I am so glad we did! We had a great time walking around and taking pictures. Jacob and Nathan tried to give me a few heart attacks getting too close to the ledge (for my liking) but Jacob especially LOVED taking pictures. Ian decided we needed a family picture and so he used a trash can as a tripod and we did our best to get a family shot. Too bad all you can see is Keira's behind:) Owen, of course, is smacking Jacob in the head. That is typical Owen for you!






Jacob took the last two pictures. He does a pretty good job!

Day 3 onto Colorado/Utah! (at least that was the plan)

We started day three finishing our time in Nebraska and cutting down into Colorado. I have to say that after driving through this BEAUTIFUL state I could with no doubt retire there. Mountains, trees, four seasons, lakes you name it. I fell in love. We have friends who live outside of Denver and after much discussion we decided to stop and see them for a "short" visit. The "short" visit of course turned into five hours and we were going to try to make it to our planned destination but after being stuck in Denver rush hour traffic and Owen screaming for two hours we threw in the towel and stopped just a bit of a ways up into the Rockies. Thankfully we found a Super 8 and were able to crash for the night. Little did we know that all three boys were starting to get sick....YEA (not!) We woke up to snow capped mountains surrounding us and wishing we could just stay put for a few days. It was SO beautiful. I am so thankful we stopped though because this meant the next day as we drove into Utah we got to enjoy the mountain climb and descent, the continential divide and the tunnels and I was less freaked out (I do not enjoy driving at night especially up Mountains!)

Here are a few pictures from our friend Eron and Rob's. They have some snakes and an Iguana that the boys LOVED!