Fun to be One

Now that James is walking, I find lots of surprises around the house...

the stuffed monkey in the silverware drawer

toys inside the dishwasher

measuring cups on the front porch

and my favorite, the sippy cup hanging on the Christmas tree.

Tis the Season

These photos are a bit late, but I wanted to share our happenings.

We lucked out and found the most beautiful Christmas tree we've ever had. The branches are perfectly even and the top is just perfect for our star. I was worried that James would pull off the ornaments, but so far, we've had very few incidents. He must like it too!

The boys in their Christmas sweaters:

Our town has a special Christmas display where the children can go visit Santa. While we stood in line we were even given hot chocolate! The Santa and Mrs. Claus were so cute.

David has asked Santa for a "knight riding a horse". He is quite excited. When he discovered this morning that Christmas is only four days away, he did a victory lap around the house and gave James a huge squeeze.

James was quite worried about the whole experience. I thought this incriminating look at Santa was funny!

New adventures for James

James finally got his first haircut. Here is the before:

And after... such a sad face. He really looks like a little boy now.

James' favorite toy these days is the bathroom sink. We don't know why and we don't know what he does because he still can't reach the faucet. When the house gets quiet, this is where you'll find him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, that it is hard to face real life again. Here are some favorite pictures.

David and his preschool buddies performing a turkey song. The class is all boys!

Joseph's parents gave us tickets to Disneyland last Christmas, so Joseph took Wednesday off from work so that we could finally use them. This Dumbo ride was one of my favorites.

If you've never been to Disneyland during Christmastime, I highly recommend it. This is probably the only time we'll see snow here in southern California. Doesn't the castle look pretty?

5 of Joseph's 6 sisters and their families gathered here for Thanksgiving. Here are the men happily on cleanup duty.

David and his cousin, Natalia, thought it would be fun to trade shoes. David was so happy to be with his 25+ cousins. Even James started to get into the mix of things.

CSA

This was my first CSA (community supported agriculture) basket. It is all organic, picked the day of from a local farm. I get a basket every other week. This week, my basket included, carrots, string beans, dill, parsley, basil, chard, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, persimmons, oranges, carrots, celery, romaine lettuce, zucchini, and a bouquet of flowers. Only $34, and so fresh!

I have a goal to start cooking with as much fresh produce as possible. Looks like I'll need to get going, so that all this glorious food doesn't go to waste! If you are interested in doing this, check out http://www.localharvest.org/csa/.

Happy Birthday James!

I can't believe that it's already been a whole year since this sweet little boy came to our family.

In just one year, he is taking a few steps, saying "ma" and "da", pushing cars around the room, graduating from formula to whole milk, sitting forward-facing in his carseat, getting mad when things get taken away from him, and doing his very best to keep up with David. I sure love this kid.

"More please?" Actually, he polished off the entire cupcake in less than 5 minutes.

The new addition to our loot of boy toys. Apparently it is also a climbing toy!

As a comparison, here's David on his first birthday. Any resemblance?

In Defense of Food

So, I've never been a health-nut. I've always gotten frustrated when parents ban sugar from their kids, and the organic thing has always seemed like a ploy to charge more money for food. However, Joseph and I are reading a book called "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. It is so interesting and has really made me think twice about what I eat. I've resolved to eat as little processed foods as possible, and am willing to spend a few extra bucks on organic milk and eggs.

Here's an excerpt from the inside cover:

"Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it? Because most of what we're consuming today is not food, and how we're consuming it- in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone- is not really eating. Instead of food, we're consuming "edible foodlike substances"- no longer the products of nature but of food science. Many of them come packaged with health claims that should be our first clue that they are anything but healthy. In the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by nutrition..."

It's so true. In health classes, we're trained to read labels on food products but not how to take whole food ingredients and actually cook with them. Have you ever noticed how tasteless mass-produced cheese is? That's because it is seriously lacking in nutrients. Even our whole foods have been affected by industrialization. We have to eat the equivalent of 3 apples to get the same amount of nutrition that that one apple had 60 years ago. Much of today's diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are more prevalent in diets where processed foods and industrialized agriculture have taken over.

I could go on... but I'll stop. :) You'll just have to read the book.

Big Boy

Today, I asked David, "How old are you?"

He said, "4".

"What comes after 4?"

"5".

"What comes after 5?"

"17".

When I broke the news to him that he was only going to be 6, he asked, "Well, how long is it going to take?!!"

When I tell David that he has to stop growing up he says, "But, I have to grow, so I can be big like Daddy!" He also asks, "How old am I going to be when I'm a daddy?" When we tell him that it's a long ways away, he says, "but it's taking a long time!"

Here's a picture of the big boy and his superhero daddy.

Boys

DAVID:

energetic, happy-go-lucky, helpful, social,

loves legos, rocketships, primary, preschool, and his blanky

JAMES

strong, bright-eyed, vocal, VERY busy,

loves pancakes, his pacifier, his stuffed monkey, and anything that David plays with

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween, we were lucky enough to visit my sister, Holly, and her family in Palm Springs. While there, we visited a desert reserve, carved pumpkins, and joined in on her ward Trunk or Treat.

Here's one from the "Living Desert". This is Joseph's dream vehicle. Someday, he would like to own an avocado range.
Pumpkin carving extravaganza!

Despite all our efforts, this was the best picture we could get of the boys. David wanted to be Superman for the second year in a row and even says he wants to be it next year! That sure makes it easy for me, although I'm not sure if his costume will fit a 3rd year!

Here's the whole crew! They were definitely the cutest kids at the party.

Family

We have had a wonderful two weeks with family and friends visiting us.  I forgot to bring my camera for most of our excursions, but here is one from the beach.  My niece and nephew were visiting, so it gave us a good excuse to head to the beach.  I pinch myself everytime we visit the coast because I feel so lucky to have this beauty nearby.

(in case you can't tell, that is Joseph and David with my neice and nephew in the background)

Here are a few farwell photos of my sweet parents.  Thanks, mom and dad, for the visit.  Wish you didn't live so far away!

I Smell Trouble

James is getting pretty fast and strong.  He likes to climb into closets, drawers, and is just anxious to climb onto things.  The other day, by fluke, he made it onto David's bed.  And oh, he was sooo mad when I took him off.  I am in for it with this one.  I sure hope he has a guardian angel following him around!

I guess it's all necessary to keep up with big brother!

Dancing lions

For the past few years I have been teaching dance once a week in the evenings.  For David, this has become just a normal part of life.

Today, David said, "Mommy, at preschool Drew (his friend) and me were pretending that we were daddy lions."  When I asked where the mommy lion was, he said without hesitation, "the mommy was at dance class teaching dance."

Utah trip

We had the pleasure of visiting Utah this past weekend for my new nephew's baby blessing.  While there, we managed to fit in a few fun excursions.  The highlight for me was visiting my 92 year old grandma.  I was so surprised at how sweet and loving David was towards her.  They hit it off immediately.  Later, David asked me, "mommy, do we get old things on our hands and our face?".  It took me a minute to figure out what he was asking about, and then I realized that he had probably never seen a very old person before.

While we were driving around Murray, I noticed Wheeler farm and remembered going there as a child.  The next day, we went over there for a couple hours.  Here's David on an awesome climbing tree at the farm.  I wish I had one of those in my back yard!

Our visit couldn't be complete without a trip to temple square.  If you have never taken a tour of the church conference center, I highly recommend it.  Here we are enjoying the view from the roof.

David "touching" the temple.

...and, of course, our visit couldn't be complete without a trip to Provo.  Here's David at bridalveil falls.

This picture would've been much cuter with a better backdrop.  We had to take it in a hurry because Joseph was running off to meet my brother-in- law at the football game.  It's too bad that they lost.  Joseph still had fun!

Thanks Jessica and Brent for the fun trip!

David

"Daddy, did Ammon fight with his sword or his light saber?"

preschool

today was David's first day of preschool.  I have to admit that I feel apprehensive about having him gone again during the day.  It sure feels lonely without this little face around.

Halloween Preview

Here's our little monster! .. and believe me, sometimes he can be a little monster.  He screams and shakes his little fists when he doesn't get his way, which happens quite a bit.  Do the terrible 2's really start at 10 months?  

Update

Wow.  I feel like life has taken off again.  Gone are the uneventful summer days.  Here are some random things from the past month.

For our anniversary this year, we decided to fix up our bedroom.  The bedding was going to be my "summer project".  It hasn't happened yet, but hopefully in the next few weeks...  :)  The bedspread is finished, now I just need to make a bedskirt, pillow covers, and some curtains.

 We came home from vacation and found this monster Zucchini.  The pictures don't do it justice... it really was HUGE. 

I made two loaves of Zucchini bread and still had this much left over.

Joseph is happy these days because football season is around the corner.  David is happy because preschool starts in a week.  I'm happy because dance starts back up again soon.  I am also sad to have a schedule again.  Time seems to fly by, and my kids are growing up way too fast!