Ashton's First Day of Preschool!

Today was Ashton's First Day of Primetime Preschool with Ms. Jan. When we got there he started clinging to me when we were walking in and he said he's scared. I told him it is okay to be scared because it is new but he will have so much fun!!! When we got in the classroom he stuck by my side but was not clinging and was not crying. We found his name tag and put it on, he liked that, and then we found where his lunch box goes and put it away. I asked him what he wants to do, there were so many choices, he sat and decorated his name sign and I stayed with him and then I said what do you want to do next and he said "I need to decide, there are so many things." He decided to sit and play with the dinosaurs. I sat with him for a minute and then I told him that I was going to go, he said "I don't want you to leave." I told him that I will be back soon and he will have so much fun, "give me a kiss." He gave me a kiss and then I walked away and when I looked back he looked a little nervous but he never cried or ran for me. I cried the moment I left the sidewalk all the way home and then some more at home. I told Jake that "he just didn't know anyone maybe I should have stayed longer." Jake said "he'll be okay." I thought about him the whole time he was at school and I was so excited when it was time to go pick him up. So hard for me, these first days of school. I don't think they ever get easier. I feel a sense of strings are being cut and they are going out into the big scary world. Mom was a mess, but Ashton did great his first day! He said he had fun, he didn't get to play outside because of the smoke, he watched a short movie about a turtle. He said that for snack a girl next to him had square cheese and circle meat and she put it all together like a crabby patty, I asked him if that looked yummy and he said no it looked gross! He said the kids were nice but didn't really play with him. :) Overall, I think he had a great start!

First Day Eve...

Ashton starts his first day of preschool tomorrow. Jake gave him a Father's Blessing today to start the year off right. Ashton was so cute. Jake put a chair in the living room and Ashton sat down with the hugest smile on his face. During the blessing I peaked at Ashton and he had his eyes squinted shut and he was still smiling. He felt so special and so important. He says he's a little nervous, but he picked out what he wants to wear and he put a couple of key chains on his firetruck lunch box.

My baby starts preschool, WISH US LUCK!!!

Placerita Natural Area...

The last summer Pack Meeting was held at Placerita Natural Area. Bro. Norton arranged a tour that we could only do for about 30 min. because of the air quality from all the fires. That was okay though because it was a scorching hot day! 103 to be exact!

Here he is pointing out Poison Oak...and berries that a coyote had pooped out, they eat the berries but cannot digest the outside so it just comes out the other end still looking alot like a berry just missing the inside.
This is a replica of the huts, homes, that the Tatavian Indians built and lived in.


THE OAK OF THE GOLDEN DREAM...where gold was first discovered.


Very interesting learning more about the history of our valley...

After the tour we found some picnic benches and had lunch. After lunch the kids were throwing rocks on the ground trying to break them in half and find crystals. Sierra was directing and they were all listening. :) These scouts are all such nice boys, Sierra loves to hang with them.

After lunch we went to the animal show...it was great, very entertaining and educational.Kate C., Ashton and Sierra

Luke C., Max H., Cade A., and Justin M.

A HAWK... his name is Wheelie, he was found in the wheel well of an airplane and rescued.

A SKUNK... that had been a families pet in Texas and when they moved here they donated him because it is illegal to have a skunk for a pet in California.

A GOPHER SNAKE

A TARANTULA... Sierra raised her hand and asked if you could have a Tarantula as a pet, the guy said sure and her mother was ready to have a heart attack!

The GREAT HORNED OWL

"Mommy..."

This morning it was our turn to clean the church so our family headed over, Ashton was not happy about making the church "squeaky clean." I kept telling him that it is Jesus' house and we need to clean it, it shows him that we love him when we take care of and clean his house. When we arrived there were scouts everywhere in the church. We couldn't clean anything except the windows. The kids loved cleaning the windows. We gave them the squirt bottles and that was their favorite part, squirting the windows. Ashton was squirting and wiping and turns to me and says "mommy, Jesus is happy!"

Today is my Hubby's Birthday...

and he says that it was the most fun that is humanly possible, it felt like a normal 33rd birthday. :)

Sierra really wanted to make her dad a special breakfast so she asked him several times the night before what he wants for breakfast. He asked for French Toast. So Sierra and I made him French Toast this morning with butter, powdered sugar and syrup and we put strawberries and blackberries on the side.

When he got to work his assistant, Amy, had put a Happy Birthday sign on his computer and gave him cookies and a soda pop. :)

His brother, Travis, took him to lunch to Pei Wei today. That was very nice!!!!

We went to Macaroni Grill tonight for dinner after Chili's had a 35 min. wait and Macaroni Grill had no wait. After dinner Jake was served with chocolate cake and the woman sang Happy Birthday to him in Italian. :) When Jake was paying the bill he said to the waiter, "this is what happens when you get older, you buy yourself your birthday dinner."

When we got home Jake opened his birthday present, new scriptures (a quad). He and I have been sharing my scriptures since we got married. I thought it was time he had his own. :)


We typed daddy out a birthday card and Ashton decorated it, so so cute!!!!

Love you Jake, you are my everything!!! Look forward to another great year with you!!! and many more!!!!

Mandalay Beach

This year for my birthday and for Jake's birthday we decided we wanted to go away to Mandalay. On Monday we packed up ourselves and the kiddos and drove to Oxnard, to Mandalay Beach and stayed 2 nights and came home today. We have gone there several times over the years with my dad and Tori but never by ourselves. Mandalay is a great beach and a great resort. We always have the time of our lives. Every morning you get a free breakfast and this includes a freshly made omelet to your liking. Jake and I got an omelet with potatoes both mornings. The kids would get a smorgasbord, a piece of bread, some fruit, a muffin, a pastry (Ashton called it a donut), Sierra would get bacon and sausage and some Fruit Loops. My favorite part of being there by ourselves is that my kids played together so nicely. We got there on Monday afternoon and put our stuff in our room and then headed out to the beach and then to the pool. We went to the Whales Tail for dinner and brought back with us a slice of chocolate cake to share. When we got back to the hotel we ran out to the beach and sat on the sand wrapped up in a blanket and watched the sunset, then we walked down the beach a ways and then went back and watched Night at the Museum 2 and ate chocolate cake. Yesterday the sun was out the moment we woke up. Me and the kids went to the beach at 10:00am and Jake met us down there about 11:00am, he doesn't love the beach quite as much as we do :) and we were at the beach or the pool all day until about 5:30pm we headed back to our room to take showers and then we went out to have pizza. We all got a little sun toasted that day! Today we packed up our car after breakfast and then went out to the beach for about an hour and at the beach we saw dolphins swimming in the waves and jumping and playing so close to shore just like we saw at Point Dume about a month ago. When the kids started complaining about all the sand in their suits we went to the pool for a bit and when the kids were done we left. We enjoyed every minute!

I just love this man of mine!

Looking for sand crabs...





This is Sierra's garden, she made and was watering it with the watering can...


This is Ashton's garden that he made and was watering it with the other watering can...


This sand way back here was so warm...


This was our hotel, The Embassy Suites

Ashton is swimming in the giant spa

I played paddle ball with Jake and I played a little bit with the kids but this was me most of the time; relaxing, reading and snoozing.



There's Ashton's cute little crack again :)

Jake is a FUN daddy!!!

The kids made these "stick warriors" yesterday and they were so thrilled when we went back this morning and their "stick warriors" and their gardens were still there.

A GREAT VACATION, GREAT MEMORIES!!!

Nick's Homecoming!

Today was Nick's homecoming talk in this ward. We were all there and it is always great to be together. After church we all went to Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Randy's house and had sandwiches, potato salad, and fruit. We all enjoyed each others company, it was a great day! Interesting facts: the church has only been in Taiwan for a little over 50 years, Taiwan is a small island but densely populated, there are beautiful parts of Taiwan (country and beaches) but in the cities it is dirty and everyone is on top of each other, land is very valuable there so they build tall buildings where people live, they believe that building a single family size home is a waste of land. The church members are strong, the missionaries ate out alot, the members fed them a little bit, they fed them alot during the Chinese New Year because everything closes down. Before Nick got there the members were not aloud to feed the missionaries at all because the missionaries would waste to much time at the members houses. He loved the Taiwanese people and from the 2 scrapbooks that a couple of member girl's made for him and comments that were put in these books the people of Taiwan loved him too! Thanks Nick for sharing your experiences and letting me ask you so many questions, I find it all so fascinating. I love the demeanor of a missionary just returning home. Nick is a great guy!!!

Happy Birthday Lincoln!!!

Today is Lincoln's Birthday!!!

My sister, Sophi, is so much fun and has such cute ideas. When we pulled up there was a huge sign over the garage that said WELCOME RACE FANS! Sophi painted boxes and stenciled numbers on the sides and put straps on them and then when the kids got there they got to paint and decorate their racecars. Sophi left Sierra's unpainted because they were apple boxes and they were Pink Lady apple boxes, so Sierra's car was pink and said Pink Lady on the sides. So CUTE!!! These cars even had an exhaust pipe.

Look at how clever she is again...the kids had racecars for lunch!

They ate lunch, played red light green light, played pin the wheel on the racecar, hit a hot wheels pinata, ate a racecar cake and icecream and then they finished the party off with a race in their racecars. Sophi did such a great job, such a cute party!!!!

READY, SET, GO!

Today is my birthday...

and it was a great day, it's been a great week. I've pampered myself and my mom has helped. Earlier in the week I went and got my eyebrows waxed, to save money I have been tweezing my eyebrows for over a year, A YEAR!!!! It was great to have someone do them for me. Yesterday I went and got a new hairdo and my mom scheduled and paid for me to get a manicure and pedicure. It's been a long time for both of those too. Feels great and yet wierd to have my fingernails painted and I love a great pedicure, hot pink is my color of choice and I just love how they look. Thanks mom!!!!

The kids slept at my mom's house with Norris and Brenna, they built a huge fort in the living room and they all slept in it. What a great Uncle and Auntie! I got to sleep in on my birthday. I got up at about 8:40am, but I didn't get out of bed until 9:00am. Brenna, Sierra and Ashton made me breakfast at my mom's house and brought it down to me. I had homemade waffles made from scratch and they were delicious. Thanks so much to the 3 of you!!! Love you tons!!!


Then we headed to the beach! I love the beach and was excited to spend my birthday there. Sophi came with her boys and mom-in-law (Charlene), and sis-in-law (Trisha) who were visiting for the week. Norris and Brenna came with Brenna's mom and dad. Marshall and James came and Jake came with me and the kids. We all had a relaxing and play filled day at the beach! :)

Jake was throwing the football with James. He threw it with me a little bit too! :)

These guys had a great rally going, they made it to 103!

This was my favorite part of the beach birthday, Sierra out in the water with Norris!

Norris is surfing...

and then he asked Sierra if she wanted to try!

She is SURFING!!! She is so cute!!!

Ashton told me "I want to surf with Uncle Norris!"Here he goes...

Let's do it again...

There's another cute surfer in the water...

What a great day!!! When we got home the kids went to my mom's and Jake and I went and had sushi, it's half off at GEISHO and it was so so yummy!!!! Went back to mom's and had some freshly baked cookies and played a game that Brenna taught us with mom, Chris, Norris, Brenna, Sierra, Jake, me, James and Marshall and later Norris' friends, Scott C. and Adam R., came and joined us. We were all in a circle passing signs, really fun!!!! We laughed alot, I love those fun games. Came home and put kids to bed and watched "Mr. Woodcock." I had a great birthday and I told Jake, I'm not a year older, I'm a year wiser. :)