Adventure in Ventura

My Uncle Rob passed away a couple of weeks ago, so we made some last minute plans to get ourselves to California for the funeral. It was a sweet experience in that the funeral was really small- 8 of us. His sister, Rose, had some Beetle's playing and we all just visited at the grave site his ashes will be buried in. I didn't really know him and actually never heard many good stories about my Uncle Rob while he was alive, but at the funeral I was able to hear a lot of great stories about him. I also heard some of his poetry which I loved and will share another time. Turns out my Uncle Rob was very talented and had friendships we never knew about. I really found a lot of hope in the experience and think of him free from his earthly problems. There was a lot of laughter at the funeral, and not too irreverent. It was touching and the kind of funeral I would like.

I flew with the kids while Micah drove and camped out the day before. Taj got to see the cockpit of our airplane and even press some buttons (thank you Southwest for helping a mom out). Micah got some o.k. waves then picked us up. After the funeral we checked into our house in Ventura. Micah loves to plan out our trips and found us a rad place 9 houses from the beach! We had great eighty degree weather and loved the area. We were next to a marina so we saw boats all day long.

Eden loved the cold water and charged for it nonstop. We all got sick on the trip, and Taj wouldn't stay asleep (new bed/sounds/lights...), but we had a great time. It was a reminder of how blessed we are and how grateful I am best friends with my family.

School is Cool

I thought it was a little overboard to do preschool pictures, but then I got to thinking about how fun it is to pull out my school pictures and thought we'd better get some.

My first thought was how stinking adorable this little man is. My second thought was how in the world did the photographer got Taj to smile for her. My third thought was how this photographer was smart to target preschools and how she's probably raking it in. Most recently I thought how red Taj's hair looks in the photo. Cute kid.

*just let us know if you need a wallet sized photo. We've got a few laying around.

"like an orange on a toothpick"

My little lady is a clumsy little lady. While these pictures show what a cute and perfectly round head she has, it also shows how large it seems in comparison to the rest of her little body.
I'm really not trying to sound mean here. I'm actually concerned because she falls down a lot (with the help of her big brother sometimes), and because her noggin is so big it hits every time.
These pictures are quite amazing because they don't show the permanent bump on the right side of her forehead. They do show her kissy face, which I LOVE!

I'm seriously considering getting a helmet for her, cuz at some point all this bumping and bruising has to cause some permanent damage. Yikes.

The Real Halloween!

We had a great night! We made our traditional "Witches Brew" or root beer with dry ice.

After dinner we got suited up and headed out for some Halloween loot.




I know they're blurry, but just think of them as spooky Halloween pictures:)

Here's Taj on his scooter. I had to laugh because the whole time we're trick or treating I kept getting those little scrub feeling of hurrying to as many houses as possible as to get the most candy. Pretty cute. He was so brave, and even though Eden got scared a couple times she was totally into it.

Halloween Practice

We've had lot's of excuses to dress the kids up, even though it's not Halloween yet. Grandma Letty took us to Gardener Village for the festivities. They have about thirty huge witches doing things like fishing, using an outhouse(witchy poo), stirring some brew, playing baseball... We had fun looking for all the witches and seeing all the people dressed up. Today was the Halloween party at Taj's preschool and the ward party so we got dressed up twice. Taj asked if today was Halloween since we dressed up and trick or treated at church. I tried to explain that it wasn't and that this was just practice.

Taj really had his heart set on being a ghost, so we did what we could and this is what we ended up with. I know, he's not a ghost fairy and I've been reminded that it's a lot of tool. He's happy with it. You've got to love that it's homemade too. We went with the lion costume for Eden since that's what Taj was for his first Halloween. We'll make something for her next year when she's a little more into it. Oh, and when you hear her growl you wouldn't be able to resist it either.

We made some Frankenstein rice crispy treats, or tried anyway. They were surprisingly good. You melt white chocolate and add the food coloring. Spread it over rice crispy treats and decorate.

Fun, Naturally

Micah did some research and found a little hike to some waterfalls close by. It's rad because the hike is next to a stream the whole time. There's something soothing about the sound and sight of water that I crave. Taj is a great little hiker, and Eden was dying to try. Soon enough Eden. Soon enough.

Let the Halloween Fun Begin!

Taj is sooooo into Halloween. He loves the decorations and is constantly saying he wants to see some and asking why some houses don't have ghosts and spider webs. It's bordering obsession. I guess he fits right in here because Utah is stupid with Halloween decorations and activities. (I mean that in the best way possible). He actually really likes some of the creepy stuff too. I kind of hate it so he knows that some Halloween stuff is just for him and Daddy cuz it makes Mommy a little nervous.

Amy, a friend of mine, started a blog with fun activities for kids http://amy-fun4kids.blogspot.com/ where I got the Q-tip skeleton idea from. He did a great job and loved making it.

We also went to "Barnyard Boo" where he got to go "Boo Bowling" and see all kinds of decorations-Yippy! He won a spider ring, Frankenstein eraser, and Eden got to ride on a horse for the first time. With two weeks until actual Halloween this is only the beginning of Halloween fun for us.

If Only We Had A Time Machine....

You've got to try this. Thanks Nicole.

Four Letter Word

Politics. Politics is a four letter word to me. I have never liked them or understood them much. I feel helpless and saddened by them, oh, and extremely uninformed. I usually just stay out of them (unless you count "The Colbert Report" or "Saturday Night Live"), but because of the current state of our nation and the upcoming election I find myself getting sucked in. I've even listened to parts of a couple debates and watched interviews.
Liz Rago, who I am proud to know, is doing a blog series called "30 Days. 30 Issues." It's been very informative and only slightly opinionated:). Here's the link: http://foreverkaili.blogspot.com/
All I know is that I think anyone that would want to be President right now is nuts. I'm grateful they are willing. It will be a long process to get America back to good, but I really feel like Obama is aware and willing to acknowledge that there are no easy answers. I like most of his plans and feel comfort from his firm stance. Again, there is so so much I don't know and understand. Can't we just elect Thomas S. Monson?

Pacifier Heaven

The boy love(s/ed) his pacifier. We never planned to give him one, but he came back to us from the dreaded baby boy surgery with one happy as a clam. It worked to calm him down over and over again.... who would turn that down?



We have slowly weened him off of it, and for over the last year he's only used it for naps and bedtime. We worried over getting rid of it because we didn't want to lose naps or have him wake up crying at night without it, and we thought we'd have a big fight over him giving it up. We started telling Taj that he was almost too old for a paci (way too old). Then we presented this idea to him. He was really excited about it and a day or two later we did it. It went off flying and he was happy as a clam. Luckily he still naps and sleeps great through the night. Every once in a while he will kind of giggle and tell us his paci is in the clouds. I'll consider myself to have dodged a bullet with that one. A situation where procrastinating worked out.

ROCKtober

October is off to a rocking start. On October the forth (and then the next night) we celebrated Eden's First birthday! Can I just gush about her for a minute? She is the cutest girl in the world after all. I love how she points and grunts at everything, gives kisses to every animal she sees... even snapping ducks and creepy black cats (for Halloween), enunciates "Uh-Puh" and whispers "Pop Pop", found her nostrils and can be found slowly sliding her finger in and out of them, knows how to fake burp and knows it's funny, has crazy hair, loves tomatoes and will eat them off the tomato plant until we stop her, she almost always reaches for me :), waves her arms and pretty much leaps out of my arms to her Daddy for their after work hug/hangout, can walk but chooses to hold my hand, loves to wear the Mr. Potato Head glasses, copies the sounds we make when we tickle her, dances whenever music is on.....
I could go on all day. She's our little sweetheart. We are so grateful to know her and are blessed to have her in our family.
We had a little Luau for her, and let's not forget the cake. She LOVED it, or at least the frosting.

As I mentioned before, it's ROCKtober.... Last night Micah and I went to a Weezer concert! Funnest concert I've ever been to, and I've been to some winners. It all started with Richard Marx. Any who, the seats we bought didn't exist or something so we got to sit in the 3rd row. After tolerating "Angels and Airwaves" Weezer came on stage. I think Rivers lost a bet or something because everything he said in the first two songs was in Spanish: "Como est as?" "Me llamo Jonas", and so forth. It was the kind of concert where everyone sang along and was super stoked the whole time. Unlike the lead singer of A and A they didn't swear and even mentioned their families. They had about thirty fans that knew how to play instruments call in a radio station in advance then got to go on stage to play "Island in the Sun" and "Beverly Hills". The penny whistler was especially talented. I love the Weezer! I challenge anyone having a bad day turn on some Weezer and not feel better. We were a little worried we'd feel like old farts there but then we saw the people that took their two year olds with them and realized we're just fine.

With a start like this I think I can get through the freezing temperatures expected this month. Lookout everyone- the winter Jill is just around the corner. Yikes.