Halloween-Part One

Today Jake's school had a Halloween Parade, complete with plenty of awesome costumes, lots of pictures, marching around the halls (or chillin in a wagon while your teacher pulls you), and of course, trick-or-treating.

We pretty much have to super glue that hat to his head or he will take it off immediatly

Smootching with grandma

(closed eyes and everything...what a pro)


Decisions, decisions...

Are we having fun yet?

(stay tuned for Halloween Part 2...

I will be in costume for this one...

I know your killing over in excitment)

Conference Trip

Hola mi amigos!!

I realize it's been quite some time since I posted, and my only excuse is that I have no camera...

usually I use the parentals but "someone" decided to go and lose the memory card,

and therefore we haven't taken any pictures in a while...

which is a total bummer because this past weekend was full of amazing memories

that I wish I could have stored somewhere other than my brain.

But I will try to do this post justice using only words to capture the

essence of just how awesome this weekend really was.

Thursday

-flew to SLC, Utah

Friday

-Went to Salt Lake Temple

-shopping

-relaxing

-site seeing

-Dinner @ "The Roof"

(if you've never been you must go before you die...it's amazing...expensive, but amazing)

-Joseph Smith movie @ the Memorial Bldg.

(cried my eyes out)

-Dance @ Studio 600

(not so much worth the $10 bucks we paid to get in)

Saturday

-General Conference

(Kandice and I were lucky enough to sit about 12 rows

from the front thanks too Uchdtorf's body guard who is a

family friend of the Smith's and Winn's)

-Work the corner haggling people for tickets

(quite an experience...let me tell ya)

-more shopping

(surprising, I know)

-Dinner @ Zuppa's

(Utah's version of Corner Bakery)

-games, swimming, ice cream, staying up way to late, etc...

Sunday

-more haggling people for tickets

(we held up a sign that said "Will Choose the Right for Tickets")

-General Conference

-Reunion of family and friends...

Brad, Kellie, Dane, Holly, Dave, Shelley...

-group photo

-ward testimony meeting

Monday

-"California here I come,

right back where I've started from"

(I could barely wait to see Jake)

I was so lucky to get to go on this trip with the singles ward...

it was the most spiritual, uplifting, fun, sleep deprived, awesome,

rewarding weekend I've had in quite some time.

Favorite Quote from Conference:

"We become what we want to be, by consistently being what we want to become."

-Elder Scott

Reminiscing...

Found this lovely gem while going through some old photos today...

enjoy.

It's the most WONDERFUL time...of the year...

Autumn is pretty much my favorite time of the year...

despite the fact that I live in California (the land of no seasons),

& I don't see the colors change as much as I would in say,

Utah or Oregon... there are still so many more reasons

why I love this time of year:

*fresh starts

*General Conference (I get to go this year...yay!)

*football games...need I say more?

*perfect weather

*sweaters

*picnics in the park

*Holiday's

*Family get-togethers

*nature

*fall fashion

Happy Autumn! =)

Diving...it's harder than it looks

Somewhat inspired by a good friend...

I have decided to start doing some things in my

life that I've kind of always wanted to do,

but just never really got around to doing for whatever reason...

(a bucket list--so to speak)

up first on the list:

Taking DIVING lessons!

(springboard diving that is...not scuba-I'd rather die)

Anywho...I'm taking a diving class @ Cypress College

and my coach is non other than Ashley's old diving coach

(who is awesome)...

how cool is that?

(this may or may not be an Olympic Gold Medalist and not me)

ps...little bro Brendan is also taking the class
and is already been picked to be on the school's div team!
yay Brendan!!

pss...at the beginning of this crazy idea of mine
I made a list of all the dives I wanted to accomplish.
Not gonna lie...that list is somewhat modified,
and by modified I mean all the hard dives taken off,
due to my recent "smack" on the high dive
(which left welts and bruises on my thigh for a week).
But don't worry...I'm no wuss...
these are the dives I still plan, aka: hope, to accomplish before the class is over:

-front full twist
-back one and a half (on 1 meter)
-back dive pike
-reverse dive
-front one and a half (on 3 meter)
-front two and a half (on 3 meter)
-inward one and a half

and some that I've luckily already accomplished:

-front one and a half (1 meter)
-inward dive
-front dive tuck/pike
-dive off 5 meter

(stay tuned for some more things on the "bucket list")

"A happy family is but an earlier heaven."

-George Bernard Shaw

...a few members of our "heaven" are missing :(

Step by Step...Day by Day

Jake's development is continually improving daily...

(I'm a very happy mom)...

(I'm sure the 5 hours of preschool a day(25 a week),

and 10 hours of extra therapy a week

might have something to do with it)

But he can now understand (and do) all these things

without being shown:

-shut the door

-clap your hands

-play piano

-wave hi/bye

-give kisses

-were going to say a prayer (he puts hands together)

-patti-cake (he claps hands/raises arms up)

-spider song (puts fingertips together like the song)

-were going on the bus

-come down the stairs (walks down while holding rail)

-blow farts on Chelsey's arm (it's a long story)

Jake will do these signs if you ask him to:

-more

-please

-bye

-cracker

-milk

-want

-all done

-piano

I know it may not seem like a lot...

but it's a huge improvement from just a few months ago.

A few days ago I met with Jake's preschool teachers/therapists

and they said Jake is the most social kid ever,

loves to interact with the adults, but could care less about the kids,

can't sit still for two seconds,

rocks out whenever he hears music,

and has the biggest appetite they've ever seen...

sounds about right.