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Last weekend we went camping with Jeni, Dennis, and Jeremy's parents to Portola Redwoods State Park. The park was beautiful and the weather was nice. I think everyone had a nice time, even if we did miss getting a shower. The kids thought the banana slugs were great. I've decided that the redwood is my favorite tree. I think it's amazing how big they get and how serene the forest is.

JD’s video journal

JD loves video cameras. He records himself on video all the time. His favorite Christmas present is probably his toy video camera, but what he really loves is my iPad because he can make videos of himself and watch himself. Usually they are only a few seconds long, but this time he actually recorded himself for a couple of minutes.

My five year-old recording his thoughts for the day

Here are the Thomas pictures mentioned in the video. He changed my background to the blue Thomas, which my CTR 5 kids thought was great today when I got my iPad out to use it for the lesson.


I'm not sure if the multicolored one is my favorite or if I like the one that looks like it was scribbled with pencil the best.

T-ball Season

JD had his first t-ball game this last week. He hit the ball on the first try at his first at bat, but I failed to get a picture of it. The next time wasn’t quite as successful.
The funniest part of the game was watching JD entertain himself while he was on base or in the outfield.

JD at the pitcher’s mound

Jeremy came after work and brought the girls with him. Becca shared her money with Sariah and they went to buy candy. It was nice having everyone there with the good weather.
JD tried hard, whether he was batting or fielding. Sometimes I think he did get bored. Or maybe he just likes to daydream.

The girls had candy for dinner before going to activity days.

The first time JD went to bat he hit the ball right away. Unfortunately I hit the wrong button on the camera and didn’t catch it. His second time at bat took a few attempts and what turned out to be about three minutes felt like several.

JD at bat

I think everyone had fun and we look forward to the next game.

Easter 2012

It’s been over a year since I’ve posted anything but I’ve recently been thinking about all the activities my kids have been enjoying and all the people that are missing out. A few months ago we bought a new camera that does pretty good video and is easy to carry around so I thought, why not try to be a little better about capturing it all?
Jeremy wanted to play basketball with his friend Daniel over the weekend and his friend Jill’s baby was being blessed, so we decided to go to Stockton for Easter weekend. The kids had fun playing with their cousins Daniel and Justin and I got to finish up the year 2004 in my scrapbooks. It was a nice weekend. Justin warmed up to me and decided that I would be fun to play with. I learned that if he brings me a pillow and a blanket I’m supposed to pick him up and if I’m lucky he might play peek-a-boo with me for a while. It was hilarious watching him hide in the big blanket and then laugh hysterically when I found him. I didn’t even have to bribe him with my iPad, although he did sit with me and read Thomas and Toy Story on it later.
We were able to surprise the kids with new Easter outfits, something that we told them they weren’t getting. I was just glad I managed to get the right shoes for Sariah and pick out a dress that she liked. Jeremy picked out Becca’s outfit and I think he did a pretty good job.





I was able to buy a new dress too. Jeremy was happy that his mom went shopping with me instead of him having to go. Cindy was happy because she found a skirt she’d been eyeing on clearance. Everyone was happy.
The kids also dyed eggs over the weekend, which were later hidden in the back yard so they could hunt for them. I don’t know if Justin had ever dyed eggs before, but he was pretty funny. I loved how proud he was of himself when he put the eggs in the dye.





Sariah is very creative and liked dyeing eggs. Daniel, JD, and Becca liked the dye, stickers, and coloring on them as well.




Cindy and Jeni helped the kids while Jeremy and I took pictures.
Here is a video of Justin dyeing his eggs.

No trip to visit the family would be complete unless I let Justin play on the iPad. He loves going from game to game. 


Here is a video of the kids Easter egg hunting. Becca picked them up and shook them to see if they had money in them. They had a lot of fun and everyone was happy with their eggs. They were especially happy once they were allowed to eat the hard-boiled ones.

Jeremy's New Hobby

It's been a while since I've done any digital scrapbooking. Since I had half the day off today, I had a little bit of time between work and celebrating Jeremy's birthday. We had a nice day today. We went out to Tex Wasabi's for lunch and then to the mall to look for a birthday present. He still doesn't know what he wants. Anyway, a few months ago we had a conversation about how I go out and scrapbook once a month or every other month and he doesn't go out to do anything but work. I encouraged him to find something to do, so he decided to start fishing with his friend Jeremy G. Jeremy G has a really cool family, and for this trip he took his kids. I believe JD was in Stockton for this trip, but Sariah and Becca got to go along.

I wanted Jeremy to take pictures, but the kids ended up with the camera instead. Regardless, I think some of the pictures turned out cute. I actually kind of like the crooked one of Becca.

They had fun, but unfortunately all Jeremy caught was a sock and some seaweed (or whatever they call what grows in the river). There were a lot of people around in canoes. There were also some ducks. I think the kids' favorite part was the doughnuts Jeremy bought for breakfast. Anyway, I'm glad he's having fun. Eventually maybe he'll even catch something.

Costumes Part III, Stockton

This font is called Australian Sunrise. I thought you would like to know. We’ll see how it looks on the blog. Anyway, for the last part of our Halloween weekend, we decided to go to Stockton so that Jeremy’s family could see the kids in their costumes. Tonight Becca decided to be Pocahontas. By now the hated wig looks like a big, black haystack. I pulled it back in an attempt to tame it a little bit.

Daniel and Justin were Thing 1 and Thing 2. I love the blue hair. Daniel was very excited to show me the spray bottle and looked about ready to apply it himself while he was still in his Sunday clothes.

They went to see Grandma and Pop, Grammi and Pop, and Daniel and Julia. Jeremy didn’t get any pictures of Grammi’s house, but apparently she had a talking tombstone that Sariah didn’t like very much. It was supposed to be someone buried alive that said “Help, get me out of here!, It’s dark in here!, I’m not dead!” and it had little moving hands poking up that would scratch the tombstone.

The girls like to play computer games with Grandma.

Here are all the kids in front of Grandma’s house. I love JD’s smile.

I got a kick out of Brian and Julia’s pumpkin throwing up.

So Brian was Thing 1 and Julia and Tyler were What thing 1? and What thing 2? They had red hair and blue clothes instead of blue hair and red clothes.

Brian and Becca have a special connection. Maybe it’s because they can both be punks sometimes.

Trunk or Treat

This is JD and his friend Daegan. I love Daegan and I love his mom, they are really good people. JD and his buddies are so cute together, I'm glad that he's had such an easy time making friends. This is at the ward Trunk or Treat. I didn't take a lot of pictures. Sadly, my Canon broke and is currently in for repairs. I don't like hauling the Nikon everywhere. All of the pics from the last few days were taken by the loaner from Fry's. It was a Fujifilm Finepix. The camera had a lot of cool features, but the shutter delay was awful. Many of my pics turned out fuzzy and eventually I gave up. I miss my Canon.

Jeremy handed out candy at the party. Here he is trying to get JD to say "trick or treat". He wasn't cooperating.

Here are Daegan, JD, and Cody. Love those boys. JD told us this morning that he likes the name Jason better than JD. I think it's because they make him write Jason at school. I like calling him JD though.

These two below are from the parade of costumes.

Costumes Part II, The Carnival

There is a charter school in our neighborhood called Creative Connections Arts Academy. Most of the kids in our ward go there. Somehow we missed the bulletin that this school is the place to be. Now there is a waiting list. Anyway, we went to their carnival with some friends. The kids had a lot of fun playing games. I came home $20 poorer with a grocery bag full of stuffed animals. I told my friend Joanie that I see a trip to the DI in my future.

In this game they were supposed to fish a duck out of the "pond" with a net. If there is a black sticker on the bottom, you win! Even if there is no sticker, you still get candy.

I will never buy a wig from Wal-Mart again. I didn't want to spray Sariah's hair because someone told me that the stuff stains blonde hair. I didn't want to find out if they were right or not. This wig didn't look right from the second I took it out of the package. Sariah was a good sport though. This is especially true since she wanted to be a vampire but she was afraid that they wouldn't want her to dress up as that at the church Trunk or Treat. That is partially the reason that we bought her the kitty costume. I really appreciated that she didn't complain about Pocahontas.

I tried to get a good group picture. My kids had other ideas. These are my kids with the Grover kids and a friend of theirs whose name I don't remember. She might actually be a cousin or something, I'm not sure. Anyway, this hearse was parked in front of the school. They had a fog machine and scary music going, along with a person on the ground doing a very believable impression of a corpse.

I think everyone had a lot of fun and I am glad I went. I'm sure Joanie could have done without her kid eating the spaghetti from the Funhouse that was being used for the "guess what kind of gross thing this is" game. The kids didn't like the haunted house very much. They were excited at first but then once people started jumping out at them, they got scared. Becca started crying and I literally had to push them through (they froze up) as I was cracking up at how hysterical my kids were. I probably shouldn't have laughed but it was really too funny. I don't remember being scared of the neighborhood haunted houses as a kid. Maybe my mom can enlighten me.

Halloween Costumes Part I

JD loves Iron Man. He will run down the street yelling "I am Iron Man!" He sings the song and pretends that he has a blaster on his hand. There was never any question that he would be Iron Man for Halloween. He's also the only child in the family that actually stuck to one costume this year.

This is Becca as Jasmine. She was Jasmine on Friday at the carnival and at the church Trunk or Treat/Chili contest. I think she was happy with it, even though the wig was itchy. Dora was nice enough to give us some of the costumes her grandkids used to wear and have since grown out of.

If you are thinking that Sariah looks a little bit grumpy in this picture, that's because she is. She couldn't find her favorite sweat pants (the ones that are actually an appropriate length for her) and it was cold outside. She was going to wear a black skirt and leggings. She looked really cute, but I thought the trunk or treat was going to be outside and I didn't want her to get cold. This is costume #2 for Sariah. We found it for half off a Claire's. She was Pocahontas on Friday.

At work they make me dress up every year. This year the theme was the circus. I was a circus tiger, but people kept calling me Tigger or Catwoman. People need to get their comics straight. Catwoman was not striped and she didn't have a tail. Sariah really liked that she had a costume similar to mine. I liked that it allowed me to wear sweatpants to work.

Making the Bear

I was a little nervous about having JD make a bear for Sariah because I figured he would want to keep it. I really wanted her to have the bear though, I just knew she would love it when I got the email from Build a Bear. This is him giving it a hug before it was stuffed.

He thought the process of stuffing the bear was pretty cool. Notice the sunglasses on the back of his head, just like his dad.

Here he is checking the bear to make sure it has just the right amount of stuffing.

Now he is rubbing the bear's heart on his ear so it could hear. He also rubbed it on his nose so it could smell, and on his elbow so it has a sense of humor.
Here, he is making a wish. See how hard he is wishing?Last, he needed to give the bear a bath to make sure it was clean.

He did tell Sariah that he made her a bear when she got home from school , but she didn't understand what he was talking about. When she asked him where it was, he said he didn't know what Daddy did with it. I was very proud of him. He was so excited to make a bear, he didn't even care that it wasn't for him.