Wendy and Jeff's Blog

Too long

2009-08-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

It has been too long. I have pictures to post from camping but those will come later. A quick update first.

School has started. I went back almost 2 weeks ago. My students showed up last Monday. I think I have a really good group of kids this year so I am excited. I also love it that I am down to 3 periods this year. I feel like I barely start my day and it is over and I get to go home. I love that.

Kaia is getting so big. She had been grabbing and holding stuff for a while. This week she learned how to sit up really well on her own. Only once in a while does she topple over. Micah and Kaia are best buds. Kaia loves Micah and he loves her. It is so cute to watch her whole face light up when she sees him. I think Micah thinks she is his own personal living toy. He has never been really jealous that I can see. You should see some of their screaming matches. They scream back and forth at each other and love it. He always wants her to lay on him and he is so good with her. We will see how things go when she starts taking his toys. : )

Jeff is still looking for work. We will see where God takes us. Jeff has a couple of possibilities. We are even looking outside of San Jose. I told him only warm places. I don't do cold. And since I am 51% of God's will for our lives, I get warmth. : )

Oh, I bought a bunch of AIO (all in one) with pockets, one size fits all Coolababy diapers off of ebay. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them. They are so easy to use and clean. You can get all you need for about $200 and then all you are paying for is detergent and water. I just run them through a whole cycle (with soak) two times and they are so clean. I even let the poop stay on them and crustify. Am I getting too graphic? I love them! And not one more diaper into the trash. Yeah! Anyway, if anyone else has a baby you will probably get one from me to try it. I don't know if I would have tried it except that my friend got me a diaper service and I wanted to wash them on my own so I looking into something easier.

So life is good. Prayer for a job for Jeff. It has been several months now of looking and we are getting antsy.

Now I just need to post those camping pics....

My cute kids

2009-08-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

Micah's 3 year check up and pics

2009-08-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

We went to see the doctor today for Micah. Everything looked great except that Micah was a little on the hefty side. The doctor said that we really need to make sure that Micah is eating healthy and not so many empty calories. I think he was like 80% height and 98% weight. We don't let Micah eat terrible but we are not as strict as we could be. I think that some of it is just that Micah likes to eat. We will have to see where we are at in 6 months.

As I believe Sarah started, I will include some pictures from the past with a couple recent to see Micah growing up.

THE BEGINNING

ONE

TWO

THREE

Goodness I love this kid.

Portland/Seattle Vacation

2009-07-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our vacation to Portland and Seattle. There are a ton and they are all mixed up so I think I will let the pictures speak for themselves. We had a great time visiting first with the Portland Budds and then more of Jeff's family in Seattle.

Let's go to the beach

2009-07-29T06:18:00.001-07:00

Our first but hopefully not last visit to the beach this summer.

Love the colors of the buildings.

Picking a good spot.

Napping

Exploring.

Sand digging.

It was a pretty fun and exciting day.

Goodbye beach, we hope we see you again soon.

Micah, friends and picture painting

2009-07-10T08:36:00.001-07:00

This is Jeff's view of Micah. He is way down there.

When Heather and I were in the house talking Jeff and Kevin made a fire pit in the backyard. Very manly. They even found some Christmas lights to decorate with. What do you do with a fire pit? Roast marshmallows and make smores of course.

Kevin teaches photography at a college so he showed us some functions on my camera like changing aperture and shutter speed. We had fun with that and did some picture painting. We used the outdoor lights, a flashlight and laser to paint. These were some of my favorites.

Can you see Micah the ghost in this one?

Camping!

2009-07-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

I love camping. We went camping for a couple of days last week. Get ready for a ton of pictures. I couldn't help it.

Give a boy a stick/hoe and what do they do with them....

We went with Maija and Michelle, friends of ours.

Micah checking out Maija's daughter Qena.

Micah and James are king of the rocks.

But maybe they will let Qena join them.

Qena's a cutie.

When you are camping you need a little tent playing.

A little sun baking.

Some smore making.

And marshmellow eating. Even if they are a little charred.

Ah, like father, like son.

Michelle acting out the Statue of Liberty!

Maybe these girls burned their marshmallows?

And what camping trip would be complete without a hike?

And a break.

With water to put our feet in.

And snacks to eat.

And rocks to climb.

And logs to sit on.

We weren't able to drive to the site so we had to cart all of our stuff in. Kind of a pain but it made for some cute pics.

Goodbye camping and big trees. Until next time.

Water Park

2009-07-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

While we were in LA Pam brought us over to a park that had a water section. It was a really good water section. I wish I would have got a picture of the whole thing.

Dean wasn't sure what he thought of the water. He was a little timid at first but then got more into it.

Notice how he is leaning away from the water.

He thinks that is cool.

Maybe Pam is giving him some words of encouragement.

Still leaning away.

Well maybe I could try it....Micah is wet and he is fine.

Yeah Dean bravely touching the water.

Micah had fun.

Snack time.

Kaia decided to stay in the stroller and blow bubbles.

More of LA

2009-07-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

We were able to see Dad and Susan when we were down. Before you scroll down see if you can see something interesting about the first picture of Susan holding Kaia, then scroll down.

Susan gives her dog some ointment for his eyes. It helps with his cataracts. She said she must have had some on her hand and then rubbed her eye. I think it acts similar to a muscle relaxant to the iris wasn't contracting like it should and stayed open. Weird. It went away after about a day.

We had fun the next day playing in Pam and Jake's back yard. It is huge. The house is huge. They bought it with another couple and are sharing it. It is split up great and I think it is like 3,600 square feet. It is a great house. Jeff calls it the compound.

Dad and Susan brought over this huge bat and sword. Micah had a blast playing with them.

Of course Micah got a bag of goodies with cars, balloons, glow sticks and some other stuff I can't remember.

Micah and Dean are good buds.

We had hamburgers and hot dogs. Yum.

And we played late into the night. I love warm summer nights.

Disneyland

2009-06-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

We went to Disneyland for our birthday because you can get in free. Pam and I got in free. Micah, Dean and Kaia were free because they were under three and one of Pam's friends signed in a couple of us. Nice! We had a lot of fun. It was all of the kids first time to Disneyland except Julia, the older blonde girl. She hadn't been to Disneyland since she was little. We spent the whole day on kids rides but it was still really fun. I love seeing kids reactions to all of the fun stuff.

First is the traditional Walt and Mickey picture.

The merry-go-round is always fun.

Mom and Jim were fun to hang out with.

Jake checks out what happens with this box when you open it. I can't remember what happened.

Pam and Dean lookin' good.

Micah as Tom Sawyer.

Kaia as a cutie pie.

Micah and Julie got hats. They were thrilled and looked great in them.

I have to mention that Micah did a great job of putting up with all of the picture taking. Smile, smile, smile...

I loved being able to hang out with Dean. I don't see him enough.

I was trying in the picture for Kaia as the world strongest three month old baby bending the bars but it didn't show too well.

Dean loves his mama. This is what Pam sees almost non stop when someone else is holding him.

Ahhh....

I think Jim was making his own giant lens to see me.

Micah and Julia were fighting over the treasure chest.

What cuties. The kids also. : ) I think I had the lighter load.

This is the group minus Jeff who took the picture.

Auntie Pam bonding with Kaia.

Jeff looks awesome trying out Micah's hat.

At the end of a long day all of the kids totally crashed. (Except Dean I think) Micah fell asleep in Jeff's arms during the Fantasmic show and we were able to transfer him to the stroller then to the car then to bed without him ever waking up. He was wiped out. Julie even got a ride in the stroller she was so tired. I think this picture of Kaia was taken the next day but I will leave it to give the feel of how tired the kids were. It was a good day at Disney.

New Camera and LA

2009-06-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned I got a new camera? I copied Sara and got a Nikon D90 since her pictures are so awesome. This is our first day with the camera so we took a ton of pictures. I am not going to comment on them since there are so many but we had a lot of fun hanging out in the pool with Mom, Jim, Pam and Dean. Jeff took great pictures. More of LA coming soon.

Just for fun

2009-06-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

Pictures from out and about

2009-06-29T21:46:00.000-07:00

We are having fun this summer. I love being out of school and just hanging out and having fun.
First we have some more pictures of the park. Micah and James figured out the talking/phone thing. It is so cute to hear them talk to each other.

The tire swing is always fun.

I love this picture. They are so cute.

Future co restaurant owners. : )

King of the world.

And what is more fun than paint in the bath? You can make a mess and mom doesn't get mad.

Kaia cutie pie. I love her in purple.

I love this picture also. I know that Micah and Kaia will be best buds.

A couple more

2009-06-15T20:36:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple more pictures of the pool and park with friends.

A visit with Grandpa and Grandma

2009-06-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned recently what a good big brother Micah is? He really loves Kaia and is really good with her.

The following pictures Micah took. He seemed to think it was pretty fun.
Hmmm..
Closer.....
About there...
Hi!

Luann, we know your legs aren't that big. : )
Jeff sure is excited about something. By the way, do you see that skinny girl behind him? You go Ashley!
Grandpa almost always has a smile.
Kaia is not sure what is going on.

The Budds come down for a visit

2009-06-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Last month David and Sarah and kiddos came up to visit. Most of the pictures are from Sara. She takes great pictures. We had a good time with them.

Ellen is beautiful.

I thought the next two pictures were funny because you can see Luann, Ashley and Sara taking pictures at the same time.

David helps Micah get animal food.

Did I mention that Sara takes great pictures?

Fun feeding the animals.

Kaia cutie.

Micah cutie.

I love this action shot.

Kaia liked the goats.

More cute pictures of Kaia compliments of Sara.

Lovin' the hair.

Jeff and Kaia hanging out in the shade again.

Hanging out at the park

2009-06-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

These are an assortment of pictures from two different times at the water park we go to. It is fun to play in the water and sand there. Micah loves playing with James. They are best buds.
Michelle and James
Micah and James are on the sides.
Getting wet
And hanging out.
Playing in the sand.
This is the button you push to start the water.
Micah thinks he can plug one of the holes.
James
James and Micah
Madeline, James and Micah
Micah loves his "bike".
Jeff and Kaia hang out in the shade.

Ice cream

2009-06-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

We went out with friends to dinner and then onto the ice cream shop. Micah bravely ate the bottom of his ice cream cone and proceeded to make a mess. I like the second picture.

What I find when I get home - Part 2

2009-05-21T09:48:00.001-07:00

What do I find when I get home?

Dishes done
House picked up
House vaccumed AND mopped
House dusted
Plants watered
Porch picked up
Some other stuff I can't remember
AND two healthy happy kids

What more can I ask for?

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

What is better than....

Breakfast in bed with my family,

A beautiful hand painted gift,

Candy,

A sweet card,

And a day hanging out with family.

Happy Mothers Day!

What I find when I get when I get home

2009-05-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

I think that Jeff was a little tired. He really was asleep in these pictures. Micah had fun "playing" with him. : )

And my cutie was waiting for me too.

Kaia's first flight and LA trip

2009-05-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

We traveled to LA a week ago to attend a funeral. It was Kaia's first flight and she did great. My step dad, Jim, his father passed away. Jeff led the funeral and did a good job. It was a nice time of remembering Jim's dad.

Micah's first visit to the Dentist

2009-05-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Micah went to the dentist for the first time. He did very well. He told us that the dentists job is to count teeth.

And the best part. The prize at the end. : )

Kaia

2009-05-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

She's a cutie!

A few tattoos never hurt any baby. : )

San Francisco

2009-05-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

When we dropped off Pam at the San Francisco airport we decided to make a day of it and have some fun at Pier 39. We had a good time. Micah loved looking at the seals. We walked around, saw a magic act, went on the Merry-Go-Round (or Jeff and Micah did), played some skee ball, went in shops and had lunch. It was a fun day.

Aunt Pam and Dean

2009-05-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

Pam and Dean came for a visit a while back. Boy am I behind on blogging. Here are some pictures of us at the park.
We had fun playing in the sand and water. Who needs the beach?

Easter 2009

2009-04-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

We went to Kevin and Luann's house for Easter. We shared Easter dinner, had another Easter egg hunt, went to the park and gave Maggie, the dog, some love. All in all it was a good day.

Ashley is ready to hunt.

Micah is ready to hunt.

And he hunts.

While Kaia hangs out with Grandpa.

The opening of the eggs.

And a trip to the park.

Jeff down the slide.

Micah down the slide.

Grandpa down the slide.

Kisses for Maggie.

Grandma and Kaia.

It was a good Easter.

Egg Hunt at the Park

2009-04-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

We look cute and we are ready to hunt for eggs.

The hunt. New Life, our old church, put on the hunt.

We can hardly wait!

Ready, set, go.

I don't know if there were enough eggs. : )

The opening of the eggs.

We got two golden tickets. That means you get to go to another table and choose two prizes.

This is one of the prizes Micah chose.

Goodbye Easter Bunny. See you next year.

Grandpa Budd lovin'

2009-04-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

Coloring Eggs

2009-04-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

These are the cups we used to start coloring eggs. They didn't work very well because after the pellets dissolved you couldn't really see the colors because of the black bottom. So we switched to clear plastic. Much better.

We had fun. I hadn't colored eggs in forever.

And of course we have to take pictures of the meltdowns once in a while.

It was a good attempt at a smile on Micah's part.

The finished product.

Pictures from around the house this week

2009-04-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

My Mom Visits

2009-04-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

My mom was able to visit last week. For those of you who don't know, my step dad, Jim, was scheduled for surgery on my due date. As it worked out I had Kaia while Jim was in surgery. I heard one of the first things he asked when he woke up was how his newest granddaughter was. My mom and Jim came up before the birth to see us but the recovery time for Jim after the surgery is about a month. My mom left Jim to fend for himself for a couple of days (with prepared home cooked meals) and came up to visit last week. We were happy to see her. Jim will come up in a few weeks when the doctor says it is OK to travel. We loved having my mom here. We went shopping, to the park, took a walk. My mom was lots of help. I love being spoiled by family. : ) Love you mom. Come back soon.

Baby Micah

2009-03-31T12:33:00.000-07:00

I was looking back at some pictures of Micah in the first few weeks after he was born to see if Kaia and Micah resemble each other at all. I think certain angles I see a little similarity but I am surprised by how much they don't seem to look alike. I know it may sound funny because I know that lots of siblings don't look the same but I feel like I really thought they would look like each other. Hmmm.... funny.

Pam, Jake, Alex and Dean visit

2009-03-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well somehow I didn't get any pictures of Alex but here are a few of the others. I loved seeing Micah and Dean hang out. I think they will be great friends as they get older. Maybe Pam and Jake will have a girl next to give Kaia a playmate when we visit. : )

Pam, we'll see you again in a few weeks.

Kaia and Micah

2009-03-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

Kaia is getting to be so cute. And Micah is such a good big brother. I had to add a couple more pictures. : )

Dad and Susan come up to see us

2009-03-28T18:28:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun with my Dad and Susan. They totally spoiled us rotten. Making breakfast, taking Micah to the park, reading with Micah, playing with Micah, holding Kaia, doing jobs around the house. We had a great time.

Thanks for the visit. We'll see you again soon.

Walk to the park

2009-03-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

We took a walk to the park. I wish I had gotten a better picture. Kaia didn't cry the whole time but it seems that was the only picture I got of her. Micah was so cute. I told him that Kaia had never been on this walk before and what did he want to show her? He spent a lot of the walk stopping to show Kaia stuff he thought was interesting. He has been such a good big brother.

Some favorites

2009-03-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

These are some of my favorite pictures from week 1 after Kaia's birth. She is so cute.

More Kaia Pictures

2009-03-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

We are lovin' our little girl.

Kaia Pamela Budd

2009-03-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

Here she is.

First bath.

Kaia Pamela Budd was born on March 10, 2009 at 11:19AM. She weighed in at 8lbs. 7ounces, and is 21 inches long. We went into labor around 4:30AM and we headed to the hospital at 7:30AM. Dropped Micah off with the Mauldwin's and got to Kaiser about 8:00AM. We progressed quickly, got an epideral about 9:00AM, started pushing about 10:45AM, and the rest is history. Kaia was born with the umbillical chord very tightly wound around her neck, so she came out still and blue. We were so worried but the doctors did a great job, got her breathing and she is just fine. We are really having fun getting to know Kaia.

Happy Birthday Luann

2009-03-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Luann's birthday with her on Saturday. Micah and I have been reading a book about little bunnies who show their love by making a basket for their mom filled with flowers and blackberries. We decided to make a basket for Grandma Lulu. Micah picked the yellow roses and I picked the pink. We bought some blackberries and filled the basket.

Grandma loved it.

Micah was really into Maggie. I don't know how into Micah Maggie is. I think she more tolerates him. Micah doesn't have a whole lot of luck playing with her but he tries.

Micah has been doing this thing where he likes to get into Jeff's shirt with him. It is pretty funny to watch. Maggie wanted in on the excitement also.

Grandpa Kevin gave Micah an armchair cover to put on his head but Micah ended up taking it off before I got the camera out. I did end up with a picture of Ashley trying it on. : )

Micah wanted to help Luann open her gifts. She of course let him. What little kid doesn't want to help open gifts?

Hanging out.

We had Dick's bakery cake for dessert. Sooo yummy. Micah wanted to help blow out the candles too.

And of course playing with Grandpa is always fun.

Micahism

2009-03-06T22:25:00.000-08:00

Jeff: I am going to bite your toes off.
Micah: No. God made me attached.

I need to remember to start blogging more of these. I forget so quickly the funny things he says.

Trip to Stanford

2009-03-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

With my due date approaching in 6 days I decided to make Tuesday my last day at school. Yesterday and today it was so nice to not have to go into work, although I must admit I am still doing a little grading I brought home with me.

I haven't mentioned about Jeff, but the church plant we were attempting didn't quite get off the ground so Jeff is looking for another job to keep himself busy. I told him to take a few weeks easy so we had a little time to welcome our new little one into the family. The timing couldn't be better to have a bit of a break.

We decided today to take a tour of Stanford University. We can't start Micah thinking about college to early right? : ) It is an absolutely beautiful campus. After getting to the tour 10 minutes late (I guess parking at any college is a pain) and walking around a bit aimlessly trying to catch up we finally found them to catch the last 20 minutes or so of a 50 minute tour. We then had some lunch and walked around the campus for another couple of hours. It was fun.

It rained on us for about 5-10 minutes but the rest of the day was beautiful.

In this last picture you can see our stroller in front of the tower at the bottom of the steps. I was very careful with Micah. Even though his head was too big to fit through the bars I still held on to him the whole time. The bars were really wide apart. Have I mentioned that Micah's head is big? Mine fit through the bars without much problem. I think studies show that having a big head is a sign of intelligence. : )

Tattoos

2009-03-05T16:48:00.001-08:00

Micah and I decided last night to do some more tattoos. He really likes them and we made him take some of his old ones off of his face. With the baby almost here I didn't want our first pictures with Micah to have tattoos all over his face. We compromised and let him have some more on his body. In the first picture you can see his shoulder blade and leg (thigh).

In the next one you can see both his hands and other shoulder also have one. He has another on his leg, not shown, and another on his belly you can't see very well. He wanted more but we had to ration them or he would be totally covered. : )

I decided to get in on the action as well. My step mom Susan wanted a belly shot so here you go. It doesn't get more up close and personal than this. : ) Now the question is if I go into labor in the next few day do I keep it or scrub it off before going to the hospital. I think I will scrub it off although it could be pretty funny to see what the hospital staff think. : )

Shower

2009-03-02T20:56:00.000-08:00

On Saturday family and friends threw me a baby shower. I got so many cute clothes and other great stuff. Here are some pictures from the shower that I liked.

Thanks for all the love that was "showered" on the new baby and our family. : )

Mom and Jim visit

2009-03-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

We had a good time with Mom and Jim up to visit. We didn't do much but it was still fun.

We hadn't seen Mom and Jim since they went on their cruise. They brought back a grass skirt and accessories for Micah. He thought it was pretty fun.

Mom taught him how to dance like the men do. He was pretty good. : )

Micah got some cute pjs. Compliments of Grandma and Grandpa.

And we hung out some more. Mom and Jim watched Micah for two days. Micah had a good time with them. He talked about how we need to go visit them soon.

A visit from Pam, Jake, Alex and Dean

2009-02-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

Last weekend the Hester clan came up to visit. We didn't do all that much but it was still fun to visit. Micah and Dean get along well. I can't wait for them to be able to play with each other more as Dean gets older.

These are some pictures from the weekend.

The night before they left Micah was so tired. He wanted to go to bed with his glow sticks and I could just see his hand holding them when I went in to check on him.

Hanging Out and Aunt Kathy and Nica visit

2009-02-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

Jeff, Ashley and Micah have fun posing for some pics. These are some of the first pictures on my new camera. It was low light in the room and it did better than my Canon usually does. Yeah.

We hang out.

I was trying out some of the modes on my new camera.

Aunt Kathy is still in town. I think we are going to go see her again today.

New Camera

2009-02-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

I have been looking for a camera for a while and I finally decided on a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5. I like it a lot so far. It has better pixels, video and zoom than my Canon I have been using. Yeah.

To the snow we go

2009-02-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

We had a great trip up to the snow this last weekend. The Mauldwin's went with us. We packed all seven of us into the van and set off to Arnold. Here is Micah trying on his stuff before we left.

When we got to Arnold it was clear and as soon as we were done unpacking it started to rain. We decided to drive up the mountain a bit and the rain stopped. We got out and though not quite dressed appropriately we still got in some snow play time till it started to get dark. We then went over to the snowshoe restaurant for dinner and hung out in the hotel playing until the kids were worn out.

The next day we got up and it was beautiful. It was a great day for the snow. There was new soft snow everywhere up on the mountain but it was sunny the whole day. Perfect!

We spent our time sledding, making a snow man, digging, snow ball fighting and eating snow. Here are some pictures I liked.

Micah's first stitches

2009-01-31T20:30:00.000-08:00

Micah got his first stitches today. He was playing with his Grandpa Kevin and tripped and hit his head on a chair. We almost just put a bandaid on it but since we were so close to the hospital we decided to go in and have them check it out. It turned out that he needed four stitches. He was very brave. The doctor and nurse who did the stitches said that he did AMAZING at least five times. He was very brave. Good job Micah.
They told him to climb up and he laid down. He was very patient waiting for the stitches.

I told him to make a grumpy face.

Then I told Micah to smile.

Post stitches. You can't see them very well but there is the beginnings of a nice black puffy eye.

Visiting the Oregonian Budds

2009-01-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

We had a last minute trip up to see David and Sarah and the kiddos. It was a lot of fun. Most of these pictures are from Sarah because I am so bad about taking out my camera. Thanks Sarah.
The guys had a great time boxing each other on the WII.

We did a lot of just hanging out.

We also did some science experiments with dry ice. Very fun. Here Ellen is doing a fantastic job of making her screwdriver scream.

We are about to test what happens when we put dry ice into warm water.

I think this was the kids favorite part. Dry ice, warm water and soap. A seemingly never ending supply of bubbles filled with carbon dioxide to play with. Probably my favorite part also.

I love Brennan's expression in this one.

We also had to make a trip to OMSI. I love OMSI. I wish we had something even close to as wonderful in San Jose.

Here we designed cups to fly from a wind current below. I think Isaiah's flew the best. Way better than mine.

The real highlight of the week was the Blazer's game we went to. I had never been to a professional basketball game before and now I have some high expectations. Hard to beat free parking in a private parking garage, then up to a private club/suite for dinner at a table reserved just for us and onto our 8th row awesome seats. Oh and don't forget dessert in the private club/suite at half time. Sarah and I had our sweet tooth cravings satisfied and then headed back to our fabulous seats to finish the game. It was a good game although the Blazers lost.
Close enough?

David made a great poster. He even got a nod from one of the players.

Thanks for having us up. We had a great time.

Last Christmas pictures

2009-01-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

I just found some pictures from when we were last down in LA. We went to the park and to a small zoo in Irvine. It was fun.

Hmmm....

2009-01-23T18:37:00.000-08:00

So I have tried very hard with Micah to prepare him to have the "talk" about Al. Micah got to say goodbye to Al at the vet but when he has asked where Al was I had told him that Al was staying at the doctor because he was sick. In the last couple weeks I talked with Micah about how things die, like plants and even animals in order to prepare him. Micah helps me throw away parts of plants that turn brown and die. Micah was even asking about where certain foods came from and I had told him that different meats come from animals that die like beef or ham. After a couple weeks of distance from Al I thought that if Micah brought up Al again I would gently let him know that Al had died but we still had pictures and our minds to remember him so we didn't have to be sad. This is how the conversation went.

Me: Cats have been pooping in the dirt in our yard.
Micah: Yes, but not Al. Al is a good cat.
Me: Yes, Micah I want to talk to you about Al. Do you know what happened to Al?
Micah: Al's sick. He is at the doctor.
Me: Yes, but I want to tell you that Al didn't get better and he died. But we can still remember him and we have pictures of him too.
Micah: Al died?
Me: Yeah.
Micah: (Looking not upset at all) Eat Al?
Me: No, no, no. (I start laughing)

Obviously I way over analyzed the situation. : )

Micahism???

2009-01-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

I got out my old film Nikon camera to mess around with it tonight and started taking some pictures of Micah.

Micah : Why are you taking pictures of me? Why?
Me : Because you're cute.
Micah : Oh. Yes, I can see that.

And he continues to play and let me take pictures based on my satisfactory answer.

Really late christmas pictures

2009-01-12T23:03:00.000-08:00

We had a great time visiting family for Christmas.
Kiya and Dean bonded with each other.

The cousins sat for a very cute photo.

Grandpa and Kiya hang out.

Micah and Caiden played really well together.

Lots of fun.

David and Melissa.

Grandma and Kiya

Dinner was fabulous. Thank you Susan.

Dean and Kiya did more bonding.

The guys hung out as well.

Dean is getting so big.

And cute, cute, cute.

David was tired out from light saber fighting.

Micah and Caiden helped to frost the dessert.

It was a very good week.

Goodbye Al

2009-01-05T15:17:00.000-08:00

We had to put Al down today because he got really sick and probably wasn't going to get better. He was such a great cat. We will miss him.

These are some past videos of Micah and Al.

A great cat.

Christmas Eve and Christmas

2008-12-30T23:11:00.000-08:00

We went over to celebrate Christmas Eve with Luann and Kevin and Ashley.

We hung out and talked.
Luann read Micah a story.
Micah really liked watching the candles make this thing spin. I can't remember the name of it. I carefully explained how the air expanded and rose when it got hot which caused it to move. Not sure how much he caught to the process.
Romeo is going to living with Kevin and Luann for the next year. He is a refugee from Iraq. He is a nice guy. Crazy and embarrassing a little bit to talk with him and see from his perspective how much we have, what is important to us and how much we waste.

Christmas morning was fun. Micah was pretty jazzed about it all. Showing me the card he got me.

handing out gifts.

Opening gifts.

Later we went over to Kevin and Luann's again to hang out and share Christmas dinner.

And play with toys.

And pass out gifts.

And more gifts.

And open more gifts.

Sweet tooth

2008-12-30T23:02:00.001-08:00

Have mentioned that Micah totally got his mother's sweet tooth. He loves all sweets and will drop anything he is doing if offered any kind of desert or candy. Here are some pictures of him helping me make a cake. He is really good at pancakes as well. If we get up to make them he starts putting all of the ingredients that he can reach out on the table to make the pancakes. He is a great helper.

Christmas in the Park 2008

2008-12-30T00:26:00.000-08:00

We went with the Mauldwins again this year to Christmas in the park. It is downtown and a bunch of organizations decorate trees and have booths. It is set up all December in the park to have people go through.
You can see some of the trees decorated behind our cute kids.

Micah and James were loving standing on this pillar.

Micah and James went on the Merry Go Round.

Our Christmas picture taken inside one of the hotels. It is a real gingerbread house behind us.

Just Jeff and I.

Micah really wanted to get in the Mauldwins picture with them. I told him "no", but I told him he had the job to help me get James to look instead. He was REALLY upset he couldn't be in their picture and was quite vocal that he was upset. I did really know what the deal was until Jim told me why he though Micah wanted to be in the picture so much. Micah is watched by the Mauldwin family 3 days a week and Jim is there a lot in the mornings when Micah gets dropped off. Micah feels like he is part of their family because he does what they do 3 days a week. He feels like he is part of the family and thought he should be in the picture. I love that we have such an awesome family who can watch him for us.

James and Micah had to do some belly bonking.
And on the gingerbread house fence of course.

Our picture with Santa was much better this year
than it was last year.

Micah didn't really know what he wanted for Christmas but agreed with whatever Santa recommended for him. Pretty cute.

Out and about

2008-12-26T23:34:00.000-08:00

Michelle and I went to the Hayes Mansion to hang out one day.
I love how Micah and James are holding hands in this one.
Micah did not want to take his hood off.
The kids posed for us. Cuties.
Checking out the indoor wildlife.
Before our disguises.
After.
It really is us. : )

Let's go fly a kite

2008-12-24T23:36:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago it was pretty windy so we decided to head to the park and fly a kite. It was a bit hard getting the kite up, but it flew pretty good for the most part.
Getting it started....
Going up....
And up....

Micah was really good about holding on tight to the kite. He was so intent and focussed I wasn't sure if he was having fun or stressed out that he would let go of the kite. Hmmm....
We flew the kite for a while.

It was a good kite flying day.

Hot chocolate

2008-12-24T23:33:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I can't turn this picture. Oh well, I just wanted to mention how much Micah loves chocolate drinks. Hot chocolate or chocolate milk is literally chugged and gone in minutes.

Christmas Decorating

2008-12-24T23:19:00.000-08:00

I am so far behind in blogging. These are some pictures from Thanksgiving weekend when we went to cut down a tree and decorate the house. Usually we wait till the week before but it is more exciting when you have a kid to share it with who is excited about it all.
The hunt for the perfect tree.
Micah likes this one.
This is it!
Spotting the perfect tree and beginning to saw.

Jeff is tough guy sawing the tree down.

Jeff gets tired and the saw is passed on to the pregnant lady.
I get tired and the saw is passed onto the 2 year old.

It took us so long to pick a tree and cut it down that it started to get dark on the way back.

Decorating!

We are excited.
Have a mentioned how much I love my nativity set?
Jeff had the cute idea of dressing up our music guys for Christmas. If found some little bears in the dollar section of Target and stole their hats and scarfs. I thought it came out cute.
We even got our lights up that weekend. The blogging just took a few weeks longer.

Thanksgiving Part 3

2008-12-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

Here are some more Thanksgiving pics.

Sarah and Brennan hanging out in the kitchen.
Our fabulous Thanksgiving meal. Thank you Luann.
And of course no Thanksgiving is complete without some game playing.
Jason and Micah.
More hanging out.
Our family portrait. Micah was so tired.
Micah was being a bit silly since he was so tired.
Brennan liked the piano. Look at that sweet smile.
Ball playing on the stairs at Grandma and Grandpa's house is always a hit.

These boys were so cute posing together.
Micah and Brennan seemed quite taken with each other.
Ahhhhh......how sweet.
Ellen is trying to figure out how to hug all three boys at once.
We had a good Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Part 2

2008-12-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

David, Sarah, Ellen, Isaiah, Brennan and Jason came by to visit my classroom. I had lots of fun showing them some of the stuff I do with my kids. They were great students.
Jeff was bored so he decided to cut stuff out of newspaper instead of listening to the lesson. Made me feel like it was closer to a real day at school.

We made some slime.

Micah worked very hard mixing it together.

Isaiah was a bit more gentle.

Ellen quickly tried out the quality of the slime.

David was intently analyzing Newton's Laws of Motion. I love sharing my classroom with people who want to see it. I had fun showing them around.
For way more pictures of what we did in my classroom and way cooler pictures you can visit Sarah's blog, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

Thanksgiving Part 1

2008-12-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving David, Sarah, Ellen, Isaiah, Brennan, Jason and Shawn came up/down to San Jose.
We decided one day to go to the Historic Buildings attached to a park in San Jose. It was fun and we even got to go on a trolley ride. Kind of funny how it went in a U shape. It didn't really go anywhere, it was more for fun.

Not sure why this one is sideways. Oh well.

We also got a lesson on some printing press type stuff. It was cool to see how they did stuff in the past. So slow though. Makes me enjoy technology and wonder what we do with all of our spare time. Blog maybe? : )

And the kids got to operate a trolley as well.

We had fun.

A little behind

2008-11-29T17:33:00.000-08:00

I am a little behind in my blogging so this is again from last week. I will catch up with this week when I get my camera back from Jeff's parents. I forgot it there after Thanksgiving.
Anyway, these pictures are from our Beautiful Day event last Saturday. Jeff was the brain behind the event with our neighbor and friend Leana. We were able to provide food boxes and turkeys/chickens to over 35 families. It was a fun day. We had food and games and activities for the kids. We had a jump house outside and the local pet shop brought some animals for us to experience. My friend Laura, her husband and her leadership class volunteered to run the stations in the kid room which was fabulous. They did a great job and we had lots of help from so many different people. GRX, New Life, Willow Glen Middle School, neighbors, the local elementary school. It was a good day.

Food pick up that morning

Food delivery.

Food organizing.

Kid actiivity room with lots of fun activities.

Animals outside.

We had fun.

Friends

2008-11-27T21:03:00.000-08:00

Last week our friends David and Tanya came by to visit. Micah took to Tanya right away. He took her by the hand and dragged her into his room to show off his toys. After dinner he wanted her to play with him. Tanya said she loved playing with Micah. She is such a sweet heart. Jeff and David had deep discussions which Tanya and I joined in on and Jeff jammed a little on the guitar bringing back memories of David and Jeff being in a band together. Good times. : )

Smiley face.

Grumpy faces.

Surprised face.

Shavin' time

2008-11-25T22:35:00.001-08:00

Jeff and Micah took some time to get cleaned up. My handsome men.

New Used Car

2008-11-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

We got a new car. It is a 2003 Honda Odyssey. It has quite a few miles on it but we are hoping since it is a honda it will last for a while. I really like it so far.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

For Halloween I dressed up as a construction worker. I always join in with a few other teachers on something.

Kevin and Luann came over and joined us for part of the night. We went to a few houses in the neighborhood trick-or-treating. By Halloween Micah was a little trick-or-treated out. Jeff brought him to an outdoor mall on Tuesday where the kids dressed up and the stores handed out candy. On Wednesday Jeff's mom's group had a little party where the kids dressed up. Friday Jeff brought Micah to another outdoor mallish avenue where they trick-or-treated with the stores. And of course Friday night was Halloween. It was more like Halloween week than Halloween night. : )

Jeff was so happy and proud of his halloween costume. He bought it at the goodwill on the way home halloween night for $10. He got so much pleasure out of scaring the kids. It was pretty funny how excited he was about it. I think he will wear it every year. He did look a tad bit intimidating.

My men.

I thought Micah looked quite adorable in his halloween costume. So cute.

LA again

2008-10-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

We went to LA last weekend. Here is a somewhat random assortment of pictures from the trip.

We stayed with my Mom and Jim first.

We also got to see Jason. We drove into Long Beach and had lunch with him. Micah was impressed with Jason's work. Jason raised up the car behind them while we were there.

Micah liked running around outside.

Grandma made awesome pancakes.

And the jacuzzi is always fun.

We also got to see Pam and Dean. Dean is such a cutie pie and Micah and Dean get along good. (Except when Micah bashed Dean in the head with a wooden frog. We can see the red mark between his eyes in the first photo.) But besides that they did great. : )

Cute!

I somehow didn't get any pictures with my Dad and Susan or Jake or Alex so here is a shout out to you all. : ) Love you guys and see you at Christmas.

It's been awhile

2008-10-31T17:20:00.001-07:00

We are still alive and well although a bit busy and I have been tired so blog time has turned into nap time most often. Here are some pics of us pumpkin patching with Michelle, Madeline and James. We went on the train, pet the bunnies and ran through the hay tunnel.

Another day we went to the pumpkin patch with Lena, Tola and Aaron. They are our next door neighbors. We like them and have been doing a lot of stuff with them.

We also went to Disney on Ice. I think I had more fun watching the kids expressions than the show. They truely loved it. Michelle took James and another friend of Michelles took her daughter Chloe. Chloe is 3 days older than Micah and we actually discovered that we were in the same hospital for a day when we had our kids, but we didn't know each other then. Small world.

Lastly is our pumpkin. We have one growing right now and it is a little bit bigger than in this picture. Not too exciting but I did want to show it off before it freezes to death. : ) The other pictures are of the wildlife I found on the pumpkin plant. Lots of cool stuff.

Funny

2008-10-18T20:58:00.001-07:00

A while back Micah saw me put on a belly band (so you can wear your regular clothes longer unbuttoned and/or unzipped) and was really sad that he didn't have one. He begged me to wear it but it was way to big on him. I found an old hair band and let him use it for a while as a belly band and he loved it. It was so cute how he wanted to show everyone. Too funny.

This is Micah's grumpy face. He has been getting a kick out of making the face and telling us to take pictures so he can see. The diaper on the head thing makes it even more funny as he is trying to be so serious.

He even got Jeff in on the action.

And this is his silly face. Silly and grumpy aren't all that different I guess.

Recently I went to Costco and I picked up a flat of muffins. I then decided to buy a pumpkin pie instead so I put the muffins back. Micah was really upset I put the muffins back and sat next to them in demonstration of his displeasure for a few minutes. He could not be consoled until I told him we were getting pumpkin pie. He sure has a sweet tooth.

A few nights ago we left Micah with a sitter and he was so sad when we left.
Micah: "Don't gooooooo....."
Me: "You will have fun, you'll play games...."
Micah: "Nooooo...
Me: "You will go to the park....."
Micah: "Noooooo.... don't goooo....
Me: "You'll have pumpkin pie."
Micah: "OK, bye Mom"

So easily replaced.

It's a Girl!

2008-10-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty quite on the pregnancy topic this time around. I don't think I will be doing many if any prego pics but I will keep you posted if anything interesting occurs like.... It's a girl. I am so excited. I would have been happy either way but I was hoping a little more for a girl since we have a boy already. I couldn't believe it because I KNEW I was having a boy again so when they said girl I was in shock. And no, I had no reason that I thought I was having a boy, I just did. So anyway, we are very excited and wanted to share. : )

Pam and Dean came to visit

2008-09-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

All clean from the bath.

Jeff and Dean bonded for a bit. Actually, Jeff watched Micah, Dean and James, Michelle's son, while we went to RAFT for a few hours. RAFT is a teacher supply store. Jeff is a brave man. : )

What a cutie pie.

Auntie Pam and Micah. BIG hug.

We stole this idea from Chris to use the bumbo in the bath so Dean and Micah could hang out. It worked pretty well. Micah thought it was fun.

Bubble face.

We had a great time with Pam and Dean. Come again soon!

The Beach

2008-09-15T22:26:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we went to the Beach with New Life Church and people from the refugee house that they support. We had a lot of fun. Micah loved playing in the sand. Sad to say this was our first and most likely last trip to the beach for the summer.

The next few pics show my progression into the water. The first two I am not exactly prepared to enter the water.

I tried rolling up my pants but I ended up going in the water to mid thigh with soaked jeans so I ditched them after a bit.

A little smarter for actually going IN the water.

I did end up taking my shirt off also but I am glad Jeff didn't get a picture. : ) I probably wouldn't have posted it anyway.

Lately

2008-09-15T22:00:00.001-07:00

Our pumpkins are doing pretty well. We have only had one that the snails took down before I took them down. Don't mess with me snails. They were sprinkled with snail bait and crushed for good measure. I was surprised how much the one I lost bugged me. But we still have 5 more that are going strong. We will see what happens.

Last week Ashley invited me to a night called "Rush your mom". It doesn't have to be your mom, it can be your friend or sister or whoever so I went with Luann, Jeff's mom, and had fun. They pretended we were rushing and showed off their house and sang for us and answered all of our questions. It was fun and I was glad that Ashley invited me.

On Friday night we went out on a boat with our neighbors and new friends, Leana, Tola and Aaron. Aaron is 6 months younger than Micah and they play really well together. Leana's dad owns a sailboat and they brought us out on the bay. I didn't get any good pictures because I couldn't find my camera before we left but these are a couple from my phone. We had fun.

Half of One Thousand

2008-09-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

So on Friday last week I was doing a worksheet that involved my students learning that there are 1,000 mL in a Liter. As I was walking around helping students to complete it I found that one or two students in each class were really struggling. I asked them the easiest question to start.
"If you divide 1,000 mL into two containers how many mL would each one have?"
"I don't know"
"Well, what do you get if you divide 1,000 in half?"
"I don't know"
"Do you know what half of 1,000 is?"
"No"
"Can you make a guess?" (Me thinking they are just shy)
"40?"
"Hmmm.... try again"
"100?"
"Hmmm... can you write out 1000 divided by 2 on your page?"
"No, I don't know how."
Hmmm... I go on to try using money thinking maybe it would click. No luck. What do I do when I have kids in my class that don't know how to divide and I am supposed to teach concepts that require algebra? This happens every year but for some reason I just felt like venting my frustration.

Pics from the park

2008-09-06T22:15:00.000-07:00

We go to this park/school a lot in the evening since it is right down the street. The pics aren't special but I decided to post a couple.
A new way to swing.

This is Micah's pet dog Wobble.

Micah is getting to be a good climber.

Dad had to go down the slide with Micah. A bit of a tight squeeze.

This last one is a video Jeff took while we were at the park. I have titled it Too Big. Enjoy.

Baseball game

2008-09-06T22:11:00.000-07:00

The day before school started we went to a baseball game for the San Jose Giants minor leagues. It is always a great time. It is low key and they throw in fun stuff to keep you entertained. Almost feels hometownish. I didn't get any pics of the game but I thought these two were cute of Micah doing the YMCA dance with our friend Brad from school. In the second picture you can see Laura and Freddy who got married by Jeff about a month ago.

Backpack give away

2008-09-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago we helped out with a backpack give away. It was cool. This community center partnered with City Team Ministries and Reliance Church (our new church) to help families get ready for school. They invited needy families to a dinner and afterwards we gave out back packs and boxes of food. Jeff and our friend Noe spoke on the message of hope. Noe's story was really cool to hear. Noe had gotten into some really bad stuff, gang stuff and drugs, and finally got kicked out of school in 9th grade. He wasn't able to return to school for almost 2 years. During that time he got involved at this community center, the Gardener Center where he began to see how his life could change and he could get back control. He was also led to faith by one of the members of the center. He went back to school and somehow got his diploma. While finishing high school he ran track and one day a coach at a junior college saw him running. He said to Noe that he wanted him on his team and helped get Noe financial aid to go to college. Noe graduated with his AA and went on to San Jose State University with his Bachelors in English Literature. When he finished he realized after a while that he missed school and went on to San Luis Obispo and got his Master in English Literatre. He got back this summer. It was such a cool story for him to tell to this group of struggling families who come from the same place he did. We gave out backpacks with the hope that maybe we could help these families and kids find hope in Christ and stay in school another year. I hope for some that Noe's story gave them hope to go further than maybe they ever thought possible.

Running through the fountains

2008-09-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

One night Jeff and I went to an art show in downtown. We got there a little early so we decided to let Micah play in the fountains. We had fun running through them.

Micah naps - part 2

2008-09-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I decided that rather than fight with Micah over the nap issue I would make it something pleasant. I asked Micah if instead of his bed he would like to sleep in this little fold out couch to bed thing that Melissa gave us. He said yes. Then when he wanted to turn on and off every light in his room (there are 4 of them) I let him (usually I don't). And when he wanted to get his blankie without my help I said "sure". So off to nap time he went without any problem and slept yesterday over 2 hours. Today I repeated this and got 2 hours and 45 minutes with no issues. It seems to be working. Hooray!

Micah naps

2008-09-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

So Micah has always napped wonderfully until last week. One day I took care of Dean, Pam's baby, for the afternoon and Micah absolutely refused to take a nap. I was a bit shocked but just figured he was jealous of Dean and didn't put much importance to it. Well, for the next 4 days Micah has suddenly decided he will fight to the death not to have to take a nap. I know he is tired but it is getting ridiculous to try to fight over this issue. I would actually prefer no nap so we could do more during the day but I think that Micah still does better with a nap. Wish me luck for this week trying to get him back on schedule, otherwise we will have to resort to a plan B.

Starting school

2008-09-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I started school last week and so far my classes seem pretty good. We will see how things go since this in the honeymoon period. I am still doing 8th grade science and I teach periods 1-4. 4th period ends at 11:37 am so I can usually get home by about 12:30 if everything works out. Also since I have taught 8th grade science for 9 years now I don't really do much planning. It is usually more just tweaking lessons to make them better here and there or changing something if I find something new. It is awesome that the admin. have let me do this the last 3 years. I am very thankful.

Painting and planting

2008-08-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

Micah and I had fun last week painting and planting. Sarah sent us some paint so we went and work making beautiful art. Micah was really excited about his. Micah's is the painting on the right. Mine is the one on the left with a little help from Micah. Toward the end Micah said that his was a tree and was really excited about it. He wanted to hang it in his room and shows people when they come over.

We then decided to plant some carrots that my mom gave us. Unfortunately nothing else was the right season but when I friend came over she said our carrots might not make it either because we planted in the shade. Oh well, we will see. I don't really like carrots so it was more for fun anyway. She also told us that if we wanted to plant the pumpkin seeds we have they may be able to make it so we found a spot in the sun and we are going to try it. I will keep everyone posted on our progress. Micah was very excited to help with his rake and hoe. These are a few pictures of us planting carrots.

And a video. For some reason I have had a really hard time trying to watch video's on my computer so let me know if you can't open the video so I know if it is my computer or this blog.

Slacker

2008-08-20T15:00:00.001-07:00

So I have been a big time slacker on blogging. Sorry. What have we been up to. Just normal summer stuff. Seeing friends and playing. I have been thinking a lot about what kind of car I want to get next. So many options and so many variables for me to get the best one. Space, fuel efficiency, reliability, safety. I was thinking about the Honda Odyssey but then the Mazda 5 caught my eye. Then the Kia has out a minivan that rated up there with Honda Odyssey for somewhat less money. I don't know. Any advice/help? Keep in mind that price of gas and I will probably have this car if/when we have a third kiddo.