Happy Birthday Dr Seuss!

So today is Dr. Seuss' birthday and if he was still here with us he would be 108! In his honor I have to share a great tradition that I saw on Pinterest a few months back. It was originally tagged from lisasworkshop.blogspot.com where she explained this tradition she "stole" from her friend. Below is how she summarized it.

When her son was young my friend purchased a copy of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss.  Throughout the years she secretly gave her son’s teachers the book to sign at the end of the school year.  They left notes, poems  and some just signed their name.  When her son graduated from high school she presented the book to her son at his party.  With the party going on all around him he poured over it, going over each page, each signature, each note.  

Believe it or not I don't think I had ever read Oh The Places You'll Go! until last night! Jack and I borrowed it from the library a few days ago and he wanted me to read it to him last night. Even though he's a wild 20 month old, he'll sit still for the longer Dr. Seuss books with no problem. (Just a testament to the skill and genius of Dr Seuss) ☺ As I read it to him I fought back some major tears, I couldn't believe how good it was! I just savored the moment;  snuggling on my lap was an amazing little toddler, sitting there quietly in his bedroom, reading to him. As I read it, I couldn't help look to the future and think of all of the things he has in store for him, both good and bad. As a Mommy I just want to protect him from all of the bad and help him to see his potential. I want him to be happy and successful, but most importantly I want him to know and love God. I want him to know how much God loves him and recognize and be thankful for that. I want him to love people as Christ loves us and be willing to stand up for what's right. I pray that he can look to me and Tom as an example, and that he sees our love for each other and for him. Being a parent is a scary job and it seems as though as they get older it gets scarier. Scary, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's definitely worth it, and luckily I know that I can trust that God has everything in His control, even my sweet little boy.

On and on you will hike.
And I know you'll hike far
And face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with great care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot from your left.

A New Addition to our Family

Now don't get too excited! It's just a fish ☺ Another baby will come, but not quite yet.

Over the weekend we showed Jack Finding Nemo for the first time and now he's OBSESSED with that movie as well as all fish. This morning Jack and I headed over to Peggy Wood's Pet Emporium up the street from our house. As you may see from their website, they have reptiles as well but I figured I'd brave the risk of seeing a snake for my boy's happiness. You may not know this about me yet, but I am terrified of snakes. So much so that if I watch Aladdin I have such a hard time when Jafar turns into a snake I have to look down. I can't even look at a  picture of a snake in a book without getting the chills. When I parked in the back I met a man that worked there (possibly the owner?) and he assured me that I would only see a snake if I went to a specific part of the store, not where the fish are luckily. Jack and I walked around looking at all of the pretty fish and then a dog caught his eye in a room beyond the fish. The gentleman told me that that's also the room where the snakes are, but if I didn't look to the right I wouldn't see them. He was even so nice to block my view walking into the room so that I wouldn't accidentally get a peek. We looked at the dogs for 2 minutes before I couldn't handle it. I was sweating and felt like I couldn't breathe, just knowing that there was a snake (or possibly more than one) in the same room as me. Ughh, just thinking about it freaks me out right now.

We picked out this beautiful and very lively blue beta fish and brought him home. Jack was fascinated watching me put him into his new bowl and kept saying "fii fii" and "waa waa" (fish and water... he doubles every word he says) ☺ I put the fish on the kitchen table so Jack could get a good look at him and he tried to put his hand in the water to touch him! What a stinker! Luckily he didn't get his hand in the water more than this picture captured and he won't have an opportunity to do that again since the fish will kept be out of his reach. We still need to name him. Any suggestions?

Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day with those you love! We're going to have a quiet night at home that I'm actually really looking forward to. I'm making seared ahi tuna, cold soba noodles and some asparagus for dinner. Jack and I colored cards for Tom earlier, and I have a little Valentine and some Bob the Builder stickers for Jack which I know he'll love :) By the way, I found this adorable vintage Valentine over at vintageholidaycrafts and they have this as well as some other really cute ones for free download! Below is the one that Jack colored for Tom ♥

Fun in the Rain

This past Monday we had a storm come through that was definitely needed. Of course since then we've had sunny weather in the high 70's. But still the rain was really nice. Tom spent the majority of the day drawing so Jack and I took advantage of the rain and played outside for a bit. We got bundled up and headed out!

 Jack kept telling us "waaa, waa" which is how he says water :)

As always picking up rocks and sticks! He even picked up a few worms...gross.

Video of us playing outside

After getting drenched outside we came in and stripped down. He was just wearing his onesie. :) We sat on the couch and looked at the rain outside.

We finished off the evening by putting space jammies on and reading some books. Look at that face, he is so sweet! 

I love his little profile, I just wanna kiss his nose!

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Well, we've been in this house for almost 7 years and will be moved out by the end of this month. Read that sentence again...yes it happened that quickly for us also. This came as a surprise to us two weeks ago when our landlord stopped Tom outside on a Sunday afternoon and told him we'd have to start looking for a new place to live. We're pretty much the ideal tenants, but unfortunately his family is having some major issues that apparently will be resolved if his adult kids move back in with them. Yes, I am annoyed and bummed that it wasn't really our choice to move out of here. But, it's his house and he can do with it as he pleases, it just sucks that we had to find something so quickly because of their emergency. The day we found out we drove to Granada Hills and looked at 2 houses. If it were me by myself I probably would have signed a lease right then and there. Not because I loved, or even liked the place, just because I was stressed and didn't want to be homeless. Since Tom is pursuing his illustration we felt like it would be beneficial to be down near LA more. We looked at probably 25 houses from here in Simi Valley down to Montrose in the last two weeks. We decided that Burbank, Glendale and Montrose would be good options for us, and we happened to narrow it down to 3 homes, one in each city. We officially signed our new lease for the house in Burbank last night. We couldn't be happier with our decision. The house has almost everything we were wanting and is less than the other ones we had narrowed it down to. It's a duplex, but definitely feels like a single family home. It's in a quiet residential area, but still very close walking distance to a large library, 3 parks, the bank, stores, restaurants and coffee shops. It's only 4 miles from the LA Zoo where we have a family membership for this year. Plus, we're only about a mile and a half to Tom's parents house and 2 of his sisters. We are so sad to leave this house, but knew it would happen someday. It may as well be now since we're getting more and more cramped with all of Jack's things. I'm looking forward to having a separate room for Jack, as well as more storage space inside the house. At our current house we've been spoiled with a 2 car garage which will be downsized to a 1 car garage in the new place. We're overwhelmed, but kind of looking forward to getting rid of things that we don't need.

Right now they're doing some work on it: painting, replacing the toilet and screen doors and refinishing the original hardwood floors. We should be able to start moving in on Saturday the 19th, but don't need to be out of here until the 1st of April. We're planning on making this a pretty gradual move. I can't tell you how many times I've cried about leaving this house and all of the memories we've had here. One thing that I've had to keep in mind is that although we've built memories here, we'll take those memories with us and build new ones in the new house. Now that we actually have a place that we're excited about it definitely helps though. Pictures to come soon. As long as I remember that I even have this blog. :)

It's a New Year!

Man, I am slacking. I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted on here! We had an awesome Christmas and a relaxing new year's. Christmas Eve we went on a hike up Rocky Peak Trail here in Simi. We had amazing views at the saddle which is where we stopped and turned around. Tom says it's about 5 miles round trip. It was more of a climb than I expected which meant I was tired and cranky, but when we got to the top and got this amazing view, it made it more than worth it.

View at the saddle of Rocky Peak Trail in Simi Valley

Nursing my boy at the top

After the hike we spent Christmas Eve with my dad and stepmom and her family out in Santa Clarita. It was more low-key than past years, but it was really nice. Christmas morning we opened gifts at our place before heading to La Cresceta to have lunch with Tom's Grandparents. After that we headed over to Burbank to have dinner with his other grandparents. It sounds like a lot, but actually was very relaxing.

Christmas Morning at our House

Reading his new book with Daddy

All these new toys and he goes back to his giraffe!

I can't believe the munchkin is already 6 months old! It's true what everybody warned me about, it goes by way too fast! Here's our sweetie in his monthly photo shoot. :)

6 Months old on Christmas Day!

Loves feeding himself :)

We're heading to AZ on Thursday for my Mom's 50th birthday party! I'm so excited to see them again as well as the rest of my family. Tomorrow is my Mom's and Tom's birthday and Thursday is actually Kari's birthday! It's a very exciting week for our family. :)

Christmas Cards

So, I've been working on writing out our Christmas cards this year. I'm just sending out some store-bought cards I got last year after Christmas for a really good deal. We're writing a little note in each one, and also sending a picture of us from B and K's wedding. Jack is such a cutie patootie!!

Merry Christmas from Our Family!

So much going on!

This past week was crazy for us! It began with Jack and I heading downtown to the LA flower mart to pick up the flowers for Brandon's and Kari's wedding on Wednesday morning. Jack was so good and didn't fuss at all. I think he actually enjoyed it, he had so much to look at down there. I made the bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres and the flower girl's kissing ball for the wedding, so I started working on those as soon as we got home from Los Angeles. My grandparents came into town Wednesday evening and I made my easy carnitas tacos for them, which they loved (recipe to follow).

Thursday morning my grandparents came over again and helped me make the boutonnieres, (which I had 10 to make) while I finished the bridesmaids bouquets(6) as well as the toss bouquet, corsages(4) and the kissing ball. I threw together the green bean casserole that I was bringing and he headed out to our first Thanksgiving feast. There were about 50 people there from our family, Kari's family and her sister's in laws. Kari's older sister Karla and her hubby Vince hosted it and did an amazing job. Everything came together well and everyone enjoyed each others company.

The Matron of Honor's Bouquet

Our huge Family

Our Little Family

Chatting with Each Other

Next we headed off to Tom's family's Thanksgiving. It was a nice surprise that his Uncle and cousin from northern California made it down since we weren't expecting them. We ate massive amounts of food and ended the evening chatting while the boys went outside and smoked their pipes. We got home around 11:30 and I got straight back to work on the flowers. I finished wrapping the bouquets in the ribbon, which takes so much longer than people realize. Then, I made the groom's boutonniere and the bride's bouquet. Everything came out just the way I had hoped it would. We went to bed at 3 and got as much sleep as we could before the big day.

Jack and his cousin Joey

Tom and Jack with Uncle Lance and Evan

Friday morning we got up and ready to be at my Dad's house for the girl's pictures. Kari loved the bouquets and so did the bridesmaids. After the girls finished their pictures, we all headed over to the church. The ceremony was gorgeous and of course I cried. It's my baby brother getting married, so it's understandable right? The couple looked stunning as always. The reception was at my Dad's house and we had cake and champagne with everyone and later in the evening dinner with the family. They had a table of cupcakes as their cake and while I was in the bedroom nursing Jack, somebody (I won't say who) knocked over the table with the cake on it and they all went crashing to the floor. Brandon and Kari took it with grace though and laughed it off. My stepdad saved the day and went to Vons and got them a couple cakes so they could at least have their wedding cake tradition.

The Gorgeous Couple Relaxing at the Reception

The Siblings

My Beautiful Sisters! ...Note their bouquets :)

Kari and Savannah

Me with my Mom and Jack

The Ladies

They're SO Excited!! :)

Saturday my family all came over here and we had the whole day to hang out and visit with them. It was really nice to not have any plans and just enjoy the day and the time together. Sadly, my out of town family had to leave Sunday morning so after we had breakfast with them at their hotel we said our goodbyes.

Carnitas Recipe:
Pork shoulder (last time I got 3 lbs)
Jar of green salsa (whatever spicyness level you prefer)
6 cloves of garlic
water
1. Put pork shoulder in crock pot
2. Empty jar of salsa over meat
3. Place whole, peeled cloves of garlic on meat
4. Cover with water
5. Cook on low for 10-12 hours or high for 6-8 hours
6. Take out meat and shred to remove fat
7. Serve with tortillas, guacamole, salsa, chips and whatever toppings you prefer
ENJOY!!

Hike at Mishe Mokwa Trail

We went on a hike over the weekend on the Mishe Mokwa trail, near Malibu. It was so beautiful and definitely worth the drive up the windy canyon (which made me sick). We hiked to Split Rock and back so it was about 4 miles roundtrip. Jack got really tired and couldn't fall asleep in the backpack, so Tom ended up carrying him so he could snuggle and sleep.

Jack looking out at the view on the way back

Tom and Jack

Balancing Rock

Some Pretty Flowers

Some sort of Fungus

Moss on a rock

A Gorgeous View

UPDATE: My step-dad is back at home and has an appt with a cardiologist on Wednesday. They still don't know what happened to him.

911

My step-dad is in the hospital right now. While working yesterday morning he started vomiting and his arm went numb and had chest pains. He called 911 himself and the paramedics came and took him to a large hospital that has a good cardiac unit. They've done 3 blood tests and so far he doesn't have the enzyme showing up in his blood that would signify it was a heart attack. Right now we're just praying the doctors figure out what happened. It's also possible he has a viral infection in his heart. Which although sounds terribly scary to me I guess would be better than a heart attack. He's feeling like maybe he shouldn't have even called 911 because he's alive and doing seemingly well now, we're just happy he's in good hands and whatever happened can be prevented in the future.

I didn't get along with my step-dad at all when I was a kid. It wouldn't have mattered if he was the King of England, no one was good enough for my mom in my eyes. The Father's Day before I got married I was no longer living at home and I felt like I should thank him for being a second dad to me since I was ten. It was with that card that our relationship began to change. He looked at me as an adult, rather than a snotty little

kid, and I saw a man that gave up his bachelor life at a pretty young age, to be a husband and dad of 4 kids. We have respect for each other now. I am so happy that he was able to call 911 yesterday and that the doctors are trying to figure out what happened. I would hate for something to happen to him just 7 years after I finally started to give him a chance. :)

My very young family 16 years ago at my Mom and Step-Dad's wedding.

Morro Bay

A few weekends ago Tom took us to Morro Bay for my birthday. It was such a relaxing trip and it was so nice spending uninterrupted time as a family. We bought a beautiful succulent to add to our collection. Here are a few pictures.

Our succulents at home

New succulents

The new one from Morro Bay

Iceplant

Montana De Oro

Foggy Day

Jack with Daddy

Rainbow