Merry Christmas!

Wow! What a fun day! Our whole break has been lots of fun so far. Jessica has just fallen in love with everything. Michael has been loving spending more time at the law firm. I'm so glad he likes the work he does. Today was great, but I'll start with a few things I've missed. A week ago was my (Laura's) birthday. 23 - that seems old, but I know how silly that must sound to most people. :)

I think I look pretty silly - but I got em all on my first try! :)

As I've mentioned before, Jessica LOVES the snow. I'm so glad we got a picture of the first time she tasted snow.

"Nummy!!"

We also went sledding the other day. Jessica had fun for a little while. I think she just liked being with her Uncle "Nonny" (Jonny).

Jonny and Jessica

Michael, Laura, and Jessica

Like I said, Christmas morning was fun. Even though I got all of Jessica's presents at the dollar store, I think I got too much. She would have been thrilled with just a couple of things. The most excited she got was when I emptied out her stocking and told her it was "candy." She started dancing and giggling. So funny!

"Candy! Yea!"

Michael and I were pretty funny gift-givers. We each got each other exercise videos. :) We had each mentioned wanting that type of thing at some point, so we weren't mad or anything. We just thought it was hillarious. Thanks to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts. We love them all! Here are just a few more pictures of the morning (Jessica, of course).

Michael has been really funny this break about the snow. Growing up in Southern California he never really had much contact with snow. He has LOVED shovelling the sidewalks and driveways. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, he's out there as soon as there's a trace. Too funny. This morning my parent's next door neighbor came out with his snow-blower and "let" Michael use it. I love my silly man. :)

Who smiles this much shovelling?

During Jessica's nap today, Michael, Jonny (my brother), and I went outside to make a snow adventure for Jessica. We built tunnels and mounds and trails all through my parent's back yard. Poor Michael had never had the experience building snow forts and stuff. I'm so glad I'm giving him some real world experience. :) Jessica loved it when she woke up.

This one has got to be my favorite. She thought the tunnel was hillarious, but she wouldn't go through - even after I showed her how. Cutie.

Here we just plopped her in a pile of snow. She thought it was hillarious.

We've had a great Christmas so far. It really is so much more of a fun holiday with a little Jessica-bug running around.

Mr. Smarty-pants brother of mine

I just had to brag about my brother and tell everyone how amazing he is. He just started his Master's at MIT this fall. That in and of itself it bragable. But he just got his grades back for his first semester - straight A's. Wow. Congrats Jon!

Snowman!

I decided to introduce Jessica to another exciting aspect of life with snow - snowmen! So while she took a nap, I made a small one. I figured she'd get bored if I involved her in that part. She thought it was the funniest thing!

Her first look.

Pulling out the carrot.

Taking a taste...

and changing her mind. :)

She has got to be the coolest little kid I know. I'm so glad she likes the snow. So does Michael apparently. It's been snowing all evening. He goes out there every 15 minutes to shovel my parent's sidewalks. He thinks it's "really fun." What a weirdo. :) I had to make it stop after 10pm for our neighbor's sake.

Off to Idaho

We've been in Idaho for a few days now. All I could see as we were flying in was white, white, white. Lots of snow. But more about that later.

Jessica had her first trip on an airplane. Thank heavens for all of us, she slept most of the way. I think I have the cutest little family.

Jessica and Laura

Michael and Jessica

Jessica did SOO well with all of the new people she had to meet on our way to IF. We drove to Las Vegas and flew out of there. She had to meet two sets of great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. She was super nice to all of them.

Idaho Falls has been fun. Michael starts back up at work tomorrow. He's really excited about it because he loves the firm and enjoys the work, which makes me so happy. Jessica has spent her time exploring this new thing called snow. She even discovered today that you can eat it. She's a cutie.

Jessica

Jessica LOVES her gloves! She giggles and giggles when we put them on and then says "clap, clap, clap" as she claps her hands together.

Jessica and Laura
She wasn't as big of a fan of the hat. :)

Jessica
Touching the snow for the first time. So fun!


Jessica
She's looking a little bit devious here. Maybe she understood when Michael taught her how to throw a snowball. :)


Jessica and Laura - two little snow-bunnies.

And finally, here is a little video of Jessica out in the snow.

Colors, numbers, and letters

These two videos crack me up. The first one Jessica's telling me what colors things are. The second one I still haven't figured out if she's trying to count or naming letters. Either way, super funny!

And here are just some pictures that I love.

Jessica in her Christmas dress and me.


Jessica at the park. Getting ready to go down...


Weeeee!


She finally got the rhythm down on this bouncy toy and realized it really is fun!

Play Group

I am lucky enough to have a great group of friends in the area who love to go out and do things. Each week we meet and walk the 1 1/2 miles to this AWESOME park by Mission Bay. People give us some pretty funny looks - a bunch of moms and jog strollers all grouped together. Jessica also has a great time with the other kids. They are probably a little sick of her trying to kiss them though. :) Here are some cute pictures we took last week at the park. Thanks, Amberlynn, for letting me steal them off your blog!

Are you ready for some football? Part 2!

Saturday was the BYU/SDSU football game here in good old San Diego. The night before their away games the team puts on a fireside in the area. It turned out they held it in our stake center, so we were happy to go. A few of the members of the team spoke, as well as Coach Mendenhall and his wife. Back when we were at BYU, I tutored student athletes my last year. One of the football players I tutored (Jan Jorgensen) is now a starter. Michael was soooo happy when I introduced him. He's still thanking me for how cool it was. :)

For the game Michael's parents came down and a few friends from church came along also. The weather was much colder than usual, but it was still a blast. Michael loved being able to wear my BYU letterman jacket from back in the day I ran track.

So Thankful

With Thanksgiving coming up, I just felt like it was appropriate to think about the things that I'm thankful for. There are so very many. Here are just a few.

• Family - I couldn't live without Michael and Jessica. They are my strength and they make me understand what true love really is.
• The gospel - I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am so grateful for the peace and knowledge it gives me.
• An education - Finishing my college degree was a little bit of a challenge at the end, but I'm so glad that I did; it was well worth it.
• Being an American - I know that I take for granted the fact that I live in this country. We are so blessed to have all of the wonderful benefits that come along with that.
• Nashunda - She's a good little car. She has a lot of miles on her, but she's treated us well and (hopefully) will for a few more years.
• Mascara - It's the wonder makeup product. You can put it on and feel semi-ok about leaving the house. :)
• Flip flops - It always makes me smile to put them on, especially during winter time.
• Cameras/pictures - I love looking back on all the great memories I have.
• The Internet - I couldn't live without it. Need I say more?
• Contacts - I feel so trapped when I have to wear my glasses (weird, I know), so I'm so glad I have my contacts instead.
• Law school is almost half-way over - I don't think I need to expound. I am soo happy about this one.
• Hot pink nail polish on my toes - It is just fun.
• All of the things listed in "My Favorite Things" in the sidebar of this blog.
• Parks - Who knew they could be so much fun?
• Snow - I didn't realize how much I missed it until we decided to spend Christmas up where there will be some.
• Stars - I've always loved staring up at them. Soooo pretty!

Well, there are lots more. But this is good for here. I am such a blessed, lucky person.

New tooth!

Jessica (finally) has a new tooth. She got four all at once last summer and then nothing. It's the bottom right one. She hasn't really been anymore cranky than usual, which is nice. She's a good girl.

As far as other news goes, there's not a lot. Michael is busy prepping for finals. But he's liked his classes a lot this semester, so I'm feeling good about it. I'm just busy with the day to day. We're excited to have some time off next week to relax with family.

Bragging about Jessica

I can't help but brag a little bit about everything Jessica has been doing lately. She just amazes me so much. I'm a mom, I have a right to brag, right? :) First off, she's kind of using sentences now. Not even kidding. Every night after her bath she waves as the water goes down the drain and says, "Bye bye water." And then tonight at dinner she said, "Mo peas (more please)." And she's always saying words that I have no idea how she picked up.

She's also big into coloring. So we're working on colors. She knows "purple" really well (her Grandma Hales must be so proud) and she gets "yellow" right most of the time. She's also become really interested in letters. Every now and then I used to point to letters and tell her what they were. So she started going up to words and saying random letters. It usually would go something like, "A O O Y A O." So I made her some simple letter flash cards and she is just amazing me. She knows A, O, and H (kind of). She gets them wrong a lot too, but she gets them right often enough that it's not random.

She's also physically "smart" too. We have to fold our chairs whenever we're not using them because she's learned to climb on them. If we turn around she'll be up on the kitchen table grabbing whatever happens to be left there. Or she'll start playing with the laptop. The other day she managed to break off one of the letters on the keyboard. Crazy girl. She also likes to climb up on the back of our couch and look up at the pictures on the wall. She gets so excited when she sees people she recognizes.

Anyways, she's lots of fun and Michael and I both feel so blessed to have her in our life. I wouldn't trade this for anything.

Just a few pictures

Here are some cute pictures from Halloween that I just got. They're way cute.

I actually didn't take this one, even though it looks like it. I was just trying to get Jessica to look at the camera.

Jessica cracks me up in this one. She sure is happy about something. :)


Hmmm... maybe we need to cut down on the Sesame Street.


When Jessica finishes her breakfast she goes over to Michael and likes to share whatever he has left. And of course she wants to hold the spoon.

Someday...

It's pretty hard during this time in my life not to do a little bit of thinking about the "somedays." The things that, in the future, I hope to have or be. So here's a few of them.

Someday...

- A house
- A yard
- A neighborhood without shopping carts in people's yards
- A headboard and footboard for our bed
- More than one bedroom
- Non-folding chairs around our dining room table
- A haircut and color from a real salon (i.e. not Great Clips). :)
- Or even a haircut from Great Clips would be ok, at least in the short-term "someday"
- A real pearl bracelet
- Nice pans, where the non-stick surface isn't starting to scrape off
- More kids running around
- Learn to play the guitar
- Have a washboard stomach
- A car that I never worry about (NaShunda, our '94 Camry, is great. But she's getting to be an old lady).
- Gas less than $2 a gallon (a girl can dream, can't she?)
- Gas less than $3 a gallon
- A new surfboard for Michael
- A gym membership, and time to use it
- No more student loans

Wow. That list really isn't too long. I guess I really am super happy with my life right now (but I already knew that). :) I'm excited for all the fun changes the future will bring, but I'm also having a whole lot of fun in the present.

Vampires and turkeys

I've known for a while that I talk in my sleep. It doesn't happen very often, especially not anymore, but apparently it does still happen. But I'll get to why that's pertinent in a second.

A few days ago I finished a book called "Twilight." When I first heard about the premise I was beyond skeptical. Girl meets vampire. Vampire wants to suck girl's blood. Girl and vampire fall in love. And even after finishing the book and explaining it to Michael I have to admit it is very cheesy and dumb sounding. But it is so not. I love this book! The name of the girl is "Bella" and vampire boy is "Edward." Which brings me back to the whole "talking in my sleep" thing.

When I woke up this morning Michael looks over at me with such a cute, almost laughing, smile. "Why were you making snow with Edward?" I guess sometime in the night I started talking about how I had made snow with Edward (the vampire) and I was very upset because the judges only gave us 6/10 on our snow. Wow. I don't even remember having a dream last night, much less such an exciting vampire snow-making dream. Michael is so good to put up with my craziness.

In other news, I finished decorating for Thanksgiving yesterday. My decorations for all holiday, are limited, but this was especially so. So I did a little bit of improvising. I found Thanksgiving coloring pages online and colored them. Then I "laminated" them with packaging tape. White-trash? Yes. But it turned out ok.

But I did have a few non-homemade things. So I put those around our place too.

And of course no post would be complete without a few pictures of Jessica. These are of some super funny faces she makes now. We haven't been able to get them on camera until these. But they're still not exact.

Our little Pebbles

The whole "trick or treating" thing didn't work out after all, so I'll just post the pictures we have. Jessica was Pebbles Flinstone this year. I made the skirt and she already had the top and the sandals. The bone (I hate to admit how white-trash this is), is actually real. I scrubbed it and bleached it and then covered it in white nail polish. I'm sure next year will be super fun since she'll have a little bit better of an idea what is going on.

Happy Halloween!

So our ward had their Halloween Party last night. Jessica wasn't being very good about the whole picture thing. The ones we have just don't do her or her costume justice. But tonight she's going out trick-or-treating with some friends (yeah, Michael's excited about all the candy he's going to get). :)

I took this picture this morning. Too cute! I'll post some of her in her "real" costume tomorrow.

San Diego Fires

I just thought I'd let everyone not around here know that we are doing just fine. San Diego County has a lot of areas burning right now, but we're more in the city, so no problems for us other than a lot of smoky air. Michael is off right now helping out at the Bishop's Storehouse. It's incredible to see how people come together in the face of tragedy. Below is a map of the area. The pink dot is about where we live, just to give you an idea of the big picture.


This next picture is a NASA satalite picture of all the smoke and dust. Pretty wild.


But like I said, we're fine. Jessica keeps handing me her shoes, wanting to go outside. Poor thing. I wish I could explain why we have to stay inside all day. But thanks for all the phone calls asking about us. Please keep those affected by this in your prayers.

Party Time!

These were just too cute not to share. They're from a party for a friend of ours.

Jessica and Laura and their friends.

She wore the birthday hat a lot longer than I expected. She was just glad it had "Elmo" on it.



She loves her friend Tanner.



Jessica likes to gives kisses. Peterson is like, "Get away!"