It's raining, it's pooring...

We've spent the last week inside because it's been raining every single day.
This cool scraggly tree is outside my bedroom window. Luke and I ventured outside
to take some photos when we found this spider and its web.
(if you're into hairy spider legs, click on the spider picture to get grossed out!)

Luke had a Friday and Monday off of school and it rained the entire time so we tried to have fun in the kitchen. We made Valentines cookies with a friend and then the next day we made chocolate chippers. That should keep them satisfied for a while!
(don't they look thrilled, ha ha)

The sun is again shining on us, so I thought we'd tell you what we've been up to around here.

Trent- has been busy at the hospital and in his spare time he's been building a fish tank stand (photos to follow in next post).

Millie has been busy with the kids. Emry is out of preschool now, so I've taken over and am trying to get her all ready for kindergarten. It's been fun to have her around this past week, she's like my own personal paparazzi that doesn't stop talking and remembers everything I say or do.

Luke keeps busy at school. He's reading 4th grade materials and his teacher is really pushing him which makes me happy. He loves to play the Wii, but hates that I make him read me a short book and write 2 complete sentences about it before he's allowed to play. He's been trying very hard to keep his room tidy and is excited to have his first baseball practice of the season tomorrow after school.

Emry is learning to write her letters and name (in a straight line). She's started to learn to read, but sometimes looses interest. Right now her favorite thing to do is play Polly Pockets. She will do this all day long! Just in the last week she's become interested in puzzles. She has really impressed us with her natural skills. She just sits down and does them without any help...even if it takes her 30 minutes! I want to go get a bunch more because she's done all the ones we have 10 times each, she can't get enough, very cute.


Carley is still a split personality type of girl. One day she goes by Carley and the next Cece (Cranky Carley), we never know who she's going to be from one minute to the next. Here is her repertoire of words: fish, go, Mama, Dada, cracker, cookie, eye, uh uh, drink, love you, please, thank you, stinky, all done and yes. She's in nursery at church and hates every minute of it. We are really hoping that she settles down and starts playing with the other kids. I know she'll love it as soon as she decides to give it a chance! She is also still our most loving child. Still gives hugs and kisses on demand. Oh, and she sings now too! It's so cute, she just sways back and forth singing away, it's so sweet.

Time for church.
I had to post this picture because I was so proud of my kids.
Let it be known that the day this was taken, February 15, 2009,
all 3 of my kids were angels in sacrament meeting!
I'm not exaggerating either. Trent was on call, and I dread those Sundays,
but this time the kids were truly exceptional.
No fighting,
no arguing,
no begging,
no whining,
no ones feet were too close or touching anyone else,
and no poking either.
What more can a mom ask for???
Nothing!

The Land's Bounty

I was thinking today how grateful I am to live in a place with such beauty and bounty. Heavenly Father really knew what he was doing when he decorated this earth. We have been enjoying the fresh fruit from the trees on our property. Now that spring has arrived, all the fruit trees have sprung into life. The kids and I have been having fun watching the trees sprout buds, seeing them grow bigger and finally open to reveal their pretty flowers. Since you can't all be here to enjoy with us, we thought we'd share with you through our blog.

**NOTE: It would be helpful if you'd light a citrus smelling candle or cut open some lemons for a more interactive sensory experience!!

Since we live in the midst of an avocado grove, I thought they should be front and center. We go for a lot of walks up and down the rows of trees. Everyone seems to really enjoy themselves. Most of the trees are off limits because they are being farmed, but we can have "our fill" off of a few specific trees. So much of the fruit goes to waste, it's a bit sad, but that's how it is.

I am so ignorant when it comes to fruit trees that I'm constantly asking
Salvador, the farm manager, about this tree and that fruit.
Apparently lemons don't have a season, they grow all year long!
That is great news for me because I use lemons all the time.

These are Algerian Tangerines. They are also available all year long.
A cool thing about this type of tangerine is that the fruits can stay on the tree for up to 2 years.
That's good for us because they are super tasty!

We have 3 grapefruit trees. The trees are so full right now that I almost feel bad for them. They look like they're about to break at any moment just for some relief.

These are leeche nuts. They're an Asian fruit.

Oranges, glorious oranges! We have 4 orange trees and 2 different types. This is really wonderful. I can't wait for them to bloom...I just want to smell them!

Juice anyone!

I'd never seen a banana tree until we moved here.
These are currently in my laundry room ripening.

When you cut the bunch down, the tree starts bleeding this sticky, milky white juice. Not just a little juice either, a very steady stream came out for quite some time. Next time we should take a glass to measure, it was that significant.

The fresh bananas we have are more dense in texture
and a little sweeter in flavor than store bought bananas. Perhaps they're a different variety,
I have no idea...another question for Salvador.

This passion fruit vine grows along our fence line.
Trent really likes them, but they're way too much work for me and the seeds drive me crazy!

plum buds

apple blossoms

peach blossoms

Family Funnies

• Luke is all excited to be reading now, so he reads any chance he can get. Last night we sat down to dinner right as Trent got home from work so he didn't have time to change out of his uniform. Half way through the meal Luke points to Trent's name tag and exclaims, "Dad, I know what that is, It's your "price" tag!" We just burst out laughing, it was so cute!

• I was trying to get Emry to clean up her things and I was so frustrated because the girl does not pick anything up. Finally, exasperated, I asked, "Emry, why can't you pick your things up?" She looked right up at me and in a voice sweet as pie said, "Because I don't have on my ring." Translation...her CTR (choose the right) ring that she got from her primary teacher 2 weeks ago. She's been obsessed with choosing the right, following Jesus or Satan. It's all very cute, but the ring is starting to be a PROBLEM!!!

Our New Place

As most of you already know we moved just before Christmas into a new home and we're so excited about it!! We are really enjoying the extra space (it's 1,000sf bigger than our last place), both inside and outside!

We are nestled in an 11 acre avocado grove! We have about 20 different kinds of fruit trees too! We've really been enjoying the citrus! The fruit trees are so gorgeous and cool that they deserve a post all to themselves. It's living in Southern California with a touch of the country. The best of both worlds. We are only 3 miles from a main drag, but it feels like we're way out in the country.

Trent is happy with his commute because he gets to listen to public radio. Luke changed schools, but he's adjusting really well and is liking his new class. We don't want to make anyone jealous with the following photos (well, go ahead, be a little jealous), but we are so content and happy with our current location and new place that we might not ever leave!! Enjoy!

It's a ranch style house, so that makes it difficult to get a good shot of the whole front.

This is the back of the house.

We love this glass porch that extends the entire length of the dining and living rooms.

This is one of my favorite parts of the house. I love to sit on this swing while my kids ride their bikes and play in the front yard. Porch swings are just relaxing.
Don't you feel relaxed just looking at it in this picture?

This is the view from my kitchen window and the porch swing.

The views.

This is the view from the master bedroom.

We are surrounded by avocado groves. They're lovely to look at, very pretty.

We also have a strawberry farm and some tree/flower nurseries across the way.

This big daddy sycamore tree is in our front yard and it is fantastic. The coolest part about it is that it is the home to a mating pair of owls. I'm not sure what kind, but I'll find out.
It was empty when we first moved in, but now has NO VACANCY!!!
We are hoping for babies later this spring??? I have to do more research.
In the mean time, Luke is having fun checking out the owl pellets. They're pretty strange.

We are still rearranging the inside, so as soon as we get it someplace we like, I'll post some pics.
Hope you like it as much as we do!!

5 favorite things...january 24, 2009

Ok, so I haven't done a list of my favorites in a while, sorry. I am and have been indeed grateful for many things over the past weeks, so here's a summary.

• my home (i love to travel, but their is something special about sinking into your own bed at night)
  
• family (both immediate and extended)
  
• sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine
• blue skies that stretch for miles
  
• the beauties & wonders of nature (the trees are budding and beginning to flower here & my sister and I were able to see a brand new, less than a week old, gray whale calf and it's mother, how amazing is that!!)
  

Visitors of the Nocturnal Kind

For the past few nights we've been hearing things.....

Strange things.

We couldn't tell if the sounds were coming from the roof or attic....the noises remind me of the movie SIGNS. The sounds didn't have any sort of pattern to them, they were more like big thumps, bumps and whacks. Strange.

I spoke to the farm manager, Salvador, about what we'd been hearing. He suggested raccoons, but most likely rats! I thought to myself, I can do mice and even raccoons, but I can NOT handle rats!!! Just the very thought of a pack of rats scurrying around above my head makes me shiver. We could set traps, but if the things were really in the attic and they died up there......STINKY!!! Anyway, we looked all around the eves of the house searching for an entrance, no luck.

So last night, Trent and I were catching up on our favorite TV shows from this past week and we heard it again. Thump, bump, bump, WHACK, thump, bump....it was like listening to a WWF match, but from underneath the ring. We listened and listened, finally deciding that the sound couldn't be coming from the attic, it had to be the roof. Trent headed outside with a flashlight in hand to investigate. Sure enough, there on our roof, caught red handed were 3 youthful, rambunctious, and naughty raccoons. They weren't scared of us either. They just sat there and had the nerve to look at us like we were interrupting!

We are relieved to know what the noises are, and the kids think it's pretty cool that we have coons hanging out on our roof. At least I can sleep now...now that I know our attic is not infested with rats!

This is the best shot I got b/c they weren't into posing.

Where have we been????

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. Life has just been really, really, really busy! I'm going to be back logging posts over the next few weeks because we have to get caught up. I've got to keep this journal going! Here is a quick synopsis of what we've been up to.

We moved into our new place, had Christmas and then headed up to Utah to see my ENTIRE family! We haven't all been together for 4 yrs. We all stayed at my brother's and their were 13 kids all under the age of 7 in the house! I have to admit I was super nervous about how that was going to work out, but they were so great! Very impressive and my brothers kids were so great about sharing their toys and rooms with us. Thanks guys!

After a week of snow, it was time for us to return home. We brought my sister Ali and her son Hugo home with us for a little visit. The ride home was a bit rough (Hugo got sick, thankfully we had a bucket ready) but we made it! I got to work unpacking boxes and trying to make my house feel like a home. We did laundry and tried to relax.

Ali and I had a huge list of activities we wanted to do, and I think we did a pretty good job checking things off of it. We played outdoors, ate fruit, went for walks, explored at the jetty, played in the sand, searched the tide pools for sea life, went to Disneyland, went whale watching, took lots of pictures, and had tons of fun!

Now life is getting back to normal. Ali & Hugo have returned home, my laundry is done, kitchen clean, kids asleep, husband's at work & now it's time for me to rest my head too! I promise to post lots more pictures....so STOP HOUNDING ME !!!!

Night!

The Ocean, Take Four

We had to get Ali & Hugo down to the ocean one last time before they headed back to the frozen tundra of New York. So we packed up the kids and off we went. This trip was all about fun.
The kids just ran along the shore and played the entire time, laughter filled the air!

Carley is an animal at the beach. She loves to run thru the water. She's so cute, she just giggles non-stop and then cries if you try to get her to do something else. Such a California girl!

Luke was all about finding treasures this trip. He hunted and hunted.
Here is one of the many beauties he found.

At first, Hugo didn't want to play in the water. He was having too much fun playing in the sand.
However, when Ali finally got him to go in the water he was all over it!

I love this action shot. He's ready to GO!

DRY ONE MINUTE........

WET THE NEXT.

Time to go.

Thanks for visiting us Aunt Ali & Hugo!
It's so fun to have a cousin around.
We are already missing you!
Bye bye.