Our trip...in the beginning.

We decided to drive to California rather than fly, well, because, we're crazy. But more than crazy, we were too poor to afford the air fare. Here are photos of all of us on the first leg of our drive, when we were bursting with excitement and long before the children realized that the long hours in the car would be absolute misery.

And we're back...

We're home from California! I know I left all of you hanging, poor little dears, crying for want of blog posts, so not to worry, you'll get to see what we did while we were away.


Here is a photo we took at the San Diego temple on Easter Sunday. I set it up with just the timer on the camera. Not perfect, but it's cute...kinda like us!

(You may notice the boys aren't wearing dress shoes- when we went to church you could see exactly which families were visitors on vacation because all their kids were wearing sneakers...hehehehe. Seriously, we packed nearly everything we owned, I couldn't stomach the thought of packing a separate pair of shoes just for a part of one day.)

Gabey Baby

Sweetest Little Baby in the Whole Wide World...it's true, he is.

I decided to give Gabey a little baby photo shoot. This was tricky, since, well, he's not smart yet and has no idea what's going on. I must have made every bizarre sound I could think of to get his attention- and none of the tricks from my old Kiddie Kandids days helped at all. But still, he's beautiful and I love any picture I take of him.

I love the clarity in his little eyes in this one.

Look at that sweet pouty lip.

Aside from his perfect pink smile, check out this kid's lashes.

This is a perfect Gabey grin. Not his biggest smile, but his most common. You can't tell me that he doesn't look like the most perfect pleasant baby you've ever seen when you look at this photo. Well, I suppose you could say it, but you'd be lying. You don't want to be a liar do you? Then you better not say it.

Another thing I love about him (besides his patient, content, and jovial demeanor) is that even though he's not very fat (which I love in babies), he's perfectly soft. Just a few fat creases and dimpled knuckles. When he's just in his diaper I just want to scoop him up and bury my face in his neck. His naked state is what inspired this photo shoot.

Holly tagged me....

Tagged!!
Three names you go by:
1-Mom
2-Chelle (by my mom and sisters)
3-Sweetheart or Girl (by my cute hubby)

Three things you are wearing right now:
1. New bronze colored shoes
2- ill fitting jeans
3-hand me down shirt from Sara that I love

Three of your favorite things to do:
1-Cuddle with my husband to watch a movie
2- Go on vacation
3-Have girl's night out!
4-take photos of my babies- they're SO photogenic!

Three things you want very badly at the moment:
1- A new house- our two bedroom isn't cutting it anymore.
2- To be on vacation. Do you think I can wait until our trip on March 15?
3-A nap- the time change and sick baby that didn't sleep have left me EXHAUSTED.



Three favorite pets you have had/have
1. Ummm, I had a cat named Sheba as a child- she was mellow and sweet.
2-I got a cat named Ooba when I was 18- she lives with my brother now, I married a man that's allergic to cats.
3- We had froggies when our oldest was about 3yrs. They lived in their own little eco system in a tall vase with a plant. I think they lived off the moss and algae. Then they disappeared slowly. I realized later that they had jumped out of the vase, died, dried up to little raisins and I vacuumed them up. I figured it out when I was about the vacuum up the last one and realized we hadn't had raisins for months- upon inspection of the raisin I discovered the awful truth- but it's kinda funny now.


Three things you did last night:
1. Ate dinner with the fam.
2- Folded laundry with my cute Jeff.
3-Paced the floor with my sick baby until 1:15am.


Three things you ate today:
1. Grapenuts cereal
2-Ummm, diet coke with lime
3-Buffalo chicken and steamed carrots from Harmon's deli- yummmmm

Three people you last talked to:
1. Jeff
2-my sis Laura
3-my SIL Katie

Three longest car rides:
1. To California countless times
2-To St. George with my best friend to go sing at a homecoming of a guy we'd met 2 weeks before. We even stayed with his parents! Yeah, she ended up marrying him. Awwwww.
3-Rick and I drove to a wedding in Georgia. That took FOREVER.


Three favorite holidays:
1. My birthday- my Jeff has gotten very good at planning fun dates for us.
2-4th of July- I don't know why, we don't have exciting plans ever, I just love the patriotic feel or something.
3-Christmas! I love having 6 straight weeks of cinnamon and clove smells and instrumental music and love.

Three favorite beverages:
1. Dr. Pepper
2-water? I do like water.
3-Hot chocolate...mmmmm....comfort food.

Looks like Nate

Jeff's brother got into a bit of a scrap with a friend (some friend) and ended up with a swollen face. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. Nate has been telling me forever, okay not forever ( I tend to exaggerate), but for months that Gabey looks just like him. He even got out his own baby pictures to compare- there is a remarkable resemblance. It became even more apparent though when Nate's face was swollen because his eyes and the bridge of his nose were puffy, he had a lack of definition and they really did look even more alike! It was very funny to me so I took this photo. Now picture Nate with fatter cheeks. What'dya think?

Rough and tumble little boys.

A week and a half ago, during a pleasant Saturday visit to Grandma's, Jojy decided he had gone far too long in his life with out visiting Instacare. His wish came true after falling against the edge of the fireplace hearth and cutting his brow. It wasn't deep, but it pulled open a bit over his brow, and since it was on his face, we decided to have a doctor make the call about needing stitches.

The doctor decided he did need stitches, but because it wasn't severe, we didn't need to go the children's hospital to have him sedated. Whew! THAT would have taken forever.
Jeff sat with him and held on the bandage with the numbing gel, and told him stories to keep him still. What a great daddy.
Jojy was sweet and precocious with the nurses, and aside from a few minutes of crying, pretty patient during the stitching. He didn't like being strapped down and unable to rub his eyes when water got in them.

When the job was done, he wiped his tears and said "Thank you, Doc'or". Awww! He's so cute!! Luckily a scar in the brow isn't too obvious and even a little masculine, so when he's older he can make up stories about how he got the scar chopping wood, or hunting, or saving a drowning woman.