Our little patch of heaven

This is an article from our newspaper today.

"Port Hueneme police were looking for a man who burglarized an apartment early Monday while a woman and her young child were at home, officals said.

The burglary occured about 6:30 a.m. in the 2700 block of Jill Place. The burglar ran out of the apartment when he was spotted by the woman, police Sgt. Eric Starna said. No on was injured.

The burglar was described as a man in his late 30s or early 40s with an unkempt appearance, Starna said.

The incident appeared unrealated to a Sept. 18 burglary of an occupied home in the 2600 block of Bolker Drive, Starna said. A suspect was arrested last week in connection with that incident."

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/sep/27/port-hueneme-woman-at-home-during-burglary-try/

It's funny that they say the 2700 block of Jill Place. This is the cul-de-sac that leads to our condo. Anyone who has ever visited our house knows there isn't even a full block of Jill Place much less a 2700 block.

And the other incident ten days ago that happened all the way over on the 2600 block of Bolker Drive is a whopping 600 feet from our house.

We are ready to go home.

The Zoo

On Saturday we went up to the Santa Barbara Zoo. It was like, maybe, 85 degrees and I thought we were all going to die of heat stroke. We aren't used to hot weather anymore.

You can see in this picture that Gem makes a better Condor snack then a Condor.
In this one we have Levi enjoying the zoo.

Here is Gem preparing to slide down the hill.

And here she is at the bottom of the hill falling on her face. It is quite obvious, if you really know us, that Gem is our offspring, as she displays the same grace and finesse as her mother and father.

Hawaii Hardshipis

I just got back from "work" in Hawaii. I'd like to try to make a list of terrible misfortunes that happened to make Tara feel better, but the list is short. The worst thing is being by yourself. How do you enjoy paradise alone?

Nonetheless, I've got a few pictures to share. First is the view from my first hotel room in Waikiki. Not bad.

I gave a presentation the next day but I couldn't leave until the next morning. I decided to try another hotel on the other side of the island. It's nice being a federal employee because the hotel room is the same price whether you're staying at the budget motel or the Marriott Waikiki.

I drove around the island and saw the Temple in Laie. It was still closed for renovation. :(

My second hotel was in Ko Olina. The room wasn't ready when I checked in so they gave me a voucher for free drinks at the pool-side bar. Oh boy... I mean..... I asked the bartender what he had that was non-alcoholic. This is what he came up with.... a guava smoothie in a frozen pineapple. Life is tough.

This is the view from my second hotel room. It's overlooking the private man-made cove owned by Marriott.

I landed at LAX Friday afternoon right in time for traffic. It took 2.5 hours to get home. Poor me.

Luckily I live in a house where the other two walking, talking individuals are women..... women who love presents.

Here's Gem sporting her Hula kit. She's actually getting a bit of a groove on in this picture.

Other than skin complexion, our little chunk Levi could pass for a Polynesian any day.

And of course Tara gets presents.

A Great Day

I am not going to go into all the reasons why today is such a great day, but let me list just a few.

1- At 5:00 AM a lovely little girl climbed into my bed and started hacking her snot all over my pillow. Delightful.

2- At 6:00 AM the same little girl pooped in her underwear. Have I already used the word delightful?

3- During points 1 and 2 my eternal companion was soundly sleeping in a hotel bed in Hawaii.

4- While at Costco I was able to buy 200 dollars worth of groceries, none of which I will eat.

5- When at the music store picking up books for a struggling piano student, Gem informs me she needs to go potty. I am forced to grab the closest books I see, pay for them as quickly as possible, and rush home. I guess I will see if I got the right ones at our next lesson.

6- By 1:00 PM, I finally get a minute to go outside and get the paper, only to discover that someone else swiped it. Who does that?

7- I do get to spend my evening relaxing at a primary training. How can I be so fortunate?

Luckily for Tyler we have made our eternal covenants, otherwise I think I would run away from home.

A Big Day!

Levi turned two months old on Sunday. He has almost doubled his birth weight as far as we can tell on the scale in our bathroom. And he only has two talents so far. He is good at lifting up his head and smiling. By the way don't judge me by my baby voice. It is a little embarrassing to post this video for everyone to hear my baby voice, but I thought the grandparents would like it.

In other news, two sisters in the ward invited Gem and I to do a pre-preschool with them. They each have a three year old, and we are each going to take a day of the week and take the three three-year-olds for a few hours and do some activities and such with them.

Today was the first day, and I took Gem over to the sisters house and dropped her off. When I picked her up she was able to tell me a word that started with the letter B, and I asked her if they played any games and she said they played "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear". If that isn't a roaring success I don't know what is.

My first day will be Wednesday and I am pretty excited I haven't decided what we are going to talk about yet. Possible ideas include: weather, fairy tales, music, please and thank you, plants, America, being healthy, earth, shapes, birds, fish, colors.

The Story of my Parent's Life

Going Good

I finally decided that Levi didn't need his four am bottle anymore. (I mean, honestly, he is going to be a big two months on Sunday.) So this morning when he woke up at four thirty I spent from four thirty to five ten by his crib keeping him quiet so Tyler could sleep. However, I did achieve victory because he did go back to sleep until 6:08, which I believe is a perfectly acceptable baby breakfast time. I am sure it will take a couple more days, but I bet that by this time next week we will have a soundly sleeping baby from ten to six.

Gem has taken to asking me if we can do things "another day". This means that about three or four times every minute she will decide to do something, and when I say no she says "maybe another day?". The correct answer to this is "Yes, maybe another day." If I don't respond correctly, she will repeat her query over and over and over until the correct response is given. For example when she is watching Blues Clues and Blue skidoos into a picture, she asks "we a follow blue into a picture?"
"No, we can just watch blue go in the picture."
"Maybe another day?"
"No lets just watch Blue"
"Maybe another day?"
"Only Blue can go into that picture"
"Maybe another day?"
"Yes, fine maybe another day."
"Oh, o.k."
As you can imagine, I have learned to skip straight to the part where I say "yes, maybe another day". It saves me a lot of time.

In the below video if you listen closely you can catch the words "rocking chair", "veggietales", and "howdy folks".

I like the end of this one. It's "kinda nice".

And this is us on Saturdays. . .

The Funny One Today

Tyler and I were in the hallway ready to brush Gem's teeth. We were waiting for her to return from her arduous trip to the hamper. So we begun to bounce the ball back and forth to each other. Gem saw this and asked "You a playing ball?". We couldn't deny it. She got a serious look on her face as if she was the mom and replied "Stop playing with I toys."
I just busted up laughing, so then she said "That pretty silly". And because we had laughed so hard at her, she repeated her command to us, a few more times. Yah, it is only funny once.

Disneyland

On Wednesday Tyler's old room-mate and his wife and three-year-old daughter were in town. We spent the day with them down at Disneyland. While I wouldn't describe it as "fun" (I have found that nothing is exceptionally fun with a three year old and a baby), it was really nice being able to see them and spend the day with them. And of course Gem and Addy had a great time.
On the Winnie the Pooh ride.


With Tinkerbell.