Thanksgiving

SO... It is November now, and yes even here in San Diego some of the leaves are turning orange, the air is crisp and my candles have been in continual use. Usually everybody (including myself) starts celebrating Christmas and indulging in gifts, treats and a Christmas mind set the second Halloween is over. I absolutely LOVE Christmas, it's just amazing and I start the countdown till it arrives in January. I have decided this year to do very minimal Christmas things yet and to observe 'Thanksgiving' the whole month of November. The more I've thought about it, Thanksgiving is really the best holiday. And I'm not talking about all the food.
I had one of the best 3 hours of church I've had in a while where everything: sacrament meeting (testimonies), sunday school and relief society were all pretty much amazing! The spirit was just dancing around our church building :0) and it was awesome. (Don't freak out, I don't mean literally) I had so many things I started thinking about and a realization that I am immensly blessed! So, I decided I wanted to celebrate the season of Thanksgiving! I am going to try to overall be more thankful for everything! Our country, church, family, friends, trials, my body (well at least the good/healthy parts), and everything I take for granted. Beautiful music and a calm, peaceful walk to the beach. Hiking through meadows with my family, looking for orange butterflies with my little Leiser. The opportunity Brian and I have to raise two beautiful girls and have them with us forever. The best husband in the world that is so patient with me. Rain and the way it smells afterwords, sunsets and rainbows. Date nights with the love of my life and best friend- holding his hand, flirting and laughing while his sweet parents watch our angels. We really have the best family ever on both sides (lucky us). Brian's job that supports our little family, our home and President Monson! (I love that man)

Wo I am writing!

Alright...2 years later and I decide eh, I don't know maybe I should update this thing? So much has happened since then! I went through a whole pregnancy (aw man I didn't get to use the pregnancy little ticker on the blog! So depressing ;0). Our little angel is now 7.5 months old! Jovi Kaikea was born January 14th at 7 lb. 13 ounces. She is a doll that loves to crawl backwards, chew on tags, eat and play with her big sister. Our little family of four could not be more perfect!

Elise turned 5 August 20th and starts school next week! I can't even believe that yet! I am a mom of a kindergardener! She is so excited for it too! Her only worry is that she won't see me as much, which is so cute! Her teacher's name is Mrs. Peterson and she's about 6'2"!

I have a goal to spend my free time wiser. With Elise going to school for the first time (she didn't go to preschool) I can now get some quality things done during Jovi's nap. No internet stuff either. Purely sewing, bows, piano and reading! I will probably need to write it down so I don't blow it off, for some reason I take myself so much more serious when I write things down.

Alright, so for Elise's funny quote for today. While talking about what animals we would want to be Elise says, " Daddy would be a monkey........Daddy loves bananas!! When you are sleeping at night daddy eats tons of bananas! He just gobbles them down!" Wow I never knew that, maybe I should set up a hidden cam to catch the monkey act.

Christmas is over.........which it almost doesn't even feel like it happened! It went by very fast. Plus, this year was our first year not being in our own home during the Christmas holidays, so that kinda changes alot. I know I know.....still milking the living in with the parentals. What can I say! Supposedly we should be moving into our new home (apt) within the next two weeks. At least that's the plan. It's what Elise calls, "Our Blue house", in her prayers.

Brian is doing pretty good with work, you know he is actually pretty good at anything he puts his mind to, lucky guy. He loves to get in some weight lifting, raquetball, basketball, or pretty much any sport with his free time. He's such a boy :0) .
Elise is getting so big and saying so many different crazy things.....I just can't believe how smart she is. The other day there was a guy asking for money in front of Target with a sign saying he was from some sort of shelter, raising money. And please don't think I'm terrible , but I usually don't give them money because I just don't know how legit any of that is...I mean I could make a sign out of cardboard that says I was raising money for the battered womens shelter and not shower for a week, and then go home and show Brian all the money I made. Plus I pay my tithing :0). So I try to dodge them without making eye contact cause I feel kinda awkward but Elise points at them and yells," Mom, put money in his bucket!!! Give him money mommy!!!" Right, thanks Elise.....here's 3 quarters....geeze
So I happened accross some awesome stuff and have set myself some New Years goals.... I am quite inspired and must share my insight!!!!
* Just for today, I will live through this day only. i will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow. I will not set far-reaching goals or try to overcome all of my problems at once. I know that I can do something for 24 hours that would overwhelm me if i had to keep it up for a lifetime.
*Just for today I will be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.
*Just for today I will accept what is. I will face reality. I will correct those things that I can correct and accept those I cannot.
*Just for today I will improve my mind. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration. I will not be a mental loafer.
*Just for today, I will make a conscious effort to be agreeable. I will be kind and courteous to those who cross my path, and I'll not speak ill of others. I'll improve my appearance, speak softly, and not interupt when someone else is talking. I will refrain from improving anybody but myself.
*Just for today I will gather the courage to do what is right and take responsibility for my own actions.

Something else I would like to think of is from a St. Francis prayer:

"Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned."

Our Life as of NOW

So.....we are living in Temecula, Ca. right now. It's Brian's hometown, so he's in heaven. Well, and I'm starting to really like the place too. It cools down to 69 degrees at night (in the house) when you leave the windows open and during the day it's in the 90's- in July. SO different from Arizona! We're living accross a meadow- so Brian and I have been doing morning jogs and walks which is alot of fun and exhilarating.



That child!

Elise!!!! Wo that girl!! She is getting so big!! She'll be 3 in a month! 3 going on 14. Seriously, this girl thinks she's an adult. When you tell her to eat her dinner, she says, "you eat your dinner". When you say,"Stay here with grandma, I'm going shopping", she says, "no I want to go shopping!" (Not even toy shopping, CLOTHES) And when she goes shopping she'll hold clothes up to me and go, "oh how cute! I like this one". While we were shopping about a week ago I was looking at some throw pillows and Elise walked on the other side of the aisle, like she was shopping. And I told her to come by me because I couldn't see her, so she says, "Come here mom, I can't see you!" Finally when I got her to come over she just says, "What mom?" And I tell her she needs to stay by me......so she swings her purse onto her shoulder, sighs, puts her hand on her waist and walks in front of me. Ha ha...but she still has our hearts and is quite cute when out of nowhere she says, "guess what? I love my mommy" or "Mommy, you make me so happy". Love that girl!



Brian has been working for Edward Jones (voted #4 in Fortunes magazine for top 100 best companies to work for) which we're pretty excited about. He does investments, 401k's, IRA acct., the works. It's a good company, It's definately one of those 'work your butt off, sweat, sacrifice, go broke' type of jobs that can end up being awesome (only if you do all of the above).....So yeah. Brian's also been training for a 6k swim/run he's doing today..... .67 mile swim in the ocean, and 3 mile run, and then next month it will be 1.5 swim to Alcatraz then 7 mile run across the golden gate bridge! I'm so proud of him! And my Pops is doing it with him! Exciting!!!!! Brian is seriously like Superman!



I've been finding every little free activity possible for me and Elise this summer! And I've found quite a bit...the ward does 2x a week swim days, the mall does craft days on Thursdays, and the movie theatre does tuesday and wednesday free movies @ 10 am, and then there is story lady at the library once a week.

I have been doing pretty good at working out! Yay! I was so slacking since college. I've been doing my dance classes again- Rumba, salsa, swing, and hip hop! I always feel so good after sweating like a pig! It's awesome. Brian has signed me up to kinda be his secretary for now...so I'm entering his contacts, sending out thank you's and scheduling appointments. It'll be nice to have some extra money and take some work off his shoulders.