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Highlights this week:

James had his Walk Through California adventure at school. He dressed as a gold minter and he and he fourth grade compatriots filed in as teams into the cafetorium to show their stuff for an audience of proud parents. A high energy host took the back through time and each kid got to act as an expert on a little piece of information they memorized. James's word was "peninsula". He did very well when it was his turn in the hot seat, and he also got to volunteer to be Father Junipero Serra and answer every question with "Si." He had fun.

Saturday we ahd date night. Kenny and I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I thought was pretty good. We followed it up with delicious cheesecake and potstickers, except not in that order, at The Cheesecake Factory. When we got home, I had to cram in some preparation to teach Gospel Doctrine the next day after a last minute sub call, but the lesson ended up ... Read More »

I think I'm in love with no school on Mondays. In fact, I think every Monday should be a national holiday from now on. Whose with me? Monday was lovely. Kenny and James were both home and Grant and I had a great time hanging out with them all day. At one point, the boys went in search of a model car to put together (they came back with model planes instead) and puttered around in the garage working on them for an hour or two in the afternoon. That evening, we celebrated Grandma's birthday with everyone at California Pizza Kitchen and James had fun visiting with his cousins.

Other highlights from the week include going to James's school Open House where he got to show Kenny all the stuff he's been working on. I get to see it since I'm usually in his classroom once a week helping the teacher, but it was fun for him to show his K-dad what he's been up to.

Friday morning, Nadine and I played tennis while Grant "helped" by crawling across the cour ... Read More »

We had a lovely, lazy Sunday, all curled up with each other on the sofa and watching the BBC Planet Earth DVDs which are just gorgeous. Monday stayed low-key, too. James worked on his mission report in the morning and then we headed out to Disneyland in the afternoon while Joan watched Grant for us. It was clear and cool when we got there but had rained most of the day, so the park was pretty empty and James and I didn't have to wait for anything. We rode all the roller coasters and enjoyed treats like hot cocoa and cinnamon twists from the bakery. When we got home, he hung out with Kenny and I went to watch The Bachelor with several girls from the ward.

Tuesday was hurry-up-and-finish-your-mission-report day. Kenny and James worked on that in the evening while I went to a baby shower for Amber Baltzer and then to Target to hunt down a report cover and some glue for James's project. Then it was all about adventure in bean dyeing, trying to turn a bowl full of ... Read More »

Um, so the highlights since the middle of November: we had a huge Thanksgiving at Skip and Joan's with a ton of people and I made twelve things in one day because I'm CRAZY, but they all turned out pretty good. Busy December as usual. James got a Wii for Christmas but left the next day to spend the holiday with his dad in Utah. He had a blast up there. Amy Lou came down here and spent Christmas with us and that was fun. She brought a friend named Speed,

January: I resubmitted my novel with the change requests and now it's just a waiting game. James is doing well in school but still has room to improve. However, he started Lego Engineering classes on Saturdays and loves that. He also participated in the Pinewood Derby and did really well, much better than last year.

Grant is almost ready to walk. He'll do a few toddling steps between Kenny and I but he still lacks a little confidence. It won't be long, though. He says "Dada" and &q ... Read More »

This last week proved to be really mellow, which is just what the doctor ordered after such a crazy October. Tuesday, of course, was election day and so after I dropped James off at swimming class, I spent the evening in the Prop 8 command center, reminding voters to get out and vote Yes on Prop 8, which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. It's an incredibly heated subject in the state of California right now and the LDS church is taking a lot of heat for the fact that it passed because Mormons funnelled so much time and money into making sure it passed. I was at the command center because we were all asked to contribute as much time as possible and Kenny had already spent a few Saturday mornings walking in neighborhoods to talk to people about Prop 8, educating them about what it was so I felt like it was my time to take my turn. I hate that so many people feel like this is about discrimination when I feel like it's a matter of keeping a religious ... Read More »

Baby Grant is on the move! He has begun real crawling and not just army crawling, and he's also cruising the furniture like a champ. His current obsession is my laptop which he tries to smack every chance he gets. But it's a great opportunity to teach him the word "no" which he clearly understands but regularly ignores.

Grant and his friend Graydon on a ride to the park.

Monday, James had rock climbing and there was a local company selling climbing shoes so he tried some out and found a pair he really likes. However, they're purple so as soon as we got home he got a black Sharpie and colored in all the purple parts of his bran ... Read More »

Okay, so we're only doing highlights because um...I forgot stuff since I didn't blog when I should have.

Significant/noteable stuff last week:

Our ward book club read The Knitting Club and the author Kate Jacobs called in to do a Q&A with us, which was really fun.

On Thursday, James finished his Level 3 swimming class and his teacher said he did really well. At first, the teacher said James should maybe start in Level 2 but he could stay if he wanted. Since Level 2 was full, I just kept James in. The teacher said he would need to take it only once more and most kids have to take it several times, so that was pretty cool. He was proud of himself and we were, too!

Saturday was the Jacobson Rocktoberfest, which was so fun! We invited everyone we knew who even might kind of be nearby and lots and lots of people came. We barbecued out by the pool and had a nursery room with three young women to wat ... Read More »