Birthdays, and the 4th of July!

On June 28th Jack turned 4!!! On the one hand, it shocks me that it has already been 4 years since that summer day in 2007 at 2:05pm when he was born. Time has flown by sooooo fast!!! On the other hand though- he always strikes me as such a mature little fellow. He reminds me that I need to clip his nails when they get too long, and tells me he needs to eat some protein before he drinks his juice because it will give him a stomach ache. A few days ago I overheard him telling Jess not to choose "The wonder Pets" to watch on the TV, because "we have been watching it a lot lately, and it is annoying to mommy." SCORE! A kid who gets it! He loves to read, and learn about the United States, and practice his school work on the computer. His favorite toys are currently the toy airplanes that uncle Eric gave him for his birthday. He especially loves the cargo plane with the "Heli-pellers". If a helicopter is run by propeller, the propellers should be called a helipellers. Jake and I have tried to convince him otherwise, but now anything that previously had propellers now has helipellers. I can't argue with him, it makes sense. We love our little Jack man!!

All summer Jack has been asking Jake to take him to work with him for the day. Jake always said that he would take him on his birthday. Well, to my surprise, he actually did. Jack got dressed up just like daddy, and they went out to work together. Jake brought an exhausted Jack back after only a few hours, and he took a long nap!! He loved that he got to go to work for his birthday, and now maybe he'll start to dream about things that are a lot more fun for his birthdays in the future!!

The first weekend of July, Erin and Lex and their baby Atticus came down to Santa Clarita (45 minutes from us) for a business trip. We got to spend Saturday, Sunday, and Monday with them!! I can't believe that the first two weekends we have been in California, we haven't been alone!! Who knew we would actually get visitors so soon!! I love it!

Saturday we went out to dinner at the Black Angus, and then came back to the apartment to hang out for a while. Erin had bought these crazy Ear candles that are supposed to clean out your ears using reverse pressure. I jokingly called it her birthday candle, since the next day was her 26th birthday. Unfortunately her birthday wish didn't come true, and the candles were a total fail. It was entertaining to watch though. While all of that was going on, Lex and Jake were creating Mii's to play the Wii. They were pretty proud of the Mii that they created for Lex! We never could get one to look like Erin. I guess sometimes you're just too cute to be duplicated!

The next day we drove to Santa Clarita so that we could go to church with Erin and Lex at a ward that started at 1:00. It was a great ward, and we were hoping to see Jake's mission president there (since it was their ward), but they were out of town. Shucks. After church we met up with Lex's business associate, who they came here to meet with, for a BBQ. His name is Bobby, and he is a big Italian guy from New York. He sounds like a mobster, but he is the most gentle sweet guy!! He loves kids, and let them run all over his apartment. We ate down by the pool, and planned what we were going to do for the 4th of July. Bobby used to own a Limo company, and still gets privileges 10 hours a month. So he invited all of us to take a limo with him through LA for a night on the town to celebrate the 4th of July!!

The boys were really excited about riding in a big long car that didn't require seat belts, and Erin and I had never ridden in a limo, so we were pretty excited too!! Bobby had his driver (Dana) pick us up at 7:00, and we headed to LA. We decided that the Firework show we were originally going to go to would be too busy, so we decided to go down to Long Beach and watch a Firework show there. Since we were in the Limo, the traffic officers let Dana drop us off right at the little coast area where we wanted to sit and watch the show. It was a beautiful night, and the fireworks were great! It sounded like all the people of Long Beach had come to watch the show because their cheering was crazy loud, even across the bay where we were.






After the show ended, we got back into our limo and drove around trying to decide where to go and eat. It was after 10:00, and it was a holiday, and to our surprise- lots of places were closed. At 11:00, we finally just pulled into a Denny's and piled out. I have to admit, the food wasn't bad!! It was perfect for the boys too- who had been getting antsy and wouldn't have wanted to sit in a nice restaurant and behave. After Denny's we headed back to Santa Clarita, and shared funny stories. It was a great evening- so great, that Jake and I didn't get home until 2:00am! I'm really glad that we made fun memories for our 4th of July in California, and it was so great to share it with family and new friends.

The 5th of July was Jake's Birthday!!! My honey turned 31, and I have to say that he has never looked better. And then just 2 days later, the 7th of July was my baby's birthday. Jess turned 2! Jess is such a great little boy. He is excited about everything- no matter what it is. He only cries about something until you tell him "it's okay." and then he just says "okay." and stops. He loves his big brother and he's a sponge for knowledge!! He began to read when he was about 20 months old, and picks up more and more each day. His real mind-blowing talent tough, is the way he can navigate the internet to find his learning website, operate computer programs, or the sheer mastery he has over just about any Wii game, even though he really doesn't spend that much time playing them. He has the opposite eating habits of Jack though. Jess will eat just about ANYTHING. He is definitely more Claus at the dinner table! His big round eyes just melt our hearts, and we just can't help but want to squeeze him silly.

It's soooo fun to have all of my boys share a birthday week! The boys had a birthday party in Boise a couple weeks ago, but I couldn't resist getting them a new "racing game" for the wii. Because of all of the busy fun we had the weekend of the 4th, we had a much lower profile birthday. Jake brought home a pizza, we went swimming, had Jake's favorite- Lemon raspberry cupcakes, followed by watching The Hornet, (Jake's choice of movie of course). I'm pretty sure fun was had by all.

Again, 2 weeks went by in between blog posts. I guess things have been busier than they have felt. California has been an adjustment, after having lived in Texas for almost 4 months, but it has been a good one.