A day off

Caleb had a much needed day off. We needed a break from working on the house so decided to do the 20 minute drive to Oak Glen. It is a beautiful little canyon known for their apple picking, cider doughnuts, and cider. We had such a fun day hiking in the mountains, picnicking, and sampling all the apple...butters, ciders, doughnuts, syrups etc. They were good, but we have been spoiled by cold hollow cider and doughnuts. No one can beat them. Despite that we had a great time, and had a taste of fall in shorts and t-shirts :).

Fall

We have a lot of farms and groves and orchards around us, so the other day we went to one of the near by pumpkin patches.

They had a hay ride, a petting zoo and lots of different kinds of pumpkins. The kids loved it. Abigail loved the goats and was not scared of them. She wanted to be down on the ground petting them the whole time. Joshua of coarse liked the hayride.

11 Months!

Yes Abigail is turning one next week, so I thought I better post these before then.

She loves playing peek-a-boo with the blanket.

She has the funniest spunky personality. We just love playing with her. She is almost walking. I think she could walk if she would just let go of my hand.

Joshua loves preschool. I have parent teacher conferences today so I am excited to hear what she has to say. He also has school pictures next week. For going only twice a week for a few hours they really run it like a school. He is also learning to sound out his letters and has been practicing a lot.

These two love each other so much.

We closed!

After four and a half months of waiting we finally closed on our house!! We are so excited. It is a three bedroom three bath home with a loft. We love it. Especially the hardwood floors. We have already re done the back yard. We had a lot of fun designing it and doing it all on a tight budget together as a family. It was a TON of work but fun. The yard had all these railway ties around the whole yard and wood chips by the back door. It was a mess. The ties were rotting and by the door the chips were constantly getting in the house and we were all tripping on the big ties around the porch. Overall the whole set up made the yard look dry and chopped up. So we added a few flower beds, some grass, trees, vines, and shrubs. You can see the pictures... we love how it turned out and can't wait to see it in a year when it is all filled out.

We have not painted yet or made any improvements inside. I am planning to repaint all the walls a creamy buttery yellow and paint all the wood white. We are also planing on tiling our bath and the kids bath. As we progress I will post some more pictures.

The house is in a more rural area. I run to the temple through orange groves every morning! That is the greatest part of our location...we are five minutes from the temple! We actually go to church in the stake center there. Also we are on the road to big bear one of the biggest ski resorts in California, so we are on a higher shelf than Loma Linda and Redlands so we have mountains and hills all around us. Most important we are higher than the smog, which is a huge problem in the inland empire. Caleb is 15 minutes from work, and I am 8 minutes from downtown Redlands and Trader Joes! Hooray for Trader Joe's! Also being close to the mountains we have pumpkin patches, apple picking, raspberry picking and lots of other "Vermont" things to help us feel at home.

In short we love the house and are so happy that we decided to move into this neighborhood and area!

Here is a slideshow with some pictures of the house. Some are the yard and how we re did it and some are also the area around the house. We had an amazing thunder and rain storm and I caught the rainbow from our front driveway.

Here are pictures of what the yard use to look like. You can see the biggest change is that we got rid of the wood chips and stepping stones right out the back door and instead extended the porch a bit added grass an herb garden and some roses. We plan to put grass along the side yard between the stepping stones as well. So we are not totally done.

10 Months old

Abigail is ten months old. Well almost eleven now but here are her ten month pictures.

She is almost walking. She has taken a few steps, can stand up with no support, and cruises along all the furniture. She is hilarious we all just can't stop laughing at her. She loves to play peek a boo, and anything that Joshua is doing. She can now point at things she wants and says Mama really clearly. She has three little teeth, 2 bottom and one lonesome eye tooth on top. She is cutting her top front teeth this week though. We love her and have so much fun with her.

Joshua is getting so big. He loves going to preschool. He also loves playing and digging in our backyard, and some how always ends up in just his underwear and a thick layer of dirt all over him. He also loves playing with Abigail and is a very sweet and helpful big brother. Although he does get a little too excited and forgets that she can't actually walk yet. I always hear an "I'm sorry baby" every time before I hear her cry. At least he is sorry!

This was a few Saturdays ago. We were going out to the jogger for my run and Abigail crawled out and sat with Figaro. She loves Figaro and has to sit on her and pet her every time we see her. She even tries to imitate me when I call for her and gets all excited about it.

Abigail loves her walker and is a speed demon. Our house is kind of a circle so she zooms around and around following Joshua on his Winnie the pooh car. Joshua drives too fast to get a clear picture of.

Race Cars, Fish, and Monkeys

Like most little boys Joshua loves the movie Cars. Well until recently he thought it was too scary to watch, but loved the die cast character cars. Today we were racing them across our floor, which is one of our almost daily activities. He was excited today because he bought himself his own new race car with his own "Moneys". I have started to enlist him on my cleaning day for 10 cents a job. He loves it and is a great little worker. When I started I explained to him that if he wants to buy things when we go to the store he can save and use his own money. Of course right away he said he wanted to buy a race car. So a month has passed of doing jobs, he has paid his tithing and had just enough to buy a race car. He was so excited. Not that he needs more! They are all very well used and loved though.

Recently we got a free fish tank from a lady at a garage sale. So we decided the kids would enjoy some fish in their room. Joshua named them and of course we have had quite a few fatalities (luckily Petco has a 15 day promise on their fish), and a couple tears and lessons on Heaven, and the resurrection. Abigail is enthralled with the fish and very motivated to get a good look at them.

In fact so motivated that she will climb up on Joshua's bed...

...stand next to the tank and pat it...

...and climb on the table to pound on the top. I walked in the other day and almost had a heart attack. She is a real monkey!

And yes that is the wall color of Joshua's room. He picked that room himself he calls it his "pretty flower room". When we close on the house it will be the first room to be repainted!

She also loves to climb the stairs now and obviously is very excited and proud of herself for her new found abilities.

Such a cutie!

First Day of Preschool

Today was Joshua's first day of preschool! He goes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 -noon. He was so cute and excited to go. I was excited to let him go but also sad that he is getting so big. Despite Caleb and I's more introverted personalities he is very outgoing and friendly. He was getting really bored at home so we thought he would love preschool. We were right! I brought him in this morning and he walked right in and started playing. When I picked him up he was tired but happy. He said he wanted to go home now but come back next week. It is a great little Presbyterian preschool with only 8 kids in his class. In a quiet house Abigail took a 2 hour nap, and I got some stuff done. I was so excited to go pick him up and have his little voice fill up my house again. I think it will be a very fun and enriching thing for him, and I will just have to get use to it.