Pumpkin Carving Fun

So Sunday we decided to carve some pumpkins. We went over to the Barnetts for dinner and then after we carved some cute pumpkins. The Villabas were over too and Joanne came for dinner but left before we started carving. Wynne had stayed the night and came to church with us and I asked Tori to come because we had an extra pumpkin.. (plus it would save me the drive to Elk Grove to drop off Wynne.) We had a good time.. Check out the pics!

BEFORE SHOTS!!!

During

AFTER

This is Tori's

and Shaun's
And all of ours!!

River Park Ward Baby Shower

So I had a baby shower in Elk Grove with all of my lovely friends and family that I've know forever. But, I wasn't sure if I wanted to make all of my new friends come all the way to Elk Grove to go to a shower where they wouldn't know very many people so my friend Christina offered to throw me a baby shower here in River Park. It was so much fun. I really appreciated all of my new friends who came out and supported me. I felt very loved and appreciated. I hadn't realized that I had made so many friends since I've been here. I love it more every day!!!

All the ladies who came to my shower.. They made me sit down which I don't think I like because it makes me look like a huge beast!! Oh well.. It'll just give me a good excuse to get back on the exercise train as soon as Jacob gets here (well at least 6 weeks after!!!)

Jenny, Me, and Joanne... We are all due within 1-2 months of each other. It's me first on Nov. 2, then Jenny in the middle of December, and then Joanne in the beginning of January. It's fun to have ladies that we are all pregnant with. Come to think of it... Alena is pregnant too but she isn't in this picture. I think she left before we took this picture. Oh well.. There are four of us who are due all around the same time and it's kinda fun!!

Wynne didn't get to come to my shower in Elk Grove because she had a Volleyball tourney so I invited her to this one.. Isn't she cute.. We kinda look alike don't you think??

All the chatters. There is always a group that sticks around for awhile after most of the people leave. I like to call them the chatters. We all stayed for at least an hour after chatting away about lots of different things. Overall, it was a really good day.

So Jenny had a shower the same day as mine but earlier in the morning. So I went to hers and then jetted over to mine. They were both a lot of fun. This is a picture from hers.

Shaun is 23!!!

So, I felt really bad because Shaun had school all day on his birthday and then I was in the hospital on Wednesday for high blood pressure and intense swelling.. They thought I had pre-eclampsia but all the tests came back negative. The doc told me to take it easy and not do anything too crazy. So of course the next day is Shaun's birthday so I didn't think it was the best idea to be on my feet all day making cake and dinner for him. He really wanted gnocchi for his birthday so I got on the trusty internet and found a restaurant that is right around the corner that serves gnocchi. And I bought his cake from Safeway.. I had to pinch myself to make me pick up that stinkin cake and pay for it.. But I kept thinking this is for the health of my baby.. I want to keep Jacob healthy of course. Anyways.. I also made him a sign for him and blew up balloons.. Don't worry as I was laying on the couch I blew up one or two like every half hour so I wouldn't stress my lungs out too much!! :-) Overall, I think that he enjoyed his birthday. I bought him a lunchbox and the game Pit for his gifts. He loved Pit but I don't think he was that stoked about the lunchbox.. but he needs it for school because he's there all day long. I was just trying to keep him healthy ya know!!! When he got home from school we ate dinner and then had cake. I invited Christina and Brent over to sing to him with me. I think he really appreciated that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!

Apple Hill with the Fam!!

September 18, 2010 we went to Apple Hill with Scott and Lisa and some other family. We had a good time with Kyle and Justin... They had a lot of fun playing some of the games that they had up there. We also of course had to get some delicious fresh Apple Juice.. and Apple Pie.. and Apple Fritters.. I think we were appled out by the end of the trip. For those of you who don't know if you drive north away from Sacramento you run into Placerville... There is about a 10 mile of so stretch of area that is full of Apple Orchards.. and during the Fall season they all open up and have a bunch of things to do.. You can get apples, anything made with apples, pumpkins, and participate in tons of fun games.. During the winter they have Christmas Trees up there. It's the perfect Autumn activity!! Here are some pictures.. I didn't get that many though.. sorry!

The boys got to participate in a scarecrow building contest... They decided to make him look like a Kiss band member.. That's those MAngelsons!! :-)

Bryce with Kyle and Justin!

Kyle getting ready to participate in the egg contest!! He didn't drop his egg but he didn't win the race though!!

Camping with the Barnetts

So this past month we decided that we needed to go camping because even though I had gone Shaun hadn't yet gotten his fix for the Summer. WE took the opportunity to go with some friends of ours and we had a really good time. Here are some pictures from our trip!!

The beautiful view on the way to Hope Valley!!

Shaun holding Jett.. All bundled up!! It got pretty cold both nights!!

This is Brent explaining something to me. :-) I can't remember what but it looks really important!!

Me chopping up veggies for our Breakfast Skillets. They were really yummy!!!

Jett all bundled up to keep the mosquitos away.

Me making som funny face but you get a pretty good shot at my fattiness!!

After we climbed down the creek a little!! I had hurt my knee the week before and it was really hard to climb over stuff. Needless to say I didn't get to go on the hike the next day but I got to take a nap with Jett so it was alright!!

Shaun and his never-ending faces!1

Brent looking mystic and teaching Jett how to hold his head straight!! ACtually right before I took this shot they were both looking in the same direction and it looked really cool because they have the same movements and faces. But when I tried to take the pic Jett moved his head so Brent was holding it for me!!

California Music Circus

OKLAHOMA

CALIFORNIA MUSIC CIRCUS

JULY 31, 2010

So, for my Mother's Day present Shaun got me tickets to go see Oklahoma at the Music Circus.. Which I was so excited about because #1: I love MUSICALS!! #2: I have extremely fond memories of going when I was younger. My parents would buy season passes and each kid would get to choose one show that they wanted to go to with Mom and Dad and then we all got to go to the Family Special show.. For one reason or another they stopped getting those passes.. Needless to say.. it's been a few years since I have been back to Music Circus. So I was really excited!! It was a little expensive though so we decided to count it as Shaun's Father's Day and our birthday presents!! (That's how it works when you are young, married, and poor!) :-)

We got all dressed up to go.. It was fun!! So there is a funny story behind this present. When Shaun gave me the present he didn't have the tickets yet. He just made me a cute sign that looked like this!!

I guess he had tried to buy the tickets but for some reason it wasn't working very well. So he gave me this and a cute card for Mother's Day and a couple of days later we bought our tickets online. About a week and a half later the tickets came in the mail. When I got them I looked at them and made sure they were what I had expected and seeing that they were I put them back in the envelope and posted them on our corkboard along with the above sign. About 2 weeks before when we were doing calendar we put Music Circus on it and we were getting really excited.

Well the day before the show came and we were getting really really excited to go. That night we went to Christina and Brent's house and watched Nacho Libre. (They had never seen it.. they thought it was hilarious!!) We got home about 11:30 and were getting ready for bed. I passed by the corkboard and thought that I should look at the tickets and make sure everything was in order. I looked at them and Shaun was looking over my shoulder. He noticed it first.. the tickets said Friday, July 30.. 8:00.. We were devastated.

We had totally missed the show. Right on the tickets it said.. "No refunds or exchanges." My thought of just switching show dates seemed impossible. Shaun was devastated and felt so bad because he thought it was all his fault. We both thought the show was on the 31st but for some reason we bought the tickets for the 30th (even though both of us sware that we chose the day of the 31st for the show.)

As we lay in bed trying to go to sleep we were mulling over our options. We could call the Music Circus box office to see if they would take mercy on us.. We could call Ticketmaster and see if they could switch it.. At one point we were even talking about just showing up and pretending that we didn't know that they were the wrong date.. But I said that that was dishonest and Heavenly Father definitely wouldn't help us if we tried that.. We checked the website and noticed that the box office usually doesn't handle any of the tickets that are sold on ticketmaster.com.. But the next morning Shaun decided to call and see what they could do.. To make a long story a little shorter.. Shaun got off the phone after about 5 minutes and was whooping and hootin' and hollerin' It was good news!! They told him that normally they don't do exchanges but just this once they would do it for him. We got to go and it was a wonderful show.. I wasn't so fond of the Annie and Will couple they had but Curly and Laurey were very good. It was overall an awesome experience .. minus the 11:30 run to Denny's because I was starving.. but I forget how greasy their food can be.. My stomach hurt almost the whole night... Oh well.. My fault!

It just goes to show that Heavenly Father blesses us when we make the right decisions!!! Even if the blessing is going to a theatrical production!!!

2010 CALIFORNIA STATE FAIR

So we have awesome friends and we were able to get tickets to the California State Fair for free. Our friend from the ward, Bonnie, gave us tickets for Thursday night so we went and checked out all the exhibits. It was really hot though and my feet were swelling like crazy so we cut out before the fireworks that night and went home and swam.. Needless to say the next morning my feet were back to normal. It was a beautiful site!

On Friday our friends Brent and Christina invited us to go to the fair with their friends Christy and Jeff. It was a lot of fun. We went and sat on the grass and listened to Martina McBride. She was amazing live. She has an awesome set of pipes. Even Shaun knew some of the songs thanks to his Mom's love of country music. It was fun to sing along and spend some time with friends and get to know some new people.

Shaun tried his first Fried Twinkie on Thursday and liked it.. I still can't take all the sugar. I just had my normal corn dog. I love corn dogs at the fair.. But I don't think that my baby/stomach liked it very much because my stomach pretty much hurt the rest of the night. I will never learn that my body doesn't like that fried food stuff very well.

We saw some awesome exhibits.. Shaun loved the "Get Animated" exhibit. They brought in a whole bunch of art work from various Disney movies and old Saturday morning cartoons. Shaun loved this part because it brought back memories of his childhood and watching cartoons.

We had a lot of fun at the Fair!!

Watching the concert!!

The BMX biker guys.. Shaun thought they were pretty sweet. He said it reminded him of his cousin Jordan's craziness with his motor bike. I thought they were going to land on their heads.

The sweet Toy Story 3 poster in the "Get Animated" Exhibit. Shaun tried making the face of Buzz!!

This is as close as we got to seeing Martina!! But it was still a rockin' concert. The first one that I've ever been to. Still wasn't entirely a true concert but close enough!

Our friends, Christina and Brent and their adorable baby Jett!!

Us waiting for the concert ot start.. Holding our favorite little guy at the moment!!!


Christina serenading Brent with one Martina's songs!! :-)

Kristy and Jeff.. She was doing the "I'm so in love" face!!
Jett with his big, googly eyes!!

At the end of the night!! Ahhhh so cute!!

Bodega Bay!

July 2010

So for our Fourth of July Weekend we decided we wanted to do something outdoors. We were going to go with our friends the Barnetts on a hike at Point Reyes but they just had a new baby and didn't want to over-exert the little one. (He had a long weekend). So we decided to go to Bodega Bay. Shaun really wanted to go to the beach and get in the freezing cold water. He wanted to go to Stinson Beach because that's where he used to always go with his Dad. But I convinced him to try something new. So we went to the Bay. It’s a cute little coastal town. We drove there and I read to Shaun a book called “Hunger Games” (an excellent book by the way!). When we got there we drove up Highway 1 a little and found the “perfect” beach (according to Shaun’s standards which mostly is in regards to the waves.) It turned out to be an excellent trip. We had such a blast and it was nice to relax and talk and just enjoy each other’s company. We have been so busy these last few months with school, work, and baby stuff. It’s nice to get to know my hubby again. We discussed all the vacations that we want to do with our kids in the future. A lot of camping will be in our future! I’m excited for that. Here are some pictures of our trip. Hope you enjoy them!

At Tides Wharf Restaurant. We saw one lone sea lion.. It was pretty chilly and overcast.

I can't resist the mooshy, kissy shot.. :-)

My first pregnancy shot!! BUMP!

So Shaun was all talk about how he always goes into the water no matter how cold it was but I don't think that he was expecting it to be that cold. It was pretty funny watching his face when he hit the freezing cold water.

It was overcast but the sun was making it impossible for me to keep my eyes open. It was weird!

Ahhh.. How precious!

The waves were pretty big. There were quite a few surfers out there.