Pumkin Patch Maddness

See how the kids are not looking at the camera, well that is how the whole trip went. They didn't smile for one pix at the same time. BUT besides that factor our pumkin patch trip was a lot of fun.
The kids got to feed some animals. They were so happy. I don't know what it is that fascinates my kids so much about animals, but they just get so happy when ever they see them.
This is what happens when you don't bring a stroller. All she wanted to do was run away from me. And of course Ryan was off in the other direction. They knew i needed my work out.

This is the best i could get out of Lacy. It was warm and she was hungry and there was no way she was going to smile for me.

Ryan couldn't sit still long enough to get a decent pix.

It was a lot of fun though. I'm glad the kids could run around and jump all over the hay. I wasn't too excited about Halloween this year but its getting a little funner. I don't really have a choice to not like Halloween with little kids...too bad.

Christmas is still my favorite.

Day with Dad

The kids and went to AZ this last week and left dad behind. We got home Wednesday night and Brent had Thursday and Friday off. It was so nice to spend time together. After a morning full of getting 'everything' done we decided to have some fun, so off we went to the beach. It was 85 out so we thought we better spend what little warmth we have left being outside. When we were about a mile or so from Del Mar beach it was like we drove straight into a cloud that covered to whole coast. One minute we were in the sun and it was 85 and literally within seconds it was foggy, overcast, and cold and 71. I could not believe it. I wanted it to be sunny so bad. But what can you do. We still went to the beach and had a great time. It actually warmed up a bit. Not the water though, it was stinkin cold. Ryan is the only one who got in and it was only for a min. Here are some highlights of our fun trip. The beach is not the beach with out the trusty boogie board, we just used it a little different way.
Feeding seagulls, Brent was trying to see just how close he could get them. They actually ate the food off the end of the shovel.

Lacy of course ate sand the whole time. No these are not shoelaces covered in sand, its much worse, its seaweed covered in sand. And in her mouth is the bulb thingy that she was chewing on. Yucky

Me and Lacy Lou lounging on the beach

Free Pizza Anyone???

I had an amazing experience at the grocery store the other day and i just thought i would share. So if you are every walking down an isle and there are people standing around a table they might just be doing a research study. If they are you should do it. I DID, and i got 20 bucks and a free pizza. They were doing research on the new packaging for California pizza kitchen pizzas. I just so happened to be walking down the isle when this man starts following me. At first i was a little creeped out until he asked me if i wanted to do the survey, when he mentioned i would get 10 bucks i hopped on. I have been using coupons and shopping deals lately to save money and here he was giving me ten dollars. So i thought i would fill out a questionnaire and be on my way. well not so fast. It was like i was on supermarket sweep.( for those of you who used to watch that show, i loved it) I had to walk down the pizza isle and then come back and he would ask me all these questions. Then he would tell me an item to get and then i would have to turn around and get the item as he was timing me. It was a lot of fun. Then at the end he gave me a pizza to taste and report back and then i get another ten bucks in the mail. It was alot of fun:) Oh i was so proud of myself i had to take a pix of all the groceries i got in one trip, 4 different stores, a hand full of coupons, and only a hundred dollars later. Right there is almost enough food to last two weeks or nine meals and some snacks.( If you cant see, the whole table is full.) Its quite fun to get deals and save money:)

Lacy Says

I thought i would jot down the new words Lacy says, is seems everyday there is a new word:

doggie

nighty night

baabaa

Ryan(comes out ryra)

ball

bye-bye(its not just the wave anymore)

hi

shoe(comes out shhhhhh)

This all i can think of right now. I love that she is starting to talk. I love to hear her sweet little voice. She is such a cuddly baby. She will always give me a kiss or a hug when i ask for it. She loves to dance with me to music. I just love her. Girls are so fun:)

Crazy happenings at McDonalds

So I took the kids to mcdonalds today which is a real treat because we never go there. I met my friend Jessica there with her two kids and we ended up staying for three hours. Wow! what a long time to hear kids screaming. But it was actually nice to sit and have some mommy time and the kids were great the whole time. As we were getting up to leave i called to Lacy and Ryan. A lady stopped me and asked what my kids names were. I told her and her jaw dopped open. She said she was here with her friend and her kids names were Lacy and Ryan. How bizzare is that? Her boy was older and they both had blonde hair and blue eyes. We talked for a while and just thought it was crazy. That doesn't happen too often. We both have very good taste in names :)

Cruise Vacation

IF YOU WOULD KINDLY SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM-I POSTED IT THE WRONG WAY!!!!!!(BLONDE MOMENT) Oh and My Birthday was Sunday, so Saturday night Brent told our server and they brought me cake and sang to me. Not the best pix but its the only one i have. It was a great birthday to be on a cruise for a week with my very favorite person. We had a great time. It was so nice to have a break from life. It made me appreciate being a mother. I actually missed being able to serve my kids. I missed them a lot, but it was good to leave and get rejuvenated so that i could be a better mom and wife.

Our last meal with all of our great dinner friends



Lots of hot cocoa drinking



Day 6-last day at sea





Friday was our last formal night, i got a little more dressed up, it was a fun night.

This is a pix of our favorite desert. Warm chocolate melting cake served with ice cream. It really is to die for.

So Cabo was an interesting day. We had decided the night before that we were going to meet up with some friends to go snorkeling, since we has so much fun the other day. Well when the morning came around i was not feeling good at all so i told brent to just go without me. No sense in him just sitting around with a sick wife, so he left early in the morning WITHOUT me. It was great, i slept in and woke up feeling much better. When i looked out the window though i felt sick again. It was crazy windy and stormy and i had just sent my husband out there to a place that is already known to be kind of dangerous. To top it off its not like i could call him or text him cause we couldn't use cell phones. They wouldn't let anyone off the ship and they actually sailed it back out of the harbor out to sea where it was a tad bit calmer. The winds got up to 60 miles an hour, the waves were huge, it was like a little hurricane blew in with in an hour.Finally like two hours and many prayers later Brent came back to me. They had a bit of a scare out there but they were able to get back to land before it got to its worst point. A parasailer actually died during the storm though, its so sad.

Day 5- Cabo San Lucas

This is Mazatlan. We got off the ship and you have to pay for a taxi to get you to the beach and shopping. Well it was ten dollars one way so since Brent and i were trying to not spend a fortune we decided to try to find someone who would go with us so we could split the cost. This drove the taxi drivers nuts. They would make the same whether they had 2 or 4 people but we didn't care. It was kinda funny waiting around looking for another couple who looked like they were trying to find a taxi. But after only like 5 min we saw a couple that we eat dinner with and they were totally happy to catch a ride with us. It worked out great. We ended up hanging out with them the rest of the day at Mazatlan. We went shopping, ate some really great tamales, and went swimming at the beach. I could not believe how warm the water was, but very salty. It was a great day.

Im still not sure what this is???

Day 5-Mazatlan

After our rest on the beach we went sea kiaking. It was alot of fun. I have always wanted to do it. Its nice to be out in the ocean all by yourself and you decide where you want to go.

After the waterfall fun we horse backed down the mountain to our speed boat and went to our private beach where we jumped out of the boat and snorkeled for about 45 min. That was AMAZING we had never done it before and i cant wait to do it again. We saw a ton of fish. Our guide( who was seriously amazing) caught a blow fish in his hands so we could all see it up close. He also caught a sea cucumber and i got to hold it. I screamed right at first cause it looked like a cucumber rock so i thought it would be hard and when he put it in my hand it was soft. He also found a sea urchent, a black prickily thing. After he went on and on about how dangerous they are he puts it in my hand. It was so neat to hold. After snorkeling we swam to the beach where we had a catered mexican lunch that was delish. This is our Amazing tour guide.

Brent and i had so much fun playing in the waterfall. I went under it a couple of times with him. I was crazy how hard the water is under there and once you get under it, it sweeps you away. I never got a great picture of the waterfall but it was soo beautiful.

This is at the waterfall with our friends Chase and Jen that we met on the ship. We sat at the same dinner table every night ( assigned seating- which was great, we had 3 great couples sitting with us)

Thanks to Brent parent's for paying for an excursion for our birthday presents we had the greatest time. If you are ever in puerrta viartta you have to go on the sea safari. It pretty much involves everything there is to do in 6 hours. First we took a speed boat along the shore of the city and had a quick tour of that area, we then went to this remote village where they got us up on horse back and took us up and down these beautiful mountains, i really thought i would die. It was fun but also scary there were some pretty steep parts that i think even the horses were weary about. But we ended up at this beautiful waterfall.

This is the start of our SEA EXCURSION

miniature golf on the very top of the ship. It was great fun-i won...

Froggy creation

Day 2-at sea

Here is an example of what the food looks like. They make it so pretty.

Me and my other date- he was much quieter

Our first formal night...

I chose not to go all prom dress like some choose, i was feeling more black slackesh. The formal nights are really fun because the waiters put these shows on in the dinning room where they get up and dance. Its really fun, and of course the food is really good.

This is our first night at the spectacular, its this really big auditorium where they have these amazing shows just about every night.

Here is our room, every night when we come back from dinner they have this towel creation on our bed. They are always different and so much fun.

Day 1-at sea

START OF CRUISE- 9/20/2009

The whole family together

Lacy and her amazingness

Saturday night we went to pizza. The greatest thing of all is that a while back Brent won a gift card from work for $50. Food tastes so much better when its free. It was alot of fun to go out all together.

I am not so great at posting a couple of pix of something i am so excited about so i will try to keep the words short, enjoy all the pix and our happy moments.

So to start about 6 months ago when we knew for sure that Brent would be doing summer sales again i told him that i didnt care how much money we made or didnt make we were going on a cruise. We havent been on vacation just as a couple for almost three years. That is way toooo long. So about 5 weeks ago i got on the computer looked up some cruises and booked one. Even though financially it might have been stupid i didnt care. Isnt marriage and sanity more important than money? Brents Parents are amazing and flew over for the entire week to watch the kids. They did a great job. The kids were happy to be with them. I think they got in some good bonding time since we dont see them as much as we would like. The pictures above start from the beginning.

A LOT has been going on...

PRESCHOOL

So i will start with the stuff that has happened most recently. Today was Ryan first day of preschool. It's not the normal preschool, me and two other moms in my ward are doing our own home preschool. You don't get all the advantages of sending them off to school but i love it. Today was my day to teach. I have the kids at my house every third week for two hours. I was a little nervous today that i wouldn't be able to keep them occupied and on task but they did wonderful and it was really fun for me as well. Ryan is the only boy. There are two other girls Avery and Audra. They are so sweet and they all get along so well. This months theme is 'all about me.'

So i had them make themselves as 'dolls.' I had them go look in the mirror at themselves and i helped them tell what hair color, eye color and so forth. Then i had them pick out little cut outs i made of the eyes and outfits and they glued them on. I think they turned out so cute. Ryan, Avery, Audra
Here they are doing there math project. They are separating frootloops into there different colors.



LABOR DAY

For Labor Day my Grandpa invited us to there time share at Lawrence Welk for some food and fun. It was a blast. I love spending time with him and the rest of the family.

Here are Ryan ,Lacy, and Edie( my step aunts daughter, we consider them more of our cousins since they are about our age.)

,Grandma, Edie, Brent, Lacy and Ryan

HAPPY 6 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

This is the most recent pix i can find of just Brent and i and its not even that recent.

Sunday Brent and i celebrated 6 years of marriage. I cant believe its been so long, it still feels like yesterday we were just dating. You know you have a good marriage when you like each other more now than in the beginning. Brent is my best friend. The only person who will listen to me ramble on about whatever, the only person who will put up with my moods, the only person who is there for me whenever i need him. I can't imagine life without him. I can't say enough, how grateful i am for the gospel. It seems too good to be true that i can be married to Brent forever and we can have our kids with us. I am looking forward to the rest of our life together.




RYAN

As i was bringing out a load of fresh warm laundry from the dryer i hear Ryan " ohhhh mom thank you"

I'm like what the heck is he going to fold them for me???

So i say why are you so thankful?

He says" thank you for making my jumps for me"

Typical boy, i bring out laundry to fold and he sees a jump for his cars!!

BABY JAXON

So these pix should be switched around...

But My sister Tiffanie had her baby last Monday. On Saturday i get a call that she was going into the hospital because she was sure her water broke. Well sure enough it did. Normally that would be a great thing to happen right? Well Tiffanie was only 36 weeks and her hubby was in Korea not scheduled to come home for another two weeks. So now it gets not so happy. I just couldn't sit around while My sister was having her baby almost alone. My mom was there too thank goodness. So i am thinking she is going to pop this baby out i better hurry. So Brent is at the pool with Ryan and i tell him that i am really sorry but we HAVE to go to AZ right NOW. He comes back and tries to talk some sense into me but it didn't work. In one hour we load the kids and everything we need in the car and make the 6 hour journey to AZ. I'm thinking we better hurry, she could have this baby any time. Well lets just say that 40 hours after checking into the hospital she has her baby. I got there with definitely enough time to spare. It was kind of nice to spend that time with Tiffanie and my mom. I got to walk the halls at two in the morning and eat ice chips( gotta love hospital ice:)

Jaxon David White was born at 2:30 ish in the morning. He weighed 5 lbs 13 oz

18 1/2 in long. Sadly since Tiffs water was broken so long baby got an infection and was in the nicu for about 5 days. He is home now and doing great. Josh got an early leave and was able to get home that Monday night. I taped the whole thing so he wont have to feel like he missed it. I am so happy he is here and Ryan and Lacy are excited to have another cousin.

Since Josh and Tiffanie hadn't seen each other in 7 months the nurses set up this date for them in the cafeteria. They made them food and brought out yummy cheese cake. How nice is that?

How precious

Its Finally Here

Its finally not ME having the baby in my family... My older sister Tiffanie is having her baby today. Hopefully today. She has already been at the hospital for 27 hours. She just got her epidural. So keep your fingers crossed that Baby Jaxon will make his appearance tonight. Tiffanie is a month early. Her water broke two nights ago so they had to induce her Labor. She is being a trooper. My mom and i are stepping in for Josh since he is in Korea and wont make it home for the birth. I am so sad for them that he wont be able to be there. I am glad that My mom and can be there for her. Ill post pictures after he is finally here.

Ryan and mommy time

This first pix is not mommy and Ryan time. I dropped a thing of toothpicks and then got busy. I went into the kitchen a bit latter and this is what i find. Kids are crazy.This is mommy and Ryan time. When Lacy takes her morning nap Ryan and i spend some time together. I try to do an activity with him. I tried "lessons" for a while but i don't think he was quite ready for that. So now we do projects. Today was stamping. He loved it. Our newest tradition is having hot cocoa when we do our project. ( it has to be the kind with marshmallows)
I really enjoy my time with just Ryan. He is so talented when it comes to drawing, painting, pretty much anything artistic and he loves it.

My Apartment in San Diego

So everyone has been asking for pix of the new , much smaller, Longhurst home. Well here it is. It is actually quite nice. I miss the space but i don't miss cleaning it. It takes only a couple minutes to sweep and vacuum. In the picture below- i know the wall hangings are high, but my little rascal Lacy climbs up on the couch and tries to pull everything down, so my solution was to hang everything higher. I am used to it now but it bugged me at first.
This is the little hall leading straight back to the master bedroom and then to the right is the bathroom and the laundry room/closet.To the left is Lacy's room and the door to the right is Ryan's room.

kitchen- do you see the green right out the window. it is so lovely:)

Family room

Dining room/ entry

I really miss having a house. I miss having a backyard. I miss my garage. I miss carrying groceries right into my house as opposed to up a flight of stairs, BUT i love living here in San Diego, i love our ward, i love the weather, i love having a great pool so close, and i love having less to clean. I am just so grateful that we have a place to live and Brent has a great job with a great company. I have healthy children, an amazing husband, food to eat, two cars that work great and the Gospel. I am truly blest :)