It's a ....

Well, most of you know already but for those of you who don't know, we went to the doctor on Friday and found out what we are having. Soooo, here's Natalie with a special announcement:



Thanks for voting in our poll, and those of you who voted girl, pat yourself on the back, you deserve it! Those of you who voted boy, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars.

Trunk or Treat

So last night was our primer for Halloween. Natalie was talking about going trick-or-treating all week and finally got to put on her costume and we went to the Church for our Fall Harvest party. Mom and dad dressed up too and we had a grand old time. They had carnival booths set up by the young men of the wards (there were two wards there) and they had a chili cook off and potluck dinner (dad was very disappointed with the lack of spice in the chili there, but it was still very tasty). Natalie wanted to dress as a pink poodle and the hood part was a little small so we put her hair into pony tails, and painted a nose and whiskers on her face (which she loved). Then Natalie's favorite part of the night was trunk or treating in the parking lot. She did great and always said "thank you". This is a great age because it's more about dressing up and the act of going around getting candy than actually eating the candy. Natalie hasn't even wanted to see her candy today, much less eat some. Dad even tried to share some smarties with her and she declined. All in all it was fun had by all. Whoa, say that five times fast while eating a tootsie roll.

All dressed up:
mom-disco mama, Natalie-Roxy the pink poodle, dad-Utah Jazz basketball player

The "Donut " walk

Tunk or Treating with dad

Counting up the booty!

More Fire pics

Here are some more pics of the smoke from the fires. The first one is from our porch looking northward towards the Santiago fire. The air cleared for a bit and you could see the smoke rising in the air. The second picture is from dad's studio (from the roof actually) looking west toward the ocean. For a couple of days the light was like a sunset all day. It'll make for a cool painting though...

The Raging Inferno

So for those of you who may be concerned for us, fear not we are well. It has been pretty crazy with all the fires this week burning in Southern California here. You can go to La Times and see all the news about them. We are int he middle of them all but only affected with smoke and ash. Yesterday was worse than today. Yesterday there was ash flying all around and smoke was pretty heavy even where we live. Dad went to school in Laguna Canyon and when he was done had a thin layer of dust and ash on the car. We went to the beach today as it was dad's day off, and saw some of the smoke plumes from our Church meetinghouse. There is a fire that is closer to us (that was arson started unfortunately) but the majority of the fires are far north or south into San Diego. We saw the KSL and Deseretnews was covering the fires pretty extensively and Gov Arnold (how do you even spell his last name?) has declared us a disaster and President Bush will be here on Thursday. There have been a few homes in our Stake boundaries that have been evacuated (Nearest the Santiago fire), but for the most part we are pretty safe where we are. The school is what we worry about because it's the Santa Ana winds that have been the real cause of problem for those fighting the fires. Embers get blown away and can start other fires elsewhere. The Laguna college is right next to some pretty dry brush so we have to watch it carefully. But we are fine and looking for ways to help those people out who need it more than we.

The view from our church meetinghouse looking east at the Santiago fire. You can also see the plumes of smoke from the San Diego fires from our meetinghouse as well.

A map of the fires throughout So California (the big orange and yellow parts are the fires, in case you were wondering)

And...on the lighter side of things, here's a great "Bubba" joke:

Bubba was bragging to his boss one day, “You know, I know everyone there is to
know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them. “

Tired of his boasting, his boss called his bluff, “OK, Bubba how about Tom
Cruise? “

“Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it. ” So Bubba and his
boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise’s door, and sure enough, Tom
Cruise, shouts, “Bubba! Great to see you! You and your friend come right in and
join me for lunch! “

Although impressed, Bubba’s boss is still skeptical. After they leave Cruise’s
house, he tells Bubba that he thinks Bubba’s knowing Cruise was just lucky.

“No, no, just name anyone else, ” Bubba says.

“President Bush, ” his boss quickly retorts.

“Yep, ” Bubba says, “I know him, let’s fly out to Washington. ” And off they go.
At the White House, Bush spots Bubba on the tour and motions him and his boss
over, saying, “Bubba, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but
you and your friend come on in and let’s have a cup of coffee first and catch
up. “

Well, the boss is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced.

After they leave the White House grounds, he expresses his doubts to Bubba, who
again implores him to name anyone else.

“The Pope, ” his boss replies. “Sure! ” says Bubba. “I’ve known the Pope a long
time. ” So off they fly to Rome.

Bubba and his boss are assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Bubba
says, “This will never work. I can’t catch the Pope’s eye among all these
people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I’ll
come out on the balcony with the Pope. ” And he disappears into the crowd headed
toward St. Peter’s.

Sure enough, half an hour later Bubba emerges with the Pope on the balcony. But
by the time Bubba returns, he finds that his boss has had a heart attack and is
surrounded by paramedics. Working his way to his boss’s side, Bubba asks him,
“What happened? “

His boss looks up and says, “I was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on
the balcony and the Japanese tourist next to me asked, “Who’s that on the
balcony with Bubba?"

Crystal Cove

Here we are on dad's day off from school, going to Crystal Cove beach. We haven't gone to the beach for a while and we decided to go. It was a lovely day, very warm, and very smokey. We went and ate lunch and looked at the tide pools. It's amazing the life that can exist in these small pools of ocean. You could sit out there for hours and watch these little creatures. Natalie really enjoyed herself, as did mom and dad. Natalie's favorite part though was riding the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the beach area.

The light at the end of the tunnel

Last week we went for a hike with the one hour that we have when we are all together, and we got to talk down this really cool tunnel to the lake. Natalie loves to wear her "running shoes" and loved to run through this tunnel (As a side note, on fast Sunday Natalie tried to feed me some goldfish crackers in Sacrament meeting and I told her I couldn't because I was fasting. So the other day she took off running in her "running shoes" and said out loud, " I'm fasting dad look at me I'm fasting!") This was a great walk together and helps us appreciate the moments we have together, what with school and work and everything taking dad's time away from family.

Monkeys on the bed

One of things Natalie loves (as do most kids) is to jump on mom and dad's bed in the morning as we are getting ready. Inevitably it leads to the monkey-on-the-bed syndrome and Natalie cracks her noggin on the wall. Well this day was more coconut sounding than most and she needed a little extra love. Well she wanted a band-aid (the fix-all at this age) adn we didn't have any wrap laying around and then...ta-dum! dad had just finished trimming a canvas for a painting and had the perfect amount of "band-aid" for a sore head. It appeased her and she walked around all morning until it fell off and she said, " it's all better now!"

Natalie being Natalie

Natalie is really growing and learning many new things. She loves to have friends come over and go to friend's houses. She can make all sorts of funny faces, and say all sorts of new things everyday. Mom is teaching her so many things and she just soaks things up like a sponge. (She soaks up all the things you don't want her to know about too) Her favorite thing to do right now is ask if you are happy, and then kiss you on the face a couple of times and say," You're happy now?" How can you cay no?

Natalie's friend and partner in joy-schooling , Olivia.
They are well behaved girls and love to play with each other.

Natalie's aerobics

Natalie loves to work out with mom in the mornings when she does aerobics from a video tape. She will stretch out and then jump into the work out. Her latest thing is making up new dances. She always says, "Watch me! Watch my dance!" She's got some pretty good moves too.

The Hand of the Lord

This last week was a testament to the hand of the Lord in our lives. Basically everything that has transpired for us to move out to California has been the workings of the Lord. Financially I don't know how we could have done it by ourselves, it doesn't add up. And when we are hurting something manages to come up right when we need to give us a cushion. What I'm saying is we didn't do this by ourselves, we had some divine help. Another great blessing this last weekend was the Brewery Artwalk. The Brewery is a community of artists that live in LA at this place that used to be a brewery. They converted it into artist's studio/living spaces and over 300 artists live there. Laguna College of Art and Design has a space there for school usage, and twice a year the Brewery has an Artwalk (this being a time when people can come to see the artist's studios and buy work directly from the artist, as opposed to going to a gallery to do so; as well these two designated times being the only times the Brewery association allows artists to sell their work) So the MFA students are allowed to sell work their not related to their thesis projects. I have a lot of paintings not related since I just started out this semester. I was able to sell 5 of my 9 paintings in the two days of the artwalk. Not to boast (something about pride going before something) but I sold the most work of all the other students. It made me feel good (and Mary was happy) and it enabled us to have a little more breathing room financially. I also made some more sales over the internet this week following the show. Blessings! I am humbled to know that Heavenly Father is watching out for this little family here in the OC. It's also nice to know that people wanted to buy my artwork, that's always a confidence booster.

When dad's at home...

Sooo, after being at school all week and painting his brains out, daddy comes home and relaxes by...drawing on the computer. It's probably because the subject matter is so inviting. Natalie is really growing into a cute little girl (with pink bear in tow). It pleased Natalie to see dad's drawing and she wanted everyone else to see it. It's strange being an artist sometimes.

The funny swing

So we love to go to the parks here, even though they tend to be too far to walk. They are definitely different than what we are used to. They have rubber grounds that are sort of bouncy, but Natalie was sad at first because she likes to play with the wood chips or sand. Then the playgrounds here are all brown and green and dark colors. I suppose that people don't want bright green and purple eyesores in the middle of their well manicured paradise. Anyways, then they have these really weird swings that look like they were taken out of a space ship. You figure, they're way to big for a baby of toddler (you can see how small Natalie looks in the picture) and bigger kids want to swing on the regular swings. So who does that leave...MOM! It's perfect for mommy to swing nice and comfortable, except....when she has an ever increasing belly. Other than that it's perfect!

More You Tube Goodness

Here's another youtube favorite. This is for everyone who grew up in the 80's playing Super Mario Bros. It's a long one so watch as much as you want. Enjoy!

People with funny talents