We are coming home!

*A little preview of family pictures that we got taken, will post more later...
So Steve had to work Monday, Tuesday and a couple hours today. He had a couple different options of how we could make this work since he knew I needed to be at my parents for Thanksgiving. I chose the option of driving 6 hours on Sunday, leaving Joe with my parents, staying in Arizona Monday, Tuesday and driving back to Valencia on Wednesday. The point of me coming was to look at houses, kind of get a feel for the area, and relax....I have done A LOT of relaxing...It has been wonderful, the resort is absolutely beautiful. It is a very different feel from San Francisco. San Francisco was very professional and the hotel catered to huge groups like Google and Oracle and this resort is all about the guests. Monday afternoon I got to go with Steve, Kevin (Director of Finance), and Ralph (General Manager) to lunch at the spa. I cannot wait to have a day at the spa, or even an hour at the spa :) Lunch was so yummy, I had this shrimp pesto pasta thing with a raspberry rose cooler. I walked around with Steve to get a feel for the resort and then relaxed in the room. Monday night we met up with our friends, Ben, Heather, Kena and Benson for dinner. It was fun and it was hard to believe that 6 weeks have gone by since they moved here. Tuesday, once again I relaxed and then went to dinner with Steve at this outside area they have here. There are lots of chairs, sofas, fire pits, and a band playing. Such a pretty night, great food, excellent dessert. This morning I got french toast for breakfast which was another treat, and now we are getting ready to go see our boy. We are so lucky that Marriott is putting us up with such a sweet deal. We have 2 connecting hotel rooms, funny that Joe has his own, and they are double or triple the size of our apartment.
Joe, on the other hand, is having the time of his life with his Grandma...He will not talk to me on the phone, my mom puts the phone up to his ear and he says "Grandma" with as much enthusiasm as he possibly can. Well that didn't take too long for her to replace me! He's somewhat used to his dad being gone, so he will talk to him. The first night we were gone he woke up at 2, 4, and 6:30 for good. Anyone who knows Joe knows that is insane for him to be up that early! The second night, my parents automatically woke up at 2 and waited for him to wake up. My dad turned on the golf channel, preparing for his window of sleep to be interrupted and Joe proved them wrong sleeping until 7! I'm sure they didn't wait up too long, but the fact that they woke up expecting him to wake up, made me laugh.
Thanks so much mom, dad, Chelsea, Ben, JK, Ben, & Dan (he did tell me that you taught him vroom vroom yesterday) for taking care of him while we took a little getaway. I know that he couldn't have been in better hands and that is probably why I was able to go. Sorry mom if the kid's energy has exhausted you, but that's what you get for being the most awesome mother ever!

Last Girls Night

The thing I will most in San Francisco are the friends that we made. I feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people. My friend, Hillary, put together a dinner at Left at Albuquerque for me. She had a baby 6 days earlier, and was still able to get this together. I love her! Thanks to everyone who was able to make it on such short notice. It was a fun night with yummy yummy food. Love you girls!

Joe's hello to Will and goodbye to Sarah

Gotta love modern day technology...
Poor Joe is going to miss all of his friends so much. He loves Sarah, loves to play with her, loves to pull her hair, loves to fight over toys, loves to kiss her, loves to eat with her, and most of all loves to share precious moments with her like this one where they babble and laugh and understand each other.

Thank you baby Will for coming 11 days early so that our family could meet you! We have been super excited for your arrival and were hoping we wouldn't miss it by just a couple of days.

You are such a cute little peanut, welcome to the world! xoxo

We will miss you Hilly, Roges, Seerah, and baby Wull!

I'm a big girl now...

As most of you know, I am a baby when it comes to even thinking of staying by myself. I have never stayed home alone...If Steve has had to go somewhere, I have rushed home to my mama and papa, or once I forced Chelsea to come stay with me and baby Joe (Franklin) as Chelsea liked to call him. Well Steve needed to fly to Arizona for lets say um roughly 192 hours. AH! What is a girl to do?! I of course would have loved to go home, but with the move so close and wanting to have some more time with friends I opted to stay here and try to take care of Joe and I...I begged Chelsea and Grandma to come, but both have TONS of stuff going on during this time. Surprisingly enough we have done ok. We have had a party every day. We have played lots with Seerah (Sarah), Hilly (Hillary), Roges (Roger), & Kenzie(both Kenzie and Kenzie's mom, Stephanie is too hard to say). Last night we stayed up until 12:30 and watched August Rush, yes Joe watched the whole thing and even clapped when there was applause. We both got in our jammies and cuddled on the couch. Tonight our party included watching Toy Story and eating pretzels. Joe deserved a medal for today. He went with me to a friends baby shower dinner and sat in a high chair or big boy chair for the 2 hours we were there! There were no other kids and yes he did need attention, but I couldn't believe he lasted in a grown up restaurant, I was extremely proud. I know I am biased but when my friend Kristen walked in, Joe started saying Uke, Uke (Luke) wondering where Kristen's son was...Impressive since we don't see them all too often. Then to Mithona it was Eav, Eav wondering where her cute little girl was...Impressive as well since we have hung out with Eav just a couple times.

Lovey love! I love you! Thanks for being such a good buddy to me the past couple days. It has been very fun to just be a mom and only worry about you and playing kiddy things...Tomorrow let's make the bed and actually make dinner and do dishes and tidy up, maybe :)

See he loves just having 100% attention on him...Some of my favorite things he says (which are pretty much everything he says) are: noyce (nice surfer style), I'm cowbee Joe (cowboy Joe), I'm funny, bus, daddy, airplane, train, tractor, big truck, motorcycle, cow, horsie, ducky, Grandma, Grandpa, Chelsea, Bee (Ben), JK, Jamie (he has this funny thing with Jamie Krommenhoek, maybe it's because he knows she is too nice and will let him be in control when she babysits), booty (pirate's booty), shark, froo snack (fruit snack), prayer, and the list could go on and on...He talks a lot during the day. I love it when he occasionally puts his little arm around my neck and kisses me on the cheek. A couple mornings ago I was blow drying my hair and my head was flipped over, he walked in and moved my hair and kissed my cheek and said hi mom. Joe you are the sweetest, don't change. Always love your mom

Now that I've gone on and on about how fun the past few days have gone, will my sexy other half please come back! I've proven that I can do it, but we want you home. So hurry up with the training stuff and get on the airplane. I missed teasing you about the football games on today and didn't know what to even watch on a Saturday. I didn't even have to put up a fight to rent August Rush. The bed is cold. I'm running out of energy and am only half way there. Joe needs someone to really wrestle with, he was trying to take a purse with him when we left today. I guess I can take out the trash by myself. Thank you for not choosing a job that makes you travel, I couldn't have handled it. Life is so much easier with your help. Thanks for being the sweet, motivated, gentle man that you are. As Joe would say it, daddy hold you hold you...We miss you! Steve, you are hot!jgjgjdfgkxkkdlkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkoidijdsiskiiidskeeeehet ee love you dad-Joe

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! On Friday, we picked dad up from work and went to Kohl's and had an excellent dinner at BJ's...We were waiting for our church party on Saturday to trick or treat. Since there are mainly apartments in San Francisco, there are only a couple streets with houses that actually hand out candy that we know of. We decided to opt out to the big crowds and wet weather.
This was the before the party face when I was dressing Joe. He loved his costume when we bought it, but not so much when it was time to wear it. I told him I was leaving him if he didn't put it on. He pretty much jumped inside but still was whining.

O weird, the second he got into the hang of things, he couldn't get enough, we were even able to put a cowboy hat on him. I think the legs of the costume look so funny, like he's a little midget.

Cute cowboy Joe! When he got home, he just kept saying I cowboy Joe. He called his grandma's and grandpa's and his Auntie Chels and said I cowboy Joe. It helps that his favorite book right now is about cowboy Joe going to the rodeo.

We held the reigns to the horse, since he is too young to do the whole gallop thing and when we weren't holding this was how the horse was resting. :)

Joe and Kenzie getting their sugar high and Kenzie taking care of the horse. They had so much fun getting candy and getting to pick it out themselves.

Cowboy Joe and his proud parents. Fun Halloween for us, we are absolutely loving this stage! Don't grow up Joe!

Some Prop 8 stuff! I look absolutely horrible in this picture, but I guess that is what happens when you are up at the crack of dawn in the rainy cold weather walking for a good cause. This is me with my friends, Jamie and Courtney getting ready to put some flyers on doors. I was so thrilled to get to go out with Steve and get some work done. I can only hope for the best. Oddly enough, I have lost a few good friends because of this. I have found it weird that while I have sent nice text messages or emails, just plainly saying please vote yes on 8, that people who I thought were my friends have written back and really let me have it, as far as to say, never talk to me again...What happened to freedom of speech people? Please yes on 8! Happy voting!

Pumpkin carving

We had a lot of fun decorating our pumpkins...Joe and I did the little pumpkins, dad did the big one. I know, my drawings look great, but it is a little hard to draw a face when your kid is trying to draw too and moving the pumpkin all over. All in all fun family home evening.

Such a cutie, couldn't get in a comfortable position to color his "pumky"

He loved this pumpkin until dad cut it open and scary stuff came out of it! He wouldn't touch or help or get close, I guess it made it seem alive or something.

Lemos Pumpkin Patch

I was soooo excited to go to a pumpkin patch with Joe. I kept bugging my friend Hillary & her daughter Sarah to come with us. The night before we went, I was so excited I could barely sleep. Pony rides, train rides, pumpkins and a petting zoo! Awesome! I couldn't wait to see how Joe would act around all the animals and activities.
This picture was at the end of the day and Joe was having a heart to heart with the ponies. They were at a good distance.

This was Joe's favorite goat in the pen for 2 reasons: 1, it didn't try to mall him for food, and 2 it kept copying where Joe was looking. I wonder what they are looking at.

Pretty mellow goat, just like my son is starting to become. Yes he does have his moments, but he is pretty good at following me and just going with the flow. O yes, he hated actually feeding the goats and would make his arm go stiff so that the food would fall all over the ground.

Sarah and Joe waiting so patiently for the choo choo train on a rocking horse.

Still waiting for the choo choo train I decided to try and get a couple of pictures. I found out that if I tossed hay at my child he would smile and laugh uncontrollably. So if you see a family photo of us and some object is flying through the background, it's only so we can get a smile out of Joe :)

I love this boy so much, I really enjoy the toddler stage when they start to find their words. A couple days ago in the car on the way to get Steve we had a little conversation that went like this:

Joe: Hi mom!
Me: Hi baby!

Joe: Mama, hand

Me: Does your hand have an ouchie?
Joe: No, hand

Me: Do you want me to hold your hand?
Joe: Yes, hand

And that was it, driving down Mission St with my arm twisted to hold his little hand I thought this is what my mom has meant when she said, "life gets no better than this." He held my hand the whole way to get Steve and if I started to adjust he would patiently take my hand and get the perfect hand hold before getting comfortable again.

Never did I think 50 cent rides at the mall would be amazing, or that a pumpkin patch would be so exciting, or that the first time down a big twirly slide would be like conquering the world, but I guess when you are seeing it with your own child, it does mean everything.

Joe really likes reading about horsie's and saying neigh, so of course I thought he would love riding the pony. He liked talking about it and waiting to ride, but that was the extent of it. Getting all buckled in, you can tell he is rethinking this big boy pony thing.

One time around the circle, if you notice his hands are in his lap, he refused to hold onto the reins/saddle, but he is still acting content. When I got his attention for a picture, the eyes started to water, lip started to quiver, but still no crying...tough boy, then he tried leaning off the pony. Hillary and I tried to reaffirm him and luckily the worker took him off soon after. I was very proud, that has got to be kind of scary for a baby, and he did way way better than he did with Santa Claus, so I couldn't be any more proud.

Thanks Hillary and Sarah for the company! We love you guys!

*****************Can someone tell me how to get my picture centered at the top? That will bug me so bad if I can't get it figured out!

Happy Birthday Honey!

I'm behind...Saturday was Steve's 27th birthday! I don't know who was more excited me or myself...Steve was so great he let me pick what we got to do for his birthday. I chose driving to Monterey to go to the fabulous aquarium followed by dinner and dippin dots.
Joe absolutely loved the sharks and the fishies.

And he wanted to touch all of the fish, unfortunately the sting rays had been touched enough for the day and would not come close enough to the surface to be touched. I almost dunked my poor son under the water not realizing how deep the sting ray actually was.

There were lots of fun kid things to do and of course Joe had to stop at the bus thing for a minute. It was great to have a family day and evening. Joe was hilarious at dinner, he didn't have a nap and he was pretty much falling asleep on his plate. He's such a sweetheart. I love showing him new things and doing kid things. I love that Steve let us go down there on his birthday. He is such a wonderful husband and dad. He takes great care to mine and Joe's needs. He is such a hard worker and we are crazy about him. Happy Birthday Steve!

Fun time with friends

The Discovery Bay Museum reopened and I decided that if my friend Stephanie who is very sick and pregnant could go, I would drag myself over the Golden Gate Bridge and go...Ok, I actually like the museum and I love the beautiful bridge, but driving over it would be a different story. My friend Tami and I have the same feeling about the bridge...don't drive all the way to the right side, too close to the water, don't drive all the way to the left side, too close to other cars, stay in the middle and get over it!
First time Joe actually tried climbing in the water, had to document it. He never likes to play with the "shishy's" (fish) but today he wanted to get in with them.

This was a bird that almost nailed Joe in the face as it was trying to fly away from another kid...o and it was eating Joe and Kenzie's trail mix. I think Joe was silently giving it a piece of his mind.

As if I hadn't worn Stephanie out the day before, I talked her into going to Target with me, Joe and Sarah. Sarah's mom had a doctor appointment and I was desperate to find these Hershey Kisses that are pumpkin spice...Still can't find them...so Stephanie shopped and I played with the kids at this little playplace...Joe loves helicocters

We then took the kids to Burger King, and the looks we got when we walked in were hilarious. The whole restaurant went silent. I mean you have Stephanie 20 weeks pregnant, me, and the 3 kids...o a couple Target bags and a gate. We must have looked like quite the sight. We dropped into Old Navy which is where we took this picture. Poor Sarah wanted Joe out of the way, she was in no mood to squish or cuddle. Three cute kids, one fun filled afternoon, thanks Stephanie!

I love how peaceful sleeping babies look! Joe sleeps like his dad either folds his arms or puts his hands behind his head. When did my baby become a toddler?

Our next destination is...

ARIZONA! Some of you may know that Steve was nearing a promotion. We had a couple places in mind and Scottsdale, AZ took precedence. We are super excited to be starting on a new adventure and will be moving sometime in the next month. While we are very sad to be moving away from such wonderful people, we are excited to have this chance! I will have a washer & dryer! San Francisco has been such an amazing place to live in and I am going to miss it a ton. Thanks to everyone who has made it so great! Thanks to everyone that has visited us and explored with us! We are so grateful that our Father in Heaven allowed us this opportunity and is allowing us this next one! We are happy that we will be somewhat close to both of our families, and I'm assuming that since my husband is now working at a resort that has 2 18 hole golf courses my daddy will be coming to visit more!