goin goin back back to cali cali

So DJ and I have decided to hit the road. We are making a quick to Ventura tomorrow. We'll leave after school and come home Sunday night. Super short trip but we are excited. I wish we had more time I want to see everyone and everything. But we will get to be there at least and at last!! I don't think the kids and I have been back in nearly 3 years! Much to long so hopefully our next trip will be longer but we are excited to see DJ's family.

While we are there I want to go the beach (no brainer), Aroyo Verde Park, drive up La Canada canyon, Indulge in the farmers market and wonder down Main street. aghhh the harbor and my favorite little drive I used to talk to work by the strawberry feilds and fenando's flowers.
Eat... Snapper Jacks, Marshals, The habit, and stake and hoggie. This could go on and on. I guess Ventura was a very special place to me. We had so many little places, drives and sceanes that hold a very special place in my heart.
I am so excited!

Photos of Tubac

Tubac

My Mom called a week ago and said we are going to Tubac wanna go? YES!! Tubac is a little artist shopping type town south of Tucson. There is a little shop there my Mom likes to go and buy pots and hanging stuff. It is fun and very pretty. However, my favorite part is a little ranch on the east side of the town. They have a Llama, horses, cows and raise sheep dogs. We like to go and see the animals. This time they had a burro and a pot bellied pig. It was fun. We then went to the little park and took an nature adventure walk. It was a beautiful day!

DJ

So I am always amazed how much a smarty pants DJ is and how he never gives himself credit. But, I do think he is finally realizing it. He got some books a week or so ago and read them took the Pharmacy tech license test yesterday and passed. The guys at the pharmacy that he did his shadow program with where amazed. They said that they had people at the pharmacy that worked there for years try to take it and couldn't pass so the eventually chose different work paths. He just absorbs information. I find it amazing because I can't do that. I am excited for his new career path and now he just has to get a job. But that is in the works. He'll get him certificate next week in the mail. yea!

It is official

I figure since I am telling pretty much everyone I talk to I would formally announce that I am pregnant with number 3. We are due August 8... although I wouldn't count on that. I usually run a week or so over. We are very excited and don't care what we get this time. I am prepared for both. I am doing fairly well this time. I think I get a little better with each pregnancy. Not that I feel like a million bucks but I am surviving ha ha.
Anyway I'll keep you all posted. Lucas and Eden are both excited. Lucas wants a brother and I think Eden will be happy just to have a baby to take care of. She is such a little Mommy. DJ is also excited. He is taking his Pharmacy tech test today so keep a prayer in your heart for him.

Happy New Year

Happy 2009!
Resolutions
1. Get out more
2. Weekly Family Home Evenings (get out and use my chart)
3. Daily Scripture study alone and as a family
4.Keep my house clean
5. Walk everyday
6.Read more to my kids yes more
7. Play more games with my kids
8. OK just do more daily activities with the little people

Anyway there it is, also on another note and not another post. Eden went to her fist day of Primary today. That's right she is a sunbeam. She even said the closing prayer. Very sweet. I am excited about this year in primary. Our theme is The Eternal Family and we are learning some beautiful songs. It should be a great year!

Another thing to think about at Christmas time

Christmas Night, 1776 by Newt Gingrich (more by this author) Posted 12/23/2008 ET On Christmas Day, 1776, nearly all thought the Revolution was lost, except for a valiant few who still believed in “The Cause.” We owe our liberty today to those valiant few. Led by George Washington, most of his army, dressed in rags and barefoot, faced a winter gale of rain, sleet, ice and snow. This band of patriots braved a midnight river crossing and a nine mile march over frozen roads to win a spectacular victory at Trenton, New Jersey, the following morning. Those were indeed times, as Thomas Paine would write, that “try men’s souls.” In a season that has become too commercialized and -- worse yet -- had much of its religious meaning driven from the public square, Washington’s Christmas crossing is a story that should be remembered and celebrated, this Christmas and every Christmas. Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, to be with family and friends, and, I would add, to give thanks to God for those who endured so much on that Christmas night, 232 years ago. Coming Next Year: Washington’s Crossing Told In Christmas Night Historian Bill Forstchen and I have started another book which will attempt to give Washington and his men’s sacrifice that Christmas night its proper place in American history. Bill and I have co-authored two “active history” series across the last six years: the “Gettysburg” trilogy which speculates as to what might have happened if General Robert E. Lee had triumphed at Gettysburg, and our “Pacific War,” series with two volumes out so far. More than a decade ago Bill and I considered writing a novel about our American Revolution, but other projects led us away from that idea. This summer our editor with St. Martin’s Press, Pete Wolverton, urged us to consider the topic of our Revolution, and thus we have started on a two book project. The working title for the first book is Christmas Night, which will be published just before Christmas of next year. A Heroic Moment in Our History and the Man Who Lived It Bill has commented more than once that writing about Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Admirals Halsey and Yamamoto was of course challenging but writing about George Washington is something complete different and more than a little daunting. Pulitzer Prize winning historian Joseph Ellis openly discusses this in his exceptional work, His Excellency George Washington. Our first president, Ellis writes, has always seemed somewhat remote and larger than life. It is hard to imagine him with shoes off, feet up on a bench by a fire, sharing a good joke, the way we can so easily picture Lincoln. A Do or Die Mission on a Brutal Winter Night Yet there is so much that is alive and dynamic about Washington. And if ever there is a truly epic, heroic moment in our national story, it is when he boarded a small boat, in the midst of a driving winter storm, and crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Night of 1776 with his exhausted, ragged army of little more than 2,000 men in a do or die mission. Another Pulitzer winner, David Hackett Fischer, in his brilliant Washington’s Crossing, gives us one of the best traditional historical studies of this incredible moment in American history, a book that was truly worthy of a Pulitzer and one that both Bill and I highly recommend as a great Christmas read for this year. Getting “Inside” the Mind of George Washington Bill and I are both trained historians. But we love historical fiction. We both see historical fiction, such as the works of C. S. Forester, Kenneth Roberts and Steven Pressfield, as a fascinating way to get “inside” the lives and minds of those who shaped history. Our forthcoming novels about the Revolution will of course face that daunting task of “getting inside” George Washington and we hope we can do him credit. Hopefully, a year from now you will be interested in reading our book about that Christmas Night. And for our fans of the Pacific War series, we’re taking only a short break from the tale of Halsey and Yamamoto but will resume it as soon as our two books about Washington are completed. When You Start to Feel You Have Nothing to Be Thankful For, Remember that Night in 1776 America is not without its problems this holiday season. Our economy has taken the worst battering in nearly eighty years and enemies abroad still seek our destruction. But when we start to feel like we have nothing to be thankful for, we should think back to the Christmas of 1776. George Washington and those who crossed the Delaware with him had a clear vision of the future. They were willing to pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, on their actions that night. As you and your family celebrate the holidays, please take a moment to reflect and offer a prayer of thanks for those who risked all for the freedoms we enjoy today. And as always, keep in your prayers those, who on Christmas night and during the celebration of Hanukkah, will stand silent vigil on distant fronts to insure our safety and freedom. Merry Christmas. Your friend,