What in the world is there to do in Stockton California?

The Jelly Belly Factory is so fun, if you are ever in the area it is defiantly worth visiting. Its a free tour that shows you how the candy is made and in the end they give you a free bag. Love It.
We also met daddy and his co-workers for dinner:)
Stockton has an amazing children's museum. This was the girls sitting in a old barber chair. Here is Hayley taking Aubree in. They had a lot of fun in the police car, firetruck, and helicopter. (I have too many pictures to show them all.

While waiting to go to dinner with friends we found the best park ever. It had a huge pirate ship, a huge tikki fort, and much much more. While up there we were able to see our dear friends the Valdez' however somehow I don't have a picture of it? What? oops!

After being nervous of what we will do all day while daddy works, we are excited to go again next year.

its got to be a guy thing

Growing up my dad had a pet peeve and I am sure he still does for crumbs in the bed. Well as it turns out Eli has the same one, he hates them. Sometimes if Aubree decides that she is ready to get up before an unheard of hour, I get her some cereal in a bag or some crackers to eat next to me so I can sleep and she doesn't wake Hayley. Aubree calls this her morning snack, if you ask her if she is ready for breakfast that early she will say, "no just a snack". Usually a few crumbs don't bother me, I can brush them out and not think twice about it. Well this particular morning I would have to agree with the men in my life because this was ridiculous. I am not sure what happened but somehow the cereal went everywhere. Needless to say we had to vacuum the sheets and then shake them really well. I don't understand what happened because if you look at the bag of cereal it still looks full. Makes you wonder where all the extra cereal came from.

Forth of July

Ever since we have lived in our sweet city, we have gone to the 4th of July Parade. It is very eventful to say the least. We have entrees like most cities that are City Council members and the high school marching band, but we also have protesters, religious groups quoting scripture hoping to inspire or maybe even guilt people into joining but the best entree this year had to be:Yep, you are correct that is President Abe Lincoln in the flesh, or rather rubber. I am not sure why his wife ( I assume its Mrs. Lincoln) has no legs and is much smaller. A man who has some type of balloon animal company entered a few of these with some smaller group of walkers, as a way to get clients. I have to say if I could think of a reason to need a bigger than most building Honest Abe, I would get one.

*as a side note, I made the girls shirts the night before at 11 o'clock. It was so frustrating because the woman at the store sold me interfacing (used to make cloth stiff) when I asked for heat and bond (used to bond fabrics together). So because I was procrastinating I had to sew on the stars, harder than I thought it would have been. All in all I was happy with the way they turned out.

Goals

As most people in the world, I too every year set goals to accomplish for the upcoming year. I have a very task oriented personality, if there are multiple things I need to get done I make a list and cross things off after they are accomplished. I love to see the list get smaller and smaller. I also am one who likes to start projects but not so great in the finishing them department.

Here are just a few projects I wanted to get done this 2009 year:

Finish our wedding scrapbook (we've been married 6 years in January)
With our wedding invites we got a computer program that creates a nice book, all you have to do is fill in the info
Eli's childhood scrap book (started before Aubs was born)
Strip, prime, and repaint a child size desk chair (started yearly this year)
Organize all scrapbook stuff (if you ask Eli he would tell you I have way too much)
I have about a dozen craft projects I have bought the supplies for and haven't finished.

Now to add to the list:
Catch up on blog, I have a really good excuse. Because I was taking so many pictures due to the blog, I was always filling up my camera's memory card. So Eli got me one that hold 1G of memory( lots of pictures). The only problem is I filled it up while at my moms house and so she loaned me a smaller one so I could continue to take pictures. We when we got home, I misplaced my huge memory card and just barely found it.

So get ready and watch out.

Sisters

I am so greatful that my daughters are such good friends. They really look out for each other and have a good time together.
A couple of months ago my sister moved a mile and a half away from me. I am also glad that me and my sister are such good friends and we too look out for each other. She always has my back. I am also very fortunate to have my sister-law( I hate to use this title, she is my sister) live about 30 min away. We too are great friends, she is someone I feel I could call on no matter what and she is always willing to help no matter how random it maybe. This is Andrea my sister-in-law(titles, ugh). She is a huge example to me of how to support a husband. She is married to Eli's oldest brother, he is serving for the United States Army. Sometimes when Eli is traveling for a week I get down and frustrated and then I think of her, her hubby is gone for years at a time. Andrea and I have a great relationship that never seems to skip a beat even if we don't see each other for more than a couple of weeks a year( if were lucky)I am very excited to be getting two new sisters, both my brother and brother-in-law are getting married very soon:

This is Eli's brother Luke and his fiance Whitney. They are getting married January 2, 2010

This is my brother Trey and his fiance Hope. They are getting married October 29, 2009.


There are very few things in life that are has neat as sisters. As woman in the church we are surrounded by sisters some of whom don't have any sisters or sisters-in laws all they have are the sisters whom they sit by every week. These sisters can be as close and important to us as any other sister we may have. Sometimes we are the only sister they may have. Maybe think about this next time you walk into church and see a sister who maybe needs a simple sister to sister moment.

What a difference a year makes.

This was after the 4th of July parade. Exactly one year after one of our very first family pictures. This was last year:I can not believe what a difference a year makes, it goes by so fast.

I know I know

I have completely given up on my blog. Life got a little crazy and it was always on the bottom of the TO DO list. This is more ironic because I am an amazing blog stalker, and it frustrates me to no end when I go to read a blog and it hasn't been updated. So I vow to catch up on my blog, if not for you for me.