Pollination Season

Jason started working for Miller Honey close to the beginning of pollination season, which is a pretty busy time.  He has been working a lot with the bees they have pollinating the almond orchard in Chico, CA which is about 2-2 1/2 hours from here.  So most weeks since he started he has spent 1-2 nights a week up there.  A couple of weeks ago he was gone an entire week.  They have recently loaded the bees from Chico up and shipped them to Washington to pollinate the apples, so his Chico time is almost done.  The boys and I have kept pretty busy while Jason is away.  I am so thankful to be close to family and to have made so many nice friends here.  It has made this transition not bad at all.  They are starting nuking, which is splitting the hives and placing queens in the new hives.  It is also a very busy time since they have to get the queens in before the bees swarm or the queen hatches.  We will be heading to North Dakota in May.  Crazy, crazy.  Jason is really liking it all so far.  He sometimes wishes he knew more (he worked in the bees during high school, but lets face it that was a LONG time ago), but he is learning quickly.  

Jason working with the bees.  He got his new suit and has not had nearly as many stings :)

Here are some of the things we have been up to lately.  I wish I was as good at taking pictures everywhere like I use to be, but it just doesn't happen.  Our friends Jeff and Kelly made their annual trip to the beach house a couple of weeks ago.  Normally we go down and spend a day or two with them but this time Jason was out of town and I didn't feel like driving down there with the boys by myself.  But when they said the were going to SF one day, I jumped at the opportunity to meet them there.  I love SF and hadn't been there in a while.  The friends they were with had never been so we took them to do a lot of the touristy things. I hardly took any pictures, but here is what I did take.

We ate at The Crepe House.  I had never been there.  It was pretty good.  As you can see it was the most beautiful day.

 After lunch we drove down Lombard Street.

At Alamo Square park.  Behind us are the "Pink Ladies" aka the Full House houses.

Ollie being goofy.
We also went to the Golden Gate Bridge (which was covered in fog by the time we got there), Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39.  It was a really fun day.

I have done a lot more decorating in the house.  This does not come easily to me, but I am trying. 

I got this beauty, a picture taken by our friend Paul when we were camping last year, and it is now hanging above our fireplace.  I love it.

We welcomed the first girl baby in the family, baby Taylor.  She looks like the sweetest little thing and I just can't wait to hold her.  Doesn't Michelle look good for just giving birth?

We got to spend time with Jason's friend Lucy while she was in town.  We went and saw Some Fear None perform again.  It was a lot of fun.

 We have been getting a lot of much needed rain lately.  When it is not raining we make sure to get out and enjoy the sun.  Here are a couple of pics of the boys at a fun park we discovered in Roseville.

We have visited my grandparents a lot.  My grandpa had his foot amputated, due to his diabetes.  We try to get over there and take dinner once a week or so.  

Ollie really likes the wheel chair.  I think wheel chairs are fun if you don't HAVE to use them. 

This may seem like a silly thing to blog about, but I finally perfected my rolls last Sunday.  I was SO excited.   Homemade rolls are a lot of work and so when they don't turn out perfectly it can be sad.  These were awesome!  I'm going to try again today to make sure it wasn't a fluke :)

This little incident happened the other night, Ollie stuck his finger in one of the holes in the parmesan cheese lid and got it pretty stuck. It was very traumatic for him.  Jason thought he might have to cut it off, but with a little soap and one good yank it came right off.  We ate dinner right afterward and it was really sweet because in Ollies dinner prayer he thanked Heavenly Father that "mommy got his finger out of the cheese thing".  

Ollie is seeming so grown up lately.  Every morning I tell him to go get dressed and he runs upstairs picks his clothes out and puts them on all on his own.  He even matches most of the time.  He loves being independent and wants to do everything "by myself".  I have tried encouraging this independence by letting him help me unload the dishwasher and having him be in charge of cleaning up the playroom each night.  Sometimes it is frustrating when he wants to do things when it would be so much easier for me to do it, but I am trying my best to allow him that autonomy.  He really is a sweet kid and can be so nice to Max.  I love listening to them play and interact.  They are really starting to enjoy each other a lot and I hope they will grow to be best friends.

Then there is Max.  I just love this little guy.  He just turned 18 months.  He is only saying 3-4 words.  One of them being "Yeesh", the word he says for everything.  I wish he would talk since he knows what he wants and if he could just communicate it we would all be much happier, but I am not too worried.  I think he will decide one day that he is ready and that will be it.  He is also pretty clingy.  Much more so than Ollie ever was (maybe it is because I worked more when Ollie was younger).  He has yet to make it all the way through nursery and the other night when I left him with a babysitter he kept going to the garage door and crying for mommy.  I am glad he loves me but really wanting to break the clinginess.  Max has the cutest face and the darkest brown eyes you have ever seen.  Everywhere we go we get comments on his dark eyes.  He really is adorable.  What can I say?  I love my boys!

This day Max kept bringing me his church shoes, he really wanted to wear them over his footie pajamas.  Silly kid.