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.

Our Quarterly Family Pictures

 I swear my mom makes us take family pictures four times a year.  She always says it is because we won't all be together for a while, but the thing is we never are all together and someone ends up getting photoshopped in (this time it will be Letty).  But we do what we can to keep our mother happy.  So we enlisted the services of my talented friend Brendi, who also took these and these.  She always does an amazing job, and the job keeps getting harder as we add children to our family.  Here are some of my favorites.

Our friends the McCleves stopped by and paid us a visit a couple weeks ago on their way home from Chico.  Alexander was one of Ollie's very best friends in Campbell so we were happy to see them.  I also worked for John so it was nice to see him and get an update on the office.

I love the grin Ollie has been doing lately.

My cousin Chelsea spent a week or so in town and we were able to see her and it was so fun.  Her little Eve is just the cutest thing you have ever seen.  We had a playdate while they were in town.

Me, Ashley, Chelsea and Steph.

Ollie and me.

All the kids.  I shouldn't point this out but this picture is really funny because you can see me (and Steph) trying to get the kids to smile.  We were only successful with Owen.  The ridiculous things I do to get a few smiles.

Chelsea is also an UBER talented photographer.  She is so nice and always willing to share her skills.  We met up and she took some pictures of the boys.  Ollie was a dream, but Max was horrible.  He is ultra clingy and wouldn't let me put him down.  

I LOVE this picture of Ollie.  

And this one, pretty much all the pictures of Ollie I love.

The best brother shot we could get.  They both have granola bars in their hand.

I don't know how she did it but Chelsea managed to get this cute shot of Max.

Ollie hamming it up.

 Last weekend Brendi called and asked us if we wanted to learn to make sushi with them, of course we did.  It was so fun.  The Lundgrens are sushi experts and everything we made was to die for.

Everyone but Jason.

Jason searing our fish.

Me with our black and white, my favorite of the night after the Japanese pasta.

Not the most beautiful roll, but delicious.

All the fixings.

My cousin Maggie moved to Hawaii this week so before we left we had a little going away get together with the family. We did an ice cream bar and then just hung out.  It was also Chelsea and Eve's last night so the party was for them as well.  I love my family and always have so much fun when we get together.  I'm excited (and slightly jealous) for Maggie.  I know she will love it.

Maggie, Mary, Alicia, me, Chelsea and Stephanie.

Pennsylvania 2012

Last Friday the boys and I flew to PA with my parents to visit family.  Jason unfortunately had to stay home and work.  We flew from Sacramento to San Diego, then San Diego to Baltimore where we rented a car and drove the 3 hours to PA.  It was a long trip.  Ollie did great, but Max was a little difficult.  He only slept 30 mins the whole day, and being 18 months old, he is just so busy.  But we made it to my aunts house and quickly went to bed.  We were so beat from the day.

Ollie watched Kung Fu Panda on the plane.  

Saturday morning I participated in my aunts Stamp It Up party, then we headed over to my grandma's house.  We hung out there most of the day with lots of family stopping in to visit.  My mom has 8 brothers and sisters, so I am lucky to have tons of aunt, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, you get the gist.  Saturday night we had dinner at my Uncle Rick and Aunt Linda's house.  It was delicious and it was fun to catch up with their family.  My kids were very difficult that evening.  I don't want to make excuses but I think they were still really tired and overwhelmed by meeting lots of new people.

Max tried on my cousin Isaacs shoes.

Grandma got out the play dough and cookie cutters and my kids loved it.

Sunday I skipped church, the thought of wrestling with my kids during church did not appeal to me.  That afternoon the entire family (or at least everyone in town) came to my uncle Jack's house for lunch.  My kids did much better and Max even took a nearly 4 hour nap.  It was awesome.

Uncle Jimmy likes to antagonize the vegetarians in the family.

Grandma Bea with her three great grand babies all born on the same day.  Eli and Ian are twins and Connor decided he wanted to share their birthday so he came six weeks early.

My uncle Jack helping Ollie shoot a nerf dart gun.  Ollie LOVED it.  All week he wanted to go back to the house with the dart guns. 

My cousin Leah and me.  I have so many wonderful memories with this lady and love her dearly.

The babies again.  They were the main attraction.

Jackson and Ollie playing foosball.

Me and aunt Jill.  We stayed with her most of the week and she was SO good to us.  She had all kinds of toys and treats for the boys.  She really took good care of us.

Mom, Grandma and me.

Eric, Leah and Lydia came to town from Baltimore.  It was so fun catching up with them.  Eric and Leah visited us over the summer, and we are hoping to get to see Lydia in CA soon :)

Aaron, Ashlee and Connor surprised everyone by coming to town from Virginia.  Because Connor was so early it took a while for them to be cleared to travel.  I'm so glad they did.  It was fun to see them and so fun to see them surprise the family.

After his 4 hour nap Max was pretty hungry. 

 Monday morning we headed to State College, home of Penn State.  A lot of my family is Penn State alumni, so it is a pretty special place for everyone.  I love visiting State College.  It is such a cute college town.

We visited the Joe Paterno (or JoePa as he is called) statue.  I  guess after his death this whole area was covered with flowers etc from his legions of fans.  The whole Sandusky situation has not affected Joe Paterno's reputation at all in PA.  He is pretty much a legend there.

We met more of the family at a cute diner called Baby's.  I love diners, but Jason can attest that most of the diners we try aren't very good, but this place was.  I loved it.

He isn't called Ollie "Stink face" for nothing :)

Sometimes he is just silly.

I think Max ate 3/4 of my milkshake.

We all got teeny weenies (little tiny ice cream sundaes).  My cousin Josh (or was it Joe) was disappointed that it wasn't a tiny hot dog.  

A guy that worked there gave all the kids hats.

Us with our teeny weenies.

In front of the restaurant.  The pic where everyone is looking cut some people off.

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Aunt Jill has the magic touch.  Max slept on her like that for at least 45 minutes.

After State College we headed to my uncle Jimmy's house.  His in-laws have cows and so we took the kids to see them.  Then we went to my aunt Paula's sister Cindy's house and saw their organic farm, chickens, a horse and donkeys.  It was a lot of fun for the kids.

Tuesday we did a little shopping and then just hung out at my grandmas.  That evening my aunt Claud and her new husband Dick had the whole family over for dinner.  The food was delicious and it was fun to see everyone.  

We didn't get to see my cousin Jeff and his family on Sunday so I was glad we got to see them that night.  I really wish we lived closer to these guys, I think we would have a lot of fun.

Wednesday we did a little more shopping.  And spent the rest of the day relaxing at grandmas.  That evening we had dinner with the Palmers.  Again, the food was delicious and it was fun to get to spend time with their family.

Ollie was having a lot of fun.  He had a sword and he took his arm out of his sleeve and used it as a holster for his sword.  So silly.

The Palmers.

Thursday morning Max woke up before me and had some fun with grandma and bubbles.  We spent most the day doing laundry and packing.  We did find time to feed the chickens at my uncle Doug's house.

Feeding the chickens.  I guess we did this on Wednesday, not Thursday.

Me and my boys on grandma's swing.  I have many pictures on this swing.  Including one of Jason and I when I brought him back east while we were dating.

Us and grandma.

Thursday night we had dinner at the Hershey's.  I love having dinner at other peoples houses, it is always so good.  After dinner everyone came over for dessert.  We said goodbye and left to start the drive to Baltimore.  We stayed the night at a hotel there so we could fly out the next morning.

My boys were pretty tired Thursday night.  They have both been catching up on sleep since we got home.  

Look how tired Max is, poor baby.

The kids slept most of the drive.  When we got to the hotel they were suppose to have a crib in the room, but they didn't so little Max rested on grandma until they got his crib up to our room.  The flight home was rough just because it was 5 1/2 hours with a busy toddler on my lap.  But we made it.  I'm really grateful for my parents helping me out.  I could not have made the trip with out them.

We had a really nice trip and I am glad we went.  We miss our family back east so much and wish we could see everyone more often.  It was nice to get home though.  We came home on Friday to 72 degrees, it was beautiful. I missed Jason lots and was so happy to see him.  I definitely want Jason to come with me next time, hopefully sooner rather than later.  Since Jason had been out of town most of the week before we left I had my kids by myself for nearly two weeks.  Saturday Jason planned a day for me.  He took the kids all day and I went grocery shopping (which I love to do by myself), visited my grandparents, got a mani/pedi, went thrifting, and saw a movie (another thing I LOVE to do by myself).  That night Jason and I went out to dinner together.  It was the perfect day.  I love Jason for recognizing what I needed and making it happen.