Good Bye Table, Couch, and TV

We left our first kitchen table and chairs, couch and TV in California. This made Ja a little sad so I told him I'd take pictures of them to remember them by. They were good for us but now it's time to move on.

We made it!

I am posting from our new temporary home in Virginia. We've been busy this week trying to get settled in. All but one of our FedEx boxes came! They weren't in very good shape so hopefully not too many things are broken.

It's been pretty crazy the minute we got here. My sister-in-law Holly had her baby at 28 weeks, so Greg has been at the hospital a lot. It was a pretty traumatic birth for Holly. The baby has no bleeding in the brain (which was the biggest concern) so now he will stay in the hospital until he's at least 6 weeks old. He was 3 lbs 9 oz when he was born and seems to be doing really well.

We are here trying to help with the kids, yard work, and the house. We originally thought I would be helping more with the kids since Holly was in the hospital on bed rest, but she'll be coming home in a few days. I'm sure her own kids will love having mommy back (after she's fully recovered from not walking much for a month and a c-section).

We are now on an apartment search. We said we would stay at this house until Holly had her baby, which we thought would be in October so now that he's here we have to hurry! We don't really have to hurry, but it would be nice to settle somewhere soon.

Ja starts training for his new job on Monday! Wish him luck!

If anyone cares, my baby is now the size of a banana at 10 inches long. She can swallow now, as well as kick me!

Moving!

I can't believe it's getting so close! Ja leaves on Monday to drive across the country with my brother, Kenny. They will stop at church sites along the way. Then I fly with my mother-in-law and three nephews the next Monday. Our house is a total mess, but we can't wait to be in Virginia!

Devin & Deeanna's Wedding

On July 24th my brother-in-law Devin married Deanna. It was a fun pioneer celebration, minus the pioneers. They got married in the Sacramento LDS temple. The temple was beautiful, the grounds were very beautiful as well. It was as if the builders and landscapers wanted good pictures to be taken there. Unfortunately these are the only pictures I took.

The reception was at an amazingly beautiful home that looked like a botanical garden. There we took plenty of family pictures and ate lots of food and dessert. We are so happy for you two!

Only one more DeVore wedding to go...

Coldplay Concert

We were lucky enough to go to Coldplay's second Viva la Vida tour. Neither time were we planning on going to the concerts. This time someone asked us two days before if we were going. We said no, then she said, "My sister has extra tickets that she'll sell to you at a discount!" That was the end of that. Although our seats weren't as good as last time, we still enjoyed the music and the atmosphere.

Coldplay puts on such a great show. The lighting was spectacular, the back drops were cool, they walk off stage and sing on a little stage in the way back. I bet those people who thought they had bad seats were so excited when Coldplay came to sing right next to them. At this part of the concert they improvised a little and sang non-Coldplay songs, one being Billy Jean. I liked their version. At the end of the concert Chris Martin informs everyone they are giving us all a free CD, Left Right Left Right Left. It's the live version of a few of their songs. The crowd went wild.

Lovers in Japan was still my favorite song. I was so glad they still shoot tissue paper butterflies into the audience during the chorus. The air was filled with them!

For the encore they played Life In Technicolor, the version with words. Ja loves this song and I think it was his favorite part of the concert. We had a great time!

The concert was at the Home Depot Center in Carson. If you ever go there parking is horrible so you need to go two hours before the event starts. We ended up parking at a Panda Express parking lot and walking almost a mile to the center because the line of cars was not moving at all. We did make sure that the lot didn't say "Panda Express Parking Only" before parking.

News from the Doctor...

We are having a little GIRL! It came as a surprise to us all! 

Here is the "girl" picture. See the crescent thing and that there's nothing in the middle?

Her cute spine and ribs.

She was being camera shy and wouldn't let us look at her face. In this one she is putting her hand to her face.

Everything looked great; mom and baby wise. We are VERY excited!

12 Week Ultrasound

I forgot to post these pictures! I'm now 15 weeks and will get another ultrasound next week to determine the gender! 

This is a 2D ultrasound.

This is my favorite 3D ultrasound. Quite a difference isn't there? There's actually a baby in there!

Card Making

Since I had some spare time I decided to make more cards. I usually find some paper that matches and then makes a series of cards with that paper. Here are some of my latest series. I'm now taking orders, just kidding. But seriously.

Beach House 2009

We were lucky enough to go with friends and family to a beach house in Ventura for a week. On Monday I get an email sent to my phone with this subject: Hope you don't mind, and this picture:

Ja decided to buy a surfboard (I knew I should've went with him to the store!). 

It was a good purchase because he used it all the time and any time he wasn't surfing he was teaching someone else to surf. He had a 100% success rate. Jill, Zack, Jesse, Kenny, and Bryce were all able to stand up surfing.

Ja and his surfing buddy Josh.

Some people went boogie boarding, kayaking, and surfing. That water was way too cold for me so I didn't even try to get in. I spent most of my time reading in the sun, luckily I had a lot of people to sit with me. 

We spent most of our nights playing cards and talking. It was so much fun to get to know people better from my home ward and spend time with old friends. Beach vacations are always to relaxing it was really hard to come home!

Out of a woman's mouth and into a man's ear

Last night I was eating a piece of homemade pie. I said, " Homemade pie crust is to much better than store bought."

This is what Ja heard, " Why do they ride with their shirts off?" Sure he was watching the Tour de France but Dorothy sure thought it was funny.

I was just thinking...

It's funny how little things in pregnancy prepare you for having a child.

- you can't sleep very comfortably, or very much, even though you really want to

- you take food and water with you everywhere

- you constantly think about this child

- you don't cook real planned dinners very often

- you snack on whatever food you can get your hands on

I'm sure there's more but that's what just popped in to my head.

Father's Day

My dad really liked his Father's Day present from Ja and I...

Lake Powell

We enjoyed a week in Lake Powell last week with our friends Andrew and Chelsey. We had nice weather and the water was nice and warm. 

Andrew and Ja had a great time skiing and wakeboarding on the beautiful lake and Chelsey and I enjoyed catching some rays in our rafts. 

Their son Truman looked so adorable in his lifejacket. 

Other than water sports, we played on the slide off the house boat, watched movies, read and played games. We even had a cream soda taste test where we tried 8 different brands of cream soda.

We had a wonderful time being with friends that live far away, being in such a beautiful location, and having a relaxing time.

Mistaken Identity

I just finished reading a book titled "Mistaken Identity." It's the true story of a tragic accident involving a college van carrying students and employees back to school. There was only one survivor, but she was misidentified. A family thought it was their daughter and cared for her in the hospital for 5 weeks. The "real" family thought their daughter died and held a funeral for her and buried her. 

You would think this book would be about the families being upset at the EMT who misidentified the girls, and at the hospital for not making sure who was who. It's quite the opposite. Both families are very religious and the majority of the book is their prayers and faith promoting stories about their daughter recovering. It was a great read, and a quick one too. I finished it in only 2 days. I would recommend this book to anyone. 

My Two New Favorite Things

1. Cheez-it Cheddar Jack Crackers.

Actually they aren't new to me, but rediscovered. I bought them last summer and Holly and I ate them up. I saw them at the store, had to buy them, and fell in love again. These crackers have big cheddar-jack flavor. You've got to try them! Sadly I've found out that not every grocery store carries them so you may have to look around.

2. Our new vacuum! 

We discovered that our old vacuum wasn't picking up anything off the floor! How bad is it that we haven't noticed how long this has been going on?! Well, we decided to go big or go home and we purchased the new vac. I love it because it's super light, very easy to move and picks up tons of dirt and dust. And it won't ever lose suction :)