Mr. VHS 2009

I have the coolest little brother in all of Valencia High School! Last night he won the title of "Mr. VHS 2009!" Kenny didn't even want to be in the contest, his girlfriend has to talk him into it and now he holds the crown. 

It was such a great show last night! It took a lot of courage for all those high school juniors and seniors to go up on stage and dance in front of everyone, model their swim wear, and share a talent. I was impressed with all the talents that were shared. Kenny and the second runner up had the best talents. The second runner up beat boxed and it was the best I've heard in real life. Kenny learned how to play the flute for his skit and also played the sax as a duet with another flutist. 

All the contestants modeled their evening wear with their escorts. Kenny and Lisa looked great in their matching tux and dress. 

The top five guys had to answer the question, "Who is your favorite celebrity, and most importantly, why?" Kenny had the best answer, of course. He quickly said Robin Williams because he can act the serious parts, and the funny parts. He can make people laugh and this world needs more laughter.

Kenny really didn't expect to win, let alone get in the top 5. His knees almost gave out when his name was called as the winner. It was so cute. It's great having such a great little brother! Congrats Kenny!

p.s. I've post more pictures and a movie of Kenny's talent (in the movie section) on our Web Gallery

I looked out the window and what did I see?

SNOW!

Granted it was more like hail that melted a little and then froze, but it looks like snow!

We're moving to D.C.!

It's official, Ja was offered the job at PwC today! He will be in the Washington Federal Practice in the Advisory group and he will be consulting government entities. We are very excited to finally have direction in our lives.  Ja has worked really hard in school, in his internship, and in his job interviews so he deserves this great job. 

Congrats Jonathan! I'm so proud of you!

Patriotic

In honor of tomorrow the blog is going patriotic! I hope that the new President will be able to bring hope to his country and put us on the right track for success. Even though I may not agree with his policies, I will support him as President of the United States and hope that he will bring what America needs for the future. 

Go America!

Rambunctious Raccoons

We officially hate raccoons. Just look at those little beady eyes, gross!

Last night we were rudely awaken at 2:45 a.m. by raccoons. I heard them walking very loudly outside on our balcony. My first reaction is to think that it's a person out there trying to get into our house, but soon realized that a person would not be that loud. These raccoons were knocking into the chairs and railing, making a lot of commotion. They were doing this for about 10 minutes and it didn't seem like they are going to quit so I decided to look out the window and see what they are up to. I turned on the outside light expecting them to run away, but what I found was very much to my surprise. Three little raccoons were getting a running start, then jumping onto the edge of our hammock, holding on and swinging with it. Rather than getting upset at these annoying raccoons I actually thought it was comical. It was very "Over the Hedge." Wild animals were having fun on our human furniture. Ja went outside to scare them far away because he heard them under the balcony playing. One raccoon was outside by the neighbors balcony staring at Ja. Then he started growling at Ja so Ja growled back and the raccoon didn't flinch! They both growled at each other a couple more times but the raccoon didn't back away at all, so Ja threw a tomato plant cage at it. Even though the swinging on the hammock was funny, it wasn't funny when the raccoons decided to keep playing around here for another hour last night!

We have another raccoon story that feeds this hatred of ours. One of the first nights we were here, we heard footsteps on the balcony walking all over the place. Ja was sound asleep but I sure wasn't. I really thought it was a person. Then this person tried to get into our house through the sliding glass door! I woke Ja up so he could find this person and scare him away. He opened the curtains and didn't see anyone until he looked down. It was two raccoons mating against the screen door! Ja flashed a light in their faces and they looked up at him like "Oh no, we got caught!" He went outside and scared them away by moving furniture around and barking at them. It took me another hour to fall back asleep because I was scared at any noise I heard outside.

The third experience was probably the most annoying. One night we woke up to the sound of some animal chewing/scratching inside the wall behind our bed. It reminded me of the sound of my old hamster would make as he was chewing through his plastic cage, but much louder. We initially thought it was a rat but as it got louder and louder we concluded that it had to be something larger. This also lasted almost an hour and it moved around the room inside the wall. We tried hitting the wall to scare it but these things aren't scared of people! Now we figure they get into the wall under the balcony in some sort of hole. I really hope that one night it doesn't break through.

Any ideas on how to get rid of these annoying animals?

Or do you have any animal stories you would like to share?

Oahu Pictures

Here is a link so some of our Oahu pictures. There will be more to come!

Our New Home

Here are some pictures of our new house. It's soooo nice to have enough storage space for everything. We even have a huge garage! It's very bright and warm in our condo and we have great views out of the front and back. In front of us is a golf course. Just this morning I saw a male deer eating the grass right in front of our house! We have two balcony's in the back and both look over the hill and we can see L.A. in the distance. We do have two empty spare bedrooms if anyone wants to come visit!

Welcome to our home!

The living room that is so bright and cheery. The sliding glass doors open to one of the balcony's.

The kitchen that is great to cook in. It also has a dishwasher and washer/dryer!

Our huge, sunny bedroom.

One of my favorite parts: a walk in closet!

p.s. Provo just got over a foot of snow and it's a sunny and warm 64 degrees here! California is too nice to us.

What a fun Christmas!

We had such a great Christmas this year! 

We did a few things out of tradition: 

1. On Christmas Eve we open presents with my dad's side of the family. We usually sort the presents out to the respective person and then open them one at a time in birth order. This year my Aunt Karen suggested we try something different and randomly grab a present under the tree and have that person open it. When that person is opening his or her present all eyes must be on that person! This part caused problems because one person would leave the room, or someone would start a conversation, etc.  My cousin Derek solved this problem by grabing a present under the tree then announce, "This present is to Laura from Cody!" in a great announcer voice. Then the whole family would cheer, we don't know for whom, but we cheered. All in all Aunt Karen had a great idea, we all laughed and had a great time.

2. My dad had to work on Christmas day :(. Luckily, we was patrolling in a nearby city so he was able to come home to open presents. We knew that if he looked lost and was staring into space he was listening to his radio in his ear that none of us could hear. Ja and I made breakfast for everyone. We made cottage cheese pancakes and eggs. Apparently no one in my family likes cottage cheese so they were call concerned about the pancakes. When we presented them with the pancakes we told them we changed our minds and didn't make the cottage cheese kind. After they said the pancakes were really good, we told them they did have cottage cheese in them. They were very surprised! 

3. On Christmas we decided to make ginger bread houses for the first time. Thank goodness for Ralphs being open on Christmas for people like us who change their mind and need to buy load of candy and graham crackers. I really had a great time making 2 houses. As you can see my first house had a roof cave-in because a huge avalanche fell on it. Even the "For Sale" sign fell over.

Jill and Ja worked really hard on their house. It was the quietest they have ever been. 

It was the biggest and had a great roof. Ja was the architect and Jill was the decorator. They had a car, a pond with ducks, and a snowman who kept falling into the pond.

My dad started with just two graham crackers and some frosting. It was his Indian tent house. Then he started building a real house. He even added Rudolph the Red-noised bear to the side of his house. He also made a man who is playing frisbee. 

Kenny started making a huge house. He got the walls up then realized it was going to be hard to put a roof on such a big structure. He opted for the flat roof with a support beam inside. He said it looked like a temple so he made a sign that said "Holiness to the Lord." For some odd reason he put blue frosting on the roof so it turned into a Jewish church.

Jill's friend Shawn came over because his dad is Jewish and wasn't celebrating Christmas and Shawn wanted to take part in something Christmas-y. This was his first house and he definitely made the most modern looking house.

Unfortunately we didn't get a good picture of my second house. The roof wass a lot simpler and I made sure to not put anything heavy on it. 

3. Usually we visit with my mom's side of the family on Christmas. Since Stacie and Randy came into town late we decided to get together on the 26th so Stacie and Randy could be there. We had a great time there opening presents too. My 4 cousins, who are 12 and under, are a wild bunch which makes for fun present opening. 

4. We saw Wicked again with my sister Stacie. We had great seats, and the musical was still amazing the third time through.

5. Ja and I went to Hawaii with his parents and 2 younger brothers. We had such a great time. We stayed in Honolulu and did so many things! We went parasailing, on an outrigger, spent a whole day at Pearl Harbor, and went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and Dole Plantation.

Now we are back in California settling into our new life.

Home Sweet Home

We made it home safely last Saturday. I say safely because Ja was driving a big moving truck, it was supposed to snow that morning, and the roads were wet. The cars in front of us were kicking up dirt on our windshield so we tried to clean it with wiper fluid only to find out that the fluid was gone. We could barely see out of the windshield. Ja was moving his head all around trying to get a good view. We stopped at the next gas station to clean the windshield and buy wiper fluid. This station was very busy with people cleaning their windshields and buying wiper fluid. Darin and Devin were driving our car and said that our wiper fluid was gone too. I went to pour more in only to realize that it wasn't gone, it was frozen! Our truck's was frozen too so there was nothing we go do but drive with a terrible dirty windshield. We welcomed the big rig trucks because they kicked out enough water that we could use the wipers to clean the windshield and see much better. Thank goodness it didn't snow at all and the weather was great. We stopped for lunch in St. George and our wiper fluid finally unfroze. We eventually made it home after 10 hours of driving. Moving trucks sure make the drive longer. But, the drive was worth it and we are so glad to be home for a few months. 

That night our family was nice enough to help us move everything in the condo. We set the couch up and my dad set up our bed.  I've spent the last couple of days unpacking all the other boxes and trying to find a place for everything. The condo is huge compared to our tiny apartment and we love it! I'll have to post pictures later. 

I hope that everyone is enjoying the Christmas season. Have fun with family and friends and have a Merry Christmas!

Let it Snow!

We had our first real snowfall and it's beautiful. I really wanted it to snow before we went to the land-of-no-snow so I wouldn't forget it's winter. I got my wish! Here are some pictures I took around our house.

I shoveled the driveway for my first time. 

 I didn't know flamingos liked snow.

Lights at Temple Square

My Aunt Linda was in town and wanted to go see the lights at Temple

 Square so we went with her as well as my sister Stacie. We had to drive around quite a while to find parking, but we eventually did at the LDS Business College. Later on we realized there was something going on at the Conference Center which is why we couldn't find parking. We made it safe and sound to Temple Square and we weren't too cold. Ja took some great pictures and these are my favorite. I'm now in the Christmas spirit thanks to the lights, our ward Christmas party this morning, and the snow that's supposed to be dumped today. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Husband loves me so much

Look at what Jonathan gave me for Christmas!

He wants me to be sooo happy.

Passionate about Paper

Yesterday I spent 4 hours working on cards. I've never spent that long making cards in one session! Thanks to my friend Lauren who let me take some of her cute paper, I successfully made 19 cards. Usually my creative juices run out after an hour but I rediscovered my cute stamps and rubons so I was occupied for hours. There are five designs in this afternoon's series and I just had to take pictures of my favorites. 

On a side note, I have to make a shout out to all those clear stamp users! I love those things! You can create your own designs for stamps over and over again. I love being able to mix and match designs and spell whatever I want. They also cost less than the traditional rubber stamp because you usually buy multiple stamps on a sheet instead of just one wooden stamp.

Also, I saw an infomercial for the Circut Expression today, and that thing looks awesome! It's definitely going on my Christmas list for next year. You can cut out all shorts of shapes and letters out of any paper, fabric, or chip board in any size you want. 

Oh, I love scrapbooking and making cards! Put me in a room full of cute paper and stamps and I'm in heaven.

Christmas Woes

What do you get for men who can buy anything they want? What do you get dad’s, uncles, or grandpas? I don’t care what men say, men are much harder to shop for. Women always enjoy getting soap, lotion, easy stuff. Any ideas anyone?

As I was researching this problem, I came across this nifty shirt. It's too bad I can't buy it for anyone but I thought it was cool. It's a bottle opener right at the bottom of your shirt. No more broken teeth, your dentist would be happy.

Also, what's up with not singing Christmas songs at Church? The whole month of December should only be Christmas hymns if you ask me.

Concert of the Year

We received a check in the mail from PwC and we had no idea what it was for. Ja hadn’t worked for a long time, and no taxes were taken out. So when Darin told Ja about the Coldplay concert we knew exactly what to spend the money on. 

Apparently tickets in Salt Lake City are much cheaper than other places. The people sitting behind us were from Las Vegas. They said tickets in Vegas for where they were sitting  are $400 each! So it was cheaper for them to fly to Salt Lake to see the  concert. They even paid $65 more dollars than we did for the row behind us. We were lucky enough to sit on the floor 28 rows from the stage.  We bought the tickets the Thursday before the concert and they were to be mailed to us. When it was Saturday and still no tickets I called the ticket seller. Evidently the tickets never shipped to us. That meant we had to meet the seller at the venue before the concert. It also meant we got $24 back for shipping costs. We aren’t sure how this happened, but the seller also bumped us up 11 rows, so now we were sitting on the 17th row!  We were a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to see since everyone stands the entire concert. Luckily for us again, the people in front of us were even shorter than me so I could see just fine. Chris Martin was a good entertainer, he danced and ran all over the place.

For a few songs the band came out on a appendix of the stage which was only 5 rows in front of us. We were so close we could see Chris Martin’s sweat dripping from his face. Being on the floor in the 17th row was absolutely awesome. We could see the band clearly, and even their faces. 

I don’t even know how to describe how fun and amazing this concert was. Coldplay’s music is the best when listened to loud so the concert was the best you could get. Vida la Vida is our favorite Coldplay album so we loved every song played. Most of the songs didn’t differ to much from the albums but it didn’t matter because they are amazing on their own. At one point, Coldplay left the stage and we looked at each other and thought, “That was a really short concert!” Then they show up in the audience on a little stage on the upper terrace. They sang a few songs up there and the audience members were estatic to be so close. They were within arms reach of the whole band.

The pinnacle of the concert was Lovers in Japan. To start off, there is a huge screen on the back of the stage showing pictures and little movies of people and things in Japan. Then during the chorus confetti comes shooting down from the ceiling. Once it gets closer we can see that it’s tissue paper butterflies which go beautifully to the song. In the second chorus the butterflies come out even faster and more abundantly. Now there are black lights shooting at the butterflies which make them glow. It was so much fun. The atmosphere of the whole concert was great. Everyone was singing along, clapping, dancing and cheering like crazy. At one point Chris Martin said he was going to make the largest choir in Utah. I didn’t know what he meant, was he talking about the MoTab? Then he started playing Viva la Vida and it made sense. Instantly everyone starting singing their most popular song. We absolutely, certainly, and positively loved every minute and didn’t want it to end.

 If any of you have the opportunity to see Coldplay in concert, you need to go. Even if you have to  sit in the nose bleed seats it will be worth every penny. 

*Disclaimer: I didn't take any of these pictures because I forgot my camera!