August 15th - Tom and Jade are Sealed in the Oakland Temple

We all have that list in our minds that include the best days or most memorable of our lives. Here is a list of mine.

The day my family was sealed in the Los Angeles Temple (I was 11 years old)
June 1993 -My High School Graduation
June 1997 -My College Graduation
July 31st, 2001- The day Andrew was born
May 2003- My first date with Tom to a Giants Game
July 9th, 2005- The day I married Tom and became a Mom to Kira

I can now add August 15th to my list. Tom and I eloped (yes eloped) to the Oakland Temple last Friday night and were sealed for time and eternity. Things have been really busy and it has been difficult to get a chance to get over there, so we decided we would just make it about us and go by ourselves. It was a great night at the temple and we got in and out before our ward met for ward temple night. It finished off what we started three years ago when we were married, and now I can officially give birth to this baby.

Thanks Tom for 3 great years so far. I can only imagine how many more memorable dates I can add to my list with you.

My Baby Shower

My friends from work threw me a baby shower and we had the best time. I work with a lot of females, and a lot of them have children of their own. It seems someone always has a baby on the way, so there is always plenty to talk about when we get together outside of work. My good friends Linda and Jessica put the party together and we spent the afternoon in Linda's backyard. The weather the perfect, the food was amazing, and the gifts were more then appreciated. The party started at noon and I didn't get home until after 5. Nobody wanted to leave we just hung out and had a great afternoon.

The Baby is getting Bigger

It is amazing what they can do these days with the 4D imaging. I love these pictures and you can see he already has a bit of a chubby face.

July 31st... Andrew Turns 7

For Andrew's birthday this year we celebrated with a trip to Malibu Grand Prix which has miniature golf, batting cages, and an arcade. We took two of Andrew's friends, William and Luke and our family and had a great time.

I am still shaking my head at the thought of Andrew being 7, but I guess that is what happens after 6. They grow up so fast. Here is Andrew with his new Lego set (his favorite). Tom and I love these too. When Andrew gets one, he will work on it for hours until it is done. Our house is the most quiet when Andrew has new Legos.

4th of July

Last year for the 4th of July we had a party at our house with about 75 people. I was starting to plan it again for this year when my brother called and invited us to his house this year. Tom didn't hesitate to say YES! Anything to avoid another party at our house, huh Tom?

My brother Jeff and his wife Lisa just had their 6th baby and they were blessing him the same weekend. We got to swim, eat, swim, bless the baby, and swim some more. Thanks Jeff. We had a great time!

Our most recent family picture. We look a little grubby, but what can you do?

Kira and her cousins swimming.

Tom lighting the fireworks.

One Man...One Shovel

Believe it or not, but Tom has started a major home improvement project in our backyard. I honestly thought I would never see it happen, but something ignited a fire in Tom and I have a feeling this one will be the last for a least a while. Our backyard was an empty dirt pile and desperately needing some love and attention. We have decided that we are going to put in a brick/paver patio and Tom has been doing all the work on his own. It is still an ongoing project but will hopefully be done next month. I will be sure and post finished pictures when it is done.

Just to explain the project a little more, Tom had to remove a great deal of dirt from our backyard one wheel barrel at a time and the replace it with gravel that is then tamped down. The gravel in itself has been exciting. It is not every day you get 13 tons of gravel delivered to your house and you can believe Andrew was up and ready to watch. The slogan that has evolved from all this and repeated by Tom and Andrew daily is, "A man needs his gravel."

Here is a picture of the gravel being delivered.

And here is Tom hard at work.

How Mom's Feed Babies

Andrew has a book called, "Ripley's Believe it or Not." You have all seen books like this full of strange and weird things that have happened. Andrew and I were looking at a picture of a doe that was nursing from a dog. Apparently the doe was found alone without it's mother. The doe was taken to a dog lover and immediately bonded with the man's dog and began nursing from the dog. Andrew didn't quite get the significance of this and I began explaining that this is how I would feed our baby. Andrew's response was classic Andrew. He replied, "you mean your going to leave the baby and give it to a dog?"

What more can I say?