What we've been up to...

For those of you who just love the pictures, here are a bunch of Carly...

For reason still unknown, Carly likes to take the baskets out of the coffee table and stand in one while she eats a snack or colors at the table. Sometime she'll sit on the edge. It's rather funny to watch!

Carly got her little bag (which actually is suppose to hold a beach bolling set) put her water in it, put it on her arm and informed me she was ready to go by saying "Bye Bye!" She also really likes the shirt she is wearing. She points to the flowers and says "Pretty."

We took Carly bowling with us. Her favorite part was to watch for the balls to come back up after knocking pins down.

Carly really enjoyed petting the deer at the Wild Animal Park. Even after one deer tried to kiss her!

Santa made a stop at our ward Christmas party. Carly was not a fan! She obviously doesn't understand who he is. Maybe next year!

Mele Kalikimaka!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!I made this about a month ago but didn't realize they could be posted until I saw it on a friend's blog! I hope you enjoy it. It is my brothers Josh and Jeremy- at least my family got a kick out of it!

We love the zoo!

We finally took Carly for her first trip to the zoo, but not just the zoo, the World Famous San Diego Zoo!! Wahoooooo! The gorillas were our favorite. The one in the picture was quite the showman and even pounded his chest and the glass for everyones' beneifit! I was quite glad the glass was so thick!


Brandon's favorite animals were the hippos! He was fascinated by the way they sat under the water and would just stick their nostrils above the water when they needed air. All the hippos needed was a 42" flat screen TV and they would be set!!
We thoroughly enjoyed our day. We also got a video of Carly saying "Roar!" at the lions' den but all my attempts to upload it didn't work. So I'll keep trying and maybe it will be up in the future.
For those of you who want to know, we had a lovely Thanksgiving with the Jergensen family and we hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday. We are looking forward to Christmas and seeing family and friends and all the wonderful celebrations!

Couldn't keep her eyes open...

I've seen pictures and I've heard stories but this time I witnessed it for my own eyes. Carly and I were enjoying a nice lunch during a beautiful San Diego afternoon. About half way through, I look over and Carly can barely keep her eyes open. Her mouth is still moving and then her head goes down and she was out for the count! It was so funny! One of the great things about motherhood is that your child(ren) will never cease to amaze you.

Tagged!

So apparently there is this game going around blogs called Tag. It's kind of like those emails you used to get. "Do you like Coke of Pepsi, Last five movies you saw..." I'm not sure how most people feel about things like this but I like them. I think it is fun to read what people write and get to know them a little better. Like who knew that Chad and Emily have seen Wicked 9 times! So I like to read them but not too sure how I feel about writing them so bear with me. Here are the rules: A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning. B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves. C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I love to organize everything. I like files, drawer dividers, containers, labels... anything that makes things more organized. I will organize and reorganize things in my spare time. I have more accordian file folders than I have papers and I don't want to throw them away because I never know when something may need to be reorganized. I like everything to have a place and my dream is for everything to be in its place but... I have a 15 month old who resembles a minature tornado.
2. I am obsessed with Diet Coke, chocolate (Dove, Sees, not hershey), Target, buying clothes for Carly, decorating my condo, chewing ice, changing my hair (highlights, color, cut), making sure Carly has a balanced diet, looking at people's blogs, meal planning
3. I love San Diego because a lot of my family is here, the beautiful weather, there is always so much to do, my best friend, Amy, lives here, good mexican food, excellent customer service, people actually want to come visit you, palm trees, better drivers,
I miss Baltimore because of all our good friends, rainstorms, McDonalds on Wednesdays, Arundel Mills outlet mall, trees, and Old Bay.
4. I am not a morning person. I have the hardest time getting going in the morning. I have to force myself out of bed when Carly wakes up which better not be before 7am. Then I need a couple of hours to just sit around and wake up. When I have to go places in the morning, I usually feel frazzled by the time we get out the door. And now that Carly only takes one nap, it is better to do things in the morning before her nap so I've been working on getting over this. I often wonder how I made it through 4 years of early morning seminary.
5. I love my T.V. shows: Monday - Prisonbreak, Chuck, Heroes, Tuesday - Bones and House, Wednesday - 'Till Death and Lost (which hasn't started yet?), Thursday - The Office. In the morning, I like to turn on the Today show and leave it on all morning for background noise and listen as I do stuff.
6. I love to read. I could spend hours at a bookstore and want to buy 10 books or more. I like to read in bed, on the beach, in the bathtub, during any spare time I have... If I really like a book, I'll read it more than once. Most of what I read is fiction and I love love stories. (as long as they're clean) I think it is so fun to get lost in another world or in someone elses life. My favorite time period is Civil War - Gone with the Wind, In My Father's House, Faith of our Fathers series... But I'll read anything if it's good. (P.S. If you're looking for a good book, I have one word for you, TWILIGHT!)
And that's all I have to say. So now I would like to tag Jayne, Amanda, Liz, Jessica A., and Amy. And if you really don't want to do it, that's fine with me!

Another Memorable Halloween!

As is tradition, we took Carly to pick out her very own pumpkin for Halloween. We went to this cute little place called the Pumpkin Station which included a petting zoo. The goat seen above is named Daisy and she was my best friend the moment we walked in. I'm pretty sure she was using me for whatever goody she thought I had in my diaper bag. Carly sure enjoyed herself and proclaimed "Baaaaaaa" when she saw the sheep.

Carly's favorite part of the Pumpkin Station was the Merry-go-round. I had to hold her back while the other kids got off and she cried when her turn was over. For the rest of the time we were there she kept trying to run back for another ride.


She didn't care about the pumpkins but she did like the scarecrows. And as you can see, she is very good at pointing out noses.






Our ward Trunk-or-Treat was a funny experience. Carly was very overwhelmed by all the people and costumes and wanted me to hold her the whole time. Even during the trunk-or-treating part she was not interested in walking. In fact, as you can see in the pictures, her favorite part was sitting in the trunk and passing out candy. Go figure!
I was excited that she kept the head part of her costume on most of the night and loved carrying her doggy candy bag which I did not get a picture of! And don't worry, Brandon wore her hat when she didn't have it on!
We hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Fire Update!

We have had quite an eventful couple of days. Yesterday morning my parents had to evacuate their home- my dad went to work and my mom came over to our condo. Work for me had been canceled because the office is in an evacuation zone. We sat around until 4 o'clock and then went to Carissa's parents. Her mom is in Utah so we sat around there for a few hours and my dad came and met us there. As we watched the news we heard a reporter broadcasting from the street right above my parents house and that it didn't look to good for the homes at the bottom. We got a little worried- whenever you see a local reported so close to your home it makes you a little nervous! After a couple hours of waiting and wondering what was going on, they went back to the same reporter and she was standing on my parents street! This time it was good news that the fire had burned right up next the the house and all the hills in the area but every house had been saved and that a firefighter was standing on every driveway of that particular street. All our worries had been erased, we just wanted to see how close it got to the homes!
About an hour later, we got a reverse 911 call at Carissa's parents that said we needed to evacuate their neighborhood so we went to a stake center downtown and I had the priveledge of sleeping in a tent with the family dog! It turned out the 911 call to the neighborhood was a mistake and we could have stayed at Carissa's parents all night.

So today we were hoping to go and get a look at my parents home. We started the drive over and were met by a road block and this:


Yep- armed guards! We decided to risk our lives and sneak around through a gated community behind our high school and go to the neighborhood. It really is amazing that not one house was burned in their area. The fire came right down the hill across the street from my parents but no homes were touched! I hope you can see the black on the hill and were everything was burned, but to get the real picture you need to see it for yourself! We also went to other neighborhoods where homes were burned to see the damage- it really was amazing to see what damage can be done. There are a few pictures of that as well! Carissa, Carly and I are doing great as are our families. Thanks for all your support and prayers, we really do appreciate and know it had a hand in protecting us!

P.S. if you click on the photo it will make it bigger!

Looking across the street from my parent's house







Two houses that burned in an adjacent neighborhood


video from where the reporter stood the night before and all we saw were flames behind her! My parent's house is to the right down the slope (not visible).

For those that don't know: San Diego is having a huge fire! I saw this caption on foxnews.com and had to download it. Many members of our stake have been evacuated- including my parents but we are fine at our house. It is a scary situation, but we should be fine. It is sad to see so much damage and destruction so close but are thankful we are OK where we are. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been hurt or lost homes.

Mine!

The second picture is to remind those of you who have forgotten, that Brandon IS the Chargers' BIGGEST FAN! And he is just so proud that his little girl requested to wear her pink LT jersey last Sunday. I'm pretty sure she would have worn it to church if I had not been there.
The first picture is what I call a poor child's playhouse. We built Carly a playhouse out of our moving boxes and she loves it! She especially loves that she can take markers and crayons and color it. I'm just waiting for the day when she decides to try that on one of the walls in our condo. I have to say that she never ceases to amaze me. Today she took the TV remote from me and said very firmly, "Mine!" and then proceeded to change the channel from Ellen to Dr. Phil! I had to explain to her that we don't watch Dr. Phil. Yesterday, we were at a kids clubhouse playing and she informed the little boy in the firetruck very loudly that "Na, Na, Na, Mine, Mine!" Apparently he was in her seat! Maybe some people would be concerned that, after this behavior, their child was going to be a handful. I can't help but be happy to know this early that she will not be a pushover and that she will be able to hold her own in our ever increasingly tumultuous world. And that's my thought for today.

Finally!!

For those of you who are not aware of the significance of this photo, kindly direct your attention to the two little pigtails on Carly's head. Yes, after 14 months of patiently waiting, I finally have some hair to work with! She may still have a mullet, but at least some of her hair is long enough to pull up. It was a very happy and exciting day. And it only took about five gummy bears to get her to sit there and hold still. And she looks so cute!!! Now I only have to wait for the mullet to grow out and then real pigtails!

Welcome to our new blog!

Welcome to all our friends and family to our new bog! For those of you wondering, our previous website was through Apple. However, that only lasted a year and then they wanted $100 from us for another year. Well, we being the poor, poor people who are trying so hard to buy a condo and get a start in life, we said no way to apple and are joining the world of Blogspot.com! We are hoping that this new blog will stay more current than the last.
A brief update for those of you interested. We just moved into our condo about 2 weeks ago and have joined the ranks of homeowners! Yea! We feel so lucky because our condo is everything that we hoped it would be and is in a great location called Sabre Springs. We are right in between both of our parents and it's a younger community which fits us just right!
Brandon is happily situated at Drs. Belnap and Pierce's office and is in search of another office to join to pay for our new condo and expand his patient list. Carly and I are enjoying spending lots of time in the sun and in search of new friends to create a west coast McDonald's group. (Which is harder than it sounds and we definitely miss our Baltimore friends.) We are hoping our new ward will have lots of potential friends. We've already made friends will several dolphins, seals, and whales at Sea World and are looking forward to hitting the World Famous San Diego Zoo in the near future.
We love checking out everyone's blogs and we hope you enjoy ours too!!