A Happy Ending...

Well, turns out we do have a happy ending to the bug story...we finally got a house! After waiting for 2 months, we got the house we really wanted. We both love it--perfect location and neighborhood, low taxes, nice quiet street, close to shopping and gym and walking trails. It couldn't be better! We originally made the offer in February, right after Valentine's day. We had no idea it would take so long to get an answer. But our patience paid off. Now you might be wondering why we didn't look for another house in those two months. Well, I just never felt the need to, for some reason, until this past Wed., I looked at some homes, but the only one I liked already had multiple offers. So, this house was meant to be for us. It's 4 bedrooms, 2 bath, 1872 square feet, 3-car garage, landscaped backyard, and only 5 years old. So anyway, we can ditch the bugs in a few weeks and finally have the space we need. That's our big news for now. I'll post pictures of the house soon.

Beware of Bugs

If they make a "beware of bugs" sign (instead of beware of dog), I need to get one. For those of you that have seen King Kong, you might remember the scene where they are attached by huge, disgusting bugs. Well, maybe Peter Jackson should check out our backyard because he could film King Kong 2 here--I'm not kidding. The last few weeks we have had an infestation of bugs in our tiny backyard. It started with these tiny, hovering flies with yellow stripes. They just hover over the grass by the hundreds. Then came these ugly little beetles with orange stripes. Then came the caterpillars crawling everywhere, and then came even uglier, big, fat black ones. On Monday our manager knocked on our door and asked if we've been getting these big black caterpillars (that turn into moths, not butterflies) in our house, and at that point, we hadn't. She said my next-door neighbor has been getting them on her stairs. They think they are somehow crawling underneath the house and up through the stairs. I told her we only had them in the backyard. But sure enough, later that day, I saw one on the carpet. I don't know how they get in. And since then they have multiplied. So much that now birds come into our small backyard for a special treat and then fly away. But it gets worse--I decided to capture some of these pests on film for all of you to see, and I must have chosen a good time, because right when I stepped outside, I saw this crawling on the cement:

Yes, that would be a stinkbug. Good thing I didn't step on it.

Not to mention the giant grasshoppers. Do we live in California, or Texas?
And don't forget the big ugly caterpillars that turn into moths.
And the big shocker: a black widow. Don't worry, I didn't even get close. My camera zooms.


The black widow must have noticed all the tasty bugs in our backyard, so he decided to make a home. But don't worry--Joel will kill him ASAP. It's actually the second black widow we've had since we've lived here. So as I'm in the backyard taking pictures, I can hear Blake crying inside. He's jealous that I'm outside, of course. But needless to say, I do NOT let my kids play outside right now. It's such a shame because the weather is perfect. I've tried spraying the entire perimeter with bug spray, but it doesn't keep the bugs away. So I guess I will just call Peter Jackson and tell him to come over to film the King Kong sequel. At least the kids can look outside and also look forward to park days with their friends. And that concludes my bug story (for now--I hope there is a happy ending soon).

Happy Birthday to Grandma

Julianna and Blake eating pancakes from Grandma's special mix. Thanks, Grandma! And Happy Birthday to you!

Time for an update

Here are some pics and stories for your enjoyment!

So it's been a week and a half since I've posted. Feels like forever! Part one of my post (above): the Calicinto Ranch trip the day before Gen. Conf. Joel was still on spring break, so the whole family got to go. This is the big field trip that her school goes on every year. It's a ranch not too far from our house that we never even knew was there! The whole preschool was invited, so there were tons of kids, but it was very organized. Julianna and Blake had a fun day of coloring, puzzles, petting farm animals, taking a hay ride, and Julianna rode a horse again (with me). I couldn't find Joel to take a picture, though. But she did ride, for the second time now! School is going so well for her. So then this past week she was on spring break (right after Joel's two-week break), and we took another trip to Sea World (below)!

This time I went to Sea World with the kids and my sister Karina (no dads!) It went better than we thought. We were only there for about 5 hours. We just missed the morning Shamu show so we had to wait till the end to see it. The first time we went we saw Shamu first. So the whole day this last time, Julianna kept saying, I want to go to Sea World. And we'd say, we're at Sea World! Every show we went to, something went wrong, too. The Sea lion show, we sat in the "wet zone," and didn't know that was different from the Soak zone, so when the water started spraying, we had to leave. Plus, in that show, there's a mime that "dies" from holding a cannon ball, and to show this, they throw a dummy. Well, after the dummy landed on the ground, Julianna screamed! Everyone turned to look at her. The Sesame street show was a disaster--too much sensory stuff going on there, and the pets rule was too loud. So we finally made it to Shamu, and she was happy! I think Shamu is Sea World to her.

This last one is just for fun. Grandma came to visit Friday, and we got Subway. Well, Blake made sure he got a taste of my chips and drink and had to walk around the backyard doing it. I swear he was never a baby--he was a man from birth! We discovered he really likes to dance to rock music, he has a deep raspy voice, and he can throw a ball better than Julianna. And we had a breakthrough at church today--he made it through the entire sacrament meeting! This is a first from birth! He has never done it before! Now, if it happens again, we will be happy.

Balboa Beach and Wii

We had a fun trip to Orange County this past weekend. We met up with Joel's sister Briana and her boyfriend, Matty, at Balboa Beach. This beach is fun because there's Ruby's Diner on the pier where we ate an early dinner, the water of course (which was too cold for us!) and a fun park and swings for the kids. Here are some pics from our day there. The weather was perfect!

Here we are at the beach!

Briana and Matty

Blake was a little scared of the water once he got closer. On the pier he was excited, but by the water he just liked to watch. I think it was much bigger than he thought.

Blake on the playground

Joel at the top of the climbing net thing (we all took a turn!)

The kids playing in the sand

Julianna at Ruby's (not eating her food!)

Blake enjoying his French fries and hot dog

Joel and Julianna on the pier (he took her out after a tantrum in Ruby's)

Julianna checking out the water below (she was scared to walk on the pier once it went on top of the water--I think she thought the water would get her. It was cute.

Aunt Briana and Blake

After the beach, we went to my mom and dad's house in Corona to stay the night. Here's Julianna trying the Wii for the first time. Grandpa helped her try to do bowling.

A true Julianna expression--total excitement (and a little overstimulated watching the bowling ball knock down the pins).

We ended our weekend meeting with Joel's Uncle Tinker and Aunt Kay at Marie Callenders for lunch Saturday (they spoiled the kids rotten--they don't have any grandkids, so our kids are like their grandkids right now) and then visited Joel's grandma, Nana, at her house. It was a fun weekend getaway while Joel's on spring break.