The Beckhams

We went to a Halloween party tonight at our neighbors' house. It was pretty fun. There were all kinds of funny couple costumes there. We had Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Palins, a pregnant nun with her hip hop priest, cereal killers (spelled correctly - it's a pun), and tons more. But, the best costumes in my opinion were the Beckhams. Here is a picture:

Pay It Forward

I almost forgot to do this. I signed up from my friend Tennille's blog to do a "Pay It Forward" thing. I think it's a cute idea. I hope I can explain it right. I will for the first three people to respond to this, send them a cute gift (I'm not letting you in on what it will be).  Um I'm having a hard time with my words... here's Tennille's post: 

"I'm participating in a Pay It Forward Exchange. Who wants to play? I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward Exchange. You will receive your gift within a month from leaving your comment. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. I can't guarantee it will be anything amazing, but who cares if it is FREE! 

Remember, you have to have a blog to participate and must Pay it Forward on your site as well. Who's ready to play?"

So, yeah, "who's ready to play?"

Fresh Garden Salsa

Isn't that a pretty picture. Those were grown in our garden and used later to make salsa. We didn't grow the limes, cilantro, or garlic, but everything else we did. Actually, we don't have our own garden, but the neighbors let us plant in theirs. We were too worried the prairie dogs would eat a garden up. Next year we'll come up with some kind of fence, but for now we're grateful to the Andersens for letting us share with them. (And yes, this was taken before the frost. I've been meaning to blog it for awhile but haven't got around to it until now. At least it was me who blogged this time. I do feel guilty that this is my first blog in a month.)

Hi - I'm in Delaware...

cI put way too many pics on here, but we haven't had pics forever..

San Juan Capistrano [Sunday]

Best Buddies, Kelly and Rachelle - Thanks for the bed!

Where I come from, we HATE trees that just won't die!

Joep and me at the pier - He looks more American than me in this one...

I love that Kappa jacket.

Mmmm... just getting started. We ate dessert FIRST! Boo yah!

Scoring 'husband points' for the wanna-be surprise vacation [read prior post]

She totally didn't know I took this picture...

Double-Decker bus downtown - free

Captain's Reception - Free Fruit Punches!

Awesome

Catalina Island

Delaware

The guy that took this photo had the WEIRDEST accent and had no idea how to run a camera

Ahh, La Bufadora - one of the 7 great wonders of the world

Aguante San Lorenzo!

And we came home to this:
AND THESE!

Kristi's Surprise Vacation

A few months ago, I decided that Kristi and I needed a vacation before we had this third child. I figured that we would have a tough time finding babysitters for our two boys, let alone finding sitters for three kids. So, from here on out, we're consigned to family vacations (which I'm actually looking forward to, but will probably change my tune after the very first day of the very first one).

Another reason why I wanted to do this is that I have seen that our life here in this tabernacle of clay can be a very fickle thing. I could literally pass away any day. Our day-to-day existence really is a blessing from God. I'm sure that a bunch of you reading this know that we had a tragedy in Southern Utah a couple of months ago. I knew several of the people that died in the plane crash, and I knew a few of those that were left behind. My mind wandered a lot the first few days after the accident. I kept thinking of the pilot's 7 year-old son who celebrated his birthday the day after his father died in the plane crash. If you want to read more about what happened, click here. After my soul searching, I decided to take some of our savings and go on a fun vacation before stealthy ninja #3 arrives in Feb. I digress, but I'm really stoked on another boy...

So, I began planning by asking around to see if anyone would want to go on a 5-day vacation with us. Since we would be using our savings, and I'm so cheap, my options were limited. Everyone I asked said that they couldn't go - so I asked if they would babysit my boys while I took Kristi on a very short week-long vacation. One person I asked said yes, but sounded a little worried. I asked him why he sounded so unsure, and his delicate answer was, "Well, they umm... move around quite a bit." My reply, "You mean they're rowdy?" He concurred.

I was planning this even before our trip to Logan for Labor Day, and Kristi was completely oblivious to all of this. I was able to arrange free lodging in So Cal the nights before the cruise, as well as free and secure parking. I informed all of the parents of the kids that Kristi babysits with plenty of time to find other sitters. I had everything all set. Then, about 5 days before the vacation, Kristi and I were talking before bed and she said something about hanging out with Ron and Elaine. I said, "we have our 'special date' on Saturday... maybe they can come too." By 'special date,' I meant cleaning the house for Ron & Elaine (who would be watching our kids here at the house for a few days). I wouldn't let her plan anything for Saturday because I knew she would freak if we left the house dirty. BUT, to my dismay, she got really gitty and said, "Ooh! Are they really coming with us?!" I chuckled and said, "Oh, if you only knew..." To which she replied, "I already know, Jer - Are they coming with us, really?"

At that point, I was like, "HOLD UP! WHAT do you know and WHO told you?"

Then, I found out that when we left our phone chargers in Logan, after her phone died, I lent her my phone 'for emergencies' since we don't have a home phone. She turned it off and went about her day. She turned on the phone and saw 4 voicemails. She just knew they were from me trying to get a hold of her. Well, they weren't - she must have forgotten that we were chatting on google talk like every 20 minutes that day...

One message was from her brother saying that he would watch our kids, one was from my buddy in SoCal saying that we could crash at his place, one was from ROYAL CARIBBEAN, and the other was from Ron and Elaine saying that they could watch our kids at our house while we were on vacation. So, it was ruined a full month before we even left!

Did Kristi say anything to me? NO! She just kept to herself - all mums! I felt like I had been played like never before.

Needless to say, the vacation was awesome and well-worth all my troubles. Pictures in the next post.

PS - sorry to be so verbose here, but I really had to get this off my chest and vent to the blogging universe. Now, I believe I am at peace...

One More Man in the Family

Yes, we are having another boy. I am pretty excited. When we saw the ultrasound, Noah and I said "woo hoo!" Kristi, however, said "boo hoo." She was pretty sad for a few days. But, she is okay with it now. We have a couple names that we are thinking about, but we aren't going to tell anyone. So there! I'll give you a hint, though - he won't be named after a city.

Ooh, I take that back. I just checked google maps, and my favorite name choice appears as a city in MN, NY, IN, and NM. Hmm... oh well - it's still my favorite.

I love my boys so much, and I have a really good time playing with them. I am very excited to have another boy. Kristi wasn't excited until last Thursday. We were on vacation in Mexico, and were talking with a couple from Idaho with 3 boys (oldest is on a mission in Paraguay right now). The mom said that she cried for three weeks when she found out that the third was going to be a boy. But, she told us that she wouldn't have it any other way. She has really enjoyed doing all of the boy things like snowboarding, wakeboarding, hiking, not going to dance recitals, etc. She said that it was really nice because she was always the princess in the house, and didn't have any competition. I laughed at that, but it was what made Kristi the most optimistic about having three boys. The reason being that she could actually raise gentlemen without a daughter. She really wanted a sister to soften up the boys so that they would treat women and girls appropriately and mind how they behaved around females. But, after talking with this lady in Mexico, Kristi realized that the boys can grow up being chivalrous and well-behaved - even if they didn't have a sister. So, she's excited now to raise three good boys that will treat her like a princess (and treat their future wives like princesses).