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GIRL! we found out yesterday that our new baby that is due on May 4th is a girl. we are so excited!

happy early birthday to justin!

since justin's birthday on the 27th is going to be busy with family and the wedding dinner for his brother, i decided to surprise him and celebrate it two weeks early! he was surprised and it was so much fun. i made him his favorite meal - steak and twice baked potatoes with brocolli, onion, and mushrooms. it was a novelty for us - i don't cook meat much, and steak might happen twice in one year (poor justy). i also made an ice cream cake. it turned out pretty good.

jorgen loved blowing out daddy's candles.

a close up on the cake, there were two different types of ice cream in there...the big brown blob is actually a delicious little caramel filled chocolate cup - it was yummy!!

latest project

i love sewing! i have decided to take on sewing lately and have had so much fun with it. a few weeks ago i made four baby hooded towels with cute ribbon on the hood and they turned out so cute. sorry if i sound like i'm bragging - i'm really not trying to, i am just surprised that i can sew (well, sort of:D). who would have thought being a domestic housewife would be this fun! i don't think i'll ever get into making clothes but i do love making other things. justin's birthday is two weeks from today and since it is his brother miles' wedding dinner and it will be so busy with all of his family here i decided to celebrate it tonight...he doesn't know so this will be fun! he mentioned awhile back that he wanted one of his favorite scriptures on something in our room so he could remember it and i haven't done anything until now. i made cute hanging signs (see, i don't even know what to call the crafts i make:D) to go above our bed (no frames aloud due to earthquakes). i am proud of them - i love the fabric! they look simple but there were so many different steps and details involved. thanks to all of my siblings for helping me out with this one - they answered so many questions for me! love you all! happy birthday to justin!

we elfed ourselves!

check out this site - and if you do one too - please share! happy holidays!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1142011244

handsome boy!!!

i don't know if i've ever seen a handsomer boy!!!

daddy getting him ready for church...

a couple of good poses for the camera...


just playing while mommy and daddy get ready too...

if you didn't notice in the other pictures he has a really bad scare across his face, mostly on his eye. he was riding his trike yesterday and crashed into the tree. neither justin nor me saw it when it happened but by the position of the trike when we came to the rescue, it looked like he was doing some serious triking! it was flipped upside down and twisted all funky. we think he scraped his face on the tree. he was a good sport, he didn't cry that much....it looks so sad though! poor kid. so with the scrape on his face, i decided to really dress him up today. the jacket is going to stay at home because it is still pretty big on him but it looked too cute to not take a couple of shots while he had it on. he is so handsome. just like his daddy!

climbing on the couch

jorgen loves to climb!! one of his favorite places to climb onto is the over-sized chair by the christmas tree.



he also loves climbing on top of the couch to see pictures of his grandparents and then turn on and off the light while he's there. it's so cute to see him point to each of his grandparents - he loves and misses them so much!!

i decorated our tree with some random ornaments i've received in the past and then bought a bunch of bells to go all over it so jorgen would have fun with them too. he jingles them all the time and moves them around.

i love fall

i love this picture! it totally represents fall here in the bay area. a lot of trees are deciduous and changing colors and losing leaves while palm trees and evergreens stay simply as they are. can you see the green palm behind the colorful trees?

this doesn't necessarily represent fall - just a beautiful fountain in a beautiful courtyard at stanford.

fun with dad

jorgen loves to be with his daddy. justin was checking some sports scores on the internet and jorgen grabbed his stool and brought it over to dad and climbed up to see what he was looking at. it looked so funny to me - like jorgen really was interested in the scores or something.

justin had fun taking pictures of jorgen in his robe. the people i nanny for gave this to us and it looks so cute on jorgen. he looks like he warming up or down for boxing or something.

maybe he was warming up for his circus performance or his motorcross competition - he loves to balance on his harley rocker.

'tis the season ALREADY!

yes, that's right, i already put up our tree! i actually just bought this tree today and couldn't be more happy with it. i've never had so much fun 'fluffing' a tree. maybe because i've never had my own family tree. it's actually an 'entry way tree', but it suits our apartment just perfectly (who's entry way has room for this big of a tree - well, maybe my parents' old home;D) jorgen enjoyed the Christmas music and watching me put the tree up - with the occasional 'don't touch, jorgen.' ;) this last weekend i actually put up all of our nativities. most people think that the day after Thanksgiving is when you start thinking of Christmas decorations and music but i like it the day after Halloween! justin is sweet to let me do all of this despite his instinct to do it closer to Thanksgiving. i just love love love this season! i do miss utah's weather that makes it feel even more like Christmas time but i can't complain with the weather i'm in now - simply pleasant!


my parents gave us a little people nativity scene last year and i saved it until now to open it and it is jorgen's new favorite toy. he loves pushing the angel and hearing 'away in a manger' and seeing the star light up. thank you so much mom and dad for giving that to us! i am going to take up one of my mom's hobbies - collecting nativity sets. it started with the first one i bought in ukraine and now i have eight so that's a good start. i won't come close to the number of nativities as my dear mother though:D.

hope this gets all of you into the Christmas spirit! (although i know my parents have already started - they put up their tree in Russia two weeks ago...they're so funny! - i guess we all know who i get it from).

this was our first annual tree decorating fhe. for our activity we decorated our tree with the few ornaments we have (courtesy of dr. and mrs. bennett-last year's office twelve days of Christmas). we'll have to get some more decorations but it's hard to decide what we want it to look like. we don't want it too themed - we like more rustic, old fashion trees.....we'll see what we come up with-if anything;D

for halloween we borrowed a costume for jorgen from a friend and jorgen was a little devil, i was an angel, and we were justin's bad and good conscience. it was a lot of fun.



jorgen LOVED looking at himself in the mirror.


jorgen LOVED getting candy. we went first to the law school because they had a mini trick or treating activity for kids. jorgen was the first kid to every door and knew exactly what to do - walk in, smile, point and ask for the colorful bag of candy, and reach in and grab a piece of candy, blow a kiss to say thank you. he can make anyone smile with those kisses!


"goodbye" hope you all had a great halloween! we sure did!

the look

funny picture, funny moment, funny look, and funny kid! not to mention funny mommy for letting him run wild in his diaper!

pumpkin patch

last friday we visited the local pumpkin patch. we had a lot of fun taking pictures of jorgen but we soon realized that we wouldn't be purchasing a pumpkin from this posh patch. the cheapest pumpkin was $1 and was the size of my fist...all the other pumpkins ranged from %25-$40 depending on the size! can you believe that? for a pumpkin!!!! people think they can charge so much here in palo alto! it is almost funny!




these last two pictures are my favorite! jorgen loves to tickle us and every time we say tickle mommy or daddy, he puts his hands in front of him like this and scrunches his face and makes a squealing sound. it's funny how he mimics us-that's exactly how we tickle him!

more park

i think it's pretty apparent that we love going to the park! every once in awhile i take my camera because it is so fun seeing jorgen play. he loves playing there!

random games

jorgen has a few new games he like to play. the first isn't really new but it is worth noting. he gets his favorite blankie and puts it over his head and walks around like a little ghost. he tries to go into his room and then out into the family room. when he's in the family room surrounded by his toys, he tries to play with the toys while he is being little mr. ghost. i caught him with my camera finally and he was trying to read while under the blanket. so funny!





just yesterday he figured out that the hutch doors open! he usually just spins the knobs around and around. since i don't let him open any of the kitchen cupboards i figured it would be fun for him to have one that he can play in so i took out all the breakable items and not he throws his toys, my water bottles, and anything else he can in there. he even gets inside it...the problem is he can't get out....hence the whiny face.

I've been 'tagged' a few times to fill out different questionnaires and I never did them so when I got tagged again, I decided to give it a shot...here are the results...

1. Q~Best thing you cooked last week. I've been living off of these mock-pizzas the past two weeks. You get a wheat tortilla, put yummy spaghetti sauce on it, fresh basil, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, even some spinach is good and then grate some cheese on it and put it in the broiler and in a few minutes you have a yummy, pretty healthy personal pizza! You've got to try it.

2.Q~ If money and time were no object, where would you go and with who? Probably at this point I would go to Samara, Russia to visit my parents and I would of course go with Justin and Jorgen (plus since money isn't an object, I would fly all of my siblings and their spouses and kids with us...get ready mom and dad!).

3. Q~ When was the last time you cried? I think last week. Can't remember the particulars but it doesn't seem to matter lately, my emotions have been riding a roller coaster--though not as bad as last pregnancy...thank goodness!

4. Q~ 5 things you were doing this month 5 years ago. Hmmm, that's hard. I was at BYU enjoying my crazy roommates, studying hard, trying to figure out life and being guided to send in mission papers. I think I was sort of dating this funny and yet random kid (named Justin but with no relation to my wonderful hubby). That's about it. Oh, and probably driving back to Salt Lake a lot to spend time with my parents. I love them!


5. Q~ 5 things on my to do list. Buy a black bunk bed (any leads?), go to IKEA to buy organizers for Jorgen's closet (with the new one coming we need something to put the clothes in...i like the hanging organizers ikea has), blow dry my hair (happens once a week), organize our book shelves, clean out our car.

6. Q~ 5 favorite snacks. That depends on what kind of mood I'm in, healthy or not...raw macaroons are my favorite health snack and so is carob, if I'm feeling more pregnant then I like crackers (tomato basil whet thins..mmm mmm good), candy and randomly enough...celery.

7. Q~ 5 bad habits. Spending too much time on the computer, letting the car get dirty, asking too many questions (ask Justin about that one:D), picking my lip (gross)...I have many more but my brain is freezing up right now.

8. Q~ 5 favorite foods. Any delicious raw meal, sushi, ice cream, nachos, my yummy morning green drink (spinach, romaine, apples, carrots and sometimes lemon and ginger all juiced to perfect yumminess).

9. Q~5 Places I’ve been. Ukraine, Fiji, Australia, Japan, London and many more...thanks mom and dad for taking us so many places!

10. Q~ 5 fave memories. Christmas in the Virgin Islands, summer trip back east to see the church sites mixed with lots of other sites (my dad is the best planner!), countless mission memories, getting engaged in Tikal, Guatemala, every day with Jorgen makes a favorite memory.

I'm supposed to tag someone else-just feel free to do it if you want to;D

play date at the park

jorgen and i went on a play date to the park with a friend, mallika and her two boys, niko and kishan (i got to know her because she was looking for someone to watch her two boys once in awhile. i still watch her boys once in awhile and we also do play dates about once a week...i love her and her boys!!). jorgen loves her two boys and they love showing jorgen around and jorgen just follows them everywhere. mallika is very good at taking pictures and is taking a class right now so she wanted to take some of jorgen...these are some of my favorites (i know, "some" you say, there are over ten! what can i say, i think my son is adorable!).



i had the great idea that the boys make a train...well, this was the ending result. jorgen looks a little confused but they all had fun.


this picture makes me laugh. jorgen is running after niko (the older of the two boys) and if you look at the different ways they both run, you might laugh too. niko's legs are close together and he's running rather normally. while jorgen's legs are so far apart and he has this wide-stance run that looks so funny. i image most toddlers run like this but i've received enough comments about his wide-stance that i sometimes wonder. he can't help it if he's built stocky like his parents...he's got thighs that prevent his legs from coming closer together. he's a solid little man!




once again, jorgen looks a bit confused..."mom, what are you trying to tell me?"


my favorite!!!! he is so adorable! i just want to squeeze him!


observing how the other kids are playing. i love all of his faces. he is so observant.


i don't like to see my son sad, but this picture captured a sad moment. look at that lip!