Jennifer's 22nd Birthday

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Goodness, I can't believe it's been so long since I've written. Things have been busy. Mat and I had found out we were pregnant in March and then I had a miscarriage. It was heart breaking. I didn't deal with it very well. Mathew was a complete sweetheart though. He bought me my camera I've always wanted, and suddenly taking pictures began to heal my dispair. I have thoroughly enjoy capturing people's special moments and milestones.


At the Wave we played in the pool the whole time. At least it was heated.

 I turned 32 this May and we definitely had fun celebrating. I spent some time in Vegas with some friends. It was wonderful, sitting by the pool, sharing meals with friends and relaxing. We went to the Hotel Del Coronado with my family, and then Mathew and I had a weekend down in San Diego, just us. It was a very memorable birthday.



Mother's Day at Merry Go Round

Mother's Day at Disneyland's Rainforest Cafe

For Mother's Day (Saturday before) we went to Disneyland with my family. My sister Kelly, my mom, Vicky and all the kids went. It was a lot of fun. Mathew, Will and I stayed at a hotel near Disneyland so he could take a nap and we could stay late at the park. It was honestly the best decision ever. Sunday, on actual Mother's Day, Mathew, Will & I went back to Disneyland for the morning. It was really nice to relax and enjoy the characters and get on some rides right away. Will even rode his first rollercoaster that morning. He rode Thunder Mountain like a champ. He sat between Mathew and I and it was a blast.

Later on Mother's day we took Mathew's mom and his grandma (Ramona) to dinner at the Merry-Go-Round Chinese restaurant. We had a nice visit and were able to relax the rest of the evening.



Swimming at Cyndel's & Rick's

Cyndel & Kenzie, poolside

Mathew's birthday came full force in June. With his big 30th birthday on the brink, I made sure it was the best yet (per his words). He had not one, but two surprise parties, pilot's lessons, and a big trip to Hawaii. His birthday celebrations expanded over a 5 week period. For 15 days (2x a day, equally 30 items total) he was showered with all of his favorite things and fun moments. We played pool, he got his favorite coffee randomly in the morning, a love poem, a massage, a movie out, a dinner out, and lots of other things. Things have definitely been on the celebratory side over  the last few months.



Counsins!

July is here, and we were in Hawaii this time last week. Hawaii was beautiful and was an awesome vacation. Mathew's brother and his girfriend joined us in all the festivities of Hawaii. We went snorkeling, catamaran-ing, to a luau, drove around the island in a convertible mustang, swimming with turtles, and kayaking. It was perfect.

Birthday Celebration in Escondido

Today we're going on our first real hike as a family. We're super excited! I've never been to horseshoe meadows, and I'm thrilled to take pictures and enjoy a picnic with my boys.

Stay tuned....

Gina & Jeanna Fun

Life brings many people in and out of our lives. I have to say, one of my favorite friendships is with my friend Gina. I've known her for 13 years and we've really become close in the last 4 years. She has a beautiful, fun-loving daughter, Kylee. She is very close to Will's age. Gina also has a baby boy, Blake, that's about to turn 1 year old. Gina and her family are awesome! The only dilemma is that they live in Washington. This year we were fortunate enough to get to be part of their June Vacation.

      Gina and her family came out and we were fortunate to welcome them to LA. We all rode in the car together (all 7 of us) to Gina's parent's house in Marina Del rey. It was so fun to catch up. Nothing can quite describe how completely adorable it was to listen to Will and Kylee. They became the best of friends instantly. We had a wonderful dinner with her family. All of the kids played so well together. Her sister, Gwen, was there as well with her family from Colorado. It was a great way to start the weekend.

 

 When Saturday arrived we all traveled together to Santa Monica beach. This beach is our absolute favorite it because so many wonderful things happened there in our life. We watched and played with the kiddos as we soaked up the sun's rays and enjoyed great conversation. We spent many hours there. Gina was more than burned, but she didn't seem to mind, as long as we kept lathering on the aloe. I sincerely loved our time together. Gina and her family went out for dinner and we took William out to see Brave, the new Disney movie. Afterwards we picked Gina and the kids up and headed to Fullerton for a slumber party. We all crashed out pretty quickly.

First thing Sunday morning we headed to Disneyland!! What's more fun than taking 3 kids to Disneyland...NOTHING! I love how children get so bright eyed and joy-filled when they enter the park. We rode the train that was around the park, where we stopped at It's a Small World. We were able to get on quickly, which was great and the kids were in awe. Then we waited in line to see Marida from Brave.  Lunch was after than, then Toon Town. I think the greatest thing about this visit was that we weren't stressed or rushed to go on any particular ride or be anywhere. We just enjoyed the kids and let them be kids. There's no better way to do Disneyland.

It was truly a fun filled weekend with one of the greatest friends I have. I look forward to many more family adventures in the future.

    

A Bright New Year 2012

With the way the economy is both locally, nationally and in the world it is hard sometimes to see the bright side to the future. Mathew and I try very hard to focus on what's our responsibility and what we can do to prepare and really take hold of what we can to build a bright future for our son and our family. Life has it's cycles. You have moments of triumph, failure and those times that we sit at a plateau.

Will is growing and as we've been attempting to grow our family it is not without deep struggle. We have been trying for nearly 2 years and have come across many hurdles. We cherish William. He is more than we could've ever asked for. More recently we've come to the decision that if we don't conceive in the next year and half, or so, we'll start the adoption process. Mat and I have always been on the same page as far as wanting foster children and adopting so it's not too hard of a decision, but it is a lot sooner than we had anticipated.

My heart aches from time to time about the struggles we've had trying to conceive, but lately I've come to grips with it. I realize there are blessings with every struggle. It has really brought joy in my heart knowing that no matter what, we will have a child in the next couple of years.

On the flip side, Mat's new additional job has turned out to be the best blessing. It's enabled us to get in a place financially that we didn't think would happen for years. We still have a long ways to go but we are so happy that we're in the process of getting out of debt and saving up for a house. We pray that it continues to do well and that not many road blocks come along.

My job has been going great! I love it and it's the perfect challenge. I went to a workshop recently and it was so informational. I really want to grow and learn more in my job/career. We'll see where it goes. I've also been training for a 5k. I know it's not a HUGE goal, but it''s been a tough one for me my whole life. I have not so great knees. I have insoles now and am happy to have new running shoes. So far, it's proven very helpful. I press forward. I will be running in LA in February.

William is growing and learning so much every single day. He's doing well in his two preschools, and loves going. He gets especially excited to go on Friday's to Bishop with daddy. The school there is much more involved and a little more structures. He always enjoys telling me about his friends and what he did when he was there. His vocabulary, manners and kind heart never cease to amaze us.

We've gone Paleo! What you eat changes you and how you feel. We've changed to Paleo in hopes that we're being healthier and more natural. Less sugar, more veggies, meats, fruits and healthy nuts. We have a different way of looking at what we eat and how much. Mat and I just started this, so I'll keep a post about how it's going. We've also been exercising every day.  Mat's been doing P90X II and I've been running and doing Hip Hop Abs. I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping up with how I feel... cause I know it impacts me the next day.

January is halfway through and it's a great new year!
Cheers to a healthy life!

Christmas Rush and Wonderful Family Time

It is no surprise that we were rushing about this Christmas. We were down at my sister's Thursday night, at my mom's Friday night thru Saturday morning and then back in Lone Pine Saturday night. It was such a quick trip, but absolutely wonderful.
I've been sick for about a week now, including over Christmas. On Friday, I tweaked my back, so I wasn't feeling so great. Everything went so smoothly though. Friday I got my hair done with my sister. Afterwards we had "Christmas dinner" with my mom and family. A wonderful ham with scalloped potatoes and fresh green beans. After we ate Mathew skipped out to do some last minute shopping. In his shopping he was supposed to pick up Will's 'big' present. We were getting him a balance bike a.k.a. 'strider bike'. What's so great about this bike? Well, it has no pedals. The trick is to train kids to balance at an earlier age without tripping over the pedals in the process. When we went to see Santa, Will saw the bike and tried it out. He LOVED it. So, we decided we'd get it for him. Well, it turned out that we ended up hunting one down, because the kiosk at the mall didn't have them anymore. We ended up looking all over for one on Saturday. We realized this is probably something we should get used to. I remember being young and my parents doing the same thing. Hahaha...kind of funny to reflect on. We did find one and he does love it.

Unfortunately because I've been sick, and Will's been sick neither of us felt too comfortable to go to the grandparent's house. The last thing we wanted to do is give our sickness to anyone older. It wouldn't be good.
Christmas Eve morning was like Christmas morning with my mom and family. We had breakfast casserole, mimosas and left over ham. It was absolutely wonderful. We open gifts and exchanged lots of laughs and stories. We really had a wonderful time.
After breakfast we packed up and headed out. We still had a few stops along the way, but ended up back in Lone Pine about 7 pm. We went up to Mat's family's to hang out and have some fun. We really enjoyed seeing all of Mat's siblings and his aunt and uncle. We headed home about 930 pm. We stayed up till just after midnight. We made sure Santa got his cookies, milk and letter. It was so much fun putting Will's gifts together and getting everything ready for Christmas morning. We fell asleep by the tree watching Elf. It was wonderful.
Chirstmas morning Will woke up at 5 am crying for daddy. Mathew went and laid down with him. they didn't get back up till 730 am. Once everyone was up we got french toast casserole in the oven and then opened gifts. Will was so funny. He loves opening and playing with each gift before going to the next. It gave us time to really enjoy everything. I don't know if he really had a favorite gift. He was playing with everything and still is.
After gift opening, we packed everything up, including breakfast and headed up to Mat's family's. We ate breakfast and mimosa's and just chatted for awhile. Presents were a crack up. Mat's family is great at gift giving and giving funny gifts as well. Daddy Lutze had me open my gift first because it was a tripod for my camera. I got to use it immediately to video the family opening gifts and cracking up. We really had a great time. It was definitely a very Merry Christmas.
Now that the new year is upon us, it's wonderful to reflect on 2011.