A weekend with the Chengbergs

We were able to spend President's Day weekend with Lance's brother Scott and his family (Susan, Bryce, and Cooper) in the San Francisco Bay area.  Isaac was thrilled to have new people and toys to play .  We enjoyed going to a local Redwood grove, trying lots of new food, and just spending time with family.  It was a fabulous weekend.

January Utah visit

We had so much fun visiting our Utah cousins in January.  Isaac loved spending time with Gramma Nita too.  It was our last free flight for Isaac which is good and bad.  Bad because now it will be more expensive to go home, good because it really can be torture to have an almost-2-year-old on your lap for any amount of time in such a small space.  We can't wait to visit again!

New Camera

Here are a few silly pictures I took using some of the different features on our new camera.  I've had fun playing around with it!

Santa Monica

Earlier this month we made it out to Santa Monica.  It was our first trip to the beach since moving here, surprisingly, since it was only about a half-hour or so from our house.  We got there pretty early and it was SO foggy (and pretty chilly), but by 10:30 AM or so it was sunny and beautiful.  We wished we had planned to stay longer (but I didn't want Isaac to miss his coveted naptime).  Isaac had such a great time in the sand and I had a great time playing around with our new camera.  We are excited to hopefully make it back soon!

Travel Town Museum

LA has a cool outdoor train museum called Travel Town.  You can climb up into the engines and into some of the cars.  They also have a little train that goes around the park (like at Hogle Zoo).  Isaac has been in a train phase lately, so he thought it was great!  It was a great FREE place to spend a Saturday morning!

Christmas 2011

We had a nice quiet Christmas this year (although we missed not being with our family for the first time!).  Isaac knew exactly what to do with the wrapped presents (and even had himself a little practice run a few days before...naughty).  We had all day to let him enjoy his new toys.  I was so excited to get him his little Radio Flyer ride-on toy, but when he came down the stairs he was most excited about the Cookie Crisp...the simple pleasures!


We had fun decorating our own gingerbread house.  One of our friends gave us the kit.  My family always makes gingerbread houses every year, so it was fun to make our own.  I think it turned out pretty good, although Isaac wanted to put all of the candies in his mouth before he put them on ;)

Winter Wonderland

We woke up to a fresh layer of snow in the morning when we were in Utah before moving.  We probably had 4 inches or so.  The neighbors were out playing in it, so I suited Isaac up and ventured out.  He is in a phase where he needs to be held most of the time, but he finally warmed up and started to play in the snow a little.  Last time it snowed he refused to even touch it.  The neighbors have a very miniature hill that we went sledding down.  I think it was a little too scary for Isaac, but he didn't want me to go down without him.  We had a fun day in the snow!

Change of Scenery

In November we went from this...

To this...

We've enjoyed our time in California (especially the weather).  It was fun to take Isaac to the L.A. Temple grounds.  We were glad they already had their Christmas lights up.  Who doesn't like palm trees with Christmas ornaments?!

Time for an update!!

This was by far my longest hiatus from blogging; it has definitely been a busy 2+ months!  Since my last post, Lance drove out to Los Angeles with whatever earthly belongings we had with us in Utah and had the sole task of finding housing for us within a 3 to 4 day time period and unloading everything from our PODS (pretty much everything survived its 4 months in Compton baking in the storage unit).  He found us a great little place in Alhambra which is absolutely perfect for us.  I'm glad it was him who had the responsibility of choosing and not me.  He did an awesome job! 

Meanwhile, Isaac and I stayed back in Utah alone at my mom's house (who left for Switzerland the same day Lance left for Los Angeles).  I started a new job a few days before because I thought we weren't moving until the end of December, so I had to round up all sorts of babysitters while I did my training (thank you everyone who bailed me out on short notice).  We flew out a met Lance a week after her left and actually had a place to come home to (and not a hotel thankfully!) 

Basically from that time until the end of the year I worked from home every pretty much every day, mostly in the mornings before Isaac woke up or during nap time, but also had to have a babysitter a few days a week.  There was no time for blogging or really ANYTHING I normally did while at home.  I think both Lance and I both appreciate having at least somebody in charge of running the house full-time after this short stint of us both working.  We eventually got out of all of our boxes although there is still one closet that was the depository for everything I didn't know what to do with in an attempt to be rid of the sea of cardboard boxes.

I have cut back my hours and hope to have more time to do all of the OTHER things that I love to do, including exercise, blogging, and having a somewhat clean house.  I have a greater respect for all of you working moms out there!!!  Hopefully I'll be back to having somewhat regular posts because I love taking the time to reflect on all of the fun things going on in life right now with a darling and energetic almost-2-year-old!!

Glasses

Isaac is so much fun. He really loves to joke around. He thought it was pretty funny to wear my glasses.

HE PASSED!

Lance finally got his California law exam score today and he passed!!!!  He will start his job on November 14th and is driving to LA on the 1st to find housing and finish up a few things with his work before he starts.  It has been quite the roller coaster ride.  I just got a new job (a temporary job where I can work from home!!!) yesterday and I start Monday, so Isaac and I will have to stay behind until I'm done with training and have a computer set up in California.  Let the craziness begin!

The Children's Museum

I am so glad I just broke down and got a 6 month membership the the Gateway Children's Museum. We were able to have a lot of fun and kill a lot of time while Lance was studying. Isaac is infatuated with lawnmowers and always has to take one for a spin when we are at the museum. We even got to go to the Children's Museum in Las Vegas last weekend when we were there for Lance to take his exam. It has been money well spent!

September Stunk

So, September stunk! These are really my only pictures from September (and they were taken on the 29th!). We had a Murphy's Law month...everything that could go wrong basically did (or at least that is how it felt...most things in all reality were fine, but some of the big things were NOT!). Lance was supposed to start his job in California in August, but California decided to hold all of the exam results "until late November or early December" according to their message (you cannot actually talk to a human being at the California Board of Pharmacy), so he couldn't get his license, therefore he could not start his job. Meanwhile, most of our belongings were in a P.O.D.S. container in Compton, L.A. Isaac started growing out of all of his clothes and shoes that we brought for the summer (and we didn't really bring winter clothes with us). We endured a very hectic household at my mom's with house guests from England for 3 weeks while dealing with doctor's visits and other disappointments. Lance had several debilitating migraines on very inopportune days, including the day before he was supposed to head to his exam in Las Vegas. It turned out he had to cancel the trip almost literally last minute because he noticed his middle name wasn't spelled out on his Social Security card and he wasn't eligible to take the exam until he got a new card (it didn't match his driver's license EXACTLY)! On the bright side, at least he wasn't already in Vegas when he realized it. Other pluses from September were being around family, beautiful weather, plenty of time to spend as a family, and me being blessed with temporary work. Having said that, I still wouldn't want to relive that awful month!!

Puppy Love

So, I reverted to my unemployed crochet-a-holic phase since we've been at my mom's. I was like this in Denver when I was unemployed and pregnant with Isaac. I am essentially unemployed again since I have Lance and my mom to help with Isaac so much. These puppy slippers were my first project, and Isaac really loved them. Unfortunately, the loop stitch you use isn't very secure (or I was doing it wrong), so they got all stretched out with holes all over them after only a few wears. He'd want to wear them to bed and by morning his toes would be sticking out the ends. I finally just threw them away. Too bad they weren't functional, but they sure were cute.