3 more days

I can't believe Christmas is in 3 days, I asked Greg last night what he was doing for Christmas (jokingly) and he said working. HA. We are going to St. George Christmas day to see my family and will be there for a couple days is all. I am so excited though. For those of you who don't know, my dad is moving to Africa in the middle of January and will be there for a few years. So in January my mom is moving to St George for good. Her words were "like I'm staying here without your dad!" She is not really a winter loving person, like me. But I like her anyway. I am flying out of LA on the 7th of January to help her clean and organize her G.R. house so when the movers come it will be easy for them. I am planning on being with her until like the first weekend in Feburary, when Greg will come and get me and Zachary. We are going to miss him, but I'm kinda excited to be around some snow this year. Not sure if we'll see it too much from here on out. It snows some in St. George, but nothing like MN. or northern UT.

Zach, Zack or Zac....

I am doing this blog because everyone spells Zachary's name wrong when it is shortened. OK people, here is how I spell the nickname for Zachary: ZAC. I leave the H out because I don't feel it makes a sound, so if it's silent why add it? I don't put a K at the end because there is no K in his name.... so there you have it ZAC. Makes perfect sense to me, how about you? I think I really notice misspellings because of my own name. I have a Christmas ornament from like 1980 (so I was almost 5!) from my grandparents and they spelled my name wrong! CHRISTA, hello. I was 5. LOL, I still love that ornament.... I just wish it had my real name on it :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas

This is By far my favorite time of year. I really love fall and Halloween, but nothing compares to the: snow, singing carols, snow, frosted windows, snow, Christmas lights, snow, being with family, snow, shopping for those we love, snow, and most of all remembering the true meaning of Christmas. I just love it. For me Christmas is all about nostalgia, I remember so many Christmas's singing carols with my family and sitting up with just the Christmas lights on staring out to the cold, cold night the moon reflecting light on the snow. It always felt so good. So peaceful. Of course these are mostly Minnesota memories, I remember a few Christmas' before that, but not many. I also LOVED the Christmas' on my mission, I was out for 2 and so happy that I was! What a way to celebrate the life of Christ than to be teaching of Him and serving His children. WOW. This year I have felt so blessed and so loved, already :). I love my cute little family, here in LA with me. I love my family who will soon be much closer to me, YIPPEE! I love my friends, I have some who have been with me through a lot of things and I hope I can be there for them too. I hope we all remember the true meaning of Christmas , and celebrate how He would have us, loving each other, serving each other and happy! This is the time of year to forget all our problems and just love, they will be there for sorting out next year, just enjoy being with your loved ones. I know, cheesy, really I don't care though I really love it now. The only thing that could make it better would be to have snow in LA :)

The best day of my life, well almost.

OK, I can't believe I don't have before pictures, along the whole journey I was saying to myself "you should really take pictures." Did I? no. You are probably wondering what on earth is she talking about.... Well when we moved into the house I told Greg he could turn the garage into a 'man cave'. So for the last year and a half (hence the reason why the best day of my life was last Saturday) that has been his project. Last weekend was the grand opening, it was great. It is like a real theatre in there. I'm so proud of him and that he was able to finish, and I'm thankful to his friends who all helped. Especially Joe, who drove down at least 4 times to help, it's a 5 hour drive. He's AWESOME. So is the garage. I will post pictures soon but, for now I'm going to watch a movie in my new theatre. SUCKERS.

Attitude adjusted, I think :)

OK OK OK, so maybe I was being a little dramatic (or maybe not, they were legitimate feelings...) BUT I have made friends here and I DO have fun with them WHEN :) we decide to hang out. We are just all busy with life and I guess I get a little lonely. Since I wrote 'attitude adjustment needed' I have talked to 3 good friends one from our ward here, Lindsey

She is the sweetest and one of the most caring and thoughtful people I know. She helped me to see that my feelings are real and legitimate, but that I do have at least one friend :) LOL. There are a lot of young couples in our ward, some with kids, some without. I tend to think that we should all be friends and hang out all the time, the more the merrier right? I guess this is not a very realistic pov. What ev. The next day I talked to Lisa,

my bff from college years. Ya know she is always on my side and it is hard to find good friends like that. She reminded me that I am totally the 2nd most awesome girl in the world, second to her of course. DUH. How could I have forgotten that? Last night I talked to my bff from high school, who had read the blog and called to see how I was! Anna

I love you. Seriously how many friends can you say you've had since you were 13 and that you still love them the same way? Even though you don't talk every day or even every month, when you do talk it feels like no time has gone by at all? Every time we talk she brings all sorts of perspective into my life, I love her forever for that! I love you girls and thank you for your pep talks and all the love you give me. Sometimes I just forget that life is not always easy or even fun.... But on a more positive note, it CAN be if we make it that way...

Attitude adjustment needed ASAP.

So I have been in LA for over 2 1/2 years now and still don't feel like I'm settling in. I mean moving has NEVER been hard for me, it has always been easy for me to make the adjustment. I think this is because up until I was 10 the longest we'd lived anywhere was about 16 months. So I was used to moving and having to make new friends, it was NEVER difficult for me. I've always been outgoing and friendly. Sure sometimes I still felt alone, but I always knew I had good close friends that had my back, no matter what. Until now. This has been the hardest move I've ever made, LA is a different kind of town with a different kind of people. About 6 weeks ago I about had a nervous break down to Greg about how I AM NOT LIVING HERE FOREVER. But I know and realize that in the mean time I need a serous attitude adjustment. Which I am willing to work on, or was....... I feel like I have tried to make friends since I've been out here, seriously I really feel like I've tried. What I think is more likely is that I've become a babysitter and in turn have babysitters for my baby too (not that I mind babysitting). It is so hard to be so far from family and friends who have meant so much to me in my life. I feel like Church is my only place to make friends and there are some great people in our ward, but lately to me it has really felt like a club. I don't want to fit into it. It seriously feels like high school all over, with all the cliques and back biting. I never really felt like this about church until I moved to UT. The church is not like that out in the mid-west. I think, as far as my memory serves me right we were all friends. We didn't all live around each other, as the ward boundaries are HUGE, but I really only remember one girl causing trouble in the ward. I've heard some horror stories about church in UT, AZ, ID and CA I think, from what I hear it is just like high school. HOW SAD. I'm just glad that I don't have to feel accepted to continue going to church. Young girls do, and I think it is sad when you can't even be accepted at church. The one place you should feel safe................... OK sorry this has gone WAY off subject. Basically I feel like I'm done trying. I've got Greg and that is and should be all that matters. Who need friends anyway right? BOO HISS. This has been my attitude for like the last week and I can't shake it. help.

An eventful week!

Turning 70 is silly. (I made the cake. It was harder than it looks.)

Saying 'Hi" to Cliford at Grandpa Mike's 70th birthday party

My little Dragon, at the ward Halloween party. OMG.

YES. we went to Disneyland AGAIN. I know! We love it there :) This is my cousin Emily's daughter with Jack and Sally, too cute.

Happy birthday baby boy!

The cake and cupcakes that Mel helped me make! They were yummy :)

Look Ma! No hands........ He put his face in it

and after a few minutes he used his hands

Halloween horror night!

Our yearly tradition of going to Universal Studios for a night in October was once again fun & terrifying! I love this tradition, it was one of the first things Greg took me to do when we started dating and we have done it every year since. This was our 4th year, I can't believe it has been that many Halloweens~~~it's spooky.... HAHA. Every year we go with Greg's friends from high school,

I LOVE THEM. They are so awesome and luckily they all have the most awesome girlfriends,

fiances and wives! We have the best time every year. This year was no exception,

here are some creepy pictures:

Pretty sure that they were laughing at me screaming my butt off! :)

Joe is such a scaredy cat! Good thing Rachel is there to save him...

ICKY.

They have really good make-up, don't you think?

World War Z..... Greg has a Zombie plan. Just in case. Lucky for me they like me.

one year pictures

I haven't scanned in the pic's we took yesterday so here are some recent ones that Greg took a couple weeks ago. I Love him.. :)

OCTOBER!!!

I can't believe that today I'm taking my itty bitty baby to get his one year pictures taken! AND that he is not an itty bitty baby, he's huge :(. Where does the time go? I guess when you measure time by milestones in someone elses life it goes really FAST. I love my little family and I hope I can be a good mommy and wifey.

Busy Busy Busy...

Greg and I have a cute little house in Lake Balboa CA. I stress the word little :) In our room we had 2 LARGE dressers, a cal king bed and a night stand. (sorry no before pictures) Talk about cramped! Well my parents had this old bed (at least 30yrs... they think) It is huge, with 6 dresser drawers on each side. so I under took the project of re finishing it! I don't think I really tought it through. It was a WAY bigger and tougher project than I initally thought. Here are some before pictures.... Well these are after I actually already started sanding, if you couldn't tell.

Being silly & walking

an experiment...

I've never loaded videos, so here goes my first attempt.

San Diego!

I'm just gonna say we had fun and put up pictures.

Robin and Joe.

Greg's family is great at rescuing animals, they have cats, rabbits, and dogs, those are just the rescued ones. Recently 2 of the 4 dogs died. Robin was Greg's dog and had the sweetest disposition. When Greg went to Malaysia she came and 'protected' me :). Linda said she just laid down and looked like she was sleeping. She was a good dog and will be missed.
Joe, the sweet, deaf chow who wandered into their lives, and stayed. He got sick about a month ago and I guess never fully recovered. I loved going to Mike and Linda's and seeing him just laying there in the grass. He was such a mild dog and so pretty. He will be missed too.

The other 2 dogs are Clifford and Hardy. Clifford is a dog Sumer found abandoned at a gas station. Hardy, Mike found also abandoned near a hospital. They are both really good dogs too, Hardy just snores really loud. I thought it was Mike the first time I heard it. :)



P.S. these photos were taken almost 3 years ago by Greg.

Pictures of Zachary from April to now!! :)

April

This is at Zuma Beach with Ali's little James! Too cute!

May

Zachary at my cousin Elizabeth's wedding in Oakland.

May
<- At my grammy's Funeral w/ F.B. Grandpa's bff. (I know my eyes are closed, I don't care) ;P

<- at isaiahs baptism, family photo

<- look at all those grandbabies! All boys :)

July
At auntie Jackies and Uncle Teddy's first time in lake county, first time in a pool and first taste of icecream!

Daddy scaring the crap out of mommy, but Zachary loving it!

Loving the ocean.