Some Good News

There are three "good news" to share:

1. The DA of Ventura County has dropped the charges of "practicing medicine without a license" against Marcia. Although this does not mean that she is back in business, it does mean that the Medical and Nursing Board's can no longer use this in their cases against her. It's a step in the right direction. Let's keep her in our prayers... she still has a long road to walk.

2. Jacob is feeling much better! We even headed out on a 5.35 mile bike ride this morning...

3. Lisa has started a blog .... All About the Benjamin's Babies... and now I can see what's happening with my sweet niece and nephews! Thanks Lis. I was beginning to forget what they looked like. Hopefully you can keep it updated! (I know it's gotta be hard with 3 under 5.)

Ummm Watermelon

Jake has discovered a new love for watermelon. He eats it by the fist full. Last night at dinner John couldn't give him some fast enough. It was funny to watch, but I worried a little because he had a lot of watermelon on Monday and ended up with a diaper rash... wasn't sure it was the watermelon or not.

THEN... at 2 o'clock this morning Jake's up vomiting. Poor little guy. He was up ALL NIGHT. It's so sad to see him like that. I wish there were something I could do. I want to assume it was the melon, but he was around a sick friend the other day so... I don't know! He seems like his old self this morning. Thank goodness. Now I will spend the day washing sheets, blankets, and jammies... fun, fun, fun!!!

Let Summer Begin...

Today started with a nice family bike ride (along with the Del's: Heather, Christian -- who is not a maniac on his bike but, "rides fast, but not dangerous", Hadley & Ella) to our ward Memorial Day breakfast. It was a cool morning in the park as we visited with friends and ate pancakes & sausage, fruit, and bagels. What a great way to start the day... good food and good friends! Jake loved playing with Ella, Kyle, Charlotte, and Flynn. They took off on lots of adventures around the park. (Not sure how safe it is for 5 one-year olds to be roaming the park together... they could get into a lot of trouble!)

After breakfast we came home for Jakey to nap, Kelsi to clean, and John to go grocery shopping. Afterwards John went and helped a family in our ward move into their new home.

This afternoon Meme, Lin & Norah, Jessica, Dave & Charlotte came for a bbq. What a relaxing afternoon/evening it was. We truly enjoyed their company and hope to do it again soon. Thanks for coming guys! Congrats on the first trip outdoors with little Norah. You did great! And so did she. Now let's go camping... it's SUMMERTIME!

Dirty Little Boy & Sweet Sleeping Girl
Jake checking out Norah while she naps

Sunday Dinner

It was a nice day at church. We still don't get to attend Sunday School or Relief Society/Preisthood meetings... well at least not both of us. But Jake goes into the nursery in two months... and then I'm sure we'll miss the little guy! :)

Tonight we had a fun dinner with the Reagan's and Keil's. It's always fun getting to know new couples. Thanks for the yummy dinner (Eden) and fantastic cookies (Heather). The Reagan's little Flynn is 2 months younger than Jake and Kyle Keil is a month younger. Those 3 boys had such a good time playing together. It's fun to see how Jake interacts with other kids. He's a fairly social boy and he loves being around other kids. I hope he never loses that sweet, fun personality. It'll get him through a lot of situations in the future.

~Flynn, Kyle, & Jake~

(Jakey found Flynn's old paci in the toy box...)

Special Moments for John B.

Generally I have a list of things I want to accomplish on Saturdays... you know stuff like cleaning, grocery shopping, Costco, laundry, etc. ... the good stuff that gets put off until Saturday so I don't have to go alone with Jake. (Although the Babyhawk will certainly come in handy in those situations once it gets here... I cannot wait!!!) But today was John's monthly Saturday to work so I got the laundry finished while he was out this morning that way once he got home we could go do something fun! It's Memorial Day Weekend, people, everyone should be having fun!!!!

Before we headed out I asked (made) John go through his closet and take out all the clothes he no longer wears. (I did mine too!) My mom and I have been planning a garage sale for months now and I think we've got it set-in-stone for next Saturday. I kept putting it off because I wanted to get our closet cleaned... and now I have. Thanks John, you're the best. Truly.

Once the clothes PILE was jammed into the backseat with Jake we stopped by my mom's to drop it off and then went to the movie theater. We decided to see Shrek 3, we thought Jake might sit through it. And guess what... he did! We were completely amazed. He sat between us and watched the entire movie. He's 15 months old, he never sits still, but he sat there and watched quietly. Every once in awhile he would look up at me and smile. (I really wanted to take a picture of him, but I thought the other movie-goers might get a little upset.) He's cute that boy of mine.

On our way out of the theater we HAD to stop and take this picture. Does anyone understand how excited my John B. is to see this movie? (Although, he won't be camping out for tickets... you can thank me for that!)

After the movie we went to L&L Hawaiian BBQ for dinner. Just so John could feel a bit of home. We both had da kine plate lunch, bra. Ummmmmm, it was good. The atmosphere was nice also -- it makes my desire to return to Hawaii even greater!!! ALOHA.

B.I.N.G. D'Oh!

We saw the commercial for National Bingo Night on ABC a few days ago and thought we should play bingo for our date night tonight. (We're total nerds, we know.) It'd be something new... and maybe one of us would get to yell out "BINGO!" how fun would that be?! Then we would log on to abc.com and claim our prize. Only problem... we never got bingo, we were so close but so far away!!! (We were 1 away on 5 seperate games!) It was still a good time and maybe we'll play again sometime this summer... although I doubt the show will be around very long, it's totally lame.

Just Two Things...

1. I rode 12.5 miles on my bike today with the Biker Babes... right on!
2. Jake is so cute with my grandma. He loves her. He adores her. He makes her happy. I love that.

Early Birthday Gift...

... that probably won't arrived until after my birthday! I'm so excited... late last night John and I ordered my Babyhawk Mei Tai carrier!

I've been eyeing them for months, wishing and hoping to someday own one. I've wanted to be a baby- wearer since before Jake was born, but could never find exactly what I was looking for... until I discovered the Babyhawk. It's perfect - fun and funky, easy, comfortable and strong.

I can use it as a front, hip, or back carrier and it will comfortably hold up to 40lbs. Now I can go on adventures with Jakey and have him safely strapped to my back... so he won't be running off. How nice will that be?? No longer will I have to deal with a little boy standing in the shopping cart, or screaming in his stroller as he grabs things off the store shelves. Hikes, airports, life -- all will be easier. And when another baby joins our family (sometime later in the future...) I can strap it to me and still have two hands free to take care of Jake. My future's so bright...

My Babyhawk should arrive sometime in the next 14 days. I chose this adorable red "Cherry Wall Flower" fabric with caramel colored straps. When it gets here I will be sure to show you what it looks like and how cute Jake is in it!!!!

Adventures in Cake Making

picking the flavor

licking the beater


smiling at Momma


another sample with the spatula


wanting more


watching Daddy frost the cake


tasting the frosting


FINALLY! eating with Ruthie

Faker

Jake & John have colds. John has a cough, Jake does not. But everytime John coughs Jake has to "cough" too. It's the funniest thing. Jake is a total faker! He loves to copy Daddy.

Floods and Folding

Bath Time!

Jakey loves playing with his bath toys and splashing the water all over the bathroom. I don't mind the entertainment, it's the flood on the bathroom floor I could do without.

Momma's Little Helper

Jake loves helping with the laundry. His favorite is unloading the dryer and pushing the basket to the front door. When it's time to fold he pulls all the clothes out and throws them around the room. Let's hope he still likes helping with the laundry for years to come... I could do without the throwing of the clean clothes though!

A Day At The Beach...

well, not an entire day but a little while.

After a good, hard bike ride this morning to the post office, a superman super-deep cleaning of both bathrooms by my suburban fantasy husband, and an ok nap by Jake we headed out for a drive this afternoon. We weren't sure where we were headed until we got on the road a little way. (I love those kinds of drives... seriously.)

We decided to head west along the 126 since it's always such a beautiful drive, and today was perfect. As we drove through Fillmore we took a detour through a new neighborhood, just to check out the houses... and they start in the 900's -- and the billboard made it sound like such a great deal! (What is this world coming to when a lame cookie cutter track home costs $900K?!?!) Anyway, I'm digressing...

We found our way up the 101 and got off at Seacliff to work our way down PCH back to Ventura. We stopped for a little while at Rincon to watch the waves and feel the ocean breeze. It was so nice!! There were hardly any rv's there so we were able stop right on the highway and climb the rocks down to the sand. (Note to self: plan a camping trip next year the weekend before Memorial Day... no one's there, you can get a spot!)

Jakey wasn't all that thrilled with our road trip adventure today. He's not feeling well. He's got a cold and didn't sleep well at all last night... up every hour on the hour... so neither did we. I love this being a mom stuff! :)

All Aboard!

Today we took a trip to Travel Town at Griffith Park with some friends from our ward: Jessica & Charlotte, Mandy, Maggie & Ryleigh, and Jane & Abby. Seeing how I've lived in the LA area my entire life and never heard of Travel Town I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But we had so much fun! It's a train musuem--- with real trains! Jake wasn't all that thrilled with walking through the really big ones, but he loved when he got to ride on the little one. He was soooo happy standing next to me looking out the window and pointing at everything we passed. It was adorable. It was Jake, how could it not be??! The whole time we were there I kept thinking about Caleb and Sterling and how much they would love it... maybe on their next visit we can go. It would be really fun with those two train lovers!

Jake in the emptied out rail car

Maggie and Jake looking out the rail car window at the other big train

Jake checking out the wheel

Riding on the little train

Tonight we went to dinner at Souplantation, it was super yummy! I love their seasonal salads. This month it was a strawberry salad and they had strawberry muffins, strawberry & apple crip, and strawberry lemonade... a dream come true for a strawberry lover. Jake totally went to town on the mac & cheese... and his little ice cream cone dessert. Notice his shirt. (You really should see John's too, it's just as bad. And not because he's messy, it's because Jake was in a lovey mood and had to lean over, placing his hands all over John's shirt, and give him a kiss every couple of minutes. It was adorable, but a little stressful for my clean freak.)

Business of Being Born

Apparently this past weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York Ricki Lake (the actress) premiered her latest project, a documentary titled, "The Business of Being Born". In it she documents the birth of her second child-- at home with a midwife. I've only read what you can find here, www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com , but it sounds fascinating... I'd love to see it. From the reviews and information on the site we should all see it. It sounds like the producers did their homework… and guess what they found: Midwives are the way to go for many reasons. (surprise!!) They also found, through research, that birth has become too medicalized (is that a word?? Oh well!) and women’s choices are becoming less and less when it comes to childbirth. Every woman should see this film. Doctors too. Check it out and see what you think.

www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com

Doolittle's Do More...

All I have to say is... Jordin Sparks better win next week.

Time For a Swim

Watch out Michael Phelps... Jake begins swim lessons on Monday, June 18th. It should be lots of fun. He loves the water where he can splash and get everyone wet! It's my hope that these Mommy & Me lessons will teach me how to keep him safe and under control in the pool. It'll be nice if he learns something too! :)

ps- two bike rides today... yes!

pss- yahoo for the Jazz... yahoo for John!!!

psss- Happy 1st Birthday Damien!

Mothering Magazine

I guess the word has finally gotten out about Marcia and her situation. Here's another article written about her in Mothering Magazine...

http://www.motherin g.com/sections/ news_bulletins/ may2007.html# midwife

Interesting Article

So I was just reading on the Yahoo! Group I belong to for Marcia and found this link to an article written by a reporter with the Ventura County Star. I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I kinda feel like it's attacking Marcia and putting her in a bad-light, but then it doesn't.

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/may/12/midwife-disputes-health-allegations/

Read it for yourself... and if you care to have conversation about it, I'd love to. I have lots of things on my mind right now...
1. freedom of choice,
2. freedom of religion,
3. knowing the risks of death (in or outside a hospital birth),
4. who has the right to file charges (goes back to #1),
5. Marcia HAS a sponsoring physician... one who is not affiliated with Simi Valley Hospital (because they won't let her in when she started her birth center),
6. etc.

Plain Ole Monday

Our ride this morning was great... even with all the wrong turns! It just made it last a little longer and I need that! :) When we started riding it was my hope that it would help me lose weight and it is. Yahooo! I wish the pounds would just melt away, but I think it's going to take a little more work. And I'm up for it.

Once home, Jake went down for a 3 hour nap and I was able to get a few things done-- like laundry, showering, and calling my Activity Day girls about our upcoming activity "Tool Time". (I'll tell you more about it on Thursday. Speaking of Thursday... anyone else excited about the season finale of Grey's? It looks so good! The Office does too... and yah for Pam last week...)

After lunch we headed down to see Meme, Lin, & Norah for a little while. It was so good to see Meme up and moving, she's had a rough week. Norah is absolutely beautiful... and she's holding her head up so well. It's amazing how quickly these little babies grow and change. They are born capable of so little and then all of a sudden they're doing so much. Seeing her reminds me of how quickly the newborn phase went by with Jake and how I wanted him to stay that small forever.

This evening we had a yummy spaghetti dinner and Jake was in bed by 8, it'd say it's been a really good day.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day... to Mom, Gram, Grandma, Judith, Grandma B., Lisa Jo, Gretchen, Megan, Cheri, Jenny, Meme, Dani, Meg, Toni Jean, Mema, Debbie, Amandy, Emi, Diane, Melly and Heather, Ruthie, Erin, Elizabeth, Paula, Aunt Linda, Aunt Diane, Jen, Rox, and Stac, Aunt Terry, Aunt Joyce, Aunt Merial, Marti, Christine, Dawn, and Nan, Carrie, Becky, Sarah, and Megan, Patti, Sherry and Colleene, DeeDee, Cathi, Am, and Kelli, Aunt Linda, Sunny and Dawn, Marcia, Mary, Carolyn, Kendra, Carrie, Christine, and Cheryl, Dyana, and Diana, Shauna, Liz, Heather and Heather, Carrie, Amanda, Mandy, Joy, Debie, Karen, Sarah, Jenn, Bonnie, Emily, Jessica, Lisa, and all the other Mother's who have been an example to me in this incredible journey in motherhood.

It was a wonderful day. Homemade blueberry waffles made by John, lots of smiles and hugs from my Jakey boy, as well as tulips (my fav) and tickets to see Keith Urban... yeh!

Nothin' Too Exciting...

The past few days have had a lot of down-time at home. It's been nice, Jakey took a 4 hour nap yesterday (yes, you read that right, 4 hours!) it was wonderful! Today he got a 3 hour one in... another wonderful day!! Although, he had a really rough day with walking/climbing today. He fell off the computer chair flat onto his back (I'm sure he had a headache afterward), he crashed a few times going up or/and down our front step, and tonight he must've ran straight into a corner or something because all of a sudden he starts crying, I pick him up and look at his face and he has this bright red line with a white line in the middle running the length of his face. Poor guy. I bet he's all bruised up tomorrow.

I don't have a whole lot more to tell other than I'm still in the Biker Babes (that's what we consider ourselves!). Today we took a really hard trail and I made it without stopping. I had to stand up to pedal, but I never had to get off and walk. I'm getting stronger by the day. I can feel it. And it feels really good. I'm glad I'm riding. Jake is too.

I do have a Marcia update... for those who are interested. On Tuesday we met at her office to be part of an interview with KTLA, unfortunately due to the Griffith Park fire KTLA had somewhere else to be. We still were part of a recorded interview but as of right now I'm not sure what will be done with it. BUT, while we were there we learned that the judge ruled -- he was supposed to give his ruling within 5 days of the court date: 4/27... 10 days later Marcia's lawyer called to find out what he ruled--- Marcia's license suspension is extended and further restrictions were applied. Now, get this, she may have NO CONTACT with present or previous patients! It's truly unbelievable. Please, keep her in your prayers. I need Marcia. Women need Marcia. And even if it's not specifically Marcia women need, it's the choice she provides. That is something worth praying for.

Heading Home~

Jakey 4 hours old

Meeting Norah

This evening Jakey met Norah. He wasn't interested in her until Mommy held her... then he wanted to poke and push her. It was very cute. At first he sat next to me and poked at her then he got really comfortable and climbed onto my lap with her!

He's been doing that a lot lately... getting comfy and then climbing up... Yesterday we had a birthday dinner for my mom and while we were eating Jake climbed onto one of the chairs and started eating my grandma's dinner. It was so funny! No one stopped him, we just laughed! Then when the strawberry shortcake was served he went nuts and totally chowed!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy happy birthday Mommy dear,

Happy days will come to you all year,

If we had one wish then it would be...

a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to YOU from John, Jakey, and me!!!!

We love you! Happy Birthday

Norah Ann...

...she's here, she's here, she's finally here!

Norah Ann

born May 7, 2007

at 11:48 pm

weighs 7.14 lbs

length 20 inches

Both her Mommy and Daddy are doing well and are on top of the world!!

A brand new eternal family...