Friends

Jonah has made some great friends in the ward and so have I. My friend Bethany and I have been doing babysitting trades for a couple months now and it has worked out really well. I watch her daughter, Nevaeh (heaven spelled backwards), while she works a couple nights a week and she watches Jonah so I can attend art classes or work on the building for my studio trade. Nevaeh is almost one and is heavier than Jonah and almost as tall! It's been fun to see her progress from a crawler to a toddler. She has helped Jonah learn how to share better, though he still has his moments of weakness...like stealing her sippy cup.


We are very sad that they will be moving to Ohio in October but it definitely seems like the right place for their family. They will be missed!!!


The Andre's recently moved into our ward to start medical school at UC Davis and they have a daughter named Emree who is just a week apart in age from Jonah. When I ask Jonah if he wants to go see Emree he immediately grabs my hand and drags me to the door to take him at once. It's really adorable. They live just two minutes away from us so it's convenient to carpool to activities together. We have a great time with them!

Jonah's weakness with Emree is stealing her binki.

Fortunately Emree takes it pretty well.

Thank goodness for friends! We have seen Jonah improve socially through his interactions with his new friends. He is doing a lot better in nursery and we think by next week we may be able to leave him in there! (Fingers crossed) I enjoy the time with other moms too. I have learned a lot from them and appreciate their willingness to share rides, advice and time with me.

Utah trip

In April we had many good excuses to go to Utah: My sister, Christi, was graduating, as was Ryan's brother, Jeff, and Jeff and his wife Lili were having Penny's baby blessing the same weekend! So we caravanned with Ryan's family to Utah and had a splendid trip.

On our way back to California we stopped at the Salt flats and got some memorable pictures:








Yes, my husband walks on water.

WARNING!

The following photos may increase Jonah withdrawal:

I apologize for my long absence from the blog. There were many contributing factors but the three most significant were:

1) Jonah broke my computer

2) My camera charger disappeared

3) Our Flip video camera broke

While we have not fixed my computer (it is beyond repair) the Ribeiras have graciously given us one of there old desktops so I have access to internet again during the day when Ryan has the laptop. Woohoo!!! I also bought a new camera charger so I am taking and downloading pictures again. We can't replace our Flip yet so don't expect videos any time soon.

Sharing with George

Since we don't have kids around for Jonah to play with, George is the next best thing.

Samuel Brannan

My painting of Samuel Brannan won third place in the California Pioneer Heritage Art Competition. Jeffery R. Holland attended the opening reception with his brother, Dennis Holland, who is president of the Society. I didn't get to shake his hand or anything but it was surreal standing less than 10 feet away from him!

One of the greatest challenges of this competition was deciding who to paint. There were many influential California Pioneers that I was drawn to, but I finally decided on Samuel Brannan. If you are interested in learning more about him I've included a brief history of this controversial pioneer:

Samuel Brannan was a young printer in New York when he was selected by Orson Pratt in 1845 to lead a large group of Saints on one of the longest religious voyages in history. The Ship Brooklyn sailed from the Brooklyn Harbor to San Francisco, a voyage that took nearly six months! He played a key role in starting the Gold Rush of 1849 by his waving a vial of gold around the streets of San Francisco and announcing the discovery of gold at Coloma, on the American River, and announcing it in his California Star that he hired riders to carry east to the states. He became one of the state’s first millionaires, was instrumental in developing the Napa grape and wine area, helped finance the railroad over the Sierras, and owned considerable real estate.

Unfortunately he was later excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After abandoning his beliefs and the principals of his religion, his life style changed to the degree that his wife divorced him and his life continued to spiral downward until he died penniless in San Diego. His body lay unclaimed in the county morgue for two years until his nephew came forward and buried him.

His story is a tragic reminder that worldly wealth is fleeting and that we must keep our eyes fixed on eternity. He could have done so much to build the kingdom of God with the opportunities he was blessed with. I hope that we will all use our talents and opportunities to further the work of the Lord, and that we will acknowledge the Lord's hand in all things.

I took some photos of my painting along the way. I wanted the painting to look period appropriate so I painted it all with clean, hard edges, kept the colors muted, and went as realistic as my three-week time limit allowed. I'd say that everything about the process, except drawing the map, was pretty fun.

Big Time Baby Model

A few weeks ago I saw an intriguing ad on Craiglist entitled, "FREE Family or Kids Portrait" so I checked out the photographer's website and was VERY impressed with his work. He (joSon) wanted to photograph 2-3 families while he was in Sacramento for one day so I responded with photos of Jonah and our family. I was so excited when he called to set up an appointment. Apparently he got around 50 responses and we ended up being one of the two lucky families!! He just sent us the pictures. Doesn't Jonah look older? And insanely cute?

JoSon is primarily a commercial photographer but is working on this artistic family project on the side. He was so great with Jonah and was laughing the whole time. The most embarrassing part was when he insisted on taking some photos in our bedroom, despite the serious clutter. But overall it was a great experience. For ALL the photos go here.

Jonah was standing on the kitchen island for some of these photos which made me pretty nervous but I was right there to catch him.

I carefully removed his favorite blanket from this photo and replaced it with the bear.

Jonah loves brushing his teeth!

Not your traditional family portrait but we like it.

He's ONE today!!!

Happy birthday, Jonah! This year has gone really fast and we have enjoyed watching Jonah develop into an active and intelligent little toddler. He practically runs everywhere now! For pictures of his b-day, please see my sister, Merilee's post here. Ryan has our video camera with him in DC so I can't upload the new videos. And I left my camera charger in Ryan's backpack! So thank you Merilee for your wonderful post and I will add more pics and videos soon. We had a wonderful time "monkeying around" with our families! And no, we didn't do his hair like that for the party. But I think it's great that we can do his hair like that! He's got so much hair! WE LOVE YOU, JONAH!!!