Almond Blossoms

The almonds are in blossom. There is an almond orchard at the end of our street. We can smell the blossoms in the morning. It is pretty spectacular. A week ago these trees were bare. Next week is the Almond Blossom Festival. More to come!

February Happenings

So, February is already almost over and life for the Jungs in Ripon is beginning to find a rhythm. There have been some good stories along the way as well... and just some fun moments captured.

Kara had been wanting a beanie that tied for AJ to wear when we are in Carmel, or in the mountains. Lyndsay got her one to match Morgan's for her birthday. I am pretty sure that Annika is smiling more because she is with her cousin than the fact she has something on her head, because she only likes something on her head when she is cold.

So these three little rascals have become best buds. Morgan and Annika are much more calm around each other than a few months ago (translation: they give each other some space when together and do fine, if not, they get a bit territorial) and Ethan loves playing with them both.

Funny story, I am babysitting all three this week for a few hours, Ethan and I are talking about animal habitats. I ask him where a dog's habitat is, he replies, "A house." I say, "What about dogs that are not pets that don't live in houses?" He is silent for a second then replies, "Their habitat is a dog house." Touche Ethan, touche.

Our living room has a bunch of windows that in the afternoon floods light in, Annika wasn't really cooperating, but we caught a couple shots.

Kara is now a pizza chef. She has tried multiple doughs, and has nailed the thin crust (all have been good save one, which she knew was bad when I could only stomach one slice). Homemade pizza has become a weekend tradition, which is awesome (and cheap!).

The one downside... our pizza stone has absorbed a lot of grease. This morning Kara tried to clean it by placing it in the oven and then cleaning the oven. She leaves for a run and 10 minutes later I am startled to hear the smoke detector go off. Enter the kitchen and smoke is billowing out of the oven. After opening every door, window, garage in the house, we finally got the smoke out. The best news, Annika slept through the entire ordeal, smoke alarm and all. Bad news, the pizza stone is now a lovely charcoal color, we will see how the next round of pizzas taste!

Last weekend was the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. I was very happy with the Pro Am officials for moving the third course played from Poppy Hills to Monterrey Peninsula CC (the other two courses are Pebble Beach and Spyglass), mainly because Kara's parent's house is on MPCC. Last Saturday we went for 24 hours to watch golf and hang out. AJ liked playing ball in the back yard as we were able to watch the golfers pass by.

Some of you golfers are saying, "Is that Stephen Ames and Woody Austin?" Yes, yes it is. The majority of you are saying, "Is that Vince Gill?" Yes, yes it is!

So later in the day we went out on the course and chased down Adam Scott. (My wife could name more of the hot professional golfers there than amateur players, which made me very proud. We did watch Josh Duhamel and Sergio Garcia at Pebble on Sunday, so... at least my wife has good taste in both worlds!)

On our way back we ran into Vince Gill and watched him tee off. As we are waiting I all of a sudden hear my wife singing, "Are you living in an old man's rubble, are you listening to the father of lies..." (this is an old school Amy Grant song, but you already knew that). He tees off and as we leave we see a lady in an orange hat, which Lyndsay had told us earlier in the day was the lady walking with Amy Grant. While I can't confirm it was her, I am pretty sure Kara sang Amy Grant to Amy Grant. Legen- wait for it -dary!

Naked or clothed, Annika is working on her high five.

Due to scheduling conflicts, we went to my parent's today to celebrate AJ's bday. Yes, this is 4 celebrations/ cakes. She definitely has this figured out by now.

"What?"

Annika and Grandpa are good friends, Grandpa loves to play with AJ.

She is getting better at opening gifts, too. "Thanks for the cute outfit Grandmama!"

Annika's first outdoor toy! We have it inside right now and I think she went down the slide about 30 times tonight before bed.

I apologize for the long post, these little stories are the fun memories that brighten our day. Next up, spring is in the air!

We survived!

Well we have all officially survived one week of me being back at work full time. After having been able to spend almost one whole year at home with Annika I was really anxious about leaving her to FINALLY start my nursing career, BUT the first week went really really well and I am excited to keep going back.

One of the reasons it has been so easy is that I know that she is in the best hands ever. Her nana, grandmama, auntie lyndsay and her daddy are all taking turns watching her while I complete my grueling 5 day a week new graduate training. I can't thank you guys enough for watching my baby girl! I'll say it again THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Another reason it has been so easy to go to work is that for the first time I am loving what I am doing. I have barely even started, but I can just tell that this is going to be a good fit for me. However seeing all those babies being born is only going to increase the number of little ones I want...sorry babe!

After our first full week of work/baby duty Eric, Annika and I headed to Pebble for a night to catch some of the AT&T pro-am. The weather was gorgeous and we even got to go out a couple of times and walk MPCC and Pebble and catch some of "our" favorites... adam scott, sergio, phil...good times.

Needless to say we were exhausted after a fun-filled week.

New Video, Annika is now 1!

Lot's of new video, lot's of good memories. We can't believe our little peanut is already 1, what a great year we have had.

Annika's First Birthday

Its hard to believe that a year has passed since we headed to the hospital in anticipation of the birth of our little girl. We stayed home until about 11 p.m. on Tuesday Jan. 27th 2009 watching recorded episodes of American Idol and trying to decide whether we should actually go to the hospital. I was a stubborn laboring women who didn't want to be sent home from the hospital because she had not progressed enough or was in "false labor." Finally eric convinced me to go and after an exam in triage we were told that we would be staying. That moment was surreal. We knew that we would be leaving the hospital with a real live BABY. We had no idea what we were in for. Parenting has proven to be every bit as difficult AND every bit as rewarding as we could have imagined. When people ask me if being a mom is what I thought it would be I usually respond by saying it is the hardest "job" I have ever had but that it is also the most fun and rewarding. I often ask Eric what we did before we had Annika...how did we fill our days?!

We have been blessed with such a fun-loving happy little girl. Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear from someone what a happy baby we have. She squeals when she sees pictures of the people she loves...aunties, grandmama, grandpa, nana, papa, cousins, friends, and especially herself:). She laughs when her mommy and daddy act like fools to entertain her, but only her cousin ethan can get the really good belly laughs out of her. She says mama and dada and bebe (I think she says it in spanish:)). She loves dogs and cats. She loves to play the piano and sing. Her very favorite activity is rearranging furniture (for some reason she loves pushing our chairs around). The more people that are around her the better. She loves airports...I think its the people watching she loves...BUT when she is done, she's done (just like her mama). She loves blueberries more than anything. She is very ticklish. She is a talker. She is precious and we couldn't have asked for a better first year with her. Annika your mommy and daddy love you very very much and can't believe that God has entrusted us with you.

For Annika's first birthday we decided to make a trip out of it to see friends and family in Arizona and San Diego, which meant two birthday parties. We saw our little girl grow up so much in one week. She knows how big she is (so big), she knows how to say Bella, and she knows how to devour cupcakes! Most importantly, she knows how to walk! Yes, Annika's first steps came in a bunch of 5 and she has been off to the races, but only when she wants to. We are clearly in new territory.

Heather threw Annika a birthday party at her house with some their friends, it was a lot of fun and Annika loved her new outfits and cupcakes. Aunt Heather and Co. made her birthday memorable, thank you!

It took all of 1.2 seconds after blowing out the candle for her to dig into the cupcake, and about 90 second to finish it off.

Ok, so here is a little bit of reality when hanging out with Heather and David, you never know what David will do next, as evidenced by this male stretching exercise, which as you can see, even Annika thinks is a little strange.

I love my new outfit from aunt bam! and sleeping on the couch waaaayyy past my bedtime.

Part two of our trip was to San Diego, where Annika got to wake up seeing her best friend Harper. It took a second to sink in, but once they realized who they were seeing it was like old times. Audi threw a great party, from food to decorations. It was a great memory and fun to see everyone.

"I have this cupcake thing down!" "Bath time is a party!"

Helping mom on the Wii and letting us know how big she is.

And finally, a lovely little sunset from our backyard. This time of year is mostly foggy, but when the fog clears the views are great. Yes the valley can be very pretty:)

Food

I love cooking. I come from a family of cooks and I definitely caught the bug. My grandmother had the most amazing garden with every kind of fresh fruit and vegetable you could imagine and she took full advantage of all of those fresh offerings by putting together the most delicious meals for our family every Sunday afternoon. My mother is an amazing cook as well. She doesn't use many recipes. She just gets a general idea of what ingredients to use and then creates amazing dishes that I haven't quite figured out how to replicate, though not for lack of trying! My sister also loves to cook and is so good at trying new recipes and finding meals that appeal both to little ones and big ones.

It is only natural that I would find comfort in the kitchen. Before we left San Diego I was a little sad in anticipation of having to say goodbye to all of our friends so I prepared lots of meals that reminded me of northern California to help me to get excited about our move. Artichokes, asparagus, sour dough bread, yummy cheeses, good wine and lots and lots of garlic.

It took me a while to get used to my new kitchen here, but I finally feel like I'm back. We had our neighbors over the other night for dinner and it got me excited about cooking again. In my book there are few things better than dinner parties. It all started with a delicious glass of Talbott Kali Hart Chardonnay which provided inspiration for a yummy shrimp pasta. A good glass of wine...or any beverage you happen to enjoy...can be a great source of inspiration in the kitchen. Pour yourself one and lose yourself in the joy of cooking!

p.s. I could give you a million excuses for why I did NOT get up early the other morning (or all subsequent mornings) like I said I would...but bottom line is I am still fully enjoying my morning sleep-ins. That will soon come to an end so I decided I might as well take advantage right?

Sleep

So I am probably the most spoiled mommy in the world. I know that. My husband gets up at 7 pretty much every morning with our baby and lets me sleep until 8/8:30...sometimes 9. In fact, on Sundays when we used to go to the 11 o'clock church service, Eric would often let me sleep all the way through Annika's morning nap and we wouldn't wake up until 10 when it was time to get ready for church. Yep, spoiled. As a result I toss and turn until at least 12 every night trying to fall asleep. Being that I will be starting work in about a month and will be working days for at least the first few months I have decided that I need to retrain myself to be a morning person. Incidentally, I used to have no trouble getting up early...during my pregnancy my best hours of sleep were from 4 am on, so I got used to sleeping later in the morning. My goal is to be out of the house tomorrow morning by 7:30 for my morning run. There, now that I've said it to all of you I may actually be motivated to get my butt out of bed!