¡Cumpleaños Feliz Jay!

I cannot believe my little baby has turned one year old! I'm sure moms around the world can relate. He is such a blessing in our lives. We are so grateful that he is ours! He is learning and growing so much each day. It is amazing to see it all take place. We love you little baby boy! Happy Birthday!
Jay's actual birthday was on a Sunday. After church, Jay crawled up and down the stairs to his endless delight, had a fun bath followed by story time with dad. He loved it all!

Pickles

Lately we've discovered that one of Jay's very, very, very favorite foods is dill pickles. He LOVES them. He would eat them at every meal if mommy would let them. Check him out gnawing on this one!

I Can Sew!!!

When I was back in Utah Jill decided she wanted to teach me how to sew. I was so excited! My mom and I had sewed a few times together, but it had been a long time so it was time to re-learn. When Jill showed me the project she wanted me to make I thought it would be impossible. It turned out to be really quite simple and very fun. I was amazed by the fact that I love sewing! The peice I worked on is a ducky wall hanging. It's hard to tell in the picture but the duckies actually pop out. It's a paper piecing pattern created by Ruth Jensen. Ruth happens to be Jill's neighbor and she is a fabulous quilter. Check out her wall hanging that appeared in the August 2007 Ensign. She really is amazing and I love all of her projects. I can't wait to make more. Jill was an excellent teacher. She showed me what to do and then let me do it. She was very encouraging and made the whole thing so much fun!

Jet Lagged

First off, congrats to Jessie and Tally on their beautiful new baby girl! We're so happy for you guys. Little Kelsey Marie Price was born on Sunday, September 16 and she is just perfect. We can't wait to see her in person! Go to their blog: http://www.tjprice.blogspot.com/ for pics :)
Well we're home from Spain, so happy to be with Mike again! We had a wonderful time in the States. It was great to see so many friends and family. Unfortunately, Jay and I are still on California time after 3 days of being back in Spain. Let me tell you, this jet lag thing is way harder with a baby. It's pretty difficult to explain to Jay that even though it feels like 11 am, it's really 8 pm and time to go to sleep. Actually, the hardest is when he wakes up at midnight thinking his nap is over. This wakes me up, and by the time I get Jay back to sleep (usually around 2 am) I can't sleep! I end up falling asleep around 4 am and then we both sleep way longer than we should, which naturally causes us to repeat the process again the next day. I think Spain is just way too far away from California. I suppose we'll get used to things again eventually. One really good thing about being gone for a month is that Jay has been reunited with all of his toys and he's happy to see them. His favorite thing is still chasing around a small, rubber basketball. It would be climbing the stairs but we blocked them off with a brand new gate we ordered while we were gone. Jay would probably be more angry about the gate but now he uses the box it came in as his small, personal step. For now he's content with that. He definitely misses the animals at my parent's house (Spanky, Lana, and Clark) and the two dogs at my aunts (Chewy and Bach). When we showed him pictures of them yesterday he was so excited he could hardly contain himself! His arms went flapping and he laughed uncontrollably. I was amazed by his recognition. Well, I have plenty more pictures and experiences from California to post (and Utah too). Hopefully I'll get them up here faster than I did our vacation through Greece and Switzerland ;)

Our big boy!

Jay is getting so big and cuter by the day. He'll turn 1 on the 23rd. It's amazing how fast time flies. We sure love our little guy!

California Fun

Jay and I have been in the States for the last little while visiting family and we've been having so much fun! First we went to Lake Tahoe and stayed in Harrah's casino with Great Grandma Erica. It is so beautiful there! Cory came down for our trip too and we had a great time being together as a family. I love my brother so much! He's such a wonderful brother and now he's a wondreful Uncle as well. Jay loves being with him. Grandma's comped room was so pretty and our buffet dinners were excellent as usual, especially the strawberry crepes. We also had fun swimming in the indoor pool - Jay's favorite part. He wasn't too excited about the arcade, but I'm sure he will be someday. Tahoe is such a beautiful area. We love visiting.

The Nevada County Fair happened a few weeks ago. I was so excited to be home for it! I haven't had a homemade corn dog in way too long. Why is it always about the food with me? We also visited the animals. Jay really liked the goats because they got up close and personal.


We also saw a baby camel. It was soooo cute! Mom tried to convince me to put Jay in 4-H someday because it builds character. She's probably right. Maybe we'll have our own little goat or maybe a potbelly pig someday. We had so much fun with my cousins Kristin and Elizabeth at the fair. They are such fun, beautiful, smart, talented girls! I've missed them. Kristin and I even went on a ride together. I was especially excited that they played some Ace of Base on it. It felt like I was back in high school. We enjoyed looking at all of the displays too. I reminisced entering my own vegetables and flowers in years past... okay, so they were my grandma's vegetables and flowers. I think one year I may have entered my troll collection though, so that's something. I really liked the quilt and art displays. There are so many talented people in this world. It's so fun to see so many beautiful creations. We also saw the train museum, but Jay wasn't as interested as we had hoped he would be. We'll have to wait a few more years. We played one round of Bingo and lost but no carnival games. Maybe next time. Kristin and I lost my mom and Jay at one point when they wandered into the enchanted forest while we weren't looking. We finally found them sitting and talking to friends, not even concerned that we were nowhere to be found! :) I guess they figured we'd catch up. One day we were there Kristin, my mom and I stayed at a Vita-Mix presentation for about an hour testing all of their creations. It was so yummy! We especially loved the peanut-butter chocolate shake (okay, not the most healthy of drinks they offered). Zina came to town for the weekend as well. It was so nice to see her! I miss my dear Russian sister. We had a great time chowing down on corn dogs, fresh corn and homemade ice cream together. We saw many good friends while we were there too. I know I'm a nerd, but I do love the fair.

Another fun thing was that my cousin Amy came for a visit. Twice actually. Once alone, then once with her hubby Matt and a few friends. On her first trip out we all went to Asian Gardens (grandma's favorite Chinese restaurant). I loved looking around the table and seeing so many people that I love surrounding me. If only Mike could have been here with us too! He's such a good husband for letting us come. Jay showed off at dinner clapping his hands and recieved an enthusiastic round of applause from around the table. It's fun to have a baby in the family again. He's certainly well loved. He's enjoyed the company so much.

After spending a few weeks in California we went on to Utah. Unfortunately I don't have the pictures of our time there yet, so I'll postpone that blog for a few days. We did get to see Mike for a few weeks while we were there though and we had a wonderful time visiting the the Connellys. I love my in-laws so much. They were so good to us... more on that trip soon. We've now been back in Nevada City for a few days and since then we've seen Cory and Amy again along with Amy's husband Matt. We had another huge family dinner at Asian Gardens with grandma, and this time we saw another part of my family too. We saw my Great Uncle Gino and my Great Aunt Soila and their children Gina and Mark. Mark's wife was there and Gina's daughter with her two children, Logan and Jessica. Logan is 2. He and Jay had a great time playing together. He's such a happy, friendly little guy. It's always fun to meet new family.

Other than all of that we've been watching movies, shopping for Jay and eating, eating, eating. Grandma made an awesome dinner with homemade gnocchi and spaghetti sauce along with prime rib. It was amazing. Grandma is such a great cook. My mom helped a lot too and Amy and I watched carefully while they prepared the gnocchi. We really want to be able to carry on the family tradition. Well, that's all for now. I'm sure there's more to report, but this post is long enough. We've definitely had a great time in Cali

Cadiz

I am so far behind! I finally have some new pics downloaded, so it's time to get blogging. Before my parents left Spain to head home we had one last mini-vacation. We went to the coastal town of Cadiz for a few days and then stopped in Chipiona for Johnny's birthday party. Sadly, Mike couldn't be with us because he had to go to Vigo for work, but he ended up having a great time as well. We stayed in a nice, new hotel in Cadiz close to the beach. Jay's favorite part was our bed. It consisted of two twin beds pushed together with great big white fluffy comforters on top. Jay loved wedging himself in between the two beds! He had the best time crawling around up there. In Cadiz we went to the Corte Ingles and marveled at the amount of things to buy. Then we took a hop-on/hop-off tour bus of the city. It was really nice to see all of the city and to get some historical information as well. Cadiz is thought by some to be the oldest city in Europe, founded in 1100 BC by the Phoenicians who called it Gadir. Ferdinand Magellan and Amerigo Vespucci once lived in Cadiz which means the city either inspired greatness or a desire to move on. Cadiz also happened to be the launching point for Christopher Columbus' second and fourth voyage to America. Cadiz was also one of the few cities that was able to fight off Napoleon when he came to conquer it. Pretty impressive I'd say. Today it's a pretty coastal town with nice beaches and a lot of history. On one particularly picturesque beach we saw fishing boats galore. We also saw a fisherman at work gutting his fish. There was a whole crowd of men watching, along with a few stray cats hoping for a treat. One of our favorite spots in town was a beautiful park with pretty trees and song birds.

After seeing Cadiz we went down to Chipiona to party on the beach. Little Johnny turned two and we had a great time eating cake and playing with friends. Jay especially liked the sand. It was his first time crawling in it and he would have played all day had we let him. After the party we went and tested out Maria's bunuelos (little donuts) which were excellent. We really liked Chipiona. There were so many people! It's a happening place in the summertime. Maria doesn't close her shop until 2 in the morning! Come winter though and it will be a ghost town. Spaniards certainly enjoy their summers.