Happy Birthday to Jacob

Jacob turns 25 today! 25 on the 25th. The one and only golden birthday! We did most of our celebrating yesterday, but I am a believer that there has to be a little celebrating on your real birthday no matter how busy the day is.

Yesterday, we slept in and I made Jacob waffles and an omelet. After breakfast I gave him his first present. The better one of the presents. I had made the decision that if our cleaning deposit was returned by Jacob's birthday, I would buy him an iPod nano. On Friday, the deposit came in the mail! So I bought one on Saturday. Those things have way more features than I even realized. I knew he liked to listen to music when he does homework or when he goes to the gym. But there are games, a pedometer, a video camera and all sorts of cool stuff. I also got him Terminator Salvation which we started watching later that night.

Jacob had a great start to his real birthday day. His only class was canceled giving him some extra time to study. We ate cake at lunch time and opened cards from his parents and my parents. I made a cake in my cake decorating class and decided that it would work great for a birthday cake too. I loved the little animals my teacher gave out to put on the cake. (she accidentally hit the corner of the cake when she was grading it. there's a big dent.)

I would just like to say how proud I am of Jacob and take a moment to brag on him. He works harder than anyone I know. Its hard to keep up sometimes, but I rarely hear a complaint. He's up at night until little chicken feathers start forming and his eyes get red. I don't know how he does it. One thing is for sure, if things don't work out in the future, heaven knows it is not because he didn't try his best.

I love my Jacob very much.

Amy's Baby Shower

When Annalise and I found out that Amy was pregnant, there was no doubt that we were going to throw her a baby shower. So we got to work right away since both Annalise and I love to throw parties, and I'd say we throw some really good ones, if I do say so myself.

We were originally going to have the party in my old apartment, which had a perfect living room for it. We down graded living room wise, but it still worked out really well. There was one awkward spot, and I don't know how that chair got there. The girl just decided to sit in the middle of the room. See what I mean? There were other chairs available... I felt awkward just looking at it.

We had a jungle animal theme. The invitations, plates, cups, decorations and napkins all matched with polka dots, lions and palm trees. I am sad I don't have a picture of all the matching stuff. The cake didn't exactly turn out as planned. We made a baby belly cake and usually people make them with fondant because it lays like a dress over the cake, but fondant is gross, so we decided to use frosting. But we learned why people would use fondant for this particular cake. It just looks a lot more like a dress. Amy thought it was a bunny at first. But, we tried and it tasted pretty good so that is all that matters. There was hardly any cake left at all and there were a few guys that demolished the most of the leftovers. Amy received very cute gifts for her baby and lots of clothes. She even got a preset for herself with lotions and such. Annalise and I made her a diaper cake with little baby items tucked in it.And here is the mom to be! She is due February 18th! Amy and her husband Tim plan on naming the baby Juliette. And not Julie for short.

A Surprise (Christmas Break part 4)

Right after we booked our tickets to go to California, we learned that Kat and Jeremy were going to go to Boise the day after Christmas and we were pretty determined that we would go see them. Jacob had to work on the 31st, which was also our moving day, and he wasn't sure if he would have to work on the January 2nd. So, we just didn't know if we were going to be able to make. But once we found out that we would be able to spend 3 days in Boise, we kept it a secret. Jacob decided that because everyone kept asking if we were going, he wasn't going to tell.

Everything seemed to work in our favor for this surprise to work out. The weather was terrible, we had just moved and needed time to unpack and we would be starting a new semester the next week. So on the 31st around ten we left our new apartment in a big mess and started driving off off into a big snow storm. Rexburg was supposed to get hit with 7 inches and other parts of Idaho were supposed to get up to 3 inches. Around Burley things started getting really bad so we stopped at a Motel 6 in Twin Falls around 1:30. I had never driven in the snow before and before we left I kept saying, whats the big deal. Its just snow. Jacob didn't want to say anything who has driven through a bad weather before because I really wanted to go and had just had a hard day. But I learned my lesson. I'll probably never drive through a storm again. The next morning it was still snowing. It was more like slush that thankfully became only rain as as got closer to Boise. When we got there we thought no one was home because the door was locked and we couldn't see anyone. So we started to try to open the door but then we were startled by Jacobs dad who gave us both a big hug and let us in. Our plan before we got there was to walk in and yell happy new year so I was walking around saying happy new year to everyone like a moron until I realized that Jacob wasn't doing it and stopped with my happy new year bit right away. Everyone was surprised and we were so glad that we went despite the weather. We had a great relaxing weekend and had so much fun with everyone. Unfortunately the only pictures I took were of Ben and Adam wrestling Jacob. We left early on Monday morning, and thankfully our trip back was a lot better than our drive there. School has been really busy, especially for Jacob but we're keeping up and we are really thankful for 2 three day weekends this semester and for Hawaii in April which is really keeping us going.

The Move (Christmas Break part 3)

Jacob and I made a last minute decision to move when we heard that our friends Tim and Amy were moving out of their apartment, leaving their perfect location vacant to us. We sold our contract over a weekend and signed a new contract on that next Monday. This place is much cheaper and a block away from school and a block from the grocery store and Jacobs work. We've filled up the gas tank over a week ago and we haven't even used an 1/8th of a tank yet. The living room is very small and it needs a paint job, but other than that, we love our big apartment. And doing a move by myself is something that I never want to do. I am thankful to Tim and his friend Trent who really helped us out a lot by loading up the big stuff for me. They were troopers. Jacob wished he could have helped more, but work wouldn't let him get off for the day. For anyone interested, here is a picture of our living room and kitchen. We are thankfully going to get a new refrigerator sooner or later. That one is obviously old and it sounds like its trying to jump start itself sometimes. It will make a very loud tapping noise and eventually turn on. That big gray thing is an old heater that doesn't work anymore. I am think I'll paint that white sometime. Here is our tiny living room. Even though it is small, I love it. The carpets are so soft and I love the built in shelves. We need to finish decorating the top, but we will have to wait on that until Jacob and I have some time to go shopping.

California Christmas (Christmas Break part 2)

This year it was a must that we go to California. My grandmother Sharyn made that pretty clear in August at my cousins wedding. I was saying goodbye to her and she looked at me and said, "This year Christmas is mine." Then she raised her eyebrows, started doing a slow nod with a little smile, as if to make sure I understood. As her grandchild, I have learned that when you get a comment like that followed by that smile/nod routine, you had better do as you are told. So off to California we went, and I had no problem with that.

The traveling could not had gone better. Flights were being canceled left and right because of the weather, but our flight to Oakland arrived 15 minutes early. Hallelujah. That evening we went to the Verizon store and bought new phones and got on the same plan. Jacob can now text! And I got my first new phone since 2006! Thank goodness!

Christmas Eve we headed out to my grandparents house. We almost always go there on Christmas Eve, and by "we" I mean everyone in the family from my grandparents and down. We ate dinner, and did our new white elephant tradition. Jacob and I got the prized present. The Yellow Rat Bastard backpack. Yellow Rat Bastard is a store in New York my grandparents ran into and thought it was hilarious, so now the Yellow Rat Bastard backpack gets passed around every year.

Christmas day was beautiful and green, just as Christmas's should be! I am not sure Jacob agrees. We had a really enjoyable and relaxing Christmas with great food.

The day after Christmas my parents, Jacob and I headed to Golden Gate Park. My dad took us to an aquarium that he used to go to when he was a kid. It was a little over priced, but we had fun seeing all the animals.
I call him grandfather fish.
Albino Alligator
Penguins!

Later that night we went mini golfing with my brother and got absolutely soaked in the rain, but we had a lot of fun trying to hit our balls out of the puddles they got stuck in.

Then it was time to head back to Idaho to pack up all of our belongings, clean and move to an apartment across town.

The Sleigh Ride (Christmas Break part 1)

To kick off Christmas Jacob treated us to a sleigh ride and dinner at the Mountain River Ranch in Ririe. More like Melaleuca treated us. We drove about 20 minutes away to the ranch. There was a mini town set up that was all decorated in lights. It kind of reminded me of a country style mad-hatter birthday cake if that makes any sense at all. We were greeted by a cup of the most delicious apple cider I have ever had. I drank 4 cups and had to go to the bathroom 5 times before dinner even started.

We were loaded on to the back of the sleigh that was pulled by two of the biggest horses I have ever seen. Their rears were over my head and even Jacobs head for that matter! I'd hate to get caught under one of these things.
The horses took us through the ranch which was decorated in lights. Then the hosts brought on the food. I had the biggest slab of prime rib I have ever seen.
Needless to say I did not finish it. It was kind of tasteless and very fatty. We both decided that Jacob's moms prime rib was much better. Go Cheryl!

After dinner a band called the "Not Brothers" sang some Christmas songs. They were a little cheesy but nevertheless it was a great way to kick off Christmas. And to make it even better, we took off to California the next morning.