Goodbye San Francisco

Well, if you haven't heard...we are moving to Utah this week! Jaron got wind of a job from his cousin and so he applied for it. At first we didn't think we were interested, but the more we learned, the more Jaron really wanted it. We were so excited when he got it. He will be working for a company that builds the steel part of a building. So we are leaving on Thursday and heading to Utah. We are so excited for this new chapter in our lives, but we are sad to close our California chapter. We have really had a lot of fun here. We have done a ton of sightseeing. We both commented the other day we feel like we have been on a vacation for a year because we live in a vacation spot. There is always something to do! To say goodbye to the bay area, we spent the day in San Francisco. Here are a few pictures from our day. Enjoy...

We started the day by taking a tour of Alcatraz Island. It was a beautiful day.

We threatened the kids that we would lock them up if they weren't good!

Jaron and Clark on the tour.

The San Francisco skyline from Alcatraz. Notice the steep streets going up the hill in San Francisco.

Clark enjoying the sunshine and green grass.

Jaron touring the outside section of Alcatraz.

The Golden Gate bridge from Alcatraz.

We ended our fun day with clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls. We then took a trolley to the train station. It was a wonderful day! We have loved living here and will look back with fond memories!

Christmas 2009

For Christmas, we went home to Utah. It was such a wonderful trip as we visited both families. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Clark loved Santa Claus and wanted to make sure he knew he wanted a fire truck.

Vienna was a little nervous, but was brave enough to sit on his lap.

Here are our Mary and Joseph and manger. The kids did a good job reenacting the event.

Vienna got a littlest pet shop for Christmas.

Here are father and daughter playing with toys on Christmas morning.

Clark got his fire truck! He loved it!

Vienna got a snow white cleaning set.

One day we went to visit Jaron's mom's school bus. The kids loved it.

Here are the kids trying to drive away.

Here's the whole bunch enjoying our memories of riding on the bus.

Vienna in her Christmas dress.

Clark in his new shirt.

When we were in Utah, Jaron and I celebrated 7 wonderful years of marriage!

Our little family.

We went sledding a couple of times when we were in Utah. So much fun!

We have a community garden plot and we just put it in. Here is the finished product.

Christmas was such a wonderful time but this week back has been a slap in the face. So, I will give the top 5 reasons why this week was so bad. 1. On Sunday we were suppose to take Amtrak home. It was suppose to be so fun and wonderful. One of the trains broke down, so they put us on buses and shipped us home. Jaron had negative leg room, Vienna and I were so car sick, and it was too hot. That was miserable. 2. On Monday I went to the ER thinking I had an appendicitis. I was sent home with no diagnosis, just really sick. 3. On Tuesday, Clark threw up everywhere, twice. After that, I learned how to catch it when it came out. He threw up continually for about 8 hours and then was done. That was MISERABLE. 4. On Wednesday, Vienna was put under and had 4 cavities filled and a root canal. She has a metal cap on her back molar, which she hates. She came out fine but cried the rest of the day. 5. On Friday morning Jaron woke up throwing up and he threw up a ton for about 8 hours and then he felt better. To try to balance out the negative, here are a few positive things that happened. 1. On Tuesday, I cleaned out all my closets and put all of the Christmas presents away. It feels good to be cleaned out. 2. We had a nice evening for Jaron's 30th birthday. We had Applebee's take out. I got us Oriental Chicken Salads (which Jaron will never have again because he threw it up for a couple of hours the next day.) We had cake and opened presents. Jaron got a nice bag for his fishing stuff, an exercise ball, a scale, and a jump rope. It was a good day. 3. On Saturday we put in our garden in our city garden plot. It was wonderful. The drive was short and beautiful. The garden is in the middle of the country, so from our spot you can't see any houses, just rolling green hills (yes, we are entering the green season!) We put in onions, cilantro, carrots, beets, radishes, strawberries, rhubarb, peas, and lettuce. It was so fun to work the soil. The kids loved it and we had a wonderful day. 4. I taught sharing time today and it went really well (minus the girl who wet herself when giving a talk in opening exercises). The new sunbeams did good and it was fun. In conclusion, I am still really sick to my stomach. It has been 1 1/2 weeks, and today has been rough. When Clark and Jaron got sick, I thought I had what they had, but it has been totally different. When I talk to people, they say this bug is going around. But nobody has talked about stomach cramps. So I am going to go see a doctor tomorrow. I just don't feel good. I hope they can give me something because I am done with this. I hope we have a better week and I hope you all have a good week.

Joni

Happy 30th Birthday Jaron!

Today is a big day in Jaron's life. He has left his 20's and is now entering his 30's. His 20's were some important years. He served a mission, got married, had two children, got into BYU, graduated from BYU, got a job and moved to Arizona, bought a house, moved to Oakland, California and celebrated 7 years of marriage. Many people say that the 30's are the best years of life. If that is so, and the 20's were so great, I am excited to see what happens in Jaron's next 10 years. I hope I am by his side for it all!

I could write a novel about Jaron. I love him so much and he is so good to me in so many ways. He is my level head, my best friend. He is the first person I want to call and who I want to spend my time with. He is also a wonderful father. Clark cried for almost an hour this morning because he didn't want Jaron to go to work. As I was enduring the tears I thought, "Jaron is such a good dad and Clark's tears are proof." The kids love to be with him and I love to be with him. I keep teasing him that now that he is 30 I will turn him in for a younger man. I would never change my choice of who I married. Jaron is my other half.
Happy Birthday! I love you Jaron!
Love, your adoring wife, Joni

Happy Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we stayed home and celebrated it with our small family. It was a wonderful weekend. Here are some pictures of what we did.

Here's Vienna ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Even though it was just us we still cooked a full Thanksgiving meal. We will be having left overs for a month!

Here is Clark showing off his turkey. I think that is about all he ate for dinner.

On Saturday we went to a tree farm to cut down a tree. It was fun because you walk around and choose your tree and then you cut it down yourself. Here is Vienna holding the saw.

Clark is relaxing on the tree cart.

After walking around for a little while, we found our tree. Because we live in a small apartment, we needed a tall skinny one and we found it. It was perfect.

While Jaron cut down the tree, Vienna and Clark used the cart as a teeter tauter. It was fun.

Here's our strong man cutting down the tree.

The tree is loaded on top! We were excited.

Here is our tree. We spent the afternoon decorating the tree and the apartment. It feels like Christmas. I love this time of year!

Life is going great here. We have been sick, sick, sick. Vienna caught the H1N1 Flu so for about a week I did nothing else but be a nurse. Clark has had one cold after another. But we are hopefully taking a turn for the better. Here are some pictures from recently...

Jaron came down one morning to find the kids like this on the couch. What a good sister!

Our little town had a tree lighting event last week. We had so much fun. There was hot chocolate and cookies, carriage rides, and santa. It was a good way to start the season.

Vienna was so excited to see Santa.

And this was as close as we got. Vienna got so shy that she even had me tell him what she wanted. But it was fun anyways.

I put this outfit on Clark and it was too small. The pants are floods and his belly sticks out of the shirt. Jaron looked at him and said, "You look like Nacho Libre!" I thought it was funny.

Happy Halloween

Last night we went to our ward's trunk or treat. Actually, three wards combined to make a TRI-ward trunk or treat party. Vienna wanted to be Snow White and use the cute dress and shoes that mom and dad gave her for her birthday. So in the day I put sponge curlers in her hair. When it was time to get ready, I put make up on her and took the curlers out. Then I sprayed her hair black. That stuff is messy and she couldn't even touch her hair or it turned everything black. It took us three washes after the party to get it out! Anyways, then I put a big red bow in her hair and she put on her dress and shoes. Clark wanted to be a clown but he didn't want the make up, so I spiked his hair. Jaron threw on his Austrian costume and I grabbed his work stuff to make a construction worker costume and off we went. There was a great turn out. We decorated our trunk. Jaron stayed with the van while I took the kids around. It was fun to see members of our ward. When we were done they had hot dogs and nachos. Then they had a parade/costume contest. I told Vienna and Clark to hold hands and wave to people. They marched around and around and had so much fun. When they were done, they announced the winners. There were so many kids and tons of cute costumes that I didn't think we would win. Plus, there were tons of princesses. Well they gave out four awards. When they got to the cutest costume, they announced, "The winner is Snow White, the taller one. We think the shorter one was so cute, but it's the taller one." Well, I wasn't sure if Vienna was the taller one, so I didn't do anything. Jaron kept saying, "Joni, that's Vienna." I didn't want to disappoint her by bringing her up but then her not being the winner. So the judges looked around at Vienna and pointed at her and told her she was the winner. I ran and got her from the parade and she went to the stage and got a certificate and a big candy box. When she jumped to me off of the stage, I lifted her up so the whole audience could see her. When I did, she lifted her arms above her head, clenching her fists in celebration. She did the whole Rocky-at-the-top-of the-hill pose. Jaron said it was really funny. She definitely performs in front of an audience. We were so proud of her for winning. It was such a fun night. I know it is a lot of work for activity committees but we loved it!

Here is our Snow White, The Cutest Costume Winner.

Her hair looked like the real thing. I even had someone ask if it was a wig.

Here is our cute little clown. He would squeeze his nose and say, "Honk Honk."

Here is our Austrian.

Here is our trunk and my creative construction worker costume.

This week we went to a really fun pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast.

Here the kids rode a train around the pumpkin patch. They were too cute.

We carved pumpkins on Thursday night.

Vienna was so excited to carve!

Jaron was a good dad and helped out.

Vienna and Clark showing off their pumpkins.

We have had the most fun celebrating Halloween.

Lemonade for Sale

Vienna wanted a toy from the Disney Store but she was $15 short.  I suggested she try to earn some money and she decided to have a lemonade stand.  So Jaron made some yummy lemonade and I made a sign.  We set up shop and soon the air was filled with Vienna's cries of, "Lemonade! Come get some Lemonade."  She made $20 in about an hour and a half.  With that good of profit, we might turn this into a business!  (Child services would probably get called, so maybe not a good idea.)

Here is Vienna selling some lemonade to a neighbor.

So I have been trying the book called "Deceptively Delicious" where you sneak vegetable purees into the family's food.  Here are my beet purees ready for the freezer.

Here are some pink pancakes, with beet purees in it.  Guess what?  The beets make the pancakes better!  The kids love them.  I will never go back to plain white pancakes!

Clark is pretty happy about pink Mickey Mouse pancakes.