Happy Belated Birthday, Dick!

I first must apologize, because I totally forgot it was my father-in-law's birthday yesterday. I made the critical error of flipping my wall calendar over a few days too soon.

This picture of Gunnar as a baby illustrates my feeling exactly when I realized what I had done.

Anyways, I would like to take this time to official wish Dick a happy birthday. From the first time I met him, he kindly accepted me in as part of the family. He has also always been very generous to us, which I really appreciate, especially his helping out with Gunnar's schooling.Of course, we have had our disagreements, like whether or not labs are the best dogs ever, if blonds really do have more fun, if little planes are fun to fly in or not, or what kind of jokes are appropriate to tell a lady (such as myself) . All in all though, I really do love and appreciate him.

I really appreciate his laid back manor. I am thankful for all the financial savvy that he has passed on to Gunnar, and his helpful advice on our investments and such. I really appreciate that he didn't get upset with me when I scraped the side of his BMW trying to pull into my garage. I also appreciate his patience in answering all my questions about what the world was like back in the "old days". Oh, and I really also appreciate all the times he has taken me to Chinese food. I really like Chinese food. :)

I also must say I am thankful in advance for him taking me to the presidential inauguration (if McCain wins and if he gets invited). On a side note, don't forget to vote for McCain.

Without a doubt, I would have to say the thing I appreciate most about Dick, is his wonderful son. Gunnar is a great guy, and he would not be who he is today without his dad.

Dick, I hope you had a nice birthday yesterday. Sorry I am a day late on the blogging. :)

Happy birthday!

I take your picture while you take mine

Another Wedding

Saturday evening Gunnar had the privilege to officiate another wedding. The Bride is the sister of one of our best friends. The wedding was on a golf course in Temecula and everything went beautifully.

The highlight for us was spending time with our good friends, the Olivas. They have a son Grace's age, and an almost 1 year old daughter. They have been good friends for years and although we don't see them as much as we would like to, it was nice to get caught up.

Family picture before the wedding

Grace and Ezequiel running around

Wedding ceremony

The guys

The girls

The kids dancing, Ezequiel has some moves!

Tess the dog

Gunnar loves dogs. Particularly labs. He has wanted a lab the whole time we have been married, but up till the last year, we lived in the city with little to no yard, so we didn't feel like it would be fair to a big dog to be couped up all day. We did have a dog, as most of you will remember, Guapo, who served us faithfully as a little companion, until Grace came along and he got booted from the family.

So since moving to this house, Gunnar has dreamed of the day when he would once again be a proud black lab owner. Well, ladies and gentlemen, his dreams have finally come true. He fixed the fencing on our property last week, so this week we were good to go.

In all honesty, I am not a huge dog fan. Of all dogs, I particularly dislike big dogs, as there is more of them to dislike. I will admit, that I did love Guapo, but after all the trauma involved with getting rid of him, I have vowed not to make a similar mistake. So I have been reluctant to take to dog plunge again.

Nevertheless, knowing that a dog means so much to my husband, I have been diligently praying that God would lead us to the perfect dog for our family.

Of course God is so faithful. I love that He knows what is perfect for our situation. A couple weeks ago, we had looked at a dog. It was well trained, but still really into playing fetch and REALLY excited to see us. We would have gone with this dog, but the owners decided to go with someone else who had a much better sob story.

So this week we found another dog on Craigslist. Unlike the last dog, who was from an expensive neighborhood in the city, this dog has lived her life on a ranch in the country. She is used to sleeping outside, and has been trained to be a "old country dog." She isn't that much older than the first dog, but is a lot more mellow, and you can tell has been treated like a dog, not a part of the family. In other words, instead of jumping up between you and the person you are trying to talk to, she just stands there are waits hoping you will pet her. Also, having been raised on a ranch, so could care less about the chickens or the cats.

So what do you know? God knows best. He found us a female black lab (what Gunnar wanted) and a dog that will stay out of my way, not annoy our guest or knock over small children (what I wanted). So we are all happy. Except for the cats. They have not known what to make of her.

Psalm 90:1-4

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

Ginger bread house

Gunnar has been really busy with church stuff recently, so Grace and I have had a lot of time to ourselves. I have been trying to think of fun things for us to do together, becuase a lot of times I feel like when it is just the two of us, we get into the rut of being around each other but not really interacting together. We get along so much better when we work together. Plus, Grace is super funny and can talk my ear off, so she is great company.

My mother-in-law got us a ready to assemble (just mix up the frosting) ginger bread house. Sunday night, after coming home from Bible study, Grace and I didn't really have anything to do, and Gunnar was gone, so we decided to give it a try. We had so much fun together! I think we both enjoy "crafty" things, and she was a fan of frosting and staying up past her bed time, so all in all, it was a hit.

Getting ready to start. Grace was super excited to find the bubble wrap in the box. "Auntie Ann showed me how to do this!" she told me proudly. :)

There were two options for the frosting, black or orange. I didn't really want to make a huge mess, so I only made one pack instead of both. I thought that black would be less Halloween, and more just classic. I forgot about Motherhood rule 104: "2 year olds and anything containing black die should not be mixed." opps.
She wasn't really sure what to make of the assembly of the house. Mostly she kept asking if we could open a can of olives.

When she started putting the candy on the house, is when she really started getting excited. I don't think she realized that they were candies, which was good becuase I didn't really want her eating them anyways.
It was so cute to watch her be so particular about where everything went and how she wanted it to go. Pretty much she did all the decorating, she would just tell me where she needed more "glue" (aka frosting).
About three quarters of the way through, I slipped up and licked my fingers. Up to that point I don't think Grace realized that the frosting was edible. Of course, my finger licking did not go unnoticed by her, and once she tried it, there was no turning back. :)

Cute grimy little hands.
Pretty much I think that in order to get your house to look like the one on the box, you have to have a degree in culinary arts. But I thought ours turned our pretty good nonetheless.
See? It's not haunted. It has a cross on it.

We took a couple self portraits to show off our work. And Grace's black mouth.

Cousin time

It is so fun to have family near by. I love to see the love that Grace has for her Aunts and Uncles, and most of all, her baby cousin! Michael and Ann are so sweet and patient and with the affection she pours on their sweet daughter. Elena, is a great sport although sometimes she does look a little worried.


Grace loves having company. She wanted to show Tia where we get our mail, so walked out by the mail box. Our road reminds me of a country western song for some reason.


Michael just got a new lens and some new flashes so he was trying some of his equipment out on the girls.

Elena is such a happy baby. She will light up with a smile when you talk to her! So cute!




I really do enjoy being an Auntie. It isn't quite as much fun as being a mom, of course, becuase they have to go home after a while. Elena is such a good baby too. She is so cute and content.


I love my sisters! :)
There is this praying mantis that spends a good amount of time out by our front door. I have moved him before and he seems to come back. Either that or we have been attracting praying mantis, one at a time, by our front door. Maria took these pictures of him, and I thought they were kind of cool.

Wild Animal Park

Gunnar and Grace enjoys spending Tuesday morning at the Wild Animal park while I go to Bible Study. So when I took Grace today, she already had in mind all the things she knew she wanted to do.

Grace loves the little playground. Her favorite thing to do is to "drive". Obviously, she doesn't get this from me, as I am not a big driving fan. Pretty much her two favorite things at the playground are the cars.

She also enjoys the slide and going through the tunnel. Fun times, fun times.
We did manage to see a few animals. Not really on purpose, but we had to go that way to get back to the parking lot.

I have pictures of Grace sitting in this big fake egg spring 2006. I need to find them somewhere, so I can put them side by side to see how much she has grown.

Right before we left, she was able to sit on the large metal rhino. I have always wanted to take a picture of her on it, but there are usually tons of people on it and I never want to wait my turn. So when there was no one there, we couldn't pass it up.

If you have zoo passes and ever feel like going to the Wild Animal Park and want a good little tour guide, call us. Grace would love to show you around! :)