Ice Skating

I am not an ice skater, but somehow I found myself on the ice 2 times in just the past few days. 

Lance took me on a date on Friday...and our date was ice skating! We were the oldest couple on the ice rink for the first hour or so! We felt so old!

I had zero balance on the ice, so I had to cling to Lance's hand to keep from falling multiple times. 

After ice skating we went out for ice cream where I found a list of ice breaker questions on our napkin dispenser. I started to ask Lance the questions, and was entertained by question number 5. 

Anyway, back to ice skating!

We went again on Monday for family night with the Nielsens.

This time we went to the Olympic Oval. We put Jade in her stroller and Lance pushed her around the track...and no one yelled at us so I guess it was okay!

She loved it and wanted to get out and skate on her own. We didn't have time to get Jade her own skates, so Lance and Mike held her and skated around. She thought it was the best thing ever!

We had a lot of fun! And even though I shuffled my way around the rink very awkwardly...I didn't fall down once! yay!

Jade was really sad when it was time to go. We are going to have to take her iceskating again soon!

My Little Valentine

I bought myself a new DSLR for Christmas and am obviously still learning how to use it! However, despite my lack of knowledge and skills in photography, my camera has helped me capture some great shots of Baby Jade....who isn't really a baby anymore!!

We had so much fun running around outside doing our little "Valentine's Day Photo Shoot."

After pictures, we came inside and Jade "helped" me wrap daddy's present.

On Valentine's Day we took Jade to see Frozen (the sing a long version). It was so fun to hear all the little girls singing along to the songs. At the end of the movie, all the little girls ran down to the front of the theater and had a little impromptu dance party. Ahh, they were all so adorable!

Jade loved helping Grandma walk with her canes.

I attempted being more "valentiney" by cutting Jade's pancakes and apple into heart shapes...but she didn't dig it.

Hogle Zoo

Jade and I had a blast at the Hogle Zoo the other day with some of our best buddies!

When we first walked in I was a little worried we weren't going to see anything good. No one was around and a bunch of stuff was under construction.

I quickly changed my mind. It was awesome having the zoo to ourselves!

All the animals came right up to the glass so we could get a great look at them. 

Perhaps they were lonely? Or just showing off?

We were able to take our time and get the best views at each exhibit. 

Jade loved the elephants.

Jade loves Curious George....but she did NOT like real monkeys.

This monkey yogi was practicing his dolphin pose.

Jade loved the bears.

And the giraffes.

It was fun to growl at the tiger.

Not too thrilled about being in the Eagle's nest.

We had a great day! I would totally go to the zoo during the "off season" again!

San Diego

I realized today that we only have about 2 weeks left in San Diego!

.....and that reminded me that I stink at blogging.

It is hard to believe that our San Diego adventure is almost over! I have been here for 3 months now, Lance - 4. Jade had just learned how to walk around on her own when we moved out here. Now she is an expert at running all over the place!

We live near the University of San Diego in a little 2 bedroom apartment that we share with Tyce and Mary. We don't have furniture. We sleep on the floor. We use plastic utensils, plates and bowls. We don't have air conditioning...but we do have a heater! (I can't figure that one out.) It can get a bit toasty in our apartment, but if we leave the windows open we can get a nice breeze in our apartment.

The weather here is beautiful, so we spend a lot of time outside. I usually like to jog around USD's campus with Jade, or work out on one of their practice fields. We like to go to different parks. We go to Sea World about twice a week, if not more. Sometimes on Lance's day off we'll go to the beach.

We love the ward here. There are so many babies that are Jade's same age. It is so fun to see them all together at church. We think the missionaries here are awesome. We just had Elder Costley and Elder Weidner over for dinner tonight. It was great to visit with them and to have them share a message with us.

Since moving to San Diego, I have accomplished some things:
-I can drive a stick shift.
-I can do standing back flips (with some assistance from Lance...but it still counts in my book!)
-I lost 5 pounds!
-I can make my toes touch my head.

proof!

Hopefully in 2 weeks I will add at least one more thing to that list.....I am taking my NASM Certified Personal Trainer Exam. I hope I pass!

So...thats a bit of what has been going on over here!

view on my run
there are a lot of steep hills here!!

workout with Jade at USD

flowers everywhere!!

palm trees!

USD's campus

USD's campus

Visitors!

I am the worst at blogging! haha. I don't know how other moms find the time to do it, but I definitely need to step it up!

Last Saturday I woke up to a surprise....Mary's family was on my doorstep! I had no idea they were coming or that they would be staying with us. Good thing I love the Wolfe family! It was fun to have them around. We don't have any furniture in our apartment, so there was plenty of room to lay out sleeping bags and set up camping chairs.

Lance's mom and Yellow Grandma also arrived on Saturday (an arrival I was expecting). We spent time at the San Diego Zoo, and of course, at Sea World.

Jade loved Yellow's walker

at the zoo

Hope and Roilan's
handbalancing/contortion act

with the performers
(they are from Utah too!)

sleeping koala....my favorite!

baby giraffe!

playing with dirt

Cirque de la Mer

Jade wasn't too sure about Austin,
but she's warmed up to him since then!

1 Year Old!

It is so crazy how fast the past year has gone by. I can hardly believe that my little girl is already 12 months old!

It has been so much fun watching Jade transform into the cute little person she is now. She tends to be a little mischievous. She loves to start to do something she knows is naughty (like step on the laptop) but she'll stop mid action to look back at us and see if we're looking. Then she'll run away just so she can turn around and do it again.

Jade enjoys poking at Lance's many scabs and scars (eww). She likes to help me sweep the floor and she loves being chased. It is fun to watch her imitate things we do, such as funny stretches or putting keys in the door. Jade insists on eating with utensils and she must taste anything she sees us eating. She especially likes peanut butter and BBQ sauce.

We have had so much fun this past year. I feel I have developed more patience! I'd be lying if I said it never gets challenging...but with those few challenges we are feeling 1000 times the amount of joy!
We are so happy Jade is part of our lives.

For Jade's birthday we had a few things planned...like a party. But sadly those things didn't happen because Jade was sick on her birthday!! It turned out she had a cold and the beginnings of an ear infection. We ended up spending the day snuggling (which I enjoyed very much!) Then, once Jade was getting better, I got sick. So we really didn't do any birthday celebrating except for a cupcake with 1 candle in it, the birthday song and some presents scattered throughout the week.

eating her first sucker

mid somersault

mom Nielsen sent us the decorations for
Jade's birthday
theme: bumblebees

daddy and baby

running away

this cracks me up every time.

she rolled herself up in the pillow and fell asleep

tech baby

our family

I think she was eating a cookie.

12 months old!

Disneyland Adventure

Jade and I got really lucky and had an opportunity to spend some time with the Nielsen family in Disneyland! Lance had to work, so just us girls ventured up to Anaheim all on our own. This was quite an accomplishment for me because I had to drive Lance's car...which has a manual transmission.

I was really nervous about driving a stick, so before I left I asked Lance for advice about freeway driving. He told me not to worry about shifting on the freeway because there would be no reason to have to down shift unless for some reason the freeway became a parking lot. Well guess what. Border patrol happened to be out and about on this day and everyone on the freeway had to stop briefly for them while they checked how suspicious you looked or something.

Despite that unexpected event, we made it safe and sound! We were so spoiled. We got to stay at the Disneyland Resort and ate lots of free food. Jade's favorite ride was "It's a Small World". She clapped her hands and danced throughout the ride. She also enjoyed a couple rides in the Bug's Life area and the Little Mermaid ride. She wasn't too happy on the Peter Pan ride, but it was probably because she was tired.

On one of the days, I really wanted to go swimming with Jade. I got her all ready in her swim diaper, her swimming suit, filled up her belly, and then she fell asleep! I really wanted to go to the pool, so I carefully loaded her into her stroller and went to the pool anyway. I found a shady spot to park the stroller in, then lounged next to my sleeping baby and read a book until she was done with her nap. Then we did some swimming and it was a lot of fun. :)

outside Jade's 1st Disney ride
Little Mermaid

1st time at Disneyland

is this not the cutest sight ever?

on It's a Small World

I forgot Jade's hoodie in the hotel,
so she had to wear Grandma's!