Our One Year Old!

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since the Lord blessed with us the birth of Landon.  He has changed our lives in so many ways, but more than anything he has enriched it.  We feel so blessed and excited to be his parents.  Everyday we marvel at how someone so small can be so complex and full of such personality.  The rate at which he is learning is unbelievable!  I love being a mom and J is just in heaven being a dad.

Here are a few pictures of our Halloween baby (He was a cowboy) and a few fun things that he is up to now.

• He is walking all over the place!
• He must have two things in his hands at all times and often get angry when he can’t fit all his treasure in his hands.
• He picks up cell phones or other small object up to his ear and says “hi”.
• He lifts up his shirt and other people’s shirts to find belly buttons.
• If he could, he would choose to be outside all day long.  He will often go to the door and yell “oy; oy, oy”.  Translation: “I want to go outside mom”.
• Every evening he points to our i-pod dock and says “oy, oy, oy”.  I turn on the Carla Bruni sound track and when the first song comes on, his face lights up and he lifts his arms to me.  I pick him up and we dance, often cheek to cheek.”  It is one of my favorite moments of the day.
• Mrs. Elisia gave him a toy horse head on a stick.  He will lift up that heavy horse to  dad telling him, “Please give me a ride”.  Dad can’t say no, so up he goes onto the stick and they gallop around the house. 

• Bath time!  All I have to say is “bath” and off he goes for the stairs.  As the water fills he tries with all his might to climb into the tub all the while talking and yelling as loud as he can! 

• Cell phones, lap tops and remote controls… need I say more. 
• When he is eating he loves to feed us.  He also wants so badly to be able to feed himself with a spoon.  He tries and tries...what a mess!
• He loves to go shopping because he loves shopping carts.  As soon as he sees one in the distance he points and says “oy, oy, oy” of course.
• Whenever something hurts him, lets say he hits his head on the door. He gets so mad at the object and then he tries to bite it.  
• He is an expert at finding planes and helicopters up in the sky.  He will point and watch them until they are out of sight.
• Once we pull into the garage and I unbuckle him, he spins around immediately, climbs up the back of the car seat and waits for dad to grab him so that he can drive the car.  He loves to push the button that turns on the radio.  When the music comes on he begins to dance. So Cute!

A few pictures from his birthday!

Pumpkins were the theme.

I made him his own small pumpkin cake.

Yummy!

This is good daddy, try some!

My first time Trick-or-Treating!  

I loved holding my bucket and walking up to the doors.

 One of my student's parents offered to take photos of Landon in his home studio.  It was 100 degrees in there, but we at least got a few good ones!

July on the Fly

The month of July has been busy and full of small but wonderful moments. J and I have thoroughly enjoyed being home with Landon and Landon has been nothing but smiles (well almost) having mom and dad there with him all day. Daily we look at Landon and each other and are overcome with such satisfaction and love. I can't believe how much I love being a mom to Landon and a wife to J.

Landon is growing sooooooo fast! He is crawling all over the place, standing up on everything and lately has been letting go of things and standing freely for 5-10 secs. His favorite thing is daddy. He laughs and laughs at everything daddy does and wants to copy it. When J leaves the room Landon cries. When I am nursing Landon he will stop every few minutes and look at the door with a huge smile, just waiting for daddy to come in. It is beyond cute and of course dad loves it!

Below are some of the highlights we have had in July.

Landon was dedicated on Sunday, July 4th.

He did very well letting Pastor Doug hold him and really got into it when he discovered the microphone on Pastor Doug's shirt!

We celebrated Lanson's 1st Fourth of July at the Morales' and watched fireworks on the tv for the first time.

Hey cowbaby! How cute are you!

J was gifted 3 nights in a cabin in Big Bear. We had blast up there with the Gallions. We took the babies up the gondola to the top of the mountain and then hiked down.

After 10 attempts of trying to get both babies to look at the camera we gave up.

We couldn't pass up giving Avery and Landon a bath. You can't get much cuter than that!

Landon loves the water and playing in his hippo pool.

Believe it or not, this outfit was J's when he was a baby. It is amazing how much Landon look like him in it.

Ride Along and High Speed Chase!

Last night my police buddy picked me up around 10PM for a ride along. Cruising around we ran a random plate(1st one) with expired tags from 2008. The lights flipped on and the driver pulled into a grocery store parking lot. Typical stop. Then the driver hits the gas and guns through 2 stop signs and an intersection. Now the sirens are on and we are doing 90 in a 35. Helicopters are out and several other units are racing to the chase. This guys car starts to pull away (the cop car was surprisingly slow) and we end up getting blocked by other cars. Chase the guy for 3 miles or so and eventually can't keep up with him.

Long story short the guy ends up getting caught. Turns out he is a minor and it was not his car but a family members he borrowed. He gets arrested with felony evading and reckless driving. Sadly the kid really seemed to not care and ends up in Juvenile Hall. His reason for running. . . wasn't sure if the car had insurance. I bet he had drugs in the car or something but who knows. Had he caused an accident where someone was killed he would of gotten a mandatory 25 years to life. It was intense.

I keep thinking about the choice he made. Had he stopped he would not have even gotten a ticket because it was not his car. And that's what it comes down to. . . a choice. I guess all you can hope for is that it was a wake up call. I doubt it based on his attitude.

The rest of the night was a burglary attempt at a home where the people are on vacation. Pulled over 2 other people who had DUI priors and expired tags. It is amazing how many DUI's are on the road. Actually it is more scary and pathetic. Props to the cops for getting those idiots off the road.

The saddest part to the night was a girl who had her feet up on the dash board when the car struck another (the driver was DUI). The airbag deployed completely snapping her ankle. The paramedics said more than likely she is going to have it amputated. Had her feet been down she would have walked away from it. She's in her early 20's. So I guess that lesson about keeping your feet down from the dash is for good reason.

Being a police officer is sort of like fishing. You don't know what you are going to get. The car chase could have been a parole who would have gone back to jail. He could have gotten out of the car firing. It turned out to be a kid making a stupid choice. Each incident is a big question mark.

The entire night I kept thinking about my brothers and the kids I teach. It comes down to the choices we make. A simple choice can be the difference between great extremes.

Support your local police, they risk their lives every day.

I'm 30 and it is my 1st Fathers Day!

Turning 30 happened the exact way I wanted it to. Quiet, slow, no big deal made about it and lots of time with my little family. The biggest birthday gift was the fact that the 9th was the last day I had to work for 10 weeks! We are so so so looking forward to our time with Landon. He is so much fun to watch grow.

Honestly, turning thirty is no big deal. I look back at my 20's and feel like I did it well and would change very little if I had to do it again. My 20's were a blast because I was with the woman of my dreams all the time! Marriage kicks ass when you are with a great woman!

To kick off summer we headed out to Santa Barbara for my buddy's kid sister's wedding. They are a really cool family and we were blessed to share in their joy. Thankfully Shell's parents came along to watch baby LJ.

We have 9 weeks to go and I know it will go fast. So in my fashion, I will be spending the next week making my summer goals. Shelley said she has things to put on the list for me too.. It is starting to seem like a honey-do list.

So Landon woke me up on my birthday with this outfit on. He decided that he would take me to the wild animal park for the day.

Safe to say it is a male lion.

His favorite animals were ducks!

You get the idea.

Mom and dad got a night out of good times and lots of dancing!

Lazy mornings rock!

Landon get spoiled by Gogo and Papa Paul. They are such a blessing to him. It is awesome to see how he lights up with them.

We go fassst. . .

Good times with friends.

Father's Day. . . with the little guy who made it real.

This is our god daughter, Summer, and her daddy.

We grew up with Paige and Deyl and now our kids will get to as well.

My favorite picture of all!

A Lot Happening

I went to the Ramona Tea Party in May to watch my brother in law speak about judicial activism. It was nothing like what the liberal and biased media portray it to be. The room was filled with about 100 people who were there to learn about how the government works and what is currently going on in the government and how it affects them. If one word were to describe the event I would say educational. I am very proud of my brother in law, Dean Broyles, for devoting his time to help educate others and make them aware of how our religious liberties and other liberties are being slowly infringed upon. See his non-profit at www.wclplaw.org.

Some of you know that my real father died when I was 9 years old. Since then I have not had much contact with that side of my family in over 20 years. This past week Landon got to meet his Great Grandpa and Grandma Vincent. We had not seen each other since 2002, the year we got married. It was definitely a treat to see them and spend two days together. I hope we get more time in the near future. I learned a lot about my family including our roots back to the 1400's.

Our Happy Boy!

It has been an exciting month as parents. It seems like everything changes from week to week. It also feels as if the time is racing by. Landon is so incredibly happy all the time. He loves to hear himself and constantly screams loud short bursts no matter where we are. We call it Landon talk.

So there were some milestones this month as well. One is rolling over and realizing he can get across the floor by doing so. Though after a week of doing this every time we put him down he has now stopped completely? The other biggy that happened is that he said "da da", and now says it all the time. He woke us up at two in the morning the other day by saying long drawn out "daaa, daaa's" Heart stopping stuff I tell ya!

Great Grandpa's 90th birthday.

Garage sale with dad! He got lots of attention our way and definitely sealed some deals. $120 this year.

Landon says there is still room for the ladies!

Dad is new at this solid food thing. He gave up and let me play.

Hiking with the old folks. They could barely keep up with me. I am 6.5 months now!

I see you!