Maginot

Already saw Breaking Dawn and it's not even November 18th

2011-11-17T22:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my dear friends mom, (thank you Ingrid!!) I just got back from seeing Breaking Dawn!! If you love the books then pretty sure you'll enjoy this movie! Happy Twilighting! The movie did seem to do a few things different then the book.... I guess I'll just have to read it again to see what was different :-)

Our Anniversary Getaway in August

2011-11-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

We spent 3 days and 2 nights in Ft. Bragg/Mendocino area. We stayed in the North Cliff Hotel- so perfect!! (i'd recommend the place to everyone)View from our bed

View from our balcony

Checking out Glass Beach

Crazy tree on our leisurely hike... ok, not so leisurely, it was more of a brisk walk/jog/run so we could get to our tee time. It was a beautiful hike even though we didn't have a lot of time to take the scenery in :-)
The waterfall at the end of the hike.

Golfing... and the view from the golf course.

Childhood dream fulfilled.... I've always wanted to drive a golf cart... and it did not disappoint.

View from our hotel balcony on the second night!

This picture is taken at the top of the tallest lighthouse on the west coast (I took picture of the view and all around the place, but of course didn't take a picture of the actual lighthouse)

30 days of Intentional Acts of Kindness

2011-11-02T22:10:00.001-07:00

This wonderful idea comes from one of my favorite blogs!! Check it out here & here and join us this month in doing intentional acts of kindness!!

p.s. I promise I will post a blog this weekend! And hopefully be more regular again :-)

Day of Service

2011-04-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

For the last two years we have participated in the Mormon Helping Hands in California! Can't wait to do it again this year!
In 2009 we went door to door collecting cans for Second Harvest Food Bank.
In 2010 we dug, planted & fixed picnic tables at a Sunnyvale Park. We will be doing that again this year.

Just saw this video with Steve Young about the Mormon Helping Hands day- check it out here.

You don't have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to take part in the day of service. If you are interested in helping that day go here, or ask me about it!

I love Jacob & Mckay!

2011-04-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired by my friend who just wrote something similar on her own blog- Thank you Jo!
Things I love about Jacob:

I love that Jacob is such a kind, helpful and loving person at heart. I love that he says, “Mom, do you know that I love you” (something I say to him at times). I love how he blows kisses to mckay before her nap and says to her, “sweet dreams”. I love that the first time he met mckay he gave her a tender kiss and send “so cute”. I love it when he holds Mckay’s hand and helps her walk from the car to the house. I love listening to the two of them in the car as they make noises and laugh in the back seat. I love singing with Jacob. I loved it when the other morning Jacob was telling me that he was sad, and wanted me to read the scriptures to him so he’d feel better. I also love it when I am reading my scriptures and he asks me to read them out loud, or sometimes I’ll ask him if he wants me to read it out loud, and then he listens and asks questions about what I am reading to him. I love how he loves to learn. I love how he gets excited about things; just the other day he was at a friend’s house to help celebrate his friends birthday, the mom told me how excited Jacob was about the cake, and presents and made the little family birthday party more exciting. I love that he cares for other people, when someone else is crying he’s always worried about them and wants to comfort them (even from a very young age he would do that). I love it when Jacob in his sweet voice says, “mom, don’t have happy tears.” Something I often have when I am reading the scriptures or sharing a gospel principle/my testimony. I’ll look at him and he has a concerned look on his face and often dabs at his eyes (I think he might be a sympathy crier like his mother as he gets older). I love how he loves to snuggle with me and read books. I love how he can now un load the entire dishwasher by himself (he just puts the things that go up high on the counter, but most everything he can put away himself) I love that he is so good at making Mckay laugh. He use to be the only one who could really get her laughing good- but I think daddy and I have started to figure it out too. I love how he loves to draw and color and paint, and then he loves giving them to other people. Just last weekend during general conference he drew a picture of the Salt Lake temple (basically a colored in square with a few spires) and then said he wanted to send it to the Prophet, President Monson. I love how he gets out the Behold Your Little Ones Manual and gives us Family night lessons, and I love how at times he wants to have Family Night multiple times during the week. I love how he is such a good helper to me (taking out diapers, helping with Mckay, getting things for me, etc).

Things I love about Mckay:

I love her head nod yes, so adorable. She use to do yes and no and fairly accurately, but now she pretty much only nods her head yes with any question you ask her (ex, do you want to go to bed Mckay-nods her head yes, then immediately ask her do you want to stay up- nods her head yes). I love how she loves waving and saying hello to everyone all the time. She also waves goodbye and blows kisses as well as saying goodbye. And the tone of her voice when she says hello or bye is so sweet & precious. I love her smile. I love how she recently has really taken to her blankies and her bear, I love how when it’s bedtime or naptime she goes to her blankie and puts her head down on it. I love how she always gives hugs and kisses when you ask for them (often her kiss is just her leaning her mouth in to you). I love when she wraps both her arms around my neck. I love how she loves little baby dolls and takes good care of them, giving them kisses and hugs and putting a blanket around them. I love what a great eater she is. I think she’ll be like her mom, loves eating all the time and loves nearly all foods. I love it how she’ll just come over to me (and she does this to Jon) usually when I am standing and just leans in to me, giving me what we call ‘love’ or ‘loves’ (basically a hug). I absolutely love how excited she gets when she hears or sees dad coming through the gate and opening the door when he comes home from work- often she’ll have a squeal of delight. I love how she loves Jacob and gives him hugs.

I love to see the temple....

2011-04-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

I went there thursday night. For those who know that primary song, I hope you sung the title and first line as you read them :-)
I am always in an extra good mood right after I leave the temple, but on Thursday night that extra good mood started almost as soon as I entered the temple. I just felt happy, and giddy, and smiley the entire time- it was wonderful! While I was in the temple I re-made a goal of mine to be more cheerful and smile more (so whenever you see me, make sure I am smiling!) We also ran in to our friends the Geddes in the temple and that was fun. I am grateful that Jon and I were married in the temple so that we will be together forever (even after we die), and that we will be with our children forever as well. What a joy and peace that brings to me. And then, to be close enough to the temple to go monthly makes it that much better!

Park City Utah in February

2011-03-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

Jacob’s thoughts about our trip & what he liked (in his own words):

-The first time I didn’t like to ski in the snow, but the second time I like it!

-I liked making snowballs and going sledding.

-I liked to read the book with Cassie, and me and David listening to it.

-Sleeping well. (he must have a bad memory, he was sick and would wake-up coughing, -often ending up in our bedroom)

-I liked seeing Greg & Lindsay, and David & Cassie in Utah. And Trevor, and everyone together.

-I watched Trevor & Michael, & Jenni & Dad throwing snowballs at the four of them.

My thoughts:

-Bummer that the kids and Jon were sick a lot of the trip, but we still had a fun time!

-I didn’t ski much, but the first day skiing with Jon (and a little with Lindsay & Greg) was probably the best snow I have ever skied on and the weather was awesome- all around perfect.

-I loved seeing the kids love the snow. They both loved sledding (once we got passed Jacob’s meltdown putting his snow clothes and boots on). And like Jacob said, he didn’t like skiing the first time, but then he loved it, and that was tons of fun! One day we took him down the bunny hill- he totally loved the lift, but since he hasn’t figured out snowplow/pizza wedge I skied down backwards and held his hands most of the way down. The other days we just had him ski down the little slope between the ski lifts, he loved, loved, loved it! Maybe next year he’ll figure out how to slow down and stop instead of falling over.

-On one of the days we went down to BYU. Saw the amazing Carl Bloch exhibit, visited with Jon’s old boss, shopped in the BYU bookstore (mainly to get Jon a Jimmer shirt, and cinnamon bears for me), ate in the cougar eat, and last but not least, went to the BYU basketball game!

-We went to Temple Square in Salt Lake our first day before we headed up to Park City. A wonderful spirit, as it always is when we talk about Christ, and put ourselves in holy places.

-All in all a good trip!! Enjoy the pictures!

Sunday at Temple Square

Sledding on Monday

Jacob wanted to do the jump too, so they went over it nice and slow :-)

Wednesday at the BYU basketball game- Go Cougars! (let's hope they make the sweet 16)

my hot, sexy husband (so he came in from skiing and he was lookin so good, I wanted to take a picture of him and he gave me funny poses)
The whole crew

Happy Day of Love

2011-02-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

I took this picture Monday with the intent of posting it that day... better late than never right?

Here's our little Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love,

The Maginots

Mckay's First Birthday!

2011-02-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

The day she was born!

December 17th 2009

We love you Mckay! One year later....

Happy Birthday Mckay!
The Birthday Girl in her new outfit. For her birthday we went to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park and then to Olive Garden for dinner. Grandpa & Grammy Maginot were with us too!

Checking out the fish

love this pic

Her new b-day PJ's.... she loves her daddy!

We had a family birthday party for her the next day at the Evans home.

How lucky are we... all of Jacob & Mckay's living grandparents & great-grandparents in one place!

Mckay's cake

She couldn't wait for the singing and blowing out the candle :-)

Dig in...

As you can see she enjoyed her cake, and gave us some great pictures!

FRIENDS....

2011-01-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

Good, dear friends are few and far between, but oh so wonderful. I have been lucky enough to spend time with such a friend over the weekend and then two more dear friends today (wednesday). My life feels so full and complete right now. Just wish I lived close to all of them!

Recent Happenings

2010-12-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

I did a little photo shoot of Mckay- lots of cute pictures- don’t want to bore you with all of them so here’s a few of my favorites.

Photo shoot with both kids a few days later.

Watching BYU football at the Porters… go Cougars!

Dad & Jacob putting up the Christmas lights

Mom & Mckay admiring the finished Christmas lights!

The kids and I helped Nana & Uncle Mike cut down their Christmas tree… we had a great time!

(Jacob put his hand in his pocket and did that little foot/leg pop all on his own, thought it was so cute!)

Super strong Uncle Mike

car got stuck... fun adventure... and we made a new friend- Erik, who's Christmas tree farm we were at.

Something weird is happening to me…

2010-12-20T11:21:00.000-08:00

I want a new little baby in the house, I don’t want my kids to grow-up, and I am wishing I could do last December again (delivering Mckay, bringing her home, and all the good stuff that came with that).

Now I know to many of you these feelings are not weird, but they are new to me. Previously I have not been a fan of little babies- I think having perfect baby Mckay changed that- and especially not a fan of the 9 months of feeling sick all the time in order to get the baby. Which by the way is the reason that I don’t think we’ll have a baby any time soon. As much as I want a baby, I am just not ready for the 9 months of nausea that comes along with it.

Also previously I’ve always been anxious and excited for the day all our kids are grown or out of the house so Jon and I can play, have more freedom, and serve a mission. And I’ve always been excited about my kids getting older; not really sad about leaving the stages they have gone through. It’s hard to explain exactly how I feel now, but I am sad about leaving this stage of life/motherhood. I am happy and loving it- being a mom is wonderful! (well- not quite as wonderful when Mckay’s not sleeping well- but overall it’s great!)

(I actually wrote these thoughts almost 4 weeks ago... but just now posting)
Also, if I keep trying to play catch up on my posts it will never happen and I'll give up. So I am just starting fresh and hopefully will be more regular now.

July Happenings

2010-10-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

4th of July- patriotic program & pancake breakfast at church

Jacob's 3rd Birthday party! (it was fun planning a party now that he's old enough to get into it and love it. Of course it was train themed)

We spent a week and a half in Kansas with Jon's parents and had a great time- here's some highlights from that:

Helping Dad mow the lawn

playing with the toys

Fireman Jacob! Going to Grandpa's old fire station and climbing on the trucks.

riding the train at Gage Park

Grandpa & Mckay... waiting for Jacob & Dad while they rode the train again

Carousel at the park

Mckay learning to love the pool

Grammy & Mckay

love this face!

watching them pour the cement to fix the drive way... Jacob & Grandpa time

Fireman Jacob again. With Grandpa's toys.

Playing with Bella. Jacob was cute playing with her, Mckay was pretty terrified at first.

June Adventures

2010-08-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

The big event in June was our Maginot Family Reunion in Orlando Florida (celebrating Dad & Mom's 40 year wedding anniversary)- we had tons of fun! Highlights include- playing at the resort pool, hanging out in the condo playing with cousins, Discovery Cove, Aquatica & Sea World. at the pool with Hunter, Jon, Jacob, Grandpa

Discovery Cove was probably the highlight for us- we all loved it there (snorkeling-just like in the ocean but without the waves, wadding in a pool with sting rays, a lazy river that went into a bird aviary where you could feed the birds, and it was all inclusive so all you could eat snacks all day plus meals!) My dreams came true too- I was able to interact with a dolphin! I have totally loved dolphins every since I was little and I have always wanted to swim, interact, play with dolphins and I got the chance! But now I want to spend the whole day with a dolphin....maybe someday :-)

Look at me... I love this!

Grandpa, Grammy, Hunter, Me, Jennifer, Jillian (Jon & Mark were the videographer & photographer while Cadence and Jacob sat next to them watching... Mckay was under some tree sleeping)

Getting a ride from the Dolphin!

Mckay & Aunt Jennifer hiding from the sun (I love this picture, so cute)

All the cousins: Hunter, Mckay, Cadence, Jillian & Jacob

Our Fam in the sting ray pool.

Our Fam at Sea World. Jacob and I loved loved loved watching the shows, but it was way too hot. Jacob also rode his first roller coaster here and loved it!

Grandparents with some of the grandkids at Sea World. Poor Mckay was so hot and sweaty- so we just kept her naked a lot of the time.

The Girl Cousins- they were so good with Mckay

Hanging out at the Condo

Jacob having fun at the Orlando airport. Thank you to all the Maginot family for a wonderful week filled with wonderful memories!

Mckay's first baseball game. LDS night at the giants. Also my first time to this stadium (that view is awesome). Random side note- during the game they flashed a message that said Happy Anniversary Jon & Michelle (right names just 2 months early)- I wished I had the camera out to take a picture of it.

Austen & Aiden with Jacob & Mckay. In Modesto at the Rowe's new home. Melissa and I became good friends in Sunnyvale and then they moved away :-( I took the kids to visit overnight while jon was "mamping" (man camping) We miss the Rowe's tons, but glad there not too far away.

Stay tuned for July's adventures... coming soon to a blog near you.

Easter & So Cal Trip

2010-06-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'll get caught up one of these days...

Easter

Getting ready to find the eggs

Jacob loved looking for eggs

Small enough to fit in her basket!

So Cal trip in May- we spent half a day in Los Angeles visiting our old stomping grounds and saw some good friends. We had a great time but it wasn't long enough, we sure miss you guys! Then we went down to San Diego for my cousin Randy Hulme's Wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and reception and we loved seeing lots of family. A short but fun trip!

Jacob at the LA Temple

Mckay's first time in a swing- she loved it! And I love this picture.

The next 3 are our friends- The McMillians and Johnson's- we had pizza, played wii, and caught up on life.

cousins: Diana, Jen, Michelle, Kristine

(waiting at the Temple after the sealing)

Kristine's kids & Jacob (we just call them Jacob's cousins) Jacob had a great time with them- wish we lived closer to them so the kids could be good friends!

Nana & Mckay at the reception.

Jacob loved the sparkler send off!

Back Log of Pictures

2010-06-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long. I think I was so far behind with pictures that I was too overwhelmed and didn't know where to begin or what to skip. So we'll see what pictures I put on here.

Mckay at 2 months 2-17-10

Mckay at 3 months 3-17-10

Mckay at 4 months 4-17-10

Mckay at 5 months 5-17-10

sometimes Jacob wants me to put Mckay in his crib with him.

this was one of my favorite outfits for Mckay- but not she's too big for it :-(

Jacob's first 'real' train ride (on a regular full size train), and Mckay's first train ride ever. Of course Jacob absolutely loved the day. We rode the train up to Menlo Atherton and back a couple of times.

Some of our favorite schools/sports teams...

Dad made a great shed for the trains. Jacob still totally loves trains- can't get enough of them.

cute picture- the baby boy in the back is Austin Rowe- Mckay's future husband

with their cute hooded towels

Man I love these two kids. So cute and so fun!

The night Ryan, now Elder Evans was set apart for his mission- he went into the MTC the next day. He's been on his mission for a month now.

stay tuned for... Easter and our So Cal trip

More Pictures

2010-04-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

My wonderful cousin took these pictures for us just for fun... and I love them!! Thank you Diana!

This is the dress that Mckay wore for her Baby Blessing. It is the same dress that I wore for my Baby Blessing as well (thank you to my mom for saving it all of these years)

I love this one!

There's her dimples... just like Daddy & Jacob

He's so cute with her (almost always that is). One of my favorite things about being a mom now days is seeing Jacob interact and help out with Mckay.

Funny Faces (above and below)

Mckay loves her big brother- he's good at making her smile.

little behind

2010-03-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe a lot behind- not having the internet at our house makes blogging really difficult. Here's some pictures from a couple months ago. Life is good for us-if Jon could just get a more permanent job that paid enough money life would be perfect! Mckay is the best baby-I couldn't ask for anything more she is nearly perfect, and we love having here around. And Jacob is so cute with her. I think my favorite thing about having two kids is watching Jacob interact with Mckay.

The first 3 pics were taken 1-4-10

Grandpa Maginot reading w/ Jacob

funny face 1-19-10

Wearing mommys shoes 1-26-10

We love this kid and his smile

I still think she's prettier in real life- but my friend took some pics that turned out pretty good- taken 1-29-10- so Mckay's about 6 weeks old in these

Thought this was a funny pic w/ her hands up while she's sleeping

bath time for Jacob & Mckay (the one time we gave them baths at the same time- it was pretty fun) 2-3-10 this poor girl doesn't get very many baths- it's usually a quick wipe down w/ a cloth (anyone else have this same problem?)

My birthday.... and this is the first year that I actually feel old now (I had a little 'getting older' crisis)... I even have a few grey hairs.... I don't want to grow up.

Jacob's such a good helper (at least most of the time)

March 3rd... a special day!

2010-03-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday- Wednesday March 3rd was a special day for several reasons:
1-It was my dad's b-day- Happy Birthday Dad!
2-I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 20 years ago
3-35 years ago to the day my Dad received his mission call (what a cool b-day present)
4-A lastly my brother Ryan received his mission call yesterday!! (again what a cool b-day present for my dad)

Ryan... soon to be Elder Evans will be reporting to the Provo MTC on May 5th and he will be going to the Tuscan, Arizona Mission!! Ry- we're so excited and happy for you!! But we sure will miss you, especially Jacob.

Long awaited Mckay/Family pictures

2010-02-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

sorry I haven't posted any pics- we don't have internet at our house. Also I want to apologize for some of the long explanations below- I'm not a good journal writer- so this is my journal

We love cuddling together. 12-19-09 in the hospital

This is my angel (my nurse Aimee)- seriously Aimee being my nurse was a huge tender mercy from the Lord. She was the first nurse I had the first couple hours of Jacob's labor (she was my favorite nurse back then), she was the perfect nurse for me. Her shifted started about 2 or 3 hours after I arrived at the hospital and her shift ended right after McKay was born. Thank you Aimee!

12-19-09 The first time our family was together, and what a perfect evening it was!

Holding McKay for the first time.

The best big brother ever!

Nana & the kids

mommy with her two precious kids. That night bringing the family home/together was a precious night for me, Jacob was absolutely adorable with McKay... when he was holding her and looking at her out of the blue he said "oh, so cute" (about McKay)... I thought my heart was going to melt. The first thing he did when he came into the house was ask for and look for Mckay- he went to her car sear but she wasn't in there, then he saw her on the couch and was so excited to see her and give her the present he got her. He also gave me a precious moments 'mother' figurine that he saw at Nana's house and wanted to give it to his mother... again, my heart melted.

Christmas Day... Happy Family!

12-31-09 posing for pics

1-3-10 Mckay's baby blessing at church

McKay was blessed in the same dress that I was blessed in 28 years ago.

so I can never get cute pics of McKay, but she really is a pretty baby.

Sad news & Grateful for the gospel

2010-01-29T18:59:00.000-08:00

I found out today that my friend’s 1 ½ yr old son passed away. My thoughts and prayers have been with her all day. As well as my tears. I have had lots of different thoughts today and the Lord has taught me a lot as well. I have one thought that I wanted to share: Today I have been reminded of how grateful I am for my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel; and especially my knowledge that Cooper and his parents will live together in the next life. And that if anything happened to Jon or my children I know that I will be with them forever and I will see them again in the next life. I am grateful that Jon and I were sealed together for eternity in the temple and that our children are sealed to us eternally as well. I cannot even imagine going through a loss like this with out that knowledge and testimony that I have. I am a very lucky person in so many ways and I hope I never forget that.

Baby Watch 09

2009-12-19T10:04:00.000-08:00

McKay Merlene Maginot was born Thursday December 17 at 10:15 PM. She was 20" long and weighed 8.6. Mom and daughter are doing great. The delivery went remarkably better than last time and for that we're thankful.
Right away one of the doctors noticed that she already had a dimple just a couple of minutes after she was born. The Maginot curse I guess.

Somehow, Mom looks better than Dad right after delivery.

The delivery squad. Way to go team!

Baby Watch 09

2009-12-18T14:18:00.000-08:00

Is done. We had a baby girl last night, December 17, at 10:15 P.M. She was 20" long and 8.6 pounds. Everyone is doing great (even Dad). Name, pictures, and more details to come.

Baby Watch 09

2009-12-17T19:10:00.001-08:00

Michelle went into labor around midnight last night which means no sleep for her. We left for the hospital around 11 or so this morning. Right now we're at about 8.5 cm. The epidural is in, the water broke shortly after that and we're hoping things will get moving in a little bit. More to come.

No Baby Yet

2009-12-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

I've been kind of grumpy the last couple of days... but I don't want to be. Hopefully she just comes soon. But I've decided my babies just like to stay in me for as long as possible. We'll keep you all posted. Have a happy Sabbath and a great week!

Baby Watch 2009

2009-12-11T16:43:00.001-08:00

We are unofficially on "Baby Watch". Michelle is now 9 months pregnant and the baby could come at any moment. More updates to come.

pregnancy pics

2009-11-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here's me 6 1/2 months pregnantThe picture above is me holding my stomach in, the picture below is me letting it out.

This is me exactly one month before my due date, which is Dec. 12th- 2 weeks from tomorrow.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did, and the food was delicious!

Please pray for me that labor and delivery goes much better this time than last time-I'm quite nervous about it.

I'd also love any tips, tricks, or what you wish you'd known/done the first few days & weeks after having your second child.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-03T16:59:00.001-08:00

Jacob loved trick or treating and mom and dad loved getting all that candy!

Jacob is the cutest!

2009-10-06T15:44:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take a moment to brag about how precious Jacob is. On Sunday during General Conference (general conference happens twice a year & it's when the leaders of our church in Salt Lake city speak to all of the church members through out the world via satellite. I love general conference weekend, it is such a spiritual up lift!) I had Jacob spend a few minutes sitting with me when President Monson (the Prophet) spoke about helping others. I talked to Jacob about what President Monson was saying and talked to him about how he is a good helper when he helps unload the dishwasher or helps me vacumm. A few minutes later he goes into the other room saying something that I could not understand. When that session of general conference ended he wanted me to come in the other room with him, again saying something I couldn't understand. When we got in the other room I realized what he was saying. He had pulled the vacumm out of the closet, into the living room and wanted to help me vacumm. It was so cute and precious (of course brought tears to my eyes) and made me feel like I have the greatest kid ever!

For Grandma Maginot...

2009-09-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

And anyone else who hasn't seen Jacob in awhile & wants to see a million pics of him from the last 2 1/2 months (maybe not a million, more like 17).

Jacob & I went to a park in Los Gatos w/ a train to ride on & a stationary train to play on at the playground- he loved it!...

So we went back a few days later on Jacob's Birthday as a family. Daddy & Jacob rode the train & the carousel.

Later that day we had an extended family birthday party with swimming, pizza, cake & presents. Jacob enjoyed swimming with Daddy, opening the presents, and blowing out the camdles on his Mickey cake (thank you to my sister for make the cake- super cute!)

A week after his Birthday we all went camping at Lehi Park in the Santa Cruz mountains. David was even home for the week. So it was the entire 7 Evans & Jon & Jacob... with that whole group comes good times and bad times. Jacob loved camping, minus the obnoxious nats/flies that swarmed our faces all day. I taught him to say shew flies... it was really cute. We made a little bedroom in the back of the van, blacked out the windows with trash bags and Jacob slept through the night perfectly!

Like father like son (Jon was laying there like that, so Jacob grabbed a pillow & joined him 8-16-09)Jacob wanted to take more pictures that day so here's a mommy & son pic.

Jacob loves the beach! He could probably spend all day there taking turns playing in the sand and playing in the water. He loves watching the waves come in too, especially the "big ones". 9-11-09 went to Seabright beach with Nana a few hours before we went up to Lehi Park for the ward campout- Jacob did great again camping, there were less flies- thank heavens- but whenever the flies came by Jacob's face he's say 'shew flies'.

Jacob likes to drink water out of the tap- loved this pose! 9-17-09

Jacob with his friend Ben. They are so cute playing together. Probably Jacob's closest friend- they have similar personalities and seem to play together really well. 9-18-09

Saturday was a special day...

2009-09-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was one of the greatest days of my life!! Quite possibly in the top 5. Speaking of top 5 leads me to the reason why Saturday was such a great day. The BYU football team beat the #3 Oklahoma Sooners 14-13! The last time BYU beat a nonconference team ranked in the Top 10 was #1 Miami in 1990. And this was their first win over a ranked nonconference opponent since they defeated #14 Arizona State in 1998. Just wanted you to know this win was a really big deal. And I was really excited!! We also had a group of friends over to watch the game- we had lots of fun- and I wish I had taken pictures.

I love Max Hall

I didn't love Mckay Jacobson when he dropped the punt, but after this play, I love him too

4 years come and gone

2009-08-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

August 13th was our 4 year anniversary! We didn't really do much on thursday but last night (friday) we went on a real date- out to dinner and then we rented a movie (thank you Nana for watching Jacob for us!). With being sick and all we haven't gone on many dates in the last few months, so last night was so nice! So I just went through our wedding pictures to find a couple to post- I love looking through our wedding pictures and remembering what a wonderful day that was- probably the best day of my life! I love you Jon, and so glad we will be together forever! coming out of the temple

so happy in love!

I absolutely love this picture of Jon... he is so gorgeous!

2009-07-18T18:37:00.001-07:00

Girl

It's A...

2009-07-15T13:06:00.001-07:00

We went to the doctor's yesterday to get an ultrasound on the thing inside of Michelle. So, for the long awaited announcement. We are having...a baby. We do know what we are having, but I thought it might be fun to toy with everyone for a while. Plus, this might break our record for number of comments to one of our blog posts. Or, you all might just not comment just to spite us. Either way it should be fun. If you know what it is, please don't say (I'm looking at you Lindsay). Remember, this is a family blog so no naughty words. Boy this should be good.

sorry I'm a slacker

2009-06-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

So sorry my blog has been dead for almost 2 months (and to forwarn, as long as I am feeling sick, my blog will probably stay pretty dead. I know this sounds weird, but for some reason using the computer makes me feel more sick). I've meant to do a quick update for awhile now, but have yet to get our pictures uploaded for the last almost 2 months- hopefully I'll do that soon. And for now, here's the basics on us....

Jacob loves living w/ his grandparents and uncles and aunt, lots of people to play with and love him (mom and dad love the extra help w/ Jacob as well). He's still a happy, smiley kid. But sometimes when he doesn't get what he wants it breaks his poor little heart and he just cries like it's the end of the world. Sometimes it's a little cute, and sometimes it drives me nuts. I am just grateful and lucky that most of the time he is happy, cheerful and laughing.

I'm still sick, but surviving- we have our ultrasound July 14th, so hopefully we'll be able to find out the gender of the little munchkin causing so much sickness to my body :-) That reminds me, Jacob loves babies and loves saying hi and blowing kisses to the baby inside of me- it's so cute- I just hope he's this cute when the baby is here.

Jon's been working for a month now and seems to be enjoying his internship.

We miss our friends down in LA. If anyone down there, or any of our friends any where else what to come visit we'd love to see you! There's an open invitation...

News to share...

2009-05-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

which should be exciting...but it's sure been a challenge for me.

We are expecting baby number 2 mid-December!

This should be a happy and exciting time, but I am miserably sick and it's been so hard to feel even remotely excited about it. I went straight from the head cold for a week, a sinus infection for a week (we confirmed we were pregnant when I went to the Dr. for the sinus infection), to nausea 24/7... and for those who don't know I really hate feeling nauseous and do not handle it very well. I never had a day to be excited about being pregnant w/ out being sick. I'm writing all of this not to complain, and not to get sympathy, but to put in writing one of my greatest challenges in life. It's hard to explain, but for some reason, still unknown to me, pregnancy is my greatest difficulty and challenge. I am working on healing and overcoming the emotional difficulty/misery that comes along with the misery of feeling so sick (because, again for reasons unknown to me, healing from the physical sickness is not in the game plan). I have started just barely to gain a new perspective/understanding on the Atonement, and relying/having faith in Christ, but I still have a long way to go. I know the Lord wants us to grow and learn and he gives each of us just the right challenges that are best for us (even if we really hate those challenges).

So I'm also letting you know that I am sick in hopes that you will understand why I haven't been a very good friend in the last month keep contacting, remembering birthday's, and that sort of thing, and why I might not be a very good friend for the next 7 months.

And finally, the one shinning moment in all of this....you know what, this post is getting too long, and I need to go eat. I'll save this for my next post. But I do want to say my husband has been so so amazing, taking care of me, Jacob and the house, and packing/moving-thank you Jon!

We're off on our next adventure!

2009-04-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

So I could write my own post about this, or just tell you to go here (Jon's post about it)....I think I"ll just tell you to go here, that's a lot easier for me :-)

Power of Prayer

2009-04-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

Rarely do I have an immediate and obvious answer to a specific request when I pray. But I had two such experiences just in the last few days.

First, Friday night we picked up Jacob from his babysitters (thank you Masha & Jeff!), but he had lost his pacifier at their house, they had looked everywhere and couldn't find it. To show you the gravity of the situation he has only one pacifier that he uses, and I don't think he's ever fallen asleep at night with out a pacifier. So we start looking, I ask Jacob where the pacifier is and he takes me into Andre's room (his friend). The two of us kneel down and give a pleading heartfelt prayer. After the prayer he points to the couch and is looking under the couch so I start looking under the couch, and there is the pacifier just sitting there. I was so grateful that we found the pacifier and it only took a few minutes of looking.

Second, a day or two later Jacob was having a complete melt down, it was around nap time so I tried to settle him down to take a nap. And nothing seemed to be working, he was still freakin out. So I held him close and again gave a sincere and pleading prayers asking Heavenly Father to help Jacob calm down and to help him feel at peace. Almost immediately Jacob calmed down and was then able to go down for a nap.

I am so grateful that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and cares about us. I am also grateful to know that He always answers our prayers, even if He doesn't answer them just the way we want Him to. And I especially love it when he does answer our prayers immediately!

Brag on your Man!!

2009-04-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired by my friend Heather. Here's what she said about it, "At this time, I would like to encourage all married woman to make a "brag on your man" post... I just wanted to share that and encourage other women to look for the kind things that their husbands do and post them." Thanks for the great idea Heather, hope it catches on.

So as you know I have been sick all week. Jon has been so wonderful, helping extra with Jacob, getting up with Jacob in the middle of the night, re-arranging his work schedule to allow me to sleep in, making dinner every night, doing the dishes (really he does the dishes pretty much all the time), cleaning up after Jacob, and doing the laundry today (again, Jon often does the laundry even when I'm not sick). Thank you Jon for being a wonderful husband all of the time, but most especially being extra wonderful while I have been sick. You are amazing!
p.s. he also just finished reading Twilight... I love my man! (he wrote a post about Twilight here after we watched the movie)

Sick = No Fun

2009-04-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

A sick boy and then a sick mom equals a cranky boy, a bad mom, and a really rough time. Let's just hope Dad doesn't get it.

Jacob updates

2009-04-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Just shy of 21 months here's Jacob and some of the things he does:

-3 or 4 weeks ago he started saying a whole bunch of words (I'm not even going to try and spell out how the words actually sound, but as you probably know with most of his words he says the first sound/letter of each syllable). This list is the words he's been saying for awhile as well as his new ones: mom, dad, please (this one is my favorite! And he's learning to say it all the time whenever he's asking for something), open, bye, nope & no, dog, cat, monkey, horse, cow, duck, bird, butterfly, whale (as well as the sounds the animals make) trees, water, clouds, rainbow, moon, balloon, ball, mickey, eye, ear, shh, beep beep, banana, cheese, medicine, tractor, train, bus, the-end, there-it-is, amen, Jesus, chocolate, house, and his favorites-car, truck, airplane, & helicopter (most of the words he says only when we are looking at a picture of them, he has about 10 words or so that he says quite often on his own)

-Everyday he wants to watch Cars and/or Nemo, and could probably watch them all day long. I don't know how he got so into them, we didn't really let him watch movies until he started asking for them on his own.

-He's sort of learning how to count, if he wants to count something he starts touching his fingers, or he'll point to the objects and say one, one, one. Then he'll point to each of the balloons, or each of the dogs as I count them.

-When he runs it's still fairly slow because his running steps are so small and close together- it's cute/funny to watch

-He loves to blow kisses and give hugs when we are saying goodbye to friends

-Sometimes he's really good at sharing, and sometimes he's really bad at sharing.

-He plays hide and seek with dad almost everyday (dad's usually the hider, when Jacob hides he comes out of his hiding spot with in a couple seconds)

So, a month ago Jacob grabbed this monkey and put it around his neck, I thought it was so cute so I took these first two pictures you see below.

Then, just yesterday we were making monkey noises so he grabbed the monkey again and put it around his neck, then he preceded to go over by where the camera is, point to where the camera is and make his picture smile. I about died from laughter, who would have guessed that he would have remembered that one random event from a month ago, wanting to repeat it exactly. These next two pictures are from last night. At the beach in Santa Barbara to celebrate Chris' (my cousin) 30th Birthday.

Sleeping in Daddy's bed... It was so cute... Jacob likes playing on our bed and the other day he got under Jon's blanket and laid down on the pillow.

I'm hooked... again

2009-03-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

I had finally gotten over my Twilight obsession and was living a normal life again until last night. We had a girls night at my friends place and we watched Twilight- loved it! (even with the lame special effects and lines). I was sucked back in again, and left my friends house with her copy of Twilight... can't wait until Jacob's nap in about 30 minutes, maybe we'll make it 20 minutes :-)

Free movie rentals

2009-03-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

Redbox is giving a code away every wednesday in March and the first week in April for a free movie rental. Check out the website here! Pop some popcorn and start watching free movies!

So I went to our local Redbox last night to get Twilight- their website said they had it now, and I was so excited to watch it for free! But when I got there there was no Twilight in the Redbox and they won't have it until the 21st... I guess next wednesday will be Twilight night!

I have an anouncement...

2009-03-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY!!

So, I don't really have anything going on blog worthy, but didn't want to just ignore my blog so I thought I'd send a St. Patrick's day greeting. I didn't know what to title the blog and figured this title would catch people's attention. Well, that's all. Have a happy day! :-)

p.s. if you know of any job openings in city government Jon's looking
p.p.s. I can't wait to have kids old enough so that when I do fun things to celebrate holidays they'll enjoy it.

I have a dilema...

2009-03-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

and I don't know what to do. So this might seem unimportant & insignificant to you, but I'm really stressing about it and having a hard time deciding. My Disneyland season pass expires today and the question is do I renew my pass or not. Here's some of the reasons for not renewing my pass: there is a good chance we will only be here in LA for another 2 or 3 months, I've already had a whole year to go to D-land and experience all the fun, I've gone on every ride except for the kiddie roller coaster in toontown, every time we drive down there it costs another $5 in gas, and the biggest one, it costs $134 for the annual pass. Here's some reasons to renew my pass: I love D-land! and so does Jacob, we also have a fun time there, when again will we be able to go to d-land for so cheap, I have $20 left over from my b-day gift card d-land gave me (for those who don't know you can go to d-land or d-world for free on your b-day this year, just go here)- and we have about $70 in d-land rewards dollars that I can use for the pass- so that means we only have to spend about $45 in cash (but $45 is a lot of money for us, and that $90 could be spent on Disney merchandise as gifts or other things to save us money). It's hard to justify spending that money when I've already been to d-land a lot and when we are living on student loans. I am seriously going crazy and stressing about this... hopefully I can make a decision soon and have no regrets. You know, if we had lots of friends coming down to visit and going to Disneyland it would make my decision easier :-)

Happy Birthday DAD (Grandpa)!

2009-03-03T13:32:00.000-08:00

Thanks for being a wonderful Father, Father-in-law and Grandpa! We love you so much, Happy Birthday!
Love,
Michelle, Jon, & Jacob

The Bachelor

2009-03-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

Last night concluded my first and last season of watching the Bachelor.
To summarize.... stupid, stupid, stupid!

Thoughts on our President

2009-03-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

I saw this on my sisters blog and thought it is the perfect description. Obama really does have an amazing and powerful way of speaking. And to give him a sincere compliment, there is a real power in the way he speaks which makes people feel more hopeful and happy. During his speech to congress I was in tears several times (good, happy tears), and I was motivated to do a little more and be a little better. Maybe the way Obama makes people feel will be enough to fix some of our problems, becauase when I look at the things he has actually done I am not so happy, for example: he sold himself for 800 billion dollars-the majority of the 800 billion stimulus is going to people who helped him get into office; all the corrupt politicians he is trying to put into his cabinet (scandals, not paying excessive amounts of taxes, etc); says he wants to be bipartisan, but doesn't really care what the republicans have to say about the stimulus or anything else for that matter; in the name of bipartisanship nominates a republican senator as secretary of commerce and then takes away one of the biggest duties of that secretary, the census (which mind you is suppose to be a non partisan project), and gives it to his chief of staff. And it just so happens this senator is also from a state with a democratic governor who would name a democrat to the senate thus giving the democrats the 60 person vote to stop filibusters (props to this senator for declining.

I am still hopeful that Barak President Obama will be a great president, but not nearly as hopeful as I was the night he was elected.

Catch-up

2009-02-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

So even though I posted once this month, it was about things we did the middle of January. So here's a 5 week summary to bring you up to date. In the last 5 weeks we have been home for 19 of those days and away for 18 days, it's been a whirl wind, but fun too!

First we went up to Sacramento for the first half of Jon's final MPA class, we spent the 5 days with Casey & Jo Lynn, (friends I met back in high school). We had a great time hanging out, and playing games.

Their daughter Savanah, & Jacob loved the bubbles.

We went to Fairytale Land one day, here's a couple pics from that:

Dad & Jacob hanging out at home. Jacob loves his Dad, he always tries to copy Dad, and no one can make Jacob laugh like Daddy can- they are so cute together!

This is in Monterey with the Fish Hopper restaurant in the background. Jon went to a California City Manager's conference in Monterey, since this is where we honeymooned we left Jacob with Nana & Grandpa in Sunnyvale and spent 3 days at the conference (which was a great success, learned tons and met a lot of people in the field). During the evenings we had some time to ourselves, and Friday the conference ended at 11:00am so of course we walked around downtown and ate the greatest clam chowder ever at the Fish Hopper. So fun to reminisce and be single again for a few days(my definition of single: childless). I am also happy to report that Jacob did great away from us, when he first woke up my mom said he was a little sad and checked every room in the house, but once he realized we weren't there he starting playing with toys with Nana and was happy the rest of the time. Went down for his naps, slept through the night, had a great time. Hooray, what a sucess for all of us! Jon & Michelle at the same Monterey beach 3 1/2 years ago on our honeymoon

We went to Disneyland on my birthday, since I already have a pass they gave me a gift card worth $69 to spend on merchandise in the park. Normally I would never buy a $50 sweatshirt, but since I was given free money I bought a pink d-land sweatshirt that I love- Thank you Disneyland! And Jon got me one of the birthday buttons to wear around- Thank you Jon!

Off to Sacramento one more time for the second half of Jon's final MPA class, Casey & Jo Lynn let us stay with them again (in just over a month we spent 10 days at their house, you two are so wonderful, thank you mucho!).

Here's the kids enjoying bath time.

We have no plans to be traveling anytime soon, but with the way we live I'm sure something will come up. We love having visitors, so come and visit before we move!

Maginot Grandparents come to visit!

2009-02-10T10:39:00.001-08:00

Jacob loved the extra attention with Grandpa and Grandma around, and I loved the extra help. These are all pictures that Grandma took while they were here... a little summary of their visit.... hanging out at home

Jacob loves taking the time to smell the roses

Grandpa & Jacob at Santa Monica beach... so precious (and I love that Jacob is caring the towel bag, such a good helper)

Jacob eating Spaghetti with Grandma

We spent Martin Luther King weekend down in San Diego, so so fun! Jacob loved the rides at Sea World, and loved waving to Grandpa, Grandma & Daddy every time we went on a ride.

We all loved the Shamu show, so amazing, and so fun to watch Jacob watching the show.

Visiting the Buswell's-an old family friend from Kansas. This is Jordan Buswell, his younger brother Ashton is one of Jon's closest friends growing up.

Jacob's new best buds!

Sure loves water

Balboa Park

Jacob totally loved the train ride and wanted to ride it again

Jacob also loves the fish in the water

can you tell

I just love his expressions

couldn't get enough of the fish and the water.... and couldn't get enough of Grandpa & Grandma Maginot. We were sad to see them go.

Christmas in Sunnyvale

2009-01-13T22:17:00.000-08:00

So these pics are a little old, it's taken me awhile to finally upload our Christmas pictures onto the computer, but here they are. We had a wonderful Christmas, Jacob's uncles and aunt loved playing with Jacob and he loved playing with them. Christmas Eve at Grandpa & Grandma Porter's House. The amazing Grandma's taco's and the special gold blanket with Christmas stories made for a wonderful evening!
Dessert all over, must have been good!

Twiner sisters!

enjoying the blanket and stories: Jon, Michael, David, Michelle

All the boys on the blanket!

Christmas Day!

I think all the pics of Jacob opening presents is on my mom's camera, including the traditional stairs photos.

Jon's brother and family came from Rhode Island to visit, we were so excited to see them and spend time with them!

Jon & Mark

Cousin Jillian

The Cousins at the Severns Light display (Jillian, Cadencem Jacob)

Jon, the favorite horse to ride!

Uncle D with his Kangaroo pouch for J-ram (just for you David)

Free at Last!

2009-01-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was a great day! Tuesday night we left Jacob in the hands of his nana (my mom), and we went to a hotel for our first night together away from Jacob. Our hotel was my grandparents house (thank you to our wonderful grandparents) 3 blocks away from my parents... the reason for this hotel choice-it cost nothing! Also, if Jacob spending the night away from us was a crash and burn we could come back quite easily. I am happy to report we received no phone calls from my mom, we had a wonderful night together watching movies and relaxing, and when we returned Jacob was happy and my mom said it went well. Hooray, it was a success!

2008-12-24T14:00:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Love,

The Maginots

We love Christmas at Disneyland!

2008-12-16T09:05:00.000-08:00

Disneyland... the Happiest place on earth (especially at Christmas time)We met Mickey! Our first time in Toontown, and didn't even have to wait long. You know how some kids cry around cartoons in costume, I was worried Jacob would be one of those kids, but he loved Mickey! He even gave Mickey high five and blew him a kiss when we were leaving.

Jacob loves cars, everytime we saw a car he wanted to climb in and drive.

Jacob and Daddy at the Christmas tree.

We didn't go on it's a small world, the line was an hour long, but the lights were so amazing, totally loved them... so did Jacob! I tried to capture the beauty of it, but it's way better in real life.

We Love Christmas!!

2008-12-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

We love the lights, the music, the decorations, the spirit and we can't get enough of it. Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland, can't wait to see the Christmas decor at Disneyland.

Our family at the Grove last week...

This tree behind Jacob is even taller than the tree in Rockefeller Center.

Our family at the Grove last year...Snow in LA at the Grove, love it!

If you look in the background you can see our Christmas tree (and yes we put it up before Thanksgiving), and on the wall is a wreath I made with my parents tree scraps. My first time making a wreath- I love feeling domestic!

Helping the Evans family get their tree in Sunnyvale- Grandpa & Jacob with the perfect tree.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON!!!

2008-12-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

Jon is 27 today! Happy Birthday to the cutest, sexiest, smartest, funniest, babalicious guy around! I love you tons Jon.... to eternity and beyond!

Last night I planned a little surprise party for Jon at the Johnson's home, it was so fun to see four grown men playing the Wii...

Jon, Specner, Brandon, Jeff

I am Thankful for....

2008-11-25T13:13:00.000-08:00

First and foremost for the gospel of Jesus Christ and my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Going along with that theme, I'm grateful that I will be with my family forever.

Jon, and what a wonderful husband and father he is!

Jacob, for his smiles and laughter and love of life!

Shae, Ronnie & Jr., the greatest neighbors anyone could ever ask for!

Of course all of my extended family both on my side and on Jon's side, and most especially my parents for all they do for me and the support they are to me.

That Jon is able to go to grad school at such a great school (even if they can't win a national title while we are here) :-)

All of the friends we have made down here in LA.

All of my friends everywhere else, those who grew up with me, those I met, and especially those I lived with in Provo during my college years, plus my DC friends, and the sisters I gained at BYU-Hawaii.

That reminds me I have to be grateful for Polynesians and the Polynesian culture that I am apart of in my heart, Aloha! Ofa atu!

Here's a short list of other things that I am grateful for: The beach, waves, sand, sunshine and warmth, looking at snow from a distance, yummy food, fleece blankets, cuddling, kissing my lover, remembering happy memories, getting a good night's sleep, Hawaii, traveling, laughing, chatting with friends, seeing friends I haven't seen in ages, loving others and being loved, free babysitters, being healthy, back massages, smiling... the list could go on but I think I'll stop there before this gets too long.

I am grateful for Thanksgiving, not only because I love the dinner, but because it helps me reflect on all the things I am blessed with and all of the things I am so grateful for!

Happy Thanksgiving! And happy eating!

I have an unhealthy addiction...

2008-11-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

to Twilight.

We were up in Sacramento this weekend for Jon's class, staying at Chris & Adrienne's (our uncle & aunt) with their 5 kids who are so cute and so much fun. Side tangant, I brought my camera to take pics of them with Jacob but my battery was dead, so no pics of the fun weekend with them. But we sure did have a great time, thanks Porters! Anywho back to the reason for this post: The room we were staying in had a bookshelf and I noticed the 4 books in the Twilight series (in the last month or so I have thought about reading them), so I decided to start book 1. I read that book, all 500 pages, in less than 48 hours. I don't think I've ever read that much that fast. I was obssesed I carried the book every where with me while I was taking care of Jacob. As soon as the book ended I started book 2, and continued to read like a crazy woman. I had about 50 pages left in the book when we left Sacramento so Adrienne let me borrow her copy. I finished that yesterday morning, and was planning on waiting until Thanksgiving break to read 3 and 4, but by midday I couldn't wait any longer. Those books are controlling my life. I went to the Library yesterday afternoon, but nada. I called 4 different friends, nada. I came home and I was dying. I called another friend and left a message, a few hours later she called me back, and she has book 3! I was ecstatic, but then I was bummed because she won't be able to give me the book until tonight. I've been going crazy, I haven't read it for 24 hours now, and I still have probably another 10 hours until I get the book, but then I have a meeting tonight. I have a feeling I am going to be up late tonight. :-)

*please, in no way say anything to reveal anything that happens in book 3 or 4

Halloween Fun

2008-11-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Jacob loved his bee costume, especially his hood. Okay...so he hated wearing his hood, he probably wore that hood for a grand total of 2 minutes while we were trying to capture a cute picture of our little bee.

So I learned my lesson, never again will I make a costume that requires some sort of a hat unless the kid actually asks for the hat and tells me he wants to wear it. Thank you to my mom for her help with the costume, she made the hood, and helped with the wings. I was so proud of myself for sewing the stripes on. In case you can't tell I was flowers (bees attracted to flowers), and if you look closely at Jon he has a box around his neck full of papers with the letter "B", can you figure out what he is?

Our family trip to the pumpkin patch, Jacob loved running around and exploring!

And we loved watching him!
His two favorite things of the night were pushing around the little car they had there and riding the pony. We wish we had video footage of the pony ride, he as a little hesitant at first, but once they got going he was having the greatest time and loving it!

After the great time at the pumpkin patch (atleast the city's version of a pumpkin patch) we went to the grocery store and got a nice big pumpkin for $6 (at the pumpkin patch it would have been $25)

Prop 8- Why I'm voting YES

2008-10-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

I've always supported defining marriage as only between a man and a woman, however, my reasons previously were almost entirely based on my religious views/perspective. Knowing that family is essential to God's plan, and that the disintegration of the family will bring calamaties to individuals, communities, and nations (The Family: A Proclamation to the World). And I used to feel that those who supported same sex marriage had more logical arguments. I guess you could say I used to believe this was more an issue of civil rights.

In the last several months, since 4 California judges overturned California's law, and since Prop 8 got on the ballot, I have done a lot of reading and listening and studying of the issue. And, even though I still believe that those who oppose prop 8 have good points on their side of the argument, I now understand and see many more valid and good arguments for those who support defining marriage as only between one man and one woman, and I would like to share my thoughts on it.

First, this is not about civil rights. Prop 8 does not take away any rights that same sex couples have that are similar to rights of heterosexual couples. And we have no intention of trying to take away those rights. Prop 8 is a matter of morality, and an issue of keeping seperation of church and state, and of not taking away freedom of religion or freedom of speech (both of which are in the first amendment of the Constitution).

This leads me to my second point, and one of the most important to me. If Prop 8 does not pass, most of the religous people in California will lose our rights to freedom of religion and freedom of speech. I don't think it's just mere coincidence that in our first amendment to the Constitution (aka our first bill of right) it states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Allowing same sex marriage will most definitely prohibit the free exercise of religion. And if you do not believe this to be true, let me share with you some examples that have already happened in our country and other places:

• “Catholic Charities in Boston and San Francisco ended adoption services altogether rather than be compelled by anti-discrimination laws to place children with same-sex couples. In the Boston case, Catholic Charities was prepared to refer same-sex couples seeking to adopt to other providers, but that was not sufficient.”
• A Christian gynecologist in San Diego County was sued when he refused to perform artificial insemination for one partner of a lesbian couple for religious reasons. The doctor referred the patient to a colleague, promised there would be no extra cost and offered to care for her during her subsequent pregnancy. The couple sued, and the California Supreme Court was hostile to the doctor’s arguments. One justice suggested that the doctor take up a different line of business.
• A photographer in Albuquerque was sued when she declined to shoot a commitment ceremony based on her beliefs. The New Mexico Human Rights Commission found the photographer guilty of discrimination. She was ordered to pay the couple’s legal fees ($6000+).
• A Methodist organization in New Jersey lost part of their tax exempt status because they refused to rent their boardwalk pavilion to a lesbian couple for their civil union ceremony. This litigation is ongoing.
• The establishment of same-sex marriage as a civil right will also inevitably require mandatory changes in school curricula. “In Quebec, a Mennonite school was informed by the Ministry of Education that it must conform to the official provincial curriculum, including teaching that homosexuality is an acceptable alternative lifestyle, or be shut down. The Mennonites say they will leave the province. A similar government position can be anticipated here.”

I would also like to add my thoughts of same sex marriage and the classroom. If Prop 8 does not pass and same-sex marriage is allowed then it would be taught in schools that same-sex marriage is good and normal. There are a couple examples from two Massachesetts schools were same sex mariage is allowed. A kindergartener was sent home a diversity bag with a book about homosexuality & same-sex marriage, and I believe it was a 1st grader who's teacher read to the class a book about two princes marrying each other. Now, from a logical and understanding point of view I can see the argument for sharing these books and this topic with the children. However I feel it is strongly hypocritical of people who say it's okay to share these books and these beliefs & ideas to children but then turn around and say, no way you can't share bible stories or religous beliefs in the classroom. You can't have one side with out the other. And in my opinion either we allow both in the classroom equally or we keep both out of the classroom. It reminds me of what Dallin H. Oaks said: This is much bigger than just a question of whether or not society should be more tolerant of the homosexual lifestyle. Over past years we have seen unrelenting pressure from advocates of that lifestyle to accept as normal what is not normal, and to characterize those who disagree as narrow-minded, bigoted and unreasonable. Such advocates are quick to demand freedom of speech and thought for themselves, but equally quick to criticize those with a different view and, if possible, to silence them by applying labels like “homophobic.”*

In conclusion, vote YES on Prop 8.

"In the same week that the No on 8 campaign launched an ad that labeled as “lies” claims that same-sex marriage would be taught in schools to young children, a first grade class took a school-sponsored trip to a gay wedding."*

One of my favorite articles written about Prop 8: Ask A Christian by Felice Austin
Prop 8 offical website: protectmarriage.com
Other great website: preservingmarriage.org

Fun at the Park

2008-10-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Really... can you get any cuter than this?

Jacob with his buddy Andre

Babies from our ward!

I stole a post from my sister

2008-10-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

Only a genius could have written this post, you are amazing Linds!

Genius is Hereditary
Ryan Porter Evans is a stud muffin to the infinite power. Not only does he look super fly in this wake surfing picture, he also is an intellectual deity, a god among mortals. ryan recently took the act and scored a 33!! He owned the act. It runs in the family.

So he will for sure be coming to byu next year. The lord's university welcomes you with open arms ryan. My brother is amazing and this picture is amazing.absolutely charming.

I'm so excited for you Ryan! Keep up the great work! Love, michelle :-)

Great Grandma's sure are Great!

2008-09-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

Jacob with his Great Grandma Evans. We got to spend a few hours with Great Grandma Evans and cousin Sean (Sean actually stayed with us for the whole weekend, we had a great time!) when we picked them up at the LA port after their cruise. What a fun treat!

I NEED HELP!

2008-09-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

So, we've recently discovered that Jacob will only go to sleep for me... most nights that is totally fine. However, if I want to be gone during the hour of Jacob's bedtime... I can't! Other than crying it out I'd appreciate any suggestions, advice and help on the matter. And a tip to other parents, don't get into a routine of only one parent putting the kid to bed. Both of us use to put Jacob to bed and Jacob didn't care which person was putting him to bed, but in the last couple months I haven't been out at night much so I have always put him to bed and now we have a problem, so just a word of warning. The same can happen with other things as well, like taking a bottle.

Look, he use to sleep for anyone... what happened?

My Parents are the Cutest!

2008-09-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

So at the family reunion we took Evans family pics, and then we convinced my parents to take some pics of the two of them. It was an event...fun for all involved (atleast those of us watching)! I just love these pics of them, I was only going to add a couple, but I loved them all so much I couldn't leave any out. Kaele (my aunt) did an amazing job...both my parents have real smiles... amazing! (especially for my Dad)

Even after 28 years of marriage you can still be happily in love and oh so cute!

Porter Family Reunion

2008-09-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

It's been one month since our Porter Family Reunion at Lake Almanor, so I thought it's about time to finally post some pictures from that fabulous week! Lake Almanor is about 3 hours north of Sacramento in the mountains. The weather was great, the views were beautiful (our cabin was surronded by evergreens and this is just about what our view was from the house we stayed in) and the company couldn't have been better! Grandpa & Grandma Porter (Leroy & Vonda)

Thank you for making this week possible for us! Grandpa & Grandma had every single one of their descendants there (except Robbie Hulme who is serving a mission for our church in Spokane, Washington-so he gets an excused absence). They have 5 children, 21 grandchildren (5 grandchildren in-laws), and 4 great grandchildren. All of their grandsons missionary age have gone on honorable missions, and all of their descendants are active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We love you Grandpa & Grandma!

We stayed in a cabin with our cousins Kristine & Dave Hanks and their three little ones.

And also our cousins Andi & Josh Bennett, recently married.

No matter where we are, Jacob loves water. In the sink at my parents cabin.

Playing in the lake with Dad.

He's so cute!

Jacob's first adventure on a boat and being towed behind the boat on a molecule. He was a little nervous at first, but after not much time at all he was laughing and having a great time out there!

The old ladies on the molecule, Cheryl, Grandma, Mom

It was so fun to watch them out there! They were like teenagers out there having a grand ole time. Must be young at heart!

Grandpa, Cheryl and I went to the house Grandpa's parents were living in when he was born in Susanville. Grandpa lived there less than 2 years and they moved back to Anabella.

Jon and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary there. Well, we didn't really do anything to celebrate except for taking these pics.

Remember the kissing picture from our Anniversary post, it took us a few tries to get a good kissing picture...

Jacob loves his Aunt Lindsay!

Playtime!!

Alexa & Jacob
Jacob & Carter having fun on the swings

Grandpa, Grandma, Toni, Patti (my mom), Cheryl, Greg, Chris

All the cousins lined up from shortest to tallest.

Ty, Travis, Avy, Alexa, Sadie, Dane & Drake (order could be reversed), Tanner, Kambri, Jenna, Andi, Mason, Me, Michael, Lindsay, Kristine, Chris, Dan, Ryan, Randy, David

New Kids On The Block are back!!

2008-09-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

Can I just tell you how excited I am.... So last night we were watching the news and they mentioned that New Kids On The Block is back together again, I was so ecstatic! I have never loved a music group or singer more than I loved them! I had cassette tapes, a pillow case, music video, barbie size doll, you name it. I was going to convert them to the church so I could marry one of them. So, this morning I turned the tv on to see if there was any political talk about the presidential campaign and it could not have been more perfect timing, the two younger girls on The View were introuducing all 5 NKOTB onto their show- I could have died! I think I fell in love with them all over again, and they sang one of their new songs, I think it's called Single, and they also sang Step By Step. Jacob and I danced along and I nearly cried I was so excited. Well, now you all know my love for New Kids, and my utter excitment they are back. Maybe if I am lucky I will get to go to one of their concerts!

Three Wonderful Years!

2008-08-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!

August 13th was our 3rd wedding anniversary. I know this is coming a little late, but we were at a family reunion on our anniversary, in fact we have never really been able to fully celebrate our anniversary. Year one we were moving from Utah to DC, year two we were moving from Sunnyvale to Los Angeles, and year three we were at Lake Almanor with 39 other people.

I just want everyone to know that I have the greatest husband anyone could ever hope or ask for. I have loved growing, learning, stretching, laughing, crying, kissing, praying, exploring, discovering, hugging, and most of all being with Jon everyday, knowing he will always be by myside and always be there for me.

I love you Jon to eternity and beyond!!

The day Jon proposed on BYU's campus

Our wedding day!

1st Anniversary I don't actually have a picture on our Anniversary for 2006, but this was just a few weeks after when we were at the Nauvoo Temple.

2nd Anniversary

Yes, I know I look fat, but remember I just had a baby a month earlier.

3rd Anniversary

dang he's a good kisser! :-)

Jacob is Walking!!

2008-08-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

Jacob took his first steps on Thursday July 17th. It was perfect timing too, right when Grandma Evans came to visit. About half an hour before she came I tried to get Jacob to take a step, he took what I would call half of a step (kind of scooted his foot). Then when Jon was helping my mom bring her stuff in Jacob and I were waiting at the front door and he took one step, his first step along! Then when Grandma walked in the door he took a few steps, we got the video camera out really fast (thanks to Grandma for bringing it down), and captured him walking across the kitchen floor (video to come later). He was so excited about his new found talent/skill that often he would get too excited and happy and would just fall over every time he tried to walk, it was the cutest thing ever! Crawling is still his fastest mode of transportation but in the last few days walking has become his favorite way of getting himself around. It's so fun to watch him discover his walking abilities... and he's still not a good enough walker to take him to that next stage of "walking", so it's just perfect right now! Oh, also, for the last month he is pretty much sleeping through the night 11-12 hours straight... I never knew how much fun it is to be a mom!

Jacob practicing his walking one week after he took his first steps.

It's my Party!

2008-07-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Dad grillin... with Grandpa Maginot & Dan in the back

Jacob playing in the pool... you can't go wrong with water and little boys!

Jacob, Kayden (with Carson's head right behind him), & Andre

Jacob's cake! The before...

and after...
This was my first endeavor to make a creative cake more than just putting the mix in a 9x13 pan and frosting the top. I ran into a few complications while making the cake, but did a little improvising, and in the end I think it turned out pretty good. I am proud of what I created. :-)

Singing Happy Birthday to Jacob and trying to get him to blow out the candle... mom and dad had to help a bit with blowing out the candle. But not with eating the cake, Jacob was able to handle that just fine!
What is this?

mmmm, I like it!

Do you want some too?

Friends who helped us celebrate Jacob's birthday!

more friends... Andrew & Julie Stanger (plus me)

Grandma Maginot and Charlene

Ashleigh (w/ baby Violet), Me & Birthday boy, Michiko (w/ baby Cosette)

Husbands of the three of us above: Mike, Brandon, Birthday boy's Daddy

Jacob and parents opening up presents. Jacob loved all of his presents, but the firetruck was best of all!

Adventures on my 1st Birthday!

2008-07-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

We went to the Long Beach Aquarium and then out to dinner for my 1st Birthday! We had a great time! Thank you to Grandpa & Grandma Maginot!

I loved checking out all the fish and cruisin around the aquarium!

I have the greatest Dad in the whole world!

Aren't I the cutest? :-)

Gotta love my grandparents!

Me & Mom have a great time together!

Grandpa, me, Daddy, and cousin Hunter... I sure do love the attention!

Yep, I am the cutest!

Mom got to feed the bird and touch it. She loved it!

I wanted to too, and when I tried to touch the bird it bit me. But I'm a tough kid and got over it really quick; I still wanted to get close to the birds even after one bit my finger. I just loved the birds!

The whole crew at Chili's! Thanks for giving me a great 1st Birthday!

Jacob was born 1 year ago today

2008-07-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is how I looked when we first started pushing and thought Jacob was coming out. But apartenly he didn't want to and went back up the birth canal, he decided to come out about 5 hours later..... ugh! And this is how I looked and felt after those 5 hours of pushing, 26 hours of labor, IV issues, and an epidural that tried to suffocate me.

Jacob getting cleaned up. (I know, not the cutest baby ever back then, but he sure is now!)
Daddy and Baby first bonding....aahhh

The crew that brought the baby into this world (missing my mom-the camera lady, and another nurse)

Sleeping after all that hard work... And let me tell you, it sure was hard work, probably the hardest day of my life was the day Jacob was born.
I can't believe it has been one year already. We love Jacob so so much and are so grateful he is apart of our lives.
Happy First Birthday Jacob!

4th of July Fun!!

2008-07-08T10:20:00.001-07:00

We had some friends over for a BBQ (the Johnson's & McMillian's), the kids played and had a great time. We ate lots of good food, played the Wii, and had fun with our friends.

Jacob & Andre chillin in the pool

Hanging out.

Trying to get all three boys to pose for a picture.....yeah right.

Jacob, Andre, Filipe

Fireworks!
We watched the fireworks from the Los Angeles Temple; it was perfect, no crowds, no crazy traffic or parking, no super loud fireworks noises to make Jacob cry, and lots of fireworks shows to watch. We could probably see 20 different shows (some obviously very far away, but some close enough we could hear them). If you look at the picture close you can see Jacob pointing to the fireworks. He loved them!

Jacob & mommy watching fireworks with the Temple in the background.

Gotta love how cute he is!
We are so grateful to live in the United States with all of the freedoms, blessings, and opportunities it provides to us. As my favorite patriotic song says, "God bless the USA"!

Jacob can stand!!

2008-07-07T14:06:00.000-07:00

On July 3rd Jacob finally discovered he can stand unaided. He has been getting himself to a standing position with the aid of something to hold on to since he was just over 6 months old, and he has been walking, again with something to hold on to, just shortly after that. So of course we thought Jacob would be walking early. However, Jacob decided to be a pansy about standing and walking alone. So here we have it, he will be one in four days, and just barely started standing alone. The picture above doesn't show him standing alone, but it was the first night he really started standing and it's the only picture we got of him. As you can see from the smile, he is very excited and proud of his new found talent, as are his parents!

These two pictures were captured just yesterday of him standing by himself. And yes, that is him brushing his teeth. A few months ago I gave him my old tooth brush and ever since he loves brushing his teeth with mom... it's so cute.
And for those of you who are so observant that you noticed he is wearing the same onesie in all 3 pictures... no he did not wear the same onesie for 3 days straight. That's his pajama onsie; the first pic was taken right before bed, and the next two were taken in the morning before we changed him.

Cherry Picking Fun!

2008-06-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

Earlier in June we went out to Beaumont for the weekend, and we were lucky enough to get to pick cherries. For those who don't know, cherries are my favorites. So not only was it fun to pick our own fruit (which was a first for me, I've never done that before) I got bags full of cherries to eat!

So not the best picture of Jacob; our camera ended up dying on us, but atleast you know he was there. And by the way, Jacob loves cherries too!!

So fun, love those cherries!

Thank you Charlene! It was a great weekend!

My husband was a great cherry picker. Despite the accident to his elbow with blood everyone... interesting how cherry juice looks just like blood :-)

Things I love about Jacob

2008-06-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

First thing I love is that he is the cutest baby ever... gotta love those dimples and big beautiful blue eyes!! (no picture can truly do him justice, but here's a few good ones)

I love his new tongue thing and the super cute noise he makes with it. Don't know how he learned it, we were camping, just sitting around waiting for my family to show up and he started doing it. It is so adorable. Speaking of camping here's a picture from his first camping trip- he loved camping!

(so I actually don't have any pics of us actually camping... mom can you send me the ones you guys took?)

I love that he gets so excited when daddy comes home from work and he just wants to play with his dad (no one can make Jacob laugh like Jon can)

Speaking of laughing, I love his laugh, the cutest thing ever (wish I had a video of it to post- I have a video of him laughing on my phone, but don't know how to download it to the computer with out spending money).

I love when he is sleeping :-)

But I also love when he wakes up from a nap and we cuddle on the chair and read a book together.

I love that he climbs everywhere and loves getting himself into funky places/positions- here's just a few.

I love that he is such a good eater, and loves almost everything new that we give him.

I love that he can catch a ball.

I love it that when we put on his special baby laughing you tube clip that he thinks is so funny and laughs along with the baby.

I love it when other people are laughing, so he figures something must be funny and he starts laughing too (usually his fake laugh). Sometimes he fake coughs as well, and I love that too!

The list could go on, but that's the main points for now. I love watching Jacob learn and explore new things everyday. And as I said before he sure is the cutest baby ever!

I love you Jacob!

2008-05-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

Yes the day is here. The Maginots are blogging. I know what you're saying. The Maginots are probably the least technologically advanced people I know. It's true. We don't have blackberries, we don't have text messaging (so don't text us), we don't have an ipod (we do have an mp3 player. We got it a year and a half ago. It has two songs on it), and we don't have a website, but we do have a blog. In fact, we have two. That's how technologically advanced we are. So take that all you one blog people out there.
Now you're probably saying to yourselves. What on earth do you need two blogs for. Well, we got the idea from someone else. See he decided that he needed two sets of records, we'll call them plates. One he called the large plates and it included more day to day things. The other he called the small plates and they included more important things. It seemed like a good idea for him so I guess we'll go with the same idea. One blog we'll call the large plates of Maginot (although we're not using plates so maybe we should call it...oh...I don't know...moving on). So one blog (this one, "Maginot") will contain more of what is happening in our family and will probably be written most by Michelle. The other, "Jon Maginot", will contain my random thoughts and things that are important for you to know.
So we hope you enjoy this special look into our family.