Update

Just wanted to post an update on the latest going on with us right now. We have been so blessed lately and are very excited about the positive changes taking place in our lives.

First of all, Jesse was just hired at a place called the Behavioral Learning Center, located here in Valencia. This is an in-home service for children with developmental disorders, mainly Autism. Today is Jesse's first day on the job and he gets to go bowling with a couple of boys! I know he is going to do awesome! He had to take a test in order to determine his pay rate and Jesse received one of the highest scores they said they had ever seen on this test (apparently it is quite difficult)! I am so proud, what a smart husband I have :) He will be working here part time while he continues his education. He is very happy because this is quite a raise from his last job at Six Flags, which he no longer works for. Yay!

Also, I applied at the same place because Jesse suggested it and thought I might enjoy it. I am going to training this week so I will try it out part time as well and see how it goes. I am playing with the idea of going back to graduate school in clinical psychology. This would really help out with that, should I decide to apply.

The final good news is that we have moved! We are in a wonderful new place that is CLEAN and we couldn't be happier. This came as an unexpected answer to prayers and we are so so so grateful.

Friday the 13th Visit

Good old Friday the 13th brought us some good luck in the form of friendly visitors from Montana. One of my cousins (Ally), my uncle and my aunt along with about 30 teenagers came strolling through Valencia and stopped for a fun-filled day at Magic Mountain. From Valencia, they continued on their way to Baja, Mexico on a mission trip. It has been over a year since I've seen this family so it was very special.


My cousin and I hanging out at Maccaroni Grill :-)

More fun photos from our Utah trip!

One of our nights of fun in Utah included making our "Frog in Da House" music video with the Mortensens and the Rapps. We had such a great time catching up with all of them. Alex just returned home from a mission in Thailand and he introduced us to a popular song there. We decided to make our own version of the music video and have London be the star froggie. The completed music video is still to come, so don't fret. We are waiting for the master editor, Travis to finish it. I can't wait!!

So this is London, decked out in her frog ensemble. You may recognize London from the wedding. She was the adorable flower girl.... see below:



What a great sport. London did a fantastic job!

Another exciting part of our Utah trip was my new haircut. My hair seems to grow faster now that it is short. I decided that I'll just try to wait until my Utah visits for my haircuts because it is so much cheaper to get it cut there than in California.

I went by my mom's physical therapy office to show off my new haircut and Tara wanted a shot of us to show how we're "twinners" now. I do love my new cut. Its so much easier to manage.


And here are the lovebirds at our visit to my mom's office.


We had game night with Amy, Travis, Taggart, Bethanie and Tyler, over at our parents' house. We started out playing a card game I can't remember what it was called, but it didn't make any sense to us so we switched to play Apples to Apples. Amy came out the winner, it was a pretty intense game! We had a blast.

Amy and Taggart :)


Hmmm... something's not quite right with this pic. Haha. Can you tell what does not fit in with the rest?

Gyoza with the Browns

Ever since we moved to California Jesse has been telling me that we need to go back for a visit so I can try this delicious gyoza. Spencer Brown served his mission in Japan and learned to make this delicious treat, which Jesse became so fond of. Monday night we were invited over to help in the preparation of the gyoza and to join the Brown Family in devouring the food after. There were quite a few others who joined us, so making the gyoza was no small task. There were probably 12 of us working at once, trying to make the 700 gyoza! No, that is not a typo, we really did make that many.

For those of you who don't know what gyoza is, it is kind of like a dumpling but the Japanese version. It has ground pork, cabbage, and nira chives I think. See below, for image:

Mmmm, yummy, right?
Jesse and I sure thought so. We left there feeling stuffed like a turkey!


Bethanie, Chubbs, Jesse


We ate outside on the porch at the Brown's home. It was a lovely day, not too hot, not too cold :)

The lighting is poor in this one but the food was surely not!

Saranie, Spencer (dad Brown), Jesse

Look how happy Saranie is. She was overjoyed to see Jesse.

Dalton, Chubbs, Jesse- forcing Chubbs to smile. It took some effort.

So cute! Notice Jesse's nice, new shirt I picked out for him. We went shopping on Saturday to buy him some new clothes. I was so pleased with the day, but to Jesse it was the longest day ever. I rewarded him by letting him buy a playstation game for being such a good shopper with me.

You can tell Jesse has been missed while we've been away.

Jesse was trying to get Logan to pose for the picture but he would have none of that!

Oh, wait, looks like Jesse won. I got a shot of the two best buds.

The Browns' grams and gramps with Jesse :)

The Newlyweds themselves...

I don't have any idea how they could jump on a trampoline after eating all that gyoza, but here are Monson and Jesse on the tramp.

Saranie and Jesse jumping.


They were playing dodge ball. Jesse lost.... embarrassing, I know!


And this video will show how Jesse loses to a couple of Brown kids.

Liz Wedding Reception

Jesse and I were so happy that we got to attend the wedding reception of my former roommate, and former Elizabeth Graham. She is now Elizabeth Giles. Yay! She looked ravishing at the reception :) Just as Jesse and I pulled in to the parking lot where the reception was being held, a beautiful, blonde baby goat caught my eye. I could not believe our luck, not only did we get to see Liz, but Lindsey as well! It was like a roomie reunion. We just needed Keesa there...


Here we are, reunited!


More of us, just can't get enough!


Alicia and the baby goat


And this is one of the shirts I found for Jesse on our shopping spree. Wow, he looks stunning! I have some good taste in clothes, I must say...

Vacation to Utah!!

I took so many photos while we were visiting friends and family in Utah so its taking me awhile to get all these new posts up on here so I have to apologize. We had a wonderful time. It was so nice to see so many familiar faces and just spend some time relaxing with people we love.


Yes, we even love Shelby, the one in the middle. I think every picture I have of Shelby from our trip, he's making a face :p This was at dinner at my parents' house in Logan. It was splendid! Thanks for feeding us mom and dad. We love you (not just for that though)!


Look, now I know why Shelby makes faces. He learned from his older brother! We cleaned our plates, it was so delightful!


Apparently my computer was very sickly and had lots of viruses so we brought it to the computer doctor, named Jared. Here he is running all these scans to determine if there is hope for our poor old computer. As you can see, Jesse was being the wonderful husband that he is, and giving me a to-die-for head massage.


This is the face of someone who thinks they've died and gone to heaven.


Another one of our Utah outings was a visit to the Zitterkopfs' home. Adam and Sarah had us over for a meal and their baby Taylor kept us entertained while we were visiting. Taylor was having fun biting Jesse's nose.


What a mischevious face... and Taylor's face too!


I think maybe I bored him to death.


Bryan (dad), me, and Jesse taken just before a movie outing. We went to see Leatherheads at the cheap movie theatre. We don't have such a thing in California as a cheap movie theatre. The movie was pretty good, but probably not a favorite of mine.

Jesse and Alicia's Utah Rap

So Jesse was bored one day in his English class and decided to start writing the lyrics for a rap as a creative outlet. He came home quite excited to show me his "Utah Rap." As we drove on our trip to visit Utah, we decided to add a few finishing lines together and, wallah! The results can be seen in the video below. This shows Jesse performing his rap. I also typed up the lyrics below, so you can read along. Its quite clever, I must admit we got a good laugh out of this.


Hey, my name's Jesse and I'm from da hood,
That's right, L-town Utah, so you know dis'll be good.
I'm a white, white rapper tryin to get on da map,
I say things like heck ya, yes please, and crack is whack.
Yeah, got married at 19, want kids by 21,
Prolly end up with 12 daughters, 3 dogs, and 9 sons.
I shop at Sam's Club, buy lots for cheap,
And my everyday language doesn't sound like beep bleepity beep.
I play with the basketball, but I ain't a baller,
I love my family so everyday I give em a hollar.
One minute its hot, the next its stormin,
And I think LSD is a dislexic Mormon.
In a town so safe its weird to possess a knife,
I am a little outside the norm, cuz I only got one wife.
I eat my jello green, not yellow, red, or blue,
My alcohol of choice... well, its Mountain Dew.
When the family takes a trip they pile in the SUV,
Oh yeah, and 2 cars, plus a van that's mini.
Round here, all the meals come with fry sauce,
That's right, ketchup mayo blend- all included in da cost.
We're always late, but never in a hurry,
And if I say dang, its on the verge of dirty.
You think you can sing? Well we know we're betta,
We got the Mo-Tab, and homeboy David Archuleta.
So what if I'm a little behind on my style,
I got Deseret Industries on my speed dial.
Don't watch rated R, but wanna see the Matrix?
Its ok, you can get it edited at Flix.
Exactly 106% of Utahns vote Republican,
And when there's a special event, we use the good spray tan.
Our state's so rich, but there's one thing we lack,
Look around..... do you see anyone who's black?