Elder Jacob

So we’ve been meeting with the missionaries a bunch because we are doing a program with them right now to pray for missionary opportunities and invite friends to church. Then we had an FHE where I explained what a ‘member missionary’ is and we told Jacob that he could talk to his friends at preschool about church and invite them. Sure enough, the next preschool day, in the middle of Circle Time, Jacob raised his hand and the teacher called on him. As clear as could be, he said, “I just want to tell all my friends at preschool to come to my church. Because I go to Primary!” The teacher said, “Ok” and then several more hands went up with random comments from the kids. I was a little embarrassed sitting back with the parents because everyone heard it so clearly, but I was actually secretly pretty proud of him. I was also secretly hoping someone would ask a question about his announcement, but no one did. He told the Elders what he had said when they came to visit and they were very impressed. Now that I think about it, what was I thinking when I said he should invite his preschool friends to church? Of course he would make an announcement like that! Good for him!

Also when the Elders came again, they gave us some Pass-Along cards and told us to pray about which friends to give them to and then do it. Jacob decided to give them to his friends, Keith and Alyssa Murray, who are very strong members of the church. He would pray every day, saying, “Help me to give the temple card to Keith and the Jesus card to Alyssa.” He planned to do it when they came to our house again and then he carried it out very carefully. And guess what? They showed up at church on Sunday!! Now we just need to follow his lead!

Favorite Jacob quote of the day: "But if I don't eat my vitamin, I'll grow down!" (instead of up :)

Hiking Adventures

One of our fun family hobbies is hiking. Right now we are gearing up for a trip to Yellowstone in the summer, so we've gone a few times lately. Jacob has always ridden in the backpack carrier, but Allison has now officially kicked him out. So now is the time to get him ready to walk on his own, because I ain't gonna carry him around Yellowstone!!

This first picture is from a hike in Simi Valley. It was more of a nature walk than a hike, but the cool thing about it was that they had plaques everywhere telling which movies had been filmed in certain locations. We saw several movie set "ruins" from old westerns that we had never heard of. One cool thing is that an old "Robin Hood" movie was filmed there, using the landscape as Sherwood Forest. There was even a Hollywood style lake bed where there were holes for underwater cameras and jet holes to stir the water around to make rapids. Pretty cool; although it's kinda funny how different hikes around LA can be--even nature is influenced by Hollywood.

On that same note, the next weekend we went for a hike on a different trail and they were actually filming a movie there. They had painted a whole grouping of rocks white, I guess to make it look like snow. We walked past many lighting booths and there were a lot of equipment trucks up there.

Anyway, back to nature: We found this cool cave to eat lunch in. Jacob was scared, saying it was a bear cave and was worried the bear would come back. By the end he was making up stories about it being a monster cave and here in this picture we're making growling faces in the monster cave, even though you can't really see us.

So the exciting event on that hike was that Jacob discovered a cool anthill, something he has never seen before. Several ants were climbing on his pants, so we brushed them off and left the area. Sure enough, several minutes later he started screaming. An ant had bitten his bum. He was going crazy for a while and we were getting annoyed with it, until Tom felt a sharp pain on his leg and he had been bitten as well. Then we took the pain more seriously because Tom now knew it was real!

Anyway, we've had a fun time hiking around CA (family style) and look forward to many more trails together!

Lightning McJacob!!

Jacob won the race!! The "Race to the Dry!" A potty training tactic that seems to have worked! After much frustration with Jacob always being a little wet and candy not working anymore, we had to pull out the stops and promise something truly motivating: in this case, Disney's "Cars" DVD.

Anyway, who really wants to hear the details of potty training--the short explanation is that he got to move forward a square if he was dry when he went to the bathroom, and backward if he was wet. This race went on for a little under a month. At the beginning he had to keep moving back all the time, but as he progressed he just moved faster and faster forward. Since he won about a week ago, he has pretty much been dry all the time and even has just gone with no nagging from me a few times!! This is a big deal!! Isn't it funny how glorious the sound of a flushing toilet is, when I didn't even realize he was going to the bathroom?! (Sorry, that turned into a longer explanation than I meant to write.)

Unfortunately for Jacob, we didn't really realize he was actually going to win the race for a while (oh us of little faith), so we didn't order the DVD until the night before he won. The deal we're going through will take 2 weeks before it will be delivered. Jacob is being so patient, even after all of the excitement and motivation to win it.

I just have to insert one little gloat/HUGE blessing: he has never wet the bed! We used Pull-Ups for a time, but they were always dry. Now he just is dry or wakes us up to go in the middle of the night. Yeah Jacob!!

A Visit from Grandpa T.

We had a fun, short visit from Grandpa Tanner last week. He was in town for some work training in LA and he decided to come a day early to see us. He was very cute with the kids and it was fun to talk to him in person again.

Amy, Jacob, Allison, and Grandpa went to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library together. We had a fun time looking at the artifacts and movies and of course Jacob's favorites: boarding Air Force One and checking out Marine One, some police cars and motorcycles, etc. I think Jacob's very favorite part was that Grandpa bought us treats halfway through--something that Mom & Dad never do!


We were planning to go to the Getty Center right after, but the kids were 'museumed-out' by the time we finished. I had to admit defeat and send my dad on his way alone. It was ok--I was really pleased that the kids were so good for the one museum. As my dad has always said, "Quit while you're having fun." And we did. We had a great time with Grandpa Tanner and thanks to him for taking us out for a nice dinner! We love you!

Soccer Kid

There goes Jacob kicking the winning goal in his "Pre-Soccer" class as the crowd goes wild!!


Oh, actually this is Jacob lightly tapping the ball as he learns how to kick a soccer ball and listen to a coach's instructions. Jacob did great in his Soccer for Tots class and I had a really fun time watching the crazy chaos of about 7 little kids playing "soccer."

Here's Allison enjoying the action...


One really funny skill that is so hard for 3 and 4 year olds to learn is waiting in line for their turn to kick the ball again. I kept having to explain to Jacob about going to the back of the line after his turn and then waiting for everyone else--what a difficult concept!!

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with this month long class and are so grateful for the free programs they have at the Moorpark Family Resource Center right down the street from us!