Fire Update

We had a mandatory evacuation soon after my last post. I wasn't able to get much more in the truck besides ourselves. We headed back to our house after 5:30pm and were let back into our neighborhood. After eating dinner and watching the news, we decided to leave. We could see flames from our house and the newscasters were saying that winds were supposed to reach 70mph tonight. I am glad we left for our safety even though William will not go to sleep now. He thinks we are having a slumber party. As we left our neighborhood, there were 7 firetrucks just waiting. If you look at a map, Santa Susana pass is where the fire is (Porter Ranch). The Santa Susana turns into Kuehner which is our exit to our house. It is scary and we just hope we wake up tomorrow to good news.

Getting ready to evacuate--California Wild Fires

These are pictures from our front door and it is getting worse fast. Porter Ranch, as you see on TV, is a couple exits from us. We live off of the 118 Freeway. The range you see in the pictures are the Santa Susana range they are speaking of. There are about 20 helicopters above our house. If you walk outside, it is really hard to breathe. I have loaded the truck up with necessities right now but I am going to try to get as much stuff in it God forbid they can't get it under control. Boy, I love California.

Jamie Foxx looked at me!

Ok so I swore I would never be star struck but it happened. Our friends, The Whiteleys, were in town this weekend and it was really nice to hang out. While Dusty and Scott went to Santa Monica to watch the Mizzou game, Kristen and I hung out around Simi Valley. When we got home, there were a line of cars on our street and a limo outside. My response, "Jamie Foxx is here." I had heard about it but haven't seen him yet. He fathered the 14 year old girl directly across the street from us. He takes her to different events (you may have seen her at the Oscars a few years ago). So as we pulled in, he made direct eye contact with us. He was outside taking pictures with Corinne and her friends. Kristen and I were both in a state of shock but new we had to get a picture. I mean come on, he is an Oscar winner. So we plotted...should be walk over and ask him to take pictures with the kids? Should we let Belle out knowing she would run over to where the crowd of people were? Everything we thought of made me think I would be a noisy neighbor. Just as we plotted, another neighbor came over to tell me Jamie Foxx was across the street and he thought us being from the Midwest, we didn't see this stuff all of the time. He was right. So we finally got the courage to just go over there and say hi. And as we made our way, he got in his Silver Range Rover and drove off. Our guess is that it was Homecoming at Corinne's high school and he brought his limo over for her. Anyway, I don't have pictures but maybe Christmas time, I will get the courage to go over and say hi. And while we regretted not doing anything, Scott was hanging out at the bar with Dusty and Kerr Smith. Scott was talking Utah ski slopes and had no idea who he was until Dusty's brother filled him in. Kerr was Jack on Dawson's Creek and played in a handful of movies. I still say our experience was better :)

On another note, Brad our neighbor from Utah sent us this picture this morning. It is of our house in Utah and they woke up to a surprise this morning...snow. So crazy that it has cooled down this weekend to 75 degrees here and will be in the high 90s next week all while Utah gets some snow.
And the tree we planted in the front yard last summer looks so big now. Oh missing Utah:(

Nap time?

Does this look like nap time to you? Harrison never sleeps anymore and it can get quite frustrating at times. Scott and I feel like we just had a newborn baby as to where you are up all night and day. Harrison has to be moving. He is so frustrated that he cannot walk yet. I have to remind him that he is only 8 months old. William was such a good napper. At Harrison's age, he took two two hour naps a day plus slept almost 12 hours a night. William is still a good sleeper. He takes a two hour nap during the day and sleeps about 11 hours at night. Harrison, on the other hand, acts like you are torturing him if you lay him down. He will not go to sleep. And if you can tell by the picture, big brother is of no help throwing toys into his crib.

It's Raining!

Ok, so it's not raining. It's not even drizzling. It is misting outside right now and I got excited because we haven't seen any form of rain in the three months we have lived here. And it finally isn't hot outside today. Woo hoo.

Bye Bye Gramma Archer

It's a sad day at the Archer household. We dropped "Gramma" Archer off at the airport this morning. As we pulled away, William had tears rolling down his face and he was reaching out towards her with his arms. We all got choked up. It was so nice having her here to help in our time of need. The boys really enjoy spending time with her and Scott and I do as well. It is so hard to say good-bye sometimes and one can only wish we lived closer to home. The good thing though is that when we do see family, we get to spend quality time together. Thank you Mom for coming to visit and help us this past week. We love you and will miss you so much!

The Boys

William is doing better each and every day. We are so happy. He has reverted back to wanting baby things but we are ok with that as long as he feels good. He has to have his pacifier all day long and he was only eating baby food. He wouldn't eat anything for a few days but our good friend Audrea sent a fruit basket for William and he went to town. Since then he has been eating baby food for each meal. Today he did eat regular food so he is coming back around. You can see by the top picture that daddy bought William a new present. He has a new tricycle with Spiderman safety gear. He can't go out in the day but he had a fun time riding it through the neighborhood after the sun went down.

Harrison is sick. He hasn't been drinking hardly anything for a few days. And of-course he wouldn't sleep. I was getting worried about him getting dehydrated so I took him to the doctor today. He has a roseola viral infection, a double ear infection and is cutting more teeth. Poor lil Harry bug. We have decided to change his nickname to "Crash." He loves to crash into everything and everyone with his walker. And since he mastered crawling, he thinks he should be able to walk. He pulls up on everything.

Things are getting back to normal around the Archer household although we are going to miss Grandma come Friday. :(