The Haack Family

Natalie's bday cake!

2009-02-07T18:01:00.001-08:00

My great friend Nate (i should be a poet) celebrated her birthday this weekend with a killer partaaayyy. I baked her a cake for the occasion. My hubby helped out by making his signature little creature to take everyone's attention away from the actual cake. This time it was a bee, which I actually really liked. The little guy kinda grew on me. My inspiration was to try and make something super cute, that would match Nate's sunny (i know, i'm cheesy) personality, while still making it her favorite flavor: chocolate. So the cake is chocolate with a mocha meringue frosting. We haven't tasted it yet, so I hope it's good!

jonah and kayle

2009-01-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

Mustache Madness

2009-01-07T22:49:00.000-08:00

Bridal Expo

2009-01-07T21:54:00.001-08:00

The Brideworld Expo 2009 was off the hook! Woot Woot! When I first got there, I didn't really know what to expect. But after seeing booth after booth of wedding related shinanigans, I got in the groove right away! I decided to set up a mock reception table in my booth. I was in a fabric store and came across a piece of fabric that was black and white, with a cute little yellow sparrow perched on a branch. That little guy became my inspiration for the display I made for the show. I would LOVE to do an entire wedding based on this display! It was really fun getting my creative juices flowing. We shared a booth with the fabulous ladies from Flower DIYvas, a workshop for DIY brides. Thanks girls for all of the help and fun! Here are some Do-It-Yourself pics!

JONAH'S 1st SNOWBOARDING TRIP!!!

2008-12-27T13:18:00.000-08:00

We took Jonah snowboarding for the 1st time the day after Christmas and OH MY GOSH, it was so fun! Not only did we have a TON of fresh snow, it was a blast watching jonah ripping it up! WOO HOO!!! I don't think I have ever been more excited. Watch these videos:

Papa would carry jonah back up the hill, snowboard and all, and then push him back down....
Ryan and I hiked a little bit to try and get some freshy tracks...

Lake Maloney on Christmas Day

2008-12-27T13:11:00.001-08:00

Our family went up to the lake by my parent's house for a day by the campfire overlooking the lake. It was so beautiful!

Bike ride up at grammy and papa's house

2008-12-27T13:04:00.000-08:00

Jonah got a new bike seat for Christmas from Grammy and Papa! He was able to go on bike rides all week, and he loves it. There are so many beautiful mountain trails up north!

"you are my sunshine, my only sunshine"

2008-12-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

this is my favorite thing ever:

6th Annual Thanksgiving on the Roof

2008-11-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we had yet another successful Thanksgiving on the Roof, yet this year it was actually Thanksgiving in the Alley. Ever since we moved to Newport we haven't been able to have it officially on the Roof and after trying a couple different places it was decided that In the Alley was a success! With a huge buffet line, twinkle lights, fire pit, ping pong table, kids running around and a bunch of wonderful friends, we all enjoyed our radical potluck dinner as family! Oh yeah, and even the COPS showed up! We are RAGERS!! Here is a quick look at some pics that Ryan put together in a sweet document! Enjoy!

Our 4 year anniversary

2008-11-16T21:47:00.001-08:00

So since little Kayle wanted to be born on our anniversary, our weekend plans changed a little. Ryan had planned some meetings up in Santa Barbara, so we were going to drive up there Friday morning, then spend the weekend up there camping. Katie called at 5am Friday morning announcing that Kayle was making her debut! So I told Ryan we would have to celebrate another time, and he left to go up north for his meetings, while I headed to the hospital. I figured I would be there all day (I was in the delivery room with Kate and J) so I just thought that we wouldn't be able to follow through with our plans....but since Katie is such a flipping crazy, birth woman Kayle was born at 845 am!!! I got to hang out all morning, then I caught a train to meet up with Ryan! The train ride went along the coast the entire ride and was amazingly relaxing and beautiful. So we were able to not only welcome our new niece into the world, but spend a romantic weekend together as well! It was so fun!!

Kayle Lily Kyser

2008-11-16T21:42:00.001-08:00

Kayle was born on October 24th 2008!!!! I got the call at 5am that morning...I was so honored and blessed to be a part of her delivery. Katie was such a rock star and delivered her after only a couple of hours of labor and NO DRUGS!!! She did amazing. And Kayle and I definately connected in a special way since I was there during her birth.

The funny part is that she was born on me and Ryan's anniversary. She totally killed our romantic weekend in Santa Barbara!!! Just kidding...since she was born by 845 am, I hung out with her in the hospital for a couple of hours then caught the train up to Santa Barbara to meet up with Ryan and we were able to celebrate!

She is beautiful and amazing and we love her!

Jonah is ready for snowboarding!

2008-10-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Jonah is SOOO into this particular Burton Snowboarding movie...when we try to put a different one on, he only wants this one...he says, "oh sick!" and "oh my gosh!"...so funny. watch this video:

Acai Smiles Part 2

2008-10-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Jonah is addicted to Acai!
I promise he did this to himself...I did not make it look like a perfect smile...he picks up his bowl and drinks it...

Jonah!

2008-10-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

New website!

2008-10-12T17:18:00.000-07:00

my new website is up and running! Check it out!
www.jesihaackweddings.com

New Kids On the Block!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

ok, so wednesday night was the NKOTB concert with Katie and Jenn. It was the most hilarious concert i have ever attended. We had a blast! The highlight was when Jordan stood on top of the stage with his white shirt unbuttoned and a serious fan blowing at him and ripping his shirt halfway off his body....WOW - dramaticly cheesey!

Jonah sneeking some chocolate

2008-09-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

So we were at Aunt Kate and Uncle J's house the other weekend. I put Jonah down in a room to take his nap. I would walk by every once in a while to check that he was ok. So I walked by and peeked in. I noticed that he was sitting up and just hanging out. So I walk away. Then I thought, "That's so weird that he didn't even react to me when I poked my head in." So I went back to take a closer look. Here is what I found:

Our Panama Mission

2008-08-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

Our mission trip to Panama went awesome. We ended up deciding about a week before leaving that we were going to leave Jonah at home. Due to a few things changing with our trip, we felt that he would be safer up at Grammy and Papas house. You all should click on the link for their blog to see how much fun he and they had! Here is a quick overview of our trip: check out this site for an awesome video of our trip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZggHuF6IOM

Saturday - we traveled all day and everything went smooth. We stayed at a hostel in Panama City that first night.

Sunday - we traveled by bus out to Santa Catalina. It took about 7 hours of driving. We played Darren's ipod, though, and it was full of goodies like: Mariah Carey and Phil Collins. Check out the video below:) We got settled in to our little cabins and they were awesome! We were up in the rainforest overlooking the ocean.

Monday - we woke up in our absolutely adorable little cottages, ate breakfast, had some devotional time, worship time and prayed. Then we gathered up some kids from the village and took them down to the beach. We spent some time playing and teaching them to surf. We then walked back to our homebase and ate dinner at the church that we were partnering with in Santa Catalina. The dinners were so good, usually fish or chicken and beans and rice. Seriously amazing food! We sat up on the deck of one of the cottages and worshipped, talked about our day, and then we were off to bed.

Tuesday - breakfast again, devotional time, and worship. Then a group went into the village and stopped in at people's houses to pray for them and give them bibles. I was in the group that walked up on a beautiful hillside to pray over the village. We prayed for the sexual deviance problem (rape and incest), the drug problem, the kids, the church, and for God's Kingdom. Then we all met back at our cottages and ate lunch together. After lunch we went out into the village and gathered up all the kids and we played volleyball, frisbee and baseball with them all afternoon. It was so fun to see how much they loved to play sports.

Wednesday - breaky, worship, devotion....then the two groups that went out on Tuesday switched. This time I was part of the team that went to do the "house visits". This was so awesome. Ryan was able to be a part of it the day before and prayed with a sick man and led him to the Lord. How amazing! Every house (or shack, i should say) we went to they invited us in and offered us their chairs. The community was extremely hospitable. We just talked with them, and asked them if we could pray for them. Most of them wanted prayer for their health. It was definately a humbling experience. Later that night, after dinner, we showed a movie at the church. The church was PACKED! The people of this village never get to see movies, so they were so excited to watch "Surf's Up!"

Thursday - we took a boat out to an island off of Santa Catalina. We spent some time painting with the kids, helping them make bracelets with a story from the bible, reading with them, playing sports with them. I was fortunate enough to be part of a team that taught a lesson on Abstinence to the older girls. We offered them an opportunity to make a promise to themselves and the Lord to commit themselves to waiting for their husband, and all of the girls made the promise! It was awesome! Later that night we showed another movie. It was a surf movie that preached the gospel. Another great turnout, and another great movie!

Friday - we all had the opportunity to go out to the Surflodge, the place that the ministry was supposed to work out of but got destroyed by a corrupt business man, and we were able to help clean it up. The guys loved having a major, physical project to help with and they made some huge progress with the clean up of the demolished building. It started to pour rain and we all just jumped in the ocean. It was so cool.

Saturday - we left Santa Catalina. The kids that had been hanging out with us all week were hanging on our bus and were so sad to see us go. I think we were all a bit more sad to say goodbye. We drove 4 hours to a town that was inside the crater of an inactive volcano. The town was called El Valle. It was breathtaking. It was so green and there were huge mountains all around us. There were rivers flowing through it, and huge cliffs covered in rainforest. Once we got into town, we went out to dinner, then came back and got settled into our rooms, then met for a debrief and a worship session...

Sunday - This was our day to just hang out with our team. We went and walked around the market and shopped, went to lunch and a group of us went on a horseback ride up a mountain in the pouring rain. It was my highlight of the trip!

Here are a few pictures

Here is Ryan and I with two of the most amazing kids! Orlando and Mira
Here is our entire team on the grassy knoll over the ocean...beautiful! We had just finished a worship session...
Here is a pic of all the kids painting pictures...
This is the deck of one of our cottages...where we did all of our meetings and worship...
Beautiful Panama...
Panamanian Baseball....woohoo!
This is a picture of the mission's Surflodge that the boys were helping clear out and clean up...
Here is a picture of what the people lived in at Santa Catalina...

Our 2 days in the Carribean

2008-08-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

After our team left Panama, a few of us stayed behind to spend a few more days there. We drove a couple of hours over to the Carribean side of the country. We then caught a boat and went out to an island called Isla Grande. It was amazingly beautiful. It looked like a postcard. There was hardly anyone there and it was a pretty small island. We just hung out, read books, hiked around the island, and the boys surfed in crystal clear waters....oh yeah, we snorkled too. It was a great time to relax after the mission.

FInally...Jonah's 1st cookie!

2008-07-17T08:24:00.001-07:00

After nearly two long years of keeping Jonah away from sweets (as best we could...you know those aunts and uncles...) Jonah got his first cookie. I gave him a burnt one in hopes that he would hate it and never want one again...no luck. He loved it. And threw a huge temper tantrum when it was gone...

4th of July

2008-07-17T08:14:00.001-07:00

As usual, the day started off with the boys "Pier to Pier" bike ride. I think this year it was San Clemente Pier to Newport Pier, around 30 miles. And, FYI, Scotty is definately wearing my shorts.

Next, Grammy and Jonah get ready for the beach.
We decided this year to just stay in Newport and hang out at the beach. Parking is ridiculous and it makes it a nightmare to drive anywhere the entire weekend. So we road our bikes all weekend and hung at the beach.
Ryan met us at the beach and dug Jonah a hole so that we could just put him in there and he couldn't get out. It makes it alot easier to relax at the beach....ok, just kidding!

Ryan's 26th Birthday!

2008-07-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

We had a great week celebrating Ryan's birthday this year! The highlight was the birthday bbq Ping Pong Tournament Bash at the Bodies' house...Ryan got a Ping Pong table for his birthday so the guys spent all night in the garage playing this huge ping pong tournament.

While the rest of us became obsessed with Rock Band. It is the funnest game ever, and who knew it was such a workout being a rock star?

Of course we had to have a ping pong paddle cake. Although, Ryan made the small mouse next to the ball and he stole the show. I spent all day making this cake, but the only thing that got noticed was the little mouse. What can you do?

Down By The River Trip

2008-06-25T13:39:00.001-07:00

We went to Laughlin last weekend with Ryan's family! We had a blast. The road trip out was awesome. We were stuck in construction traffic for 45 minutes, not moving. In 123 degree heat. I loved it. We went to Palm Springs first and stayed one night in an amazing resort so that Ryan could visit some accounts. Here is a pic of the sunset in palm springs.
Jonah did great on the ride out there...
Evidence of the seriousness of the heat wave...what the?????
Here is Jonah and Max...they were so cute together! They were inseperable and had so much fun together!
Here is a view from our hotel room in Laughlin...
Jonah loved hanging out on the river....he was a little afraid of the jetskis at first, but he came around...
Ryan and Jonah floating on the river...

Ron took us water skiing on his boat and it was so much fun! It was a little scary though, with how crowded the river was. We didn't get any pictures of us water skiing though....
To beat the heat, we went bowling one day. It was hilarious!

Here is Jonah and grandma at the bowling alley...

Even Jonah did some bowling!

Here is the rare picture of Ryan...i had to get him in here since he is the photographer of the family and is never in any pictures...he even took this pic himself...

Amanda's Wedding

2008-06-15T12:53:00.001-07:00

We went to Amanda and Jonathan's wedding last night. It was so beautiful! They got married at Strawberry Farms and had their reception in the barn. They also had a big surprise in store for all of their guests! They broke out into a huge dance at the beginning of the reception and told everyone that their wedding was being filmed for an episode of "Rock The Reception" airing on TLC. It was a blast!We sat outside at the ceremony and there were beautiful umbrellas to shade everyone from the heat. I was fortunate enough to be able to give a reading from scripture at the ceremony.
Here are our friends, Natalia & Wil, and Isaac & Natalie...Isaac officiated the ceremony. We call him "The Man of the Cloth"...

The big, red barn where the party was!

Here is the wedding cake that I made for them. There was a huge disaster at the last second that caused me to have to bake the top tier over again 2 hours before the wedding! I was freaking out! But it all ended up turning out ok....

Acai Smiles

2008-06-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

Passport Photo Shoot

2008-06-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share with you Jonah's passport photoshoot. It was so funny!

This is the winner!!!

New Kids On The Block!!!!!!

2008-06-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

Girl you know it's true!....oh, wait...that's Milli Vinilli.....anyway, it's TRUE! October 8th, 2008 I will be going to the NKOTB concert with Jenn and Katie! Of course, it isn't N'Sync, but it will do! This was Katie's one wish for her birthday present...so I couldn't let her down, right? It is going to be ridiculous. That's all I have to say.

Jonah Plays Ping Pong

2008-06-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

Another day at the skate park

2008-06-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

Ryan takes Jonah to the skate park pretty often. This particular day he went with some of the youth group kids. Jonah barely gives Ryan a chance to skate since he is always wanting a turn. If Ryan wasn't watching him the entire time, Jonah would drop into the pool by himself! He is crazy!

Here is one of the kids, and yes, his shirt says, "Party with the Posse"....AWESOME!

Beach Days

2008-05-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

We had a great time this weekend! It's finally summertime here in SoCal! We spent all weekend at the beach and it was so hot! Jonah hung out all day and played with his friends, dug holes in the sand, followed random people around, and played in the waves. He loved it!

It's been so great since he is getting to the age where he can go off and play by himself for a while while mom hangs out on the beach and watches. It's getting to be a bit more relaxing! This is Jonah and his friend Wyatt...

Here he is with his future wife, Emma...as you can see he already has game...

Papa bought Jonah some new cowboy boots. As you can see, he loves them!

Here are the men in their cowboy boots....

Jonah's 1st time skateboarding

2008-05-06T13:02:00.001-07:00

Here he is doing it by himself!!!!

And here is the video of it:

Ryan's trip to Portland and Seattle

2008-05-06T12:54:00.001-07:00

Ryan had a business trip to Seattle then he went over to Portland. It was beautiful and he also was able to go snowboarding for two days while kind of working in the lodge. So lucky. Here are some cool pictures he took...

Coachella

2008-05-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

We went to a music festival in Palm Springs called, Coachella. We were working for Sambazon and we had a blast! Here we are hanging out at our booth with a crazy man in the background...

Our booth was set up in the campground area. There were tents as far as you could see. We would work in the mornings and then go into the festival and hang out, listen to bands, and wander...it was so HUGE and really fun!
It definately got super hot! It was over 100 degrees, which is freakin hot for me! So i hung out in the cooler pretty often...

Later, when the sun was getting ready to set, we went and sat on the grass and listened to bands. It was so awesome!

But don't worry, we went to a couple of raves throughout the weekend too, wouldn't miss those for the world!!!

Jonah's 1st time surfing!

2008-03-28T08:51:00.001-07:00

Jonah had his first experience surfing! He absolutely LOVES the ocean, but isn't so sure about the surfboard.
Ryan is so patient and loves teaching him. We are hoping that Jonah will go pro by the time he is 10, that way we can travel the world for free.
It was a beautiful day at the beach. We love summer!
But, he wasn't so stoked on his wetsuit at first...he got used to it though, especially since the water was 58 degrees!

A day at the park!

2008-03-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

Don't ask, sometimes a girl has got to add a little excitement to her day at the park...

The Big 30

2008-03-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

Some of the girls took me out for a awesome night on the town!!! We went to Mosun and ate sushi, then went upstairs to the club to dance til the wee hours of the morn (ok, til 11:45). It was a blast. Then we went to the Hyatt Newport and spent the night in The Parlor, the best room they've got....without beds....yes, we got downgraded, and it was awesome! Thanks girls, i loved every second of it!

Roadtrip up the coast!

2008-03-03T13:30:00.000-08:00

So we took our first family vacation, a roadtrip from the OC to San Fransisco! It was a blast! We loaded practically our entire lives into the huge Sambazon van and headed north on PCH. The first day we drove all day up to Morro Bay and stayed at the most amazing hotel, we had our own private jacuzzi!
The next day we continued driving north and made it to Half Moon Bay. The drive was beautiful! The waves were huge, and I loved how we were on such huge cliffs.
So we kept on going on the third day up to San Fransisco. What a great time. We all loved the city. My parents came and picked me and Jonah up while Ryan stayed in the city to work. Ryan met us back at my parents' house on Thursday night and on Friday we all went snowboarding, our favorite. We also took Jonah sledding on a trash can lid, awesome! Saturday we went mountain biking around the lake and drove back home on Sunday. What a great trip.

Snowboarding!

2008-01-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite things to do is snowboard. We were able to go to Utah, Mammoth, and Tahoe this year. Here are some of our favorite pictures!

Backpacking Trip!

2007-09-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we definately took a backpacking trip in the Sierras. I know, most of you know that I never liked hiking when my parents used to make me go, like, every weekend. But this trip was really cool. We went with our good friends the Bodies' and we were gone for 4 days, i think.
The first day we hiked back in to Emerald Lake. It was beautiful! We set up camp there. Our plan was to hike out the next day up to Pear & Moose Lake, but Ryan got elevation sickness and was barfing all night, so we decided to keep camp at Emerald Lake. It rained on us one night, which I am a big fan of. I love hearing the rain coming down on our tent at night. We played alot of cards, went fishing and swimming in the lake, hiked up to Moose Lake one day. It was amazing. So quiet and peaceful.

2006-08-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

Jonah Liv Haack was born on August 10th, 2006. We delivered him at Hoag Hospital, which was amazing since we had an ocean view from our private room! And pair that up with the epideral, everything was smooth sailing! Woo hoo!

Honeymoon!

2004-11-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

Costa Rica was awesome! Although I had a bit of an adjustment period to the whole, "married" concept, we had so much fun! We went to the beach every day, drove up to the live volcano, swam in the hot springs, rode ATV's, and searched for monkeys.

Here is one of the resorts where we stayed. It was amazing!

We Got Married!

2004-10-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

October 24th, 2004

Our wedding was amazing! We danced all night, then went off to the St. Regis! The next day we were up early to catch our flight to Costa Rica for 8 days. We couldn't have asked for a better wedding!

The Proposal!

2004-01-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

Our engagement day was the coolest thing I could have ever asked for. We always went snowboarding every Thursday and this particular Thursday was not really different, other than none of our friends could go with us this day and that when Ryan came to pick me up he gave me a beautiful red rose. Still, I was completely clueless. So we get to the mountain gear up and get in line. I remember two of the park employees cutting us in line and I was thinking, "that's weird, why do they need to cut us? There is no one in line!". So we are on the lift on the way up to the top of the mountain. About halfway up Ryan asks to pray for us. So we pray.
As we reach the top of the mountain I saw some people at the top holding a sign, but couldn't make out what it said. I was thinking that it was something saying "Welcome" and that the mountain was just really excited that it had snowed so much the week before. As our chair lift got closer to the top, I could see that about 20 people were at the top holding a sign that said, "Will you marry me?". I just sat there, and said to myself, "don't do anything stupid, it's for the girl behind you."
As I stood up and rode toward the sign, I could start to make out the people holding the sign were my friends. As I turned to look at Ryan, he had unzipped his jacket to reveal his white shirt and tie, and there were rose petals all over the ground. He pulled out the beautiful ring and asked, "Will you marry me?" and i'm pretty sure he said some other things. I just stood there staring at him until a group of park employees yelled out, "Is that a yes?" I was crying yes, and so happy!
All of our friends crowded around us and hugged and congratulated us, and then we spend the day snowboarding with everyone we loved. It was the best proposal in the whole world.