a little of this...a little of that

resolutions

2012-01-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

my latest favorite family picture

The older I get, the bigger fan I have become of January. One of my teachers in high school always used to say that he felt like September was his "new year," when things started anew. I always used to identify with him because I felt the same way.The farther I get from school, the more January has started to feel like a fresh start for me.

And geez, I have been out of college now for (gasp) 11 years. So...yeah. there's that.

I thought I would share my resolutions here just as a way of keeping myself accountable.....

1) Be purposeful.

Normally when I make a resolution it is very clear like, "exercise more" or "eat less dessert." This year I felt like being a little crazy and creating a general resolution of being more purposeful in my living.

I don't want to go through the motions everyday. I want to start the day in prayer and reading Scripture and thinking about my goals for the day. I want to be able to experience the day, and not feel like I am just eeking by. I am not sure if that all makes sense. But that's my resolution.

One of the ways I am going to work on this is by participating in a Scripture Memorization Blog. I always intend to memorize some verses but it never really happens. I am hoping this blog will be a great way to memorize Scripture and it will also provide some fun online fellowship with other ladies.

2) Focus on the Family

No, I am not trying to copy James Dobson....but I would like to really focus on my nuclear family this year. I want to really reflect on what it means to be a godly and respectful wife and I want to try to serve my husband AND children as much as I can....with a gracious attitude.

I have read, Debi Pearl's, "Created to be His Helpmeet" before but I plan to re-read it this year as a refresher. The first time I read it, it made a huge impact on me. And I made a mental note that I wanted to read it again in a couple of years to refresh my mind on what it means to be a godly wife. Can't believe it has been a couple of years.

I also plan on participating in another online blog book study and will read a book called, "5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Son."

3) The simple but basic ones: exercise more frequently (once I can figure this pesky sprained ankle thing) and eat a balanced diet.

I am excited to participate in all of these various things and I am looking forward to a fresh start for the year.

Of course, I have no idea how I am going to squeeze all of these things in....but for me that is the fun and challenge of creating resolutions.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-22T22:38:00.000-08:00

It is crazy to think that the past month and a half of preparations for Christmas are leading up to the actual day quite soon. We've had a wonderful Christmas season.

From taking our family Christmas pictures to hosting the Women's Ornament and Cookie Exchange, attending the church Christmas Party, attending the Preschool Christmas Party, hosting our own Ugly Sweater Party, and attending the church Youth Group Party--we have been busy celebrating Christ's birth.

I've tried to remind the boys about why we are doing all of this--to celebrate the birth of Christ. At ages 3 and a half and 2, I am sure they are not quite piecing it together, but we have enjoyed laying the foundations.

We've spent time eating Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and chocolates from our Advent Calendars. We've been reading The Crippled Lamb and watching the Christmas Lamb....we've watched Mickey's Christmas Carol, Peanuts' Christmas, and of course we have watched the Thomas related Christmas episodes.

We've eaten a lot of Christmas cookies. A lot. My mom and I got to enjoy some quality time together and attended a home tour in Manhattan Beach.

We went to see the Christmas lights in the neighborhood nearby. And Mike and I have enjoyed some nice quiet dinners with various close friends.

We feel like we have been going full steam since December 1! So you will have to excuse me for just posting these pics and not making more comments about them.

I think I would rather dwell on what Linus explains is the reason for this time of celebration.

Women's Ornament and Cookie Exchange

someone estimated that we had 700 cookies (there were more on our kitchen island)

Manhattan Beach Home Tour with my mom

Angel Breakfast with Mike and Peter

Preschool Christmas Party

Looking at Christmas lights

appetizers for our Ugly Sweater Party


deep conversations....

decorating/eating Gingerbread Houses

deep concentration....

Thankful

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving.

We started out the week with our friends Alexis, Micah, and Ellis. Alexis was kind enough to bring us lunch--chicken, corn muffins, sweet potato fries, and veggies. She also brought a fun craft--pine cone turkeys. We were trying to get our kids to wear pilgrim and Native American hats. It didn't really work in terms of getting a group shot, but we had fun making the turkeys!

The day before Thanksgiving, we attended a "Thanksgiving Feast" at Peter's pre-school. Ms. Colleen taught them how to make Stone Soup and invited all of us to try it out.

Peter made a special Thanksgiving placemat!

They also sang some Thanksgiving songs. It was so cute! Peter was nervous and was grabbing on to his friend Michael for dear life! Michael nicely shrugged him off and Peter managed to belt out some songs on his own.

The soup was pretty good!

would you like to try some soup?

Thanksgiving weekend was beautiful! We spent the weekend at my parents' home.

We had a great dinner. Brined Turkey, stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole, and cranberry sauce. One of the yummiest things not pictured was our appetizers: Fig Jam and Blue Cheese Bruschetta. It was excellent! Especially when we paired it with a Sparkling Pear Cocktail.

Friday morning my mom made pancakes and bacon. It was yummy as usual!

After breakfast we went to the park nearby.

I am very thankful for all of the blessings in our life!

A Visit with Thomas

2011-12-05T21:54:00.000-08:00

I am not sure how it happened, but our boys have become huge Thomas fiends! I think I saw an episode was on TV one day so I showed it to them and my parents had a plastic Thomas engine at their house left over from I am not sure what...anyways, the boys fell in love with Thomas pretty fast. We've "collected" about 15 different engines. Did you know there are about 40 engines total?? I did not. I have learned a lot about Thomas the Train Engine over the past few months.

About a month ago we made the trek out to Perris to see the REAL Thomas the Train Engine. Well..maybe just a life size version of Thomas. It was my dad's idea--he had seen some advertisements (be sure to pronounce "advertisements" British when you read this to make it more authentic) for the event and suggested back in September that we go. Basically they have an engine that looks like Thomas and they attach it to some other cars and then they allow people to go on little train rides. The train ride lasts about 20 minutes and the rest of the time you can explore the tents that they have set up with all the Thomas stuff.

We didn't tell the boys until the day of that we were going. They were pretty excited!

We got there a little after 10 which was great because our departure time for the train wasn't until 11am. After we sorted through the whole car mess, we went into the event.

There were hundreds of little boys ages 2-10 running around wearing their Thomas shirts. It was pretty funny.

We went directly to the train and got in line to board.

The boys loved riding on the train!

After the train ride, we stood in line for 30 minutes to have our picture taken next to the Thomas engine. Of course, when we got up there both kids kind of freaked and Matthew burst into tears. Apparently getting that close to Thomas was more than he could handle. :(

After the picture, we went and found some modestly overpriced lunch. It rained off and on the whole day--we were so fortunate that it did not rain during critical times. It started to rain right after lunch and Matthew had a lot of fun with the umbrella.

They had lots of different tents set up. Of course they had a gift shop tent. They had another tent that had a bunch of train tables and craft tables. Kids could play with trains, color trains, and do other stuff. This tent felt like a gaming convention for kids. I was envisioning all of these boys 15 years from now, attending a video game convention or ComiCon.

The intensity and seriousness of all the little boys' faces while they played with the trains cracked me up! I thought it was just my kids, but apparently a lot of little boys have very SERIOUS faces while playing with their trains.

After we checked out the train table tent, we took the boys over to look at some steam engines and some model railroads. They loved checking out the big engines and ~~touching~~ looking at the model railroads.

While we were checking out the steam trains, we presented the boys with some brand new engines. Rosie for Peter and Skarloey for Matthew. They were very EXCITED to get new engines.

Despite the crazy stuff that happened when we arrived, we had a great time! It was so great too that my parents could come along.

Fall Fun

2011-11-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

We've been having a great fall this year. I can't believe that Christmas is around the corner!

this doesn't really have anything to do with fall, i just love the picture!

making pumpkin seeds is slimy business!

enjoying food at their preschool Pumpkin Party with Peter's friend, Mason

Peter's preschool had their annual "Pumpkin Party." This involved a parade in which all the preschoolers walked around in a short oval. Each class made a different mask to wear for the parade.

After the parade, the preschool had a little carnival with about 10 booths. They had really cute age appropriate games for them to play. Each booth had a prize. Matthew tagged along too and he was so happy to be there!

fishing fun

this booth was the hit. they had to move ping pong balls back and forth between the buckets. who knew??

they had to spray the rubber duckies with a spray bottle

A few days later, we had a little costume party here at the house. I figure that us moms spend so much time looking for the costumes that it is fun to give the kids a chance to wear their costume for more than just 1 day.

Dinosaur and Rango

Indian Princess

Lady Bug Leona

It was pretty funny watching a dinosaur, a Rango without a mask cowboy, and an Indian Princess running around our backyard. Matthew didn't feel like wearing his costume...although I finally got him to put it on for a minute and he did the courtesy of showing me his "roar."

The moms were amazed at how long the kids were willing to keep their costumes on. It got pretty hot at one point and Peter asked if he could take his off. Shortly later, "Rango" came up to me and asked if Peter "shared his clothes?" It was so cute! "Rango" wanted to get out of his costume so badly that he wanted to wear some of Peter's clothes. We worked out, but it cracked me up!

Matthew also had the opportunity to go to the library and wear his costume. He gets to go to the library every Tuesday and Thursday while Peter is in pre-school with Omi. He loves going!

Our Fall season would not be complete without a trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We always have so much fun.

This year, the Pumpkin Patch had Pony Rides, a Bouncy House, and a Petting Zoo. It was a lot of fun! Matthew loved feeding the animals. He could not get closer if he tried. However, he hated the idea of a pony ride. Peter hated feeding the animals. He did not want to get super close. However, he LOVED the pony ride. I don't get it.

this is Matthew's favorite smile these days. I love it!

a somewhat decent family photo

Then came actual Halloween. They were so excited to go Trick-or-Treating!

Since we went so early, there were not a lot of people home. That was fine by me because that meant less candy to manage. :) We went to one house and this cute little older man and older lady answered the door. You could tell we were the first ones of the evening because they took a bit getting to the door--I think they were getting their own costumes assembled! The man was supposed to be an elf I think because as we walked away I could hear him say to his wife, "where is my hat??" They were so enthusiastic. I thought it was really sweet.

It was fun to go trick-or-treating with my kids on the same street that I went trick-or-treating on when I was a kid.

On our way back to the house, Matthew as cracking me up. He kept grabbing his dinosaur tail and saying "Waggy, waggy, waggy." I managed to get a little bit of it on video.

We have really enjoyed Fall 2011!

Bunkbed

2011-11-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

Recently we got the boys bunkbeds. Peter was getting almost too big for his crib so it seemed like a good time. I had searched and searched online for awhile and couldn't find anything. We wanted a twin over twin with a trundle and had some other preferences about the look of it.

Thankfully, my mom spotted one at Walmart. I ended up buying manufacturer direct and it was a little less expensive plus free shipping.

It happened to work out that we were going to assemble the bunkbeds on the day of Halloween.

So I snapped some pictures of the room in its existing condition for posterity, packed the kids up and headed to my parents' house. Since we had to take apart the cribs and put together the bunkbed, I thought it would be easier if the boys and I spent the day at my mom and dad's house while Mike did all the grunt work (it was a lot of work! so thankful to have a nice husband that will do that stuff!)

The boys had no idea what was up, so we had a lot of fun surprising them. They were super happy because they had just had a great time trick-or-treating in my parents' neighborhood. Then they got home and were informed that they were getting bunkbeds!

I had been talking up bunkbeds a lot prior to getting them so that Peter would be informed as to how they worked and what they were. It definitely helped that their girlfriends had just gotten a bunkbed recently as well. And we went to visit some other friends and Peter had had a good time climbing up and down.

Here is a little video of them seeing their bunkbed for the first time.

i love my bunkbed!


i love my thomas sheets!

The boys love their bunkbed! Peter tells pretty much every person that comes over to visit our house that he has a bunkbed. He always wants to take the person into his room and show off his climbing skills.

I was a little concerned about the height and the climbing up and down, but Peter is reaaalllllly careful. And Matthew is scared to climb up. He doesn't even really like sitting on the top bunk. After about 30 seconds he wants to climb back down.

One of my favorite memories will be the morning after they slept in their bunkbed for the first time. Peter went to preschool very concerned as to whether or not his bunkbed would be there when he returned. I remember saying, "you are going to have this bed for the rest of your life!" I hope they last that long!

Accidents Happen

2011-11-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

The title of my post happens to be a Thomas the Tank Engine song. My kids love to watch this silly youtube video about Thomas engines having lots of accidents. They love Thomas the Train so when my dad saw that the actual life size engine was visiting Southern California, he suggested we make a day of it.

We had been looking forward to the trip for over a month--we had not told the boys until this morning because we knew it would be too hard for them to contain their excitement. Us adults were pretty excited for the adventure.

We left the house at 8:30am this morning, half an hour later than I wanted. I am pretty anal about time....I was having a hard time with how long it was taking us to get out of the house...but finally when I stared at the map long enough, I realized we would make it in time for our 11am train ride.

We had a very uneventful drive--it was rainy but not too bad. We arrived around 10am--plenty of time to wander around before hopping on a real life size Thomas Train.

The parking lot was already filling up and we were directed to start parking on the side of the lot. We were parking our cars directly behind each other. I couldn't believe how crowded it was! I was so relieved to get to the event---I had been driving my parents, my husband, and my kids.

I jumped out of our mini van to go get the stroller while the rest of my family started unloading the kids. I opened the trunk, pulled out our big Bob double stroller. I opened it up and began pushing it towards the right side of our mini van so I could put Peter inside.

I noticed that the emergency strap for the double stroller was laying on the ground, so I knelt down to pick it up. As I leaned over, I saw a white mini van heading straight towards ME.

As with all accidents, everything happened very slow and very fast at the same time. I saw the driver was not facing forward, he was looking at his kid in the back of his mini van. My brain quickly processed that he was not going to be stopping his van anytime soon and I better get my you know what in gear.

Well, I didn't move quite fast enough and before I knew it, the mini van hit my you know what and I was down on the ground. Then I heard a huge CRASH and my whole family yelled.

Next thing I know, Mike--who had been sitting in the way back of our mini van leapt out through our open trunk and said, "what happened?? are you okay??"

I jumped up immediately and realized that I was okay. Super freaked out, but okay. Poor Mike--the first thing he saw was me sitting on the ground--he thought that I had really hurt my legs.

We estimated that the guy was going about 15mph. Apparently, he thought we were all moving--I am not sure why--since our trunk was open and I had a stroller.

Anyways, the guy gets out of the car and I am not joking...the first thing he says is, "It was only a tap." He continued insisting that he barely hit me. My husband politely explained that he obviously hit me hard enough to knock me over. The guy was ridiculous. He never asked if I was okay. I have been in accidents before and I get that you don't want to say, "I am sorry" because that admits guilt. But you could at least ask if I am okay. Nothing. All he kept worrying about was whether or not we were going to make a claim with our insurance company.

Our car was not damaged at all, but you can see the imprint of the screws of his license plate in the bumper of our car. Which freaks me out because that shows how hard his impact was.

those 2 circles are the imprint of the other car's license plate frame

I still don't quite understand why I was not injured more seriously. But I think his mini van nudged me enough so that when his van hit ours I was out of the line of fire.

The boys were great--they were a little worried about their Mommy but they were so excited to see Thomas. They waited patiently in their stroller for 45 MINUTES while I got checked out by the staff EMTs, met with the police, and filed a report. I swear, the whole time, this guy was in Mike's face, trying to convince him to not file a report.

At one point, I walked over and I heard Mike saying to him, "I am trying to not overreact here, I don't want to file anything with the insurance if I don't have to. But if the situations were reversed and it was your wife that had got knocked over, I am sure you would want to have a report made out." The guy was clueless. It was so weird. Like Twilight Zone weird.

At one point my dad couldn't contain himself any further and he let the guy know that he didn't appreciate his attitude...and who knows what else. :) Would you believe that the guy came up to Mike after that and said, "is that your father in law? He just came up to me and told me he didn't like my attitude. Do you think he knows that I am not a native English speaker?" Whaaat?? yeah, the guy was Asian but he definitely did not have any problem speaking English. So weird.

The police were really helpful and were awesome--especially when we whispered into their ears what Mike's profession was. They were also amazed at the guy's attitude.

Oh, and while we were standing there handling all of this, there was another fender bender! One sedan rear ended a mini van on the main road to get into the parking lot. Apparently adults lose all concentration when in the vicinity of a real life Thomas the Train.

Anyways, after 45 minutes of talking to police, event staff, and this crazy guy, we headed to see Thomas the Train. Us adults were all quite shaken and we just tried to not talk about it. Everytime we started discussing it, Peter would ask a whole bunch of questions and we were trying to not make a big deal about it.

It was pretty hilarious though when we were getting in the van to head back home, Peter said, "Mommy, is your butt okay?" Awesome.

I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo thankful that the Lord was protecting my family today. One of my greatest fears is that a car will hit our stroller when I am unloading/loading kids into it. I am careful, but now I will be even more careful with where I position the stroller.

I spent a lot of the morning when I was not enjoying the Thomas festivities with the "what ifs?" What if we had left on time? What if one of our kids had been in the stroller when he hit us? What if my location was just slightly a few feet in one direction or another? Honestly, if I had been a little bit over to the left (I know it is hard to visualize), I would have been hurt a lot worse.

At a certain point, I realized I had to stop with the what ifs and just be amazingly thankful that it ended up being a minor thing. I have a sore bum, but that is about it.

on our way home after "the tap" ......thankful for God's protection!

Spaghetti with Simple Tomato Sauce

2011-10-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you that I am a huge Spaghetti fan. Were it not for how messy it makes my kids, we would eat it a lot more than we already do.

I just found this recipe from Cooking Light that I really like. I love it because the sauce is so simple but it tastes like it has been simmering for hours. And the shaved pieces of parmesan reggiano don't hurt either.

Preschool Update

2011-10-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

One of the fun things about Peter's school is that the teachers take pictures during class and they post them on a private account online. So fun to see what he is doing at Pre-school. I can tell that he is really liking his classmates and teachers. It is a fun time.

first day

This was taken the first day of class. They use it for their cubby boxes--the teacher laminated each of their pictures on the front of their cubbies so that they would know which one is theirs. I have to say, he looks a little over excited here. :)

hanging out

I have no idea what they are doing here, but it is a pretty cute picture. I like how happy he looks.

reading books

Ms. Colleen and Ms. Anna

Ms. Colleen has been a teacher at Peter's preschool for at least 15 years. Her son went to preschool there and is now a senior in high school. Peter really likes Ms. Colleen and Ms. Anna!

This is not of Peter obviously but I went to high school with each of these boys' mothers. I also think it is a pretty sweet picture of boys playing together. Peter has not quite mastered how to pedal a tricycle although I am sure once he does he will want to give the kids rides around the playground.

They have a big pipe that the kids can walk or bike through on the playground. He looks pretty proud.

This morning when I was reviewing the letter "D" with Matthew and Peter I was going over their bible verses as well. Peter was able to sing to me both of the verses they have learned so far--"A friend loves at all times" (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell) and "Listen to what God says" (to the tune of London Bridges). It was really sweet.

We are really thankful that such a great preschool is so close by!

Words from the "Wise"

2011-10-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

One day I was telling Peter that he needed to be nice to his friends. I quoted a verse we have been learning, "Be kind to one another." He told me that "Lightning McQueen says that, not Mommy." I told him Lighting McQueen must read the Bible.

Peter has a habit of asking me what is for dinner way in advance. Like after lunch. "what's for dinner?" Today I told him that we were having Pizza. Pizza is his favorite food. He told me he was glad because pasta tastes very very very very bad. And he said that it hurts when it goes down his throat. I don't get it.

At lunch the other day, Gramps got a big Peanut Butter shake. Peter kept wanting to have some and I kept reminding him to share. After many, many sips, I said he would have to ask Gramps again if he could have yet another sip. He said to my dad, "Gramps, God wants us to share." At least what we're saying around here is getting in that noggin at some point!

Matthew has a hard time with his "ing" words. "Where are you go-ning? What are you do-ning?"

Matthew likes to cook. He asks me for pots and spoons while I am cooking dinner and stirs them and says, "I cook-ning, mama."

Peter says in the morning, "My light turned green, mama! Time to get up!"

Yesterday, a 10 year old was asked some questions by our Pastor so that she could have her first communion. I thought Peter might be interested since he knew the 10 year old, so I was watching his facial expression. He looked very serious. I whispered, "Pastor Paul is asking her some questions about God." He whispered back, "Mommy, why do you paint your toes?"

Peter walks around the house saying the names of his preschool classmates, "Mason, Benson, Sophie, Gavin, Tobin."

Peter asks everyday now, "What are we doing tomorrow?"

My dad told Peter he was tired and Peter said, "You should take a nap, Gramps."

One of our friends likes to say, "Kookypants." A lot. Tonight Mike tried to call one of the kids "kookypants" and Peter informed him that only Uncle Larry can say that word. Mike asked if it was okay for him to say "kookyshorts" and Peter informed us that it was not.

Matthew's 2nd Birthday

2011-10-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

Cripes! It has been exactly a month since Matthew's 2nd birthday! I gotta get on the ball. I didn't think my friend over at KandidKiwi would be so timely and post her 2 year old's party pictures the next day!

I had the house all decorated for Matthew's party the night before, so when Peter and Matthew woke up they were VERY excited to see the house decked out with Thomas the Engine stuff everywhere. We started a tradition of bananas and chocolate syrup (I try to artfully "spell" out the age with the banana slices) on our birthday mornings. Here is Matthew feasting on his special breakfast.

enjoying his birthday with his Omi. he LOVED this train

playing in the sandbox with his girlfriends...

always good for a laugh...


Thomas the Train cake

When it was time to blow out the candles, Matthew was more interested in grabbing the Thomas engine off of the cake than blowing anything out. I had to grab the engine off while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to avoid a major freak out. It had frosting all over the bottom and he smeared it all over his shirt. Pretty funny.

He barely ate any of his cake because he was so excited about the Thomas engine.

Peter was super excited about cake. It was all he talked about all morning.

the birthday boy was found wandering the party in someone's ugg boots at one point...

opening presents

He was most excited to get a soccer ball. It was really sweet. He was ready to stop opening presents and play with it. I had to remind him he had a lot more to open.

hanging out...

One of my favorite parts of his party was that we were surrounded by our friends and family. The year after Matthew was born was very challenging for me and I was so thankful to have most of the people that were such a support celebrating Matthew's 2nd birthday with us.

sweet friends

We capped off the day with more present opening and a skype session with both sides of the family. Here is Matthew chatting with Tante Heidi....

It was a great day! So fun to see Matthew so excited and it was nice to be able to celebrate what a blessing he is in our lives.

Sleeping in the Same Room

2011-09-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of my friends have written about putting both of their kids in the same room or making changes to the room, so I thought I would follow suit and mention that the boys are FINALLY sleeping in the same room.

Matthew has been slumming it in a port a crib (also lovingly known as the Happy Cabana, that is what it says on the side of it, I swear!) in my office. I still can't believe he slept in there for almost 2 years. I really missed my office at night but truth be told it was good for getting me to not work late at night. I have to keep reminding myself that it is an option..if I want to.

Anyway, we had tried to get them to sleep in the same room a couple of times. The first time we tried was about a year ago and it went very lame. I think they handled 1 night fine but then Matthew was teething or something and woke Peter up and vice versa and I just kept giving up.

Sleep is so precious to me...I kept putting off the 1 room thing. But I was noticing that Matthew was getting a little big for the Happy Cabana...so I was hoping we might be able to figure something out soon.

I knew that they would be sharing a room on our vacation--they slept in the living room--Matthew in the port a crib and Peter on the sofa bed--so I thought maybe trying to get them to sleep in the same room beforehand would be a good idea.

So we tried it. They talked for the first 30 minutes and Peter kept telling Matthew to be quiet. Or maybe it was the other way around. Either way by 45 minutes Matthew started crying, complaining that there were "shadows" in the room and it was "sary" (scary). I gave up...again...I wanted sleep. So I just put Matthew back in his crib.

When we went on vacation, they did great sleeping in the same room. We made a big deal about it and then when we got back from vacation, I decided to just keep it going. I am so glad I did because it was really no big deal.

I was a little concerned about the mornings. Peter tends to be like me and wakes up early. He has had a history of calling "Mommy" for like 20 minutes in the mornings. I have actually convinced him to stop this behavior, which I am quite thankful for. He now lays in bed, waiting for his green light to turn on. Sometimes Matthew even sleeps through Peter getting out of the room. One thing I have learned through this process--Matthew loves his bed and loves sleeping. There have been a couple of times recently where he has told us that he wants to go to bed. Maybe now that he has an actual bed he is excited to go to sleep! I think he is just like his daddy. :)

They both like sleep. As you can see here:

Preschool

2011-09-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

***I wrote this the day of so I wouldn't forget about it. Since I am an anal blogger, I wanted to finish up our summer stuff before I posted this....

Peter started Preschool today at Rolling Hills Covenant Church. I used to go there when I was in high school, so I was thankful to find that they have a wonderful preschool program at their church. Mike and I went to the orientation last week and he was more excited than I was for Peter to start.

About 2 months ago, I mentioned Preschool to Peter and he started crying and told me he didn't want to go. Since then I have been gradually trying to get him to be more excited about it. Since I went to RHCC as a kid, I still had some connections from the past and I figured out who he might be in his class. We had a day at the park. That was good. But he still wasn't completely figuring it out.

Last week, my mom found a great book at the library all about preschool. This seemed to really help Peter out a lot and he started getting more excited. He also started a catechism class at church which he enjoyed going to. I had to do a lot of explaining that the catechism class was not pre-school, but also exciting because it meant he was a big boy.

So today was the big day! The first day is a modified shortened schedule and they allow 1 parent to attend. Peter and I went from 1030am to 12pm. We were both a little nervous. I was nervous that he was going to cling to me the entire time and he was nervous that I was going to leave and I am sure a plethora of other things.

I had a lot of favorite things about today, but one of my most favorites was Mike calling to ask to talk to Peter shortly before we got ready to go. We got Mike on speaker phone and he told Peter how excited he was for him to go to Preschool. It was so sweet of Mike to think to do that and it was almost sweeter to watch Peter's face as he listened to his daddy encouraging him on his big day.

And then we were off! Matthew was quite sad to see us go....

Peter enjoyed trying to find horses at the stables during the drive to preschool. I was so thankful that he found one, because he tends to get upset if he doesn't see one. I wanted him to be in a great mood when we arrived at church.

We got out of the car and he held my hand as we walked toward the classrooms. He noticed a "garden lamb" (is all I can call it) and wanted to check it out for a moment. We snapped a pic on our way out. I am sure he will roll his eyes at this picture in 10 years, but I think it is pretty cute...even if he does have kind of a dorky expression on his face. :)

Anyway, we signed in for Ms. Collen's class in the Rainbow Room. Ms. Colleen is really nice and I think Peter will really like her. As soon as we entered the room, I knew things would go great because he dropped my hand and went to go see what this cubby thing was all about. He didn't quite get what a "cubby" was for and I am sure I confused him further when I put my purse in it. Oh well.

Then he found the train table. And I pretty much watched him play with that for 1 hour.

Working hard, hammering down some plastic nails into a foam square. Preschool is tough work!

At some point we all went outside and the kids got to play on the playground. There is another class next to his and they have both classes play together during their "recess."

I was really impressed because he went and played on all the stuff and didn't really ask my help with any of it. He still can't pedal on a tricycle but he spent a lot of time pushing himself around.

It was so weird to stand outside with the other moms--most of whom I had known a decade or more--and watch our kids play together.


Playing at the water table...

Eventually, we all went back inside and the kids played some more. Ms. Colleen played a special song and everyone cleaned up the toys. I am going to have to play that song around here...Then Ms. Colleen read the kids a story, "What Color is Your Underwear?". Kind of a random first choice, but the kids loved it.

At one point in the story, she asked the kids how many legs they had. Peter quickly replied loudly and proudly, "THREE!" The teacher chuckled as did the moms and one of them said to me, "I am sure his daddy taught him that." It was pretty funny. Hopefully he gets that straightened out over the next few months of school. :)

And then, that was it. First day over. I was so relieved that it went well. And I think he was pretty proud of himself too.

He wanted to check out the church building afterwards, so we walked upstairs above the classrooms and he went into one of the big meeting rooms. It was kind of funny to walk around the church campus with him--just after spending so much time there in high school. without children.

We came home and Omi had made us both a yummy lunch. Peter gave Matthew a big hug (well, I kind of encouraged him to) and told Matthew, "I missed you! You are my best friend" (Sorry, Kendall). It was pretty sweet.

I thought it would be a good idea to get Peter a backpack--just so he would have something to put in his "cubby." Mike went out and got a backpack for each of the boys on his way home from work. Since Thomas the Tank is the latest craze for the boys, he got some Thomas backpacks.

They loved the backpacks! Peter was so excited to put his on and Matthew kept asking if he could go swimming. I know. He thought it was a life jacket. Sooooo sweet!

It is fun to see your kids grow up and start new things. But it is also bittersweet because it means they are growing up. All in all, it was a great day.

Vacation

2011-09-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

We had a blast on our vacation. I realized that I needed one pretty badly. I think the last time I had 10 consecutive days off was 3 years ago when Peter was born. Yikes. We've done little trips here and there but with the boys being so little, I just haven't taken a lot of time off of work and gone on a proper vacation. Yikes again.

We kept it simple and stayed in Rancho Mirage at some villas that a friend of ours owns through a timeshare thing. We don't quite get how it works, all we know is that we love our friend very much and we LOVE to stay at this place. Sure, it is 100plus temperatures but it is just so fun to eat a leisurely breakfast, head to the pool, eat a leisurely lunch, head to the pool, and eat a leisurely dinner. As you can see...there is a lot of eating and swimming involved.

Matthew liked the floating cars I brought for them....and he liked Leigh as his "driver"

Peter loved playing with all the water toys

Usually I have "withdrawls" from my Blackberry when I start a vacation. I don't feel right that it is not by my side and I have an urge to check my work e-mail on my laptop (I disable the work email from coming through onto my blackberry). This time, I didn't care where my phone was and I had less than 0 urge to look at my work e-mail. It was awesome. And a reminder of how much I needed a break from work.

We spent the first couple of days with some good friends, worshiped at a local church in Palm Desert, and just relaxed. The boys watched A LOT of Thomas the Tank Engine, Veggie Tales, Cars, and Toy Story. I figure we are relaxing by doing the stuff we like to do...so why not let them do what they love to do? Besides...it allowed me to read a fantastic book called, "The Help." It was a great novel and one of those classic stories where when you are finished you are sad to leave the characters behind.

About 2 days in, my parents and Tante Heidi and Uncle Leigh arrived. They spent 3 nights with us. It was really fun to get in some more visiting time with Tante Heidi and Uncle Leigh.

One crazy thing that happened was the facility we were staying in lost power for 12 hours. I guess the local SCE had to do some repair work and as a result our place was going to be without power for 12 hours starting at 10pm on a Monday till 10am the next day. I We were a little concerned about how it would go. The air conditioners would shut off obviously....thankfully the resort was extremely accommodating. They brought us bags of ice, flashlights, glow sticks and offered us 50% off at breakfast at their hotel the next day. We had the choice of staying in the hotel, but the thought of packing up the port a crib and everything else sounded like a big pain. So we decided to gamble. Everything went great except for once in the night when Peter woke up and freaked out it was pitch black. It literally was pitch black. I was scared too! Mike went and helped him out and he ended up being fine. And the room never got unbearably hot.

At breakfast the next morning

We spent a morning, or should I say HOT morning at the Living Desert Museum. I had promised Peter we would see camels and was super bummed to see the camels don't make an appearance until October. Needless to say, this has created a caution within me to not overly promote any attraction we go to going forward. He was pretty bummed about the camels, but he got over it. We saw giraffes, zebras, and a lot of other stuff. I have a hard time remembering because I was sweating buckets while the boys tromped all over as though it was 70 degrees.

giraffes!

our tour guide

there was a great model railroad that Matthew loved

My sister, her boyfriend, Mike, and I went to the outlets one day. It was fun to spend time with Heidi and Leigh. I gave Leigh an education on Icees and Pretzel Dogs. He did not seem to be impressed with the Icees but did like the Pretzel Dogs.

plotting their next move....

attack Gramps!

reading The Gruffalo with Tante Heidi (very fun book by the way)

Another night, Heidi and Leigh treated us all to dinner. That was super generous of them. And I can safely say that I had the strongest margarita ever that night. It was ridiculous. Guess I am used to the watered down Cadillacs at El Torito.

My family left on Thursday afternoon and we stayed until Saturday morning. It was really sad saying goodbye because my sister and Leigh were returning to Australia. To squash our sadness over their departure, we ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Roy's, for dinner.

I was a little nervous about how the boys would do--this was by far the fanciest place we had ever taken them to eat. It ended up being a very memorable night. Turns out the staff at Roy's is really kid friendly. As soon as we arrived they gave our boys toys to play with at the table (and they weren't cheap dentist toys, they were cool toys), an appetizer plate with quesadillas, apples, celery, and carrots, and at the end of the meal they brought them each a scoop of ice cream with a brownie. It was so sweet to see them so excited and even more awesome for us to eat food we love. After dinner we headed back and we all watched Toy Story 2 together. Good times.

By Friday the boys little feet were so worn out from being in the kiddie pool that their toes were bleeding...so our pool time was cut short and I was bummed. I will leave out the part where I tried to convince Mike to let them stay in the kiddie pool because we were having so much fun. We spent the rest of the day in our room, soaking up our last moments of freedom.

Saturday morning we packed up. It was kind of funny because we had planned to leave at 10am, thinking that check out was noon. At some point the housekeeping staff knocked on our door and informed us that check out was at 10. Yikes! We had to move fast to pack up a week's worth of stuff but we made it in the end.

On our way out of town we stopped at the local Children's Discovery Museum. It was pretty cute. They had a grocery store for the kids to play in and other scenarios--like a pet hospital. And they had a place where you could paint a car. Kind of random, but we had a good time.

at the grocery store. Peter filled his cart with fruit and vegetables. I found this entertaining as he never eats his veggies!

We were glad to be home..kind of. Peter kept saying he wanted to go back to our "little house" (that's what we were calling it) and that he wanted to be on vacation again. It took about 2 weeks for them to not want to watch TV 24/7. Who am I kidding? They still kind of want to watch it all the time. :)

I am so thankful that we were able to take a trip and I am definitely looking forward to our next vacation already!

Summer 2011 continued....

2011-09-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well...I got bogged down by the summer and I neglected the blog...again. It is a good thing this blog doesn't have feelings because by this point it should feel like a battered woman. Oh well....I shall try again. :)

Our summer continued after Auntie Kristi's visit and we had a grand time--going to the beach, having friends over for dinner, and just enjoying all that summer has to offer.

We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We had a nice dinner out and looked at our old wedding videos. It was fun!

August 23,1998

We were also VERY excited to see Tante Heidi and Uncle Leigh. For those of you who don't know, Tante Heidi lives in Australia. We talk to her on Skype quite a bit and when Peter learned that she was coming he was VERY excited. So excited that we had to make a countdown calendar for her arrival.

Tante Heidi fever. My mom (per my request) made these really cute shirts for the boys to wear.

Anyway, when she finally arrived (after a lot of delay from dumb fog), Peter was so happy to see her. I have never seen him hug someone like that! It was fun to see him be so excited to see someone, especially because it was my own sister.


this doesn't quite capture the immensity of Peter's hug...but it is close..

It's so fun to see Tante Heidi and Uncle Leigh!

It was also really great to get to know Leigh. Mike and I drove Heidi and Leigh around the Sunday afternoon that they arrived. We gave them the West LA tour--Santa Monica, UCLA, Diddy Riese, and of course In N' Out. Then we rushed back to our house for a little welcome home party for Heidi.

After that, we spent the week preparing to go on a week long vacation!

Auntie Karen...err I mean Auntie Kristi's Visit...

2011-07-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

Auntie Kristi visited us this past weekend and we could not have had a more enjoyable time! She got in late Thursday night after enduring a delayed flight AND a delayed airport pick up (it was as though carmaggedon occurred Thursday night, not over the weekend).

Peter and Matthew were delighted to see Auntie Karen when they woke up Friday morning. Huh? For the first day, Peter pretty much referred to Kristi as Auntie Karen. He finally got it! But it was kind of funny. At least I thought it was funny.

Peter swindled Kristi into several rounds of Peek a boo Friday morning and it was apparent rather quickly that even though he couldn't get her name right, he loved spending time with his Auntie. He pretty much had to know her where abouts the entire weekend. "Where's Auntie Kristi?" was quite the catch phrase.

This below picture hardly captures the fun that was had by all over the weekend. I only post it because some people have told me they don't believe Matthew ever gets upset. He does. :( This was taken this morning (Monday) and they were pretty exhausted and cranky from all the partying we did, and we had just informed them that Auntie Kristi would be going home.....a recipe for grumpy faces.

Don't go home Auntie Kristi!!!

Friday morning we headed to Heritage Park in Cerritos to meet some old friends. It was great to see everyone and get caught up. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures, so you will just have believe me.

Saturday was the perfect beach day. We spent some time building sand castles, wading in the ocean, and relaxing.

Mike stepped on a large piece of glass while he was constructing sand castles, tunnels, and walls. It was gigantic! I was so thankful the boys did not step on it. He got a slight cut, it could have been a lot worse.

Fast Food joints were calling our name, so we left the beach early and went to McDonald's and In n Out because we couldn't agree on which fries were better. I find this humorous considering where we dined for dinner.....

Kristi has a pretty healthy obsession with Gordon Ramsay and mentioned to me that she wanted to go to his restaurant in Hollywood during her next visit.Kristi is probably one of the most amazing ladies I know, and she never really admits to wanting to do stuff like this, so I knew that we had to go to this restaurant!

You might be surprised to learn that I myself do not have a healthy obsession with Gordon Ramsay and have maybe seen a portion of a Hell's Kitchen episode. I do love to cook and I love food, so I knew that I would enjoy our culinary experience--even if I didn't have the complete context of Ramsay cooking.

There are 3 restaurants at the hotel: Gordon Ramsay at the London, Rooftop Dining, and the Boxwood Cafe. The Rooftop Dining didn't seem to have a name so that is what I am calling it. :) We ate at the Gordon Ramsay at the London, but we did sneak upstairs to get a glimpse of the view from the rooftop restaurant.

As an aside, they have fake grass all over the restaurant on the roof and it does not look nearly as good as ours. :) I would have taken a picture but I think I might have looked tacky.

the view from the rooftop restaurant

The restaurant had pre-fixed meals so between the 3 of us, we got 2 3-course meals and 1 5-course meal so that we could enjoy all of the many foods!

I didn't get a picture of our starters, but I have to say my favorite was the Foie Gras with Cherry Brioche and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. I know. It sounds weird. But it was awesome. It was a great combo of savory and sweet.

Kristi enjoying her dinner

We also got a Lobster Risotto and an Octopus Risotto. Apparently, Gordon is all about the Risottos, so we thought it best to order those. They did not disappoint! I loved both of them.

quail eggs and scallops

veal loin and shrimp

chautebriand with potato puree

So, since Kristi was a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay, she was informing us of all the important facts about Mr. Ramsay. She mentioned that Gordon is very particular about the quality of the plates that restaurants use. He gets really angry on Hell's Kitchen when people serve customers with chipped plates. Which is what makes this picture all the more entertaining.

Kristi was aghast to see that her entree was served on a chipped plate. We are not so full of ourselves, so we didn't make a complaint. Speaking of full of ourselves, it took us about 20 minutes to figure out what to order. I thought that was a long time, so I asked the waiter if we had set a record or something. He informed me that some people take up to 2 hours to decide what they want to order. Crazy! That is so un LA! Everyone is always in a rush. Apparently Ramsay's dining experience causes people to stop and smell the roses.

I will have a chip with my Quail Eggs....

For dessert, we had an apple tartan (something else Gordon is known for) and a chocolate cylinder filled with bananas, peanuts, and other goodness. On the side was a scoop of peanut butter ice cream. Given that PB is one of my major food groups, the ice cream was in.cred.ible.

chocolate cylinder with peanut butter ice cream

apple tartan with vanilla bean ice cream

You know you have changed too many diapers AND that your photography skills blow when you look at the above picture and all you can think of is your kids.

Needless to say, we scoured all the plates....

We asked the waiter to take our picture and he apparently thought this was a good shot.

He also brought us the wrong bill. Something else Mr. Ramsay would frown upon. We were honest and told him it belonged to someone else.

After we got outside, we attempted another picture....

Throughout the hotel, there were these statue dogs. They looked pretty real. I know they are English bulldogs. And the hotel is called the London. But it was kind of weird.

Sunday we went to church and spent the evening with friends and viewing a cinema classic.

All in all, we had a great visit with Auntie Kristi and can't wait for her to return. Hopefully next time with the rest of the fam!

Summer 2011

2011-07-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

We've really been enjoying the summer. Work usually slows down for me which makes things a little easier and more calm around here. Work has been nice, but we definitely stepped it up with activities, etc. Last week we had people over every night!

Legos have been a huge thing around here. We ended up using them as motivation for potty training. Peter built this himself!

Matthew is actually quite good with them too. Look at the concentration!

We kicked the summer off by installing artificial grass. My parents were gracious enough to help us afford it.

It has been a huge blessing! We love to spend time in our backyard now!

Karen, Anna, and the kids came down for a visit while David was in Canada.

Peter and Nana hanging out

guy time

while we were at the beach, Matthew sat in this chair 90% of the time eating his fishies

While the D Greggs were visiting, we went to the beach. When we arrived, Peter duly noted that there were flies EVERYWHERE. It was pretty gross and Peter freaked out big time. I guess all the kelp laying on the shore attracted the flies.

At one point, I looked over at the lifeguard tower and a layer of flies were just hovering underneath. Nastiness. Thankfully, they went away somewhat and we were able to enjoy ourselves.

burying Sophia

looking for flies?

Hanging with Hannah

Uncle Mike brought out the adult legos and Peter and Matthew were amazed!

taking family pictures is quite the process these days....

We celebrated Father's Day with my family at Terranea one evening. It was really beautiful. I love it there!

Even though it is the middle of the summer, the boys like to put on their Halloween costumes from time to time.

It's a jungle out there

yum!

Now that we have the backyard looking good, we like to play with our water table and kiddie pool. When the temperature is just right, we feast on Popsicles. Peter loves them, Matthew seems to keep getting brain freezes and gets a little frustrated. Either way, it is a fun time.

another attempt at a family photo

We had a really fun 4th of July. We went to the local city hall and enjoyed pony rides, funnel cake, and bouncy houses.

Matthew surprised us by wanting to ride a pony. He lasted about 3 minutes.

Peter's pony's name was Jill. I think I was too nervous about Matthew to notice the name of his pony.

we will get a good one someday....

Matthew loves to pick oranges at Omi's house. Everytime we walk down the stairs to their front door, he whispers in my ear, "oranges, oranges, oranges."

One evening we had dinner with friends at the Beachcomber in Newport Beach. It was so beautiful down there. The food was great too!

This was one of the weirdest visits to the beach I have ever had. We got there at 11 and it was drizzling. It was our last trip to the beach with the Spears, so I think Kelly and I were pretty determined to not back down.

shivering on the beach

Then for 1 hour, and I really mean 1 HOUR, this guy played his flute. He may have attempted a variation of Hot Cross Buns at some point. We weren't sure. Here is a little sampling.


Matthew has fallen in love with the ocean. He loves to "catch" some waves.

Around noon, the sun came out and then dolphins appeared. They were jumping out of the water and doing flips in the air. It was incredible. They were almost surfing the waves. One of our friends said the dolphins were saying goodbye to Kelly. I think she was right. :)

I'm glad the summer is not over yet, we still have so much more fun to have. This weekend Auntie Kristi is visiting and in August my sister and boyfriend will be visiting from the land of Oz. It will all be so much fun!

Good Friends are a Blessing....

2011-07-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

It is special when the Lord puts people in your life that you are blessed by. Such is the case with the Spear Family. We've been blessed by their friendship for the past 3 years and we're looking forward to the future, but sad that it has to be from a distance. We'll miss you guys!

Here is a little sampling of all our fun times:

Prosciutto and Melon Pasta Salad

2011-07-14T08:00:00.000-07:00


sooooo yummmy!

I love to make pasta salads during the summer and last year I found this recipe in Cooking Light's August issue.

Farfalle pasta with a white wine vinaigrette, tossed with my favorite favorite favorite prosciutto, some melon, mint leaves (?). and arugula. And cap it off with some parmesan reggiano...So good! The mint actually really ties it all together. I have to confess that I made this recently and Mike and I ate the whole thing (and it serves 4).

Potty Training....1, 2, 3???

2011-07-10T23:25:00.000-07:00

Watching you tube videos while waiting for pee pee and poo poo

We've been busy potty training around here. I have to apologize in advance because I wrote most of this for my own future reference. Sorry if it is boring or overly informative.

I have to say that I was pretty freaked out about potty training. Everyone I talked to, every website I visited made it sound like potty training was a very hard, difficult, chinese water torture kind of experience. So I prepared myself for the worst.

I envisioned the lows and remembered Peter's ability to be like this:


DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!!

And then I would remind myself that most of the time he is more like this:

And I decided it couldn't be THAT bad, could it?

I did my internet research and settled on a book by the Ezzos, Potty Training 123. I relied on the Ezzo wisdom a lot for Babywise, so I figured they probably knew what they were talking about for Potty Training as well.

The difficult mental block for me was rewarding behavior with tangible things. I have spent the last 3 years trying to not parent my children by behavior modification, but parenting the heart. What would it be like to reward him with a prize for going to the bathroom? Would he expect to get rewards in other facets of his life?

Fortunately, 3 year olds don't have these deep, analytical thoughts, so this was not a problem.

I discovered that potty training is just as much about training the parents as it is the child. For 3 years I coasted--changing diapers when I wanted to, didn't really pay attention completely to the timing of his bowel movements, and just enjoyed the freedom of being able to go places without having to worry about where a toilet was.

Honestly, if they made diapers for 6 year olds, I often thought I would hang on till then. But...they do cost a lot of money. And now that we are a little further into the whole thing, I have to say it is very nice to only have to change 1 child's poopy diapers.

Anyways, I read the Ezzo's book and began to mentally prepare for the process. I had already put the potty seat out in view for about a month--I wanted Peter to get used to it--but didn't want to push it.

A few days after I had skimmed the Ezzo's book, Peter AMAZED me. One Monday evening before bed, he told me he wanted to sit on his potty seat. He had done this many times before with no results. I wasn't really expecting any--I had just want him to experience sitting on the potty. Anyways, I had him sit down on the potty seat and then left him and Matthew to hang out.

Minutes later, I hear him say, "Mommy!! Mommmmeeeeeee!!! I did a POO POO in the POTTEEEE". Whaaaaa? Surely, he could not be serious. I thought he was just making it up. But sure enough, when I got into the bathroom there was no doubt! I made a big deal about it and jumped up and down and screamed and gave him a lot of hugs. This is not my normal behavior so I am sure he thought I had lost my brain. But I think he also thought it was pretty cool to see Mommy go crazy over poo.

We called Omi and Gramps, one set of cousins (the others were traveling, otherwise they would have been contacted as well), and Nana. Peter insisted on talking to each of the 3 cousins. Josh (11) cracked me up because he was definitely the most enthusiastic responder.

The "random poop" incident pretty much forced me to cancel my plans for the week and focus on potty training. It caught me so off guard, it was quite crazy. I had to go out and buy a bigger potty seat because the one we had was not doing the job. Peter weighs 45 lbs now! I found something that had a bigger "bowl".

The book suggests a whole process of introducing a bear or a doll to the child and using the bear as a prop for what the child will be doing. It is pretty crazy when you think about having to teach someone how to use the bathroom facilities. There are so many different things to remember!

Anyway, we got Mr. Bear and put on some Rex/Toy Story underpants. The night before we started potty training, I introduced Peter to Mr. Bear and explained that the next day we would be learning how to use the potty. I explained that he would be getting treats like Chocolate Milk, Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, and "Special Juice" (Capri Sun) all day. He was super excited to begin the process when he was falling asleep. It was really sweet. He wanted to sleep with Mr. Bear. Very funny because Mr. Bear had been floating around our house for months and with the Rex/Toy Story underpants on he suddenly appeared to be "new." Weeks later, I let Peter wear the Rex underpants and Peter said, "oh, Mr. Bear is going to be so sad." I tried hard not to laugh.

So, we began potty training on a Wednesday. I wanted to start far enough from Sunday--we HAVE to go to church--so that hopefully by Sunday he would be comfortable enough that going to potty at church would not be an ordeal. I was hoping that the stretch from Wednesday to Sunday would be enough. I also had to take my work schedule into consideration.

As previously stated, he was SO excited to begin when he woke up that morning. He wanted to eat breakfast immediately so that he could start. I began loading him up on chocolate milk around 745. One of the things that I had read was that it takes longer for milk to go through your system than it does juice. If I had to do it over I would not have used chocolate milk. I would have just bought a lot of fun yummy juices and gotten him to drink those.

The book is really into rewarding the child for staying dry and clean, instead for using the potty. Initially, I think this is a great tactic. It gives you something to reward the child for doing and they feel proud of their accomplishment of staying dry and clean. The book is also great because it gives you a checklist of what to look for in your child to determine if they are ready to begin potty training. A lot of it is developmental. And I like how they explain that this is not a moral issue. The authors emphasized that there is "no right way to learn how to use the potty." Kind of weird coming from people that are so passionate about scheduling babies...but whatever. It was a good book.

I kept asking Peter if he was dry and clean--probably a little too often--and kept giving him Jelly Beans as a reward. By 9am, he was tired of getting rewards for staying dry and clean and didn't want them anymore.

I was discouraged. It felt like he was never going to go pee.

By 10am, there was still no pee. He spent some time in the office watching some you tube videos with our office manager....I had read that sometimes children get into what they are doing and just forget to stop and use the bathroom....so of course, he had an accident and went pee in the office. Oops.

I was really discouraged at that point and was ready to give up. I thought maybe Peter was just not ready. I told him to come into the bedroom and we were just going to put a diaper back on. He got really sad and said he didn't want to, he wanted to keep his underpants on.

So we kept them on. And about 10 minutes later, he told me he needed to go pee. We went to the potty and he did everything great! We decided to teach him to sit and pee rather than stand. It is working out well so far. I think Matthew might be another story. He already likes to stand up in the bathtub and pee. He's so weird sometimes. :)

After that first time, things kind of just started snowballing. He kept telling me that he had to go pee. Eventually, the jelly beans were not that inspiring to him, so I had to change it with ice cream. Then the ice cream got replaced with legos. One of the points the book makes is that parents often err because they are not finding the thing that motivates their children enough. I definitely took that into consideration and tried to find things that would keep the excitement going.

We also used a potty chart the first couple of days just to add to the excitement. He liked putting stickers on there each time he used the potty.

Peter's Potty Chart

Potty training was training for me too in that I had to start thinking about when was the last time he drank fluids, when was the last time he peed, etc. From what I can tell, it takes him about 2 hours to process liquids--sometimes even more. And he seems to have figured out how to hold it. We have gone to the beach several times without incident....

Not to get too graphic, but he was holding the poop in I think at the beginning of potty training. This created a really lame situation. He was afraid to go poop on the potty but because he was witholding the poops ended up being really big. Thankfully I already had Matthew on Miralax for some other issues, so I knew to just give Peter a teaspoon. He is still on it now....not sure when I will stop giving it to him.

Also not sure when to stop giving him the rewards. I am hoping I will just sense when he has become more and more comfortable using the potty and slowly wean him off the rewards, which should be really soon.

And nope, he didn't expect to get treats for other aspects of his life. :)

One of the hardest things is getting him to use the potty before we go somewhere. I don't want using the potty to be a discipline issue, so I do struggle with what to do when I ask him to sit on the potty and he doesn't want to. At this point I have just decided that if he says he doesn't have to go, I need to trust him.

So that's it. I was exhausted after the first day was over. It was SO mentally draining and stressful the first day not knowing what to expect AND not really knowing when he was going to pee. I knew I wasn't alone when I watched my mom and Mike interact with the whole process. It is REALLY unnerving in the beginning. Kind of like taking the training wheels off a bike or something.

I remember heading into the weekend thinking, "we have 1 child that is no longer wearing diapers." So weeirrrrdd!! I think it was mainly a lot for me to mentally process because I had not planned to potty train that week. And nope, we didn't train him for the nighttime stuff yet. That felt like too much.

Glad to pretty much have this milestone behind us (ha ha...no pun intended).

The Science of Bubbles

2011-05-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post this for awhile now, and was hoping to have a picture of my kids with bubbles. Life happened, and I just haven't taken a picture. I googled "bubbles" under their image search and was reminded that Bubbles was also the name of Michael Jackson's chimp. This made me laugh and I decided it would be the perfect picture for my post on bubbles.

I had no idea that when I became a parent, I would have to learn the ins and outs of bubbles.

Over the past 2 years, I have learned the hard way that there are many different bubble machines. I just recently discovered there are many different kinds of bubble solution. Who knew!?

Thanks to a dad that posted a review of the Little Tikes Bubble Bellies Polly Pig Blower, I learned that Gazillion Bubbles solution solves all our problems.

All these times I thought our machines were breaking--it is possible that the bubble solution we were using was not quality enough.

Case in point, we had just purchased the Little Tikes Bubble Bellies Brown Dog Blower and had burned through the complimentary bottle of bubbles pretty quickly. I refilled the bubble machine with some bubble solution I had on hand. All of a sudden, no more bubbles. Very lame.

Anyways, I went online and found the review, ordered Gazillion Bubbles. I was very happy to see that the dad's review was accurate. I refilled the bubble machine with Gazillion Bubbles and "magic!" it worked again.

And all this time Mike and I thought bubble solution was just dish soap and water. Apparently there is a science to it. And when they named their company, Gazillion Bubbles, they were not kidding. The Brown Dog emits gazillions of bubbles.

Just file this under, "things they don't tell you when you get started raising kids."

And nope, I am not getting paid by Gazillion Bubbles. :)

Words from the "Wise"

2011-05-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here's some stuff that Peter has said recently:

on Easter Sunday, he wore a vest--something he doesn't normally wear--and he said, "wow, 2 shirts!" He then began running around the house saying, "I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor." Apparently he thought he was a doctor because he was gussied up.
He was walking around the house, wearing pajamas on his head and saying, "I'm married, I'm married."
He pronounces "macaroni" as "macaraconi"
He loves for us to tell him stories about cats, animals, going to Omi and Gramps' house, going to the park with his friends. He often will tell us "stories" too.
He loves an episode of Olivia that involves Olivia's grandma and tai chi (don't ask). He often informs me that he would like to watch "Olivia's gram-ma".
When I tell him stories, he says he wants to hear about "Kai Kai" and "Tai Chi." I don't really get the connection, but he loves his little friend, Kai (and he also loves Kai's grandma so maybe that is where it connects) and he loves that Olivia episode. I'm often talking about "Kai Kai" at the park doing tai chi. That's something I never thought I would be discussing with my 3 year old.
At night, when I say "goodnight," he tries to stall by asking me about everyone's status. "Where are all the babies?" me: "They are sleeping." "Where are all the birdies? Where are all the dogs? Where are all the cats? Where are all the grandmas and grandpas? Where are all the people? Where are all the animals?" This is is all spit out rapid fire as fast as possible and I reply, "They are all sleeping and Peter needs to sleep too."
When asked what time it is, he says, "30 o'clock."

Chocolate Chip Dutch Baby

2011-05-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Horrible, horrible name for a recipe. But what a delicious, delicious breakfast item (I am not sure it qualifies as a breakfast item, but it was in the breakfast section of my cookbook, so I am going with it.)

Best thing about it is that it is a pancake. With chocolate chips. And it requires no flipping. I haven't exactly inherited my mother's talent for flipping pancakes. She makes the best pancakes. Mine are messy and go all over the place. So I was super excited to see a recipe that allowed me to cook the pancake in the oven. And add chocolate chips. And Kahlua.

You can't really go wrong with all of those things!

Check out the recipe by clicking here

Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad

2011-05-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

I recently had some friends from church over for dinner and made this menu. My friend asked me to post it, so I thought I would just post it here.

I love Taco Salads and make several different variations throughout the summer. I love this one because it is spicy but not too spicy. Super yummy. And the accompanying Watermelon Mango Salad with Mint is super refreshing. Enjoy.

r e f r e s h...............

2011-05-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

Okay....it has been a little while. The holidays came and I wanted to put some pictures up but I never got quite around to it. And then I decided that I didn't really like how my blog was evolving.

I have been reflecting on the kinds of things I want to express here and as you can see...I wasn't really able to settle on one thing, hence the new title.

I love my kids, and I could just keep posting pictures of them, but there are other aspects of my life too that I wanted reflected. I love to cook. And I could just post recipes and talk about them but that would get repetitive. I love God and studying theology. That could swallow up 2 blogs. Or maybe more.

So I decided to just write about a little of this...and a little of that. Nothing fancy. Just whatever has inspired me for the week.

I recently watched one of my favorite movies, Julie and Julia. I got inspired to start writing here again after watching a particular scene. I couldn't find the scene on youtube, but did find the excerpt of the script:

Julie (voiceover): And then I came home and got a big vote of confidence from my mother.

Mom: Remind me why you're doing this...

Julie: Blog.

Mom: Whatever it's called.

Julie: It's a regimen, Mom. Like doing sit-ups.

Mom: Well, it's just adding pressure.

Julie: What pressure?

Mom: You have a full-time job, you have a husband, and now you're going to get sick from blogging.

Julie: It's sort of like being in AA.

Mom: What are you saying?

Julie: It gives you something you have to do every day, one day at a time.

Mom: How do you know this lingo? Honey, are you an alcoholic?

Julie: I'm saying it's good for me to have short-term goals.

Mom: Well, that is silly. That is just plain silly. Who's reading this blog?

Julie: People. People are reading it, I'm sure.

Mom: Well, it's something you decided to do, and you can decide not to, and not one single person's going to mind.

Julie: No, don't you get it? I just started. I can't stop. I have to finish--it's all I've got.

*Mom hangs up the phone*

Julie: Hello? Hello?

I liked her comment about it being a regimen. Just sounded interesting to me. And I loved the part where her mom says she might get sick from blogging. Hilarious. :)

Well, I definitely don't intend to cook through Julia Child's cookbook. And I don't intend to post here everyday. But hopefully I will find myself here more frequently than the past.

Working

2010-12-18T22:36:00.000-08:00

nothing like a nice pipe and a handsome tie with some pajamas

it's a lot of work being 1!

daddy makes his jackets look so comfortable. this is a bit big.

Summer Revisited

2010-09-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

I couldn't in good conscience put up our fall decorations in our home without providing a summary of our Summer. I know that all of my blog readers were just DYING to see all of these pics.....

Most of the summer was quite mild in weather, although as I write this I am sweating bullets.

I made another pie....Peach this time...

Working on a birthday present for Omi.

He was not as excited to be working on the present.

Mike had a couple of weeks off for his vacation, so we had a chance to do things we wouldn't normally do as a family. Here we are at....I can't remember what the name of this place is. But it is a Chuck E Cheese knock off and they had a fish tank that Peter fell in love with.

Here he is, talking to his little friend, "Nemo."

Dad got to spend some quality time with the boys....

We took a trip to Rancho Mirage again and this time we stayed in a condo. It was so much fun! Here the boys are doing what they do best...watching a movie. I think it was Bolt. We watched Bolt, Toy Story 2, and Over the Hedge.

We also spent a lot of time in the pool because it was 112 degrees! Funny. It is almost that hot right now.

Matthew loved floating around in this floaty thing. Peter loved to just hang out on the steps and play with pool toys. He didn't really like "swimming" around the pool. But it was still really fun!

He and I also discovered Ping Pong one morning while Matthew was napping.

And there were plenty of ducks to feed near our place.

Sometimes he would eat the bread instead of feed the ducks.

Matthew, relaxing....

Peter, relaxing....

After our trip to Rancho Mirage, we dropped the kids off at my parents' house and we headed to Santa Barbara for 2 nights. It was really weird to be without the boys, but we had a really good time.

We had this crazy sesame ahi tuna appetizer for dinner one night. They served it in this weird candelabra thing. It was cool.

We also saw a movie at a drive in theater, which was fun. We saw, "The Other Guys." It got really foggy in certain parts so we're still not quite sure what happened in certain scenes. :)

We love this place! Shoreline Beach Cafe in Santa Barbara. Tables are right on the beach. You can put your feet in the sand while you eat. And best of all, you won't be too poor after eating there because it is not too expensive.

We ended the summer with celebrating birthdays. First we headed up to Oakdale to celebrate our sister in law's 40th birthday. We put Matthew in a new carseat for the 7 hour drive so that he could enjoy some movies with his brother.

Matthew did not make one peep on the way there or the way back. He was very content eating fish crackers. So cute! Peter did pretty well too, but he did get a little antsy at the end.

Here is Peter using the Ipod for the first time. He is watching Toy Story 2. He thought it was pretty cool.

Riding around Oakdale with cousin Josh

cousins.....Peter definitely loved spending time with Josh and vice versa

And Matty and Hannah B had a lot of fun together as well....

We went to the Oakdale Cheese Factory and got to feed some ducks, llamas, and goats.

You could buy food pellets for 25 cents, but apparently the animals also liked eating dry leaves.

Planning his next move on Nana's collection..Nana wasn't there on this visit. She was visiting relatives in England. The boys definitely missed her!

We had a pool party for Karen at a friend's home.

We're so thankful we were able to celebrate Karen's 40th birthday!

I am going to try to start a tradition of taking their picture on this couch every time we visit. Hopefully Peter is a little more excited to have his picture taken the next time...

We got to spend a lot of time with Uncle David. After we left Oakdale, he came down to our place and worked for a couple of days. It was fun for our boys to get to know him better.

We also had a couple of spontaneous beach visits during the summer....

And we ended the Summer by celebrating Matthew's first birthday! Here he is opening his first present from Jasmine (a toy phone) on the morning of his birthday.

Matthew and Jas

I won't type out stuff like, "it is hard to believe it has been a year," because that is what everyone says, right? I am just thankful that we have a healthy and very smiley boy. We are so grateful for the Lord's mercies to us during this past year. Transitioning into a 2 kid family was more challenging than we anticipated, but we are definitely figuring it out and getting into a groove.

I know...the chocolate syrup looks like something you might find in a diaper....but they loved it!

I'm 1!!

I made some blue cupcakes...

what am I supposed to do with this?

do you want some Gramps?

Here we are surveying his birthday presents.

He loved the ball popper from Omi and Gramps!

Evidence that he is part of the digital generation....everyone's birthday wishes on Facebook...

So....the summer is over....fall is here..kind of...now I can go finish decorating. :)

Summer

2010-07-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe it is the middle of summer, and it is hard to believe I have really been ignoring this blog! Since the last post, Matthew has started crawling and pulling himself up. He is dying to catch up to Peter and my parents are taking bets as to when Matthew will begin walking.

All that to say, we have been busy.

Here are Peter and Matthew spending their last evening with Auntie Nova before she moves to Kentucky for a year. Ugh. We will miss her!

The magic of Toy Story 2 enables any parent to take awesome pics of multiple children at once. From left to right: Zeke, Peter, Harper, and Matthew

We spent 4th of July with friends at the beach. I was kind of busy having a fun time, so the above picture is one of the few I have to capture the moment. :) That's Gino, Shaylee and Eli taking the brunt of their weight there.

After the 4th of July, we made a very spur of the moment visit to Rancho Mirage. It was a great time. Again. I was relaxing, so I had to depend on other people's pictures. :)

Peter messed this shot up with his weird aversion to getting his picture taken. But he and I were both lounging by the pool prior to this picture being taken. Seriously. You see, he had gone to sleep at 11pm the night before...ahh vacation....and so he was just completely tuckered out the next day. He sat with me on a lounge chair for about 20 minutes, almost falling asleep. It was nice!

Matthew, modeling the latest in boys' fashion with a lovely pink hat. You gotta do what you gotta do to keep his head from burning up!

What is summer without cherry pie? My mom taught me how to make a lattice crust. Next on the menu is peach. Yummmmm.....

We have spent a lot of time at the beach this summer. Because of this, Matthew has spent a lot of time eating sand. It is pretty much his favorite thing to do at the beach.

Peter on the other hand, loves seagulls. In this pic he is telling me how much he loves them. "Seagulls!" Oh, that is another thing. After our trip to Palm Springs, Peter started to talk a lot more. I think hanging out with other kids spurred him on. He probably says about 100 words now.

Some of the best ones are: bubbles--pronounced "bee-bulls"; Molly (his stuffed cat)--pronounced "Mo-wee"; Gramps--pronounced "amps"; Omi--pronounced "Mi"; Banana and Nana sound the same (sorry! I didn't teach him that I swear!); and sometimes when he is being naughty he calls his daddy, "Mike!"

Peter seems to have developed a crush on Gabriella....when we were at the beach he kept asking her to pick him up and he followed her around a bit

And who doesn't love Eli? Peter and Matthew both love hanging out with him.

Matthew, taking in some rays

it is tiring relaxing at the beach!

We had the opportunity to spend some time at this private beach club below my parents' house recently. My family spent a lot of summers there so it was really fun to take the kids down for some time in the sand.

Matthew clowning around.....

At dinner we were cracking up at this....

more sand!!

Kiddie Pool

2010-06-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

Babies R Us had this kiddie pool for $4.99. Kind of hard to pass up that kind of cheap fun. This past Saturday I decided to give it a whirl. The boys LOVED it. I was a little nervous because Mike was gone and it was 2 against 1. But it all went well.....

After their "swim," relaxing with their cars.

For Posterity

2010-05-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

A good (and wise) friend told me last weekend that I should take lots of pictures of the kids when they do things that are funny. Even if it seems mundane; he cautioned that years later we will wish we had. AND he said that taking pictures insures your kids will believe you when you tell them that they used to cover themselves in stickers. Or whatever it is they did that was odd.

So here you go Peter....

Sitting Up

2010-05-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

Matthew started sitting up last week............

He was very proud of himself.

This week he was able to sit up on his own with no props. Which opened up a whole new world of possibilities for him.....

Relaxing in the backyard.....

Playing with brother....

He may be re-thinking the whole sitting up thing here...Peter does provide a whole lot of love...........

Nope...sitting up is pretty fun!

Matthew....

2010-04-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

Just in case there was any doubt....Mike IS the father of Matthew......My dad took these pictures the other day and I thought that Matthew looked so much like Mike in these pictures, I just had to share....so sweet!

Stickers and Shenanigans

2010-04-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

it feels good to be "caught up" on the blog. I couldn't end tonight's postings without mentioning Peter's latest fixation: stickers.

He loves stickers!! He loves to put them all over his face, shirts, pants, etc.

I bought him a bunch of cat stickers for his birthday (195 to be exact). I was storing them in the entertainment center in a box. Each time he asked for more stickers, I would go to the entertainment center to get them. By the time he finished the box of stickers, he was convinced that cat stickers came from the entertainment center. For at least a week, he kept going to the cabinet and pointing. Basically saying, "I would like some more cat stickers." It was pretty funny.

Anyways, stickers are a great way to kill time. He will play with them for 10-15 minutes--which is a lot in mom world.

Sometimes the stickers end up in places they shouldn't go....

Peter is not a very sneaky kid....but the other morning he did surprise me. I had brought Matthew into the nursery and told Peter to come in there so that I could change his diaper.

I was busy pulling Peter's clothes out for the day when he finally came into the room. I turned around only to see that he was pouring apple puree all over Matthew's belly. Matthew was quite entertained and I just decided the best thing to do would be to take a picture. :) I also decided that Peter was just trying to feed Matthew....right???

Matthew--6 months

2010-04-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Matthew turned 6 months old...a month ago. It has kind of flown by in some ways...and in others it seems like September 24th is a loooong time ago.
He is super chunky. 20lbs. He smiles and laughs all the time. He is soooooo sweet!
He started solids around 5 1/2 months and now enjoys squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, applesauce, and other fruits.

He went through a very frustrating period before solids of not napping well. But once he got into the solids, he started napping great. He also just dropped his 10pm feeding, which is really exciting for us!!

look at my chub!!

cute little toes

he loves Peter! Peter already knows how to make Matthew laugh in a way that none of us can. My sister does the same thing with me, so it has been fun to see that humor between the two of them already.

not a huge fan of rice cereal, but smiling anyways....

feeding is very serious business for daddy

hanging with Henry

Easter

2010-04-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter...several weeks ago...I know, I know. I am so behind in posting pictures. Sorry.

We went to my parents' house and we were all super excited to go on an Easter Egg Hunt. My mom put together some really cute baskets and my parents also put together a great easter egg hunt for Peter.

We have fond memories of past egg hunts with me and my sister in this backyard. It was so fun to see Peter explore the same territory that we once did.....

He was pretty good at figuring out the concept.....

After lunch, he led us all outside by the hand and thought that since we were all outside together again--that must mean there are MORE eggs to find. I quickly went inside and gathered a couple and then secretly hid them again when he wasn't looking. He had fun finding them again. and again. and again.

Matty was still too small to go hunting, but he enjoyed tasting this egg.

This is kind of a random picture to post, but I liked it because I thought it captured what a fun day we had.

Dogs

2010-04-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of 2010, we made a big decision. We decided that it was time to say goodbye to our bassets, Millie and Maggie. Millie turned 7 in February and Maggie turned 6 in March. As our family has expanded in the kid department, it seemed an increasingly difficult task to care for the dogs. So we decided the best thing would be to find them a new home.

I thought I would post some pics of the past 7 years....

Maggie hanging out on the couch with us at the old house...

Millie was always a good sport about wishing people "Happy Birthday"

One of our nephews, "enjoying" Maggie...

is there nothing sweeter than a boy and his dogs?

Millie

We contacted our breeder and she was able to find a wonderful couple in Flintridge that were interested in taking in 2 bassets! They have raised bassets over 25 years and have 2 bloodhounds too boot. AND they live in a huge house. Millie and Maggie are definitely moving on up!

When the owners took the dogs to the vet for the first time, the vet found a tumor in Maggie's neck. Maggie has an advanced form of thyroid cancer. The vet said that these kind of cancers can appear "overnight" in a dog. The tumor has grown significantly since we gave the dogs to the new owners two weeks ago. The new owners said that Maggie's breathing is already labored. They said that they would do their best to make sure Maggie is comfortable, but in the end they will be putting her to sleep.

We are so thankful that we were able to find good owners for our dogs. We know they are in good hands and that is very comforting; especially when we think about what Maggie is going through.

our last goodbye...(i think Matthew was really tired)

We will always have fun memories of our doggies. Mike had never had dogs before, so it was really exciting to have pets in our home. He spent many evenings in our Pedro house with them on the sofa.....of course...I won't miss their permeating basset smell....:)

I think one of the hardest things about saying goodbye to them for me was that it was a symbol of sorts that we are in this new phase of life. I felt like I was saying goodbye to my life without kids. Not saying I don't love my children or anything like that...just saying that I am finally getting comfortable in our "new" life as parents.....

Milestones

2010-03-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

Deepest apologies for taking so long to post. There has been so much going on! For a few weeks, it seemed like everyday was a new milestone....here is a little recap...

Matthew turned 5 months old on February 24. Figure I better get these up before he turns 6 months...which turns out is just in a couple of days! He is still entertaining us with his lovely smiles. I started him on solids around 5 1/2 months...he is still figuring it out. But here he is above super excited to be in the high chair!

He smiles. A lot! More on Matthew in the 6 month post...

This may look like an ordinary easter bunny, but it will always be a special stuffed animal to me. on February 28, Mike heard Peter wheezing very loudly from his bedroom around 11pm. We got him up and it turns out he had an intense case of the croup. He had it once before last October, but this was much worse and had a rapid onset.

We ended up calling 911 and Peter and I took an ambulance ride to Torrance Memorial. When I got out of the ambulance, one of the paramedics was standing there with this bunny. I almost started bawling! How sweet of him to think of that at such a late hour....

We were taken care of by a wonderful staff in their ER and got home around 230am. They gave him a steroid IV and chest x-rays. Peter behaved like a total champ, he was so brave! After some sleep, he recuperated very quickly and was thankfully well enough to celebrate his 2nd birthday the following Friday/Saturday.

***
sidebar: Okay, I don't have a picture for this, but ANOTHER milestone that happened is that we were the victims of "ding dong ditch." Around 3:30am the morning of Peter's party, our whole bedroom shook and we thought it was an earthquake. Mike leaped out of bed and went running for the door. Next thing I knew, he was standing by the window in the front room, peering out the window.

I guess some young hooligans thought it would be funny to kick our front door really hard in the middle of the night. Well, it wasn't funny. I had the biggest adrenaline rush, I thought I was going to puke or pass out. It took me forever to fall back asleep, which is a big deal these days....

We ended up calling the police department--I wanted to feel like I could do something! They said they had gotten a couple of other calls. Felt good to know we weren't crazy.

*****

I made Elmo cupcakes to go with the theme of the party.

This is a picture of Peter blowing out his candle on his birthday. Gramps and Omi came over to celebrate. About 2 seconds after this picture was taken, Peter decided it would be a good idea to put the candle out with his fingers. :( I actually thought we would have to make another visit to the ER. Turns out that ice helps a lot. Thanks, Daddy!

We also spoke with Heidi in Australia via skype. It was so fun. Peter kept going up to the screen and giving her kisses! Made it feel like she was a little closer than she actually is.....

i have to say that i think one of Peter's FAVORITE presents was 195 cat stickers that yours truly gave to him. when he opened the box he gave a big "ooohhhhh!!!!!!" it was so cute. even if it is cats.

Didn't get more pics of the decorations, but we had it all decorated with balloons and streamers and Elmo table cloth, balloon, etc. Those are the party favors. I felt like a mom putting those together.

singing happy birthday!

enjoying his cupcake...no burns this time made for a more flavorful experience, i'm sure

He's 2!!

Dara and Zeke......

Miss Kendall.....looking adorable as usual...

Peter is getting pretty good at opening presents. He got a lot of cars, sand toys, Sesame Street toys, and other fun stuff!

Dara and Harper (1)

john and harper

gramps and little brother

4 months old and vroom vroooommm

2010-02-01T20:58:00.001-08:00

hard to believe we are at the 4 month point with Matthew these days...February seemed soooo FAR away back in October. Matthew is getting closer and closer to inching his way out of the bassinet. we're on the hunt for bunk beds and I am mapping out some sort of plan to get the boys to sleep in same room....wish me luck. i think we will still need a port a crib to help us through naps....

this one is for Auntie Karen...thanks for the outfit! Matthew is a very smiley baby. He laughs too! I don't remember Peter doing that at this age. Daddy knows exactly how to make Matthew laugh....it is very sweet.

Peter is still obsessed with the camera. Here I surprised him as I was laying down on the ground.....

Matthew can now grab some of his toys. He likes to lay on his floor gym. He really likes it when Peter comes to visit him. Which is often. :)

ah...cars. Peter has been into cars and trucks for about a month now. He lines them all up on our the arms of our sofas and stares at them. Then he pushes them over the other side. He does this for quite a long time. At least 15 minutes. It is very mesmerizing to watch.

Peter loves it when Matthew watches him play with the cars. He especially prefers Matthew to perch himself on the arm of the couch. I think they will be good friends.

Random Cuteness

2010-01-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to post these for awhile....

One afternoon, Peter started getting "artsy" with his Cheerios. He lined them all up in some sort of pattern on the table...........

He was very proud of himself.

He is so sweet......

the great 8

2010-01-20T21:12:00.000-08:00

we got together with all the cousins this weekend.
it was so fun to be all together!
from left to right
(Lily, Peter, Nora, Matthew, Hannah, Sophia, Charlie, and Joshua).

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T14:20:00.000-08:00

At our church Christmas party

Looking for trees....

2 months old

2009-12-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

Matthew turned 2 months old on November 24. I am trying to post pics for each month, but it is a little overwhelming. :) He likes to smile a lot. And he likes to get hugs and kisses from his brother Peter.

hanging out with Omi

Catching Up....

2009-12-12T21:48:00.000-08:00

Holy Moly, my dear husband installed Picasa on our computer and now I seriously have no excuse to fall behind on blogging ever. It is now super easy to post pics so I am pretty excited. Time is now a premium for me...okay, it was before. But seriously, it is really precious these days. I can't believe I have not put any pictures up since Halloween.

This was Matthew's baptism day. He was baptized November 1. Peter was baptized when he was 2 weeks old. Matthew was a little older and I was a little less sleep deprived, so I think I was able to focus on it a little more. It was a really nice day. We love our church family!

This is the only angle of Peter that we can get a picture of these days. He is still obsessed with the camera. And anytime I try to take a picture of Matthew, Peter tries to squeeze his face in like the above shot.

Pastor Paul

Peter and Mr. L hanging out

Halloween/Reformation Day

2009-10-31T21:32:00.001-07:00

Mike carved a pumpkin

I'm a cowboy!

matty the cow....

We went to our church tonight for a Reformation Day party. I asked Peter to hug Lambie and Bob and this was the result.

cowboy and Indian

probably one of the last documented times that Peter does not understand the significance of a lollipop. He tried to use it as a phone and then he threw it on the floor....

moo!!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-31T09:48:00.000-07:00

Here are our obligatory pumpkin patch photos. It was pretty fun--we went to a place pretty close to our house last Saturday....you will have to stay tuned for the Halloween costume pics.

Peter was kind of overwhelmed when we first got there....there was a petting zoo and ponies..and of course, lots of pumpkins.

The llama was HUGE. Can't really see that in this picture. But trust me, coming from someone who has an irrational fear of petting zoos, it was big.

"are you telling me that people actually pay money to feed these animals?"

running through the pumpkins

what better place to eat than a pumpkin patch?

the challenges of taking pictures of a family of four

this is the best we could get

we went out to lunch afterwards and Peter had his first chocolate milk. he loved the straw as much as the milk.

1 month

2009-10-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it has been 1 month since Matthew joined us....

We gave him his first bath....

I'm still having trouble deciding if Matthew and Peter look alike...

We also took Matthew on his first walk...

And this morning, I subjected Matthew to his first photo shoot...which is a lot trickier with a toddler running around...

First Haircut

2009-10-10T21:17:00.001-07:00

Not sure if you have noticed in the recent pics...but Peter
needed a haircut...Mike already cuts his own hair so he volunteered
to cut Peter's. We distracted him with juice and books. He never
gets juice, so it was quite a treat for him.

Mike bought some scissors with rounded edges.
We thought Peter might be afraid of the whole process,
but I think he was too excited about the juice to notice
what was going on.

where did my hair go?

Afterwards....
he still likes to grab for the camera...

Leaving Hospital and Life at Home....

2009-10-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

We came home on Sunday, September 27th. It was weird having a full backseat!

Peter giving a questionable thumbs up about his new partner in crime.

the boys....

for all you fashionistas out there, this was Matthew's "going home" outfit...

this pic is for Tante Heidi.
Bonds is a popular clothing company in Oz
and these socks are from her...he wore them home

sleeping around the house....

more sleeping....

Matthew found his thumb on day 4? Whatever day it was, it was very early. I think he is going to be a very oral child....uh oh...

Hospital Visitors

2009-10-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

Of course, the anticipated visit from Peter was the highlight of our hospital stay. We were so excited for Peter to meet his new brother. And we were really interested to see how the 2 would "get along."

Omi bought 2 balloons, one for Peter and one for Matthew. Peter was in love with the balloons...Once Peter arrived, we didn't bring Matthew in right away. We spent some time with Peter and gave him a present (a little puzzle).

After a few minutes, Mike wheeled the bassinet into the room. All in all, it was a really memorable moment. Peter loved looking at Matthew's fingers, toes, etc. At one point I picked up Matthew and held him--Peter's facial expression was priceless. It was as though he was making some further calculations and was finally understanding that this was OUR baby. The look was a combo of jealousy and understanding.....someday when we figure out how to post videos you will have to see it.

He probably would have tipped the bassinet over if we had not stopped him. I think he really wanted to climb in.

I just like this picture because of Mike's facial expression.

Peter thought he would try out Matthew's pacifier....

proud grandparents

they look like they are ready for another one, don't you think?

Miss Nova....our dear friend

Here is Kelly--reminding herself of how little newborns are...she is so close to having her own!!

the newlywed Mrs. T

Dara and Harper

Presenting Matthew Clayton G

2009-10-07T21:49:00.001-07:00

This was taken around 5:45am. When we arrived at hospital, the fire alarm went off. I freaked out and was envisioning us huddled in the parking lot while they put out the fire. A nurse quickly reassured us that there was no problem and it was just a false alarm.

Shortly after this picture was taken, a nurse asked me about 150,000 different questions. I don't remember them asking me all of these questions that last time. "What is your highest level of education?" "Which of your family members have heart disease?" It was kind of stressful having to remember all of that info at 5 in the morning, not to mention that the other nurse was trying to insert an IV during this whole process and couldn't find a vein. They were probably tight because I was too busy trying to remember who died of what disease in my family....

After the questioning was completed, we sat and waited. The surgery was delayed by an hour because some poor lady had to have an emergency c-section after a long night of labor. She was wheeled into the room while I was waiting to go in. Mike and I got irritated because the nurses started discussing the ins and outs of her labor and were analyzing her contractions, etc. Didn't really need to hear all of that!

Anyways, we headed to the OR. The anesthesiologist was so nice. He had great bedside manner; the guy that I had during Peter's birth was a real meanie so it was great to have someone that made you feel like you were in good hands. His name was Dr. Lundberg. He did a good job of distracting me once we got into the OR by making small talk. Turns out he used to live next door to one of the most eclectic person I used to work with in the candy industry. What a small world!

Once they removed Matthew, I heard the doctor say, "oh--there is a knot in the umbilical cord!" She claimed it was good luck and very rare. We are still not sure why it is good luck--seems like it could have been very bad luck if I wasn't having a c-section. Anyway, the doctor said that no one knows how these knots occur. I guess Matthew was just doing a lot of stuff in there.

I am pretty exhausted, so I will have to post more pictures later...but here are just a couple...

Matthew Clayton G****
born September 24th, 9:14 am
8lbs 7oz, 21 inches long

Preparing for Baby #2 Fun

2009-09-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

Our church (and my mom) hosted a baby shower for me and another gal, Kelly (also known as Kendall's mom), that is due in October. It was really fun!

the photographers wanted us to touch bellies. we were a little skeptical.

They prayed for us, we played 1 game, and we also got a series of 15 envelopes. Each envelope has a note from one of the women at church for us to open the first 15 days. I must admit, I have been tempted to open a few of them these past few days.....I am pretty exhausted and worn out.

In any case, it was fun to celebrate babies! A fun time was had by all....

this is "team Peter." My mom and Nova are going to take turns watching him while we are at the hospital.

My parents graciously bought us a double jogger this month. We decided to test it out when they brought it over. Peter enjoyed it. That's his "baby" next to him. We got him a baby (well, my parents picked it out) for him to play with before baby #2 comes along.

This has nothing to do with prepping for the baby, really. It is just a funny shot. Being the huge Beatles fan that I am, I had to buy the Rockband Beatles game. Unfortunately, I have been too tired to play as much as I would like. Maybe I can take it up in the evenings before those later feedings. :)

I have been trying to introduce Peter to more toys and activities lately. He likes play-doh. So far we are not mixing colors. He needs help forming it into balls and snakes (that's pretty much all I can think of to make), but he does enjoy it.

....Just a few short days and we will have plenty of pictures to post of baby #2!! Crazy.

Summer 2009

2009-09-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

This summer has been pretty busy. And I have been exhausted because of the below picture, which is why I haven't been posting much. With Labor Day weekend coming to a close, I thought it only appropriate to post a quick recap of Summer 2009.....

This ultrasound is from 6/25/2009. Baby Gregg#8 seems to be in deep contemplation (he gets that from both of us) on the bottom left and on the bottom right it appears he already has great dexterity and is picking his nose with his toes.

As far as the pregnancy goes, I couldn't have asked for a more mild summer in terms of weather. The last 7 days have been pretty unbearable, but they have not been anywhere nearly as hot as I was expecting. The Lord truly did sustain me and only made it as hot as I could POSSIBLY handle. :)

I have a c-section scheduled for September 24th, but last week the doctor said she wondered if I would make it! We will see what happens. I have an ultrasound this week so hopefully we will learn more at that appointment. Either way, I am wrapping up work stuff by the end of this week!

We started and ended the summer with the John and Dara. In late June, we went to this new fountain in San Pedro. It is kind of like the Bellagio fountain in Vegas, except it is in Pedro. :) It is a huge fountain that plays music and shoots the water into the air.

Nearby is an old fashioned trolley. Mike and John took the boys for a ride while Dara, Harper, and I hung out near the water.

A word on pictures of Peter....Soo....ever since we showed Peter how a digital camera works, he has been obsessed. We can't really take pictures of him anymore that don't involve him reaching towards the camera. I am hoping he grows out of this soon. As you will see, unless he didn't know we were clicking away, most of our shots are quite similar this summer. :)

In July, my office manager got married and our relatives came to visit to celebrate the occasion.

It was fun to get together with the family and to hang out with our staff.

And it is always nice to have an excuse to dress up.

It was also another chance for Peter to hang out with his cousins. I am not sure what was going on here in these 2 shots. Perhaps Peter thought Hannah was the one giving him bunny ears...

As the family was departing for home, Sophia graciously gave Peter one of her stuffed animals. I don't think she realized how much Peter would fall in love with "Lambie" or "Lambkin" as he(?) is affectionately known. Peter seems to be in love with Lambie as much as he is with Bob. He gets very excited when Lambie makes an appearance.

We spent a fair amount of time at the beach. That was a nice perk of the summer. I didn't really know what to expect with a toddler at the beach. As usual, Peter was great. At first he hated the sand which turned out to be a plus. He just sat on my lap for the first couple of visits. Now he really likes to run around on it.

We have gone to the beach a couple of times with Kendall....they are so cute together! We are looking forward to the next "set." Kendall's sister is due in October....:)

As anyone knows, the beach really tires you out.

This reminded me of last Spring, when we took Peter to the beach for the first time.

We also got a surprise visit from Ayako. Peter fell in love with her (notice the reaching for the camera).

We celebrated my mom's birthday in August. Peter really liked the waitress at this restaurant. He kept trying to hug her. Here is a picture of him entertaining us with his chopsticks.

We spent some time at Gramps and Omi's house when it got really hot.

at the Trump Golf Course

a budding Soccer player.....

Here is one of our last visits to the beach, and an extreme display of Peter wanting the camera.

We were fortunate enough to be able to get away for 2 nights to celebrate our anniversary. My parents took care of Peter while we were gone. We all had a great time, respectively.

We stayed at the new resort in Palos Verdes called Terranea. It was really relaxing.

Dinner at the Admiral Risty

view from our room

this place just has extraordinary views, this was along our walk to the pool

Peter definitely kept my parents busy. I think my mom probably walked him around their house about 75 times during our absence. She also spent a lot of time teaching him to walk up and down stairs.

It has been hot around here the last week. Here is Mr. Peter relaxing, checking out last year's confections for Val and Easter 2009.

And here is our visit with the Youngs, effectively bringing Summer to an end. :(

Now we are waiting patiently for the arrival of Baby #2. He will be spending a lot of time in this bassinet that we were so fortunate to be able to borrow from John and Dara.

4th of July

2009-07-04T22:14:00.001-07:00

What a difference a year makes.....

July 4, 2008

July 4, 2009

Happy 4th of July!!!

What I've Been Working On

2009-06-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

I alluded in a previous post that there was a reason for not writing on this blog very frequently. That reason would be pictured above. :)

Baby #2 is due at the end of September. If you know where to look you can see that the bottom left picture shows it is a boy! We are really excited!

The second pregnancy has been as smooth as the last. And hopefully it stays that way. I was extremely tired during the first trimester and definitely not as nauseous this time around--which was very much appreciated. I have felt a lot more emotional this time--so emotional that I thought I might be having a girl (sorry, baby). I am very very very very happy to be having another boy. Boys are fun! And we already have all the clothes and stuff. And now we don't have to worry about them sharing a room, etc.

I was very thankful to be through the first trimester--I just had no energy and couldn't even fathom sitting down at the computer to write about it.

I just finished my glucose test last week and I passed! Very thankful to have sailed through that one this time. Last time I had to go back and take the 3 hour test.

(Yes, that is my handwriting scrawled at the top of the glucose bottle: "Do not drink unless you are Michelle." So many people using our fridge, you can't take any chances.)

Even though it is an excuse to sit and watch TV for 3 hours....I just don't have that time....The doctor did say that I have slightly low iron--perhaps that is why I have still been feeling so tired! I am hoping once I start taking iron supplements my energy will improve.

We just took Peter to his 15 month appointment and the doctor recommended we buy him a baby doll (I didn't really think we would be buying dolls with 2 boys running around, but whatever :)) and a book about being a big brother. I am not sure how helpful that will really be, but it will make us feel better. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to all of the change! I think he will be a great big brother.

Peter, sporting his "big brother" shirt, on the night that we told Gramps and Omi about baby #2! I think he is not quite sure what it all means...and that is still the case months later.

Favorites and Cha Cha Changes......

2009-06-08T20:22:00.001-07:00

I really haven't devoted enough time to Peter's LOVE of books. It is pretty crazy.
In preparation for his arrival, I read a lot of books. Many of them say to start reading to them at an early age....so I did. Not much to do during wake time in the beginning, except re-acquaint yourself with the old classics, "The Hungry Catepillar" and "The Snowy Day," etc. Peter started to "read" those books when he was just a few days old.

When he learned to crawl and lie on his tummy, he spent a lot of time looking at books.

And he still does.

It doesn't really matter what the context is. He can spend about 10 minutes (yeah. I know!) looking at 1 book. This obviously comes in really really handy at church. By the time he has gone through 3 or 4 books, the service is almost done.

He doesn't just look at them, he LOOKS at them. He examines every page, and then when he has completed the book, he turns it upside down and starts all over.

He seems to really enjoy these great "peek-a-boo" books that we got from Aunt Chanoli. He has "loved" them a lot. We have had to tape the flaps back onto the pages. I am kind of rationing them out so that they don't get loved all at once.

This was his first German meal. He is starting to eat more and more table food. The transition was challenging for me. But I think I am figuring it out a little more these days. Anyway, here he is enjoying some Nuremburger Sausage and some fried potatoes. YUM.

We are working on teaching him the Children's Catechism. The first question is, "Who Made You?" And the answer is, "God!" Sometimes Peter will randomly raise his hand as he is right now. Is that taking the Lord's name in vain? :)

He has recently been "trained" to use the phones in the office. I am not sure exactly what the training has involved, but I hear he likes the hold button.

Last week, Omi showed him the wonders of a digital camera. He was VERY interested in looking at himself on the screen (99% of Omi's pictures are of Peter, so it worked out. the other 1% are of the cats...ha ha)

Here is Peter kissing himself on the screen of the camera. We are going to have to work on his narcissism.

Worst Mom Blogger Ever

2009-05-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

I doubt anyone actually visits this blog anymore since I have been so pathetic in my postings. Things have been super busy here, mainly because I have been "working" on something, but I will write more about that later.

We have had a couple of celebrations around here lately....

Charlotte had her 1st birthday party, which was Peter's first birthday party. It was very fun.

Strange to be at a party covered with juice boxes and goldfish.

The party was at Charlotte's grandparents' house. I spent quite a bit of time there in high school--it was weird to go there for her birthday party and reflect back on some of the other memorable moments I spent at that house--which definitely did not involve babies.

Charlotte's grandma took Peter and Char for a couple of spins around the backyard in the wagon.

We also celebrated Mike's ordination as an elder at our church. It was a really nice day and it has been great to see him take on this new role.

We also attended Harper's baptism. It was fun to see our friends from our old church, but I definitely do not miss the drive. :)

We celebrated Easter with Mike's family. Nana, Dave, and Karen and the kids came down for a couple of days. We had a great time. It was extra special as Mike had the opportunity to conduct a prayer during the Easter service for the first time as elder. It was nice that his family was able to be there to share in that moment.

Hannah looking for one of the 56 eggs Grandma and Grandpa C hid in backyard

playing cards

in their Easter garb

Peter and Sophia play with toy cellphone and blackberry. YES, that is a toy blackberry. It was given to us by a friend that knows me too well. Peter was SO excited to get it. Is that bad?

We also celebrated my dad's 75th birthday. My mom worked really hard (as always) to make it a wonderful occasion. It was really great!

Peter also got his very first severe cold. He got an ear infection, cold/cough, and minor pink eye all at once. The doctor recommended we use a nebulizer to help his cough. He did pretty well with it.

During his sickness, Peter was a champ. He always is positive (he doesn't get that from me) and he decided that despite the fact we were all gross from being sick, he would entertain us with his first steps. On April 20, he started walking!

I wish I could post something fantastic, but I haven't figured out how to upload my videos on my video camera online yet.

Here are a couple of pics my mom took while Peter was displaying his tricks at their house:

He has this very proud look on his face--he was very excited to learn how to walk!

Hey Gramps, look what I can do!

a visit with j & d....there was a lot going on in this picture. :)

This was his first adventure in his new carseat (thank you Chanoli Family!). He loves riding FORWARD!!

He made me laugh when he started scrunching up his face. My side of the family is known for scrunching their face all the time.

being silly

It has been pretty wild around here since he started walking. A LOT of "training" going on about what is okay to touch and what is not. He is pretty obedient...for now. Of course, this weekend he seems to have learned how to "jog" or "speedwalk." He seems to have to walk very fast from one location to the next. I am not sure what his urgency is.

Anyways, I am sorry for the lag in posting....I will try to be better.

A Weekend of Firsts

2009-03-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend was quite busy, no pictures (sorry).

First Formal Visit with our Ethiopian Friends
Friday we had dinner with our friends that just adopted 2 kids (a boy and a girl) from Ethiopia. They just got the kids at the end of February, so it was our first dinner with them all. It was so much fun!

We had met the kids briefly when the first arrived--exhausted and jet lagged. They were definitely more alert this time and a pleasure to be around (not that they were not a pleasure the first time). It is obvious that Peter has a new buddy--the little boy (20 mos) and Peter did a little bit of chattering and the three of them managed to play with all of the toys successfully. Although we will definitely need to give some "sharing" lessons to all.

I was anticipating a hectic dinner. It is a toddler and a 20 month old and then you throw in Peter....it was so quiet! The kids loved eating their food and they both sat quietly and ate. It was so incredible to look at them and think about where they had come from and what a fantastic new life they will have here with their loving parents.

Peter's First "Kiss"
On Saturday night, we had dinner with some new friends. They have a 15 month old named Kendall. Kendall and Peter had a blast together. It was sooooo cute! Peter seemed to be very impressed that she was able to walk and watched her navigate our house AND his toys! Given the sharing issues from the night before, I was expecting more of that on this go around. Especially because we were on his turf this time. However, Peter didn't care. She played with one of his favorites--a police car--and he just watched her.

The best part of the whole interaction was how "friendly" Kendall was. She kept trying to give Peter kisses. At one point, Peter had pulled himself up on pant legs and was standing in the kitchen. Kendall took the opportunity to give him a hug and a kiss. Too bad for Peter, his balance is not quite there yet. My hands were full of cookie dough and I couldn't help them. They both toppled to the ground....there were a few tears....and a large bump on Peter's forehead emerged.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if the bump was from that or from a prior incident--he hit his head on the sliding glass door harder than usual earlier in the day.

The First Bloody Incident
And then yesterday, we had some other friends over with their 10 week old. Peter was very interested in Evan's crying and also seemed to get frustrated when Daddy was holding him for "too long."

Peter started showing off his new skills with the walker that he got for his birthday. I turned my back for a moment, only to see that Peter had lost his balance and fell on our carpeted floor. However, when we picked him we saw his lip was bleeding a little bit.

I don't think I need to tell the few readers of this blog that blood and 1 year olds were not part of "my" plan yet. I was not anticipating dealing with that until he was running outside or whatever. And for the grandparents' sake, the amount of blood was TINY. There was not a lot of it. We're pretty sure he just bit his lip as he fell down. It is just not something you want to see.

In any case, we got through it. But it was duly noted that even a TINY amount of blood raised my blood pressure immediately. It made me think of my own parents. Here I am freaking out about a bit lip and they had to deal with open heart surgery and a 2 year old.

Anyway, despite the constant falling--which I know will only increase as he actually begins to walk--we had a great weekend. It was a fun weekend of firsts and made me look forward to the other ones that will come our way. Minus the blood of course.