Sar and Dar

June 2009

2009-08-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

Walking Friends!
O-wah (that's what Jilly calls him :) and Jill. So cute!
Annie and Faith in the trailer. Such cool girls listening to the iPod. The only bummer was that they kept complaining that the ear buds were falling out!

End of School Bash- 6/6/09
Our kick-off event for the South County Project at Lake Hills Church. We had so much fun, although Annie could definitely fool anyone with those sour looks on her face!
The Chick-fil-A cow came! They provide free chicken sandwiches! Woo hoo! Jilly thought the cow was a dog and kept barking at it.

Annie got her face painted! Cute little balloons!
Annie loved all the bounce houses and things. If you were going by what you see in this picture, you might think that we were forcing Annie to jump against will.

Larson Boys come spend the night- 6/9 through 6/10
Matt and Kristen needed someone to watch the boys, so I offered to have Mom bring them out to us and have the boys spend the night. Mom and the boys spent the whole day with us, and then Mom left, and I had the boys and my kids alone the next day. The kids were really good!

Jilly and Tyler are just the cutest! They're the closest in age of any of the cousins!

Eating spaghetti for dinner. Yum! We were also watching Benji Off the Leash, which was a truly super lame movie.
Jilly and Ty playing in the teepee.

Having an in-depth conversation.

While the boys and Annie and I played a serious game of Candy Land. I was about to win when Andrew quit. Jer and Annie folded quickly after Andrew left. Boo.

May 2009

2009-05-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

Disney Pics
May was Disneyland Month! The girls and I went to Disneyland twice and Disney California Adventure once. So fun! We had to make use of our passes before the summer blackout dates started up!

Nurture Mommy and Kiddo day at Disneyland: May 20
We had so much fun with Joeylynne and her two kiddos, Morgan and her Princess Pie and Heidi and her two kids. Joey, Morgan and Heidi are Disney pros, so we just followed them around :)
Joey and I both got there at opening, and we booked to Tinkerbell, who had NO LINE!!! Well, there were a few people in front of us, but normally the line is at least 45 minutes.

We met up with Heidi and Morgan and their kids a little later. I convinced Annie to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. Not smart. She wept the whole time. I could feel her tears dripping on my arm through the entire ride. Oh well. Jilly loved it! We also went on the Jungle Cruise, the Carousel, the Tea Cups and Small World. We spent some time in Toon Town and had a picnic lunch. Such a fun day with friends!

Meeting Goofy! Annie was shy, but Jilly loved his ears :)

Meeting Tink! Annie wasn't as impressed with Tinkerbell as she was with the princesses, but she enjoyed meeting her.

Me and my girlies! Such a fun day at Disney! I felt bad for that unfortunate little girl dressed as Minnie Mouse. She had gigantic gloves also! It seemed to warm up quickly and I thought about her getting hot!

Disney's California Adventure: May 28
We were supposed to meet some friends at California, but they were sick, so it was my first time at a theme park with both girls... on my own. It was great though. The girls were sogood!
Jilly on the carousel! She's concentrating, but she loved it!

Three girls on the ferris wheel! Fun, fun! We went on one of the non-swinging ones.

We spent most of our day in A Bug's Land. Annie and Jill both liked all of the rides over there.

June 1 (so I guess not really May): Disney with the folks!
Mom and Dad got passes too. It's been so nice to have their help!
Annie so wanted to meet Mary Poppins. Then Mary and Burt talked to her with their loud, jolly British voices and Annie got scared and shy.

Annie and Jill both LOVE Storybook Land! I couldn't remember ever going on it. I'm sure I did at some point...

We just spent a long morning at Disneyland. Then the girls and I headed home for naps and Mom and Dad headed to their home.

Around the House in May
May Pics
Jilly's hair is getting so long! She is so cute to me. Even when she brings out the stool from the bathroom to make her rummaging through the cupboards just a bit easier. She loves to make messes. She loves to unpack bags and purses. She loves to take DVDs, videos and books off of shelves. But she's too cute to get mad at!
What are you doing, Jilly?
Annie loves to paint, so we got her this cool easel from Ikea. She loves it, of course! She likes to draw, paint, color, write... whatever. She's in a very creative stage.

Annie's creations are always peppered with letters. She loves letters! I thought this chalk drawing was pretty impressive. The person that she drew looks so good! And her A is very nice. It just had to be documented at least once. This is the kind of picture she draws all the time. This was done on 5/3/09

Walking Friends!
We walk to the park several days a week with our friends Lindsay, Faith and Owen. This particular day we invited Christina and her girls to join us! It was a fun day at the park with lots of friends!
Faith, Annie and Mae on the bridge at Cherry Park.

Annie and Mae's shoes in the trailer. I pushed Annie and Mae in the bike trailer. Christina pushed Claire and Jilly in the double stroller, and Lindsay wore Owen and pushed Faith in her jogger. According to Linday, we looked like a day care.

April 2009

2009-04-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

We had lots going on in April! We went to Mammoth, went to some birthday parties, celebrated Easter, and had the Martinez girls out for a visit! So much fun!

Mammoth: 4/3-4/6
Mammoth Pics
We love springtime at the cabin! We mostly spend cozy days in the cabin, watching movies, reading and playing. We did go out for some snowy walks, and Daren took Annie sledding. It was so nice just to relax! We love being at the cabin!
Cutie Bean getting ready to go outside.
Cuddling on the couch in footie pajamas! Nothing cozier than that!

Out for a snowy walk up by the lakes. It was such a pretty day!

Annie has always been such a little word girl. She taught herself how to write her name at 3 years and four months. This is the first time she wrote it on 4/10/09. She's been practicing the letters in her name for a long time. She started with A, then moved to AI, then AIE. I asked her if she wanted me to teach her N's, and she said, "No, they're too hard. Maybe when I'm four." She figured out N's and then would write ANIE. She finally got it!

Easter: April 13
We went to the Good Friday service at ROCKharbor and then headed out to Newbury Park to spend the Easter weekend with the family. The weather was gorgeous, and it was great to have some of my Mom's family out for Easter.

On the Saturday before Easter, Christy planned a Larson family party/picnic at Borchard Park. We had an egg hunt for the kids, washerboard, softball, volleyball, and tons of food! It was so much fun! I hope the tradition continues!!
Larson Fam Easter Pics
All the kids getting ready for the egg hunt. I just love little Jilly with her bag! Aunt Christy did such a good job with the cute bags and food and planning.

The party after church at EVFree was a little small as Matt and Kristen and their fam were out in IL, and we were missing several other members of the fam. Grandma, Diane, Grandpa Don, Bobbie and Blake all made it out, and we had a great time!

Not a huge fan of this pic, but whatev.
The girls after the egg hunt! The girls didn't have any competition this year, so Annie cleaned up!

Ducklings!
Right after Easter we started thinking that we should see some ducklings from Mr. and Mrs. Mallard in Aliso Creek. We saw lots of ducks on our daily walks with Lindsay, Faith and Owen, and finally we spotted some ducklings! A couple weeks later at Lake RSM we found some goslings too! It all feels so "spring."

There are the duckings with Mrs. Mallard!

Annie and Faith after we went down by the creek to see the duckies.

Maddie and Fi come to visit: April 19
We loved having Maddie and Fi spend the night! Annie enjoyed her first sleepover very much! It was April, but the weather was unseasonably warm, so the girls filled up the kiddie pool and got all wet (even though Maddie and Fi didn't bring bathing suits!)

I drove all the girls back to Newbury Park after the sleepover. They were so exhausted that all four girls conked out for almost the entire drive.The girls just before getting completely drenched! So much fun!

Birthday Parties!
Bria, 4/9 and Faith, 4/24
Annie just loved going to her friends' birthday parties! So much fun!Bria had an Easter egg hunt as part of her party. Annie loved doing that! The kids are lined up to go find their eggs.

Faith's birthday party was at a park. After the presents, pinata and cake all the kids posed for some fun pics!

March 2009

2009-03-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

March feels like so long ago!

Now that Jilly is walking, Annie is enjoying her so much more! They both love to dress up and they love playing together. Annie is developing her little sense of humor and Jill gets cuter every day! Jill loves toys, and she’s rarely without a baby or a stuffed animal.

We took it easy in March and we didn’t do too much more than hang around the house! We did get to go to a hockey game with Daren’s work. We sat in a box, which was fancy, but I remember why I do not like hockey. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING!

Jilly and I sitting in our fancy box!

Starting to feel bored. We left pretty early from the game. The best part was hanging out with Daren's co-workers and enjoying some yummy nachos!

The fashionista. Yes, those are undies on her head.

Jilly is such a good eater! I love her! She makes it so easy to feed two girls. She has been able to feed herself for a long time. I'm so proud of my advanced eater :)

Annie and Baby Wes. He doesn't look too happy, but we needed a cousin pic! We love our cousins!

February 09

2009-02-21T15:56:00.000-08:00

If you click on the title, it will take you to more Feb pics!

New Nephew!
Wesley Joseph Larson was born February 17,2009
What a cutie!

Santa Barbara Zoo for Andrew's Birthday:Okay, I just used my blog to help in my scrapbooking, and I am shocked and appalled that I have done nothing since February!

I'm going to do a little catching up... I hope. Okay, so back in FEBRUARY we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo for Andrew's 6th birthday. I can't believe what a big boy he is! Grandma so kindly payed for us all to go, and Auntie Kristen brought lots of goodies like animal crackers, string cheese and juice boxes.

We got lots of cute cuzzie pics. Tyler is about 20 months old and Jilly is about 14 months. They loved being together, and they thoroughly enjoyed toddling around the zoo. Jill started walking in the beginning of her 14th month, and she's loving it!

Cute, cute, cute!!! I just love my Bean! I love the cousins and how much they love each other. Sweet!

Ballet recital at the Martinezes:

February 2009 seems like awhile ago already!

A couple big things happened in February: first, we got a new nephew! My brother Joe and sister-in-law Heather had baby Wesley Joseph Larson on February 19, 2009. We went to Newbury Park for the weekend after that, but we just got a liiiiiiittle peek at Wes. Daren, Annie and I went over to Joe and Heather's for bit, but they had some other visitors, so we didn't stay too long. It was nice to see him.

That same weekend (Feb 20-22), we FINALLY got to meet baby Charlie Martinez. We enjoyed an impromptu pizza party with the Martinezes and the Reimers. Annie and Jill had such a blast with their friends!

Girlie Update

2009-01-26T14:44:00.000-08:00

So, it's been awhile since I've blogged (I know I say this all the time now :). The girls are doing great, and I thought I'd give an update on them. Annie is three, and she is the funniest kid to us. She says such crazy things. She's very into being pretty. She loves to wear "lip stuff" (chap stick), and LOVES to play dress up. She likes to wear dresses and skirts, and that's what she chooses for her outfits when I ask. She's also very into getting big. She loves to say, "just look at how long my legs are getting!" and "I'm getting pretty big."
We love to hear Annie's songs that she makes up because they're just stream-of-consciousness ramblings set to music. She loves to add "Praise the Lord!" to lots of her songs, but most of the time they're just about whatever she's thinking of and whatever big new words she wants to try out. I really need to write down some of the lines that just crack us up, but here are a few:
"And she will say, it's an emer-gen-cy!"
"And Mommy's getting so biiii-iiig! And she's so beautiful!"

One of Annie's favorite things right now is playing hide and seek, especially with Daren. She's totally got the hang of it. She counts to 10, while Daren hides, and then when she finds him, they switch turns. She's a pretty good hider, except that she likes to reuse spots where Daren and I just hid.

She really likes TV and movies and would probably watch them all day if we let her. She gets to watch two shows a day, "Super Why" and "Word World" at 5 and 5:30. We usually miss half of Super Why, but she knows that she gets to watch shows while we wait for Daddy to get home, and as soon as Daddy gets home, the TV goes off. She only gets to watch movies on vacation, but in Hawaii she got to watch Cinderella every day during her rest time (that's what she chose every day).

Annie is turning into such a big girl. She likes to color, play with play-doh, play with little toys, read, etc. She loves to be read to, and can repeat the stories almost word for word. She's not a big fan of Daren and me doing "voices" in the stories. If we make any character sound weird, she says, "No! Just say it nermal!" Daren tries to read the peddler in Caps for Sale with a Russian accent, but Annie does not appreciate the effort.

Annie loves to give hugs and kisses and tell us that she loves us so much. I love that!

Here's Annie in an outfit she chose and put on all by herself. I was pretty impressed that she got the tights and shoes on. The tights are even smooth!
Jilly is such a sweet little kid! She gives great hugs, and she is so funny with her little dances and expressions. She's definitely become more difficult as she's gotten older. She was such an easy baby, and she's still a great sleeper and eater, but she is so wiggly and squirmy and particular about what she wants. I'm well aware of this after two five-hour flights. I wonder if my mother-in-law ever flew to Africa with a one-year-old? They are tough! Annie's easy now because she will entertain herself, but Jill was not happy being contained.

Jill loves to have what Annie has. She likes getting lip stuff when Annie does, she likes getting sips from Annie's juice box, and she wants to play with whatever Annie has. They like to play together, which is very sweet, but they also like to fight. Not so sweet.

Jill still has only four teeth and is still not walking. She will take up to eight steps, but she still prefers crawling. She can walk. She just... doesn't. She loves to climb, and she tries so hard to communicate. She says some words, like apple, poopy, mama, up, and a few others. There are lots of words that she says that just sound like buh or duh, but I know what they are :)

Annie stumbled across some of Mommy's lip stuff. I heard her coming down the stairs saying, "Mommy! I'm so pretty!"

Annie loves to dress up everyday in the Cinderella dress that Alissa gave her or the princess dress that Grandma made for her. She also wants Jill to play dress up, too. She will ask, "Jill, do you want to play dress up? Do you want to wear a skirt?" When Jill nods, Annie will say, "She does! She said yes she does!" So, we get Jilly's little pink skirt from the Johnsons or one of the little ribbon skirts that Annie got from some a family gift exchange and put it on. She loves to dance or pat her skirt, grin, and mumble with pride.

Jill is working the one shoe look!

Here she is taking some steps. I think she took about six, and then went down to crawl. Oh well.

We Finally Made It!

2008-12-15T15:53:00.001-08:00

Every year Sylvia has invited us to her wine and cheese party, and we've never been able to go. This year, we finally made it! The attire was Christmas pajamas, and we were to bring a bottle of wine (or fancy sparkling beverage), yummy cheese to go with it, and a white elephant gift. We brought Italian soda (we're not winos), and we brought a few different goat cheeses. We got our Christmas pjs at Walmart on clearance.
It was so fun to hang out with so many of our friends and not have any kiddos distracting us! These are the girls who attended, oh and Dewey and Kev.

Here are the boys. I had to go running after the Johnsons to make sure we got a picture of everyone. They tried to sneak out early.

Daren and me. We had such a fun time!

For more pics, click on the title of the blog post.

Annie's 3rd Birthday Party

2008-12-15T15:22:00.000-08:00

We tried to throw Annie her first birthday party with friends in Orange County, but not ONE of her Orange County friends could come. It was kind of depressing. We decided to cancel that party (instead of having a few people from Ventura County drive out to us) and have a party out in Newbury Park. It was so nice! Annie loved having some friends over to decorate cookies and celebrate with her.
Annie's special present was a princess dress that Grandma made for her. Annie loves it and calls it her prettiest dress. Mom said it wasn't too hard and she got a great deal on the Disney Princess pattern (a $15 pattern for $1.99!).

Annie's party was a cookie and cupcake decorating party. This is Annie's cupcake that she decorated and I snagged to put candles in.

All of the kids decorating cookies. Thanks so much for coming and celebrating Annie's birthday, Everyone!

The Christmas Ball

2008-12-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

We went to a Christmas party with Daren's company on Friday night. It was fun and fancy! We wanted Annie to be excited about going, so we called it a Christmas ball. She was very excited as she got to wear a pretty dress and she knew that Santa would be there! She doesn't really know who Santa is, but she was excited anyway. I'm disappointed that we didn't get any family pictures. We got there late to avoid the cocktail hour- last year it was over an hour of standing around, holding all my stuff and Jill. We got there late. and once the party was underway it was a little loud and overwhelming. We talked to Santa, got our gift cards, ate dinner, and Daren and Annie danced a little. Annie got super overwhelmed with the LOUD music, and sat in my lap and fell asleep (she NEVER does that).
Jill and me at dinner time!

Annie and Jill were champs with Santa! No crying at all!

Annie is nervous but SO excited to see Santa!

Nervous nose picking.

Friends and Fun in December

2008-12-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

The girls and I went to Irvine Regional Park last week. The intention was to go on the Christmas train that brings you to Santa and lots of fun activities. However, the Christmas train only runs after 5pm. Oh well! We walked over to the zoo (it's inside the park) and had a great time seeing the animals and then having our picnic.
One our way to the zoo we stopped at a cool looking tree to take some pics with our friends.

Mae and Annie checking out one of the peacocks that roam around the park.

Annie looking at the big bear in the zoo.

Mae led the way with the map. The zoo was fun and totally worth the $2! The beaver was awesome. It was huge, and we loved watching it build the dam. Very cool.

The girls enjoying our picnic. Christina brough yummy sugar cookies. Annie was totally appreciative.

The big girls are pretending to be reindeer.

Annie, Bria and Cassidy got all dressed up in Annie's dresses and had a lovely tea party with Annie's new tea set from Oma.

All dolled up! So fun!

Jill is reading Curious George by the Christmas tree. I got that little chair for Annie when she was Jill's age because she was obsessed with climbing into chairs. Jill loves the chair just as much!

Eight Things

2008-12-09T15:39:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Amy, one of my oldest friends. Here are my Eight Things:

8 TV shows I love to watch
We don't have cable anymore, but this is what I'd watch if we had it. Well, I can watch a lot of these shows with the antenna.
1. Survivor
2. Biggest Loser
3. The Office
4. 30 Rock
5. What Not to Wear
6. Project Runway
7. So You Think You Can Dance
8. The Unit (on DVD)

Favorite Restaurants
We don't go out too much, and when we do, we're often looking for kid-friendly places. That being said, here is our pathetic list :)
1. Chipotle
2. Lawry's
3. Bagels and Brew
4. Red Robin
5. In-N-Out
6. Giordano's (in IL, of course)
7. Corner Bakery
8. Sonny's Pizza

8 Things that Happened Today
1. Met Nicole and Hudson at the park
2. Had some coffee
3. Baked some gingerbread cookies
4. Checked Facebook
5. Updated the blog
6. Roombaed Jilly's room
7. Chatted with Steph
8. Tried to clean the stairs

8 Things I Look Forward To
1. Christmas
2. My mom coming out to visit
3. Hawaii in January
4. Naptime... everyday
5. Conversations with adults
6. The weekend
7. My next scrapbooking trip with Steph
8. Nurture starting back up

8 Things On My Wish List
1. A weekend away with Daren
2. Visiting Scott (bro-in-law) in Peru
3. A deck in our backyard
4. A thriving vegetable garden
5. Shopping spree (I'll copy Ami's)
6. A maid (and... this one too)
7. A cheap baby-sitter
8. New bathrooms and kitchen

8 People I Have Tagged, please feel no obligation.
1. Steph
2. Mary
3. Katie
4. Carrie
5. Adam
6. Kirsten
7. Emily
8. Rick

Thanksgiving in Iowa

2008-12-09T09:20:00.001-08:00

As we have with many Thanksgivings, we went to the farm to visit Daren's family this year. Daren took some extra days off, and we spent nearly a week in Iowa. It was so nice to spend time with the fam, introduce many of them to Jill, and relax!

However, I checked weather.com before leaving and the forecast was a week of 40 degree, sunny weather. We ended up having 30 degree, snowy weather. I was completely unprepared as the only shoes I brought were my running shoes with holes in the toes and ballet flats. Not great snow shoes.

Oh well, I plowed through a book, enjoyed watching other people read to and love my kids, and ate food that I did not prepare. How wonderful!

Annie got LOTS of stories read to her. Aunt Leanna brought a box of toys and old books, which were great since Oma and Georgie had a full car, and we had limited space in our suitcases. Annie loved Three Billy Goats Gruff and many other stories. After her little birthday party she enjoyed her new books, including Caps for Sale, and a couple Curious George and Clifford books. Very fun!

Georgie took Annie on the tractor. It was pretty cold, and the snow stopped the harvesting, so Annie got to go for a spin in the tractor and sit in the combine.

In the combine with Daddy. The snow/sleet is coming down!

My feet were absolutely freezing in my holey running shoes. But... the super cold weather made hot chocolate taste really good.

Three little cuties. Jill, Annie and Ali. Aunt Leanna bought the girls these cute little sweat suits. Ali is Daren's cousin Jeff's little sweetie. We loved getting to know her!

Saturday night at Grandma Jessie's house means pancakes and sausage! YUM!

Lots of reading!

Oma and Georgie getting the girls ready for bed. Jill's having a bottle because she was having some trouble sleeping, and we hoped this would calm her down and keep her full. I think it helped a little.

Annie's birthday party! We were so excited that cousins Andrew, Jer and Tyler could come out and celebrate Annie's birthday on the farm! The endured some snowy, slushy weather to join us, and we appreciated them coming so much! They also got their Christmas presents a little early, so that was fun :)

I love that Jer is kind of trying to blow out the candles without really looking like he is. Kristen told them not to blow out Annie's candles. I'm sure it took a lot of restraint as Annie tediously blew out each individual candle.

After a big Thanksgiving-style lunch, we went out to play in the snow. It was a little slushy... perfect snowball weather! Tyler cracked me up waddling around in this little get-up. I guess it's better than my own baby brother slipping and sliding around in the snow with baggies over his shoes.

Annie and Jer trying out the sled. Jer was not too happy about having Annie on his lap.

Daren gave Andrew a push down the hill, but he still didn't have too much success. The sledding was better the next day when it was a bit colder and dryer.

Daren and Annie went to visit Uncle Francis to see the baby pigs. The're so cute when they're just little babies!

Annie really liked holding the babies. She wanted to know all of the pigs' names. Francis told her that she could name them.

Jill and Joanna. Jill practically fell asleep in Joanna's arms upon first meeting her. This particular evening she favored Uncle Lloyd, who fed her Aunt Sue's yummy noodles.

Uncle Francis embellishing the Berenstain Bears story for Jill.

The third attempt at a family photo around the stove. Georgie! What are you doing eating while we're trying to take a family photo? He looks surprised, like we tricked him into getting his picture taken!

My cute little Bean! She loved meeting the Iowans and spending lots of time with Oma and Georgie.

Disneyland!

2008-12-09T08:10:00.001-08:00

We wanted to go to Disneyland before Annie turned three so that she would be free but old enough to enjoy it. It was a great time to go! Annie LOVED it, and Jill was riveted by all of the rides. Many of the rides didn't have any height requirement, so we could bring Jill on lots of rides. That was so nice. I was anticipating someone waiting with her on every ride.

This was both girls' first trip to Disneyland. We went the day before the official opening of all of the Christmas stuff. The nice thing was that all of the Christmas stuff (including It's a Small World) was open! It was so fun! My parents joined us, and the six of us had an amazing time.

The Bloms in front of the gigantic Christmas tree. Yes, that is my new rock star husband next to me with his Stray Bans from Ensenada and his ripped jeans.

Dad, Mom and Annie on Main Street, ready to head into the park for a great day!

Before heading into the park, we went to Denny's for breakfast (to carbo-load). Annie and Jill wolfed down pancakes and eggs. We left my parents car there, so we wouldn't have to pay to park two cars.

The first ride we went on was the carousel. There was no line, and mom and I stayed off to make a game plan.

Next was Dumbo- Daren had Jill and I had Annie. They loved it! Then Mom and I took the girls on Alice in Wonderland, while Dad and Daren went on the Matterhorn.

Daren and Jilly waiting for Nemo (which Jill LOVED), and Daren and me in Autopia.

Dad and Mom took Annie for a spin in the tea cups. Annie said, "this is so fun!"

Annie and Dad walking through the maze to get to their car in Autopia. Annie said she wanted a blue car, and she got it.

Probably the highlight of Annie's day. We waited the longest (like 45 minutes) to meet the princesses. I kept asking Annie if she wanted to go on a ride instead. She said, "no I want to meet the princesses." She doesn't even know who most of them are, but she wanted to meet them. To give you an idea, Daren and Dad went on Big Thunder Mountain AND Space Mountain and still came back before we had our turn. I thought she'd get all shy when she finally got her turn. She surprised me. She opened right up to Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). She told her that she had a sister named Jill, she had a white princess dress, and that it was almost her birthday. She posed with Pocahontas but didn't care to talk to her, and then LOVED chatting it up with Belle. She had no idea who Belle was, but she rehashed her conversation with Sleeping Beauty. Belle asked about Annie's princess dress and told her that they should go to a ball together. Annie got very excited about that. She talked about it for several days after.

Mom and Dad with Jill on It's a Small World. We all LOVED the Christmas version. Jill was completely mesmerized.

The Bloms on Small World. We all loved it. It was way better than I remember it (but I think the Jingle Bells stuff adds a lot).

One of the last rides we went on was Winnie the Pooh. We all enjoyed it and had such a fun day. Besides the Princess line, the only line we waited in was for Peter Pan. It was a great day!

Jilly Turns 1!

2008-11-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

What a bad mommy I am that Jill's birthday post is almost a month late! Poor Jill had her birthday fall between a cruise for Grandma's birthday and Halloween. She did, however, get a hopping party (thanks in large part to cousin Jeremy, who also has an October birthday).

Jilly is such a joy to us! She is my smiler and my hugger, and I just love her. She still only has two teeth. At her birthday, she was crawling everywhere and pulling up on whatever she could.

Jill loved her cupcake, and ate the entire thing!

Jill and Annie stayed with Aunt Christy while Daren and I went on a cruise the weekend before Jill's birthday.

On Jill's birthday, we went to the park with some friends who moved away! Cheri, Kai, and Nash, we miss you so much!

Jilly loves to swing! She's just like her big sister!

Fall in Southern California

2008-11-25T08:40:00.001-08:00

Fall this year in California has been warm and dry. Annie and Jill and I have been enjoying going for walks around a local lake with our neighbors. One time when we went, the kids found a bunch of fallen leaves and had so much fun crunching in them, kicking them, and throwing them in the air.
Annie and Tyson throwing the leaves in the air. I love how happy Annie looks. Annie's Oma sent her some light-up Halloween socks that she's wearing . These pics were taken a few days before Halloween.

Kicking the leaves. I love the simultaneous kicks!

The kids and me. Annie and Tyson either walked, ran or rode their tricycles the whole way around the lake. It's a mile! They had so much fun!

Ready... set... GO! That's one of Annie and Tyson's favorite games. They ran a lot of the way around the lake.

Jill, Annie, Tyson and Sebastian on one of the circuits around the lake. They love playing on this one.

Annie and Tyson on their trikes. So fun!

If you want to see more pics, click on the title of this blog post. It's a link to a photo album!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-25T08:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know I have been SO flaky about blogging lately. The last few times I tried to update the blog, I was hindered by Blogger issues or slow uploading, so I just gave up. Not today! Today is the day that I break my blogging sabbatical.

On that note... about a month ago, the girls and I joined a few Nurture friends at Irvine Regional Park for their pumpkin patch. It was supposed to be a whole Nurture event, but we didn't see anyone else. I was thankful to run into a few friends, and the girls and I enjoyed a warm, but not hot, day at a beautiful park. Irvine Park is HUGE and old. If I remember correctly it's over 100 years old. There are hundreds of big, beautiful trees, a train that goes through the park with a conductor that gives the history as you go, and pony rides to enjoy.

Annie and Jill were happy to hang out with their friends Mae, Claire and Faith (who joined us a little later). The pumpkin patch was so fun as it had a bounce house that the girls loved and lots of photo ops :)

We all went on the train around the park and enjoyed a beautiful day. If you want to see all my pics, just click on the title of this blog post. It will take you to my album.

Annie and Jill posing by the pumpkins. I love this pic. Annie looks so sweet, and Jill is making a total Jill face. She's yelling! That's one of her favorite things to do.

Claire, Mae, Jill and Annie all looking so cute. I love how the colors in Mae's dress tie all of the girls together. So sweet! Annie and Jill just love their friends!

Christina and Claire are keeping the three big girls in line. Faith, Annie and Mae are enjoying the train ride.

Glacier National Park Part II -- The Outdoor Type

2008-10-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

A hike at GNP, set to music so you don't have to hear all the huffin' and puffin'.

Glacier National Park Part I

2008-10-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

The first act of our journey to northern Montana. More to come.

Annie and Yankari

2008-09-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

Annie loves hearing Daddy's stories about when he was a little boy on the farm and in Africa. In this video she is retelling a story that he's told her about an encounter with baboons at Yankari Game Reserve.

I've Been Tagged!

2008-09-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Tagged!
How To Play This Game of Tag: List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, and 3 facts about yourself. Tag people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

3 Joys:
1. The feeling that I get AFTER a really good workout.
2. Saturday nights. I love our tradition of getting coffee at Starbucks, going to church, getting Chipotle, and hanging out with a movie or Law and Order reruns.
3. A good naptime. For the girls, not me. I'm not a napper.

3 Fears
1. I will become stagnant in my relationship with Jesus.
2. Dcotors/ Medical Procedures (I'm echoing Stephanie's BIG TIME. I don't understand people who WILLINGLY go under the knife to look better. So not worth it to me!).
3. Something bad happening to my husband or children (Echoing Steph's again- we're so in sync).

3 Goals
1. Lose 15 more pounds by our trip to Hawaii in January (I've lost 5 of my original goal of 20).
2. Be consistent with discipline, even when it doesn't feel like it's working.
3. Have consistent time with God in the mornings.

3 Obsessions/Collections:
1. Facebook and Scramble
2. Magazines (especially health and fitness ones)
3. I have an extensive collection of scrapbooking paper and supplies that need to be used :)

3 Facts:
1. I waste a lot of time.
2. My girls challenge my sanity on a daily basis.
3. I have a pile of books waiting to be read as a slowly plod through Ahab's Wife.

I tag Ami, Mary, and Carrie.

Daddy's Birthday!

2008-09-19T07:46:00.001-07:00

For Daren's birthday, we had a long, relaxing weekend of celebration. Annie and I made chocolate chip cookies. Annie loves to help, and she stays and helps for the whole time. We also made him some whole wheat blueberry pancakes. Yum! We had a fun weekend just hanging out as a family and doing our normal things: going to church, cleaning up the house a bit, reading the newspaper, etc.

The Aquarium with the Johnsons

2008-09-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

So, Kim and I had not gotten to hang out for a long time, so we finally decided to get together on a weekday, when both of our husbands were busy working. We met in Long Beach, which is about halfway between us (okay, it's a little closer to me :), and took all of our kiddos to the Aquarium of the Pacific and then to Chili's for lunch.
The kids were instantly comfortable with each other, and we all had a great time!
Even Ella loved all the fishies!
Annie and the boys stuck their hands in the water but didn't do much petting of sharks and rays.
*If you want to see all of the pics from the aquarium, click on the title of this post!

Jill is Crawling!

2008-08-27T16:13:00.001-07:00

Jill has been feeling like such a big girl lately! She will turn 10 months this weekend. She's officially a crawler, she's really good at feeding herself and she's also using a sippy cup. She kept finding Annie's lying around, and since she wants whatever Annie has, she's been using them! We're not using any bottles around here. Either Jill is nursing, feeding herself chopped up foods or drinking water out of a sippy cup. It's nice to have such an independent eater! She does make quite a mess though, so I have to put on a bib when she's drinking out of a sippy cup.

Some crawling pics of Jill! Such a big girl. The way she babbles even sounds older. We are enjoying seeing what kind of personality is emerging.

August Weddings

2008-08-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend Daren, the girls and I joined my mom and an old friend's wedding. Josh was a good friend of Matt's growing up, and his parents have been good friends with my parents for a long time (Larry and Lorraine were in my parents' wedding and they helped with the church plant 29 years ago). Anyway, Daren and I were excited because the wedding was only 10 minutes away from us in Coto de Caza.

It was a really nice wedding, and we enjoyed getting caught up with some other old friends. It was pretty hot though. Annie and I are glistening in the picture below.

Daren, the bearded man, and my mom at Josh and kelli's wedding.

Sally and Greg's wedding:
On August 3, we enjoyed a gorgoeus wedding with lots of family and friends. It was so fun! Annie got to be in the cousins parade. She had so much fun that the next day she asked, "you wanna go to Sally's wedding wif me again?"

Daren and Jill, looking very cute.
D and I also looking cute :)
Annie's favorite part of the wedding was dancing with Dude and her daddy. So fun.

And yes, we all wore the same clothes to both weddings :)

Megan and me and our twin girls. Annie is about 5 hours older than Cora!
Cuties!
Sally and Greg, the flower girls, ring bearer, and cousins that were in the parade. This is the only picture I got where Kenny's flag wasn't in front of Sally or Greg's face!

Fun with the family

2008-08-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad came out one day. They took us out to dinner for our anniversary at Cheesecake Factory, and they took the girls on the carousel and the ferris wheel. It was nice to spend time with them. Annie just loved spending time with her Grandma and Dude.
Jill is on the carousel for the first time. Annie loves riding on the horses.

Annie with Grandma and Dude on ther ferris wheel.

Jill loves the ferris wheel!

Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

We love spending time at the lake!

Jill and Daren enjoying the lake.