June 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!