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.

Sisters

2008-08-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd post a couple of cute pics of the girls. These are some sweet moments amidst the many squabbles they normally have. Jill loves to grab and is constantly grabbing at what Annie has. Annie likes to tease and does not always like to share, so she holds toys close to Jill and then gets mad when Jill grabs them. Annie is learning to trade Jill when Jill takes her toys, but we'll see how long that works!

Uncle Scott Came to Visit!

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

We just love having Uncle Scott visit! He moved from Brazil to Peru (which he apparently LOVES :), and during the move he spent about a month in the US. He joined the fam in Glacier for our family reunion, and then he drove back to Cali with us. He was only with us for a few days, but we had a blast going to Knott's Berry Farm, taking in an Angels/Red Sox game, and enjoying breakfast and some beach time in Laguna Beach. We did some other fun things like seeing a movie, going to church (yes, that's fun), and going out to dinner.

These pics are in reverse order. Whoops, I wasn't really paying attention, and I'm too lazy to re-organize them all now! These two are Annie and Scott on the last ride of the night.

Annie on the creepy pig, and Uncle Scott and Annie on the Mexican hats... or chili bowls wearing Mexican hats? Not too sure.

The worst ride in the world! Check out my face in the second picture. The kid behind me was honking his horn the ENTIRE ride. Doesn't that get old, Buddy?

Annie in the self-propelled carts. I didn't know she'd be able to figure it out. She's smarter than I give her credit for!
The stagecoach! Annie wanted to go on this from the get-go. As soon as she saw the horses running by, she said, "I want to go on that!" Finding the stagecoaches was a little tough, but we enjoyed our ride.
Annie and Uncle Scott. We really enjoyed going to Knott's with Uncle Scott. It was very toddler-friendly. Since Annie was 36" she could go on every ride in Camp Snoopy. We were there for four hours, and we didn't get to go on every ride that we wanted. If you go to Knott's after 4pm, adults get in for 1/2 price. Annie and Jill were free. It was totally worth $20!

Annie's first ride. I didn't realize that she had to go alone! I was so worried that she would freak out. I asked a big girl if Annie could sit in her plane. The big girl introduced herself and said that she would hold Annie's hand if Annie got scared. Annie did great.

This ride was the second, and I thought it might be a little scary, but what do I know. Annie said, "it wasn't scared!"

Uncle Scott said that Annie was going to be a roller coaster girl. Annie still talks about that. She says, "when I'm a roller coaster girl, I can go on the BIG roller coasters!"

Hoffsommer Reunion in Glacier

2008-08-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

Daren's mom's side of the family, the Hoffsommers, had a big ole family reunion in Glacier National Park. I still can't get over the fact that all 40 of us made it, including Anisa from Africa and Scott from Brazil. We decide to tackle the task of driving the 21 hours each way with our two little girls. God gave us an amazingly smooth trip!
Day 1:

We left our house at 11pm. I drove the first leg to Las Vegas. I loved not hitting any traffic, and I got wrapped up in my book on CD. Daren was supposed to be sleeping, but he had a tough time of it. The girls, however, slept great. Daren had planned a couple playground stops, but we ended up only using one in Utah. Annie loved playing in the park, and we used the bathroom at a public library and bought her a $.50 book at the used book sale there. We drove all the way to Idaho Falls, ID in that first day. We stayed at a Best Western and enjoyed an afternoon dip in the pool and dinner out at a restaurant.

Day 2:

I know that pic of Daren and Annie is not from Day 2, but oh well. We enjoyed our free breakfast at the hotel, and hopped in the car around 9am. Our next day of driving went almost as smoothly as the first. We didn't stop much, but we did have to slow down for a herd of sheep in the road, and we also stopped about an hour from Glacier for a yummy lunch.

Daren and Annie petting a horse during one of Annie's potty stops, and Annie, Daren and Jill waiting for our lunch.

We were so thankful to be at the KOA in Glacier. We found Oma, Georgie, Scott and Anisa right away. Anisa came to the pool with Annie, Daren and me, while Oma and Georgie stayed with Jill.

Each evening one of the 3 elders :) (Carl, Darlene-Oma, and John) led the festivies. The first night was run by Carl, and we enjoyed some pig races, chicken wraps, and looking at old photos.

Day 2:

On Day 2, we went for a hike. It was a gorgeous hike. I think it was two miles each way. I carried Jill up, and Scott carried her down. Daren carried Annie up, and Georgie carried her down.

You can kind of see the several waterfalls streaming down to the lake. It was pretty amazing up there!

Oma led the festivities that evening which included a game about Hoffsommer history. I didn't get to participate too much as Annie wasn't feeling well.

Day 3:

On this day, we took some convertible red buses up the road to the sun. Our family required three buses! It was a great tour.

I loved the wildflowers up at the information center.

That night, John and Audrey sent us running all over the campground on an Amazing Race style scavenger hunt. I didn't bring any strollers or carriers, so the girls and I walked back to the campground to wait for the contestants.

Days 4 and 5:

We drove home early on Monday morning. Daren's fam accompanied us to Provo, Utah, where we all stayed in another Best Western. We enjoyed spending a little more time with Oma and Georgie and Anisa. Scott came back to CA with us, so we got lots of time with him! We enjoyed swimming and going out to dinner in Provo. Provo always reminds me of Fletch. Fun movie!

Anyway, we had a great trip, and we're so thankful that the fam all made the effort to come out for the reunion!

2008 Reunion! Door County, WI

2008-07-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Our 2008 college reunion was in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin. Every year, we pick a location, find a place to stay, and go on vacation in the summer with some of our friends from Trinity. This year we missed the Politsches and Grabianowskis, but we were happy to have Chad show up at the last minute! I think we were all pretty surprised at how amazing Door County was for a reunion location. The house that we rented was right on the water (I think technically it was on Sturgeon Bay). The house came with a kayak and a canoe, and even if you were just looking from the window, you could see sturgeon flopping around in the water. Weather.com predicted five straight days of thundersorms, but we only experienced them the days we drove from O'Hare to Door County and from Door County to O'Hare.
Our reunion friends in front of our house. There's the Woods (Kirsten, Brian and Isaac), the Finnellys (Ryan, Emily and Henry), the McClures (Andi, Kevin and Caiden) ad Tim, Chad and Adam.

Saturday: after a great flight to O'Hare from OC, we rented a car and drove a looong way through some pretty intense rain to get to our friends in Sturgeon Bay. The trip was AMAZINGLY smooth until about an hour before we got there. Jill decided that she'd had enough traveling, and cried off and on for the last hour. This was especially annoying when we were trying to get directions and Jill was screaming.

Sunday:

Those of us with kiddos were up bright and early on Sunday morning. We planned to have brunch at Al Johnson's (Swedish pancakes- yum!) at 10am. We let the kiddos play around while we waited for the single guys to get up. Our house had a little beach, and Annie loved playing in the sand and throwing rocks in the water.

Our camera was out of batteries at Al Johnson's. The brunch was great! We followed it with a trolley ride tour. Annie fell asleep during the tour, so even though we headed back to the lake house for the afternoon, Annie didn't take a nap. We spent the afternoon around the house, relaxing on the beach, chatting, and hitting rocks in the water :)

After a yummy dinner, made by Emily, we went and got ice cream.

We came home to an incredible sunset. We put the kiddos to bed and enjoyed some time around the fire and Loaded Questions.

Monday:

Monday was supposed to be our most packed day, but after missed naps yesterday, I requested a little rescheduling. I'm sad that I missed out on the lighthouses, but it was worth it for the girls to get good naps! We were going to go to the lighthouses and then the dunes and beach, but we switched the order so that the kids could enjoy the beach before nap. We parked at the county park to avoid state park fees and hiked a beautiful trail to the beach. Monday was probably the warmest day, and the temp at the beach could not have been better. The water was FREEZING, but Annie didn't seem to mind!

Jill in her little shade spot and Brian and Isaac in the water.

The Finns.

Adam, Henry, Emily and Annie enjoy the sunshine and ice cold water.

Brian and Adam look a little like a couple in their matching bathing suits :)

After the beach the McClures, the Woods, Chad and the Bloms headed back to the house to put kids down for naps and relax a bit. While Isaac was sleeping, the Woods took the canoe out for a spin and Chad took the Kayak out, spent some time napping in the hammock and got several job offers :)

The Finns, Adam and Tim went to see some lighthouses. We met up with them for $1.50 tacos at C & C Supper Club in Fish Creek.

We were planning to go see Kung-Fu Panda and The Hulk at a drive-in, but decided to head back to the house after some frozen custard done Cold Stone style with fixings mixed in! Yum!

Tuesday:

Emily had suggested a petting zoo for the kids on Tuesday. We left the single guys and Kevin at the house and took the kiddos to the most amazing petting zoo ever. It was more like an interactive farm then a petting zoo. Henry, Isaac and Annie each got a bottle and a bag of corn to feed the animals, and we wandered around this gorgeous farm, feeding and petting animals. There were lots of baby animals there, which made it so fun!

Many of the animals just wandered around the farm. What was amazing was that I didn't notice any poop! How does that happen? We loved the big shaggy cow and this little goat who followed us all over.

Annie and Isaac found their hair twins!

Annie and the little kid that followed us all over the farm. Before the farm, Daren and I took Annie out in the canoe. We don't have any pics, but it was pretty amazing to see the fish jumping all around us!

Tuesday night, we went to Ellison Bay for a fish boil (apparently the thing to do in Door County). It's a pretty interesting experience. The dinner was pretty good. We had local whitefish and cherry pie (Door County is known for its cherries).

Wednesday:

We left on Wednesday and were so sad. We realized after making our plans that Daren would only be going in for one day of work since Friday was the 4th of July. We were so sad to leave our reunion friends early!

Wednesday morning we just hung around the house, took lots of pics and packed up. We left around noon.

Some pics of the house.

We took some group pictures at the house before heading out. It had started to rain while we were taking pics, and we hit some pretty intense rain on our way to the airport. In Illinois the rain was so bad that there were people waiting it out under overpasses. We had left ourselves a big margin, and ended up barely getting to the airport on time. The girls were good in car. They took good naps. The plane was a different story. They were both SO antsy. Annie had to go potty and poopy several times, and the bad weather meant that the seatbelt sign was on a lot, so we were breaking the rules! Jill didn't sleep a wink, even though our plane left at 6pm, and Jill was on IL time. She was fussy and needed constant entertaining. Not fun. Thankfully, she wasn't too loud. The lady behind us even said that the girls were "so good."

Thank you, thank you, thank you, reunion friends! I think this was my fave reunion yet! Also, a special shout out to Adam Rosenbaum for doing the 5am airport drop-off!

Happy Birthday Matt!

2008-06-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

For Matt's 29th birthday, we (basically my mom and I) threw Matt a going-away, fundraising, birthday, poker party. Matt loves card games (especially poker), so we had a few charity tournaments, including poker, blackjack and washboard (not cards :). Anyway, we asked Matt's friends to donate $20 to his ministry instead of buying a gift. We also had some donated prizes.

We had SUCH a great time! There was a great turn-out, and Kevin did an awesome job of running the night (although the method for choosing teams for washerboard at midnight took some teamwork). I wish I had thought to take a picture of all of those shoes!

Matt ended up winning the whole poker tourney, but he gave the prize to Erica. She fought hard, but lost in a pretty dramatic, all-in last hand. Erica had it won until the river!

Dewey and Kristen duking it out in the blackjack tourney. Dewey won the blackjack tourney. Kristen can obviously hardly believe it. Then Sally and I are just eye candy. Neither of us won anything.

So much fun! Kevin says we should do these more often. It was really fun, and I'm so thankful that everything turned out well and everyone had a good time.

Some Pics of the Girls

2008-06-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

I figured that I should post some pics before we start our vacation marathon. The girls and I are going to San Diego on Thursday, and then the whole fam flies out to WI for our Trinity reunion.
We're so excited to see some of our Trinity friends! After that trip we're home for a week or so before we drive to Glacier National Park for a family reunion with Daren's Mom's fam. Don't even talk to me about driving all that way with two babes. I already tried to talk Daren out of it, but he's convinced it will be fun, so I am too... kind of.

Annie picking strawberries. This is an Annie's choice day. She's wearing a skirt (she's really into to skirts and dresses right now), her new jelly shoes (new to her... I bought them last year on clearance :), and her hair is in "monkey ears." She's set!

For a little over a week now, Jill has been able to feed herself. HALLELUJAH! She's got her little pincer grasp going, and she can feed herself Cheerios and bits of banana. She's getting so big! I love that I can keep her occupied with a tray full of Cheerios. Especially because she often gets hungy and cranky while I'm trying to get dinner for everyone.

I love these pics! I could hear Annie singing, and I snuck into the family room, and this is what I saw. Annie is doing pat-a-cake with Jill. So cute! Annie didn't notice me, even when Jill looked right at me with that huge smile. I also love that Annie's in her little undies :) This is in the morning after a warm night and the girls are still in their pjs.

Daddy Rules!

2008-06-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

I'm so thankful for Daren. He's such a great Dad. Annie and Jill just adore him, and I love that.

The Girls

2008-06-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

So, Annie is offiicially 2 1/2 (30 months) and so much fun! She's officially potty trained, which is really nice. She even sleeps in her undies. The only problem I see with this potty training thing is that I feel we sacrifice some sleep. Annie has been waking up at 6:15 since she started sleeping in undies. Since her cousins came, Annie has been very independent about the potty. She will often just go without saying anything, and come back with twisted shorts and no undies or just naked from the waist down. We don't have a stool, so she has this Gollum-like manuever that she employs to get herself into position. Sometimes she wants a little help, but then she says, "Leave me lone please."

Her new hairstyle of choice is pictured above. We call them "monkey ears," and she asks me to put her hair in monkey ears every day. She also likes to have more say in what she wears. She wanted to wear her sundress yesterday, so she could "dance with grandma." Grandma was not around, but whatever.

Annie is really into letters lately. She can spell her name, and she loves to point out the letter A wherever she sees it. She can identify several of the letters, and she points them out on signs as we're driving. She knows her birthday, and the first, middle, and last names of some of her family members. She knows Jeremy is a Larson,but she thinks Andrew is a Blomquist. She loves to talk on the phone and is getting much better about conversation. She tells Oma that we are going camping with her (which we are). The only difficulty is thatAnnie is often hard to understand because when she gets excited, she jumps up and down. That sometimes impairs her clarity. She LOVES to sing, and I will often hear her singing a song to herself. If you say a word that is in a song that she knows, she may sing it. I told her to apologize to Jill, and she sang, "it's too late to apologize," which is on a commercial and Daddy often sings it. Annie still loves reading, and her fave book is still a Curious George anthology. She knows several of the stories by heart, and I love listening to her "read" them to herself.

She is a pretty good big sister to Jill. She likes to call Jill Sweetie Pie, Pumpkin, Jilly Bean and Bean.

I worked in Annie's class last night at church, and that was so fun (and enlightening). For the first 20 minutes or so, Annie didn't notice I was there. She ran over to the guy who usually works in there, and started playing with blocks. She was very affectionate with the two normal teachers, and she was the best at following directions. I disagree that day care and preschool are the only/best ways to teach kids to follow directions! Annie didn't really seem to care that I was there. She had the toys that she liked, and she knew the routine, and the only time she treated me like anything other than a helper was when she fell and needed a hug.

Jill:

I feel like I wrote an update on Jill pretty recently, and there's not much new going on! She still sits up really well. Still no teeth, no crawling, and no talking :) Although, she babbles a lot. It sounds like she's saying "Bob Loblaw."

Poor little Jill is sick again! It seems like her immune system has been down for a month and she gets sick often. She's had three illnesses so far: stomach flu, cough, cough. Boo. Both of the coughs were accompanied by fevers, which I don't think Annie had until she was one! This second round of the cough made her a little fussy yesterday, but she slept well last night and seemed much happier today.

Jill is enjoying her solid foods, although she seems to have a slight allergy to pears. Her face gets blotchy,but we haven't noticed anything else.

She just loves Daren. She gives him big smiles and seems to really like being rocked by him. She does not like being rocked by me! Daren and Jill hung out last night while Annie and I went to church, so Jill wouldn't get all the other kiddos sick.

Jill's hair is long enough to put in a little Pebbles Flintstone do on the top of her head. Her hair is like that in one of the above pictures, but it's a little hard to tell.

We are so thankful for our girls!

We Love Our Cuzzies!

2008-06-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

This week my mom brought my three nephews to come stay a couple days with us. I just have to say, five kids is a lot! Annie just loved having her cousins visit!

Mom and the boys arrived at about 7:30am on a June-gloomy Wednesday. After I made a coffee run, and the kids destroyed the family room, we decided to walk to the park. By 10am, it was officially HOT. We had a really nice walk, but we all thought that a picnic at the lake would be a nice way to cool off before naps. Both babies slept in the cars (Tyler is one and Jill 7 months) while mom and I got the kids in their suits, sandwiches made, and beach toys and accoutrements together. We headed over to the lake for the most wonderful couple hours. Mom and I could just watch the babies as the older three would just play and play. For whatever reason, there wasn't much fighting at the lake, and the older three were pretty self-sufficient. Of course, I forgot the camera.

We came home, attempted to get five kids to take naps, and a went for another coffee run. I had to go up a couple times, and I kept hearing Annie say, "We got Ratatootie from Blockbuster. We can watch it tonight. You wanna watch Ratatootie?" My mom stayed with three sleeping kiddos (Jeremy, Jill and Tyler), one semi-sleeper (Annie) and one non-sleeper (Andrew), while I went to get a haircut.

We had frozen pizza and salad for the kiddos for dinner before watching Ratatootie. While they watched I made them popcorn, and gave them gummi bears (bribery for eating salad). We put the five kids to bed by 8pm, but were up trying to get Annie and Jer to stop chattering and getting up for at least another hour. When I went up, Jer was out of bed, and he said, "Auntie, just look at how dark it is in here!"

Dining alfresco. The kiddos did a good job eating their pizza and salad.

The kiddos watching Ratatootie. Of course watching the movie is the only thing I got pics of.
After a late night and a EARLY morning, we had cereal for breakfast, and the kids donned their helmets and spent a couple hours in the front yard riding scooters and drawing with chalk. At about 10:30, we headed over to the lake again to meet up with some friends and lots of kids! We had another successful day at the lake. After the lake, we said goodbye and recovered for the rest of the afternoon!

Some Good, Old-Fashioned Family Fun

2008-06-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

We've spent the last few weekends at home, which is so nice for us. A few weekends ago, we bought a little bike trailer to tow the kiddos in. Last weekend, we decided to take them for a short ride to have a picnic in the park. After a about a mile of riding, Jill (who is probably too young for the trailor) was asleep and slumped over in an uncomfortable-looking position. Daren decided to try and fix her, but she was NOT happy about that. She screamed the whole way to the park. I kept feeling like the bad mom who strapped her too-young baby into a bike trailer. Anyway, we made it too the park, and Jill calmed down and enjoyed her lunch. Annie was thrilled to have a picnic and wanted to play and play and play in the park.

When we got ready to leave, Jill threw another fit upon being placed in the trailer. I made Daren ride home to get the van because I didn't want to be towing a screaming Jill all the way home. Annie was happy to have more time to play. Daren came back and took Jill home, while I rode my bike and pulled Annie in the trailer. She loved it. She had her feet up, and I could hear her mumbling to herself. When we got home, she told Daren, "I'm pretty tired from my ride." I would say that I should be the tired one!

Right before Jill lost it. She didn't like having the top put over the trailer. Don't ask my why Annie is trying to pour water on her knee.
At the park and ready to head home.
Annie and I are baking chocolate chip cookies. She helped through the whole process. She poured in every ingredient, and she even helped crack the eggs. She's a little bit of a strange girl, though. She kept getting scolded for tasting the flour/baking soda/salt mixture. Yuck!

Memorial Day

2008-05-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sorry that I haven't updated for awhile, but I've been potty training this week! I feel so busy, even though I'm just staying at home!

We had such a great Memorial Day weekend! I went out on Thursday to see my mom's lecture. She's doing a Lecture Series at the Thousand Oaks Library called Answers for Women. I went to the second lecture on Fear, Anxiety and Worry. I don't really think I struggle with those things too much, but I still learned a lot, and I was so proud of her! Dad baby-sat both girls by himself! I'm so proud of him too. Both girls were asleep and content when I got home, and Dad looked calm. Pretty impressive! He did note that Annie was a professional staller. She used her best lines on him: "Wanna play a couple minutes? Wanna read a story with you, Dude! Wanna watch How Do You Know?" That last one is the musical number from Enchanted. Dude showed it to Annie, and she LOVES it.

Friday night Daren joined us, and Dad, Daren and I went to see Indiana Jones. It was fun to be out seeing a movie, but we were all ho-hum about this much-anticipated sequel. Saturday was our super-fun day. We are so thankful to Mom and Dad for giving us a break and letting us enjoy some time with each other and with our friends (who are also our cousins :). We spent pretty much all of Saturday with our cousins, Katie and Ryan and Kevin and Keely. We played tennis (we did a little doubles tourney, with some singles while we waited for our turn). We came back to my folks' house and played games: 10 Days in Europe and Seafarers. Then we had dinner (Chipotle- as per usual :). When Mom and Dad came home from church, we played a huge game of Liverpool. We topped off the day with a soak in the spa. So fun! In the words of Ryan Shook (or maybe Katie quoting Ryan), it was, "the best day ever!"

Sunday was the Memorial Day Picnic! We went to church first, and then headed over to the park. We saw SO many wonderful people, and had such a nice time.
Stephanie, Casey, Matt and I took the kids over to the play area. They had a blast. I always love watching Annie interact with her cousins.

Annie and Jeremy are having too much fun. Annie thinks Jer is hilarious!

Casey is playing wit all the kids on the giany see-saw. That's Annie in the middle.

Auntie Katie is playing with Jill. This is how Jill interacts at this point in her life. She grabs your face and tries to rip it off! And she looks so cute and happy while doing it.

Auntie Katie and Annie are watching the boys dominate in the volleyball tournament.

Team domination: Ryan H, Ryan S, Michael T, Daren, Tom S, and Rob P.

After a super-fun Memorial Day picnic and some relaxing at home with the folks (including a dip in the spa), they offered to baby-sit once again, so we could go see a movie. Hooray! We went and saw Prince Caspian, which was great! We really enjoyed it.

Such a fun weekend!

Are You Ready for the Summer?

2008-05-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

The heat is on out here in the OC! We've had a few days of 90-degree weather, and we've been enjoying it. We filled up our much-bigger-than-we were-expecting baby pool, we've gone to the lake a couple times, and Annie and I went to the beach!

On Friday we went to the lake with some friends. Our neighbors have lake access also, so they joined us. And Annie, Jill and I invited our friends Brooklyn, Boston and Jill to be our guests, and we had such a nice time!

Annie and Tyson are enjoying snacks in the sun.

Brooklyn, Annie and Tyson playing out in the water with Mette.

Annie giving Tyson a hug. I can tell by the way her mouth is that she's saying, "HUUUUG!"

Annie and Brooklyn enjoying the sand, sun and perfect-temp water.

On Saturday, Daren took care of Jill while Annie and I joined a couple girls from our Life Group at the beach. We went to the Aliso Creek Beach, and while the parking was awesome (steps from the sand, no hills or stairs), the waves were scary! They were huge sand-breakers, and we even saw a couple kids get taken out by them! Thankfully, their dad was right there, so he grabbed them before they got pulled out. Anyway, Annie was not interested in even putting her toes in that water, so we sat in the sand and chatted with our friends. We also spent 20 minutes in the little park.

Today (Sunday) Daren and I took the girls to the lake. It was a little more crowded than Friday, but still wonderful. We spent lots of time in the water and enjoyed the warm sunshine. Today wasn't as hot as yesterday, so it was just perfect at the lake!

Jill is resting in the shade. She just got her little toes wet today. She's still sick, so I didn't want to get her all wet!

Daren and Annie out swimming in the water.

One of Annie's favorite things is having snacks on a towel in the sun.

Sisters

2008-05-18T15:01:00.001-07:00

My dad taught Annie the Sisters song from White Christmas. If my dad taught it to her, you know she's learned the wrong words. She can often be heard singing to her little people or to herself, "Sisters, sisters, everybody needs a lot of sisters!"

Annie loves her little sister, and it's so fun to see them interact more and more!
Annie and Jill hanging out with Daddy in the pool.

Sitting on the floor. Annie is enjoying a popsicle and Jill's enviously watching.

My Sick Little Bean

2008-05-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Poor little Jilly Bean has gotten sick for the second time in her short little life! She had the stomach flu three weeks ago (or something like that), and now she has a cough. Annie (being an only child for her first year and never having the luxury of a two-year-old sister rubbing her snotty nose all over her face) didn't really get sick at all until right around her first birthday.

It's sad to hear Jill coughing. She had a couple nights where she had trouble breathing, and that just turns her daddy into a worry wart! We have been putting Jill to bed in her carseat to keep her head elevated.

I have not taken her to the doctor yet, but I called the nurse, and she thought Jill's symptoms sounded like post-nasal drip. She also said that it always sounds terrible with babies because they don't know what to do with all the mucous (TMI?). Anywho, Jill's sick, and D and I can't wait until she gets better!
Even though she's sick, Jill's still plugging away at the milestones. She's sitting up by herself (not getting into the sitting position, just holding herself up :)

Jill's into jewelry. I had friends who said that their babies loved to wear necklaces and play with them. Annie did not like things around her neck, but Jill loves that idea! I will not leave her unattended with a necklace on as I don't trust Annie to not try and take it away.

Thanks to Christina for letting us borrow the Bumbo! Jill loves it! It keeps her in a less vulnerable position than flat on the floor where Annie could step on her, drop things on her or whatever she may do when I'm not looking.

PS- I LOVE Jill's cupie doll curls at the top of her head. Her hair is starting to fill in, but it's in that odd way that baby hair grows: tons on the right side, none on the left, a few super-long strands here and there, etc.

I'm Thankful for My Mom!

2008-05-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning, Mom invited Matt and Kristen and the boys over for waffles. It was so nice to just hang out and enjoy the morning. We put Jill andTyler down for their morning naps and then Mom said she'd stay with them, while the rest of us went to the pool. We had a blast with the kiddos!

Mom then said she'd watch our girls so that Dad, Daren and I could go see Ironman. We appreciated mom so much this weekend! We were so thankful for some time away from the girls, and the girls were so excited to spend some time with their grandma.

Saturday night: Kristen, Matt, me and Daren went out to dinner, to see Brian Regan and then we topped our night off with ice cream sandwiches from Diddy Riese. Brian Regan was awesome, and my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. It was so fun to spend some timewith M and K before they move out to IL for a year.
Matt and Kristen at Chili's for dinner. We had planned to go to Olive Garden in Westwood, but it had closed down! Oh well, Chili's tasted great.

D and I at Chili's.

Thanks Mom for giving us such a nice weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

Jill is 6 Months!

2008-04-29T13:40:00.001-07:00

Jill is six months old tomorrow! We had her six-month check-up today, and she seems to be doing great. The doc said that despite her recent bout of the stomach flu (poor little baby), she was gaining well and growing strong. She can roll over (I think both ways, but I've never actually witnessed from back to front). She doesn't have any teeth yet, but that's fine by me. She's very rsponsive and aware; she looks at who's talking and often smiles at them.
Jill's Stats:
Weight: 16lb, 5oz
Height: 25 1/2"
She's 1/2 pound lighter and 3/4 inches shorter than Annie was at her appointment.
Jill is our little smiler. She smiles at everyone. Strangers just love her because she smiles all the time. She's been a very easy baby so far, which has been so nice. I'm thankful for her sweet disposition and her portability. That being said, she's recently become aware of when we have left her alone, and she does not like it! That means that I'm toting her from room to room with me. She also has had her first crying fits in the nursery at church, where they had to call me out of the service. That's happened twice in the last 6 weeks, and that's not fun for me! In fact it makes me nervous when she's crying so hard because it's so rare, that I'm not sure I'll be able to calm her down.
We just introduced Jill to rice cereal this week. She's had it three times, and she seems to really like it. Being her dextrous little self, she really wants to hold the spoon. She's not a natural eater like Annie was- she pushes the food out with her tongue more than A ever did. But Jill's a better nurser, so I'm not complaining!

Notice the funky hair. There are several long strands growing over the left ear. Jill has almost te same hair as Annie did. Annie had the same weird hair growth patterns, and they both had cradle cap at this time. Jill's hair is a tad lighter
Jill loves toys! She loves her play gym, her exersaucer, anything that she can get her hands on. She puts all toys in her mouth, and she's been gnawing on everything like a crazy person. I think she's getting teeth (but I've been saying that for a month :). She has the same exersaucer as Annelise McNay (gotta love it :).
We are so thankful for little Jill. She just adores Annie. Annie can make Jill stop fussing by singing to her. If I sing, she sometimes stops, but Annie has a better track record. Annie's song for Jill is Five Little Ducks. Jill has recently been snagging Annie's toys. I can see that this will be an issue. Annie is recently into claiming everything as "mine" or "Annie's." She will even ask, "Is the TV Annie's? Is the bathtub Annie's?" So far, we haven't had any problems, but I know they're coming!

I think that's all to report. I can't believe my baby is six months old!

For Steph...

2008-04-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

So, we splurged with our tax refund and got some patio furniture. For some reason this year, we got a really big refund. We are thankful (even though it basically means that we paid the gov. too much :). We'll take it! We hav lived in this house for three years with no patio furniture. Well, we had some chairs that people had given us. We didn't have any patio furniture that we paid for. Katie and Ryan gave us their plastic Adirondak chairs, our friend Matt gave us some cheap white plastic chairs (that he was planning to throw away, but Daren saved), and we had our camping chairs given to us for our wedding from the Spences and the Collinses. Now we can use those for camping and enjoy our nice view in our first purchased outdoor furniture ever!
This is our litte seating area. It's super comfy and it looks out over our slope into the city of Lake Forest.

Here's our new table. Annie loves being spun on the chairs. You can remove that center tile and replace it with the "umbrella tile" to put an umbrella in there, but we have it under our patio cover, so I think we're okay right now.

I hope you enjoyed this, Steph. Please come visit us, and we can hang out in our lovely backyard.

Strawberries!

2008-04-22T08:49:00.001-07:00

Last year I planted a tomato, a bell pepper, and a cucumber in one of my whiskey barrels. In the other one I planted an orange tree and strawberries. I think the strawberries were the only things that we used! Annie would go out and pick a strawberry or two almost every day. This year Annie and I went to Home Depot and bought 9 more strawberry plants. We filled all of our containers with strawberries so that we'd have lots this year! We're hoping for some good ones!

Big Girls!

2008-04-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Jill will be 6 months old in a couple weeks! Crazy. She is the age that Annie was when we took Annie to Brazil. It's an interesting age. Jill's recent behavior is giving me flashbacks to when Annie was this age. She has just started complaining when she's left with someone other than Daren or myself. She doesn't cry when we leave (Annie never did either), but she cries later, and whoever is watching her can't get her stop. Actually, I say this like it's happened a lot. It's only happened twice, but I'm preparing for this to be a little phase like the one Annie went through. Annie gave Oma, Georgie and Aunt Anisa a hard time when Daren and Scott and I went out a few times in Brazil.
Jill is so cute though! She gives these hearty, gutteral chuckles, she smiles at everyone (this is something Annie did not do- Annie was our "serious" baby), and she loves to play with toys (also something that Annie wasn't into). Jill will hold and gnaw on her teething-type toys, she will lie on her back and bat at her animals on the playmat, and she will sit and play in her exersaucer. So fun! If she doesn't have a toy, she will play with her pacifier.

Annie has just entered a new phase too. She's just upped her desire for indepence. Her will grows stronger every day. She decided last week that she wanted undies. She's been taking pretty well to half-hearted potty training (I was planning to do this in the summer when I didn't have anything going on!). She loves her undies, and she is really good about going potty. We haven't pooped yet (TMI? "I used to say don't go there, but that's lame."- Michael Scott).
We've also recently encountered what I like to call, the super tantrum. Oh. Now I know why people call the twos terrible! Annie has thrown three of these "super tantrums" where she will scream these low, throaty, possessed-sounding screams. There is no talking to her- she doesn't hear anything. I think it's when she gets over-tired and then doesn't get what she wants. The three things that have set her off are the following, "no, you can't run in the street without holding a hand. No, you can't have lotion right now." and "No, you can't clean the floors now, you have to take a nap." These are things we say to her every day! They just happened to be the things that set her off when she's tired.
Annie is definitely learning how to express what she wants. I asked her this morning if she was ready to get dressed, and she said, "um no. I'm just hanging out in my pjs." So cute!

The WAP (Wild Animal Park)

2008-04-15T09:06:00.001-07:00

Aunt Leanna and her friend, Patty took Annie, Jill and me to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. I hadn't been there for 20 years, so it was a whole new experience! After a little bit of trouble getting to the park (we missed a turn, and then Annie threw up on her pants), we finally made it. It was probably good that A threw up because she seemed to feel much better after that, and I had brought her some shorts. It was pretty hot!
Leanna and Annie looking at the lions. There are six new cubs that are 5 months old (Jill's age). They were so cute and lively.

The lions are out and roaming around. These are the two mama lions and the big daddy.

Jill giving Patty big smiles on the Journey of Africa ride. Annie was more interested in the fact that we were riding on a train than the fact that there were cool animals right outside. She did not want to sit in anyone's lap, even though she couldn't really see.

Annie and Leanna looking at some cool birds. The birds roam the park pretty freely. There was an interesting heron who was eyeing everyone's food when we were eating lunch.

Annie at the petting zoo. She loved petting the animals. Although sometimes they would shudder (like cows and horses do to get flies off), and that would startle Annie.

Retreat 08

2008-04-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I have some catching up to do! The first weekend of April, I left the girls with Daren, and went up to Santa Barbara with my peeps from EVFree. It was such a great weekend, although, i am so over pumping, but it was totally worth it to have a weekend away.

My cabin: Casey, Keri, Steph, me and Heather. I really appreciate these girls letting me crash their home church cabin. I loved spending time with all of them!

Kristen and me by the fire. It was pretty chilly in the evenings, but an unflattering Mammoth sweatshirt always takes the edge off!

Prego Heather at the beach. We walked to the beach during our free time. It was a beautiful walk, and we went during low tide, so we saw some little sea creatures.

Annie Sings Rock Chalk Jayhawk

2008-04-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Easter 2008!

2008-03-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

We had a nice Easter this year! On Friday night, we went to the Good Friday service at ROCKharbor. Annie said she had fun in Sunday school, and we enjoyed being at RH for at least one Easter-ish service. On Saturday morning Daren went to his men's group, and then we headed out to Newbury Park.

We went to Saturday night service. I was distracted because I got called out for Jill twice! That was the first time I've ever had trouble with her at church or Nurture. I guess she was pretty fussy and the nursery had lots of fussy babies, so I took Jill off their hands. She was fine with me holding her in the back of the auditorium, and she even fell asleep.

We went out to dinner with a bunch of friends and lots of kids (mostly little girls). Annie had a blast eating her favorite food (Chipotle) and running around with other little girls.

We went back to my parents' house and put Annie to bed in the same room that Andrew and Jeremy were in. Annie was in a pack n play, and Andrew and Jeremy were in the bunk beds. Annie kept Jeremy up for nearly an hour jabbering his ear off. The few times I came up I heard her telling him the following, "I have Chipotle. I have a babing suit. I'n going in the spa. Grandma has a babing suit. She's going in the spa. I play with the blocks." The third time I came up she was chattering away to a sleeping Jeremy (Andrew slept through the whole thing). Earlier Jeremy had been adding a little to the conversation. After I laid her down the third time, she fell asleep.

On Sunday, my mom's mom, dad, stepmom, and sister came to join the Matt Larson fam, Blomquist fam and mom and dad for lunch and an Easter egg hunt after church. We all had a blast, and somehow Matt, Kristen, Daren and I got all five kids down for naps at the same time so we could play a game of Settlers. Very fun!

We headed home yesterday afternoon and enjoyed a relaxing evening and an early bedtime :)

Me and my girls

Mom and her grandkids baked some sugar cookies for our Easter gathering. I think I found a cookie with a lick-mark in the frosting. I guess that's what you get when you let a 2-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 5-year-old decorate cookies!

Annie and I waited outside for the cousins, Great-Great Grandma (what Annie calls my grandma), Auntie Di, Grandpa Don and Bobbie to come join us. Annie loved all of her Grandma's pretty flowers.

Grandpa Don and Bobbie with Jill, Auntie Di with Jill, and Annie in her cute Easter outfit.

Easter baskets! Thanks Grandma! Now that Jer got his hair cut just like Andrew's, it's harder to tell them apart. I said, "Hey it's no-hair Jer!" and he said, "Hey, that rhymes!"

Annie finding Easter eggs and her basket. There's a picture of me being lifted up to get an egg almost just like that (from a long time ago... not this Easter :) by my late Grandpa Bruce.

Girlie Update

2008-03-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd give a little update on our girlies.

Jill is 4 1/2 months (I canNOT believe how fast this has gone). It is so easy to get smiles out of her. She smiles at everyone, and I love that. Annie hardly ever smiled at people, and they were always saying, "she's such a serious baby!" Jill was 15 poounds at her last appt, so she's a good size! She's a great sleeper (she sleeps from 7pm to 7am!). She has gotten into a pretty good nap schedule. Her morning nap happens between 9 and 10am, and her afternoon nap is between 12 and 1pm (which is great because it coincides with Annie's nap). Jill's biggest problems are that she pulls out her pacifier, and she has frequent blowouts- it feels like ever poop gets on some article of clothing. She has been a great nurser (TMI?) and seems to be pretty easy, overall.

Annie is a great two-year-old. She cracks us up all the time with her new phrases and things (which are usually just things that we've said). I love listening to her play with her Little People because she says things to them that we say to her like, "I'm so proud of you! Okay, time to cweam up! Oh, I love you! You're so cute!" Annie loves to dance, to read, to help out with Jill, and to play with her toys. She's very nurturing with her baby, who she named Baby Fi. She's also really good at riding her tricycle. And she LOVES to sing. She's good at carrying a tune, and she knows most of the correct words to her favorite songs. One of her faves right now is "Soon and Very Soon." She loves to sing, "Hallelujah, hallelujah, we're gonna see da kang!" I asked if she knew who the King was, and she responded by singing, "Hallelujah, we're gonna see da princess!" I guess not.
It's fun to see her learning about God. On our way up to Mammoth, she said, "Look at all those mountains! God made those mountains." She was thanking me for the snow, and I told her that she should thank God for the snow, and throughout the weekend she would say, "Thank you God for da snow!" So cute. She loves to ask where baby Jesus is.
Her favorite video is this Mommy and Me DVD that I think I got for free from the hospital. She recites bits of it throughout the day, and she knows almost all the songs. She's started to get interactive when she watches it. She will dance, sing along and try to do the motions. So fun!

Mammoth... Part II!

2008-03-18T15:43:00.001-07:00

The fam

The Life Group ready to go skiing/snowboarding

Yes, we went up to Mammoth again. This time we invited our life group to join us. We had so much fun! It snowed every day. It was a little too cold for Erik, but everybody else spent quite a bit of time out in the beautiful snow.

NARNIA!!!

Mammoth!

2008-03-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

By the time Annie was four months old, she had already gone to Mammoth twice. This was Jilly's first time. She seemed to do pretty well. We had a tough first night in Mammoth wit Annie because the wind was howling. She kept waking up crying and saying she wasscared. Daren brought her into bed with us, and she would lie down briefly, and then bolt up and start crying again. Daren took her out into the living room so that I could get a few hours of sleep. I woke up around 6am and took care of the girls while Daren slept.
Despite the few hours of sleep Annie got, she was in a surprisingly good mood. We spent Saturday taking naps, reading, and watching movies at the cabin- there was a Harry Potter marathon on TV!
Sunday we did some sledding (twice-once by the lakes and once by the cabin). Annie chased her sleddding excursions with hot chocolate with marshmallows. That's how she would ask for it: "Iwah some hot chocolate...with marshmallows." Her "I want" has turned into this cringe-inducing one-word whine. That's almost as annoying as her new favorite game where she says, "Mama?" and I say, "Yes?" and she says, "Mush wah" or some other jibberish phrase. I don't respond at all, but inside I'm groaning.
Back to Mammoth: We had a blast doing very little. We took a couple walks, played in the snow outside the cabin, sledded, watched movies, read stories, and Daren and I even got in a couple games of Scrabble. We each won one. How perfect!

I love Annie's borrowed snow pants. She just looks so cute! Thanks to cousin Jeremy for the boots, the snow pants and the mittens. They were PERFECT!

I'm Snotty, Mama!

2008-02-26T15:35:00.000-08:00

I know that this pictue has nothing to do with being snotty, but I just had to share it. Annie's baby is under the blanket. She's feeding it. She's done this a few times, and always with the blank stare on her face.

Anyway, Annie has been waking up in the night lately. Sometimes it's just to ask questions, "Where's Daddy, Mama? Is that Scout? Where's Jill?" Sometimes, she makes statements, "I'm tired, Mama. We're going to the snow in a week. We're going to Grandma and Dude's house." Last night she woke me up at 11:30 to say, "I'm snotty, Mama." Poor baby has a cold. Anyway, she just wanted to blow her nose.

Andrew Turns Five!

2008-02-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

We went to Newbury Park this weekend for Andrew's fifth birthday party. How do I have a five-year-old nephew? That's just crazy.
What do you get a five-year-old boy for his birthday? Weapons!!! Andrew got lots of swords, two light sabers (from us :), a couple guns, etc. He also got some clothes. He commented that the clothes were "not very exciting."

Annie LOVED the cupcake decorating portion of the birthday party. She put on frosting and smrankles. Whenever we ask her about the party she tells us that she ate frosting and smrankles.

Grandma has Annie and Tyler wiggling on her lap during the present opening.

What Happens to a Hike Deferred?

2008-02-26T14:53:00.000-08:00

We went to Trabuco Canyon for a hike last weekend, but the trail was closed. It was a burn area from the fires, but we're not sure why exactly it was still closed. I suppose there could have been mudslides. The trail was right by a bird sanctuary or something like that. We decided to wander through and look at the birds. I didn't quite get the workout I was looking for, but Annie really enjoyed running around and also loved watching the hummingbirds and tadpoles (the tadpoles were in the pond :).

Annie's looking through the fence at the tadpoles in the pond. We didn't see the turtles or ducks that the sign indicated, but that's okay.

Daren and Annie are throwing rocks off the bridge into the creek below. Actually, Daren wasn't throwing rocks.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T08:49:00.000-08:00

So, Mary, our wonderful friend from Life Group, gave us a photo shoot of our girls for a baby shower present. I decided to have her take pics of the girls as a surprise for Daren. For Valentine's Day, I gave Daren a collage frame with several of the pics that Mary took for his office (he's been asking for new pics). Anyway, here are a few pics, but if you want to see the slide show that Mary created for us, click on the title of this post (it's a link :).
The title didn't work, so here's the link to the slideshow:http://www.maryrosenbaum.com/blomquist

If you want to see more of Mary's amazing pics, you can go to her website: http://www.maryrosenbaum.com/ or her photo blog: http://maryrosenbaumphoto.blogspot.com/ You might even see some older pics of Annie!

The Weirdo

2008-02-12T17:45:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd include a weird picture of my for this post. Daren looks cute, though.

Okay... Ami asked me to post the things that are weird about me. Actually, none of my things are weird. They are just criticized by those who are jealous of me :)

1. I really like grammar. I taught myself, and I think it's so fun to know how to put a sentence together. I love knowing what a gerund is, what a participle is, what an infinitive is, and the difference between the three. Furthermore, I get excited when a pastor breaks down scripture grammatically. My dad is the best at this. The last thing about grammar is that I love that I married a man who also knows what a gerund is. So romantic!

2. After I had Annie, I could not get enough of America's Funniest Home Videos. I would laugh out loud throughout entire episodes. Those hormones affected me more after Annie than at any other time in my life.

3. I love meetings. My friend Stephanie almost didn't become my friend because of this. The English dept at MHS almost caused me to lose my love of meetings with the three-hour arguing sessions they used to have. I love effective meetings, where plans are made and ideas are being thrown around. I love leadership meetings for Nurture, but I actually miss my grade level meetings with Steph. Ahhhh... sophomores.

4. I was an English major in college and a high school English teacher, but I still won't finish a book that doesn't hook me in the first chapter. I didn't ever finish To Kill a Mockingbird (now one of my favorite books) until I had to teach it. That first chapter is so confusing! I restarted Life of Pi a couple times without success. I don't have the persistence that I always asked my students to have.

5. I am ALWAYS right about movie lines and trivia :) That may be an exaggeration, but I can usually hear the way the line is supposed to sound in my head, so it will offend my ears if said wrong. If I don't know, I won't say that I know, but I've gotten in some heated arguments (with Laura, thank you very much) about the horse's name in The Neverending Story (it's Artex- she said Atreiu, but that's the warrior). Anyway, a flaw of mine is that if I know I'm right, I'll get all worked up and NEED to prove it (just ask Laura :).

6. I read Ami's friend's list where she said that she had a radio playing in her head... I have a narrator. I describe what I'm doing, thinking, looking at, etc. as if I'm narrating a story. I was really bad about this up through high school when I would walk to school or when I was daydreaming.

7. I would much rather watch people dance than dance myself. I'm a terrible dancer, so I'm always impressed with people who have rhythm. I LOVE watching crazy dancers (like the guy at Katie and Ryan's wedding). I was just reminded of how much I love to watch people dance when I went to our life group leader's wedding. It was so fun to watch my LG out there on the dance floor.

Okay, I want to hear Stephanie's list, Mary's list, Carrie's list, Rick Barrett's list, really anyone who has a blog... Oh, and I think Daren should post his list on here. You can see Ami's list on her blog if you're curious. The link is on the left.

Like Kerous George!

2008-02-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

Annie loves to be like Curious George. She likes to crawl under Daren's legs and have him say, "where's that curious little monkey?" The other day the girls and I went for a walk, and Annie got to feed the ducks like Curious George did in one of the stories in the big book that she got from Cousin Cora. After she fed the ducks all of the bread that we brought and half of her rice cake, she started jumping up and down saying, "I like Kerous George!"

After feeding the ducks, I let Annie stay out of the stroller and she jogged the last 1/2 mile alongside me. I was impressed!

First Movie

2008-01-29T13:44:00.000-08:00

My dad has been wanting to take Annie to see her first movie in a theater. Yesterday, Mom and Dad decided to come down and visit us, and while Daren was at work, they took the girls and me to see the Veggie Tales movie. Annie got a little scared by the preview for Horton Hears a Who, but she did really well. About halfway through she got fidgety, so Dad had Mom go get some popcorn, which Annie enjoyed very much. For the last 15 minutes, Annie was done sitting, so she went up and down the stairs. It was the perfect movie to see as there were only a few other people in the theater, and the rest were with a little girl who was just a tad older than Annie. Jill was great :)

Annie's been talking about the movie today. She wanted to go see a movie again, and she told me how she ate all the popcorn. It's very cute. We're so thankful for Grandma and Dude and the special treat of going to see a movie.

Rainy Day Fun

2008-01-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

Because rainy days are few and far between out here in California, they're somewhat of a novelty. We are so thankful for the rain, and we enjoy it! When Annie sees that it's raining she hurries to put on her yellow boots. During the breaks in the rain, Annie would go out wearing her favorite boots. She has spent a lot of rainy day time doing her favorite indoor activities. These include painting (thanks to Steph and Maddie), playing with her babies (she's very nurturing right now- it's so cute!), and cleaning. Somehow our swiffer broke so that it's perfect "Annie-size." She loves helping to clean! She's not all that helpful, but we try not to squash the desire :)

Trip to Wichita!!!

2008-01-26T09:11:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun visiting Oma and Georgie in Wichita. It was Annie's fifth time in the snow, but the first time that she really got to play in it. She loved it!

On the flight from John Wayne to Wichita. We got AMAZING tickets. All three of us cost $520! Plus, we got a whole row to ourselves. Daren and Annie were on one side and Jill and I on the other.

Jill and I cuddling. She was good and slept almost the whole flight.

Annie was such a good girl! She read her books, watched a movie and just relaxed on the flight out. We were thankful that the girls were so good. We just got to read our books and relax. That's what I used to love about flying!

First day in Wichita! Daren took Annie outside right away in the 26-degree weather. Annie is making smrankles (sprinkles) out of the snow. She did that for quite awhile. The snow was very dry, so it wasn't good snowman or snowball weather.

More smrankles. She kept saying, "I'm smrankling, Daddy!"

For some reason, Annie looked older to us all decked out in her coat, hat and gloves, which she called "thumbs" for the first few days. Then it became "glums" before she finally got it right.

Hot chocolate after playing in the snow. Look at those bright pink cheeks! Annie loved Oma's hot chocolate and would ask for it a few times everyday.

Oma and Jill. Jill is all dressed in her cozy outfit that Stephanie, Maddie and Fi lent her.

The next day was a bit warmer, so the snow was meltier and Annie, Georgie and Daren made a cute little snowman.

Mama, Annie and Daddy. Daren and I are wearing Dale's hats as we didn't think it would be cold enough to bring them. The weather had been in the 50s the week before, and I couldn't remember ever seeing snow stick in Wichita.

Daren and the girls. They were reading books. I'm not sure what Annie's doing with her hands.

Annie and Georgie are spending the afternoon reading. The house was always nice and cozy, and the weather outside was perfect for reading.

Annie and Oma are playing the piano. Annie was over at our friends' house yesterday, and she pounded away on their keyboard, dancing in Stevie Wonder style and singing Old MacDonald.

Saying goodbye to Oma and Georgie the first time. Our flight got delayed because of weather, so wemissed our connection to OC and spent another night in Wichita.We didn't mind too much, but going through security with two kids is something I want to do as little as possible!

Alright. Let's go go Oma and Georgie's house!!!

2008-01-15T16:22:00.000-08:00

For some reason, Annie says "go go" instead of "go to." Oh well; it's cute. We're leaving for Wichita tomorrow, and I need to check and see if Annie's 18-month coat still fit her, so we tried it on. Once she got that on, she needed gloves, then she wanted a hat, and last she said, "where's a boots?" She went running off, found her yellow rain boots, and promptly put them on. It felt like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Now she thinks it's time to go to Oma and Georgie's house. I think that she believes that the outfit is all she needs. I told her that we have to go on a plane, so now she's asking for that.
We're really looking forward to our trip to Wichita!

The only thing is that Daren showed Annie the video from the last time we went to Wichita, when we went to the Kansas State Fair. So she keeps saying, "Go see Oma? and Georgie? and a animals? and a train?" Hopefully, she'll forget about the animals and the train!
I think the yellow rainboots make the outfit. Oh, and the capris.

Reading

2008-01-15T16:18:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd add these cutie cute pictures of Annie reading to balance out the homely pics in her hodge-podge winter gear. Annie still loves to read, and she will just sit in "mama's chair" and read stories to herself for a long time. So cute!

"I wanna hode Jiwl!"

2008-01-08T08:17:00.000-08:00

The title of this post is one of Annie's favorite things to say. Once a day or so, Annie will drop her toy and sprint over to me yelling, "I wanna hode Jiwl! I wanna hode Jiwl!" Then I say, "can you ask nicely?" Annie will then say, "Pulease wanna hode Jiwl."

Annie is going through a very demanding stage right now. Some refer to it as the terrible twos :)

It seems to be a reflection of two things: a better grasp of the language and a desire to assert her will, test her boundaries, and drive her mother nuts.

Some of the demands I hear are when my plans are in conflict with Annie's desires:

"No Mama feed Jiwl!"

"No run a errand!"

"No turkey sammich! I want peanut butter! And jelly?"

Sometimes, her demands are just normal bits of conversation yelled in a demanding way. These usually involve her baby (one of three dolls that she got for Christmas). She plays with them all, and is constantly making sure that they have all of their accroutrements- blanket, pacifier, etc. She doesn't care whether the baby is dressed, though.

"I wanna put a baby nap!"

"I wanna orange!"

"Go find a baby blanket!"

Daren and I have a hard time containing our giggles when Annie buts into our conversations and makes demands about things that she either doesn't know about or won't be involved in. Example:

Me: "Hey, Daren, do you want to watch Lost tonight?"

Annie: "No watch Lost tonight!"

Don't get me wrong, Annie is not just a demanding brat. She's very cute and sweet, and we have so much fun with her. It's very cute watching her mother her dolls and play with her sister. She likes to come up to Jill, give her a kiss, and say, "what a good sister." I love listening to her talk to her dolls and play with her Little People. Right now, she's singing to her dolls. It's very sweet.

These pictures are of Annie "holding" Jill while they're wearing matching outfits from Grandma. So cute!

Red hats aren't only for old ladies!

2008-01-04T15:44:00.000-08:00

Whenever I think of red hats, I think of those older ladies who are part of a red hat club. They always wear red and purple... and that reminds me of the Unicorns from Sweet Valley who always wear something purple.
Anyway... mom made these cute red hats for the girls. She also made them for her three grandsons (for cute pics of the boys, see the Thompson Family blog). Here are some pics of my own little red hat club.

Annie and sleepy Jill.

Fake smile! This is what Annie does when we say "smile!"

Jilly Bean- 2 months!

2008-01-04T15:19:00.000-08:00

Poor Jilly has not gotten the recognition she deserves! She turned two months old on December 30 (I was reminded of this when I read Ami's blog and learned that her daughter Annelise had turned two months old- Jill was born a few days before Annelise). Anyway, I quickly made Jill's doctor appt. and thought I should update on Jill's progress.

Jill is a really good baby. She's not too cranky, and she's been sleeping through the night for several weeks now. She had a REALLY rough night two nights ago, where she cried and cried, and didn't fall asleep until after 2am (when I finally brought her into our bed). Annie woke up at 6am, so I ran on the fumes of four hours of sleep. Thankfully, that's not the norm, and Jill blessed me will a great night of sleep last night. She fell asleep at 8pm, woke up at 3am to eat, fell right back to sleep and slept until 9. That was nice! Normally, she falls asleep between 9 and 10pm after fussing for a bit. She wakes up somewhere between 3 and 5am to eat, and wakes up between 8 and 10am for the day.

After being spoiled with Annie, who never drooled or spat up, I am still getting used to walking around with burp cloths on my shoulder (which Jill waits for me to take off so that she can leave her mark on all my shirts!). Jill still spits up a lot. It's not that bad of a trade-off for such a sweet little baby.

She has a sweet disposition, and she loves to talk to me. She actually says "goo" and "ga." Annie made lots of noises, but I remember wondering where goo goo and ga ga came from. Now I know. Jill smiles pretty easily, although I tried to get some pics, but none of them came out too cute. Oh well.

Jill in her swing, looking pleasant.

She's talking to me here.

Big, double-chinned smile

Here's Annie's big, double-chinned smile. Wow, that carseat looks clean.

Party Time!

2007-12-22T08:50:00.000-08:00

In December, we've been having lots and lots of parties. We had so much fun seeing our friends and family. The following pics are from the Johnson's cookie party, the Kirkpatrick family party, and Daren's work party.

We loved joining our friends at the Johnson's house for a cookie decorating party. Annie loved decorating cookies and licking off the frosting. She also had a blast hanging out with her friends.

Maddie and Pat making beautiful cookies.

Annie and I are decorating her lovely star cookie.

Annie and her friends Carter, Maddie and Davis

At the Kirkpatrick family party, Annie made quick friends with her relatives. She loved Cameron, who was about 7. Cameron took good care of Annie. All the kids were up in a room watching Ratatoulli (however you spell that).

Diane took great care of Jill the whole evening. It was so nice to have a break!

Daren's work party is pretty kid-friendly. They have a Santa Claus, a face painter, and a balloon guy. Santa gives the kids gift cards to Toys R Us, so we took a picture with Jill too :)

Annie and Santa. This is the first year she didn't cry!

Annie is being a good girl during dinner.

Daren and his girls at the office Christmas party.

Cleanliness and Time w/ Daddy

2007-12-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

Daren has taught Annie the fun of housework. Now I can't do dishes without Annie asking to help, and after every meal she says, "okay, do the dishes." She'll even push a chair over to the sink and stand on it.

Annie loves to sit with Daren at the bar and eat breakfast. She's quite a Daddy's girl!

Getting Ready for Christmas

2007-12-10T14:35:00.001-08:00

Annie's wearing her cutie Christmas shoes from Walmart. No way am I spending $22 on Christmas shoes for a two-year-old! I don't mind spending $7 at Wal-Mart. Another one of my Christmas-shoe pet peeves is that once toddlers graduate to a certain shoe size, most dress shoes seem to have little heels. I'm not quite sure what my problem with the little heels is, but I just really don't like them.

Annie loves her Christmas shoes. If she sees them, she wants to wear them. If I say no, she throws a fit. So right now, they're hidden.

Annie's really into shoes these days. Here, she's decorating the Christmas tree (which she calls a criscris tree) in her rainboots.

Daren took a picture of the girls and our Christmas decor. Very fun!

Joe Got Hitched!

2007-12-04T15:36:00.001-08:00

This weekend, Joe and Heather got married! We did not get any pictures of Daren and me at the wedding or reception, so I'm sorry to those who were desperate to see what I was wearing. Here's a pic of the happy couple with my folks.

Up in the Air! and Other Family Fun

2007-12-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd post some pics of us around the house. We've been enjoying hanging out in the living room and enjoying the fire.

Daren and the girls are relaxing by the fire. Well, Daren and Jill are relaxing. Annie was using Daren as a jungle gym.

Annie's favorite thing is when Daren throws her up in the air. She will say, "I want up in the air." She loves it!

Annie also loves to play with her Little People. She has the farm and the castle (which she just got for her birthday). It's fun to see her play with these toys. She's just recently become interested in playing with toys as they're intended to be played with.

Rainy Day!

2007-12-04T09:47:00.000-08:00

We had our first rain in a long time. I'm excited that Annie's raincoat still fits her. We moved up a couple sizes to the cheapo rain boots that I found at a thrift store. We just don't get enough rain here to justify cute rainboots (unless Grandma gets them!). Annie was so excited to wear her boots that she ran away from me while she was naked, put them on, and tromped around the house wearing just her boots. I didn't include that picture, even though it's adorable.

Annie Loves Grandma and Dude's House

2007-11-27T08:58:00.000-08:00

Annie had a great time spending the weekend at Grandma and Dude's. She loved seeing her cousins, going to church, and doing all of the fun things that she gets to do at Grandma and Dude's house.

Sitting by the fire

Auntie Kristen and Tyler

Reading Curious George with Dude

Helping Grandma give Jill a bath.

Trying on the hat that Grandma made for Jeremy.

Another pic of bathtime with Grandma.

A Birthday Thanksgiving Friday

2007-11-26T14:39:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving we decided to do a few things out of the ordinary: first we had our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, then we had rib-eye roast, Granny's golden potatoes, and peas for our "Thanksgiving" dinner (Stephanie will NOT approve), and we also had an early, double birthday party for Annie and Cora- who were born on the same day, December 1, 2005 (Sidenote- I also just saw somewhere that Jennifer Garner's baby was born on that same day!). Annie was an exceptionally good girl the entire day, which is pretty impressive. She was surrounded by people, sugar, and toys from almost the moment she got up from her nap.

Me, Annie, Cora and Megan (my cousin Peter's wife).

Cutie Cora playing with Annie's new kitchen, a present from Grandma, Dude and Great Grandma.

Grandma, Andrew, Cora, Annie, Jer and Dude decorate the kids' cakes for the birthday party.

The kids are tasting sprinkles and frosting. Yum!

Annie and Cora, playing with the kitchen.

Peter, Cora, me and Annie. Daren wanted to know why he didn't get in on the pics with the girls. Sorry Babe! I guess I was being selfish.

All of my parents' grandchildren: Tyler, Annie, Jill, Andrew and Jeremy

Our first fam pic that doesn't involve hospital gowns!

Andrew, Jer and Annie at the kitchen. Andrew said, "I want a boy one of these. This is wonderful!"

So Sweet

2007-11-15T14:25:00.001-08:00

I just think sleeping babies are so cute! I'm thankful that Jill sleeps a lot. She actually seems to be a much easier baby than Annie. I always thought that Annie was so easy because she slept through the night so early, but that was after a couple hours of fussiness. Jill hasn't been that fussy, and she also has been sleeping well at night (most nights). Sunday night, she slept poorly at night, but other than that, we have been pleasantly surprised. Last night we went to bed around 11:00. I tried to feed Jill, but she didn't eat that much. I woke up at 2:45 to feed her. She ate, and then we both went back to sleep and slept until 6am (when Annie woke up).
After my tough day on Monday, the rest of the week has actually been pretty smooth. I've been getting enough sleep at night (even though it's interrupted for feedings), I figured out how to get Jill to nurse better (you can find ANYTHING on the internet!), and Annie has been good about playing by herself. I'm thankful for a better week. I was a little nervous after Monday!

First Day with the Girls

2007-11-13T08:20:00.000-08:00

Daren decided to take Annie and me (and Jill) out for ice cream last night. It was probably to celebrate the fact that I made it through my first day alone with both girls. My first day alone with them both was tough and very stressful as I was running on four hours of sleep and Jill decided to regress to her sleep-all-day, don't-want-to-eat habits. I was getting anxious that she would only take the bottle because that's all I could get her to eat during the day. Then of course, both girls decided to be alive, awake, alert at about 4pm and stay that way until Daren came home just before 6pm. Annie became whiny, and continually said, "I hungry. Annie's hungry" after I made the mistake of asking Jill if she was hungry. Jill wouldn't nurse, so I decided to wait for Daren to finish the pump-then-bottle-feed process. Annoying.
Anyway, Daren suggested that we walk to 31 Flavors for ice cream. We strapped the girls into the double stroller, and got some ice cream. Annie LOVED it. Obviously.

Annie is asking for more in this picture. Maybe you should try sucking it out of your shirt...

We got her to smile by telling her to say, "I like ice cream!" Daren hosed her off in the bathtub, and then she went to bed easily and slept really well.

Glad to be Home

2007-11-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

Thursday and Friday of this week Daren took some paternity leave from work. On Thursday we had a doctor's appt for Jill. She is doing great! She's gained 10 ounces (which is more than the doctor had hoped) and her color looks much better. Annie loves having her daddy around. Today Daren took Annie to Irvine where they have free hot air balloon rides. Annie enjoyed the whole outing with Daddy. They also went to the bank and the dry cleaners. Annie got candy at both places.
Because of Jill's good appointment, I decided to let her wake me up when she was ready to eat last night. That probably wasn't the best idea, but it was wonderful for Daren and me. Jill slept soundly from 10pm to 4am. She didn't even wake herself up at 4! I woke her up and fed her. Anyway, it was nice to get a good stretch of sleep. She went back to sleep after I fed her and slept until noon or so (I have managed to cram a bottle of breast milk in her mouth while she sleeps, so she is eating).

Annie is reading and modeling the cute sweatshirt that Auntie Kristen got her.

Daddy, Annie and Jill are relaxing on the couch (this picture was taken a week ago- I was noticing that Jill looks pretty yellow here).
Jill is awake!

Daddy and his cutie girls.

Fun with Grandma and Dude

2007-11-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

We spent a few days visiting Grandma and Dude in Newbury Park. Annie loved getting to spend time with them and with her cousins. Jill just did a lot of sleeping!

The lavendar girls

Dude and little Jill

Annie is giving Jill a big hug

And a kiss

Grandma, Annie, Jill and I met Auntie Kristen, Andrew, Jer and Tyler at Borchard Park for a little playtime and a picnic. Very fun!

Jill at home

2007-11-08T11:31:00.001-08:00

Annie got a Little People Farm as a big sister present. Grandma even wrapped it for her. She absolutely loves it and plays with it every day.

Annie is greeting Jill upon her arrival home from the hospital.

Annie loves holding Jill. She will often come up and say, "I hold Baby Jill!"

Matt, Kristen and the boys came to visit on Friday after Jill came home.
The five cousins: Annie, Andrew, Jill, Tyler and Jeremy.
Jill is conked out in her carseat while Matt, Kisten, the kiddos, Daren and I enjoy lunch at Corner Bakery.

Finally, More Pics: From the hospital

2007-11-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

I know, these are old in baby life. Jill is now 9 days old. The days have flown by in a blur of visitors, feeding and not much sleep. Jill has a bit of jaundice, so the ped insisted that I do what it takes to wake her up every two hours to feed her. This is a nearly impossible task as very litttle will wake her. The things that do cause her to stir are only momentary, and she immediately falls back into her deep slumber. We see the ped again today. Hopefully, Jill is gaining weight and de-yellowing.

Daren's calling his folks just after Jill's arrival. Annie was interested but also a little nervous and ready for bed.

Mom and babe.

Grandma and Dude and their beautiful granddaughters.
Our first life group visitors: Adam and Mary. Mary did a mini photo shoot. She took the picture of Jill in the previous post.
Daddy and his sweet, new daughter. Yes, she has lots o hair!

Joe and Heather drove all the way from Newbury Park to see baby Jill.

Jill is Here!

2007-11-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yay! Baby Jill is here! She was born on October 30, 2007 at 7:18pm. The labor was super-fast and SOOOOOOOO easy (I ended up getting an epidural).
Labor story for anyone interested:
I went to my doctor at noon, where she discovered that my water had broken (I was leaking, not gushing), and there was meconium in the water (which she said was my fault for not being induced last week). She sent me to the hospital at 1:30, but they were insanely busy, so D and I had to wait for around 45 minutes for a room. After the wait, I laid in bed for a looooong time before I ever saw a nurse. I was 3 1/2-4 cm dilated, but they wanted to start pitocin. The doctor (not mine-the on-call doc) broke my water, inserted lots of tubes, gave me an IV, and started the pitocin somewhere between 3:30 and 4pm. The pitocin/water-breaking combo took effect almost immediately, and I was in very painful labor right away. I labored for almost two hours with SUPER intense contractions (while being strapped in the bed with tubes coming out of me). I decided that there was no way that I could last another 3-4 hours in labor of that intensity or higher, so I asked for an epidural. I was thankful that I went for it, although my labor only lasted another hour or so. I only had to push 3 times with this little peanut. It was SOOOO easy.
We are so thankful to have healthy little baby Jill here. She's a cutie, and we're already smitten. She was 7lb, 9oz and 19 inches long.

Baby Jill

This is baby Annie- if you wanted to see how the sisters looked like each other. Annie was two pounds heavier.

BP/ Induction Update

2007-10-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

So, I had ny doctor's appointment, and the prayers have been working! My BP was really low! For the first time since going to this doctor! It was so nice to have so much peace. My doc didn't even mention induction today, so I guess I'll just keep praying that the baby comes out on her own sooner rather than later. I have my next appt on Tuesday, October 30, so I'll write more when I know more.

Fire Pic

2007-10-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

We didn't get hurt or evacuated because of the fires, but the Irvine/ Modjeska Canyon fire was very close to us. We could ee it from our house. This pic is the view from our backyard. Not a very clear picture, but we just wanted to get the idea. Things are definitely looking better over here, but there's still some smoke in the air.

First Haircut!

2007-10-26T08:35:00.001-07:00

Trimmed bangs!

This is the back (well, side) of the trim that I gave Annie. I'll try to get some pics of the haircut Cheri gave her.

Annie's hair has been looking pretty shaggy, lately. Daren's been bugging me to get it cut, but I didn't want anyone to give her a mullet or 3-inch think bangs (her bangs seem to start far back on her head). Therefore, I decided to cut Annie's hair myself. This was quite a challenge because I can't even cut paper in a straight line, let alone the wispy, wavy hair of a wiggly toddler (how's that for alliteration?). Somehow I managed to keep the bangs from being too much and the hair in back from looking too scraggly. I was pretty proud that I had not completely ruined my daughter's cuteness.
My friend Cheri is a hairdresser, and she came by with her son (Annie's friend Kai) the day after my attempt and cleaned up Annie's hair and added layers (ooh... fancy!). I don't have any pictures of the Cheri-updated haircut, but Annie looks very cute. It seems a lot shorter, but I don't have to put it up to keep it out of her face anymore.

At Peace... For the Most Part

2007-10-26T08:26:00.001-07:00

So, after lots of prayer and continual reading of Philippians 4, I am at peace with this whole high blood pressure thing. I have made the decision to make a date to be induced. My doctor has been pushing me hard to do that, and what was causing me the most anxiety was fighting with her. I have an appointment today at 4pm, so I will know more then. Hopefully, she'll let me wait until Monday or Tuesday, but if not, that's okay. I'm going to keep praying that I go into labor on my own before getting induced, but God has answered my praers and given me peace about whatever happens.

A Sweet Shower

2007-10-11T16:27:00.001-07:00

My sister-in-law Kristen and Aunt Christy called me within 20 minutes of each other asking if they could throw me a little, last-minute shower. What moron would turn down a shower? Not me! But I did suggest that they work together since they had both asked about the same date and time for the shower. They also included my future sister-in-law Heather in the planning and they all threw me a very sweet shower.

I couldn't believe that so many people could come despite the week-and-a-half notice and the busyness that seems to be October. I felt so encouraged and loved. I'm so thankful for my family and friends. Thank you for celebrating our baby!

Me and my two sisters-in-law: Kristen and Heather (well, Heather will be in a couple months)
Yummy desserts and the women behind them.
Erica, Kim, me and Steph at the shower.

Blood Pressure and the Doctor

2007-10-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

So, it seems that I have an irrational fear of the doctor. I must be one of the 20% of people who has "white coat" blood pressure issues.
For the past two weeks my doctor has been very concerned about my blood pressure. Just last week I was sent to the hospital because it was 159/98, which is very high. When I got to the hospital, they hooked me up to a machine that took my BP every 15 minutes. My reads were between 124/82 and 116/73. I was relaxed, Annie-less, watching TV... I think I should go hang out at the hospital more often. Anyways, the doc put me on bed rest. BOO! I borrowed my dad's blood pressure reader (oh yes, he's got all kinds of medical doo dads), and I've been faithfully tracking my BP for the last week. It was totally low whenever I was resting (120/80 is normal, and I'm consistently under that if I'm lying down). So, I started cheating a bit: I went to church, took my BP immediately after... it was normal. I went to my baby shower... same thing, normal BP. I did some light housecleaning... no reads over the 120s or 80s.
That is until the morning of my doctor's appt. on Tuesday. My BP is fine when I wake up, but as my 10:45 appointment draws near, my numbers steadily creep up. My last read before leaving for the doc is somewhere around 140/95. I was not doing anything except lying on the couch, trying to will myself to calm down so my BP would be normal.
I went to the doctor's office, and it was high again, but I showed her all of my numbers from the week. She asked me if there was something making me nervous, but I couldn't think of anything. She had me lie on my left side and says that she'll send in the PA to take my BP again in 15 minutes or so.
I rested for what felt like an eternity. There was no clock, so I had no idea how much time had passed. I stuck my head out the door, and the receptionist gawks and asks, "Did we forget about you?" They had. My doc had been called to labor and delivery, and I'd been left in the room for over 30 minutes. The PA took my BP again, and it was better. Maybe that's why I get so nervous going to the doctor!

Surprise!

2007-10-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Our amazing Life Group surprised us this Saturday with a baby shower. They said we were having an end-of-summer barbeque, but when Daren and I showed up, there were pink and lavendar balloons everywhere, and everyone yelled, "surprise!" This was my first surprise party, and I loved it! We were both so touched, and we felt really loved. Thank you, Life Group!

The sign for baby Jill that Emily made.
Daren and Annie are still in shock after the surprise.
Katie's ready to get good pictures of our shocked faces.
Enjoying our lunch.
Annie loved the cake!
Playing shower games. Having boys makes a whole new experience!

Diane and Frank
Adam and Mary
Eric and Sean pose after a wrestling match. That's what you get when you invite boys to a baby shower!

Love the Braids!

2007-09-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share some pics of Annie looking "oh so cute" in her braids and striped sweater (a clearance steal from Target at $1.49). She loves to go outside and play on the little patio. She rides her little bike, sits at her new table, plays a little basketball, and goes down her slide.

Annie's fine baby hair doesn't stay neatly in braids for too long, so I had to get out the camera right away. Annie's Auntie Kristen French braided her hair for our trip to the fair, but after a nap in the car, the hairs had started coming out. I don't know how to French braid, so I'll have to get Kristen to do it again. I just have to say, love the braids!

Office Partay

2007-09-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

Eric has an unhealthy love for The Office.
Annie and me enjoying our pizza.
Daren and Eric "cuddling" on the couch.

So, my friend Mary threw an Office party (for the season premiere, of course), and Daren and I grabbed the pack n play, and headed over for some delish Costco pizza and some laughs with our life group friends. Mary was the only one who took pictures, so I'm poaching hers, but I just wanted to document the event.

Marc and Emily, Abbie, and of course, Mary and Adam were at the party, but I only have the pics Mary gave me.

LA County had a Fair!

2007-09-24T13:55:00.001-07:00

The day after Dad's birthday, he, Matt and I decided to take the three older grandkids to the LA County Fair. We had such a blast! The kids are close enough in age that they seem to enjoy the same things.

Dude and his grandkids on the ferris wheel. The kids loved going up really high and seeing the horses down below.

Matt, Jer and I.

Dude and Annie going down the super slide. That was probably Annie's favorite. She and Dude went down three times.

Dude was just going to take Annie on the carousel, but the boys wanted to go too! They all had fun.
Annie and Dude on the horsey.
On the ferris wheel.
Annie and Dude walking through some exhibits.
Looking at the huge sows and little piglets.
Matt, Dude and the kids in front of the piggies.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2007-09-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

For Dad's birthday, he took us all to Lawry's in Beverly Hills. It was wonderful being with the fam and getting to chat and catch up. Granny also joined us for dinner, but Dad looks funny in the picture of him and Granny, so I left it out.

On the way out to Lawry's, Matt and I picked up the engagement ring that Joe bought for Heather. It was tough because he didn't propose until the day after, so we couldn't talk about it! As of Friday, Joe and Heather are officially engaged.
Daren took the metrolink and then the subway and a bus to avoid traffic. He's so citified!
After spending a day with her brothers, Kristen met us at Lawry's. Amazingly, we all showed up about the same time!

Earlier on September 20 (Dad's birthday), he and the grandkids had their own birthday party for him. The kiddos didn't join us at Lawry's, so this was some special Dude time.
Annie and Dude both LOVED their cake. Grandma made it, and it tasted so good.
Annie, Grandma and Tyler are enjoying a movie on the couch. Andrew and Jer are sitting in chairs watching the movie.

Annie at 21 Months

2007-09-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Annie at 21 Months Part II

2007-09-16T09:10:00.000-07:00