The Garage

12 Months of Dates #1: January Whale Watching

2012-01-30T22:12:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before, this year for Christmas I got Tyler 12 months of (mostly) prepaid dates (I say mostly because I think there are 2 that might cost a little extra when we do them). January's date was a whale watching cruise! It's funny to me that they call it a cruise. It's just a boat. Anyway... I'm pretty sure both Tyler and I expected to see a few distant sprays of water with MAYBE the tip of a flipper or something. We were SO wrong!!

(Our boat. LOVE that it was from Gloucester -- pronounced Glau-staah)

What made it just amazing was that the water that day was literally as smooth as glass. I've never seen the ocean look so calm and smooth. The photos don't even do it justice. It was just an amazing sight to see. Perfect reflection of the sky above and not a single ripple except for the boat. Truly breathtaking!

Those whales gave us quite a show! We saw at least 8-10 gray whales, white tail flukes and surfacing all over the place. We even saw one breach 3 times!! Breaching is when they come straight up out of the water and land with a giant splash. We happened to come up on a group of 3 whales toward the end of tour and were fairly close to them (closer than I think we were even allowed to be by law, not on purpose though). And sure, I've seen the Shamu show at Sea World at least a dozen times now. Yeah, Shamu is a big impressive fish. But wow! To see these gigantic whales in their natural habitat right off the side of our boat was just an awesome experience. (These photos are not zoomed in, FYI).

The other super cool thing we saw, that would have made the experience totally worth it even if we didn't see the whales, was floating right through the middle of a dolphin superpod! Seriously, we were surrounded by at least 1000 dolphins all jumping inches from the boat. They were SO quick in and out of the water that it was hard to get pictures of them. You could see them right down in the water because it was so clear and smooth. It was just dolphins as far as you could see all around us. (These were common dolphins, not bottlenose).

All in all it was a great date!! Thanks to Groupon for their super deal, or I'm guessing we would have never done this. I would totally recommend it! SD Whale Watching and crew were fabulous. You might not get as good a show as we got (the whale breaching was spectacular; the crew were totally jazzed about it, too, and said they rarely get to see it, let alone 3 times in a row) but it's totally worth it! Even for a look at San Diego from out at in the ocean was cool. We had a great time just the two of us! It was just so so cool. Seriously.

Our Little Sunbeam!

2012-01-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that Lia is a Sunbeam now. For those that don't know (or remember from when Max turned 3), Sunbeams is the first year of Primary at our church. Primary is basically the Sunday school program for kids 12 and under (or is it 11 and under?) They start at age 3 (so whoever is 3 on January first of that year) and goes on up. Max is now in CTR5 and our little Lia is a Sunbeam!! She's on the younger end of her class but so far she's doing alright. It's so hard for those little kids to sit still for the last 2 hours of church. About halfway through the year they start to kind of understand what is supposed to be going on, not that they aren't learning anything the first half of the year. They soak up SO much!! (I was a Sunbeam teacher for over 2 years and this year just got my first CTR6 class -- 2 well-behaved 6 year old boys is SUCH a nice change!!)

Anyway, something about when your kid goes to Primary just makes them feel so much more grown up. And also, this dress is about the cutest thing I've EVER seen. I'm kicking myself for not buying it in the next size, too, because now I can't find it!! Oh well.

Little Bunsies

2012-01-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

Lia insisted that I do her hair just like her giant giraffe that she got for Christmas. I was a little lost until I gave her these little buns and she was totally on board. She also picked out this outfit to go with it and then instructed me to take a picture of her "new bunsies" with my phone to send to Mimi, Grammie, Danielle and daddy. So, without further ado...

(Obviously my hair skills aren't that great. It doesn't help that her hair is kind of thin and wispy right now. She keeps getting layers of new growth every so often and it makes it kind of hard to do much! It looks way cuter from the front. Poor girl!)

(What looks like a giant mess behind her in some of those photos is in fact an entire scene from "Toy Story" set up and acted out by Lia. Yes, she is obsessed. Also, no on here got a new bike. We were holding it for a neighbor. Just so there's no confusion.)

2012-01-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

P.S. A Max soccer post will be coming soon! I have a bunch of video that I want to put together of his games. It'll probably be one of the last past-due updates to post so hang in there! (This is mostly for my dad. Hi dad!)

Photo Shoot With THE FLASH!

2012-01-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

Need I say more?

(This isn't an actual action shot. He posed this way to make it look like he was running. Genius.)

New Year, New Places

2012-01-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

One day during our vacation we decided to check out Cabrillo National Monument and the Point Loma lighthouse. Neither of us had ever been there before. Surprisingly I hadn't even ever been to Point Loma before. So off we went. The kids were nice and extra whiny that day, too which made us cut our excursion a little short. But we ended up at a delicious sandwich and bread shop at Liberty Station where Max got to eat chocolate bread for lunch and that perked him right up.

(don't let all that sweet handholding fool you!)

Tyler came up with the great idea of coming back on the following Monday (the fake New Year's day everyone had off from work). It was his last day of vacation and we thought it would be fun to check out the Bayside Trail, a 2 1/2 mile round trip hiking trail that winds around the Bay (and our $5 permit was good for 7 days so we could get in the second time for free!). The trail was really really pretty and thanks to the steepness was actually a pretty good little workout (well, for me anyway). The kids loved being in the stroller and going on an "adventure" with us, too. The spent a lot of time searching for rattle snakes. I have to say I was just a tad bit disappointed we didn't even at least hear one.

It was the perfect start to the new year! Another gorgeous day. And it ended with another trip to Wind 'N Sea to enjoy the sunset.

Happy start of 2012! I usually set lots of personal goals for the year and fail miserably at achieving them. This year I have a few simple things I want to just get done.

1. Photograph each of my children 52 times this year. Just simple portraits of them, one each week. I'll probably post them over at my photo blog.

2. BLOG MORE.

3. Print my personal blog into year books.

4. Become a runner (okay, so this might be one of those ones that just disappears).

5. Continually simplify.

6. Be a better mom, even if it only means one day a week of less yelling and scolding.

7. Photograph daily life more. I want to do the 10 on 10 project (even though I'm not part of the special club of awesome photogs who are officially doing it).

Seven is a good number. I love goal setting, even if most of them do inevitably fail. I like working towards things, it makes me feel useful and feeling useful is good. Right?

Vacation Woes + Triumphs

2012-01-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

Both Tyler and I were so seriously excited about spending two whole weeks just the four of us together for his winter break. I was looking forward to having Tyler around without the stress of school hanging over his head. He was looking forward to being school and worry free. I couldn't wait to be done with my shooting for the year. Max was going to be on break from school, too. We were ALL seriously ready for some good old family time. But the fates tried really really hard to conspire against us!

The morning of the last Friday of Tyler's school week, the day he had a really really important test (shelf exam) he bent down to put on his socks and threw his back out. He was able to get to school and take the test thank goodness, but by the end of the day I had to pick him and, he couldn't drive his car home. He was pretty much laid out for the first 4 days of our vacation putting a serious damper on the things I had planned for us. (He of course made up for it later, but I still started out our vacation pretty bummed).

Once Tyler felt better we got lots of fun things in -- ice skating, Christmas light viewing, going to the Temple, Christmas shopping, exploring at the beach and tide pools. But then the fates struck again. As soon as I finished my last shoot of the year I got seriously sick. Like, the flu, sick (not the stomach flu that's been going around, thank goodness). My body just completely broke down and stayed that way for the second half of our vacation. A nice gnarly cough set in. Bleh! Christmas was fairly miserable (although I did manage some sweet times in there) and only just now am I starting to feel like myself again! Maybe this will teach me to actually get my flu shot next year. Eh, probably not.

On the last day of our vacation we went on a gorgeous hike in Point Loma at the Cabrillo National Monument. The weather was perfect. The trail was great for pushing the kids in the BOB and the day just ended so wonderfully that it made the stress and craziness of the rest of our vacation just seem like happy family time together. I'm so grateful that we had the time together, even though for most of it the kids were at each other's throats and Tyler and I were sick or sore or tired. I still feel like we focused on our family and our time together. And I'm thankful it will help carry us through the next few months of seeing less and less of Tyler. Oh blast you third year!!

Max's First Cal Game!

2011-12-29T17:27:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Max and Tyler got tickets to the Holiday Bowl from my mom and Max was just beyond shocked that he was going to get to go see the Bears play!! (Unfortunately he had to watch them get beat embarrassingly by Texas although he didn't seem to really notice and was just so excited that "CAL SCORED 10 WHOLE POINTS!!).

The game wasn't until 5pm but all day he wore is Cal t-shirt with his Cal jersey over it and his Cal hat. And he would have worn his new Puma light up shoes but they had red on them so he opted for his Vans (his idea). He was SO SO excited!! Tyler said he was just beaming and loving every single second of being there. He even got to meet Oski!! I wish I could have been there, too, but Lia would have never lasted.

They sat with one of Tyler's friends from Cal, another diehard fan, and he taught Max some cheers. Max was ALL over the cheering!

Seriously, this was 100% a dream come true for this little kid. He just kept saying it was the best thing ever. He came home exhausted but the happiest I think I've ever seen him. Such a funny cute boy! Too bad he didn't get to see them win. But like I said, he didn't really get that they didn't! He was pretty psyched that when they did score their ONLY touchdown he got a kit-kat.

Tyler said he never got tired or whiny or bored or anything at all. I think we have another lifelong diehard fan on our hands!

Christmas Day-ing

2011-12-26T16:46:00.000-08:00

The morning was filled with a flurry of wrapping paper and new toys and delicious egg nog waffles and rushing around to pack for an overnight in LA. I think I decided I'd be part of the unwrapping instead of having a camera strapped to my hand so there aren't all that many photos (again, photo taking fail by me!) I know we got some video though!

The kids, of course, were beyond excited when they walked out and saw all the presents!! Lia got her giant giraffe from Santa, a scooter, some legos, a new doll carriage, a backpack with her name on it, a Woody doll and a Slinky Dog (her current obsession is anything Toy Story so now she has almost everyone!), a Leapster and so many more presents it's hard to even keep track.

Max got a new scooter since his got stolen, SO many lego sets, a new wiggle car, some movies, a Nerf gun, Puma light up shoes, a Flash costume... SO MUCH STUFF!!

Tyler surprised me with a gorgeous new necklace. I love that he likes to get me jewelry. It's something I never buy for myself and he always picks out the prettiest things. He knows my tastes better than me!

I surprised him with 12 months of preplanned, prepaid dates. Each month he opens an envelope on the first day of the month to see what the date will be (January is a whale watching cruise), we pick a date right then (if we can, kind of depends on his schedule) and get Danielle to come watch our kids! The kids got him some Cal stuff for his car and my mom surprised both Max and Tyler with tickets to the Holiday Bowl to watch Cal play!! I wish you could have all seen Max's face when we told him what the tickets were for. It was truly priceless. He was just in utter shock. The got some cal gear to go with it, too -- Max an Oski sweatshirt and Lia a pink Cal t-shirt.

After breakfast we loaded up the car and drove up to LA to meet up with Tyler's brother Cory and his parents. Cory lives up in LA now so it was a good meeting spot for us to get together. Sally cooked a delicious Christmas dinner of ham and potatoes and we of course had homemade pie and played games. I was actually feeling pretty lame most of the day thanks to the wonderful flu, but it was still nice to spend time with everyone, especially for the kids -- the LOVE Cory and they love Grammie and Papa!

After dinner we took a walk on the Venice Canals (no, not Italy, ha, I wish!) It was perfect! The kids took their scooters and it was just a wonderful ending to such a happy Christmas for us.

That night Tyler and I took advantage of a hotel voucher we had that was going to expire and stayed there while the kids and Sally and Kevin stayed at Cory's house. Luckily we did though because I was up ALL night with horrible coughing spells. Seriously bad ones. The next day I woke up feeling SO horrible but took as much cold medicine as I could handle and sucked it up. I was a little freaked out when everyone decided they wanted to ride bikes on the beach because for one, I hadn't ridden a bike in literally 13 or 14 years AND two, like I said, I was feeling SO so sick. But, it's really hard to argue with Kevin when he gets motivated to have fun (thankfully I'm totally used to this :).

I am SO glad I got on that bike!! First, getting on a bike after a decade isn't that big a deal after all. A few wobbly pushes on the peddles and it's like you never took a break. I guess it was extra fun that that old adage "it's just like riding a bike" is 100% true. Anyway... this was seriously one of the most fun things they've ever made me do. I loved it! The path was perfectly flat, the weather was perfectly sunny and not to hot, the kids were perfectly happy in their bike trailer with snacks and water and the fresh air just felt heavenly! I seriously could have ridden on that bike all day. It was awesome!

After the bike riding we spent a little while on the beach letting the kids run around. In the late afternoon we packed the kids in the car and headed back to San Diego. This Christmas was seriously so so good and happy! I liked being able to do our own traditions and outings and baking. Seeing some family, too, was an added bonus!!

Such a great Christmas this year! I have a feeling that this might be Max's last Christmas believing in Santa (and thus, Lia's because how do you really prevent that?) which is a relief and a little sad at the same time. Part of my wish that he would just figure it out is that I'm a little jealous Santa gets so much credit for picking out such awesome presents. Plus, I'm not a big fan of lying to the kids about stuff like that. It's kind of hard to avoid it and as long as it's not detracting from what Christmas is really about I guess it's not a big deal in the end. Anyway... I'm just really grateful this year for getting to spend it with my sweet little family!

Christmas Eve-ing

2011-12-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

Despite a few glitches in our vacation time (post about that to come later) I look back on the few days we celebrated Christmas just the four of us and I can't help but smile. Christmas Eve day was filled with last minute present shopping, LOTS of baking and an amazing little outing to watch the sunset at Wind 'N Sea beach. It actually couldn't have been more perfect.

That morning, as I attempted my hand at baking rolls and failing miserably (bread is definitely NOT my thing) Tyler decided to don one of my aprons and plant himself in the kitchen baking away! He made two kinds of cookies and a complicated but delicious Finnish bread called Pulla. I had never had if before and was pleasantly surprised not only by Tyler's mad baking skills but by how delicious it was! He ended up with enough dough to make 3 huge loaves and took some with us to Cory's house on Christmas Day.

Tyler also made gingerbread cookies and peanut butter blossoms. Like I said, he did a LOT of baking!! The kids were having kind of a rough day and found that Buddy (our Elf on the Shelf) had left them a message when no one was looking that said Santa was going to just fly right over our house without stopping if they didn't shape up. The note seriously worked and they were SO much nicer the rest of the day!

Later in the day we all drew names out of a hat and got $5 each to spend on the person we chose. Max chose me and got me another oven mitt. Lia had Max and got him some lightning McQueen stuff. I had Tyler and got him some random stuff and Tyler had Lia (I'm forgetting what we all ended up getting each other). It was a fun little tradition! Max and Lia also got some gift cards from a friend of ours to Toys R Us and since they had already gotten some from family members for themselves, we convinced them to use them to buy presents for each other and they loved it!

We then headed out to my favorite beach Wind 'N Sea, to explore the caves and tide pools and watch the sunset. The photos will show you how absolutely gorgeous it was. Perfection. Truly. The kids had a blast running through the sand and finding crabs and shells. It felt like we hadn't been to the beach in forever and it was extra special to be there on Christmas Eve, just the four of us, watching the sun set and enjoying every second being together.

When we got home we found that the Elves had left new Christmas jammies (another tradition) on our doorstep for them to wear to bed. We showered the kids and ate our dinner (crab cakes and spaghetti with a tomato tuna sauce) and then read the story of Christ's birth from the bible. It was so nice and peaceful. We talked with the kids about why we truly celebrate this night, that it's not about presents and toys and treats. Max actually seemed to kind of get it. Lia not so much, I mean, she is only 3.

Christmas Eve just felt so nice this year. After the kids went to bed Tyler and I put all the presents under the tree. Luckily we had been on top of the wrapping so we weren't up past midnight trying to get it all done! Can you believe all the presents?? Those were ALL for the kids. They have incredibly generous and kind grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. It's no surprise that being in school is tough. And every year around July or August I start to stress about how we'll buy the kids Christmas presents that year. I want their little hearts to have everything they desire and I stress and stress about it. Obviously the stress is unnecessary! Even without Santa's presents and our presents our floor would be filled with lots! Christmas is just so much better with kids around!

(P.S. I realize my photography skills this holiday were SERIOUSLY lacking!! Mostly we used our cheapy point and shoot, hence the extra grainy images. I was just totally burned out and had zero desire to pick up the Canon! Oh well... lesson learned!)

Together Again

2011-12-18T20:26:00.000-08:00

While Mattie Rose and my mom were visiting I did a little mini shoot with the three of them together. I wish we all lived closer so that they could be together all the time. These moments when they are little are so fleeting and it only seems right that they should be experiencing them together. But life is funny like that sometimes.

Ice Skating San Diego Style

2011-12-15T19:41:00.000-08:00

Was it weird watching my kids and my husband ice skating on an outdoor manmade rink in the 65 degree warmth of the sun? Yup. Was it weird yelling at them to avoid the really melty puddle parts? Yup. You'd think after being in Southern California for as long as I have I'd be used to this kind of thing. Nope! I grew up skating in the freezing cold on a real pond. I had my own ice skates. I skated for free! It's still pretty strange to me to pay to skate outside on melty ice when I could be at the beach in the same day.

This was the first time skating for the kids and they did great! Max even got out in the middle and skated around by himself. His primary motivation is that he wants to play hockey so he figures this is one practice session closer to being able to join a team (he thinks he'll only need two or three more practices).

Lia had a little bit of a rougher time, which is to be expected. She did enjoy being pushed and pulled around by Tyler though. I stayed on the sidelines taking pictures because we couldn't really handle paying more than we already were for the three of them (close to $40!!). I took these "great" photos instead (I use the quotes there because I obviously have a lot to learn when it comes to taking photos against the bright shiny reflective surface of white ice!!)

After the skating (all 30 minutes of it) we got some hot chocolate and headed home.

CO-Op Christmas Party!

2011-12-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

It was my turn to host CO-OP babysitting the week before Christmas so I decided to have a little party for all the kids that came. We watched "The Grinch" (the original of course, not that creepy Jim Carrey version) and then decorated cookies -- green grinch hearts, red christmas trees and white snowflakes. We had 10 kids here and thank goodness Tyler was on vacation and home to help! He had the great idea of playing bingo with the kids, too! And we made a little manger and baby Jesus craft, too. It was a huge success for me! The kids had a blast and I earned lots of CO-OP tickets to use in the new year.

Advent Calendars

2011-12-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

This year I stayed up WAY too late on November 30th to make this cute advent calendar for the kids to start on December 1st. I'm so glad I did though because they loved it! Each day of December had a clip and hanging from the clip was either an activity to do, a scripture to read, a little gift or some candy. Because it wasn't just a calendar filled with chocolates or one where you just move to the next number we could focus more on what Christmas really means to us, something that often gets lost for me due to the seriously insane holiday shooting schedule I have.

Anyway, some of the fun activities we did together to make Christmas special this year:

Make snowflakes.
Bake cookies.
Go to the Temple to see the lights.
Date nights with daddy/mom.
Reading the Christmas story.
Unwrapping a new book and reading it together ("You Are Special" by Max Lucado).
Watching a new Christmas movie (Polar Express) together with popcorn.
Going on a Christmas lights drive with hot chocolate.
Doing a good deed for our neighbors (leaving a treat and a picture on their doorstep).
Everyone getting $5 and exchanging names and picking out surprise gifts for each other.

We had a great time doing all of these activities and the kids seriously loved it all! Especially my R2D2 Snowflake! (I should have taken more pictures of all of the fun things they got and did!! I'm kind of shocked I didn't!)

Max's Holiday Show

2011-12-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Max's kindergarten class put on the most adorable Holiday Show for the parents. At least I think it was adorable. I want to cry even writing this but it was kind of a total disaster on my part. Even walking out of the room that day I felt like I wanted to cry. Lia and I arrived about 30 minutes early thinking that it would be plenty of time to get some good seats up in front. I was DEAD wrong. We ended up all the way in back in the row against the wall. Which would have been fine, except that I'm only five feet tall. And I had a squirmy less than thrilled 3 year old with me who wanted to do anything but sit.on.her.dang.chair. And when the space between our row, which was in fact an aisle way, was beginning to get crowded with people standing I tried to resort to standing on my chair but I still couldn't see where the kids were up in front singing. They shoved way too many kindergarten parents and families into this small room where the kids stood on risers and everyone stood up to try to see their own kid. It was insane. And it was even worse that Tyler couldn't be there. And once again I tried to work the video camera and the point and shoot camera all while trying to just make Lia sit.on.her.dang.chair!!!

So, tossing all that sadness and the fact that I barely saw Max at all for his performance, Max saw me wave a few times and was perfectly happy with that. He had no idea of the craziness going on in the audience. He was proud that I was there watching him and that I waved and yelled his name. The few pictures I did snap were terrible, looking at them makes me want to cry all over again. And the video isn't much better, shot between the heads of two other people all shaky and out of focus. But my sweet boy saw me and I was at least present to see the culmination of all his hard work and practicing of the songs and cute little jokes and dances they did.

For the next performance I refuse to be muscled out of the way of watching my first born do adorable cute stuff and will push my way to the front. Or arrive 3 hours early. And if you want to hear a few funny Christmas jokes, ask Max, he's got a couple of great ones!'

Ugh, these photos are SO BAD! Max is the one on the far left on the bottom row.

Cute boy got to lead his class in!

Baby Girl Turns 3 PHOTOS!

2011-11-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

Lia's three year photos were taken in Old Town one morning with just the two of us. She was so happy to just spend some time with me snapping photos and getting some popcorn and white soda (sprite) afterwards helped a lot.

NO-Kids Allowed Date Night

2011-11-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a quick little visit from Grammie and a lucky weekend off for Tyler from the craziness of third year Tyler and I got to go on a date together to our favorite restaurant, Ariana Kebab House. It was nice to sit and chat with Tyler without interruptions or tantrums. I sure do love this guy, even after all these years.

Mani/Pedi Thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T19:17:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving my mom and little sister Mattie came and we had turkey and all the fixings right in our little apartment. It was so nice having my mom here and the food came out delicious!! And of course I didn't take a single picture of any of that!

But... I DID take LOTS of pictures of Lia's first ever manicure and pedicure!! As one of her birthday presents we told her she could get her nails done with me so while my mom was here we had a girls day and got everyone in to the salon for pedicures and manicures! My mom, Mattie Rose, Danielle, me and Lia all piled in and got pampered. It was Mattie's first time, too! They were both in HEAVEN. It was the most adorable thing in the world to watch. Lia was so so so happy, beaming the whole time. And Mattie felt so grown up! It was such a fun thing to do.

Lia picked a bright shade of blue for her toes and a sparkly shade of green for her fingers. Funny girl!

And afterwards we had our first encounter of the year with Santa. Max and Lia were a little apprehensive about going up to sit on his lap. But when they saw that Mattie was game, they followed right behind her. Lia told him she wanted a great big HUGE giraffe and Max said he wanted legos. They were kind of in awe of him and took him very seriously.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

2011-11-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

Our spunky, sassy, sweet, bossy, crazy, grumpy, happy little girl turned 3. It's hard for me to even think about really. The day of her birth and bringing her home from the hospital are moments that are still so fresh in my mind. Her little personality shined through from the instant she decided when she wanted to be born (she was scheduled to be born via cesarean the day after her actual birthday, but she had her own plans, obviously). She's filled a spot in our family that was definitely made for her and continues to exude so much personality that we're afraid, at times, that she might just explode.

She's too smart for her own good sometimes. She's definitely our defiant child. She cares a whole lot less about getting into trouble than her brother does. She's a sweetheart when she wants to be and a diva at others. She loves taking baths. She loves her brother. She loves villains (her favorites include Randal from Monster's Inc. and Shen from Kung Fu Panda II). She loves the park, the beach, sushi, noodles and anything that's salty and crunchy.

She's the perfect for our little family and we love her to pieces!

Thanks to amazing grandparents and aunts and uncles Lia got lots and lots of birthday presents. I didn't realize how difficult getting presents for her would be with her birthday so close to Christmas. She got her beloved Jesse and Bullseye doll, new clothes, accessories for her dolls and lots of other things that if I start to name I'm sure I'll mix up with Christmas presents. For lunch she picked happy meals and for dinner she of course picked sushi. She had a wonderful and went to bed sweet and happy and three!

The Queen Bee Market

2011-11-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the lovely ladies who run The Queen Bee Market here in San Diego (an amazing craft show) I got to photograph the event and set up a booth in the lobby advertising my photography with Blackbird Ink! It was a lot of fun, and I even got to meet the sweet and adorable and oh so talented Mindy Gledhill. She gave a little Christmas concert on the first night and it was so fun! Here's a look at my booth and a few shots of Mindy's stage.

Oh, and I have to say, Tyler did an excellent job on the backdrop for me! He figured out exactly what I wanted and put it together to make something really lovely!

No more diapers!!

2011-11-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

Guess who wears diapers in our house now? NO ONE! It's amazing!! For the first time in 5 years I'm not changing anyone's diaper! Or spending loads of money on them.

Lia decided one day that she was done with diapers. Seriously, that's all it took. My earlier attempts to potty train her had been half-hearted and she truly didn't seem all that ready. I didn't want to fight with her and wasn't in any real rush. But seriously, one morning she woke up, told me she only wanted to wear underwear, has had maybe 3 accidents total since we've made the switch and that was it. No fighting, no angst, no yelling, no begging. She just potty trained herself! I love it when they do that!

Date Night!

2011-11-10T17:30:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while we like to take the kids on little date nights with just me or Tyler and one of them. Max has been on a few dates with daddy, mostly consisting of some sort of sporting event or haircut or trip to In 'N Out or a donut shop. Lia always asks to go to sushi with him. She's been on two sushi dates with Tyler and just loves every single second of it. Tyler even buys her a flower. And of course her favorites -- "spicy chips" (doritos) and Gaanorade (Gatorade).

Football With Friends

2011-11-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

A good friend of ours is the assistant coach of the football team at the private high school up the street from us and let us know their schedule in case we were ever interested in taking Max to go see one of the games. Tyler and one of Max's friends from his soccer team and his dad decided that a nice cold rainy night would be the perfect opportunity (or it was something about it being the last home game of the season). Max and his friend Malachi had a blast, got soaked and watched football. Max is a HUGE football fan; well, truthfully he loves ALL sports. He keeps begging us to sign him up to play football. He was sad to learn that football and soccer are in the same season -- decisions decisions.

Yes, they are the same age.

Halloween!

2011-10-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking on this post. Lia had a hard time picking a costume this year. Or rather, the costumes she kept coming up with were a little too hard for me to conceive -- like a minion from Despicable Me or a purple giraffe. She ended up going as a princess and she was perfectly happy.

This photo is from a stroller strides group I took pictures of. They hired me to snap some shots of their kids all dressed up in their costumes during their group time. Lia came along and even got to trick or treat a little.

The kindergarten classes at Max's school had a Halloween parade. It was really cute to see all the little kids dressed up in their costumes! Lots of transformers and Rapunzels this year.

(that is not Max in front, he's towards the back of the line).

I thought this was kind of funny.

After the parade Max's class combined with another kindergarten class walked through the park next door to the assisted living home (or as they told the kids, where the grandma's and grandpa's live -- Lia was slightly confused when she didn't see her Grandpa, Grammie, Mimi, Da or Papa there) to sing Halloween songs to all the old ladies and a few old men, too. They were ADORABLE singing and the old folks loved them of course.

And a class picture...

Then I had to snap a few photos of the kids in their costumes.

Of course she had to get in on the karate chop transformer action, too.

That weekend our church had it's annual Trunk or Treat for the kids. This is one of the best activities the church does all year. The kids have a blast getting to go trick or treating in a safe place, all contained to one parking lot and they get TONS of candy. They also had games and photo ops, too, but it was a little crowded so we stuck to the candy.

And I had to share one of the best costumes that night. She sat right in the middle of the parking lot chanting and spouting all kinds of occupy nonsense. We got a kick out of it!

Lia Loves Liang's

2011-10-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

During soccer season this year with Max we pretty much had to eat out every Wednesday night. I definitely wasn't on top of packing some kind of dinner every week for us to picnic after his practices. His practices were at 5:30 on Wednesdays about 30mins from our house so it was kind of crazy trying to get there in rush hour traffic, entertain Lia for an hour in the cold (it would get dark and cold half way through). We survived and Max had a blast, but by 6:30 we were ALL starving.

Once in a while Tyler was able to meet us after work so we could get dinner together. On a recommendation from a blog and Yelp (best app ever) we found Mama Liang's Kitchen -- a Taiwanese noodle restaurant. It's a chain out of Northern California that serves yummy Taiwanese foods and soups with hand pulled noodles. The noodles are really thick and chewy. SO good! We really like this place. I'm sure there are better places, and since we aren't Taiwanese we don't know any better!

Well, Lia has fallen in LOVE with Liang's. Like, seriously loves it. We ordered beef noodle soup, beef pancakes, a special red pork and she devoured EVERYTHING. She couldn't get enough!! We tried giving her the soup and noodles separately so she could eat them easier and she insisted they go right into her soup like we were eating. She ate so much pork we though she would pop and she slurped up all that broth (which was slightly spicy) like she was famished. This girl LOVES Asian food! Her new love of Taiwanese noodle soup goes right along side her love of sushi and miso soup and rice and noodles.

Read about it here: http://kirbiecravings.com/2011/10/liangs-kitchen.html It's worth a visit if you are near Kearny Mesa!

My Husband's Pretty Sweet

2011-10-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

I came home to this... yes, those are roses.

Random iPhone Photos

2011-10-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

These posts are some of my favorites because I get to revisit all those photos I took with my phone while out and about. These are in no particular order.

Carpooling Fun

Lia discovers a new mom while out shopping. One with much nicer legs than her real mom.

Max has a special date with daddy for haircuts and ends up with a giant donut.

Funny signs in the doctors office while waiting to see the doctor for a cough that was unstoppable.

Beautiful San Diego skyline.

She wants to be just like her brother all.the.time.

A rare moment of loving one another. Okay, so they aren't that rare. It's just the last two days they've been much more nuts than usual.

Picture taken by Max after a workout (something that actually IS rare around here for me these days.)

Random car photos.

Me and the kids.

I have to say that this photo in particular sums up so much for me. It's one of my all time favorites. Their personalities are just shining through. Lia the goofy one. Max in the background holding on sweetly. Slightly blurry as we run through life here and there trying to catch up and be present. This photo IS motherhood to me.

I asked Lia to put the toilet paper away for me in the bathroom. I came in and saw a giant TP Tower.

Other random photos...

Picnic with puppy in the living room.

How we do Angry Birds.

Lia's perfect day? Watching all 3 Toy Story movies surrounded by every character.

Sunday Best

2011-10-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

Have I said how much Max loves this vest? And why shouldn't he -- he's THE cutest thing that has ever worn it! Like, over the top adorable. I seriously can't get enough of these pictures!

Just Amelia

2011-10-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

Official 5 Year Photos!

2011-10-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post these for a while now. I was finally able to squeeze in a little photo shoot, just me and the boy, in Little Italy. He was pretty excited to get to go with me. Luckily I've gotten them so used to the camera that they are awesome about standing still and smiling and posing for me. He even picked out his own outfit! He insisted on wearing his red Toms AND the vest. The vest was a MUST. I sure do love this boy. Five is a really fun age! Although, like with every age, has it's own set of challenges. He's definitely trying to assert himself more, which is both good and bad. But he's smart and kind and thoughtful, like, pretty much all the time. He'll clean up his whole room, even the messes that Lia has made, without being asked. He'll doing amazingly kind things for his little sister, things I don't even think to do. He's smart and funny and creative, too. The older he gets the more I'm fascinated by the person he's becoming. But like I tell him all the time, he'll ALWAYS be my baby, no matter how old he gets (although, not like in that creepy way like in that book "I'll Love You Forever." I won't be crawling up his stairs in the middle of the night when he's 40 to rock him to sleep.)

Mini Shoot

2011-10-08T22:48:00.000-07:00

I had to do a little product photography for a local children's clothes designer so I took Lia and Max out to a spot I'd been wanting to try for a while. I'm not all that much of a fan of how these photos turned out. I wish I had time to fix them, but it was kind of how the designer wanted them to look, so... ces't la vie I guess! Max joined in on the fun, too, even though he wasn't officially part of the shoot.

Kono's Breakfast

2011-10-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

Tyler had a Saturday morning off (trust me, it's rare) so we headed out to Pacific Beach for some breakfast at Kono's. It's a local favorite, although, if you ask me, it's a little overrun by tourists. I'm not a fan of touristy places around here. Unless of course I AM the tourist, then I don't mind.

The verdict is that this place is quite tasty, although I'm not sure anything in particular sets it apart from any other favorite breakfast place. There plates were piled high, that's for sure! And of course all Max would eat was bacon.

Doyle Superstar!

2011-09-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

Oh Max is STILL so proud of this! At his school they run an award program (a few students from each class each month) are chosen to be a Doyle Superstar! The award is given to students who show exemplary citizenship at school -- being extra polite and nice to fellow students, going out of their way to help another student, following all the rules. Max was chosen in the first round of awards!! He was SO excited. They do a little ceremony for the kids who are chosen and they get an award certificate, they get to wear a special necklace for the day and they also get a gift certificate for a MONSTER milkshake at Red Robin.

He was SOOO so proud of getting a Doyle Superstar award. He's such a good good boy at school. He tries so hard to follow all the rules and listen and be kind. We're very proud of him. I wish that Tyler had been able to come to the ceremony with me! I could have gotten much better photos. I had to wrangle Lia by myself after rushing there as fast as I could after a shoot getting a seat all the way in the back and having to work the video camera AND the point and shoot. So... the pictures aren't great. But trust me. He was ADORABLE!!

Obligatory School Photo

2011-09-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to ME!

2011-09-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

I know I know, it's been a ridiculous amount of time since I've updated this blog. SO long in fact I'm sure you've all given up hope of me ever updating again. But just as all hope is about to be lost -- LOOK a POST!! Get ready ya'll. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be updating completely. YES! Updating takes time guys. Lots of time. And if you are me it takes you more than twice as long as normal people because I'm such a perfectionist!! And I have to be thorough. And it doesn't help that I take pictures with my iphone, my point and shoot AND my Canon. It takes time to sort and organize through all that! Then add on top of that, two birthdays, Thanksgiving, the insanely busy holiday shooting season, Christmas, New Years, vacations, the flu and life in general it really does almost become a lost cause. But fear not! I'm updating! SO... trying to stay in chronological order here...

I had a birthday! Yes, #29. It's not all that exciting of a birthday in terms of the year. My last year in my 20s I guess? If I start to think about all the things I wanted to accomplish before I turn 30 I start to get jittery, so we won't even go there.

To celebrate Tyler took me and the kids up to Julian for a bit. But it was rather short lived. The weather was iffy (was it hot? was it humid? was it cold? rainy? I honestly can't remember exactly, it's been too long and I AM 29 now, after all). We ate at a little place that had chicken pie dumplings -- heaven on a plate... with gravy. And then I snapped a few pictures of the kids before Max had a meltdown because his throat hurt (truth be told he was pretty sick for days afterward) and Lia got rock candy in her hair, but not before we had apple pie and ice cream.

Later that night Tyler and I went out to our favorite little Afghani restaurant but came home pretty early because I was getting sick, too. I'm pretty sure I spent the next week really really ill. Anyway... enjoy the few photos I snapped from that day! I'm remembering it as a good day filled with love and family. Can't go wrong with that, right?

SEE?

2011-09-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

I really am 5 feet tall. Shoes off, feet flat on the floor, 5 full feet tall.

Five = GUM

2011-09-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

Since the day Max learned what gum was and that gum is fun and it tastes good and that he wanted some, I've told him that he can't have it until he turns five. Well, guess who's five!

Luckily, he's not all that fond of it. He chews it for about 2 minutes and then wants to spit it out.

But he thinks he's all grown up now! And... this photo just cracks me up. He called himself Captain Peacock Feathers.

Random iPhone Happenings

2011-09-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

So this isn't from my iPhone but it is a random picture of the kids running in the parking lot. I actually like to call this picture "The Twins" because not even 10 seconds after I snapped this did 3 separate people in a row ask me if they were twins. Really guys??

We had the Baker girls over (I have to say Baker "girls" now because they've added the SWEETEST little boy ever to their family!!) for a few hours one afternoon and had a movie party.

We got 2 new fish. The kids got to pick out one each. It was my attempt at making every day during the last week of Max's summer vacation a day of fun. This day I struggled because we had gone to the Children's Museum in Escondido and it was CLOSED! So we got fish instead! Lia's is named Tiny and Max named his Otto.

Another day of "fun" I tried to plan to the aquarium. This place takes about 20mins total to walk through. So we got happy meals after!

She's just so cuute in these sunglasses!

Who knew? We had to get these for class supplies.

He LOVES babies. He asks me all the time to have more babies -- two at the same time. He LOVES to snuggle new babies and hold them and kiss them. It's really kind of sweet to watch. Lia, on the other hand, does NOT like new babies. Dolls, yes. Babies, NO.

Cute boy on his first day of school!!!

KINDERGARTEN!!

2011-09-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

Tyler and I walked our boy into his first day of Kindergarten today. I thought I'd get teary and weepy but I honestly didn't. It was more a sense of relief. Like -- he made it!! I made it!! We got through the first five years and we still all really like each other!! The weather was very strange, too. It was raining! Luckily it stopped right as we were getting to school. But it was the weirdest thing to wake up in San Diego and have it rain on the first day of school. It was also SUPER humid. Like crazy humid!! Max didn't seem to notice, he was just so excited!

His classroom is perfect and supposedly his teacher (Mrs. Tusa -- pronounced Too - shaa) is the best kindergarten teacher at the school. His school is HUGE as far as elementary schools go. There are about 200 kindergarteners and about 800 kids in his school. Crazy!! He has a few friends in his class and I think he was kind of relieved about that.

He LOVES kindergarten!! He was totally ready for us to leave. When he came home he said his favorite part about kindergarten is LEARNING. Not recess. Not snack. But learning.

He has a pretty long day. We get up at 6:30am and have to be out the door at 7:05. School officially starts at 7:40am but the traffic into and out of that place is INSANE. There is NO parking and every single kinder kid has to be walked into the classroom instead of dropped off. Pick up isn't any better. He gets out at 2pm except for Wednesdays which is a minimum day and he gets out at 11:45. Luckily we have a good carpool arrangement worked out with our neighbor so hopefully nap times will stay as intact as possible for Lia!!

He took a peanut butter sandwich today for lunch in his Spiderman lunch box. I put a special note inside with some pictures of us all together. He really liked that.

I'm excited to go to Back to School Night to learn all the in and outs of his classroom, what he'll be learning this year, etc. This new schedule will definitely take some adjusting but like anything, we'll get used to it. I'm just sooo proud and excited for our Max!

Summertime's End

2011-09-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

I feel like this is probably our last beach day just me and the kids. With Max in school it lessens his chances of being able to go. Especially since we don't usually go on weekends (and our weekends are pretty full!)

I love their matching swimsuits -- something I didn't notice until I started snapping pictures! Makes me want to take them back to do a real shoot in them.

I'm pretty sure this was the same day there was a great white seen at Children's Pool just a little ways south from here. And then another great white was seen at Swamis!

Anyway, no mystery here, we love the beach!

SOCCER SEASON!!

2011-09-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

(totally his idea for a pose)

Max is getting to do a lot of "firsts" this year! There were so many things we were waiting to do when he turned 5 and now that he finally is he's getting to do, like, real kid stuff. Thanks to grammie and papa Max is now on an AYSO soccer team. He has his first game on September 10th and he's SOO excited!! He was a little disappointed at his first practice when I told him that it was his team and he wouldn't be playing another team yet.

They voted on a team name: The Bumblebees (their uniforms are yellow and black).

He takes soccer very seriously. Tyler took him out on a daddy date night and they went and played a little in a park and Tyler gave him some great pointers. He tries SO hard to not use his hands (and I have to say, he does the best at it on his team). He does not give up on that ball! He doesn't let the taller kids push him around. He's learning good ball control, too.

I'm super excited to see his first game! I know I shouldn't expect much, but still. He's going to be so dang cute in that little uniform!!

Grammie and Papa's

2011-08-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

I like how my sister-in-law likes to refer to grammie and papa's house as "The Resort." It really kind of is. They have a pool, lots of different and fun toys, parks, a boat, lots of snacks, fresh blackberries to pick, cute little dogs to play with... it's the perfect place for grandkids to have fun!

As the boredom of summer continued (bored mostly because I'm kind of a lame mom) we decided to go visit Tyler's parents for a few days. Tyler couldn't go with us because of his crazy third year work schedule so the kids and I braved the 8+ hour drive ourselves. They did AWESOME!! We didn't have to put a movie on until after we made it through the Grapevine on the way there. And on the way home we didn't put one on until after Bakersfield. They were true road trip champs! No tears or whining.

We had a great time once we got there, too! Swimming in the pool, going to a park, riding a little train and getting to feed some farm animals at Cover's Apple Ranch. Usually when we go to Tyler's parents house we don't do much but hang out at their house. Which is fun! But this time we got to do a few fun things we don't normally do, too.

Kevin took the boat out for us which was a special treat! I'm not much of a water sports kind of person so I felt kind of bad that he went to all the trouble of getting it out just to drive it around for a little while. But the kids had a BLAST!! Max was SO excited he got to drive the boat and go tubing with Sally. Seriously they still talk about how much fun the boat was!

The kids had a great time picking blackberries from the bushes in the backyard, too. There were TONS of berries. Lia went crazy. Max didn't really eat any (of course) but he loved picking them. He actually DID try strawberries (ones we picked in the yard) and decided he liked them and now he eats them! It's a miracle!

We had a great time and honestly wished we could have stayed a little longer. Even I got spoiled! Sally and Kevin let me pick movies to watch and they made me dinner and I just got to relax and enjoy!

Thanks for letting us come so last minute! We had a lot of fun!

On this day...

2011-08-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, Facebook is annoying. But one cool thing it does do is remind of old status messages. This was my message two years ago this day.

Love Him

2011-08-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I still can't believe he's only been here for 5 years. I feel like I've known him my whole life!

Shades

2011-08-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

Summer is starting to drag on and on. I think Max is getting pretty bored. We kind of feel like we're just waiting around for fall to start. One day while we were bored we decided to try on some sunglasses at Old Navy. We had a good 10 minutes of fun just laughing at each other. I'm sure everyone else in the store thought we were crazy!

Smurfing Around

2011-08-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

Actually, we didn't really see Smurfs that day. But we did have fun with our friends!!

Library Card!

2011-08-18T17:10:00.000-07:00

Max got his first REAL library card!! We told him when he was five he could get his own card. He even signed his own name on it! He was so excited to use it, too. This kid devours books. He loves them. He reads about 20-30 during his quiet time (okay, so he doesn't really read yet, but he looks at the pages and makes up the stories). He asks every day if we can go to the library and use his card. So exciting!! I totally remember getting MY first library card at Blackstone Library. Blackstone is one of the prettiest libraries I've ever seen. It's pretty amazing for such a small town. But I still have my first card where I signed my name all on my own, too. (It probably still has a fine on it. I'm known for my library fines and my subsequent boycott of having to pay up.)

Painty Toes

2011-08-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

Lia is turning in to quite the little girly girl. One of her favorite things is having her nails painted pink. So I indulged her one afternoon. She was in heaven!

It is really fun to have such a girly little sweetie around! She loves to play with her dolls and help me do chores. She's also pretty excited for Max start school so it will be "JUST THE GIRLS!!!" during the day!

Woah...

2011-08-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Max came up to me one morning and in his usually inquisitively toned voice said, "Mama, I want to try some cereal (pause) with MILK." I almost fell on the floor in utter shock.

If you know Max you will know that he eats nothing that is over wet or with sauce. He'll have cereal for breakfast, but with a cup of milk instead of the milk in the bowl. He won't eat mac and cheese or pasta with sauce or pizza or pretty much anything that is associated with kids' food go-to foods. He has MAJOR food aversions and will rarely try something new.

You know how I got him to eat a peanut butter sandwich when he was 2??? I convinced him that peanut butter sandwiches were his FAVORITE thing to eat and that he ate them ALL the time. I went on and on about it. And finally, he took a bite. Then another. Now he eats one every.single.day for lunch.

Anyway... on this day he wanted cereal. With milk. So I poured him a bowl of cheerios. Added the milk, to which he said, "Wait a minute... I'm a little confused..." and I quickly interrupted with, "YOU WILL LOVE THIS!!"

He did like it. He ate half the bowl. And hasn't asked for cereal with milk since. I am considering it progress. If you lived in the world of Max and food that we live in, you would, too.

First Haircut!!

2011-08-12T17:00:00.001-07:00

I finally did it. It's been a long time coming, but I had been putting it off because I didn't want to say goodbye to her sweet little baby waves. We went to get Max's haircut and while we were there the stylist convinced me that it was indeed time to cut off those tiny little wispy ends. Just a SLIGHT trim to even things up. I went for it. I'm SO glad I did. While I miss those little wispys, her hair looks and feels SO much healthier.

At first Lia was a bit apprehensive. She kept telling us that only boys got haircuts. Which is totally logical for her seeing as how she's seen Tyler and Max get haircuts since she was born but she's never actually seen me get mine done (THANKFULLY). We finally convinced her that EVERYONE gets their haircut and with the promise of a lollipop and a new hair bow she hopped right up!

She did GREAT and at the end they gave us a little certificate and a baggie with her baby hair inside. And I didn't even cry!

Bed Time

2011-08-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Our bedtime routine has pretty much been the same since Max was born. Bath, book, bed (with slight variations when the kids were still taking bottles). The kids truly love reading their daddy. I love that Tyler does the bedtime routine, too. He bathes them, dresses them, reads to them. He's always done it, since the day Max was born. It's been such a great way for him to bond with them, too. Not that he needs help, he's a great dad.

Right Now

2011-08-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

I want to remember how these two little ones are right now. I want to remember how they loved each other and cared for each other and looked out for each other. Because they do just that. All the time. I have a hard time relating to their special relationship. My sister and I didn't get along at all growing up. We've only just become friendly with each other as we entered adulthood. But Maddox and Amelia have a serious bond. I'm so grateful for it.

Sure, they argue and bicker and fight just like anyone would. They spend every minute of the day together (and the night for that matter), who wouldn't? But I love that when we are at the beach and another kid comes and picks on Lia, Max steps in to defend her, to talk to the bully reasonably and rationally for her. He does it without being taught, without being asked. He just does it. And Lia, she's only 2 years old so her emotions are generally expressed in spurts, but she'll cry when we talk about Max going to school everyday. She says she'll miss "her boy" so much.

I'm lucky that I get to watch this. I'm lucky that I get to see their relationship everyday, growing and blooming. I'm lucky, so very lucky, to be their mom.

Random iPhone Photos

2011-08-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

I love the way my baby's hair curls when it's humid.

I love how much this boy likes to run and play.

We got to go on a date together. I sure do love this guy.

We are still CAL fans!

Sometimes there are better places to be than eating breakfast.

We always laugh at silly things we see.

I think that girl next to me is really cute.

I love that my kids have best friends. And I love their best friends like my own kids.

Who couldn't love this face?

THE BOY TURNS 5!!!

2011-07-31T19:52:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we have a five year old!! This kid has been looking forward to turning 5 for about 5 years now. He thinks he's so grown up and big now! When we walked in to get him in the morning on his birthday he started jumping up and down on his bed saying, "LOOK!! I can jump higher now!!!" He then jumped off his bed and ran across the apartment yelling, "LOOK!! I CAN EVEN RUN FASTER NOW!!"

Knowing he couldn't wait until cake later on in the day, we let him open his presents from us in the morning. He was SO excited to see everything decorated for him! Oh, and his breakfast of choice for his birthday? A poptart! Simple yet delicious. From us he got a few lego sets, some soccer things, a movie and some other little things he'd been asking for.

We then headed out to Pelly's for some miniature golf (including Danielle who spent the day with us, too). The kids had never been and were VERY excited to play!! I'm pretty sure they had no idea what it was but that it did involve golf balls and golf clubs. We tried the first few holes to play for real, but it just kind of ended up being a free-for-all with Max running ahead and whacking his ball everywhere and Lia running after everyone else's ball after they hit it once and dropping it in the hole for them.

They all had fun though which was the most important!

And Max was the only one to score a legit hole-in-one!! GO Max!!

We then headed to Wahoo's for lunch for the adults. The kids got Happy Meals from McDonald's -- Max's choice. He wanted some kind of lunch with a "really cool toy!"

After that we dropped Lia and Tyler off at home for naps and Danielle and I surprised Max by taking him to see the new Smurfs movie at the theater. He was SOOO excited!! Although, he ended up not really enjoying the movie all that much. He thought it was kind of "weird and funny looking." Oh well! I have to agree that it was kind of lame. I think the MASSIVE amounts of popcorn he ate made up for it.

After the movie we came back for some birthday cake and a few more presents. Max picked out this delicious oreo cookie ice cream cake.

My mom got him a seriously cute, um, I mean awesome (yes, I got yelled at by said 5 year old for saying it was cute) Batman backpack from PBKids. And Danielle got him some Transformers gear for school, too. Grammie and Papa got Max a super cool soccer ball and also paid for his soccer registration so that he can play on a REAL soccer team this fall!! He's beyond excited. Grandpa and Margaret got him some soccer cleats and socks and some soccer shorts, too. He's totally set now!

Max kept saying it was the best birthday ever. I tried really hard to make it fun for him! We are so loving our 5 year old Max. He's the BEST!!

Dear Max...

2011-07-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

Our sweet, sensitive, loving, thoughtful, crazy, energetic, super smart, super fast FIVE year old! Oh how much we love you, more than words can even say. We love the way you laugh, we love the way you smile. We love the way you wrap your arms around our necks to hug and cuddle with us. We love that you wake up grumpy even if you are difficult sometimes. We love that you are always willing to help us with anything. You make the beds without being asked. You clean up your whole room, all your toys and the rest of the house just because you love us. You are the sweetest, kindest little boy we've every known and we are so proud to be your parents.

You love to color and do art. And you draw incredibly thoughtful and amazing pictures! You are super smart and can figure out all kinds of things without us having to help you. You can build anything and everything out of blocks or Legos or pillows or old boxes.

You love to do anything outside. You still love the beach and running and playing in the sand. You are always the happiest when we are there. You love the park. You are still incredibly fast. So fast that even people we don't know comment on how fast you are. You can run run run and never get tired of it. You really are like a little superhero.

You are the most loving big brother we've ever seen. You are always caring and helping Lia with everything and anything. You stand up for her on the playground when another kid is mean. You play with her and teach her as much as you can. You take your roll of big brother very seriously. You are so understanding when she bothers you and you are quick to come to her aid when she needs help.

You have a loving heart the size of a gigantic elephant! It's amazing it even fits inside that sweet little body of yours. While you can be shy sometimes, you listen when your mom or dad tell you to try to be more out going. You always try to do your best in every way. You strive to be a good boy and to choose the right all the time. Although you get into trouble sometimes, you rarely do it on purpose and are always trying to be the very best boy you can be.

We love you more than life itself our sweet sweet Maddox boy. We are so excited for you to start kindergarten. You will love it and will be so good at it. We are loving the person you are already becoming and can't wait for you to keep growing and learning and thriving. We feel so so blessed to be your mom and dad. How lucky are we that we get to be YOUR parents? Our sweet sweet boy. We love you!

Hugs and Kisses,
Mama and Daddy

We'll miss this place...

2011-07-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

I'm already getting nostalgic about leaving San Diego and we're still at least 2 years away from that! I know I know, I have issues. The truth is I actually don't mind moving to new places, I really like it! But there is something amazing about living this close to such a gorgeous beach. I can't help but think about how quickly the day is coming when we might not be able to hop in the car and drive five minutes to the sand. Luckily, Residency can be temporary. And I might just fall in love with that new place, too.

But for now... I'll just let these two roll around in the sand as much as possible!

Beach Love

2011-07-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

Just posted these on my photoblog but thought I'd post them here for those that don't look over there! We had a great little afternoon at the beach. And lucky for us, Tyler got to come, too! We snuck this little trip in after dinner to let the kids get out a little bit more energy and just to sit and relax. We're always happy when we take the time to do this. The beach makes us all happy!

Captain America

2011-07-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

He has nothing on these two!

Quirky Girl

2011-07-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Lia is definitely our quirky little girl. She's got so many silly, cute, adorable, deplorable, frustrating, funny, quirky things about her that we can hardly keep up with her quickly changing moods. Tantrums are definitely a 6 or 7 a day kind of thing now. Drama is the norm. Pink and princesses and puppies are the fad.

Here, Lia's hair reaches new heights in the tub. Quite a feat of physics.

While we were staying in Orange County with the family (in a town house that Nick's brother generously let us use!) we had to share a room with the kids. The room was teeny tiny, with two twin beds we pushed together for me and Tyler. We brought some camping mats for the kids; Max was at the foot of the beds (kicking it all night long and keep us from getting any sleep, literally) and Lia we decided to put inside the closet. It was the perfect space for her! She crawled in, shut the door and fell right to sleep. Except Sunday morning when Tyler woke up (I was in San Diego dealing with the kitty drama) he found her like this, totally zonked out on the floor, not inside the closet.

Temples

2011-07-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

In our last General Conference we were told that we should keep a picture of the Temple in every room of our house (or maybe just the bedrooms? I have such a bad memory with this kind of stuff). So I decided the kids needed one in their room. Instead of just buying one at the church bookstore (or taking one myself) I went and had the kids stand in front of the Temple and took their pictures. I printed them in 5x7 and framed them and hung them on the wall in their bedroom.

They are so tiny compared to the Temple!

The kids are so proud of their Temple pictures! They LOVE the Temple, love seeing it wherever we go in La Jolla, and love to point out Moroni from our bedroom window (we can see him just above the trees and buildings). Max is especially happy to have the Temple picture where he can see it. He's such a good kid, he consistently says prayers on his own in his bed at night and in the morning. He started doing this without any prompting from us, either. Sweet boy. We love sure do love him and Lia and the Temple and we're so grateful we live so close to it. I think our kids have a better understanding of the Temple because we get to see it and touch and be near it. We're so lucky to live where we do!

Date Night With Daddy and Lots of Parties

2011-07-16T22:41:00.000-07:00

June has been a pretty crazy month for me! Well, if I'm being honest, March through June has been kind of nuts here. If I didn't have a million photo shoots (not complaining, totally LOVE that I had so many!!) I was planning parties or taking care of sick kids, or being sick myself, or being stuck at home while Tyler worked crazy hours to finish the PhD, etc etc, you get the idea.

Anyway... the month of June was party month! I planned and executed (with LOTS of help) 2 baby showers and a birthday party for Max. And as most of you know, I have a sickness when it comes to party throwing. I can't just be content with opening a bag of ruffles and store bought french onion dip (even though I LOVE that stuff) and putting out fancy colored napkins. NOPE. I have to go all out. No, I NEED to go all out. And so I did. And although it almost killed me (hmm, I wonder where Lia gets that dramatic side from) (oh, and for that matter, where Max gets his OCD detailed oriented side from) I actually loved loved loved doing it all!

The first party was Lucynthia Rockwood's baby shower. I made the invites. I think they came out really cute!

I had lots of help from Desirae Badger who graciously took on the crazy task of making all the food. We had the shower at my house and we decorated with white flowers and linens and plates. Everyone had to bring a package of diapers, since the gender of her baby (it's a girl) is just "baby" right now. It was lots of fun to host. I like being the hostess! But I'm a bad photographer, I only took 2 pictures!

The second party was Brooke's baby shower. It was a backyard BBQ vintage rodeo theme. I made these invites, too. Cute, no?

I would have liked to go even MORE all out for her shower but with limited funds I worked with what I had! I think it came out awesome. I hope she liked it! I planned for months -- colors, theme, invites. It all came together nicely!

The third party was Max's. But I'll get to that in another post.

Anyway... the point of the post!! I'm getting there!! So for the night of Lucynthia's baby shower I told Tyler to take the kids to dinner and out somewhere and not to come back until after 8. So he did! He took them to get dinner and then planned to take them to a movie on campus. When that didn't pan out (he had the dates wrong) he decided to take them for a little jaunt around the campus to their favorite spots and then out for ice cream (see!! treat pushover!!) They kids LOVED it and were so excited to get to spend time with him.

They had also been to the fair that morning with Danielle and she let them get their faces painted! Max's was supposed to be Batman but it looked NOTHING like it whatsoever. Max didn't seem to notice or care, he was just really excited to have Batman on his cheek.

No More Naps!

2011-07-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

Sigh... it happened, finally. I'm not happy about it, but it is what it is. Max is done with naps! The two big reasons why this is sad to me:

1. It means he's growing up and I can't handle the growing up!
2. It means I no longer get my full on afternoon quiet time all to myself!

Max has been mostly napless for a few months now. Instead, he reads quietly on my bed for a little while and then is allowed to get up and watch an episode of VOLTRON or play his Leapster for a little while. He does great with no napping and I figured he needs to get used to it for kindergarten anyway.

Lately when I go in to tell him he can get up he asks me if he can stay and read a little longer. He goes through about 20-30 books (looking at all the pictures, telling the stories to himself). He LOVES "reading." His favorite right now is the Book of Mormon picture book. He insists on going through the whole thing everyday. There are some days where he falls asleep though. Sometimes he just gets tired! But it's working out okay so far.

Oh, and Lia is for SURE not allowed to give those up yet!! Not for a LONG time!!

Max on Drugs

2011-07-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

Here's the video of Max waking up from the anesthesia after his MRI. I still crack up when I watch it. We showed it to him this afternoon and he thought it was hilarious! He didn't believe us until we showed him. Funny boy!

One good thing about Max and anesthesia? He was pretty low-key the rest of that day.

Randoms

2011-07-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

Max and Tyler like to get their hair cut together. Tyler is proving to be much more of a pushover when it comes to treats than me. He got Max a cupcake from Sprinkles. Max was pretty excited!

Lia looking cute in a football helmet. Reminds me of that episode of "The Cosby Show" where Rudy plays football and then her team loses the big game. Except when it's my kid, we'll win.

Max asked Tyler to take a picture of this. Looks like someone was naughty enough to be sleeping with the fishes. Hm, should we be concerned?

At Chloe Baker's birthday party Max was mummified. His group did awesome wrapping him in toilet paper. I think they picked him because he was the smallest one.

Spraygrounds Revisited!

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

When Max was a baby and Mattie Rose still lived nearby we would take them to the Santee Sprayground. It was super fun and easy and cheap! The kids loved running through the water! I thought this week would be a good week to take another visit. I hadn't been in a few years (Lia had never been) and it's been nice and hot and sticky.

For some unknown reason Max decided he wanted to be grumpy today. Maybe it's the heat, maybe he's practicing with some teenage hormones, who knows! Anyway, he was less than cooperative so there are lots of pictures of Lia and maybe 2 of the back of his head.

We drove over with the Rockwoods and brought another little friend with us, too, whose mom just had twins! Max has a newfound appreciation for Calvin. He's very excited that he'll be starting kindergarten with Calvin in September. We also met the Baker girls there! I miss them so much!

We had fun I think. I was very irritated that they raised the entrance fee. It used to be only $3 per car and now it's $3 per car and $2 per kid. It was a little more pricey than we had anticipated! And we would have been more prepared had they stated that on their website. LAME! Live and learn!

Look Familiar?

2011-07-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Does this car look familiar?

Here, let me jog your memory.

The second car was painted to the exact specifications of Max. And apparently it exists in real life. Maybe he is destined to drive a Ferrari.

And so it begins...

2011-07-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

The day we've been anticipating for 5 years now has finally come! Tyler has started his 3rd year of med school today! In case you are all wondering why this is so important or notable -- 3rd year is pretty much the most important year in medical school training. It's the year where Tyler will rotate through most medical specialties, learning, taking call, having frequent exams that must be aced (literally) without having a lot of time to study, all while making sure he sees his kids and eats 3 meals a day! Ask any med student and it's a pretty dang stressful year.

Luckily, the kids and I aren't worried about him. We know he'll do amazing as he always does! And we'll be fine with less of daddy around. We'll miss him so so much (in the words of Lia) but thankfully the kids are older and easier to handle! Will there be rough days for us? SURE! But we'll survive! And at the end of this year we'll be one step closer to NOT being students anymore!!! Woo!

So good luck Tyler! But you don't need it!

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

And in the spirit of America and things American, I present to you our very own Maxy Balboa.

We had a relaxing day. We spent the morning fighting for a small spot on the sand at La Jolla Shores (we actually got seriously lucky with a street parking spot right across from the beach!) Came home, had some BBQ with friends and saw the fireworks. It's easy living in a world where so many things are wrong, to fall into a diatribe of what's wrong with our country, our president, our laws, our government. We forget how extremely blessed we are to live in the United States. With all of its faults, there are so many wonderfully amazing things about this place. From the gorgeous scenery to the ability we have to do anything, say anything and be anything we want to be. Without this glorious nation would the church have been restored? Would Joseph Smith have been able to do what he did? Would we be able to live as we choose? I'm so grateful to live here. As much as I threaten that I'm packing up and moving to Canada, I couldn't leave here! Those Canadian accents would kill me!!

First Baseball Game!

2011-07-02T22:29:00.000-07:00

It was Mormon Night at the Padres (yes, they really have that) which meant that us Mormons could get cheap tickets to go to the game. So Tyler decided to take Max to his first baseball game ever. Tyler found some cheap sweat bands at Target and wrapped them up so Max could open them. The game happened to be on the same day as his birthday party. Max was beyond excited when he unwrapped them and then we told him he was going to get to go with daddy to a real game! He LOVES sports. He loves to watch them, learn about them, play them.

Tyler said he really liked watching and being there and that he asked loads of questions (no surprise there!) He kept showing off his sweat bands and said that after the game he could pretend they were his superhero wrist walkie talkies and launch buttons.

He even told Tyler that if the Padres scored again he could get cotton candy. Sadly the Padres never scored again but Max did convince Tyler to get the cotton candy!

He even got to see a home run! I think it's so fun he got to go with Tyler to watch the game. He's already asking when he can go back again!

And bonus: he can now use the sweat bands as superhero talking devices or to power his superjets.

Max had a party!

2011-07-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

But he didn't quite turn 5 yet! We decided to have Max's birthday party early this year so that Tyler could go. When we planned the party we had no idea what his schedule for the month of July would be like so we just planned the party for when we knew he would be around.

Thanks to my awesome friend and photography client we were able to have Mad Science party! Mad Science is a totally awesome company that teaches pretty much anyone who wants to learn about science. They mostly focus on classrooms and kids, doing science demonstrations and workshops all over San Diego in schools and libraries. They have "scientists" who come and put on a whole workshop! It's pretty awesome. We had one come to Max's preschool right before he left to do a little workshop with the kids.

So Max's party was a Science Party!! It was "super awesome!" according to Max, and most of the kids there. All of them pretty much loved every minute of it! We did lots of Max's favorite treats, so pretty much candy and cookies (sorry parents!) and the weather was perfect that day, too. I also made some stickers for the kids to wear -- science themed of course! The kids were mesmerized by the science stuff and got to see a rocket launch twice! They gave Max his own rocket, too. And the party included these wicked cool goodie bags full of science toys and stickers. Seriously, this was a really awesome unique party, and super duper easy!

Pretty believable looking mad scientist, right?

Every kid got a chance to blow inside the super long bag to fill it up with CO2 gas. They thought it was pretty awesome.

Egg inside the bottle trick! Love it!

Dollar soaked in alcohol won't burn! Max even got to keep it when he was done.

Dry ice makes wicked cool bubbles in dish soap. I had no idea!

Apparently this bubble would have gotten HUGE but Max kept wanting to pop it before it got really big. He was just do dang excited! Luckily the scientist had a good sense of humor about it.

Rocket launch!

Max got SO many awesome presents. He seriously has the best friends! I'm always amazed that whenever I throw a party for Max pretty much every single kid I invite comes. Either they love him so much or they just want to see what kind of crazy party we come up with every year! This might be the last big party for a while though! I need a party break.

SO -- Mad Science is awesome!! If you have the chance to do a party like this, or go to one of their free demos in San Diego DO IT. Totally worth it!! (If you friend them on Facebook they post where they will be doing the demos). Awesome party!! Happy almost birthday to Max!!

Camping Fiasco/Mother's Day/Tyler Wins Dad of the Year

2011-06-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well, all intentions were good. Sadly, that wasn't enough to keep Lia's stomach in check. For Mother's Day weekend our ward graciously planned a father/kid campout to give the moms (well, some moms) a chance for a quiet night to themselves. Max was beyond excited. He LOVED camping last year. Lia kept whining that she didn't want to sleep in the dirt but was excited to go with Tyler and her brother anyway. I packed them up, we borrowed some stuff from the Bakers (well, ALL of the stuff from the Bakers, we have no camping gear; I think we'd camp more if we had the stuff) and I waved goodbye as I relished a night of watching "Practical Magic" and eating whatever I wanted for dinner and painting my toes and taking a warm bath and sleeping in a bed ALONE with no noise or husbands kicking.

Well, 2am rolled around and my phone rang. I was seriously confused when I picked it up and it was Tyler saying he was pulling into the parking lot of our apartment and I needed to come unlock the door. Poor Lia had woken up and thrown up ALL OVER the inside of the tent, all over herself, all over Tyler, pretty much anything she could reach. So poor Tyler had to pack the kids back up, try to get the barf out of the tent as best he could, clean Lia off, all in the pitch dark, in the woods, in the mountains, with Max screeching for Lia to get away from him and gagging and crying that she was going to get barf on him. He woke up Nate Rockwood to ask him to fold up the tent and bring it back for him in the morning, strapped the kids in the car and drove all the way back home.

So much for my awesome Mother's Day weekend. So much for Max's awesome camping trip, he was pretty bummed to have to come home. Sad little Lia kept asking Tyler, "why do I always throw up like that every time??" She does throw up a lot. It's because of her acid reflux. She has completely random and unpredictable episodes of throwing up. Too bad camping night had to be one of them!

Tyler has had to deal with way more Lia barf than I have though. He seriously gets Dad of the Year for that alone (remember her throwing up on a plane all over him at Christmas time??) Anyway, we may try camping again in the future. But right now, it's safer to be near a washer and dryer for times like that.

We Believe...

2011-06-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

At church on Sundays Max attends Primary during the second and third hours. It's like a Sunday school for kids where they are taught a lesson in a small class of their age group and are then combined with the rest of the youth from 3-12 years old for singing and sharing time. Every Sunday three kids are chosen to give a short talk (no more than a few minutes; parents help the younger children), recite a scripture or give the closing prayer. Max has already given a talk (last year, we're waiting for another one soon!) and he was chosen a few weeks ago to give a scripture. The specific scripture he was given was the Fourth Article of Faith. It's a fairly long one but Max was determined to memorize and recite it in front of the whole Primary by himself (especially after Seth Rutman did it and he's a whole year younger)! It didn't take more than a day practicing with Tyler to get it down. He did AMAZING!!

He's now intent on memorizing all 13 of them! We'll see how it goes.

But, it doesn't stop there. Apparently while Tyler and Max were practicing, Lia picked up on it, too. Without us knowing she pretty much memorized it all on her own and just busted it out one night. Tyler and I just stared at her and then at each other and then back at her. What 2 1/2 year old memorizes something like that?? And we didn't even help her or prompt her. Watch the video!!

And bless Max's heart, he's so proud of her! I thought maybe he'd feel bad that she learned it, too, but he just loves to brag that she can say it like him. And apparently it's not like we could have stopped her!!

Daddy Father's Day

2011-06-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

Lia likes to call Tyler her Daddy Father. She said her favorite thing about her Daddy Father is that he has squishy cheeks that she can give lots of kisses to. Mostly she likes her daddy to hold her. All the time. And read her books, and cut her strawberries, and get her milk, and unbuckle her car seat. She's very much a daddy's girl. She pretty much could mostly care less about me being around. When she's in trouble she cries for her daddy. When he leaves in the morning she's sad for a good 5 minutes (until I let her watch "Diego"). She says she wants to marry daddy someday. When we tell her that he's already married to me, she gets very mad and says, NO, SHE will marry daddy. Then she tells me I can just be part of her "framleeee" instead.

Max likes to say "Hey Daddy??" A LOT followed by some sort of question or request. His favorite things to do with daddy: reading chapter books for hours, watching sports on TV asking a million questions to understand the game (that Tyler patiently answers), playing sports, playing outside, doing science stuff with him, going on adventures and camping. Max loves asking Tyler all sorts of science questions and thinks that Tyler is the only one who can answer them (arguing with me that there's no way I could know the answers because I'm a girl). He also loves to learn about "doctor stuff" with Tyler, too. And Tyler always knows the answers to the superhero questions.

We sure do love our Daddy Father Tyler. He's loving, patient and kind. He always makes time for the kids in his busy schedule. And they love him tons for it!

Anniversary. Again.

2011-06-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

Yup, eight years. Seems like it was just yesterday! Love him more everyday.

OH MY!

2011-06-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

Yes. It's happening. I'm updating the blog. Get ready for some back-dated goodness!! I assume if you are reading this, you do in fact care that I'm actually updating and therefore will overlook the annoying back dates if you are reading via Google Reader and the like. SMILE!!

P.S. I'm updating while watching "The Cosby Show" so as to put me in a loving family type mood :)

Reading With Daddy

2011-06-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

One of Max's favorite things to do with daddy is reading. Recently, Tyler has started reading chapter books to Max and has started with the Chronicles of Narnia series. They are on the third book, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, already and they haven't been reading for all that long! Tyler and were sort of surprised that Max enjoyed sitting and listening to books without pictures. But he LOVES it and can't get enough of it. He listens and comprehends every detail, too. It's pretty amazing for a boy who's not quite five!!

Plus, it brings back great memories of when my mom used to read us books. We'd lay on her bed and she'd do all the voices! It's still one of my most favorite things we used to do with her!

Once 3rd year starts I may have to take over reading duties. Hopefully Max won't mind! I'm just glad this kid has a love for books like his parents.

Videos

2011-06-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

Some videos we've taken of the kids. Mostly grandparents will think these are cute!

Lia singing a Primary song in Spanish. And being her sassy self at the end.

A few of Max learning to ride his bike without training wheels. We're still working on it. He'd have gotten it by now, but we just haven't had time to be out there with him. These videos were taken about 5 minutes after we first took them off. Not bad for literally just starting!! One thing we're going to master this summer!

Kids being silly in the bath!

Grandparents

2011-06-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

One of the frequent conversations in our house usually consists of naming all known relatives and their relationships to the kids (Mattie is our aunt, Grandma With the White Hair is our great grandma, Papa is our Grandpa). This conversation always gets me thinking about my own grandparents. Two of my four grandparents I hardly knew. My dad's parents moved back to Italy when I was just a baby. I knew pictures of them, and saw them again later when I was older, but sadly I had very little contact with them over the years. My mom's dad died when my mom was only two so I never knew him. My mom's mom (or as my kids call her, Grandma With the White Hair) was like a second mom to me. My mom was a single mom who worked hard so my grandma took on most of the after-school duties for us. Anyway... I have a point! I promise! Since the kids are so interested in their relatives I have been wanting to get photos of my grandparents and Tyler's grandparents up around the house. I have a photo of my great aunt Rose (who Lia is named after) hanging in the house, and a photo of Tyler's grandpa on the bookshelf. It's been slow going, but I finally got a picture of my grandfather (my mom's dad, who I never got a chance to know). I've always loved this photo! Anyway, I'm slowly making my way to getting all the photos printed and framed. There are surprisingly few photos (okay, not that surprising I guess) of my grandparents and aunts and uncles, especially compared to the thousands of photos I have of Max and Lia already, and Max isn't even 5 yet! But hopefully seeing some of the older photos will help mold the stories of the family that Lia and Max belong to. That's my hope anyway!

Presidio Park

2011-06-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

One Sunday afternoon we decided to head out to Presidio Park in Old Town. I'd only been there for the first time a few weeks earlier for a photo shoot and I knew the kids would just love it! It was so nice spending an afternoon running, playing, relaxing and enjoying the cool San Diego ocean breezes. Presidio Park is up on a big hill overlooking the city below. It's gorgeous.

The kids loved rolling down the hills and searching for Squirrel Nutkin. We walked up to the top of the hill and saw some Mormon Battalion monuments at the top (the kids thought that was pretty cool).

(Feet off the ground! He always could get to impressive heights mid-stride!)

I feel like there is so much in San Diego that we never take advantage of! And that our time here is slowly dwindling down and now I feel rushed to take it all in. I'm glad we decided to spend some time. The kids love when they are able to run around as much as they want in the fresh air.

Snapshots!

2011-06-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here are a few snapshots from our daily life. I really love the fun apps for the iphone. I use those more than I use my big camera! Makes it pretty easy to snap fun photos of the day-to-day fun stuff.

Max LOVES to draw! And he's really great at it, too.

Lia enjoying some miso soup. She loves Japanese food!

I'm asked at least twice a week if they are twins. With the way Lia talks and acts and with how small Max is I can't really blame them! Max IS taller than Lia, but it's hard to tell when they are next to each other or when one is riding in a cart and the other is walking.

We spent a day at the Escondido Children's Museum and loved it! We got passes to go for the year so if anyone is up for it let us know! (Thanks for the find Grammie!)

Just some cute kids.

Me.

Dinner at Five Guys with our favorite family!

Pretty much how it is most days around here. He made me get rid of all his pirate stuff because he's into superheroes now.

Found this at World Market and had to try. Spotted Dick. It was actually really good!!

More bees!

Having fun at Moonlight Beach with Mattie Rose!

We met some of Tyler's family one Saturday morning for brunch at the Coronado Golf Course. It was so yummy! Thanks guys! The kids were fascinated by the golfing. Especially Max.

Pretty sky.

Mother's Day breakfast! Delicious! Thanks honey!

A day at Birch Aquarium with mom and they got to pick a treat. I was thinking candy, they were thinking toys. Max got his favorite Giant Pacific Octopus.

I think he's got my lashes.

As an early birthday present we picked up a pair of these kicks for Max. He thinks they make him run SOO much faster. For all we know they probably do!

Things that make me happy.

This just cracks me up! On the window of a Mexican restaurant.

Max loves "The Donald" and every time we have to go to Children's Hospital for whatever reason we have to stop and take his picture with him.

Fun with FatBooth!

Having some fun at Sea World.

My new faves: peonies!

Kids with the kitties when we first got them.

Free Doughnut Day!!

2011-06-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

My favorite day of the year!! I have a little obsession with doughnuts. Luckily, Krispy Kreme was handing out free doughnuts that day, so we headed over to our local shop. We each got a free doughnut of our choice!

Last Day of PreSchool

2011-06-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Max had his official last day of Preschool on May 23rd, right before we left for Orange County. This milestone is definitely bittersweet. I love that Max is so excited about moving on to Kindergarten! He just beams when he talks about it. But I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I have a five year old! I'm so freaked out that he's going to go to school and meet a bunch of naughty kids that teach him naughty things and his poor innocent little mind will be completely corrupted!! I know, overreact much?? YES.

Actually, Max is pretty dang awesome. He's one kid I truly do not worry about. His main goal in life right now is to just do the right thing, be a good boy and make Tyler and me happy. He seriously works so hard at it. I know he'll be fine in school, deep down. But I still can't help but worry!!

We loved having Max at the MCDC. I loved that he had a male teacher. I think it was awesome for Max to have that kind of attention. And Mr. Matty was just amazing. He totally understands boys (having three of his own at home) and knew just how to approach Max's energy and discipline. And Ms. Patsy was amazing, too, always teaching Max something new that he'd come home and gush about! We're so sad to be leaving there, but so excited for Max to take that next big step! And I know Max misses his best friend Dylan. We'll have to have a play date soon!

It's a big year for us Seiberts!!

Orange County Reunion!

2011-06-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

The very next day after Tyler's PhD defense we drove up to Orange County to have a mini family reunion. Now that Cory lives in LA it was a good place for us all to meet up and spend some time together. We were ALL together, even Andy and Levi came from Utah!

On Friday we all headed to Disneyland. It was pretty crazy! There were soo many of us. Our kids did pretty awesome that day. Tyler didn't want to walk around too much so he took the Lia halfway through the day for a little ride in the car. Our kids did a lot of waiting around for other people to go on rides, but they were pretty happy just hanging out with their cousins!! It was super fun to have all the kids together there, too.

Cute kids waiting patiently for everyone to come so we could go inside!

Grandma Seibert came, too!

Max was super excited about Pooh! Nick and I waited in line for the kids so they could meet a few characters.

Lia was not thrilled about Eeyore.

Watching the Clubhouse Disney show.

All the cousins together!

The whole group minus Nick and I who were waiting in line for Pooh.

Me and Jordy girl! Love her!

Tyler holding cute Carter! I could have held that baby all day. He was so amazingly chill!

Max felt so grown-up hanging out with Jessica!

Lia wasn't thrilled about meeting the princesses but I made her sit and get her photo taken!

Saturday was the Tough Mudder and Tyler, Cory, Kevin and I headed to Snow Valley while the rest of the crew took our kids to the beach. (Stole these photos from Molly's blog!!) That night I had to drive back home to deal with the kittens and everyone else got to play fun games and hang out. It even included Sally having her Oprah moment by handing out a bunch of gifts to everyone there (huge container of chocolate covered almonds, stamps, batteries, gift cards -- awesome loot!!)

Sunday after church and after I finally got back up there to see everyone we sat around talking and having fun together. Monday we all went our separate ways! But we loved getting to see everyone!!

Luckily we all live fairly close to each other that we get to do it (thanks for coming all the way here Levi and Andy!!) Our kids are still talking about the great time they had thanks to Grammie and Papa and all the hard work and planning that went into it. Love you guys!

TOUGH MUDDER SOCAL 2011!!!

2011-06-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

It all started back in January or so when I saw someone had posted a link on Facebook about this crazy race where you do all kinds of wicked stunts, swim through ice, run through fire, get shocked by hundreds of live wires. I immediately thought of our good friend Stephen Baker. He's a little nuts so I thought maybe he'd think it was fun. Then I thought, hey, Tyler and Cory (the actually invited the bro-in-laws, too) should do the race together and Stephen, too! So... a few emails and phone calls back and forth and the boys were signed up and ready to start training!

Tyler trained by running fairly regularly with the kids for longer distances than normal. He did some weight training, too.

The race was at the beautiful Snow Valley ski resort east of LA.

It was 10 miles with an 8,000 ft elevation and the guys did amazing!!

Tyler had a little episode 2/3 of the way through where he was devoid of energy and thought he was going to die. Luckily a few kind fellow racers gave him a snack and then just as he thought he couldn't make it another step, Linda saved the day (she was volunteering that day) by basically giving him her entire lunch. Tyler had a sandwich, cookies, fruit, power bar and a bunch of other stuff and within 10 minutes was ready to run another 10 miles! He finished the race all revved up!

Brooke tried out the first obstacle!

We saw lots of crazy costumes. I'm not sure how comfortable that was for running and obstacles!

The guys had a great time and finished with a good overall time! So proud of them!!

Brooke and I hung out at the bottom of the mountain waiting for the guys to finish while Tyler's dad hiked around the course taking video of them.

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The only bad part of the day was that the guys and I got the WORST sunburns of our lives!! I had no idea that the elevation would make the sun so much stronger. I never need to wear sunscreen and didn't even wear any when we were in the Bahamas (spare the lectures) but up there I burned SO bad!! I peeled twice!!

This is the last obstacle, where they had to run through live wires! Brooke and I had a great time watching people totally eat it into the mud. Apparently a few of the wires were super charged and if they got you in the right spot would just lay you out.

Anyway, it was definitely awesome. I hope they do it again next year!!

SUPERMAX!

2011-06-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

He's still loving superheroes right now. So much so that he made me get rid of ALL of his pirate toys claiming "pirates are for babies, superheroes are for real boys!!"

He even gets the neighborhood kids in on his superhero adventures.

And the little damsel in distress. Although she insists she's a pink superhero girl.

And a Public Service Announcement from VOLTRON: Defender of the Universe... don't pee on the toilet seat (his words exactly).

Our Kitties

2011-05-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to figure out how to write this post for some time. I can't help wanting to cry when I see the kids holding their kitties and being so happy with them. But here it goes.

The kids have been wanting a pet for a while, particularly Max who, despite acting nervous around dogs, has been asking for one. I finally convinced Tyler that a pet would be good for us, good for Max and Lia to learn a little responsibility and I'd have some extra company when 3rd Year started. So we headed down to the shelter to get some kittens. The kids were SO excited that they would each get to pick one out. Max had made his mind up about getting a "skinny black kitten" about two seconds after we told him he could get one. Lia picked out a cute little gray and white one.

We took them home and the kids were just beyond happy. Lia just lit up about her kitties. The little black one was a little more nervous around the kids, but loved Max so much! She would curl right up in his lap and fall asleep. The little gray loved Lia, despite her constantly picking up, slinging over shoulder, dropping, hugging, squeezing... you get the idea. Anyway, at one point Lia had to sit in time out in her room and the gray kitty meowed and meowed outside her bedroom door until Lia came out again.

Max named the black kitty Rainbow but called her "Bow" for short. Lia named the gray one Pink Penguin but we called him "Supercat" mostly. We sure did love them! They were ADORABLE!!

We'd only had them for a few days and when we had to head up to Orange County to have a mini family reunion. We left them with Danielle while we were gone. On Saturday Danielle called to say one of the cats was sick. So I raced back home after the Tough Mudder to pick them up and take them home. Early the next morning I woke up to check on them and it did NOT look good in the bathroom. It was a MESS and included some blood. So I found the closest vet hospital I could find and rushed them in. After waiting for what seemed like hours the doctor came out and told me that the cats had contracted feline distemper, most likely while in the shelter, and that it was fatal to kittens. Cats are usually vaccinated for it but the vaccination comes in two rounds and the kittens were so little, they had only had one round. I'm sure you can see where the story is leading.

Before I got back to the OC Tyler broke the news to the kids. Their reaction: "Awww!!" and 5 seconds later asked if they could go back to play with their cousins. Mercifully they weren't that torn up about it, mostly because I just don't think they understand what dying means. Anyway, it was a pretty rough experience for Tyler and I, one of the reasons we haven't gotten any new ones yet. I miss those cute little kitties! Maybe when we start residency we'll think about another pet. For now, I think we'll stick with FISH.

Dr. TYLER SEIBERT, PhD

2011-05-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

He did it!!! On May 26, 2011 Tyler successfully defended his PhD in front of family, friends and his committee. I am so SO so SO SO proud of him!! We're one step closer to being done with school and moving on to the next part of our lives! He worked HARD. Like, SERIOUSLY hard. He completed 5 publications in a record 3 years, it's pretty much unheard of to complete that caliber of work in that short a time span. Of course there were bumps along the way, but Tyler took them in stride and busted it out, especially the last few months where he worked 18 hour days almost every single day to get it done!

About to start!

I snuck a picture during the presentation!

So when you see him, you can officially call him Dr. Seibert! SO proud of this guy!! Driven, smart and cute.

Tyler with his PI Dr. Jim Brewer.

Max Teaches FHE

2011-05-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

Max taught us a wonderful FHE lesson thanks to an amazing gift from his Primary Teacher. It was a bucket filled with 12 or 13 objects with scriptures tied around each one to tell the Easter Story. Thanks to this amazing thing (that he's not allowed to play with because I want to save it!) he was able to retell the story almost perfectly! We think Sister Klaffs is awesome!! (He actually did soo much better the second time he did it for me, when I didn't catch it on video. This first time was the first night his hip started to really bother him. He was limping all over and in pain, poor kid.)

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FHE: For those readers who don't know what it is -- we are counciled to hold weekly family nights, called Family Home Evening, where we have a short lesson that is Gospel centered and an activity. The point is to spend one night at home together (the suggested night is Monday, but you make it work for your own family). Max LOVES FHE. He asks about it all week and gets so excited for it! It's a great way to make sure we spend some quality time together learning about The Savior and his teachings. Also, games and treats are a BIG part of it!!

Trick Hip

2011-05-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

We had a little bit of a scare with Max when he started limping around randomly one night complaining that his leg hurt. When he woke up the next day not being able to walk at all, we decided to take him in to the pediatrician who recommended x-rays and blood work. Poor kid couldn't walk at all, we had to carry him everywhere for a few days. Dr. Archie determined that it was his hip that was in pain (not his leg, sometimes kids can be confused about where the pain is coming from).

While waiting at the hospital for our x-ray we had to snap a picture with "The Donald" (as Max calls him). He was such a patient little boy. It was so uncomfortable for him to sit in the chairs while we waited but he did quietly and played his Leapster. Getting his blood drawn was pretty traumatic for him! But he got to pick 4 Ironman stickers and get french fries so it kind of made up for it I think. Plus, he was pretty excited to tell his friends at school about how he got his blood taken out of his arm!

We waited a few days for the results which showed some inconclusive results. The radiologist reading them said that one of his hips looked smaller than the other, meaning it could be the result of some kind of infection eating away the bone and joint tissue. Definitely NOT a good thing!! We were a little on edge waiting the few days it took to get an appointment for and MRI. Max was a trooper once again. At that point the limp was mostly gone, but we needed the MRI just to be safe. Poor kid had to be put to sleep for it.

Tyler and I pretty much thought he was hilarious while he was coming out of the anesthesia. I'm pretty sure the nurses and other parents in the recovery room were wondering who the terrible parents were that were laughing hysterically at their poor sick kid. (FYI, Max didn't even know). We took a video, I might post it later!

Thankfully the results of the MRI came back showing some inflammation of the hip joint which pretty much ruled out the much more serious diagnosis (we were thinking surgery and long term negatives for a little while there! Kind of scary!) and we're pretty positive he had Transient Synovitis, a virus that can present in the hips and knees of boys between the ages of 3 and 6. Such a random thing!! And we're so glad he's back to his crazy running energy filled self!!

We just had a follow up of appointment with another x-ray and he's got a clean bill of health! He was pretty excited they let him have a copy of the picture, too.

Crazy pile of BEES!

2011-04-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

While my parents were here visiting we noticed up on the branches in one of the trees in the parking lot a GIANT swarm of bees just silently wrapped around it. We were pretty weirded out by it. Especially because they were completely silent. So we called the maintenance guys to come get them out. Well, of course they never came, and were slightly rude on the phone (okay, truth be told I actually love the guys that come and fix stuff; they are always pleasant and happy to help out; it's those ones who answer the phones that have less-desirable attitudes). I came home a few days later and saw the entire pile of bees had fallen onto the pavement below and engulfed half a parking spot and the car next to it. It was crazy!! I'd never seen that many bees before in one spot, silently laying there. Still no buzzing.

Later that day they finally did come to take care of the bee situation, but I was a little saddened that they basically just sprayed them with bee killer. There are still bee carcases strewn about the parking lot. Too bad they didn't call a bee keeper!!

Hoppy Easter!

2011-04-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty low key Easter this year. We colored eggs the night before so that the Easter Bunny could hide them. And the kids woke up slightly cranky to check out their baskets in the morning!

They looked super cute for church though so I snapped a picture before we went inside. It's nice having holidays just the four of us! We missed Danielle though, she's usually with us. But it was fun to just sit, relax and enjoy the day. It left lots of room to ponder the real meaning of Easter.

Mattie, Max and Lia

2011-04-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

Here they are! I made sure we got a cute photo shoot in while Mattie was visiting. It had been a LONG time since I got to do one! Tyler and I took the three kids to the secret fairy forest and luckily it was still mostly green.

They were mostly cooperative. Lia was the hardest one to please. And of course it was tricky getting Mattie and Max to stop making that silly fake smile!

Mattie's green eyes matched the green grass pretty well.

We had a happy little surprise with some bunnies that decided to join in the fun. These were obviously not regular bunnies. They were fat and fluffy like domestic bunnies and had no problems with the kids going right up and petting them. Seems like someone must have turned their pet bunnies loose and they decided to populate the forest. There were at least 20 of them happily munching and hopping around.

Mostly while editing this shoot I couldn't believe how grown up Mattie is getting. She talks like a big kid and acts like a big kid. And she's just so so pretty. Love that girl!!

And one of my grown up boy! Can't believe he'll be 5 soon.

And the reason I don't have a cute picture of Lia's face from the shoot!

And by far my favorite shot! I was trying to get some pictures of Lia by herself and she was being seriously uncooperative (shocker) and I turned and these two were holding hands laughing and whispering with each other standing in the grass, completely uncoached and on their own. LOVE this SO much!!

The Spillanes Come Back To The Better Coast

2011-04-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

Right before Easter we had a visit from my mom, step-dad and Mattie Rose!! The kids were SOOO excited to have them here. For the first time since they were really little, Max and Mattie got along like best friends. They didn't fight or whine about each other. They played like a sweet aunt and nephew should.

By Mattie's request we headed out to Sea World and the Zoo. Lots of fun was had, even if it did sprinkle on us at Sea World (prompting Bob to buy a few Shamu ponchos and my mom deciding to be brave and wear one).

Danielle also planned a super fun Easter egg hunt for the kids. And nobody cried! Okay, honestly Lia probably cried because she cries about everything. And okay, maybe I cried a little when I realized how grown-up Mattie and Max are getting. Can't they just stop! Just for a little while! I'm already picturing their high school graduation and getting weepy.

It was a lot of fun to have them here visiting. We sure do miss them!!