Danielle

I have to say, as much as we hated each other growing up (and we'll race to be the first ones to say that) it's pretty awesome having her around now. And I don't just mean as a babysitter. Our kids LOVE Danielle. Like, seriously. They think she's just about the most awesome thing ever. And it's clear how much Danielle loves our kids. She's pretty much the best aunty in the world.



We love going to La Jolla Cove with her to check out the caves and tidepools. We had a picnic and then walked down to check them out. I will quickly gloss over the fact that I wiped out and ate it hard on a very pointy rock and sported a very greenish purple blackish blue bruise for a few weeks on my leg. Yeah, not fun.



But Max and Danielle had a ton of fun climbing on the rocks and checking out the seals and the waves. Lia was content to just play in the sand.

Easter Eggs

We colored eggs with Max again this year (we left Lia out because we couldn't quite wrap our heads around how to manage a lot of liquidy stainy stuff, our carpet and our 16 month old).



Max had a good time picking the colors he wanted and making them look nice for the Easter Bunny. Tyler got pretty creative, too.

CHEEESE!!!

Lia has a new smile that I'm not too pleased about. As cute as she is, as a photographer I just can't stand for it. She starts by sticking out her lower jaw as far is it can go. Then she tries to show her teeth and as loud as she can yells, "CHEEEEEESE."



Cheese indeed.

Max and Mattie Reunited!

While Tyler was away snowboarding my parents and little sister came to visit for the week. I hadn't seen Mattie since last summer so I was sooo excited to get to see her again! I miss her like crazy and wish they lived closer. Max was over the moon about them all being here, too.



We did lots of stuff while they were here. Disneyland was the highlight of our trip for sure. Thanks to our awesomely amazing friend Julie who put her life on hold for a whole day to babysit Lia, we all got to take Max and Mattie to Disneyland without tugging a 1 year old around all day. Disneyland is just about the greatest place on Earth to Max. He was in heaven being there.









He even brought his pirate costume to wear, although chose not to wear it on the actual Pirate ride because he was a little worried the pirates would mistake him for a real one and make him stay with them. He was actually pretty nervous to go on the ride but I forced gently coaxed him on and he ended up loving it of course.







We saw Mickey in a parade.


And someone was really happy to be marching down Main Street!


We also saw the best Cruella DeVille I've ever seen!


Max even got to drive his own car. Can you see his head barely sticking above the steering wheel? Haha, yes. He was loving every second of it.


Mattie also had a lot of fun playing with Max outside with the neighborhood kids. It was nice to see them all running around and playing together.



I really do think that Max and Mattie have a special connection. Even though they fight and bicker sometimes you can just see it.



This was also when Lia started doing her "CHEESE" smile. She pushes her bottom jaw out and says "CHEEEEEESE!!!!" really loudly when you ask her to smile.



We even got some Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt. We eventually enjoyed ours after waiting in line behind a bunch of non-English speaking people who were buying about 27 cups of stuff. It was ridiculous, but worked out in the end.







We had a great time visiting with them all. We can't wait to see them again in the fall when we go out to Connecticut. Max misses Mattie already!

Another One

Tyler celebrated another birthday. The big 29! Wow we're getting old! I wanted to do something special for him for his birthday since it's the last one before he becomes an old man so I got Brooke in on it with me (since her husband Stephen's birthday is in March, too). We decided to send our guys snowboarding for a few days. So off they went while we stayed behind to entertain our kids and my family who happened to be visiting for a few days.





I'm pretty sure they had a great time just bumming around, no responsibility, snowboarding for 2 days, eating good food that Tyler's mom cooked (they stayed with Tyler's parents since they live so close to some good resorts). And they even got to go repelling thanks to Tyler's mom. Tyler was pretty stoked seeing as how I would rather die than willing plummet to the bottom of a dark cave.





I'm glad Tyler got to go and have a good time. He doesn't get to just have that kind relaxation down time a lot, mostly by choice. It's hard to get him to go do stuff for himself (a wonderful quality, but one that can leave him stressed a lot, so I force him to do fun stuff whenever I can). I sure do love that guy -- even if he is getting old and gray -- still looks good to me.

Beach with the Bakers

Another Sunday afternoon rolled around and we found ourselves heading down to La Jolla Shores again to take advantage of the great weather and gorgeous scenery. This time we went with our favorite people. I love watching these 4 kids play together. They really are best friends.





We've always called Tyler the "Child Whisperer" because for some reason all the kids really gravitate towards him. It's not like he does anything special, but they all just love him. They follow him around when we're outside playing and gather around him to ask him questions. It's really kind of funny.



I love this picture! Too bad Chloe was just slightly grumpy and didn't make it in.



I really do hope that Max and Sienna get married some day. Chances are it won't happen. But just look how cute they are!! They constantly talk about getting married to each other. Totally unprompted by us! They each independently decided on their own that they wanted to marry each other. Adorable!



I did manage to get one cute shot of the Baker girls together.





Lia was a trooper up until she got so completely cold and wet that she just broke down. We took her to the car and dried her off but realized we forgot clean dry clothes for her. So when we went up to the Cove to check out the waves we just let her run around in her diaper. It was pretty chilly at that point, but Lia didn't seem to mind or care so we just let her go. Boy did we get some dirty looks and nasty comments!



We love our Sunday afternoons together!

Recycle!

I really do love Max's preschool. At first, when I saw he had a male teacher I was a little weirded out. Call me old fashioned, but I just couldn't understand why a guy would want to spend all day every day with little kids. But the more I get to know Mr. Matty the more I really think he's awesome. He's patient and kind and writes cool songs for the kids to learn and sing. And I think having that male energy in the classroom is a great thing for the kids.



Last month the kids were taught about recycling. Max's preschool is the first building at UCSD to be completely green and sustainable. I had no idea prior to this little concert that the kids put on to celebrate being awarded LEED Gold Certification. Pretty neat I think. (Must be why his school is so dang expensive!) Anyway, Mr. Matty wrote this song for the kids to sing and they practiced a LONG time because Max had been singing it for weeks. It was fun to watch him sing (the video is not great because there were a lot of rude moms pushing their way to the front to video their own kids. NOT cool.)



The kids also made this very cool recycling tree (with the help of his teachers). I think Max's school is great and his teachers are awesome. He's always learning new stuff and coming home and telling me all about it. It's fun to see him learn and grow that way. School is just about his most favorite thing right now and I hope it stays that way for as long as it can!

Rock Star

Max truly believes he's a rock star. And, to be fair, he pretty much believes he's just about anything -- Robin Hood, Peter Pan, a pirate, a rock star. Here is a video of Max putting on a rock concert for us. The broom turned microphone was his idea as was doing it up on his bed "like a stage." And notice the pirate coin he's using as a pick. Also his idea.

Time-Out

The other day Lia was acting like her naughty little self, hitting Max over the head with a bat repeatedly, despite my constant "no no no." This little girl could honestly care less about being disciplined. So when I told her that if she hit Max again she'd have to go to time-out she paused, looked at me, looked at Max, looked back at me, then gave Max one final whack and ran as fast as she could and sat in time-out. Either I wasn't specific enough or she thought it was worth it. Funny girl.



And Max, by the way, was great about being hit. He really didn't complain that much, just an exasperated "LIA" every couple of times. But that baby girl... I swear, we're not quite sure what to do with her!!

Team Challenge: 30 by 30

So, I've been figuring out if I should actually blog about this at all. I'm pretty proud of myself so far and I don't want to jinx anything (yes) and I don't want to look like I'm making a plug for the YMCA because I know there are lots of other options out there for weight loss and fitness. But, since this blog chronicles the lives of our kids and us I decided why not. If anything, maybe it will be motivational to those two people that read this thing -- oh wait, one of them was on the team with me.

So I did the Team Challenge at the YMCA. After seeing the amazing (and by amazing, I mean spectacular) results that a few of my friends had doing this I decided it was time to try it out. I wasn't having much success on my own losing much just going to spin classes in the mornings and occasional workouts at home or the gym. I was pretty discouraged with the vasts amount of weight I had gained since Tyler and I got married. It really is quite ridiculous. I have some good excuses, but not many. Mostly I just love love LOVE to eat. I love food. More than just a love of feeling full or the taste, I have a love and understanding and appreciation for food that not many people understand. Anyway... back to the important part. I had gained a whale's worth of weight and I felt pretty gross. I started working out about a year ago but didn't have much results. I always knew it was my eating. I don't like pig out regularly, but my attempts to keep things fairly healthy were foiled by the fact that I ate more than I should of those things and didn't pay much attention.

Now, mind you, it's very hard to be a fat girl married to my husband. Have you seen him?? He weighs the same as he did in high school -- he's almost 30. It's crazy the metabolism this guy has. What's worse is that his family is the same! His sisters are gorgeous and thin and fit and his brother the same. Seriously, I am the fat girl in the family. The big fat black sheep in a sea of beautiful white sheep, if you will.

So finally, after 2 kids, and knowing we weren't having anymore for a long long long time (if ever) I had motivation to get back into my pre-wedded bliss jeans. I figure high school jeans are a lost cause seeing as how I weighed 100 pounds in high school. Yeah, not reasonable. Maybe someday when I get that tummy tuck and lipo I've been craving. For now, pre-wedding jeans is a good goal.

And, that's where Team Challenge comes in. Today I'm finishing my first one. Our team didn't win. I didn't really expect it to. It doesn't help that my other two teammates were a 70 year old woman who didn't know that the point of the challenge was to lose weight until like the last two weeks, and a skinny hot blonde who seriously has no more weight to even lose but wants to lose it anyway (who I love to death). Anyway... so there I was. Starting this thing, terrified of failing. I seriously hate failing. And I was seeing results!! I lost consistently for the 8 weeks we did the program for a total of almost 13 pounds, 7 inches on my hips and 4 on my waist so far! And gone down almost 2 pant sizes (depends on the pants).

How did it work? It's mostly that I've dramatically changed my eating habits. I calorie count. A LOT. Every single day. I write down EVERYTHING I eat in a cute notebook that I spent way too much on at Anthropologie. I work out at least 4-5 times a week, sometimes twice a day (including the 2 hours a week we get with the personal trainer with the team). I'm accountable for myself, my weight, my progress. I feel better. I eat better. I have a goal and I compete with other people which helps me out a ton. I'm being reminded of when I was an athlete and played soccer and was fit and felt good and could run. I'm starting to feel like myself again.

So, I set a goal. 30 pounds by 30. That gives me like 2 1/2 years. I think I can do it. Yes, I gave myself a LOT of time. But I know me, I'll struggle at some point and then get back on it. I'm going to sign up for another challenge with our trainer Bryan, who's pretty cool. And I totally understand that to other people I still look like a little fatty. But for me, I KNOW I look different. I know my clothes fit different. I know I can run 6 minute interval sprints and feel amazing when I'm done. I know I can hold the plank for a minute and a half. I know I can jump rope for 3 minutes (well, sort of, jump roping is hard!!) I know I'm getting stronger. So yeah, I have a ways to go, but seriously, there's finally a light at the end of that squishy tunnel of fat and it's getting a lot brighter!

Super Cowboy Magician Max

We took the kids to get Happy Meals one night and the toy was a "real" magician's wand. This just about sent Max into hamburger french fry bliss. He couldn't believe he got a real wand. He kept asking me why it wasn't doing any magic. I had to explain to him that you have to go to magician school in order to get one that does real magic. You have to have a license. He bought it (the ONLY thing that he believed about it, because trust me, I had some good one liners). He now looks forward to going to magician school.

In the mean time, while he's, you know, waiting to grow up and get accepted to the magician school of his choice (I won't pay for U$C or Stanfurd) he practices in this outfit. Who knows, maybe he really will grow up to be a magician. I'll support him, even though magicians make me really mad and are slightly creepy and, oh yeah, they LIE. I'll still love him.

Pretzel Squishing

Last Sunday we were all feeling a little under the weather. Max has had this gnarly cough for weeks now (two antibiotics later and I think we're finally getting it cleared up) and Lia was just acting gnarly so we stayed home and just bummed around for the day. It was raining and gloomy and a great day to cook and bake and just relax. So I decided to make homemade soft pretzels. And let me tell you, they were AWESOME!!! I didn't think they were that hard to make, but I could see how some people might find it time consuming. Max loved it. He kept making different shapes and then squishing up the dough again and making new ones. He loved it. I'll definitely be making these again.







You basically have to mix, let it rise, twist them, boil them and bake them. The recipe I used is HERE. Next I want to try flavored pretzels. Maybe chocolate chip ones? Anyway, they were really fun to make and really tasty to eat!

Little Blur

For some reason I love this picture of Lia. I feel like so much of her is captured in this photo. She's like a little blur running through life, so full of energy and joy and enthusiasm and sass. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but this picture reminds me of her. That hint of a little fountain pony tail, her little hands holding some rocks, her sweater and her back turning to run off to look at something down the beach. It's just so her.