Elise Ann is here!

We welcomed Elise on Monday November 24th at 7:55 pm. She weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. She is the sweetest little peanut and we're all so excited she's here.

Pumpkin Patch

We went with Luke's preschool to the Pumpkin Patch today. Luke loved feeding the goats and lambs but Sydney was so nervous. I could tell she wanted to feed them because she would bend down and pick up hay and hold it as if the goats would somehow get it without touching her. Luke on the other hand was cracking up the whole time they were licking his hands. They both did great on the pony ride. I wasn't sure if Sydney would sit but she did and it was so cute to watch them go around and around. I love fall!

Is there a Doctor in the House?

I love this picture! Sydney had an owee so Luke ran and put on his scrubs and grabbed a bandaid to fix her up. He's such a thoughtful kid. And Syd was such a good patient.

New Clothes

I went to H&M to buy the kids some fall clothes. I swear within the last week they've both jumped a size and can't wear anything from last season. Anyway, I showed the kids their clothes and they both insisted on putting them on right away. I couldn't get the tags off fast enough. We had to run an errand that night and the kids still wouldn't take off their clothes, even though it was like 70 outside and their little hands were sweating in their gloves. I'm sure the people at Best Buy thought we were looney. I don't know what it is with my kids but they LOVE to dress up. Whether it be costumes, my shoes, new clothes, goggles, hats. Are all kids like this?

Little Miss Sydney especially loves clothes and accessories. Every time we're in a department store she sits down and takes off her shoes and starts trying on all the shoes. And she loves wearing sweatshirts. She always pulls this one pink sweatshirt out of her drawer and makes me put it on her, zipped up, with the hood on. So when you see her in pics in the same sweatshirt over and over you'll know why. I think Ryan is in big trouble.

By the way, do you like our lame attempt at Halloween? The kids seem to think it's great :)

The Getty

We finally made it to The Getty this past weekend. I can't speak for the actual artwork since we didn't make it inside any exhibits, but the location and views and architecture were unreal. The kids had a great time riding the tram and running around the grounds. If you are ever in L.A. this is a must see.

Visit to the Dentist

Luke and Syd had their annual dental appt. Can I just say how brilliant pediatric dentists are to have such fun offices with the nicest staff in the world. Luke told me how much he liked the "museum" and asked if we could "come back every day". Well...we do get to go back in a few weeks to fill his first cavity. We'll see how he feels after that.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

On Sunday the kids and I made Halloween sugar cookies. We made ghosts and pumpkins so I had the food coloring out to make orange frosting for the pumpkins. I put the red in and went to add the yellow but it was clogged so I grabbed a toothpick to unclog the lid. Well the tip of the toothpick broke off - seriously why are sugar cookies such a pain to make! Anyway, I called Ryan over to help me with the yellow, which he did, but in the meantime I lost track of Sydney and didn't realize it. Just as I sat down to frost the cookies in walks Sydney holding the red food coloring, the lid is gone, her hands are bright red, she has red saliva dripping out of her mouth, and she's looking at me like "help". Argh!! Ryan runs into the playroom where she's been for the last 5 minutes unattended while I carry her to the sink to wash her down. Thank heavens there was only one tiny drop of red on the carpet and miraculously nowhere else. Can I tell you how bad that would have been! Especially after our diaper disaster a couple of weeks ago when I had to have the professionals come in and clean her carpet...Sydney!!

By the way, is it normal for kids to eat sugar cookies like this?

Catalog Shopper

The Pottery Barn Kids catalog came in the mail the other day and Luke happened to notice it on the kitchen table. He immediately became interested because of the Star Wars bedroom on the cover (he's obsessed with Star Wars these days). I was in the middle of something in the kitchen so I sat him down on the couch with the catalog and told him to look through it. After about two minutes he said, "can I have anything I want in here?" Hmmm. I thought back to my childhood when my sisters and I used to go through the JC Penney catalog and choose what we would want on each page; I told him I had an idea. I grabbed a packet of little post-it-notes and told him to go through the catalog and put a sticky note on each page that he saw something he liked and we would talk about it. Of course my main goal was to keep him occupied while I finished what I was doing. About ten minutes later he told me he was done so I went over to see what he had marked and the entire catalog was posted with stickies, some pages even had like eight stickies on them. I quicky realized he didn't care what was on each page, he was just sticky happy and had marked the whole catalog. It was pretty funny. The greatest part is that my plan worked, he kept himself busy and he forgot all about the Star Wars bedroom. He hasn't asked about it since.

Boys' Trip

A few months ago my Dad and youngest brothers Dave and Brad came to California to celebrate Dave's graduation from BYU (nice job Dave!) They were kind enough to drive up to LA to spend a day with me :) We drove around Beverly Hills, hit The Grove and the Farmers Market, ate at Cafe La Boheme, and saw Wicked (which was so fantastic). Thanks for including me in your trip, it was such a memorable day!
(I know my eyes are shut in the last picture, thanks Dad, but it's the only picture I have at Wicked)

Weekend Away

We spent last weekend in St. George with Ann and her family. The kids had so much fun together swimming, going to the park, feeding the ducks. We had a great weekend and were sad to leave. (We missed you Liz!)

On our way out Ryan decided he couldn't live one more day without Grandma Sycamore's bread. So we pulled into Albertson's and he ran in while I waited in the car. I'm thinking he's maybe going to buy 6 or 8 loaves of bread to take home. Not even close, he strolls out with TWENTY loaves of bread. I about died. He was loading them in the back of the car and I was laughing my head off. Surprisingly they all fit in our freezer in our garage. Ryan claims his life has changed. I wouldn't go that far but I must admit we've had some delicious sandwiches this week.

First and Last Day of Art Class

Sydney's art class...hmmm. She was great for the first 5 minutes of painting and then all she wanted to do was get out of that classroom and join the other class that was having open gym playtime. There were three other very well-mannered little girls in the class who painted and followed instructions and ate their snacks and listened to the story, and then there was Sydney. She kept telling the teacher "no" when he would try and get her involved. She would not even touch the snack of pretzels and water because it wasn't cookies, chocolate, popsicles, suckers, or Sprite. During storytime she had no interest learning about the bear, she just wanted to get into the paints and finger paint all over the room. After 45 minutes of trying our best I politely told the teacher we were having an "off day" which little did he know was pretty much every day with Sis. I pulled her jelly body up off the floor, put her in a football hold, and yes, 7 months pregnant and sweating marched our little selves out of Gymboree. And just outside the door I tossed both art projects we had just completed in the garbage because glue was sticking to everything and I couldn't hold Sydney and my purse and our horrible art projects and make it to the car. So although the picture of Sydney looks cute and calm, it was anything but that.

I'm actually kind of glad the art class didn't work out because that's some serious pressure for a parent who is not creatively inclined. I think we'll try out My Gym next week where poor Syd can run and be free.

First Day of Soccer

Soccer was another hit. Coach Lindsey was Luke's coach before so it was great to be back with her. As you can see Sydney wants to do everything Luke does so it's pretty hard to get her to sit on the sidelines. I had just finished getting Luke dressed in his uniform and Sydney started crying and throwing a fit because she wanted to wear what Luke was wearing. So I dug up Luke's awesome orange uniform that Ryan picked up in Madrid a couple of years ago and Sydney couldn't have been happier. I threw it on over her clothes and off we went. Do you think the orange uniform goes okay with her pink crocs?

First Day of Preschool

Luke did great his first day of school. He goes twice a week, 5 hours a day, yowzas! It's so weird making him a lunch but it brought back great memories of taking my lunch to school. Luke hates peanut butter and since we can't send mac and cheese or a grilled cheese, I guess it's pretty much a turkey sandwich every day. I thought I was being such a nice mom by putting in a cookie along with his drink, cheetos, and grapes, but at the end of the day when he brought his lunch pack home the only thing that didn't get eaten was his cookie. What? I'm sure he just forgot :)

So the first day Luke had two homework projects due. Because they both involved arts and crafts I assigned them to Ryan. Well...those of you who know Ryan at all know how big of a procrastinator he is and while I urged him to help Lukie all day Sunday he opted to wait til Monday, of course. So around 7pm on Monday he decides to get started with Luke on making this house that will hang in the classroom and a poster "all about Luke". Luke lasted about 3 minutes and was done for the night yet Ryan was still at it til midnight. I think this might be a sign of things to come. I guess if I want Ryan's creative talents used I have to step back and let every homework project be completed with minutes to spare. Otherwise my kids will be well prepared but will probably have the worst art project in the class. Looks like I'll be in charge of math assignments :)

St. George

In April I met up with my sisters and their kids in St. George. We celebrated Sydney's 2nd birthday (sorry Sis, I'm always behind in my postings-Happy Birthday!), went to the Wildlife Museum, played in the fountains, rode bikes and scooters, spent some time with Ryan's sister Julia and her two darling girls Brooklyn and Courtney, and probably the most exciting part of all...invited the St. George fire department over for a quick check of the house. So here's the story....

Liz went to exercise one morning so Ann and I took all the kids for smoothies. On our way home we got a call from Liz who had just gotten home and wondered if the house smelled like something was burning when we left. Of course it didn't but I told her I did start the dryer on my way out. She had checked the dryer and was walking all through the house trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. She said it was really strong and was worried about it so she called my Dad who advised her to call the fire department (what would we do without our loving Dad?) When Ann and I pulled up Liz had the stairs from the attic pulled down in the garage and was attempting to climb up there to see if she could figure it out, keep in mind she's 6 months pregnant. I walk in the house and the burning smell is so strong. It smells like something rubber so we're thinking it has to be a belt in the dryer, right? Then we hear the sirens and look down the street and sure enough it's the fire department. But it's not just one truck, it's three! Oh my gosh, what a spectacle we're causing. We have all the kids out in the culdesac in their jammies, neighbors are coming out of their houses, and we're embarassed yet relieved someone is going to help us since we have no husbands with us. The firemen start suiting up in their gear, seriously pulling on their jackets and boots, and start walking through the house. About ten minutes later they come out to give us the report. There definitely was something burning and it was coming from the dishwasher and it was...a bottle nipple! Sydney's bottle nipple!!! Oh my gosh, how flippin' embarassed can we be? We look like the dumbest blonde moms at that point, we're apolozing up and down at how retarded we are. Gratefully they were so super nice about the whole incident and proceeded to give our kids a tour of the fire truck. They even apologized that they didn't have enough hats on their truck so they returned a couple of hours later with hats, stickers, and safety books for all the kids.

Thank you St. George fire department for helping a bunch of moms in need and for the great experience it turned out to be for our kids! We'll never forget it. Unfortunately, I'm sure my sweet Dad has a nice bill that he won't forget either. Sorry!

Earthquake!

I'm officially broken in! A couple of hours ago I had just walked in the door from Costco and was getting the kids settled when the ground started shifting back and forth, shaking, and everything on my walls starting rattling. It was so crazy! I was standing in my family room and was literally moving back and forth. I immediately knew what it was and started yelling to Luke and Sydney to come by me. I didn't really know where to go. I knew for tornadoes to hop in the bathtub but didn't think that applied to earthquakes, then I remembered the earthquake drills we used to have in elementary school when we would hide under our desks. It ended up only lasting seconds and then I realized Luke was asking me "what's going on mom, what is it?" and of course I so calmly (not) told him it was a "freakin' earthquake!" The kids weren't even phased by it but I was in disbelief. I grabbed the phone and tried to call Ryan, who happened to be mountain biking so I couldn't get a hold of him, then I tried my neighbors to make sure I wasn't crazy, and of course then my sisters and my mom. I finally got a hold of my neighbor who confirmed it was an earthquake and said it registered at 5.4, that's a pretty good one right? Anyway, we're all fine, Ryan included. I just hope that was the last one we feel for a while.

Exciting News...

We just found out we're having another girl!!! For those of you who don't know, which is probably most since I've been checked out of the blogging world for months, I'm pregnant and expecting the end of November. We're so excited to be having another girl and I'm especially excited for Sydney to have a sister. I'm already looking forward to pedicures, lunches, shopping, and girls' trips. Am I getting ahead of myself?

Finally...Pigtails!

Sydney's hair is finally long enough, and there's enough of it to get in pigtails, yes! Still working on the bangs and ignore the crackers all over her shirt. I'm just happy to have options :)

Happy Birthday Luke!

Lukie turned 4 on April 2nd! We started out with cupcakes for breakfast, had cupcakes for lunch, and ended with cupcakes and pizza for dinner. Yum! Luke had soccer that day so his team sang to him and then a couple of his friends went with us to the park to celebrate. Our sweet next door neighbor Joe, who's probably in his 80s, walked over that morning with a little something for Luke. I'm still not sure if he knew it was Luke's birthday or not, but his timing was perfect. He brought over a Home Depot apron with Luke's name on it and a wooden firetruck crayon holder for Ryan and Luke to build. Can you get nicer than that? He's such a nice man. I guess he's been in Home Depot commercials and occassionally he works there to keep busy. It was a very nice day with lots of love from family and friends. Happy Birthday Lukie!

Surprise Visit from Liz

A couple of weeks ago my sister Liz called me on a Monday morning wondering what my week looked like. When I told her we had nothing going on she was thrilled and hoped it would be okay if she flew in that night for the week. What! How exciting! So Liz and Ben (2 yrs) spent the week with us. They happened to be here when I hosted a ward Easter Egg Hunt in our backyard (thanks to my dear friend Natalie for inspiring me), which was great. But I think the hilight had to be when Liz and I decided the Friday before Easter would be a good day to hit Disneyland. What were we thinking? First of all, we debated all morning if we were up for it (we didn't even realize it was Good Friday). After two hours we thought why not, so we went to the grocery store to buy Liz a pass. We figured it would save us from standing in line, especially since I'm a season passholder, wow. So we get to Dland around 11, the kids are hungry, it's lunch time, and almost naptime, and when we pull in the parking garage the nice lady tells me it's a blackout day for my pass which means I have to either upgrade mine and Luke's pass or buy both of us a new pass for the day. Either way I'm out at least $120. What the crap! That's why I'm a season passholder, although I'm not the highest tier passholder since I didn't think I would choose to go to Disneyland with the rest of the world on a holiday. We had already driven there so I paid for parking (which is also blacked-out of course) and we unload the kids. After riding the tram to the front gates I proceed to stand in line to upgrade my pass. Poor Liz, who is 5 months pregnant, is trying to watch all three kids who are hungry and tired, it's like 85 degrees, and I'm about the 50th person in line. After 10 minutes of standing in line Liz and I start trying to talk to eachother over all these people behind me in the line. Like, "should we stay, is this worth it, what are we doing". Finally this nice lady behind me realizes what's going on and offers to hold my place in line while we figure it out. Long story even longer, we decide even though we are standing at the entry gates to Disneyland, and the kids know it, it's going to be a horrible day of lines, heat, and cranky kids so we decided to bag it. Instead we walked to downtown Disney and bought the kids whatever toys they wanted and rode the tram back to our car and drove home. I know we're nuts but I swear trying to tackle Disneyland would have been insane. The best part is that the kids couldn't have cared less. They thought the tram was a ride and they were thrilled with their new toys. Thanks Liz for such a memorable day!

Gotta Love the Beach

We decided to spend last weekend at the beach and we had such a great time. It's always relaxing for us to be in San Clemente. We go to the beach, play at the park, nap, sit on the deck, and of course eat at the best places ever! Our favorite has to be Surfin' Donuts. They have the yummiest donuts and breakfast burritos and they've just expanded their menu so we actually had a sandwich for lunch and it was fabulous. Pedro's Tacos is another hot spot. You can't beat their fried chicken tacos, although their rolled tacos and quesadillas are pretty dang good too. And let me say the weather in March is perfect!

Boy vs Girl

There are huge differences in boys and girls. One that I've discovered lately...drawing. Luke was never into drawing or coloring (unless I was coloring for him) but all Sydney wants to do all day long is draw. She drags me to the junk drawer for pencils and then drags me to the den for paper. She'll sit and draw forever, it's the only thing that she holds still for. She doesn't like crayons very well and I'm afraid to give her a pen so I always give her lead pencils. I'm a total office supply nerd and my sister Ann sent me this great hot pink lead pencil that I love. Unfortunately, Sydney loves it too and it's her pencil of choice. I'm glad we have something in common :)

First Day of Soccer

We've had a lot of "firsts" lately. Lukie started a soccer class with two other boys in our ward that he's become friends with. He goes Wed mornings for 45 minutes. It's great to see him following instructions and learning how to play the game. We made sure to bring our water bottle because we were told the water breaks are a pretty big deal. The best part, they always end with a story and a stamp. Gotta love 4yr old soccer!

First Day of Preschool

Seems like a little late in the year to start preschool but Luke and I both were so ready! We found a great little preschool here that Luke really loves. He gets to go Tue and Thu afternoons which means Sydney naps and I have time alone...what? Has this day really come? I'm loving it because I get to eat lunch alone, where it's quiet, I get stuff done that desperately needs to be done, and the best part of all, Luke is totally entertained. They had green eggs and ham last week and this week is Shamrock Shakes, we're in charge of the lime sherbet. Thank heavens for teachers who celebrate fun holidays. It's been great for all of us.

Spotted: Louis Lombardi

Where: Checking out at Ralph's grocery store right in front of me! 24 is one of my all-time favorite shows and I freakin' loved Edgar! Let me just say that in person, he is one big dude. Very wide guy and probably shouldn't have had his sweatshirt halfway unzipped showing off his hairy chest, not so attractive. But I did love his thick navy velour slippers. Aren't you glad to know everyone grocery shops in their lounge clothes!

Disneyland

We were so lucky to spend some time at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago with our good friends from Austin. My least favorite part of the night I have to admit was getting stuck riding the teacups. I'm not sure how it happened other than Ryan was taking Luke to ride with the Cottams while I stayed behind with Sydney because I HATE the teacups (so I automatically assumed Sydney would too). While we were watching them get in, Sydney started throwing a fit because she obviously wanted to join in the fun. So I ran up to the front of the line intending to hand Sydney to Ryan so she could ride but somehow I ended up handing Sydney to Ryan who took her and went in their own teacup leaving me to ride with Lukie. So I piled in the teacup with Luke, Mason, Maya, Natalie and Chris and soon learned how excited Chris was to be on this ride. He spinned and spinned and spinned til the ride ended, the kids loved it! Poor Natalie was trying to talk to me but I couldn't even talk, I just kept telling her I had to focus and hold still so I wouldn't get sick. Needless to say, I was a little dizzy for the rest of the night and for a few days to come, although Ryan says that's impossible (thanks Chris!) Besides that, we had a really great time, and yes, Sydney did love the teacups, dangit! Thanks Mason's and Cottam's for the invite. We miss you!