These pictures are just a few of the random ones I have taken recently.

Some friends watched the kids for a bit while Andrew and I went out for the first time in a while.

Ella and Peter love playing with playdoh, they call the yellow thing the "shasher." (smasher)

This is a picture of Ella using the bench as a prop for her dolly. I use this bench a lot in my photography and here she is checking her pictures of her dolly. I love the crossed legs.

I still just love holding my little man when he sleeps. I don't get a lot of chances to do this, so when I can, I soak it up.

John is liking the jumper, just like the other 2 did.

I was testing the light for a photo session and thought John Lewis would be a great subject. He proved it so, and I got a great picture of him.

Bathtime!

Sweet Brothers

I can't get enough of these monkeys.

Baking with the Kids is hard to do...but it's fun.

I like to bake. The thing is, I can only bake things that are sweet when I'm either having people over, or taking them somewhere to be shared. I have a slight lack of self control when it comes to sweet baked goods. This is a problem I have unfortunately passed on to my children who also love sweets and don't know when to stop. Anyway, something we like to do together is make things to eat. The kids pull up their chairs to the island and stand next to me and "help" with whatever they can. Here we are making banana muffins with mini chocolate chips in them. I love these, and since bananas tend to brown in our house before they're all eaten, it makes good use of them. Peter and Ella pour all the "eggrediants" into the bowl and stir only after I have made sure there is no loose flour. This, I learned the hard way. Peter grabbed the spoon once before the flour was in and it ended up everywhere. Here he is stirring the batter. Ella was being silly with the camera, so I took her picture on her chair. The last picture is of them, showing their dolls the muffins baking in the oven. I could not believe how precise they were describing what we had done and telling the dollies, "You have to watch out, this is very hot. Peter burned his hand on the stove and had an owie, make sure you don't get too close." As you can see, Peter's dolly is much closer than Ella's. Maybe he didn't learn his lesson quite yet. They make me laugh and I'm glad we can do this together and have a fun snack to share, even if it's messy and takes twice as long with their "help."

Just For Fun

I know it's a little silly, but there have been some poses of each of the kids that have turned out very similar and I wanted to compare their looks all about the same age. These are all pictures of the kids about 4 1/2 months. It seems to me that John and Ella share some of the same features, especially in their nose and mouth. Although I get asked all the time if Ella and Peter are twins, so it will be interesting to see as John changes how they all look alike.

Un-Cribbed Peter and Premature Toddler Beds

Well, on March 18th, a day after coming back from California, Peter asked to sleep out of his crib. I thought, well, when Ella did this, it meant she was ready and we gave her a chance...things went smoothly. Peter has proven that this may take a few more tries than one. The first day was well, probably because it was new and exciting. Ella said, "Good job Peter, you slept on the floor next to me!" Next night, he kept getting up and playing, so I told him he would have to go back in his crib if he got up again. So, even though I didn't want to do it, I put him back in his crib. He was not happy. We'll try again tomorrow. Naptime went well, as pictured, he was fast asleep and cute as ever, but that night was rough again. I figured, he's on the floor, maybe we should just get him a toddler bed and settle this, so he can feel like he's a big boy and has a bed like Ella. I'm pretty sure he realized quickly that a toddler bed is not a twin bed. However, we can't fit 2 twin beds and a crib in their room. Even Ella calls Peter's bed, "the little tiny bed." Oh well, he's going to have to deal for a while.
So, Andrew's family was here visiting on the 19th-21st and during one of their naps, Ella had to go potty. I was at the store and Andrew had gone outside quickly thinking they were asleep. They were not. I came home from the store and Andrew's not so quick outdoor venture to find Ella on the toilet with a tube of chapstick in her hand and streaks of it all over her legs. Peter, decided to follow her in his un-cribbed freedom and make a huge mess of q-tips. Here they are pictured with Peter hoping to bust a childproof cap on a bottle of 400mg capsules of Ibuprofen. Geez!! I went outside and got Andrew without telling him why to SHOW him what HIS children had been up to while he thought they were sleeping. Then, I got the camera.
Back to the story...another chance for Peter...for about 2 weeks now, every afternoon I have had to go back up more than once and even sleep on Ella's bed (she sleeps in the gust room for naps to avoid playing too much) to get Peter to go to sleep. Note*I put all the kids down at the same time to save my sanity*
It's now April 10th (I'm writing this in retrospect) and Peter is in his crib tonight. Oh, the other thing he started doing is deciding that messing his diaper right after we put him down to sleep is another way to insure company shortly after being left alone. So, Peter boy, you are a little wild man and your Dad and I think we may have made a premature decision to be excited about your toddler bed. It may be a few days before we try this again, depending on how things go between now and then, weeks. You're too smart and tricky.

California Trip March 2010

This is the picture trail of our 2 week trip to California. We saw family, friends, and the sun! It was a great time with everyone and it seemed to go by too fast. The only thing for me was that I never got more than a 2 hour stretch of sleep the whole time we were there since I shared a room with all the kids. Oh well, it was worth it in the end. The kids had a blast with their cousins and I will always cherish these memories.

The kids painted their own mugs at Color Me Mine. This year they really like it, last year they didn't want to do it at all. John got his feet painted and put his prints on a plate too. Ella still calls them "John's toe prints."

This is one of my favorite pictures. It sums up my son. Relaxed and chubby.

Jenna loves holding sleeping babies. She's always been really good at getting them to sleep on her.

My sister in law Renee and I were locked out of the house with the kids one day, so we started taking pictures.

I got to see the Shu family. We lived with them for a few months back in Loma Linda. We miss them a lot!

My friend Robyn's daughters, Claire and Keira. Ella misses Keira and asks all the time, "Does Keira do this?" To whatever she might be doing at the time. :)

These children belong to Denise, Myself, Robyn, and Jennilee. They are all within 3 years of each other!

Robyn, Me, Denise, and Jennilee. I miss these friends. They got me through Medical School with Andrew.

Little John with Uncle Bill. Bill was a trooper for the 2 weeks that his house had 5 women and 5 kids in it!

Alex and Marcella Bumpus came to see us with their son Andrew. It was great to catch up with them.

Best Friends already, Emerson and John. They are 5 weeks apart.

All the cousins on the hotel bed. We took at trip to San Diego and stayed at the Catamaran Hotel Resort. What a nice place for the kids to stay. Animals everywhere and right on the beach. Peter was obsessed with the ducks there and every morning would go on the balcony and yell, "I see ducks!"

Aunt Carol with John.

Gramma Paula and Ella at Sea World.

Ella and the flamingos at Sea World. The kids loved Sea World. I could put more pictures of the three of them looking at all the fish and they still talk about Shamu getting all the people wet.

My nephew Levi playing in the sand. Levi is a determined little guy and I think this picture shows his precision to a "t".

Checking out the waves. These three were peas in a pod. They had fun and got in trouble together the entire time. Ella and Peter miss Levi.

Bath time craziness.

Again, whenever we get together, my mom insists that we get matching stuff. Shamu sweatshirt anyone?

Gramma and John.

Jenna and I. We were in Riverside doing a fast session of engagement pictures for a friend. My sister and I have become great friends and I miss her a lot being so far away.

This is Tank. The kids were afraid of him at first, they still talk about him now.

Attempting a cousin picture on our last night in CA. Peter is always trying to kiss babies.

Ok, this one is a little better, Ella is clapping around John's head because Aunt Jenna is holding up a treat. The only way we could get all of them to look up. Oh well. The things we do for a picture.

So there you have it. Our trip in pictures. There were a few things that happened that I didn't take pictures of. One of them was the cousins hair cut train in the bathtub. Jenna was giving the three older ones a trim in her tub. We thought we could just sweep the hair out real quick before it got all wet, but both Peter and Levi peed on their hair pile, leaving Ella in the middle surrounded by hair and pee! It was sick, but I could not stop laughing and we got them cleaned off in the other bathroom.

The other one also involving pee was when Peter climbed up on Jenna's chair before I could get a diaper on him and peed on her kitchen floor. Well, Tank was down there and started licking it up before I could clean it! Bill was laughing hysterically and Jenna was yelling "Tank's eating the pee!" and I though to myself, I guess dogs are good for something. Then I tried to clean up the rest.

I know we made a mess of Jenna and Bill's new house, but I'm pretty sure they'd have us again. The chalk on the kitchen floor, silly putty in the cupboards, and fingerprints all over the mirrors just made her smile after we left :).

Good memories.