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.

Snow Day!

It snowed last night! We have had a little snow here and there this winter, but not much. Ella was pretty sad the last morning she woke up to snow and by lunch, it was all melted. She said, "Now I can't go put it in my buckets!!" Well, today she did. She asked for containers to put snow in and went out with Daddy. Those little mittens sure are worthless. What toddler actually keeps mittens on their hands when they can't pick anything up? Oh well. They had fun.

Pictures with the kids

The other day, I was taking pictures and Ella said, "Mommy, I want to take a picture with you." So, I never pass up a chance to take pictures and since Peter wants to do the same as her always, these are the pictures we came up with. John didn't have a say, I just wanted to take one with him too. :)

Little sleepers

The night that I took these pictures, I had told Ella and Peter that they needed to stop playing around and go to bed. I also explained to Ella that when she gets out of bed, it makes it so Peter can't sleep. Well, they went down fine, and little while later, I heard tiny footsteps, but I thought I would ignore it since they were so quiet. Now, I'm not so sure I'll live by that principle, since quiet toddlers usually means trouble. Anyway, with Peter in his bed, there can't be too much trouble going on and Ella's pretty good about telling me when there is. So, when I went to tuck them in before I headed to bed, this little table set-up is what I saw next to her bed on the floor. She had been down playing with her dollhouse and I thought it was so cute how perfectly she set up her animals. They were both sleeping so soundly. I checked Peter's bed and when I saw this little doll I knew Ella must have given it to Peter because I didn't. I love how much they look out for each other right now. So, I took pictures of them all sleeping just because I wanted to be able to look back on that night and remember, even though Ella didn't fully obey when I told her to stay in her bed.

Children's Museum Day

Here we are at the Children's Museum with my MOPS group. The kids had a lot of fun here. It was a special "pet" day, so they had all kinds of different animal things. The kids colored pictures and used animal stickers, Ella made a sock puppet, and Peter played with animal Legos. Ella's favorite thing was putting all those little puff balls in different containers. She stayed by that bucket for a long time! She loves to take little things and transfer them from container to container. She's always asking me "So, is there something else I can have to put these in?"

It was a fun day out with them, a little challenging while I had to "wear" John since he gets heavy quickly, but good to get out. I love watching the kids have fun and be creative. It makes me a happy mom.

4-wheelin'

We got to go out to the Keller's cabin and have fun on the 4-wheelers. I'm not sure why I'm the only one wearing a helmet! Peter wanted to go, despite what this picture shows, he did have fun. It was cold and we didn't come too prepared for the kids to be outside, so our ride was short. Ella wanted to ride with me after I took Peter and wear a helmet too. Here she is with her huge helmet getting ready to go. We had fun, I haven't done anything like this for a while.

Tid Bits

I've been trying to get this done now for a while, but times are busy and computer time is limited. The kids do not like when I am staring at this screen, Peter has even taken to trying to grab my hands, while saying, "Stop Mom." Today Andrew is home and I am catching up on stuff like this while he spends some much needed time with the kids.

I got the boys matching dinosaur PJ's. Here is the picture of them the night they both wore them. Ella was so excited the boys matched that she had to be in the picture too :).

All sitting on Daddy before bed time getting ready to read.

John's precious little smiles. Peter had this shirt for the spring time, but I love it so much that I just put long sleeves underneath. Layering clothes on an infant is a lot of work. I don't think I'll do that much more until he's older.

This was the first of John's smiles I got of just him. It's hard to get him to smile at the camera because as soon as I pull it out, he just stares at it.

The kids love to have their picture taken with all three of them. If I bring out the camera for John, Ella and Peter want to crawl up and hold him for their picture too.

One of the outfits that was given to John at his baby shower.

This is what happens when I let Peter have a smoothie (he calls it a "pooey"). He was such a mess and those little seeds are terrible for cleaning up, but he loves smoothies!

Peter loves his little animals that he has been given from the family. He makes animal trains on the table. I love this picture because he's concentrating so hard and looks so adorable.

I can't stop kissing these cheeks.

A friend got John this shirt and I had already given him the blanket, so here's to hedgehogs :)

Ok, well, this picture pretty much speaks for itself, but Peter wanted to wear a tutu just like Ella. The two of them always want to be doing or having the same thing. Sometimes, like this one, I hesitate, but you know, whatever. If the boy wants a tutu, I'd better let him have one now while he's 1 and hope that he grows out of it :).

My friend was having a garage sale and I got this tent for Peter. He loves Thomas the Train right now.

They were playing with diaper boxes and decided to get inside them and asked me to take a picture, so I did.

Ella wanted to hold John. I think this picture shows how much they resemble each other.