Japan

March was the month of Japan friends. These are Rian's friends, from his time growing up in Japan. Morris was out visiting from Tennessee and we met him, Colby & Miriam (also from Japan but living in LA) at BJ's Pizza in Huntington Beach. Phil and Allie were visiting from Pittsburgh and Chaz and Rebecca just moved here from Virginia. Both Phil and Chaz are Rian's really good friends from Japan and was so fun for them to reconnect and for us all to hang out together. We were able to see them a couple times while they were out and one night we had them over for a dinner party with a little asian flair. Here are some pics:

Appetizers

The dinner table

Everyone had a present to open... Japanese games!!!

Playing Rapidough, the best game ever that Juliana & Kurt brought us back from England.

Rian & I, Phil, Allie, Chaz, Rebecca, Colby


From a different night, here is Morris (telling us a story) & Wallace. And also Colby & Wallace. Colby's from Japan too, in case you didn't know. But we see him all the time.

Some other things

A lot is going on. Let's start with the aphids in my iceberg roses. What the heck? They're all over. I looked up a home remedy to spray them with and it involves vegetable oil and dishwashing soap. I looked out my kitchen window today and I have the shiniest rose bushes you've ever seen! I'm not sure how the whole aphid situation is going, but at least the leaves are shiny.

Wallace had a day of firsts yesterday. Nothing big, but it was a full day. 1: He had his first cheerios (see 1st picture below). He hasn't put any in his mouth yet, but he loves picking them up and flying them around in the air. This is one more wonderful thing to add to the list of things that keep him busy for at least 30 minutes. 2: He rode in a shopping cart for the first time (see 2nd picture below). I should have done this way sooner, as he LOVED it and enjoyed looking all around at everything and everyone we passed. 3: He played peek-a-boo with my mom. The kind where he put his blanket over his face while my mom "looked" all over and then he pulled it away and died laughing when she said "There he is!!!" and then did it all over again.

And yet another reason to keep a dog around.

Easter with the Wallace's

My parents hosted Easter Sunday this year with about 26 people. That's pretty typical... the Wallace side of the family is quite large (I don't mean fat, just a lot of us).

Laughing with GiGi.

Playing in the water under the hot Easter Sunday sun.

Eating crackers with his great-grandpa.

Afterwards, we put Wallace down for the night and enjoyed the jacuzzi under clear skies with my parents. Here's some footage of Wallace before bedtime. Everyone had left by now, except the Turney's (our neighbors) who stopped by to hang out.

Monthly Discipline: APRIL

I love the tradition of Lent. I love the idea of preparation and self-discipline leading up to Easter. I love the inward reflection that comes with choosing something that you may be somewhat enslaved to. It seems that each year after denying something for 40 days, I lose some desire to take it back on. This was true with soda, radio in my car, desserts, and so on. Anyhow, now that Lent is over I still have the desire to give up or take on something that I normally wouldn't do consistently, well, or even at all. I've decided that each month I will choose something new, for the rest of this year.

My April goal involves the early morning. Wallace is a sleeper and has been sleeping 12 hours through the night since about 10 weeks old. If he's not awake by 7 or 8am, I'm not awake either. Knowing that this will not last forever, I want to take advantage of my early morning time. My goal this month is to get up Mon-Fri at 6:30am to read and have some quiet time.

L.A.

Lara & Joe had us up for a rooftop brunch today. We enjoyed the delicious (as always) food, swimming in the pool, and relaxing in the hot spring sun.

My very cute boys.

Wallace waving hi to me.

Loving bath time

Easter at the Kennedy's

Friday night was spent with Rian's family in Fullerton. We had such a nice time relaxing, eating and of course playing with Wallace. Rian's brother, Joel, made incredible fish for dinner. We went for a walk afterwards and then played games.

Grandpa Kennedy

Exercising those legs.

The make-shift highchair

Beach Day!

The weather has been beautiful in Southern California and yesterday we spent the afternoon playing at the beach with Juliana & Liv.

L & W sticking their toes in the sand.


Liv's famous nose wrinkle.

"i LOVE the beach!!!"

good nite.

Before he goes to bed, we like to dance with Wallace in the living room.

a fun change

Two other photos

Wallace loves to sit in his room and pull stuffed animals out of his bin. The other day he pulled over the bin and had animals all over his room. Here he is:

After a long day for me and a late night for Rian, he came home to both Wallace and I ready for bed. We were hanging out with him in our bedroom and Wallace was all of a sudden full of giggles.

Friends moving to town!

Chaz (one of Rian's friends from Japan) and his wife Rebecca just moved out here from Virginia Beach. It will be so fun to have them close! We met up for tea on Tuesday night. That's Chaz holding Wallace. Rian's guy friends are so cute with Wallace. Colby changed his diaper later that night and even got an A+ after Rian inspected it.

Spring Forward BBQ

In honor of longer days, warmer nights, and enjoying dusk (best part of the day) AFTER husbands get home from work, we held a Spring Forward BBQ on our front lawn. We ate and then walked to the park with the kids and the dogs. Missy and Jon introduced Gypsy to Maverick and they enjoyed playing together. And like I said before, my photo taking skills are sucking lately. After the night, I only ended up with these:

Jon & Harrison in the backyard waiting for Oliver to come out of the bush (you can see his one eye glowing).

Liv and Wallace going down for the night (this didn't actually work out).

Emma Grace

Andrew and Kelly Hartman gave birth to Emma Grace a few weeks ago. She is so beautiful with long dainty fingers and toes. I think this was the first newborn I've held since Wallace. He was almost 2 lbs lighter than she but it's so hard to remember. Emma felt so tiny in my arms. Here's one of the only pics we got... we need to do better with our picture taking.

The Vintage Society

A good friend of mine, Beth Jones, had a launch party in Silverlake last night. Read all about it in her blog. We had so much fun. Beth is so extremely driven, talented & creative. It's really exciting to watch her on this journey as she teams up with Quiksilver and see where "The Vintage Society" ends up.


Me & Sara

Seen posing: Dave Turner & Brian Jones with a really cute boy.

Sara & Sean


Sara, Beth, Meg, Lauren Turner

Out to lunch

We played at heidi's house on Thursday and then we all walked to lunch. Very fun!

J, did you get a better pic than me??? Here are the kids: Liv, Harrison, Wallace, Dahlia. (Harrison did his very own hair on this day. Especially for us!)

my little froggie

With each bath, Wallace seems to be filling this towel more and more. Either the towel is shrinking or he's growing like crazy!

Saturday BBQ

Check out these turkey burgers Rian made us for lunch. Huge!