dan the handyman

he's coming over today to look at our upstairs bathroom. i think we have a slow leak from our tub behind the drywall. we'll see...

also we took the minivan off-roading this weekend. she held up well but i don't think we should ever do it again.

in addition, rian is taking me away on the train to los angeles in a couple of weekends. we will celebrate our 8th anniversary there. he is doing all the planning and i am trying my best to stop demanding information inquiring about his plans.

pumpkin patch

this is our 3rd year coming to this pumpkin patch. two years ago i was just about as pregnant as i was this year. here are the munchkins (liv, wally, jude, skyler).

skyler is a huge fan of nulls (tunnels).

the teepee was a big hit.

the kids did many rides.

so did i.


i painted wally's face. it's a lizard obviously.

here we are 2 years ago:

rockin it in the new minivan

we had a really big car decision to make after my nissan xterra sold within a few days of putting a 'for sale' sign on it. we had 2 nights to decide between a minivan or suv, and then actually find one that we liked. we did a lot of research and tons of praying. on the second night before heading home when the car we went to look at had just sold, we found it... God had the perfect car for us waiting there. stats, you ask? 2006 toyota sienna limited. 42k miles. pearl white. i never thought i could love a car, much less a minivan, this much. it is awesome.

sometimes we drive around town with the kids out of their carseats. jk.

this tiny mirror allows you to catch anything naughty going on in the back without the kids knowing you're watching!

i don't really know what's happening here.

after watching a few sesame street podcasts from the ipod, we made it clear that car dvd's are only for vacations and rewards (ie: bribing them when we have doctor appointments and errands all day).

what we do

i'm a big fan of taking a drive. especially early morning. or in the rain. or during a sunset. or under disneyland fireworks. or in my new car (more to come on that later).

here we are driving towards the beach during a beautiful post-rain day. this morning we had some ants in our kitchen so i said enough. the kids and i, in our pj's, loaded the car for a drive. we stopped at chick-fil-a to use my free breakfast entree coupon. then we drove. ok, we went through starbuck's drive through for a peppermint mocha. you know, it's almost christmas, plus i'm pregnant. that's the excuse i give rian.

today we had no plans so after the drive we did this craft. then we ate a picnic lunch out front (less crumbs to attract more ants). then the kids played alone upstairs for an hour (seriously). while they napped i did laundry and read 1 and 2 thessalonians. and then i got so hungry but there was nothing to eat. then rian came home from golfing with clients (second time this week. wth?). then he left for the office and skyler woke up. actually that's where i am now. i keep calling up to her room saying, "lay down skyler, it's not time to get up" even though it is but every time we do this lately, we hear her bounce back down and lay quietly for a good 10 minutes. it's this awesome new little trick we do with her. but then it stops working the second or third time.

and this was our day. plus it's friday, so i'm a bit ecstatic to have the weekend ahead of us. i will head to the chiro once the kids are up, then warm up our dinner of last night's leftovers and then celebrate the weekend with a family outing.

someone is awake making her dolphin sounds. and i hear wallace climbing out of his bunk bed. here we go...

early october

Skye at our first pumpkin patch trip this season.

Many of our lunches are picnics out front or back. So much easier to clean up!

Skyler fell into the corner of her dresser drawer, which required another trip to urgent care for liquid stitches.

24 hours later she smacked into our bedroom door while running around the corner. I promise I'm not just sitting on the couch all day, letting my kids jump off of things and run around crazy... Is this not the biggest goose egg you've ever seen?

We got together with our old lifegroup for a bonfire. It was so nice and I realize how much I miss these friends. I have such fond memories of meeting each week together.

Wally & Jayden.

Two cuties waiting to be loaded in the car.

Tball & dinos

We decided to introduce Wallace to his first sport this fall. This morning we went to Citrus Ranch Park in Tustin for his 1st (of 8) Tball classes. He's been excited all week but this morning when he woke up, he wasn't sure he wanted to go. Halfway through during a water break he ran up to me saying "I LOVE it now, Mama!". He had a great time. Rian does a lot of it with him and I keep tabs on Skyler and talk to the other moms. Super fun and relaxed.



This is a familiar car situation. They love singing their "kid music" together. Excuse the blurriness... it was a backhanded blind shot took while driving.

Sweet sweet Gypsy. Skyler especially has taken to using her as a stool. And she puts up with it. Sweet dog. I have no idea how long they had been doing this when I finally came outside.

Skye and I staying cool on the 110 degree day last week reading her all time favorite book.

Wally loves do draw. LOVES it. Months ago his circles became suns with rays and those became faces and lions and now he's really into drawing dinosaurs.

lauren & brian served the whole fam breakfast last weekend and then we walked around hancock park and got smoothies on larchmont. mom & dad missed out on the photo when they ditched us to get yogurt.

waiting patiently for the pizza they made to finish cooking.

met J, liv & jude today at the circle.


skyler on timeout for playing in the toilet again.

palm springs. again.

i had the privilege of escaping to palm springs this weekend with my good friend and old college roommate, sara marashian, who had some venue research to do for her upcoming wedding. rian made it easy for me to go, sending me off in his prius and telling me all the fun things he'd be doing with the kids (thank you, babe!). sara had an awesome hotel booked for us. a place recently remodeled but was roaring in the 40's with an underground speakeasy and brothel! pretty much except for one outing to look at a venue and stuff our faces with burgers, fries and milk shakes at ruby's, we remained poolside the whole time. it was so nice to be lazy, be served, and lay out. we sunk into the huge bed and watched sex & the city 2 and then had a 10pm dinner at the poolside restaurant, where we also ate our huge breakfasts both mornings. we talked wedding plans, read magazines, napped, reminisced, talked about how cool sean & rian are, ordered more food poolside & watched people. and the pool was open 24 hours, all night long. we didn't go, i just think that's cool.

breakfast.

laying out. i really should have taken more pics.

it's out

so the word is out that somewhere around april 25, 2011 we will have another one of these:


(wallace, 4 hours old. skyler 3 days old)

which means soon, i will look like this again:

(dropping wallace off after a big "last night out" for a few days while we brought skyler into the world and adjusted in at home)


in other news, skyler slept in til 8:15 this morning and i was served breakfast in bed. warm pancakes... amazing. while i was in bed rian and wallace had a conversation about rian's wedding ring tattoo. rian was telling him what it means and how much he loves mamma. wallace said he wants a tattoo also. he was told he can have the wash-off kind now and when he's much older he can decide to get a real one. wallace said, "i want a sheep tattoo". rian told him, "and that is why you will only be getting the wash-off kind".

palm springs getaway

a trip with the mellema & hilmerson families to close out the summer.


lot's of lounging. when we weren't chasing children.


the boys were able to fit in a round of golf.

liv & wallace on a boat.

skyler and the jumping fish.


xander & skyler.

summer coming to an end

emma & wally cheering on their daddies during softball.

skyler enjoying the dugout.

wallace & milly.

monthly neighbor dinner with the joneses. why am i a ghost?

another one to add to the books. skyler's puffy eye, thanks to a mosquito bite. a few days and it was back to normal.

backyard water play, waiting for daddy to get home.

more saturday mornings at the bay. we took gypsy and the paddleboard this time.