Superbowl XLIV!

We love the Superbowl! Last year during the Superbowl I was birthing Logan. We didn't end up seeing the last 2 minutes of the game because Logan was ready to enter the world. This year was much different. Brett decided to invite many new people over. We have such a big church it makes it really hard to get to know everyone. So Brett invited a few over who also invited a few over, and presto change-o our house was transformed into quite the party spot. All said and done, I thought it was pretty fun. I even met 3 new couples and everyone brought something delicious to share. Doesn't get much better than that. I think at last count there were 17 adults and 5 kids (Dylan, Leila, Jackson, Logan and 4-month old baby Brighton). So all the couples were young and we were trying to influence them to have wonderful children like ours :)

Early on in the festivities.

Check out our excited faces. Dylan told me this was his 'Best Day Ever'! I love him.

Logan is going through some serious teething and today he wasn't his most cozy and lovey self so I was trying to give him lots of extra love. Melissa Parker was over too and she is so good with him, he definitely got plenty of attention!

Check out the spread! This wasn't even everything, we just couldn't fit it all on the table so we had food rotations. It makes me happy just looking at it :)

Charlie left no morsel untouched.

Um how crafty are these?! Clearly I am not clever enough to make these but I thought they were super cute and Jackson thought they were delicious.

The very necessary shot with me and my sister whom I love more everyday! Is that even possible you ask?! Yes.

Check out the only child in the house who was not related to me. Of course he sleeps...he's not my child. Baby Brighton, so cute!

Logan couldn't figure out what his booster seat was doing on the ground. He kept inspecting.

This captured MOST of the visitors, but a few are missing. Fun times!

Happy Birthday Bubba!

So my little man is growing up! On February 1st at exactly 7:12pm, Logan turned 1 year old. It's hard to believe. He is now sporting 4 teeth (two on top, two on bottom), can walk, climb, and get into just about everything, makes numerous sounds but mostly 'EEEEE', loves to follow his brother around and do just about anything he does, and has a generally laid back demeanor...except when he's hungry. We don't mess around during mealtime!

We celebrated his big day family style with Nina, Dylan, and Leila over. Nina actually watched all four kids during the day while Brett and I were at work...bless her heart! She also prepared the entire meal which consisted of spaghetti (a 1yr. old birthday must have!), french bread, salad with Logan's favorites-tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocado, green beans, and of course a delicious homemade cake.

Here he is looking mighty spry as the festivities...or food eating...begin. He loves bread, go figure?!

Oh the spaghetti, he stuffed himself silly.

The singing.

Still room for cake. How fancy is Nina making it Ninja Turtle Green!

Oh the joy of chocolate.

I mean really, could he look any more pleased?

I think Leila was feeling pretty good about the whole thing too!

He had a chance to check out his new toy for about...oh, I don't know, 12 seconds...

Then his brother commandeered it and Logan watched on in disbelief. He also got a fancy new forward facing car seat and I am pleased to say he loves his new ride!

Since we had Dylan and Leila down for the weekend, we decided another trip to The Jungle was in order. How else do you keep 4 children under the age of 4 occupied? It just so happens that Friday nights are pizza nights at The Jungle and you get a free large with two admissions. LUCKY!

D wasted no time!

And Jackson of course was right behind.

Leila and Logan enjoyed the ball pit that was a little more their size. Pretty sure everyone there thought that both babies plus D and Jackson were mine, so I'm sure they were passing judgement and questioning my sanity all at once.

It was a success, we had a great time and by the time we got home the kids were so worn out they went down with little resistance. So fun!

Party!

So I decided to host a little birthday bash this weekend as my fabulous nephew Dylan is about to turn 4 and my beautiful neice Leila just turned 1. We did a little party combo and had quite the turn out. Despite what I originally thought about how it would turn out trying to squeeze 20 adults and 16-ish children in my meagerly sized home, it actually went really well and the kids had tons of fun.
So my super crafty sister decided to throw a Luau themed party and we planned everything accordingly.

Puka(pooka) shell necklaces and lei's were a necessity.

A few of the kids are missing in this shot, but you get the idea...so cute!

Check out the super cake! My sister has some connections with a cake decorater who took the luau theme to heart. There were three cakes on this here island and they were pretty delicious.

One of the many activities we came up with was having the kids make their own lei's. I had done it with my kindergartners before and thought it would be fun for the party. It went over very well.
The party was a success and in return for letting my sister 'borrow' my house, she agreed to deep clean it after all was said and done. Let me tell you...it was WORTH it! I love that I didn't have to clean my house and yet it looked so fantastic afterwards. Can't wait to do it again :)

And here's a little video I got of Jackson and Logan last week. I just think it is the funniest thing ever...

What Tadoodle?

The forecast for San Jose for the next week and half shows showers...plenty of showers. So when it's too wet to go outside what do we do? How about channel our inner-creativity and let Jackson play with his 'Tadoodles'. These fun little toys let children paint pictures without all the mess of actual paints. Plus they wash off clothing and don't stain. Beautiful.

Hard at work thinking over his masterpiece. And check out Logan in the background :) He wants to paint too!

Doesn't he just look content?

So over the past week or so I've been talking to Brett about fun family activities that we can do that are actually meant for kids. They have a little place here in San Jose called 'The Jungle' and although it is ridden with germs of all sorts, I decided to get past my OCD cleanliness issues and let the boys have a little fun.

Here's Logan striking a pose in the baby play area.

There weren't a whole lot of kids his age on this particular night, so Logan spent most of his time throwing all the balls out of the ring. He really loved it!

And Jackson just couldn't contain himself. He jumped, threw balls, screamed with delight, slid down the massive slides, climbed, and ran to his hearts content. Well, more like to my hearts content. After an hour I was pretty much good to go. :)

Here he is crossing the bridge. It was pretty high up there. It took him a minute to get his bearings because the rope bridge would wiggle when he walked on it, but once he figured it out, he crossed like a champ.

Saturday, we decided was the perfect day to take the train to a fun park up in Palo Alto. Brett has a Caltrain pass so he gets to ride for free and the boys are also free. So we loaded up the BOB with a picnic lunch and headed out to the train station.

Don't they look so cozy?!

Jackson LOVES all things 'Thomas' so this train ride was perfect. He stared out the window at the tracks and kept repeating in a fairly loud voice, "Ride train Mommy, ride train!" The other passengers found this amusing.

A quick shot before departing.

Even Logan seemed to like it.

Jackson really has no inhibitions. He scaled this play structure that is intended for kids at least twice his age and had no qualms about it.

We made it home just in time for both boys to crash. What a fun weekend!

Big boy!

So my excitement for the week can be simply summarized with one exquisite word, 'toilet'! We are finishing day 4 sans diapers and I can hardly believe it. Although it is yet another fragile reminder that my boys are getting older, I am really okay about this milestone.

Ever since Wednesday, Jackson has decided that he will sit on the toilet to do all his business. Of course it doesn't hurt the he receives a few M&M's for bribery and he has really cool 'Thomas the Train' underwear. In fact, we were so ecstatic about this whole potty business that we even took him to 'Toys R Us' and let him get a new train to go with his set. He picked 'Toby'...shown below.

Doesn't he just look so cute?!

While we were out and about we decided to take advantage of a gift card we had received a few months back to Applebee's. Logan gnawed on a corndog and seemed to love every second...

He even tried to share. Sweet boy!

I must also mention our incredible trip to Tahoe earlier this week. It was perfect. My mom and sister watched the boys for two nights so Brett and I could enjoy a mini-vacation. The snow was great, the temperature was sunny and cool, no real wind, and since we went up on a Tuesday, there was literally no one on the mountain. It was by far the most enjoyable experience I have ever had snowboarding. We could go at our own pace and we never had a line to wait in at the lifts. Brett also discovered some great coupons for free food vouchers in the main lodge area, so we didn't even feel ripped off when they asked for $25 for a burger and chicken strips...we just happily passed over the coupons. I love saving money :)

My self-portrait before heading up to Kirkwood.

After snowboarding most of the day away, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner in Lake Tahoe. We had a great time just enjoying each other's company. I can't wait to do it again...thanks Nina!

He Walks!

Logan has decided that he is graduating from the crawling phase of his life and is officially embarking upon walking. We knew he was just days away from walking when he began taking his first steps the second week of December. My baby is growing up, it's exciting to watch but also a little sad. They really do grow so fast! I captured this little video January 3. Logan was officially 11mos. and 2 days old.

Mr. Mischief also enjoys getting into just about anything that isn't 'baby proofed'. On this particular day I literally cleaned up one mess only to discover that while I was cleaning that one, the boys were destroying something else. Awesome. I didn't capture J is this particular shot but rest assured that while Logan had completely annihilated my brand new box of 500 Q-tips, Jackson decided that he needed to re-moisturize his skin and proceeded to remove all clothing and lather himself from head to toe in lotion. I guess soft skin is a priority for him?

More handi-work! Nina came down for the weekend. I thought she was coming to spend time with me quilting, but apparently it was a prearranged surprise. Brett had purchased tickets to 'Riverdance' which is currently travelling off Broadway. He took me out to lunch downtown and to the matinee showing afterwards. It was a really great surprise and the show was incredible. Here's a little clip just to get the idea...

Nina really did want to quilt too, so I had fun shopping for fabric and passing along my newly acquired quilting skills. Her first quilt turned out fantastic.

She picked a monster theme and we stuck with just two different fabrics.

I decided to do a jungle themed quilt for my newest nephew Oliver Thomas. Although I haven't met him yet he is so cute and apparently sleeping through the night at only 2 months old. Why have I never been blessed with that fortune?!
So another relaxing week of vacation has passed and I am still feeling grateful for the time off. This week we have a trip to Tahoe in store to take advantage of the lift passes and new snowboarding jacket I got Brett for Christmas. We got a hotel for two nights and again my ever-loving sister has agreed to watch our boys so we can enjoy a mini-get away. We haven't been boarding since before Jackson was born so we are definitely dusting off the snowboards, but I can't wait!

Holiday happiness

Who wouldn't be happy every day if they had three whole weeks off of work to spend time with their family?! I am relishing each day and checking so many things off of my list of 'Things I've Been Meaning to Take Care Of But Haven't Had Time To Do So' list. Do you have one of those?


So far I have reupholstered the chairs at my kitchen table. When I got them they were a beautiful cream color. Two kids later and they were a splattering of splatters. All sorts of brown shades covered my chairs and I was tired of explaining them to people each time they attempted to sit down. So a little staple gun action and a quick trip to the fabric store took care of that situation.

Also, my boys' baby books...they had the basics all written out in them but lacked pictures. Not that I don't have millions of pictures (okay maybe not millions but several thousand at least!). So I finally took the time to choose my favorite pictures and I completed their books to the current date. Hopefully I have learned my lesson and won't put them off for another two years.

Let's see what else? I also knitted 5 new scarves. I always think about how great they will look with various outfits and then instead of wearing them I end up giving them away as gifts. I actually do own several scarves, but very few that I have actually made because I give them all away. This past week, two of the scarves I made are for my sister and her baby girl. I mean it's sort of silly to imagine a one-year old in a scarf. It could be rather dangerous in fact if not supervised. But I had just the right amount of a really beautiful yarn left over, so I thought, 'Why not?' Either way they will be great for a few cute pictures.

Now for the Christmas-y stuff...

Last Wednesday we took a family drive to the Oakland Temple to see the Christmas lights.

Stunning!

Logan loved it, even if this picture doesn't quite capture that.

Brett chased Jackson around for about 25 minutes and then said he was good to go. Sometimes I laugh out loud just watching it, then I look around and realize I'm laughing out loud.


On Christmas Eve I made enough food for our family times 3. We ate to our hearts content! I made my famous spinach stuffed chicken souffle, sweet potatoes, corn, rolls, stuffing, and we had two kinds of pie for dessert, pumpkin (obviously) and pecan (I bought it). After we had stuffed ourselves silly, we headed out to check out the lights in our neighborhood.

Logan got to test out his forward facing car seat, I think he liked it.
Jackson was looking a bit mischievous and handsome too as he did just get a haircut that day. He knew he looked good too because he kept telling us, "I hansom!"

Christmas day brought with it the realization that our entire family was on Santa's good list.

Logan loved eating the wrapping paper.

And Jackson was confused because he wanted to play with each toy as he opened it but we wanted to see him open all the toys and then play with them. He was definitely overwhelmed with the amount of toys he received. It was so fun to watch him open presents. It made Christmas more exciting watching the excitement on my own child's face.


The weather has been so beautiful around here that over the weekend we decided to take advantage of our Monterey Bay Aquarium passes.

Here's a shot of the bay.

Jackson did moderately well following directions. He definitely listened better when riding atop his dad's shoulders.

Logan was actually big enough this time begin recognizing his surroundings. I love this picture that I captured of him while riding in the stroller.

Here's Logan checking out some of the fish.

And a final shot that I actually approve of, we were enjoying some of the fresh ocean air.


One week of vacation down, two to go!