SoCal Trip- Part 2 ...EASTER!!!!

We were lucky enough to stay with our Aunt Patty (my Dad's sister) and Uncle Scott. They are the best hosts!!! Good food, good company, good games....oh the games...more about those later! It was really wonderful to be there with them. They both love kids and Max attached himself to them instantly.

We woke up Easter morning and after we ate, the Easter bunny remembered he left all of the goods in the car! Imagine that! Naughty Easter bunny. Max was still happy to find a basket with a few small things. He loved the school bus (thanks to our stop at Anderson's) and the bubble gun was a hit... (it's now lays broken in the kitchen). He loved walking around the house talking and playing. It's a little hard to see, but part of the wall behind him is mirrored...another huge hit!

Later that afternoon, our aunts, uncles and many many cousins came over to celebrate Easter. We has SUCH a great time. Aunt Patty is AMAZING!!! She had everything planned out so well. The kids were all entertained and having a blast. It had been a while since Max and Addy had seen each other. Addy wasn't particularly happy to see him at first, but that changed after a little warming up. It doesn't help that Max can be a little pushy, and kept stealing her bunny.

I took a bunch of random pictures and here is one before the wrestling match/pillow fight started. Several of the cousins here see each other regularly so it was fun to see them all play together. It made me a little homesick for all of Max's NorCal cousins.




This is Addy and Lacey (Brian and Elaina's youngest). This just cracked me up. They stared at each other for several minutes, just like this. I can just imagine what they are thinking..."you have no idea what your Mom put on your head"...

We were led outside to play some games. There were many indoor games too. (I won one!) But these were designed for the kids...okay , and adults too :).We started with the Easter Egg hunt...

This was Max's first hunt. He took a few minutes but sort of got the hang of it. Then lost interest because he figured out he could pull the leaves off the plants and put those in the basket too.

A game of duck, duck, goose!

A game of...um...jello egg in a spoon walk?

And lastly, a three legged race...

The adults stayed up late playing games too while the kids watched a movie. We really had a great day. The weather was nice and we had delicious food. It's always fun to see our cousins and the kids. A huge thank-you to Aunt Patty and Uncle Scott!!!!

SoCal Trip- Part 1

The drive down was pretty uneventful. We made sandwiches and stopped at Anderson's. We let the little monkey stretch out and did our best at getting the windmill in the background of a picture. The Easter bunny did one last pick-up and...well..that was the excitement of the drive. Max did well, we brought our portable DVD player and actually used it for the first time (we've had it for two years). As long as we stopped occasionally, he was happy.

Guess what we've been doing....

here's a sneak peek....

We've just returned from one of our favorite vacations ever, to Southern California. We were able to stay with Aunt Patty and Uncle Scott, celebrate Easter Sunday with our family there....and....we got to go to

DISNEYLAND!!!!!

I went to Disneyland a lot as a child, it became a special place for our family. I have so many great memories there. This time was extra special because I got to take my own family. Erik hadn't been since his 13th birthday and we even forced my Mom to go too! (Only kidding, she would live there if possible). My favorite part was watching Max. We plan on making many more memories at the Magic Kingdom.

Now, I'm still recovering, cleaning, catching up and unpacking from our trip. I just wanted a teaser in here. I have a million pictures from our adventure. I'll post them as I go....heigh-ho...heigh-ho....it's off to dream about our next trip I go....

20 Weeks!

I hit the 20 week mark this week. It's weird to think I'm halfway through. I've been feeling the baby move... A LOT! I'm a little worried that since I felt Max move so much I'm going to have another toddler come out of my body. (Please no!!!) Maybe I should try and beat my record. ha. This one can be 13 pounds...and the next (if we decide on three) can make the news.

This morning I watched my belly move. Totally unexpected this early, especially since I have so much "leftover" from Max. But, I do love it and feeling movement was one thing I missed about being pregnant. That's probably the only thing. I'm still in the easy part (aside from the puking that still haunts me every few days) .

Yesterday we had the 20 week ultrasound. Our tech was great and Erik and I felt like we were sitting in a movie theater. Leave it to John Muir to make things fancy. She agreed that the baby moves a lot. And when the doctor came in he said, "Oh, look at that cute genderless baby". Young guy, totally adorable. And probably totally new being that nice. But that's the secret, our baby has no gender.

Just kidding Mom, s/he will let us know what s/he is in August. We chose not to find out. It was hard at that moment, they just had to turn off the huge, gorgeous, shiny and new monitor for a few minutes. But, I'm okay now. And we didn't take a picture of the "part" home like we did with Max. That was pure torture staring at that frame every day and scowling at the words, "Don't open until I'm born". Rough. Here are a couple of the many pictures we did take home. Above I think s/he is waving. Sort of. And below s/he is pointing. I liked that. I think that's the skull, like her/his hands are above the head.
Things are going well overall. the baby's heartbeat is in the 140's. I need to come up with another name to call "it"...any suggestions????

Fun Weekend!

This weekend was another busy one, but so much fun!

We were able to extend Erik's birthday a few days and spend the whole weekend enjoying the great weather we had. Saturday we met Erik's Dad at the Oakland Zoo, along with Grandma Ariane, Aara, Mike, Christian, Julianne, Roxy, Brian, Nicole, Vivian, Ethan, Parousha and Kayvon...is that it? Oh, us too. It was a big group with a lot of energy. The kids all had a blast and shared their favorite moments while we took a break afterwards at Aara and Mike's. We all got to go out to dinner in Emeryville and Cocina Poblana (YUM!!!!) where Erik was surprised with a sing and cake.
At the petting area. Max got to pet, and cough all over, a sweet little goat.

I tried to get all the kids but Max, Christian and Kayvon didn't make it in. Ethan is in the blue hat on the left, then Roxy, Vivian and Julianne. We were watching the elephants eat. Max loves elephants right now and he got really excited to see them (they don't have them at the Sacramento Zoo). He puts his hand up to his face as the trunk and makes an elephant noise.

And extra special thank you to Lubor for such a wonderful day!!! We had such a great time!

On Sunday we met up with some friends (Jenn, Troy, Justin and Jacob) to see the Giants play the Dodgers. We are A's fans and went because it was good company. The Giants won (sorry Dodger's fans, I know the Kerr's read this!). Unfortunately, Max wasn't very happy sitting at the game so we spent most the time in the shade, climbing steps and walking around. Okay by me. Again ,thanks to Troy and Jenn for a fun day at the ballpark!

(Pregnancy update to come Wednesday...)

Happy Birthday Erik!!!

Today is Erik's 32nd Birthday!!! We hope it's a great one (even though he is under the weather and at school all day)! Lot's of fun coming your way.....

Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!

(P.S. The back of this picture says Oct 1979. That makes Erik about 2 1/2. What a cutie!!! Hmmm...I wonder where Max gets his height???? )

We're going to the zooooooo!!

Today was Erik's last day of Spring Break, so we headed to the Sacramento Zoo. It's a nice, small zoo which is perfect for us. Every Friday for the month of March they have half price admission. Kids under 3 are always free. So, for all of us, it was nine bucks! Can't beat that! Max is really into animals and animal sounds so this trip was especially exciting for him.Enjoying lunch, giggling and watching the birds (above). Below Max was eye to eye with fish. He tries to make a fish face, which is more of him opening and closing his mouth. Here he is making fish faces with Erik.

Below is in front of the Chimp's. Max LOVES monkey's and making monkey noises. So he made sure everyone around knew he could sound like a monkey. They were actually really cute.

We took a little rest to watch some ducks and eat a berry ice treat. Max is signing "please" for more. He liked it. A lot.

This last one has to be one of my favorites of him. It was really hard to get him to look at the camera. There were way too many things for him to watch. I think he's looking at the giraffe's here? Who knows. He had a great time and fell asleep within moments of getting in the car. Next week it's back to boring old parks. But it sure was a nice break!!!

Beach Day

All the kids are out of school this week for Spring Break so we decided to take a beach day. Erik and I talked about how funny it is when you pack for the beach in Northern California. It's so different than Southern California. Here, you pack extra blankets, sweatshirts, and plenty of sand toys because you are CRAZY if you swim in that freezing water. You also bring a change of clothes because there is a chance you might get wet.

When you are a kid, you just don't care though and you get sandy and wet and have a blast. We all had such a fun time. Some are a little sun burnt and all windblown. And how does all that sand get EVERYWHERE!!!! I'm still cleaning it up. Eck!

Jordan getting buried above and some of the kids digging whatever it was they were trying to do below.

Below is Kirra and Clay just starting to get wet. Clay ended up without pants and Kirra (who actually wore a bathing suit) eventually dove into that water. She sure loves the beach.


Max thought he was "one of the boys" as we say often. He thinks he can keep up with his older cousins. They are all really careful with him and (I think) enjoy having him around. Here he is playing with their creation.

It was a really fun day...tomorrow...the ZOO!!!!

15 months

I forgot to add in the last post that Max had his 15 month check-up last week. Here's the latest:

Height: 34 inches
Weight: 24 pounds 13 oz
Head: 19 inches

He hated everything abut this appointment this time. The doctor was great about it and did the examination while Max was curled into a ball on my hip, squeezing the living daylights out of me. I think he's caught on to what the doctor's office is all about. Oh well. He has to go again in 3 months.

Last night we went to a friend's birthday party. Kids were welcome and there were several there. The birthday girl has a little dog, Olive, and Max instantly fell in love with her. Actually, all the kids did. There were four or five people that came up to me telling me that Max has no fear. It's so true. He will walk up to anything, anybody, thinking that is where he belongs. He loves to touch other kids (their heads mostly) and animals are just about the best things. He will talk to what ever it is at the time and tell them/it exactly what is on his mind.

Except at the doctor's office. Then he just screams.

Enjoying the weather

The rain has stopped (hopefully temporarily!) and it's been nice and sunny. We've been outside enjoying it everyday. Now that Max is walking (well, almost running at this point) he needs to get out and get his energy out. The nice weather is making that much easier. These pictures were taken a few days ago in our backyard. Max is playing where our garden was last year. (We still debating on whether or not we should start it up again this year, in case we move.) It sure doesn't take much to entertain this little boy. I moved the cooler to drain (we're still trying to figure out how the rainwater filled it up completely). He noticed the top opened and he kept himself busy by dropping pecans, one by one, into the bottom of the cooler. Occupied him for a looong time. Below is Max trying to feed Obi more pecans.


Last weekend Erik and Max went to the Boer's for a visit. The weather was beautiful and the kids were able to keep busy on their property. Erik said they took a great hike on Saturday, ate good food, and Max had fun exploring around the backyard. The last time he was there he wasn't walking, so this was a whole new experience for him.

They have a big sandbox in the backyard...Max LOVES the sand!!

As for me, I got the weekend "off". I saw three chick flicks, slept and basically enjoyed a clean, quiet house for two days. But, yes, I was ready for them to come home!