Sunday Stroll

-Guest post from Jon-

Today the kids were very restless after getting home from church. Matthew slept for 1 1/2 hours (but it was his ONLY nap of the day after a long, sleepless night) while Emma layed in her bed and watched "Joy to the World" (the Christmas movie made by the church), but she didn't fall asleep! So neither of them had much of a nap. Somehow, despite the lack of sleep they had boundless energy. We decided to go on a Sunday stroll to get them outside. It was a beautiful day with the temperature around 68 degrees and sunny (Must I mention how much California Rocks!) So we went to the resevoir near our home and walked around the trail. Here are a few pictures from our outing.

It Doesn't Get Any Cuter Than This

Seriously, I love these two.

And some more cuteness...

Doesn't he look so handsome in his white shirt and tie?

I found this whole suit-pants, shirt, tie, and vest-on clearance for $11 and couldn't resist.

We've had a rainy week and Emma insisted on wearing her rainboots and rain coat and carrying this family size umbrella everywhere we went.

"I see you!"

Kind of Nice

It is 6:54 pm and the house is quiet. Emma was begging to go to bed at 6:15 and Matthew followed 10 minutes ago. And it's kind of nice. Of course it meant lots of screaming and crying from 5 until 6:15, but that's okay. I'm really looking forward to a nice, quiet, relaxing evening with Jon.

Matthew started crawling today! He is still a little awkward and only does it if he has to, but I've noticed throughout the day that he's getting more confident and will try to crawl to something instead of screaming for me to help him. It's kind of nice. Really, I didn't expect him to crawl. Emma never crawled and he had no interest either. So, this was a nice surprise.

Pictures from the Weekend

I know I haven't posted a whole lot of pictures lately...really I haven't taken a whole lot since Emma broke our "normal" camera. We have our nice, big, expensive SLR but I don't like using it because it's nice, big, and expensive. :)

So, here are a couple pics from the last week and several from this weekend.

Emma discovered the game of Life and LOVES it. She could drive those little cars around all day. I keep wondering why we bought a road playmat for Christmas when we already had this.

Emma has started wanting to pick her clothes and shoes. For several days she only wanted to wear her white Sunday shoes. Then most of last week it was her rainboots.

And here is one of our cute Matthew. (Ignore the pink fluffy slippers in the picture) He wants more than anything to be like Emma, to do the things she does, and to go everywhere with her. He's just not quite mobile enough to keep up with her. Since he can't play with her he plays with her things. He LOVES spinning the pedals on her bike.

This is Emma's new sleeping arrangement. Jon's parents gave her this tent for Christmas and somehow it ended up on her bed. She loves sleeping in her fort.
For Christmas, Jon's parents gave us food storage. We went with them to Costco yesterday to get our food and ended up with all this. We have really been feeling like we need to get going on food storage and emergency preparedness. My parents gave us two 72 hour kits, so between those and this food storage, we have gotten a really good start. Those were probably our two favorite gifts. Thank you to both sets of parents!

We had such a fun weekend. Saturday we got up early and went to the beach. It was a gorgeous day, but we went a little too early so it was still a little chilly. Then we decided to check out Golden Gate Park since neither of us have been. We drove around for a long time but couldn't find any parking. It was SO crowded. Finally we decided to just go home. After naps, we went to a different park so the kids could get some of their energy out. It was a nice, laid back, but somehow exhausting day. We took our camera but realized at the beach that it was out of batteries. Big bummer!

Sunday after church, we went to spend the rest of the weekend with Jon's family. We enjoyed being able to visit. Yesterday after our Costco run, we all went to Rock City. It is a bunch of rock formations up in the mountains. It was such a beautiful day and we had a great time. Emma loves climbing and being outside and had a blast. She didn't want any help and insisted on walking and climbing the rocks by herself.

Emma and Grandpapa

The Fam

Matthew learning to rock climb

Jon, the amazing rock climber

Then you see it from farther away...I'm still impressed because I probably couldn't have made it that high. :)

Grandma was nice enough to carry Matthew for awhile.

Another cool rock shot

Our little climber

It was such a fun 3 day weekend. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and it was great to spend time with family.

Things Are Looking Up

It's amazing what a little sleep can do for a person. Matthew started sleeping again Monday night and it's great. He still wakes up about 3 times a night, but it's progress. I'm pretty sure he's done being sick, but think he might be teething now. There's always gotta be something, right?

We have been loving the weather this week. Every day has been sunny and warm with highs in the upper 60's and low 70's. The kids have been loving being able to play outside barefoot in shorts and t-shirts. And I am loving it. I can live with this kind of weather. It looks like it will be this way until Tuesday. Hooray!

So, it's been a good week. And tomorrow is Friday! I am really looking forward to the 3 day weekend!

The Diagnosis

After 6 nights of NO sleep, we finally figured out why Matthew is not sleeping. It's called hand, foot, and mouth disease (and no, it's not mad cow disease and you don't get it from animals). But he has blisters all down his throat which make everything painful. So, he's not eating, not sleeping, and is whiny and clingy. I feel so bad for him. He has been sick since before Christmas with various things and it's miserable. He tries to be happy and play, but it doesn't last long. Poor kid! On the up side, the sickness is only supposed to last 7-10 days, which means we're over halfway there. We are ready to all be healthy again and are really looking forward to our family vacation next month. We really need it.

We are going to go to Southern California for 5 days. The big thing on our trip is Sea World. We showed Emma some YouTube videos of Shamu and now she keeps asking me if we can go see Shampoo. :) So, we are all excited. But we are still looking for other family friendly and budget friendly things to do in San Diego or LA and would love any suggestions.

What a Day

Yesterday was a long, fun, tiring day and when it was over I was SO glad to go to bed. Matthew had a really rough night the night before and was up every 1/2 hour to hour. So we were up every 1/2 to hour. And I was tired when he decided to get up for the day at 6:30. We already had plans to go to the Exploratorium with some people in our ward since it was free day and I decided to go ahead and go, hoping it would wear the kids out.

I had never been to the Exploratorium before, but it is so cool. It's a huge science type museum but there were enough things that Emma could do that she had a blast.

They had a kids play area that we stayed in for quite awhile.

I thought this chair was cool. Emma was not impressed.

Matthew had fun...until he fell off. Yeah...really bad parenting moment. He did great when we took this picture and then we took him off. I put him back on to get a picture with Emma and in the split second that I was making sure she was up he turned to pull himself up and fell. Luckily he didn't get hurt. He was just really scared.

Emma loved making bubbles

And the sand was a big hit too. There are holes in the platform so she loved watching the sand fall through the holes.

All in all it was a fun time and when we left the kids were exhausted. Unfortunately they only slept in the car on the way home and that was it for the day.

At one point during the afternoon I was feeling exhausted and was trying to get a very tired Matthew to take a nap so I could lay down. I finally started crying and Emma ran up and asked what was wrong. I told her I was tired and needed to take a nap. She replied, "No Mommy, you don't need a nap. You just need to be happy!" It was a little bit of a slap in the face because I knew she was right. I can't always change the situations I'm in, but I can change my attitude. I've really been trying to work on that lately, so this was a good reminder.

After that Matthew finally took a little nap and Emma and I made some spaghetti for dinner. I realized after the meat and noodles were cooked that I only had about 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce. I didn't have any tomato paste, tomato sauce, or even tomatoes to do homemade sauce, so we improvised. Did you know that tomato soup works really well as spaghetti sauce?

Anyway, I'm feeling much better today. Matthew did a lot better last night and we are trying to have a good happy day. I even got Emma to sit on her toilet and she went in it. So, that was exciting. I am at a total loss with potty training. We really feel like Emma's ready. She knows the drill, she tells us almost every time she goes to the bathroom and she wants us to change her diaper every time. She just really doesn't want to go to the bathroom on the toilet or wear underwear. And this is where I don't know what to do. Should I have her start trying anyway? Just let the diapers run out so there is no other option? What has worked for you all? I would love some ideas!