What's Not To Love??

Carson started playing with toys a couple weeks ago and has started to smile when he sees the camera (look at the last picture).  He's super social and loves experimenting with his voice.  He's our favorite baby boy yet!

Thanksgiving in Kingman

For the long weekend, we went out to AZ to see Brian's family.  The girls were the only cousins/grandchildren and were spoiled rotten!  The whole drive home they kept asking, "When are we going back to Arizona??"

Uncle Nathan found a huge pad of paper for coloring!

Auntie Shelles helped the girls on the swings at the park.

Auntie Freida cuddled Carson.  It looks warm and beautiful, but there was a cold breeze!

Thanks for letting us come visit!  We all had a blast and can't wait to come visit again!  

This Afternoon

For the past 2 hours:

*Morgan and Sadie have played together happily with ZERO whining/nagging/complaining to me.  Currently, they are dancing around Grandma's house like a Conga line. They were dancing to Christmas music in the living room.
*Carson has slept.  He has always taken lots of little cat naps all day long, so a long nap is nice.
*I was in the kitchen cooking and enjoying it, not rushing to put dinner on the table!  I haven't been in the kitchen cooking/baking without interruption in who knows how long!!!

As if that wasn't enough, I've just heard a few cute lines from Morgan:

"Jesus, you get to be the line leader!" (They were just playing cars and trains with all the little people nativity pieces we have out.)

"No, Baby Jesuses (yes, plural), it's not time for you yet." (They were acting out the Nativity--we have 2 sets, hence, the two baby Jesus characters)

And I hear Sadie saying, "Is it morning yet?"  (I keep hearing the hall closet door open and close, so don't know what that's all about yet.  I haven't checked it out.)

An old friend recently said to me, "You know, they're all good days.  Some are just better than others."

And days like today make it all worth it!

Watching a Movie

The girls always want to include their little brother in EVERYTHING they do.  It's so sweet that they never want to leave him out.  

Last week, they wanted to watch a movie with Carson.  

They imagined the entire viewing (Carson lasted about 5 minutes) to be something like this.  All three of them completely mesmerized by the fascinating show.  (Exhibit A)

However, it really looked more like this.  Morgan and Sadie completely mesmerized  by the show and Carson taking advantage of said mesmerization (is that a word?) to attempt to steal the DVD case and chew on it.  (Exhibit B)

And, here's a little video to prove the facts. 

Thankful Tree 2011

Each year, during the month of November, we make a Thankful tree.  Here's the link to last year's tree.  

This year, we made another tree (it looks similar to last year's--same leaf pattern, so I'll spare another picture), and I goofed around on wordle.net (thanks, Megan!) and made a piece out of it.  I think it was fun and a cool way to document our thankful tree each year!    

Note: some of the things don't make sense (i.e. "San" is on the top left and "Diego" is in the top middle) because wordle just takes individual words, not phrases, but it's still pretty fun.  If I had any design talent (like my sister, Alie), I could make something cool like this AND customize the phrases.  But, until then, "Froot" is above "Family" and "Loops" is below.  Oh, well.

We are thankful for...

What are you thankful for???

What Month is It??

November, right?  Well, here, in Sunny California, that means we can still go to the beach!  So, to all our Colorado friends (we miss you guys!), here's your excuse to escape the snow and bitter cold temps and come visit!  

My sister, Courtney, and her 4 kids drove down from Utah a few weeks ago (yes, I know I'm way behind) and we had a great time!  

Ben, Sadie, Morgan, and Afton loved jumping in the waves.  Mei and Ethan were content just playing in the sand.

Here's what everyone came home looking like.  I'm sure Courtney had piles and piles of sand all over her van!

Wii Just Dance is a huge hit with everyone at our house.

Breakfast at Grandma's.

I know it's very belated, but we had a great visit with the Montierth's.  Thanks for making the drive!

Blowing Bubbles

This used to be Carson's favorite activity about 2 weeks ago.  Now, he loves experimenting with his voice.  It must be something about Ginos grandsons...they all like to make some version of that high pitched squeal.  Anyway, back to the bubbles.  Here's Carson showing off his favorite pastime...

Butterflies Everywhere!

The last packet (6 weeks), Morgan's kindergarten class studied insects for science.  The field trip for the packet was a visit to the local Monarch Butterfly House.  First, the kids learned a little bit more about butterflies from "The Butterfly Man", including drawing their own 5-year old's version of a butterfly.  Picture an alien in your mind.  That's what it ended up looking like.  

After the teaching time, the kids then went into the actual Butterfly House with (yup, you guessed it) "The Butterfly Lady."  It was a screened atrium with about 25 monarchs, 15 chrysalises, and 4 caterpillars.  The kids weren't allowed to pick up a butterfly, but if it landed on them, they could put out their finger to hold it.

When we first went in, the kids were directed toward a plate of watermelon.  The butterflies have long tongues (relative to their body size) and like to drink the nectar.  Here, Morgan picked up a piece of watermelon and the butterflies came flying!  I think there are 5 on this one piece of melon!

Morgan holding a butterfly.

Our trip to the Butterfly House!

Sadie holding a Monarch caterpillar.

We had lots of fun at the Butterfly House!

Happy Four Months!

Just imagine in your mind that this picture is both clear and recent.  I think it's a few weeks old.  

Nonetheless, our Baby Carson is 4 months old!  

• Most of the time, he's a happy baby, and he's very extremely social!  (Which, shouldn't be a surprise, as everyone else on the planet believes our children to be happy and angelic all the time!  As their mother, I beg to differ...)
• He loves to eat.  I shared an apple with him last week and he loved sucking out all the juice!
• Carson just started rolling over onto his back this past week.  
• He's starting to get the hang of holding toys.  (There's finally a light at the end of the newborn tunnel!)
• If I can ever get blogger to cooperate you'll see that he thoroughly enjoys blowing bubbles.  

We love you, Little Buddy!

Behind the Scenes

Since moving back to CA, I've gotten in touch with one of my dear childhood friends, Brittany.  It's so fun to think that we've known each other since 4th grade, can go months, even years without talking, and, then, pick up right where we had left off before.  So, a couple of weeks ago, we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (aka the Wild Animal Park, for those of us that have been around awhile) with Brittany, her daughter, Olivia, Alie, and Baby Jack.  Brittany's friend Laura works at the Park, so we were able to go behind the scenes and meet some of the animals.  I'm not going to remember any of the names but we saw probably 30 or more animals!  What a great experience!  

To save myself the time, I just copied this from my sister, Alie's blog, blog.doublejones.com:

"Because I can’t remember the exact names (or species) of the animals, I’ll summarize what we saw: a cheetah, a tiny porcupine that fits in your hand, a big porcupine that will curl up in your lap to give you kisses, two alligators, a hawk, three tortoises, a beautiful Australian bird (that is a “pest” in Australia — like our seagulls — but we think the bird beautiful here in the U.S.), wild dogs (the most rare wild dogs in the world, I might add), tiny white foxes, a lizard, and prairie dogs. Oh, and an owl or two. Am I missing anything? (Yes! We also saw an anteater named Lulu(?). She was adorable!)"

Brittany with Olivia, Morgan, and Sadie

Sadie feeding the bird.  It's a really pretty (can't remember the name) bird to us in the USA, but in Australia, they think of these birds as pests because there are so many.  Compare it to how we feel about seagulls.

Alie, Jack, Morgan, Brittany, Olivia.