so sweet

This morning Tom had to get up obscenely early for work and he couldn't find his wallet or his keys, so I got up along with them.  A couple of hours later I heard Jonah crying in his crib, but he stopped about a minute later so I finished cleaning the kitchen and then went upstairs.

When I got upstairs Harper was in Jonah's crib with him.  Jonah was sitting up and Harper was snuggled up to him and they were playing with some toys.  She told me that Jonah was crying and she wanted to snuggle with him so he would be happy.  So sweet.

A visitor!

A couple of weeks ago I get a text from my sister Kara asking if she could visit.  Yay!  We don't get a lot of visitors, and I know some of you have been in LA and not told me, so we were pretty excited.  Harper particularly loves visitors and she had a blast with Kara around.

And, in addition to Kara flying in, my sister Aubrie and her family were going to be at Disneyland this weekend too so we headed down there on Friday.  It was a gloomy weekend and I didn't want my camera to get rained on so forgive the camera phone photos.

Harper and Hailey on the Jungle Cruise

Waiting to ride the carousel.

When we got home from Disneyland I was pretty tired and I had a headache so I went to bed pretty early.  I got a phone call from my brother around 11 letting me know that he had just proposed to his girlfriend so I will be getting a new sister-in-law this summer!  I was so out of it from being asleep that when Chase said "I'm engaged," I said, "Who is this?"  I had no idea what was going on, but I am very excited.

On Saturday we hit up John O'Groats for breakfast.

Kara was kind enough to watch the kids in the middle of the day so Tom and I could go to the movies.  It is really weird to go somewhere without the kids in the middle of the day.

And then when it stopped raining we waited in line for some Sprinkles Cupcakes and then went shopping at the Beverly Center.

Harper was really fascinated with Kara's makeup.

On Saturday we went to Santa Monica so that Kara could get a run in and then went to lunch.  Kara even gave us haircuts on top of all of that!

 Kara we are so glad you visited us this weekend and you are welcome any time!

And, if all of that wasn't enough, my Mom called this weekend to see if my youngest sisters could visit us during spring break, so stay tuned for more posts about visiting sisters in a couple weeks :)

roxbury park

I am so grateful for the camera on my cell phone.  It isn't perfect, but without it I would miss out on photos like this:

Mommy and Jonah at the Mall

Mommy and Jonah are spending some quality time at the mall.

Visiting Daddy at work

 These guys have really been missing Daddy lately.  He has been a little busier at work and they kids have definitely noticed.  He has to work late tonight so we brought him dinner earlier.  The kids were very excited to see him!  When Jonah ran up to Tom he said "love you."  It was so sweet.

Poor Harper kept asking him to come home with us.  Tom is such a great Daddy!

turn that frown upside down

We were having a rough day today.  I have been trying to keep this saying in mind every day, and especially on the hard ones, so instead of sitting around thinking about the pile of dirty laundry on my bedroom floor we headed over to the temple and visitor's center.

 I was looking to feel some peace.  And, even though my kids were running around like crazy people, I felt a feeling of comfort and reassurance.  And also a feeling of love toward my kids (even though they were driving me crazy).

 They have this little computer coloring table that the kids enjoy.

I love that the people working in the visitor's center are so friendly.  It is such a helpful and welcoming thing to experience when we walk in the building, and it is something that I would like to be better at.

Yum

We love lunch at Cafe Rio with our friends!

20 Months

Jonah is so funny these days.  He is a lot less baby-like and is constantly saying new words.  I tried to start writing down all of his new words that he was learning, but I couldn't keep track.  He has even started to say little sentences.  One of his favorite new words is "mine" which has led to an increase in arguments with Harper.

He loves cars, buses, trucks, trains, etc. and likes to push them around the house.  One of his favorite things to do is to fill up his lis little bus with Sesame Street characters and push it around his room.

He also loves to read books and I find him like this several times a day.

He has been going through a very clingy stage and constantly wants to be in someone's lap.  Here he is leaning on my knee.  

He is very sweet and will walk over to me and give me kisses or hugs.

We love this little guy.  He is pretty easy going and is always laughing about something.

Valentine's day, park, bikes, etc.

What we've been doing . . .

Making cookies at Harper's friends "the Kates."  Kate was nice enough to share her princess dresses.

 Kate's mom Morgan made the girls these cute little aprons.  Harper has worn hers pretty much every day.

 Goofing off in the kids room.  I love that the kids have a fairly big bedroom because we spend a lot of time playing in there and the kids love it.

 Opening Valentine's cards.  Harper was in a pretty bad mood here but she thought they were very special.

 Riding bikes in the church parking lot.  Since we live in an urban-ish area, most people don't have anywhere for their kids to ride bikes so sometimes people will get together in the church parking lot.  Jonah had a good time pushing Harper around on the bike.  Harper enjoyed being chauffeured.

 Tom was able to join us, even though it was Friday afternoon.  Yay!

 Our neighbors have been doing some kind of construction for the last few months.  It is very loud and wakes Jonah up which leads to a very cranky little boy by early evening.

 This morning we were able to have a little picnic at the park.

I am going to try to make more posts so that I don't get behind which makes me not want to post.  I'm working on it.

Utah Trip

I am a little behind on posting, but better late than never.

In December Southwest had some really cheap tickets, but we had to leave on January 24th and come back on January 31st (my birthday) so that's what we did.  I didn't really think about the fact that it is the middle of winter and it would be cold but it wasn't too terribly cold.

Jonah was very excited to be in Utah!

 Harper's hair pretty much looked like this most of the time we were there.  Mine didn't look much better.

 Kelly is going to be so happy that I posted this picture.

 My Grandparents were able to come by for a visit, which I always love.  They are so great.

 We spent lots of time goofing around at Grandma's house.

 On Saturday we went bowling at Fat Cats.  Harper pretty much thought it was the best thing ever.  Here she is in her bowling shoes.

 Here she is bowling:

 And then we had pizza.  These guys love pizza.

 Here is my brother Chase with his girlfriend Makay.  Harper really took to Makay and has been asking about her since we got home.

 The kids had TONS of fun with their cousins.  Hailey is about a year older than Harper and Gavin is about a year older than Jonah.

 We took some more senior photos for Carly since I wasn't happy with how few of them turned out last time.  We got lots of good ones (Carly, I will send them soon).

We got to visit with my Dad for a few hours.  Jonah was not in the best mood since he had fallen asleep in the car on the way there.  

 My Grandparents brought over these computers and Jonah and Harper had a great time playing with them.

Dual monitors.  

The kids reading with Grandma.  

 I left the afternoon of my birthday so I was able to go to lunch with my Mom, Eric, and my kids which was really nice.

I even got to enjoy a 25 hour birthday since I gained an hour when I flew back to LA :)