little superman

Earlier Jonah told me, "I need my cape to save the day!"

Later, crying after falling down while running around the house, "I didn't save the day."

Petersen Automotive Museum

On Saturday we drove over to the Petersen Automotive Museum.  Since Tom has been really busy at work lately, we have been trying to do more activities so that we make sure that he gets some quality family time.

The museum was fun, though Jonah was disappointed that he didn't get to climb in the cars.

The big highlight of the museum was seeing the batmobile and costume from one of the Batman movies.  Jonah was in awe.

 The top floor of the museum is a kids area.

 They have a ramp where you can race Hotwheels.

The kids were thrilled that we let them pick out a little car in the giftshop at the end of the museum.  They haven't slept without them all week.

Harper singing

We tried to visit the Petersen Automotive Museum on Saturday.  We did not know that the 2013 Bacon Festival was in progress on the roof of the museum and there was no parking for blocks in any direction, so we ended up driving around for a while.  Here is Harper singing while we drove around looking for parking.


Harper singing from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.

New bikes

Our kids get a little bike deprived.  We don't have a yard and our street is a giant hill with a horrendously bumpy sidewalk, so it takes a lot of effort to have bike riding time.  We have a tricycle that Harper has outgrown and that Jonah has yet to grow into, so we decided that our kids needed some new bikes to motivate us.

We have had limited success finding places to ride their bikes (other than the church parking lot, which is kind of a hill itself) so we decided to take them with us when we went to visit Tom's parents last weekend.

The kids loved being able to ride around in their cul-de-sac.  When we got back they wanted to know if they could ride their bikes on our street.  No way!

Harper has tipped her bike a couple of times and is a little nervous about riding it.  But as long as she goes pretty slow and never goes anywhere near a hill, she is happy.

We got Jonah a balance bike.  He is a little short for his age (Harper was at this age too) so this way he doesn't have peddles that he needs to reach.  He is quite pleased.

The dogs came out to watch the biking.

Jonah may be a little short, but his head definitely isn't small.  We had to buy him a helmet for the 5+ year olds.  It is the only size that would fit on his head, but it doesn't quite fit right (you can see here that it is sliding back).

We have since discovered a park with a great trail for biking so hopefully these will get lots of use :)

Christmas in Utah

After a long, long drive from LA, which included an overnight stop in Vegas, we made it to my Mom's house.   It was a very cold and snowy.    

The kids were very excited to open more presents.

Jonah wore his normal breakfast attire (PJ shirt and a diaper) and added his new Batman boots to the ensemble.

 We rode a carousel.

 The kids played iPad games with Grandma.

We had a yummy breakfast at the Original Pancake House.  These next two are my favorite photos from the trip.

Jonah is a real character and it turns out that this is amplified by having a larger audience.  

It was colder in Utah than we had planned, so we did a little winter shopping (thank goodness for clearance sales!).  I found this jacket for Jonah.  It has a little wolf on the front and little wolf ears on the top.  Every time he wore it he insisted on being called "Wolfie."

 So fun to see these guys.  It was totally worth the trip just to spend time with them.

 It was wonderful to have some help from my sisters.  Harper and Jonah love their aunts!

We got to see my Grandparents.  This is my maternal grandfather and one of the people I most admire in the whole world.

Not the best picture, but this is my maternal Grandmother, Harper, and my Mom.  These three ladies are amazing.

One of the highlights of the trip (other than seeing family) was to ride the Frontrunner Train.  Jonah still talke about getting to ride a train.

We rode downtown to check out the new mall and temple square.  We also spent some time in the Children's area of the Church History Museum.

And this is my cute sister Kelly with her boyfriend.  He is leaving on his mission next month.

We were sad to leave, but happy to be home.  Especially because it got much colder in Utah after we left!

Christmas 2012

This year we decided to stay home for Christmas day and then head to Utah for a few days.  On Christmas Eve Tom's parents came over and we made a gingerbread house and watched Elf.

 On Christmas day we woke up early and opened presents.  The kids both got new shoes.

 And lots of other things.  I wasn't very good about taking photos of everything.

 One of Jonah's favorite things was this pirate telescope.  It pretty much goes with him everywhere.

 And this Spiderman.

After we cleaned up a little we all piled in the car and headed to Utah.  It was really fun to have time with both of our parents and quiet Christmas morning at home :)

her favorite things

Until I have time to go through everything from our Utah trip, here is Harper singing in the car on the way home.


IMG 0485 from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Tom!

On the 20th Tom had a big birthday.  We kept it pretty low key and had an ice cream cake at home.  

The kids had helped me pick out some of Tom's favorite treats: baked Cheetos, coke, bubblegum, and of course Batman pajama pants.  

One of Tom's co-workers even brought by some Apple shaped sugar cookies for him.

Tom requested Rubio's fish tacos for his birthday dinner. So we drove to a nearby Rubio's, parked the car, and walked to the front of the building only to discover that it had been closed down :(  But the shopping center did have a kosher fish restaurant which also had fish tacos so we gave it a try. 

Tom got a new camera for his birthday/Christmas so we spent some time playing around with the camera.  And since the camera is Tom's, there might actually be some photos of me in the future!

And here is a photo of us singing Happy Birthday to Tom.  What is it with my kids and licking birthday cakes?

MAH00491 from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.