yard work

I LOVE that Tyler is old enough to actually help.

He raked all the leaves.

Although he did get some great help from Charlie and Ella.

Ella found the little white gloves that Grandma Habermeyer gave her for Easter.

I could not convince her that they were not work gloves

California autumns are great. You get to rake the leaves in short sleeves and bare feet.

whistle while you work

rules of etiquitte

Jason has been working at the DA's office for a week now.

He has been late every night.

That means frozen pizza for dinner.

It also means stimulating dinner conversation that includes gems like this:

Charlie: burp

Charlie, Mommy, and Tyler: laugh

Ella: Burps are not funny . . . only farters

Kindergarten

It's sad when they have to grow up . . .

The only tears belonged to Mommy. Tyler walked in with confidence.

I got a kid in Utah

Tyler's favorite band is Green day.

I caught him today singing "Jesus of Suburbia".
The tune was right.
The lyrics not so much.
The real lyrics are "I don't care if you don't".

Some how that was being interpreted by Tyler as
"I got a kid in Utah".

I look so cute

Oh to have the confidence of a 4 year old

Today was Ella's first day of pre-school. She got to wear her new dress and shoes.

After she got dressed, she looked in the mirror and exclaimed

"I look so cute"

Just to be sure - she looked in the mirror at least 3 other times before we left.

Goodbye Summer

I'm sad to see summer go.

I think we still need more of this

And more of this

Happy Birthday BABY

Charlie turns 1

Charlie is my first baby to really dig into his cake.

He LOVED it.

Summer fun at the Lake

Jason on the tube

Jason off the tube

Jason in the water

Happy 4th

4th of July must be celebrated at the beach.

This year we headed down to LA

This is the first year that Tyler LOVED the beach. It was hard to get him out of the water to leave

Ella and Charlie were more fond of playing in the sand.

This ones for Daddy

sing a song

I just love Squish. She is my funniest child. Tyler is cute, but to old to be really amusing

This is Ella at her pre-school sing-a-long

movin on up

Jr. Kindergarten Graduation

After 3 years of preschool Tyler is moving up to Kindergarten. Tyler has loved Mary Jane's Preschool. It has been fun to see him grow and mature - especially this year.

For Graduation they went to the park for a picnic and ceremony

Tyler and JT

Tyler and Jonnie

The whole class

Tyler and Mrs. Guiao - the best preschool teacher ever!

The B word

Jason was called as the Second Councilor in the Bishopric, he is 31 years old.

Son of Sharlene and Mark.

He left behind a beautiful wife and 3 wonderful children.

He will be remembered as a loving husband

and a devoted father.

In lieu of flowers please send treats

Vegas Baby

For Mom's Birthday we went to Las Vegas and it was

Fabulous

we did lots of relaxing by the pool

here's me reading by the pool, drinkin a cold one

One of the coolest things we did was go to the Gospel Brunch at the Mandalay Bay

This is Mom on stage with the gospel singers - awesome!

No kids, No husbands, lots of sun - where should we go next year?

1 balloon + 1 boy

= true love

we are going to be friends

Tyler and Ella both have imaginary friends and it is awesome.

Tony is Tyler's friend. Tony appeared at our house when Tyler was 3 and then he left when Tyler was about 4.

Pina and Cosa are Ella's friends. They started coming around about 2 months ago. With Pina and Cosa's arrival Tony has come back.

The other day in the car Ella started crying that nobody would play with her. I asked her what happened to Pina and Cosa. She replied that Pina and Cosa only wanted to play with Tyler.

It's pretty sad when your imaginary friends start dissin you.

I can't imagine why I haven't lost my baby weight

Jason makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever.

And I eat almost all of them.

love notes?

Tyler has started writing me notes - keep in mind that he is only in Pre-school.

The first one was so sweet
"DE MOM HB VLET LV TYLER" (dear mom happy valentines love tyler)

Today during a time out for throwing toys he wrote
"SOR FR THR THE FEAUD" (sorry for throwing the food) - still sweet
and
"NO DO TUCH DR" (no don't touch the door) - not so sweet
and then
"US MAM AUW NNAD" I have no idea what this says. Tyler will not interpret it for me. He says that I will be mad if I know what it says.
Oh, where has the love gone?

All things Baseball

Saturday was all about baseball

Tyler is on his first T-Ball team. It's awesome. No outs - Everyone bats - 11 kids fielding in the in field. His team name is the White Sox. He is having a blast.

We left Tyler's T- ball game and went straight to the A's game. Jason occasionally gets free tickets, which means we have more money to waste on food. Saturday we ate hot dogs, soda, peanuts, cotton candy, and ice cream that came in souvenier caps. The sweet thing (besides all the junk food) is that Tyler and Ella try to wear their tiny little plastic caps like real hats.

"Happy Birthday Booger Face"

The Birthday wish only a 3 year old can give. Thank you very much Ella - it was a happy one.

Thank you Jason

Thank you Jason for creating a monster.

Jason had him fill out his own bracket. The first time one of his picks lost he cried. It was bad enough having a husband obsessed with college basketball.

New Easter Clothes - "next time I'm picking my own dress"

We tried to get a group shot - it didn't work out

Here's a cute one of Tyler and Ella

And a good one of Tyler and Charlie

I love Ella's Dress. I bought it months ago. It was one of the few times that I've paid full price for something at gymboree. Ella didn't like it. It isn't pink or at least purple. It isn't fancy or "beautiful". She was disgusted that I made her wear it. When we arrived at church and she saw all the other little girls dressed in their Easter dresses - most of them pink - she looked at me and said "Next time I'm picking my own dress"

Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Charlie loved the pool!!

Spoiled???

At Legoland there was a rollercoaster that Ella really wanted to ride. Tyler had been talking about the "Dragon rollercoaster" the entire trip.

Ella was too short.

So I bought her fairy wings. She was so disappointed and I felt bad for her. I can't decide if this was over indulgence(okay the whole trip was about over indulgence)

She is a very cute fairy.

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho

We made the mistake of riding Snow White first. Snow White is scary. The mean witch keeps jumping out at you. After Snow White Ella refused to ride any more rides.

After some prodding and a very large chocolate chip cookie (and maybe a small amount of tears) we convinced (made her) ride Peter Pan. Peter Pan is Tyler's favorite ride. I also think it is fabulous. Everyone at Disneyland must think its fabulous because it always has a LONG line. Luckily Ella got over her initial boycott and rode everything else.

Here's the rest of the trip -

Charlie was great. He is not an accommodating baby. Right before the trip I got really worried that we were making a huge mistake going to Disneyland when Charlie was still so young. All the worrying was unfounded. The first day we took him on all the rides and the second day Sharlene (Jason's mom) came and helped take care of him. He was fabulous and accommodating - could it be that he is finally outgrowing his colic and reflux. I can only cross my fingers.

Ella met Cinderella at Goofy's kitchen. She was very excited. The whole time we were at the restaurant she kept waving and calling out to her "Cinderella come over here" (This might sound like she was being obnoxious - but she wasn't. She was yelling for Cinderella in a whisper voice. It was actually very cute.)

Tyler decided to go on Splash Mountain with Jason. He thought it was great. The next day he wanted to go again with Grandpa. It was Jason, Grandpa, Tyler and some other large man in their boat. Tyler got soaked and no longer thought it was great.

This may be the only proof that Jason was at Disneyland. A self portrait of Daddy and Charlie.