Trip to Seattle!

Joshua keeps reminding me that it's "one more Sunday" until he gets to go to Seattle for the "cousins party"!

Emmeline, however, has told me repeatedly that she doesn't want to go. She finally crumbled into tears yesterday and told me, "I DO want to go to the cousins party, but can we drive instead? The airplane will be too loud and hurt my ears!" Poor kid, she hears helicopters around here all the time, which are too loud for her, and figured that if she's in the plane the noise must be unbearable! I felt so bad, but after some reassuring, I think she's on board (no pun intended) for the plane ride and the party!

We are excited to be able to see everyone and I'm excited to talk with someone besides the kids and Luke...how novel, you'd think I've been stuck in a hole all summer! I'm so pathetic!

Awwwww....

Most nights I put the kids in bed around 7:30. Emmeline falls asleep immediately. Joshua and Benjamin play, cry, fight, scream, laugh, pull the closet doors off the runners, ask for milk, and go to the bathroom multiple times. Around 9:00 the evening usually ends with a threat: No swimming if you get out of your bed again!

Tonight, however, beginning at about 8:30, Joshua sat on the edge of my bed by Benjamin's crib and sang him to sleep. They were all made up songs about babies, milk, Jesus, and Gus...all lullaby slow and very high pitched. It was so adorable! At some point they both fell asleep (Joshua on my bed, of course), and I was so sad to hear the singing end. I know that Joshua loves his siblings fiercely (sometimes too fiercely!), but I've seldom seen so much patience, calmness, and undivided attention. I love it!

And on a humorous note: Joshua is refusing to leave the house without his batman cape and Jetblue airlines sleeping mask in place. It's hilarious. He tells me he has to rescue the animals. He's really into make-believe and it's hilarious!

Gutter Water

The kids just spent the last hour playing in a gutter. No joke. I think it was water from a broken sprinkler creating a wonderful "pool" at the bottom of a little hill. All three of them and friends, wet and dirty and disgusting. I just let my kids play in the gutter. We must really be searching for entertainment if I've stooped this low!

To Alivia

I just wanted to let Alivia know that about 100 times a day something happens that is blog-worthy...whether it be my thoughts or cute things the kids say or do. However, by the time I get around to posting I usually forget everything that was remotely interesting!

Here's a random factoid, though. Luke checked his email yesterday for the first time since April 30th. 6847 emails later...

That's it! Have a good day!

Here we go! The following three or four posts include pictures of the fun we've been having this summer! I'm so happy to finally be able to share a little bit! I love the picture here of the boys. They are playing, or think they are playing, at an arcade. Every time we said, "Time to go!," Benjamin would say no and start thrashing around in his seat. It was hilarious! Here, too, is a sideways picture of Benjamin. At almost 18 months, he doesn't look anything like a baby to me. He's almost as big as Joshua...as a matter of fact, those shorts that he's wearing do NOT stay up on Joshua--he has to wear a belt, Benjamin doesn't! He's growing so fast, saying new words every day.

We had a good time at the Dodger's game last night. Joshua was upset when it ended and he hadn't gotten a baseball. He was also mad that he couldn't go on the field. Benjamin had a good time clapping and dancing whenever music was played. Emmeline had a great time entertaining/annoying Luke's coworkers. They sure were patient with her, listening to her tell them all about everything, real, make-believe, or otherwise!

That's it for today! Enjoy the pictures!

More Pictures!

All Benajamin. Playing in the fountain and the balls at Universal Studios. Taking a drink...sick. That is gross!

I love the picture from the ball pit. You load up balls in that little vacuum behind Benjamin, they get sucked up into a huge basket, which empties every half hour or so. Luke and I (and the kids) spent an entire morning one day, filling the basket and then laughing when it showered on the kids.

Can you see Luke there in the back of the boat?! We had to take turns riding the Jurassic Park ride (and all the rides) while the other watches the kids. Luke, of course, didn't even get a drop of water on him. I ended up in the wettest seat in the boat. Emmeline really wanted to ride this ride, but ended up being a tiny bit too short.

Fun Photos!

Joshua and Benjamin enjoying the pool. Since these were taken, Benjamin has graduated to just water wings. Joshua, too, is learning to swim without his life jacket. He can make it small distances, but he's not quite coordinated enough to put his face in while kicking and paddling, so he wastes a lot of energy trying to keep his head up. He's doing well, though!

And we wouldn't be in LA if we didn't have sunglasses, now would we!

Still more photos!

Luke with Benjamin (aka Linus?) on Father's Day.
Our apartment on our first day here. I don't think my living room has ever been such a mess. I'm totally embarassed!
The kids playing around.
And, of course, Benjamin's "angry eyes." This is the look that he gives us when he's upset, or the look he gives strangers who try to talk to him. It makes me think of the line in Toy Story, where Mrs. PotatoHead says, "I'm packing your angry eyes!"

Pictures from New York

While in NY, I got to see my best friend from Nutley, Juliet Little, for the first time in 13 years. Also here are pictures of Yankee Stadium, me in Monument Park, and the kids enjoying their new Yankee hats when we got home!

Conundrum

On Thursday night, we are going to the Dodger game. They are playing the Mets. Dodgers. Mets. Who do you root for?! No one. I'll eat a hot dog and hope it's a good pitching matchup.

In other news, Benjamin appears to be left-handed! Woohoo!

That's it for now. I wish we had some more exciting stuff to share...but don't worry. We've been taking loads of pictures and one of these days we'll fill pages and pages with pictures from our summer LA adventure!

Still here...

Hi all! It's been a while, and I really have nothing to post, except that we're all still alive and well!

We've been on a mission to photograph all of the out-of-state license plates in our apartment complex. We've got about 35 of the states and four Canadian provinces (are they provinces?).

Benjamin is turning into a toddler faster than anything! His new favorite game is duck-duck-goose...as long as he's the ducker. He is also trying REALLY hard to communicate. He learned how to say, "NO!" the other day, and loves to use it! He has also started saying "balloon" and "shoe" (which means, "I want to go outside right now!"). He eats with a spoon and fork, too. If I could just get rid of that smelly pink elephant, he would be no longer a baby!

Alright, that's it. We're off to Universal Studios to torture Emmeline by putting her on the Jurassic Park ride. She can't wait...at least, she thinks she can't wait!

This is not a fabrication...

So, one of the things I'm most worried about with Emmeline starting Kindergarten is that she will lose track of everyone and everything and wander away. Well, we visited her elementary school yesterday, and judging by the gates, locks, barbed wire, and bars on the windows, my fears are unfounded. It's like a tiny green prison compound for children. And you have to pay for parking.

Here is one of her registration forms:

Residency

Check all that apply. You live in...

a. a shelter
b. a motel/hotel
c. a car, trailer, campsite
d. with another family
e. in a foster home awaiting placement
f. a place otherwise unfit for human habitation

Wow!

Hopefully we'll leave here before school starts!

Okay, it's not so bad...

We're getting tan, watching ESPN and seven Law and Orders every day, and...okay, that's all I can think of. But this week was good!

No news to report, except that our starlit ward continues to suprise us. We met someone today who writes cartoons for a living, and we also have a stand up comedian/actor in the ward. "Murmuring, who says that?!" Needless to say, they still have not acknowleded our presence!!! We're not as noteworthy as all of the aspiring actors, apparently!

That's it! Hi all!

Day 5 (and 6)

When Luke went out to sell yesterday, a cop pulled him over and warned him that the neighborhood he was in was #1 for homicides in California. Nice. While he had no run-ins with knives or guns, he did get chased by a hungry demonic pitt bull! He ended up on top of a car, trying to beat back the dog with his clipboard!! He got away with only a torn shoelace. This is his second incident with an angry dog this summer...the first resulting in a hole in his shorts...but thankfully he is only emotionally scarred, or should I say, emotionally scared!! Mrp!

Potty Training Extraordinaire!!

Willie is the potty training champ. Two days ago, I said, "That's it. No more diapers for you," and voila, he's potty trained. Obviously, it's only been two days, so hopefully it sticks, and we still have to night train him, but this is sooooooooooo much easier than training Emmeline. I can't believe it! Yay! I figure that will save us about $150 this summer...enough to buy season passes to the zoo or something!

Day three on the alien planet brought a visit to our starlit ward. We have quite the collection of people--including actors and actresses, screenwriters, a professional ballroom dance instructor, and some sort of diplomat. I can't wait to see who we meet next week.

And, since I didn't post on day two. We had an opportunity to go to the Los Angeles Temple. It's huge!!! And the grounds are gorgeous. The kids and Luke played while I attended the temple. It was the highlight of our first three days.

No sign of intelligent life...

Day one on the alien planet...

I sat down at the computer in the clubhouse of our new apartment complex to type this, and the internet home page is set as myspace.com....hmmm, does that tell you anything about the kind of place we now live?!

Los Angeles is indeed another world.

The kids feet are black from our dirty carpet, I've killed five spiders, cut back the overgrowth on our patio, and worn myself out hiking the three flights of stairs to Luke's old apartment (to move stuff over to the new one). Day one, almost over. Hopefully day two will get you to more exciting stuff, like eating sand at the sand volleyball court and swimming in the shade covered pool. Ooh, I can't wait!

Poor Fishy!!!

EmJ's fish died two days ago. He lasted in our home two months. Poor suicidal fishy.


And here's a quotable quote. EmJ told me today, "Don't forget, we have to buy everything that the TV says!"

Stats!

Joshua at THREE!!!

37 inches
29 lbs

And finally starting to grow...I think he's up to about the 20th percentile for his weight and 39th percentile for height! Woohoo!

Emmeline helped me do yardwork today. She's the weeding master. Creepy crawlers don't bug her much (no pun intended). I also mowed the lawn. I'm so proud. I never want to do it again, but I'm proud nonetheless!

Last weekend the kids and I snuck down to LA to visit Luke. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary and Mother's Day. I wanted to sweep in like Superwoman and clean his apartment, cook and freeze meals, etc, but he had been doing a pretty good job on his own! I made my mark a little, but mostly just enjoyed the time with Luke and the kids.

That's it!

Baaaaaa!

Benjamin has a new word. "Bye!" Except it comes out, "Baaaa!" Today we got home from the park and I took Benjamin out of the stroller. He made a beeline for the neighbor's yard, so I yelled, "Bye Benjamin, we're going inside!" He promptly turned, waved, yelled "Baaaaa!", and went into the neighbors garage. I'm not sure if he said goodbye or if he's just mocking me!

Beware: Long Post, No Pictures!!

Benjamin is no longer a baby. Every time I look at him he looks more and more like a boy. He doesn't even walk like a baby anymore, and he's getting more opinionated by the minute. He's trying hard to communicate, but unfortunately has learned the art of the scream! Here are Benjamin's stats at 15 months:

Heigt: 32 1/2 inches
Weight: 23 pounds

The baby books are packed, so I can't compare...although I know that Joshua was 24 pounds at 2 years!!

My neice, Olivia, once had the nickname "The Great Mover of Things." I'm not sure the whole story behind that nickname, but as I find sodas in the bathroom cupboards, toothbrushes in the kitchen cupboards, and tupperware lids in the clothes hamper I'm thinking that Benjamin has also earned the nickname!

Well, we are getting ourselves settled at Grandma's house. For those of you who don't know, Luke started a new job last week. We are moving to SoCal for the summer. Luke is already there, and the kids and I are staying with Grandma for a while. We'll join him later--hopefully sooner than later! We are so grateful to have a place to stay, store some junk. My grandma is a saint and we love her very much...she is one of the saving graces of living in California!

I also wanted to report on our WONDERFUL trip to Yankee Stadium! Luke and I flew to NYC last Wednesday night. When we got there it was too early to check into our hotel, so we stowed our luggage and walked to Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, and Mickey Mantles (the restaurant). We spent the afternoon mostly in the park, exploring, and ended up walking miles and miles and miles and miles...Later, after a quick nap, we hit Times Square. We went to dinner at the ESPN restaurant (cool!!!!) with my long-lost best friend Juliet and her boyfriend, Steve. I spent every day with her growing up, but hadn't seen her in 13 years. It was so much fun to be able to catch up and reminisce...we should have had a camera crew on hand! On Friday, we went to Wall Street. When we finally found the building where my dad used to work, so many memories--mostly snipet pictures in my mind--flooded my brain. I so badly wanted to go up the elevator and drink some Hawaiian Punch (remember, Lin?!). We also saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Trinity Church, and of course Ground Zero. Working our way back uptown we also saw the Manhattan Temple, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Madison Square Garden, and various Trump buildings. That afternoon we headed up to Yankee Stadium. It was incredible. I've been waiting so long to be there that I've downright convinced myself of it's magic. I started getting all teary-eyed when I saw it, and Luke promptly walked away! We explored all around the stadium, admired the vendors selling anti-Red Sox t-shirts, ate hot dogs (yum), then entered the Stadium and explored it as well. We sat in left field and came pretty close to catching a home run--we were sitting in the second deck and I leaned as far as I could without falling! (Oh, and for you M's fans--it was Jose Lopez's homerun, so I would have had to throw it back!) Luke did nothing to make himself stand out as a Mariner's fan, thus there were no fights or death glares from drunk Yankee fans. I did, however, watch some poor girl wearing a Philadelphia Eagles t-shirt get cussed out by one of the concession salesmen!!! While we're talking about scary things that could happen in the city, on the subway on the way home that evening, we learned all we needed to know about the sales and distribution of, um, illegal substances...thank goodness I've perfected my eavesdropping while appearing totally disinterested look! Okay, on Saturday, we went to the Statue of Liberty and then stopped back at Trump Tower to have some Trump ice cream. We window shopped on 5th avenue, and just acted like obnoxious tourists. We went back to Yankee Stadium again where I got to see batting practice and go to monument park (thank you, Luke!!). The tears fell again...I know, I'm so pathetic! We had to get to the airport, so we left as the game was starting. Too bad because Wang pitched a perfect game into the eigth! And, alas, our Yankee experience came to an end. So sad. Back to real life. It was a fabulous weekend! Thanks again to mom and dad for sending us on the trip, and mom for watching the kids without complaint even though they were throwing up on you all weekend!

All right! Enough rambling...I can't wait to post pictures from the trip!