Chrismtas (Part II)

Christmas Card (Part I)

I didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards this year (that's probably painfully obvious to all of you by now)...I slack. Honestly, I am so busy I felt like something had to give and I thought everybody would forgive me if I didn't send out cards since they generally just end up in a junk drawer or trash can within a week anyways. So, in lieu of the cards...



Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends. We hope this holiday found you all happy and healthy. We love you!!!

I

Rockstar!!

I've finally uploaded the video Devyn took of Connor's piano recital last week. He was totally awesome and blew all of the other kids his age out of the water...I know I know, it's not a competition, but Connor totally won!!!! Anyhow, we're so proud of the progress Connor's made, he's been taking lessons for a bit over a year and we're continually impressed by how much he's learned. We are also overjoyed by how much he seems to really enjoy playing (hope that lasts). Check out the little video, and be sure to notice how adorable he looks when he's counting to himself. Also take note of how he's rockin' the corporate accountant look. He's the man.

Baby Yoga

Baby Jane is clearly a girl ahead of her time and wise beyond her years. She's already realized the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of yoga. Check out her awesome "downward dog". Trust me when I tell you she can hold this position for quite awhile, truly a sight to see.

Halloween stuffs

I'm tired and don't really have the energy to think of fun and exciting things to say, so here's my cute kids in their Halloween glory. Nothing too fancy or even super interesting this year. Connor insisted on being a clone trooper so you can't even see his face, but trust me when I say he's still good lookin'. Lily was Alice in Wonderland, which was so so cute. I kind of pushed this costume idea, mainly because I thought the color of the dress would be so pretty with her baby blues. And I was right! She was darling in every way. We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening on Monday and because of the humidity, they were completely moldy and gross by Thursday, so next year we're carving the day before Halloween. But we all had fun and Connor and Darrin's pirate jack-o-lantern was pretty cool while it lasted. Lily and I went for a more traditional (and way way easier) smiley face. Maybe we'll be a little more ambitious next year...but I doubt it.

Lily did have her first sleepover on Halloween night. We went trick-or-treating with Sydney and then Lily slept over and watched the new Tinkerbell movie. Jon even got Lily to eat breakfast crepes the next morning, no small feat!! We're sending her over for peas next weekend. Apparently Lily was great and had a blast, but I couldn't handle the stress and found it difficult to sleep. Vanessa and I agreed that while Lily was completely ready for the world of sleepovers, I definitely WAS NOT. But maybe now that the band-aid has been pulled I'll be a little less of a freak....again, I seriously doubt it. Freak is my natural setting.

I Should Start Charging for the Awesomeness...

...that is Lily.

She just keeps me laughing and smiling all the time. I apologize, in advance, to those of you who won't understand the tidbit I'm about to share, but I just loved it too much to keep to myself.

We've been reading the Book of Mormon with the kids for part of a Scripture Treasure Hunt they're doing at church. So, we have a kiddie version of the BOM that we read to Lily every night. You know you never think the kids are really listening and you're just wasting time you could be spending playing spider solitaire, but every once in awhile they prove to you that your efforts might not be completely in vain. So I'm reading to Lily the other night about the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, you know the people Ammon converted and who swore the oath to never take up arms against their brethren. We get to the part where the wicked Lamanites come to attack them and start to kill them, and Lily puts her hand up and says to me in the most matter-of-fact voice you can imagine "What those guys need to do is go to the Tree of Life, then they'll be happy and they'll stop trying to kill everybody."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, it was so stinking cute, especially if you've ever heard Lily's "dissertation voice". She's the awesomest of all awesome 4-year olds ever.

Another favorite of late is her habit of telling Connor (usually when he's getting scolded for something or other), "We have rules for a reason Buddie."

Am I wrong...awesomest or what?

The Great Travesty

"In Game 2 of the NLDS, the Cubs were undone by two errors during the Dodgers' five-run second, as Chicago now heads to Los Angeles in a 2-0 hole in the best-of-five series. Ace Carlos Zambrano did not have the game that he was looking for, giving up seven runs over 6 1/3 frames. "

Ahhhh, who really wanted to see Zambrano go down in flames like that?...

I DID!!!

I swear, watching that second inning I was actually giddy! I laughed, I cried, it was a pretty emotional experience. With the Padres humiliatingly bad year, I can in all honesty say that this was the happiest moment of the season for me. Thanks Cubs, I owe you.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

We just wanted to wish Granpa Darrel a Happy Happy Happy Birthday! We love you and wish you could be with us, but since that's just not happening this year, the kids decided to share some birthday entertainment for ya. Enjoy!

Been awhile...sorry

I realize it's been almost two months since my last post, no big excuses or anything, just normal business. School is back on (yeah!!) so we're getting our schedules back on track. Summer is fun cause you can just go with the flow and do whatever, but I have to admit I kind of like having a more disciplined schedule. I feel like I get a lot more accomplished when I have to account for my time. Connor switched schools this year and is LOVING it. Most of his friends from church are at this school, and his teacher is totally awesome, he's just having a great time. He's already gotten sick, he had a nasty stomach virus this week and missed 3 days and school hasn't even been in for a month!! Love those elementary school germs. Lily is back at Miss Paula's preschool for another year and is the big lady on campus! A few of her friends from sunbeams also decided to attend her preschool this year so she's just having a great time. All in all, life here is pretty uneventful, except for that horrible sound our dryer is making and the fact that my car felt the need to stop working at the mall today...

Here's a few pics that Chelsea took on their last visit. She's an awesome photographer and just has a knack for catching cool moments. Enjoy.

This is probably my favorite picture ever. I want to have it blown up and framed in my room. How "california" does Connor look?
He totally wants to start learning to surf, but I can barely handle watching him boogie board, so I think we'll wait a couple years on that.

Couldn't be cuter or cooler.

Lily loves going to the beach, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the ocean. She pretty much spends the entire time completely covered in sand.

Seriously, is this not the cutest thing ever? She loves her Uncle Michael so so much and he clearly can't stand her...so sad.

Nerd-Con 2008

So, we went to Comic Con last week. It was the first time I actually attended, although I have been downtown in recent years while Comic Con was going on and seen some of the "unique individuals" wandering the streets. Let me just say that I had so so so much fun! The best thing about Comic Con is that people just embrace and own their nerdiness. It's actually quite liberating. And trust me, you never realize how big a nerd you really are until Hugh Jackman unexpectedly shows up after your panel with some "Wolverine" footage, you see some playing cards fly across the screen and you scream out like you've just won the lottery "GAAAMMMBBBIIITTT!!!". I'm pretty sure this moment cemented my status as a nerd, and I couldn't be prouder. I didn't get to see the Watchmen panel, which kind of made me pouty, but I still had great fun hangin with my peeps. Jen (Darrin's sister and fellow Twilight obsessee flew into town to join us), Vanessa, Devyn and I were a might disappointed with the Twilight panel, but were all still happy we went, it was such a crazy experience. Next year, I think I'm gonna go multiple days and make some kind of game out of how many storm troopers I can find, they were everywhere! All in all, a great day, saw lots of cool stuff and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Here's two of my highlights...

Me and Ironman, don't we make a cute couple?

Me and my people with the Twilight cut-out. Twilight is my favorite guilty pleasure, it's kind of fun having a crush on a fictional teenage vampire. Notice how I positioned myself right next to Edward, completely blotting Bella out of the picture. I'm completely out of control and I love it.

Happy 4th of July!!

Hope everybody else had as much fun as we did celebrating Independence Day! It was a pretty chill day, which in my opinion, is the best kind of day. We hung out at home during the morning/afternoon then we went over to Vanessa's parent's house for a barbecue. There was lots of delicious food, burgers, hot dogs, salad, chips...all the barbecue regulars. But, my favorite part was the homemade awesome blossom than Jon made... pretty much cementing his lead in the "Best Friend Husband" race. Then Vanessa's mom made this ice cream cake that was so yummy, it had this totally delicious oreo crust, then it was basically vanilla ice cream with strawberries and blueberries, it was divine! After dinner, we drove over to Vanessa's dad's office, which is right across the street from Legoland and watched the fireworks from the parking lot. It was nice, we were far enough away that Lily wasn't a complete spaz about the noise, but we could still see them really well. All in all, a great day with great friends! Some highlights...

Here's the girls, Lily and Sydney, chilling in Darrin's trunk waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Here's our Baby Jane, or as Lily calls her "Janie Girl", hanging out with Uncle Giant on the swing. She looked so cute on her first major holiday and was, as always, a perfect little baby!

Here's Vivi proving that patience is not a virtue when it comes to ice cream cake.

Connor, in the most patriotic outfit of all, an X-Men t-shirt. He rocks.

The girls again, hanging out on the treehouse slide play structure thing. Everyone take note of Sydney's huge hair bows. I was so proud of Lily's little blue bows that looked like fireworks. Then we got to the barbecue and saw Sydney's...needless to say Lily's bows suddenly looked pretty ghetto.

This is my favorite video, it's Sydney singing "God Bless America" while America's birthday cake is being lit. Apparently, Sydney had already spent a goodly portion of the day singing "Happy Birthday" to America, so this song was a nice change of pace for everybody.

Lily's Last Day at Preschool!

Yesterday was Lily's last day of preschool (this year). They had a little ceremony for all the kids graduating and advancing. They sang songs and did the pledge of allegiance and performed a little play. It was all so darling, you could just die! Lily is only one of 3 kids who wasn't graduating onto kindergarten this year, and it made me kind of sad to know that most of this year's friends wouldn't be back next year. But luckily for us, Lily's the coolest chick in town and she makes friends with just about everyone she meets. So, we're happily looking forward to all or our summer fun and next year's new preschool friends. After the "graduation", they had a little luncheon and then for an extra treat, we went to Legoland with Lily's best friend Sydney and her awesome mom Vanessa. They had never been before so it was really fun to watch Lily take Sydney on all her favorite rides. We had a blast and Lily was completely exhausted when we got home (that didn't stop her from waking up at 5:00 this morning!!). So, here's the photo/video recap of the day:

Could she look anymore bored? She looks like all the 17-yeard olds in my church class on Sunday. "When is this gonna be over??"

This is all of Lily's friends. That, of course, is Sydney on her right, and if you skip two to the left you find her boyfriend Micah, and next to him is her other boyfriend Adam. She just can't make up her mind between them...it's rough being 4.

This might be one of my favorite pictures ever. It just captures the essence of Lily and Sydney. All extreme, all the time. But they really love each other and I love that.

Here's Lily on the "Bionicle Blaster". It's Legoland's version of the teacups and it's Lily's favorite ride.

What would a day at Legoland be without an ice cream cone? But I have the most boring kid in the world. Sydney's a normal child, she orders the brightest and most disgusting sounding ice cream on the menu (in this case, cotton candy) and what does Lily order? Vanilla. I couldn't even talk her into chocolate. It's kind of embarrassing.

All the kids had to get up and say what their favorite thing about preschool was. In case you can't understand Lily, or just in case you think you misheard...she did in fact say "My favorite thing about preschool is eating crackers." At this point, I looked to my friends and said, "Why have I been paying the monthly tuition for preschool, we have crackers at home."

This was just too cute not to show. I love the heart thumping part. So cute.

Memorial Day Madness

Our friends Greg and Carmen had this amazing party on Memorial Day. It felt like half of our ward was there, along with a bunch of friends and neighbors of Greg and Carmen. They rented this huge blow-up waterslide and then they had a smaller slip-n-slide on a hill for the smaller kids. Tons of food and all our friends, it was such a fun day!! We were exhausted by the time we got home. I managed to capture a few fun moments on the camera. I hope everyone else had a great Memorial Day as well. Love to all-DeEtte

This is Lily and her "best friend" Sydney. Aren't they cute?

This is Lily and her "best friends" Sydney and Karis sliding down the hill together. Basically Lily calls everyone her best friend, even random strangers that we meet at the park.

Congratulations Jamie & Carly!!

Today Jamie and Carly went to the temple and were sealed together for time and all eternity. We're so so so happy for both of them and are so glad that they found each other in this wicked crazy world!

We wish we could've been there, but I swear we were there in spirit. Congratulations you guys, we love you!!!

See you in a couple months :)

Weekend in Review

Well, we've had a busy few weeks, but it's all over now. All the family departed this morning, leaving just us McPherson/Mann Californians. And despite the adorableness of Baby Jane to fill the void, it feels just a bit empty in the house right now. We had such a good time with my parents for the last few weeks and it was just so cool that they could be here. Chelsea, Shawn and Cora came down this weekend for Jane's blessing and some family-filled fun on the side. We all had a cool time, they got to see Connor pitch (4 strikeouts and 2 walks, that's right y'all he's off the hook!), hit up a Padres Game (Thank you Mike Shustek-even though we went to the one game of the series they lost :( ) and just enjoyed being together. The kids particularly had a great time playing together and Cora was none too happy to discover that Lily was not going with them when they left this morning! But life has to get back to normal...at least normal for us. Here's a few cute pics of the game and whatnot...hit up Chelsea's blog (hopefully) for cute pictures of Jane on her blessing day.

Lily is now incapable of just standing normally in a picture. She has to strike a pose and make the silliest face possible. Pretty cute, but it can get annoying.

Luckily for us, Lily's Khalil jersey from last season was still in the drawer and it fit Cora perfectly, so she could represent!! Even Chelsea wore Devyn's Padres shirt...so Shawn and Michael were the only losers with us.

I swear, Lily did have fun at the game, she was just a little beat by the time we got home.

SSHHHH!!! I'm trying to sleep people!!

Jane Watch-Day 8

Seriously, these top two pictures are probably my favorite so far..

Could she be any smaller? I love it that Michael's sitting at the computer, it just feels so right.

Little ball of cuteness, that's what she is.

Best Auntie Ever. Whoops, did I say that out loud?

Jane Watch-Day 6-The Cuteness Continues

Sorry I skipped a day of Jane for Lily's birthday, I hope you can all forgive me. Here's the latest offerings...

Look at those big baby blues. When she's awake, she's like seriously awake, I love it. Her eyes are so wide and blue, she just reminds me so much of Devyn it's crazy.

The open mouth sleep. If any of you have ever seen Devyn sleep, you'll recognize this look well.

Connor is completely fascinated with his little cousin. I think he would hold her all day if we let him. It's pretty dang cute. He just sits and stares at her and today he just couldn't get over how small her ears and fingers were.

Lily wouldn't touch Jane for the first couple days, but she's slowly getting over her shyness. She actually kissed her today and she, of course, had to hold her when she saw Connor doing it.

Lily is totally interested in everything Devyn does for Jane. She loves to watch her diapers get changed and her clothes changed and she just sits and chats with Devyn while she's feeding Jane. Today she sat down while Devyn was feeding her and said (totally out of the blue), "I love to talk about me." It was pretty funny. Then she was walking around the room and we heard her say, "Is this the right way?", and we looked over and saw that she had appropriated the Boppy pillow and was 'breastfeeding' Funshine Bear. It was so dang funny, I thought I was going to die!

Happy Birthday Lily!

Our Lily is 4 years old today! In actuallity, we had a little b-day party for her on Saturday. Some of her friends came over for cake and ice cream and jumped in a bounce house for a few hours. They had so so so much fun, right up until the moment she and her best bud Sydney crashed noggins and Syd's nose started to bleed and swell. Lily knows how to end things with a bang. She took cookies to preschool today and informed me that they had a "party" there, so she got double fun. So, here's a few pictures to commemorate the big #4.

Couldn't be cuter if she tried.

This is the cake I made in the middle of the night on Friday. I didn't get home from the hospital until almost midnight and Lily just had to have a pink butterfly cake. Needless to say, I was up until 4:00 in the morning making the dang thing. I'm not sure it was worth it, but it's pretty cute.

This is Lily and Sydney (pre-nose bleed) during the chaotic present opening (which lasted a record-breaking 2 minutes, tops). Lily's favorite present, by far, was this drum and harmonica set that we got her. The harmonica actually makes a pretty loud, nice, clear sound, it was surprising. But I'm already sick of it. She offers to play us songs all day long, they're awesome.

Blowin out the candles, which we had to do twice, because her friends were trying to be helpful the first time around and just ended up ticking her off.