Clan McPherson

Vegas peeps

2011-12-03T14:58:00.001-08:00

Part 2 of our Vegas Thanksgiving trip...

Playing a "friendly" game of Aggravation with Aunt Saundra and cousin Jill.

Connor and his cousin Jill. They are so much alike, it's a little bit creepy.

Lily and her Uncle Mike. She spent the majority of the week crawling, jumping and sitting all over him. He was a good sport and took the torture like a man.

Lily and her Auntie Etling, whom she absolutely adores! Etling provides for Lily all of the things that I don't---fashion, girly talk and shopping. Wish they lived closer so they could have girl time more often.

Happy snuggle time with Uncle Mike. So cute!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-03T14:43:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas! What a great time we had seeing all of our family in Vegas. We got to meet brand new Baby Jeter, have Chelsea take some adorable family pics (stay tuned), and spend lots of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Mike and Auntie Etling. We're so blessed to have a family that we truly love and enjoy spending time with. Thanks for the great holiday! Here's some highlights....

Gettin' ready to chow down!

3 handsome guys!

Eatin' pie! Darrin had asked Connor to get him a piece of pie. And Connor, being the hilariously snarky boy that he is, decided to bring him a piece as big as a plate and a huge serving fork to eat it with. Well, we showed him---we ate it all, with the fork!

Lily and her Grandma Ruth. These two played board games all week long, and I don't think Lily ever got sick of it!

Seriously? Are you kidding me? Could they be more darling?

The answer is no.

Halloween 2011

2011-12-03T10:03:00.000-08:00

Not a bunch of fanfare this year. Lily decided that Lucy absolutely had to dress up as Super Dog. But because Lucy is a girl, Lily was calling her "Krypta" instead of "Krypto" (funny!). Of course, if Lucy was Super Dog, then Lily had to be Super Girl. And we had to drag Lucy along on all of our Halloween adventures, including the ward Trunk-or-Treat. Basically, the poor dog was just a prop for Lily's costume. But they did look awfully cute.

Connor, in true pre-teen fashion, is over the whole dressing up thing. He's in it 100% for the candy. But I tell him he has to dress up as something if he wants to get candy. So, once again, he opted for baseball player. Easy, cheap and he can get all the candy he wants!! I didn't get many pictures, because my camera was in the process of breaking (but Darrin got me a new one for Christmas, yah!). Here's the few I got:

This one was taken by a guy at the ward Trunk-or-Treat. I had to put it on here because I think it's hilarious that it looks like Lucy is scanning the horizon for disasters to avert! She's such a super dog!!

Pumpkin Patch-October 2011

2011-12-03T09:49:00.001-08:00

So the week before Halloween, Lily and I joined Michael, Devyn and the baby girls on a fun trip to Tanaka Farms in Irvine. Tanaka is a big working farm, that creates a pumpkin patch during Halloween. There's a corn maze, tractor rides, petting zoo (which we skipped), veggie picking and, of course, PUMPKINS! Every year Lily is so excited to pick out her very own pumpkin and this year was no exception. I'm so glad she hasn't outgrown her love of things like this (unlike her older brother :( ) . The highlight of the trip was the "pumpkin cannon". It was exactly what it sounds like. A huge cannon that shot pumpkins 100s of feet into the air and about the distance of a football field. So cool! I hope Lily is still game next year! Here's some pics:

The Pumpkin Queen on her Pumpkin Throne

Picking some vegetables (which, incidentally, she won't eat).

Mommy/Auntie with two of her favorite girls on the tractor ride.

The hugest shaved ices EVER!! Truthfully, this is what excited the girls the most....should've saved the admission and just gone out to ice cream :)

Cousin Love....so darling

Cousin Fun!

2011-08-18T17:11:00.002-07:00

We went to spend a day with Devyn and the girls and we all went to this fun little waterpark in their neighborhood. The girls had a blast playing with the fountains and running around like crazy people. It was actually hard to get good pictures because they wouldn't stop moving! Can I just say again how grateful I am that we live so close to each other and that we all love each other so much!! Go family!!!

Summertime...

2011-08-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

This is pretty much what our banister looks like all summer long...you know you're jealous.

Faith in God!

2011-08-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Connor has managed to make us feel even more proud of him than usual...he does that all the time! Last month, he finished all the requirements to earn his "Faith in God" award at church. This is an award that you start working on at the age of 8. There are 5 different categories and you need to do at least two of the requirements from each category every year. Then when boys turn 11, they do some special requirements having to do with the Priesthood. Our little guy has worked on this diligently since he turned 8 and finished over half a year ahead of schedule! We are constantly amazed at Connor's diligence in any task he puts his mind to. And we're especially proud that he has such a desire to learn and grow spiritually. We love you Connor!

Coolest overnighter ever!!

2011-08-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

Lily's Girl Scout troop earned a lot of money selling cookies (thanks to everyone who helped out on this)! With part of their earnings, they got to participate in a Camp SeaWorld overnighter. I was lucky enough to attend as a chaperone. The girls got to go to some really awesome behind the scenes demonstrations and activities. They learned a lot and had fun doing it! Our group got to sleep in the Wild Arctic exhibit with the Beluga Whales. Can I just say--freezing!! But so worth it, because it was one of the most amazing experiences we've had. I'm so glad Lily got to participate, it's something she'll remember forever.

This is where we slept. It was so amazing to wake up to this sight!

Feeding seals!

Participating in an activity that demonstrated the use of "blubber". The girls first put their fingers in a tub if ice water and held them there to see how fast it gets cold with just the fat under their skin protecting it. Then they put these molds around their fingers (I think it was model magic) to act as the blubber and insulate their fingers from the cold. Learning in action baby!

Our troop and our older sister troop. They got to dress up one of the girls as a polar bear, while learning all about them. Super fun and cute too!

Rite of Passage

2011-08-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

We're all familiar with the many rites of passages our children go through--first smile, first tooth, first steps....this year, Lily had an important rite of passage for our family--her first Comic-Con!! We all went down this year to preview night, and the kids had so much fun looking around at all the cool stuff. Lily was so excited to be old enough to go with everybody else....she wasn't so excited about how crowded it was. My little junior hoarder loved all the free swag and she spent a lot of time picking out the exactly perfect shirt to purchase--we had to criss cross to 3 different booths (all on opposite ends of the convention hall) to find the exact Justice League shirt in her size, but it was worth it!!

Lily and her "new favorite" superhero. She's outgrown The Flash and has decided that The Bats is her new guy! Mommy couldn't be any prouder.

Her awesome Justice League bag that's as big as her...filled to the brim with swag. She loves "stuff" and pretty much picked up anything that she could, even if she had no idea what it was.

Not the best picture, but...the only one we got. This is us in front of the Tardis. For lame people who don't know, the Tardis is the spaceship that The Doctor flies around in on our family fave show "Dr. Who". My kids were super stoked to see it, but it was so crowded we couldn't get the whole thing in the shot. Upon seeing it, Lily said "Oh my gosh, wouldn't it just be so amazing if David Tennant walked out of there right now?!" David Tennant is our favorite actor to play the Doctor in the show. Yes, we raise nerds.

4th of July-2011

2011-07-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

We had such a great Independence Day! We all drove up (or is it down) to Devyn and Michael's house for the day. We went swimming, ate A LOT of food, played games, went to the most darling little street fair, and of course, watched the fireworks. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate this great country that we are privileged to live in than to spend the day with the people you love. Here's some pics of the adorable kiddos:

Why does Lily always look like she's hatching some sort of plot?

Cutest cousins ever!

I told Connor to pretend that he liked his sister...how did he do?

"FREEDOM!"

5th Grade Graduation!!

2011-07-17T16:04:00.001-07:00

Connor is now officially in middle school (sob, sniff, groan...)! On June 7th, he graduated from 5th grade and ended his very distinguished elementary school career. That was the last day Connor and Lily will EVER attend the same school at the same time (so sad for me). They had a cute (but too long) ceremony at the school. Connor earned the highest academic award (The Presidential Gold award) and received his "diploma". It was a very bittersweet day for me, but it couldn't have come any quicker for Connor. He's so excited to be moving on. And, as always, we have the greatest confidence that he will be a smashing success in everything he does!!

Looking handsome as ever with his classmates before the ceremony begins.

Receiving his Gold Academic award from Principal Legg.

Isn't he the picture of enthusiasm?

Proud and happy family!

We love you Connor!!

Random Sharing

2011-06-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

My kids are funny and quirky, to the extreme sometimes. I wouldn't have it any other way. Examples:

Connor--
While we were all in the car running errands the other day, Darrin and I were discussing the BBC show "Dr. Who". The kids, having never heard of or watched the show, were asking who Dr. Who was. We briefly explained. Then Connor says in a mock English accent "Ah yes, Dr. Who and his associate Professor Someone. I know them well." So stinking funny and clever. We just laughed and laughed.

Lily--
We all know her quirkiness knows no bounds. Lately she's taken to reading in bed every night before she goes to sleep (I have NO IDEA where she picked up such a notion :-)) That's not the quirky part. Here it is. Her choice of reading material? Of course, "The Boy Scout Handbook". I kid you not. Every night. She loves it. ????

Cutest Birthday Girl Ever

2011-05-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Lily officially turned 7 on April 29th! What a fun birthday she had. Started with a breakfast of bacon (her favorite food on the planet) and pancakes. Daddy and Mommy came into her classroom and brough Pat & Oscar's breadsticks for her class. She had a Girl Scout meeting and got all of her heard-earned cookie rewards. She had a few friends over for cupcakes, movies, games, dancing, pizza, and a sleepover. Then on Sunday, we had a subdued family birthday dinner with Devyn, Michael and the girls. In true Lily fashion, she loved every second of it and was so excited for every gift she got. She's such a darling girl, full of love and compassion and our family would be miserable without her. Happy Birthday Lily-Bug!!

Lily's and her friend at school were "birthday twins". They thought it was the coolest thing!

Lily, Sydney, Kailin and Malia. Having fun and making SO MUCH NOISE!!

Cupcake with purple (her current fave color) icing!

Yay!! New books from Grandma.

My kids just don't like to do traditional birthday cakes. Lily's choice this year was an ice cream pie, with chocolate rice krispie crust. It was delicious!!!

Spring Photo Shoot 2011

2011-05-04T19:31:00.001-07:00

Just a preview of some gorgeous pics Vanessa took of the kiddos at Carlsbad Flower fields. Can I just say again that my kids are really really ridiculously good looking.

Spring Break 2011

2011-05-04T18:46:00.001-07:00

We had such a great Spring Break this year!! We kicked it off with a bang---Disneyland! And not just an ordinary visit. We were lucky enough to meet Uncle Cory, Aunt Amanda and their brood AND Grandma Lori for a fun-filled day. It was hotter than heck and super crowded (duh...Spring Break, what did we expect?), but we still had such a wonderful time. The kids and I and Devyn and Jane drove down early in the morning so we could meet them right at opening, and we stayed for 14 hours. It is always so so fun to see all the cousins together. I wish we could make this an annual tradition!

Con and Lily then got to have a two-day sleepover at Auntie and Uncle Michael's house. They don't generally do anything crazy or out of the ordinary, but it's still my kids' favorite thing to do. Apparently Auntie and Michael make EVERYTHING fun. And Jane is always in hog heaven to have her peeps around. She would pretty much hold Connor's hand all the time if he was down.

When Andrew and Jen were here, they had some leftover tickets to the San Diego Zoo that they left for us to use. So Devyn and I and the kids spent a fun day at the Zoo. It had been awhile since we'd gone, so it was really fun and there were a couple new habitats that were amazing. Jane was less than impressed (but still such a good girl), but Avery absolutely loved seeing all the animals. It kind of took us off guard. She would point and smile and just stare and stare. It was so darling.

All in all, such a fun Spring Break. Connor was definetely ready to have a break from school, and I was definetely ready to have a break from school schedule. Although I have to say, I am always glad when they go back to school too!! :-)

Connor, Logan and Caden on the Rocket Ships at Disneyland! Caden was the pilot and they spent the entire ride up as high as they could get!

Lily, Jane and Maddi waiting for the Princess Coronation show at Disneyland. They learn to wave and curtsy and dance like princesses. Not that they needed any lessons on being princesses, look how adorable they are!!

At the entrance to the Sun Bear Forrest. Avery's so happy to be there! Notice Jane clinging to Connor's hand...so funny.

On the guided tour bus, waiting to take off. Again, notice Jane attached to Connor like life itself depends upon it. She sure loves her some Con and vice-versa.

Darling kids who I love more than life itself!!

Best. Field Trip. Ever.

2011-03-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

One of the many perks of living in Souther California? Field trips to awesome places. Last week Lily's class took a field trip to Legoland!! Can you believe that? How lucky is she? Anyways, I was fortunate enough to go as a chaperone and we had such a great time. They started things off with a group educational presentation where they talked about different kinds of structures and what makes structures strong. It was super cool. They they divided into their groups and the kids built their own structures (no adult help allowed). When they were done, they attached the structrues to this little platform that vibrated and created a 5.5 earthquake to see if their structure would stay intact. So fun!! Then we had a few hours to explore the park and ride rides and have fun. What a great day. Here are some highlights:

Master builders...Lily and her friends Raiden and Gavin

Almost done. After I took this picture, they added another smaller tower at the top.

Earthquake!!! I'm delighted to say that their building didn't buckle under the pressure. They were so proud.

Vegas Baby!

New York skyline.

Golden Boy!

2011-03-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

I was told by my friend Lori that this year was Connor's "golden birthday". I had no idea what that meant, but I guess it's when you turn the same age as the day of your birthday. Make sense? Example--on March 11th, my baby boy turned 11!! See? What a great birthday it was for Connor! Dad took the day off work, we brought treats to his classroom, he had a great little party with a few of his best pals, then for an extra special treat Aunt Jen, Uncle Andrew, Abby and Aubri arrived the night of his birthday for a long visit! Honestly he couldn't have been more happy. And since one of our favorite things is to see our kids happy, it was a great day for everybody! I didn't get tons of pictures cause we were too busy having fun, but here's a couple highlight:

Group shot of his birthday bash! They went to the park and played "Super Bunt" for an hour, ate pizza and TONS of junkfood, cupcakes and video games galore. At one point, we had a few on the PS3, a few on the Wii and a few playing Uno Attacks at the table. They had a blast!

Watching the boys play "Little Big Planet 2". It was a huge hit, they were laughing hysterically the entire time. They weren't really trying to pass levels, but instead shooting cake at each other with the dreaded "Cakenator" helmet. It was awesome.

Our family loves ice cream sandwiches, we make them all the time. So Connor asked me if instead of a cake he could have a huge ice cream sandwich for his birthday. So...here you have a giant cake-sized Chocolate and Mint-Chip cookie sandwich. It was delicious!!

It's baaaccckkkk.....

2011-03-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

That's right, it's baseball season again! Con's playin with the big boys now. He got drafted up to the Majors division and he's playing for the Phillies!! Finally a team I can be proud to cheer for. Connor's in heaven...loves his team, loves his coach, can't wait to play. He's the low man on the totem pole but he's working hard and having a blast. So everybody should come for a weekend between now and June and catch a game!!

Princess Lucy

2011-02-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

Snoozing on her throne in front of the fire...it's rough being a dog!

Just cause...

2011-02-28T14:09:00.001-08:00

...she looked so cute at church yesterday. Such a little lady and a gorgeous one at that! I had to share.

Manhood looms ever closer....

2011-02-28T13:56:00.001-08:00

My baby just keeps growing and growing!! Somebody tell me how to stop it please! On February 8th, Connor hit another milestone on his trail to being a "man"! He earned his Arrow of Light award in Cub Scouting. This is the highest award you can earn in Cub Scouting, basically the "Eagle" of Cubs. Because he's 10 and earned his Arrow of Light he crossed over into Boy Scouts!! There's a little ceremony where the entire Boy Scout troop comes in and they read a little poem and Connor walks over a bridge to join the troop. It was darling, I'll admit I got a little bit choked up but managed to keep it together. I was being a total flake that night and didn't take my camera, so I got no actual pictures of the ceremony. Needless to say, we are, once again, so incredibly proud of our little man and all of his many accomplishments. He's so excited to be a Boy Scout and he's totally gung-ho to start earning those merit badges!

In fact, as luck would have it, they had an overnight campout and Merit Badge jamboree last weekend. Connor was so excited to go (he's never been camping...we slack) and Darrin was excited to go with him! Unfortunately weather was not on our side. My poor guys went and camped out in a freaking hurricane!! I kid you not, it poured and poured all night long and there was gale force winds! Laying in my bed at home I couldn't even sleep listening to the sound of the weather outside. Connor texted me at 6:30am and said "Camping did not make a good first impression, but we're alright." Troopers, both of 'em!! He was only able to stay for half of the merit badge jamboree the next day (baseball season has begun and he had practice), but he earned his "Electronics" merit badge and did a bunch of requirements on his trail to First Class. All in all, he had a great time and is still excited for the next campout. It can only get better, right?

Lashing a flagpole!

The finished product! Look how proud he is!

If only he concentrated that hard on everything he did! This is part of the Electronics merit badge.

Can you say wet? This is just from the run from the car into the church building!

The newest family member--Lucy!

2011-02-10T20:57:00.000-08:00

You can all ask Lily now what it's like to have all of your hopes and dreams fulfilled before the ripe age of 7! After months (more like years) of debating and feeling guilty and watching Lily just LONG for a dog, we've finally relented and got her a puppy.

Meet Lucy--an 8-month old Puggle that we brought home on Tuesday. She's the perfect age, still a puppy, but not a teeny baby. She won't get too big. She's got short hair. And she's already potty-trained!!! And honestly, other than having a tendency to lick a lot and acting like a spaz for the first 10 minutes in the morning, she's a really great little thing! Nothing a little time and training won't fix. Lily obviously adores her and we're just so happy that we could make Lily this happy. I know the pictures aren't great, but I'm sure they'll be more where these came from.

Sorry I don't have one with Lily, but she's always just so excited to be with Lily that I can't get her to sit still long enough to snap one...someday.

Crazy Hair Day

2011-02-10T20:43:00.000-08:00

This is an annual event at Lily's school. She gets so excited!! Her hair wasn't long enough to pull off what she really wanted, but she was still happy with the outcome. I didn't get a shot of the aftermath, but it was super funny, she looked like she had a bunch of piggy-tails coming out of her skull. No matter what, she's the cutest thing ever!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T15:43:00.000-08:00

After all the chaos of our huge family Christmas, we took it easy for New Year's. Our friends, the Walkers, invited us over for a very chill "Eastern Standard Time New Year's" family party. A couple of our other friends and their kids were there as well. We ate, talked, played Rock Band and Just Dance and basically hung out. The girls played dress up and acted silly. Then they put on hats and got horns to blow at "midnight" (9:00pm). It was really fun. When we got home, both of our kids were determined to stay up until actual New Year's. We gave them the green light...and they lasted til about 10:45. But they both made us promise to wake them up before midnight. So at 11:55 they came downstairs, we watched the ball drop, counted down, gave Dad some New Year's kisses...then they went back to bed. Party animals!

Best Present Ever!

2011-01-01T15:32:00.001-08:00

The highlight of my holiday vacation actually happened two days after Christmas. My darling niece Naomi was on vacation with her Mom and the Mizzells's at Disneyland, only an hour away. Rachael graciously offered to let us spend a day with Naomi before they left. Lily talked about it non-stop for about a month beforehand. We all love and miss Naomi so much, and we hadn't seen her for 2 years! So this was a great present. Devyn, me and the kids drove up and picked her up in Anaheim. We went to the Discovery Science Center Museum, or "The Cube" as my kids call it. We spent 3 hours there playing and looking at cool stuff. Lily and Naomi held hands the entire time (so freaking adorable). Then we drove Naomi back to LA, so she could get to bed early for her flight home the next day. The kids just laughed and laughed and laughed the entire car ride. They had so much fun, it was like they'd never been apart. It made me miss my brother even more than I normally do. I look forward to the day when we can all live near one another again! These kids need each other!!

Doing the ice skating simulation. They were both "super fast"!

Playing in the sand and water. This was the #1 thing on Lily and Naomi's list of things to do. Kids...they're so easy.

In actual goalie pads. Look how huge those things are...the girls could literally fit inside a pad each!

In the Wind Tunnel! The wind starts at zero and goes up to 70 MPH. They had so much fun!!

Christmas morning-Connor

2011-01-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

After a bit of a rough start, Connor ended up having a GREAT Christmas! We had bought the kids a PS3 for Christmas, along with a few new games for it. Darrin thought it would be funny if we had Connor open up his Santa gift first, which was the new Ratchet & Clank game for PS3 before he'd opened the actual PS3. His hope was that Connor was be a little bit crestfallen about it and just planned on saying "Oh man, we thought it was a PS2 game, we'll have to exchange it for something else". Then Connor would be wildly excited when he opened the PS3. I didn't think Connor would fall for it, but told him to do whatever he wanted. Well...neither one of us was ready for him to burst into tears, which is what happened. Poor kid. He totally thought he got the shaft. Of course we immediately threw the PS3 box at him to open and all happiness was restored. Can you say backfire? So I didn't get any pictures of that because I was so distressed about his distress. My mom probably has some...

He also got an awesome Padres warm-up jacket (which he's been dying for), a Padres flatbill hat (which he's been dying for), some new batting gloves, a bunch of awesome books, and quite a few video games! It was a nice haul. I think he's forgiven us for the "joke".

Christmas morning-Lily

2011-01-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

Great year for the Lily-bug! She got everything her little heart desired and then some! A bike, Go-Go walking Pup, season 2 of Justice League, a new game for their new PS3, some books, some jewelry, couple of Zhu-Zhu pets and a 5-FOOT LONG STUFFED ENGLISH SHEEP DOG that she (appropriately) named "Hairy". The wonderful thing about Lily is that she's so grateful for everything she gets, it just makes you want to give her the world.

Lily and her Zhu-Zhus.

Lily getting to know Hairy. She tells everybody that she now has a "couch" in her room. It's awesome. She just lounges around on him and watches movies or reads. He really is a couch!

Opening some presents and being cute...notice she's wearing Connor's shoes. They were the closest ones available when she had to go into the garage to get her bike.

Lounging on Hairy with Go-Go! Dog Heaven!

Big girl bike! Her bike is now the same size as Connor's...my baby my baby....stop growing!!!

Christmas Eve

2011-01-01T14:54:00.001-08:00

We had SO much fun this Christmas. We were lucky enough to have Grandpa Jim and Grandma Lori here. Plus Chelsea, Shawn, Cora & Collin. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by family and celebrate together. On Christmas Eve all 14 of us spent the night at our house so we could wake up together on Christmas morning. We had a delicious feast, complete with a turkey, a ham AND a prime rib! Gluttony doesn't even cover it. The girls went and looked at Christmas lights. We all came home and had cookies and the kids decorated gingerbread houses (I didn't get any pictures of that, but I think Grandma and Chelsea did). Lily and Cora wrote a little card for Santa to leave with his cookies. And of course the kids all opened their traditional Christmas pajamas. It was really a beautiful feeling to have all of us together, it brought back so many memories of my own childhood. I missed my brothers and Amy and the Perkowskis and, of course, my Aunt Debbie. But they were all there in spirit! Hopefully some day we can ALL be together for Christmas. But until then, we'll take what we can get and love every minute of it!

The card and plate full of cookies for Santa. This was the leftover cookie...don't worry, Lily finished it off for him the next morning!

Clean and in their Christmas pj's! Connor looks a little psychotic, probably too many cookies.

All the kids ready for bed and Santa!!

California "Snow Day"

2010-12-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

Yeah, there's no snow in San Diego...but this cool park by Devyn's house had a community "snow day" a couple weeks ago and we figured we better check it out. They brought in a bit of fake snow and made a sledding hill, the kids had a blast. They also had a rock climbing wall-Connor owned. Bouncy houses. Train rides. Horse and carriage rides. And Pony rides. This community day was no joke. It took us 30 minutes to find a parking space. But we all had so much fun just hanging together and watching our kids enjoy themselves. We'll be better prepared for the parking situation next year!

Thanksgiving...McPherson style

2010-12-15T12:27:00.001-08:00

It was just us four in sunny California this year. My kids actually have no memory of us not being with other members of the family for Thanksgiving, so it was definetely a different experience. I was a little leary because I love being with ALL of my family for the holiday, but we ended up having a fantastic time. We started our day off with a movie! We went with our great friends, the Olsons, and saw Megamind. It was hilarious, I actually gutt-laughed a number of times. I'm pretty sure the adults thought it was funnier than the kids, but we all really liked it. Then we went home and relaxed and played games for a bit before we got to cooking. Darrin made an absolutely delicious turkey and of course we had potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy and rolls. The kids wanted to have a "fancy" dinner, which basically just means putting a tablecloth out and drinking out of goblets. We really enjoyed spending the day with just our family and look forward to doing it again in the (hopefully distant) future!

Lessons learned...

2010-12-15T12:21:00.001-08:00

Ah, the joys of having a first grader. When it came time for Lily's class to do their Thanksgiving crafts, her teacher didn't have much planned and not a lot of time to plan it. So I graciously offered to put together some crafts for the kids. I proceeded to buy all of the supplies and dyed about a 100 pounds (slight exaggeration) of pasta different colors, spent endless hours cutting turkey feathers and heads out of construction paper, drew some Indian arrowheads...and 4 days and $60 later....voila, craft day! The kids had tons of fun, which made it worth it. Nevertheless, I have two words for you--never. again.

Beautiful Fall Pasta. My house smelled like rubbing alcohol for days. Good times.

Random Sharing

2010-11-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

Lily's latest offering...

Lily, much like her father, is constantly singing or humming her way through life. She'll make up words to a song to accompany whatever she's doing at the moment (brushing teeth, doing homework, eating snack...whatever) almost without even thinking about it. My new favorite thing is that all of her songs are now sung to the tune of "Do You Hear the People Sing" from the musical Les Miserables. It's fantastically adorable, especially since I can't even remember the last time we listened to that cd.

Lily's "Friend"

2010-11-07T00:08:00.001-07:00

Dude! This has got to be one of the strangest things yet....

Ever since she won this huge rubber spider at the Halloween activity at church, she's been sleeping with it every night! When I commented on the oddity of this Lily told me "He's not scary, he's a good friend."

Girl Scout Service!

2010-11-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

Lily joined a Daisy Scout troop this year and she loves it so much! Today her troop (along with other community members) spent two hours cleaning and beautifying the oldest cemetery in Oceanside. They picked up leaves and trash, cleaned up headstones, they even dug up a few headstones that were completely grown over. Then they put American flags on the headstones of all the Veterans. It was such an awesome experience. She had a blast (she got to use tools!) and felt good about what she had done afterwards. I love being able to share things like this with my kids. My allergies, however, did not love it.

Cutest. Girl. Scout. Ever.

She's an American Girl.

Yes, I allowed somebody to take a picture of me. Don't look too closely. This was at the end of the two hours and I was not at my freshest...I love my girl!!!

Random Sharing

2010-11-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

A little while ago Connor told me that when he got married, for his honeymoon they were going to go to New York City and walk around calling taxis all week until they found the "Cash Cab". Then he is going to set a record for the most money won on the show. You heard it here first.

Halloween (eve)!

2010-11-06T23:26:00.001-07:00

Halloween on Sunday...kind of a bummer. But our kids were awesome and took it in stride. Our church had a huge Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday night with games and food and trick-or-treating. Then Devyn's ward had one later that night, and we hit that up too. So the kiddos got just as much candy as they would've if we had trick or treated on actual Halloween. We were really proud of them for understanding why we weren't trick-or-treating on Sunday and never got upset or whined about it.

My kids weren't feeling very adventurous this year. Connor decided to go with "baseball player" (big stretch, I know). Lily decided she wanted to be Batgirl (again)! Easy-peezy. I wasn't complaining.

Heading out to our first Trunk-or-Treat of the evening.

Donut on a string. Connor got the entire donut into his mouth in about a millisecond, the other kids had barely even taken one little bit out of theirs. We all have special gifts...

Cookie decorating. She took one bite out of it, then I carried it around for half an hour before she let me throw it away.

The annual Lily & Sydney picture. Sydney was a "Moon Fairy". When it was costume debating time, Sydney was picking between Fairy or Genie. Lily was debating between Batgirl, Zombie or Mummy. I think it's hilarious that two girls who are so different can be such great friends.

After the candy! This is towards the end of the Trunk-or-Treat at Devyn's church. Clearly, Jane is drunk on lollipop. See Dev's blog for cute pictures of Jane, unfortunately this is the only one I took with my camera.

Halloween Crafting Craziness

2010-11-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

I really can't take credit for any of this. I am not a crafty mom...I have to rely on other people's creativity, but that's okay cause I'm a really good at copying. Some of these we did with awesome Auntie, some at school, and the rest at home (once I had stolen the ideas from people at school). We had a really good time, we had a "craft night" instead of doing pumpkin carving and the decorations are still up (yeah, it's Nov. 6th) which is a much longer shelf life than a pumpkin.

They are so proud of their creations. Lily wants to make sure that everybody knows that the paper cone witch is hers, not Connor's!

That and the adorable pumpkin bats were put together by Devyn a couple weeks ago when we had a craft night at her house. It was so much fun!

Don't you love our spider webs and pom-pom spiders? I think those are my favorites. The spooky eye reflection frame actually glows in the dark. Connor's class made those, and it was quite an undertaking. Me and a couple other moms were madly putting the frames back together after they dried before the bell rang. A couple days after I took this picture, Lily put a post-it note on the mantle under the eyes that says "I'm woching you closly, very closly." So freaking hilarious.

Lanterns! So awesome. Connor's class made these. The side partitions are pictures printed on vellum paper, so they look like it's glowing when light hits it. We had so many supplies left over, that I brought one home for Lily to do.

The Toothless Wonder

2010-09-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

They're dropping like flies! At this rate, she won't have any baby teeth left within a month. The last tooth came out via soccer ball. Here's exactly how Lily tells the story:

"I was playing in my soccer game and this girl kicked the ball and pegged me in the face."

She was pretty awesome, she just yelled to me on the sideline "Mom, my tooth came out!". She brought it over to me, rinsed her mouth out with water a few times and jumped back in the game. What a pro.

Sofa Makeover

2010-09-28T10:33:00.001-07:00

Oh my gosh, our couch is so gorgeous now!! Most of you will remember the couch in its previous state. It was a light khaki color, BUT there was some serious color damage. For some reason, big patches of color would rub off and our couch ended up looking like a dirty splotchy mess. It was driving us crazy and it got to the point that I was literally embarrassed to invite people over. So, we decided to undertake the huge project of re-painting our leather. We ordered all of the supplies online and after 6 days of back breaking work (mostly done by Darrin), this is the finished product. I LOVE IT!

First Day of School-2010

2010-09-13T10:34:00.001-07:00

Lily's first day of first grade and she's so excited!! Connor's first day of 5th grade (kind of) and he's so over it!! He's already at that "school is lame" portion of life...it's gonna be a long 7 years!

Cutest First Grader Ever!

I don't think Lily could look more excited if she tried!

Carefully disguised disdain.

Walkin out the door.

Mom's FREE!!!!!!!

Last Days of Summer-2010

2010-09-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah yeah, I know I'm way behind (surprise surprise). Just a couple pics of our last few days of summer...seems like an eternity ago.

This was the last day of summer vacation. Lily, Connor and two of our neighborhood friends loved having monster water-gun fights in the front yard. This one lasted about two hours and my kids slept like the dead!

The week before school. It was gorgeus outside so we headed to the beach. Not sure if you can tell by the look on Con's face, but the water was FREEZING!

Lily and Logan sitting in their homemade "pool". This is something Lily loves doing. We go to the beach and dig out a big pit, when the tide comes in it fills with water and Lily calls it her pool. We didn't have Darrin's muscle with us, so our pool is pretty small, but they still enjoyed the novelty.

Things that Make Me Smile:

2010-09-02T16:34:00.000-07:00

No pictures for this post. I was thinking about how this blog is basically the closest thing I get to a journal, so I thought it might be a good idea to put some thoughts down that weren't just pictures. Lately there's a handful of things happening around here that just make me smile. In no particular order:

1. Lily and her church purse dilemma. She has a small little bag that she takes to church with her Book of Mormon every week. In true Lily fashion, she also feels the need to take a pet with her. The rules for the pet are "if it fits into your bag, you can take it". This hasn't been a problem since she has about a gazillion little puppies that fit perfectly. But she's been getting more and more daring with her pet choices. They began peeking out of the bag little by little, each pet bigger than the last...until last week I walked by her room on Sunday morning and she was diligently trying to cram her stuffed "Thumper" (ya know, the rabbit from Bambi) into her bag. Thumper is over a foot tall and really, his little bum just barely fit in the bottom of her bag. His entire torso and big ears were sticking up out of the top. But Lily looked up at me in the most triumphant manner... I almost let her take him.

2. Connor's morning "cartoons". Most kids get up and eat cereal while watching cartoons. Connor gets up, eats cereal and watches "Quick Pitch" on the MLB network. For those of you who are wondering "what the heck is that"-it's the non-ESPN version of "Baseball Tonight". He is AWESOME!

3. Lily's morning "cartoons". Lily never complains that Connor is watching "Quick Pitch". She just goes downstairs with him, eats her cereal and reads....the Marvel Encycolpedia! Even more confused? This is a thick book that contains the pictures, stats and stories of every Marvel Comics character...from X-Men to Fantastic Four. She is AWESOME!

4. Music music music. My kids love music (and good music too!). Both of them are literally incapable of doing anything that's not accompanied by music. So whenever they are doing ANYTHING in their room, from getting dressed to making their beds to doing homework, even if it only takes 2 minutes, they absolutely have to turn on their cd players. It's not odd to wake up at 8:00 on Saturday morning to the strains of Julian Plenti, Interpol, Postal Service, Broken Bells or David Gray. They are AWESOME!

Purple Thunder!!!!

2010-08-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, we're gonna give it a try! Lily is playing on a real soccer team this year. After doing the little developmental program earlier in the year, she still wanted to play and asked if she could play "on a real team with uniforms and a name". So here we go. They had their first practice last Friday and she wasn't a total wreck...but more importantly she was having so much fun. She's such a different kind of kid than Connor, who has to be absolutely perfect at everything he does. She just goes out there and tries and laughs and has a great time, it's just awesome to watch her. The girls voted and named their team "Purple Thunder", you gotta love it. I'll keep you updated on her progress as they start playing games in a couple weeks.

Purple Thunder! Be very afraid!

Sassy little soccer player with her brand new yellow ball from Grandma and Grandpa. Yellow is her new favorite color and she was so excited to have a yellow ball.

The difference between boys and girls soccer?...the hairbow of course. Look at that adorable bow made by the team mom. They might really stink but they'll do it in style!

Botanical Gardens

2010-08-09T20:06:00.001-07:00

Last week, Connor went to go spend a couple of days at Auntie Devyn's house with Logan while he's visiting. They spent their time doing a bunch of boy stuff. So Lily and I took the opportunity to have a girl day. We went with my friends Vanessa and Sara and their kids to the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. We had never been before and were really excited to check it out. We had a great time adventuring in bamboo forests, watching the "frog show" (that's what Ella called it anyways) in the little lily-pad pond, picnicing in the rain forest and exploring the secret garden. I know we didn't even see all the different areas and I was still blown away by how gorgeous it all was. I can't wait to go back.

Cousins are the best!

2010-08-09T19:59:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, we had the great pleasure of going to Las Vegas to visit Grandma and Grandpa McPherson. The added bonus was Jen and Abby and Aubri were there as well. Lily was in heaven playing with her cousins, they like playing dog almost as much as her (although Abby often chose to be a cat instead). They played games, went swimming and just hung out with each other. Darrin, Jen and I caught a couple movies together and had such a great time! I had my camera with me...but didn't take it out of my bag until an hour before we left town (I'm a thinker!). So I only caught these two pictures...hopefully Grandma and Grandpa got more.

Lily and Abby checkin out the 3D tv at Forum shops.

Connor, Lily, Abby & Aubri in front of the Atlantis statues in the Forum shops. We had just watched the little show about the destruction of Atlantis, which is very loud and has lots of fire. Aubri was not very thrilled with it and really just wanted to go home...can you tell?

Connor & Lily 2010 pics

2010-08-09T19:47:00.001-07:00

We went to Las Vegas to visit Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Darrel a couple weeks ago because Jen and the girls were also in town. We had so so much fun spending time with the McPherson family and Lily had a blast playing with her cousins. They live way too far away (frown) and need to move back out west immediately! While we were there, Chelsea kindly agreed to take some photos of my kids. I was on a time crunch because Connor was scheduled to have 4 teeth pulled as soon as we got home and I didn't want him to look like the toothless wonder for his photos. Of course, Lily had to smash her face jumping over the couch a few days before we left and popped one of her front teeth out!!! So she has that awesomely awkward toothless look going on right now. But Chelsea is brilliant and managed to take some awesome pictures and I love them!!! Here's just a few of them:

Another year bites the dust!

2010-07-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

In true DeEtte fashion, this post is over a month late, but I will stick with my previous argument of "better late than never.". The kids ended another year of school (the first for Lily!) and it couldn't have come a second sooner (at least for Connor). Lily had a great year in kindergarten-she's smart, fun, social, well-behaved and just a generally awesome little girl. They had an adorable kindergarten graduation ceremony, where they wore little crowns with their names and sang some songs for the audience. Then they were all awarded certificates of graduation, that had a little picture of them wearing a cap and gown (so stinking adorable). She was so proud and loves to tell everybody "I'm a first grader now." She can't wait for next year!

Connor also had a great (in his own way) year! He was a 5th grader, big man on campus and loved his status as such. As is his usual, he excelled academically, and made us more proud than we thought was possible. He never ceases to amaze us with his capacity for learning and growing. And along with all that "giftedness" comes all the personality traits that tend to be a bit taxing for us mere mortals to deal with. We're assured by the pros that he exhibits nothing but normal behavior for a gifted child, but I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that we some times wish Connor was a bit more average...hahaha. Because he skipped a grade earlier in his school career, and hasn't really caught up socially, physically or emotionally, we decided as a family that he would repeat the 5th grade next year. We all realize that this is going to have many challenges for Connor, for us, and for the school (they're not happy about it!), but we feel very strongly that this is the right choice for Connor in the long run. Connor's not completely thrilled, but he totally understands our reasoning and is on board and prepared to have a great 5th grade year (again!).

We're looking forward (and are actually halfway through) to the summer. We have a lot of fun plans that include: baseball camp, swimming lessons, music lessons, soccer, the beach, a trip to Vegas and just hanging out with friends and having fun! Here's a couple pics of their last day of school:

Every year on the last day of school, we go eat lunch (or dinner) at Ruby's on the pier. Our kids LOVE Ruby's milkshakes more than breathing.

The cutie-patootie in her graduation procession out of the classroom.

Lily sitting with all of the other kindergarten graduates. What a precious little lady!

Connor completely bored and ready to go home at the 5th grade advancement ceremonies. Darrin and I affectionately refer to all the school award ceremonies as "the mediocrity awards". In their effort to be PC and not make anybody feel bad, they basically give out awards to anybody who's achieved "at grade level" standards. It's ridiculous. They have different levels of awards, but won't actually give out an award for straight A's. I feel like it devalues the kids who are truly exceptional, not to mention making a HUGE deal out of "achievements" that aren't actually achievements at all. Do I sound like a total elitist snob? Oh well.

The Big Oh-6

2010-06-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize that this is over a month late...but better late than never, right? On April 29th, our adorable little Lily-Bean turned 6 years old. We just can't even put into words how much we love the Lily, she is the apple of everyone's eye! She's funny and cute and spunky and just about the most tender-hearted little thing you could ever meet. She idolizes her big brother and would do anything for him. She is a Mama's girl, but she definetely loves her some Daddy time as well. She basically just loves being with her family. She's obsessed with dogs. She loves Flash (the superhero from the Justice League). She loves school and all her friends. She is honestly one of the most laid back and pleasant little kids I have ever had the pleasure to meet. And she's all mine! Lily opted for a fun Family Movie night this year-we all had to go see "Furry Vengeance", don't even ask about it, it was so bad I can't even talk about it. But she loved it and I guess that's all that counts. We also had a family birthday dinner with the Manns and the Olsons. They ate pizza and breadsticks and had cake and ice cream, it was just super fun. Lily opened up her presents, her favorite one being Season One of the Justice League (she literally watches at least one episode every day). She got some cool new games and a new dog from her friend Raiden, which is good because she hardly has any dogs and she was getting lonely (that's sarcasm in case you're confused, I think her stuffed dog count is somewhere around 25-30 right now). Any how, here's so pics of the blessed event. Enjoy.

Lily and Sydney getting ready to bust into some cake!

Lily on her actual birthday day. That's her big "6" balloon in the background. I brought that to school along with Pat & Oscar's breadsticks for her class (her choice!). That's her new dog "Golden" that was a gift from her friend Raiden.

Opening up the biggest hit of the night. Lily loves her some Justice League. She's awesome.

And of course, a "Bolt" birthday cake. I didn't have time to make Lily the exact cake she wanted, so I overspent on this little beauty out of guilt. Lily loved it so much, but I don't think she ever actually ate any of it.

So Lily got the video game "Just Dance" from Darrin and I. It's such a fun game that the entire family can play. Here's all the kids, including Jane, dancing their hearts out for the first time. Can you tell that Sydney Olson has this game at home? She looks like she's center stage just belting it out and dancing away! That's why I'm laughing so hard during the video.

The Only Cub I Love!

2010-04-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

While my Mom and Dad were here,they were able to see 3 of Connor's baseball games. One of which was, by far, the most exciting game of the season. They were able to see Connor pitch (he was beyond AMAZING), get a couple really nice hits and make some solid plays in the field. As you all know, I pretty much NEVER get tired of watching Connor play baseball. He's progressed so much since last season and loves playing so much. I wish everybody could be here to enjoy it like I do. Here are some pics my parents took while they were here.

Look at that swing!

He is so intense, I love it!

I wish I could go out on the field to record the cute little sound he makes when he releases the ball. It's this awesome grunt, it reminds me of Jake Peavy. It's adorable.

Random Lily and Jane pics....

2010-04-22T14:08:00.001-07:00

We had such a fun week last week. Darrin's parents came for 4 days during Spring Break and hung out with us. Then my parents came for a week, and we were able to celebrate my Dad's and Jane's birthday while they were here. Needless to say, we got a lot of pictures, too many to share, but here a few that I particularly enjoyed.

Since my parents weren't going to be here for Lily's birthday, they brought her presents and let her open them early. This is a Dalmation Pillow Pet, something Lily's been salivating over since she first saw the commercial 6 months ago. It was a huge hit and she is sleeping with it almost every night.

Oh man, she couldn't be any cuter. The green with her hair makes her look so Irish. I love it!

Every once a decade, a picture is taken of me (DeEtte) that I don't hate. At Jane's birthday party, she decided that Di-Ti (again, that's me, that's how she pronounces "Auntie") needed to wear Minnie Mouse ears. I readily agreed and sported these bad boys for over an hour to appease my little darling.

So happy with all her peeps and Mickey Mouse ballons...her party was so much fun and I never get tired of watching this little angel!

Pinewood Derby 2010

2010-04-22T14:03:00.001-07:00

It's derby time again! Last Wednesday was the Cub Scouts annual pinewood derby. This year, Connor decided he wanted Kevin Levin's awesome green muscle car from the cartoon show Ben 10 (awesome!). Ben 10 is a family favorite, we record every episode and watch them together, so it was really fun to watch the car take shape. Darrin (and Connor) did a great job and the car looked great! We didn't win any prizes (or any races) but Connor was a terrific sport and had fun cheering on his fellow cub scouts. Here's a couple shots of my gorgeous guy and his cool car.

Let's try this again...

2010-04-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

Some of you might remember the last time Lily tried soccer. It was a couple years ago and it was a bit of a disaster. She refused to play in the games, and spent the whole time holding her coach's hand and walking up and down the field. But she's been asking to play soccer again, so we thought we'd give it another go. We went with an easy, no competition, program this time around. Figured we'd wait and see if she actually likes it before we shell out the big bucks an a competitive league. Her friend Sydney is doing it with her, and so far, she's having a blast. They have a little mini game, against their own teammates, at the end of each week and that's just about perfect for Lily. She feels like she's really playing, but doesn't have the crazy stress of tons of kids out on the field trying to get the ball. So...maybe she'll be ready for a real league next spring, we'll see. Here's some pics my Dad took of her first practice.

Double Digits Baby!

2010-03-11T09:32:00.001-08:00

It's official, Connor has now passed into the land of double digits. I can't believe my little baby is 10 years old! It seems like just yesterday, we were driving home from the hospital (at 25MPH...first kid) with him all bundled up like a peanut in that gigantic carseat. What an adventure it's been so far. And although Connor seems to have hit his teenage rebellion phase a little early and I'd glady throw him off the nearest pier at least twice a day...he is a truly wonderful son and a blessing in our lives. He's smart, funny, talented and most importantly-he wants to please, not only us, but his Heavenly Father as well. That's about all you could ask for in a son! As we watch Connor grow, we are constantly amazed at his capacity for learning and progressing in whatever he strives to do. We have no doubt that Connor will achieve great things in this life and we count ourselves as blessed to be able to be a part of that. Our family wouldn't be the same without him. Happy Birthday Connor! We love you!

FYI: This is almost always how I picture Connor in my head. Look at those baby blues and that beautiful smile!

Last Wednesday was a banner day for Connor. First-he got contacts! He's been patiently waiting for us to decide that he was old enough to handle contacts and he was SO excited. He's already a pro at putting them in and taking them out and he feels like a new man! And truthfully, doesn't he look so much cuter without the glasses? You can actually see his gorgeous eyes!
Second-he earned his Webelos badge (and before he even turned 10)! Connor is very goal-oriented and works hard to achieve any goal he's set. And since his competitive nature is out of control, he usually works as hard as he can to be the first one done with anything he's working on. Now we have an entire year to earn his Arrow of Light before he moves on to Boy Scouts. Way to go Con!

That's right, it's baseball season again! Doesn't he look adorable in his uniform, even if it is a Cubs uniform (ugh!)? Connor's already planning a hat-burning ceremony at the end of this season. And speaking of baseball (games, not uniforms), I wish you all could have been at last night's game. Connor was our starting pitcher. Holy Wow! Three scoreless innings of greatness, that's what it was! The third inning, he struck three in a row out, he only threw 11 pitches. At one point, he threw a change-up that was so gorgeous, people from the other team whistled! It was a glorious thing to behold! The coach pulled him after three innings because his pitch count was still low enough that he could start Saturday's game as well. It was amazing! I went to mutual right after his game and told everyone I knew how totally awesome my son was. Then, for good measure, I began stopping random strangers in the hallway and telling them too. Yeah, that's right, I'm that mom.

Connor says TTFN to Disneyland

2010-03-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

As promised, a post of Connor's last trip of the year to our favorite place. We're really gonna miss Disneyland, but they say absence makes the heart grow fonder. We'll definetely be super excited the next time we get passes. Until then...a few of our last moments together.

On the way out of the park for the night. It was raining, you can see the bottom 6 inches of my pants are soaking wet. We still had a blast, look we're even smiling-and this after 12 hours in the park!

Connor in line for Thunder Mtn.-the scary dinosaur fossil. He's so over Thunder Mtn. I mean, he still likes it, but it's just not the same rush as Space Mountain or California Screamin. He's getting too old for my liking. But he is super fun to go to an amusement park with now.

Dad and Connor under the Thunder Mtn. lantern.

Connor convinced Darrin to go on the river rapids ride at CA Adventure even though it was NOT WARM. Connor barely got wet at all, Darrin wasn't so lucky. That's love.

We like this crazy illusion. They taper the street to make it blend in with the picture behind it. It's super cool. This was right after Darrin tricked Connor into going on Hollywood Tower of Terror. Connor was super brave but it would be an understatment to say that he hated that ride. I had to buy him a Churro afterwards to make up for the trauma.

Meet my kids...

2010-02-13T15:17:00.000-08:00

So my friend Mary was telling me about something she happened to see when she was walking her daughter to school last week. She was walking behind Lily and Connor as they were heading to their classrooms and this is what she overheard:

Lily: I am absolutely freezing this morning!

Connor: (big sigh) No you're not. If were freezing, first you'd get frostbite. Then you'd get hypothermia. Then the hypothermia would make you really tired and you'd fall asleep. Then you'd freeze to death.

Lily: (big eye roll) Fine. Then I'm really really cold. Okay Connor?

The reason I share this random story. Because it almost perfectly describes my children's personalities. I just laughed and laughed when she told me. It is so them!

Catching up with Lily

2010-02-13T14:55:00.001-08:00

I realize I haven't posted since the end of December. I swear I'm going to keep this blog up to date this year if it kills me!! We've been super busy with school, work, church, and now (cue sinister music here) it's baseball season! So life as we know it is over. I'm guessing I'll have lots of baseball posts forthcoming, so I thought I'd give you little rundown of Lily's activities over the past two months. Enjoy.

President's Day. Isn't she just the most darling little Patriot you've ever seen?

The 100th day of school. This is Lily and her poster of 100 things (stickers in her case).

Valentine's Day...some times I just can't believe that something that cute came from me!

Lily eating her noodles for Chinese New Year...and by eating I mean holding the bowl and playing with her chopsticks.

She actually put a noodle in her mouth...big mistake.

Lily and her friend Ben on Snow Day at kindergarten. Since we live in So. California we obviously don't get much snow. So once a year the kindergarten teachers hire a company to come and make a snow hill on their playground and they sled and play and have so much fun. This was definetely the highlight of Lily's year thus far.

Gorgeous gingerbread house. I was helping in the classroom that day and it got so frustrating because the kids just wanted to eat all of the toppings rather than decorate their houses. If I had give a ballpark figure, I'd say at least half of the decorations ended up in stomaches rather than on houses. But hey, it's kindergarten!

Lily-last Disneyland trip of the year

2010-02-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

Our passes expire in March...frown. We've had so much fun this year, we've gone to Disneyland at least once a month since last March. It's been a good run and we wanted to get one last visit in. Unfortunately, it didn't look like Darrin would be able to join us and I hate going to Disneyland on Saturday. Since Lily won't go on rollercoasters (not even the kid Go-Go Gadget coaster...she's a whimp), and Connor only likes to go on rollercoasters, we opted to do separate "last visits". Here's a couple snapshots of Lily's last trip to Disneyland.

The Pied Piper of Dogtown

2009-12-29T17:32:00.001-08:00

People, I am NOT joking when I tell you Lily is obsessed with dogs....

Lily's Polar Express Day

2009-12-20T00:20:00.001-08:00

Kindergarten Polar Express Day...super cute. They all wore their pajamas to school, they sang "Must Be Santa" in front of the entire school, then they marched throughout the campus wearing their own homemade train cars. Adorable.

Look how much Jane loved it (said with much sarcasm...)!

Lily and her great friend Emilly before the parade.

Lily in her "Winter Wonderland" train car. They could decorate their trains however they wanted, this was our creation.

Singin' away!

Slacker II-post Halloween through present

2009-12-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

Two trips to Disneyland...one at Halloween-time, the other at Christmas-time. Right now, there's basically nothing more adorable than Disneyland with baby Jane. She's awesome. Hopefully Devyn has put up or will put up soon all of the Jane D-land pics. Here's some super cute ones of everyone...

After the Christmas fireworks, it snows! It was so fun and cute. I grabbed this adorable picture of Devyn and the kids. Don't they look so festive?

Lily on Santa's sleigh. He had already gone home by that time, but she still wanted to sit on his sleigh and look adorable.

Oh, this is actually Lily with Santa at our ward Christmas party. Check out her tights...in true Lily fashion she does not refer to them as her polka-dot tights, she of course calls them her "dalmation tights". Did everybody hear what she asked for for Christmas? This is great..."Paul Blart: Mall Cop". I kid you not.

Cute kids...look how windy and cold it was on this dreary October 25th!

Jane being mesmerized by Mickey. This is seconds before she reached up and honked his nose! It was AWESOME!

Slacker---Halloween

2009-12-15T21:58:00.000-08:00

I know I slack, but I thought I'd get some of the gazillion pictures I have sitting in my camera onto the blog before Christmas....all the way back to Halloween.

Our adorable Baby Jane on pumpkin-carving night. Could she be any cuter?

Lily, Sydney and Vivie (the "spooky" bat) goin' trick-or treating. This is an annual tradition for Lily now, she loves going out with Syd on Halloween.

Bat-Girl! She's still the awesomest 5-year old around. Even more awesome than her being Bat-Girl for Halloween is her delight in sporting this costume all the time...at the store, picking Connor up at school, going to YW with me. She loves it and I think it rules that she has no shame in the Bat.

Zombie. I told Connor last year that it was his last year with a store-bought costume. He could still dress-up and trick-or-treat but it had to be something we could make easily at home. He went with zombie. I was surprisingly surprised with my make-up job, seeing as how I don't even know how to put make-up on myself. Maybe if I could dress-up like a zombie for church?

Our pumpkins. Can you guess which one is Devyn and Michael's? In their efforts to feed into Jane's Mickey obsession, Devyn downloaded a Mickey Mouse pumpkin pattern. The funniest thing about that...they were leaving town before Halloween and didn't even take their pumpkin home with them, they left it at our house. All that effort for a 20-minute look at a Mickey pumpkin. Their loves knows no bounds.

Recital 2009

2009-10-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

I didn't take a video of the actual recital because he was too far away. But I did record him playing his recital piece at home. Needless to say, he rocks! I continue to be amazed by his progress and I'm totally jealous of his ability. This is the first year he's played what I would call a "real" song. It's a bit long, but really pretty and he does a great job! So enjoy.

Lily's First Game-post #2

2009-09-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Up to Bat! She hit like a pro!

Playing "pitcher". She got lots of action at that position and did herself proud. Here's her "ready" stance.

This is a few minutes later....her "ready" stance is a bit more relaxed.

With Daddy after the game. Darrin was out helping in the field during the game (t-ballers need lots of help) and Lily was excited!

Lily's First Game-post #1

2009-09-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

She was awesome and adorable and funny. She did really well, actually made some plays and hit the ball. You can't really ask for more than that in t-ball. There's so many cute pictures, this'll be two postings...sorry.

During Fall Ball, all of the teams are minor-league team names. Lily is on the Sandgnats. She loves it, and it's pretty cute.

Even the way she stands before the pledge is sassy. I love it!

Standin' on 3rd, coolest girl in town.

Hussling home! She missed the plate the first time around and when they told her to go touch the plate, she went over and daintily touched the corner of it with her toe. Awesome!

Jane was on the edge of her seat during all of the action!!

Hot Mess/Hot Stuff

2009-09-06T00:59:00.000-07:00

Those of you who watch SYTYCD are well familiar with the phrase "hot mess". It is the only phrase that I feel is appropriate to describe Lily's first t-ball practice this week. Needless to say, she needs a lot of work. I'm not saying she won't have the skills to play once she gets some practice in...but she basically spent the majority of the first practice dancing around in circles, staring off into space and rubbing dirt all over the front of her shirt?! She did, however, look awesomely adorable while being a complete disaster. Here ya go:

Onto the "hot stuff". We've been meaning to take Lily's training wheels off for quite some time, but just haven't gotten around to it until today. I'm not exaggerating when I say, Darrin took them off, went up the street and back with her once and then she was riding like this!!!! She's a total pro. She can even get herself started already (that skill took Connor a few months to develop). I readily admit to being a little teary-eyed as I watched her. Just one more thing that signifies the growing up of my baby, won't she ever stop?!!

Really really ridiculously good looking...

2009-08-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

First day of school. My baby's in kindergarten. In addition to being really really ridiculously good looking, she's also incredibly easy-going and well-adjusted so she didn't have any difficulties...unless you count being a little upset about the prospect of me staying in her classroom after I dropped her off. Her exact words were, "...then you're leaving, right?". I guess it's better than a crier.

They both had a great first day, are really happy with their teachers and their classes. Yippee!

Crocker Family Fun

2009-08-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

I know this is a bit after the fact (all of my blog posts are)...but I wanted to post the few pictures I took of our fun visit. My parents and Logan came for a 4-day visit at the end of July and we all had such a blast. We all went to a Padres game their first day in town, and even though my boys got their booties trashed (big surprise there), we still had so much fun. Darrin, my dad and the kids went to the beach and played baseball Thursday while the moms were at Comic-con. On Friday, we went to Disneyland/California Adventure to have a belated birthday/baptism celebration for Logan. We were there for over 12 hours and had a super great time, despite the heat (I can't speak for my Mom here, she might disagree). Logan hadn't been to Disneyland since he was 2, so it was basically his first time. He went on every roller coaster except the big one at CA adventure and he LOVED Space Mountain. It was a fun-filled visit and it just made me miss my Mommy and Daddy even more than I normally do. I only took my camera with me one day and didn't take that many pictures, I was too busy having a good time. But here's what I did take. Hopefully my mom will share the gazillion pictures she took....

Baby Jane being such a very tired but very good girl.

The boys being silly and loving each other.

"L" is for Logan. Check out his peace sign, he's so hip.

Darrin and the boys on the teacups. Lily, Dad and I were on another one and we totally kicked their trash!

The kids with Walt and Mickey.

Lily's Preschool Graduation

2009-06-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

I know this is nearly a month late, but better late than never, right? My little darling Lily graduated from preschool on June 10th. She loved Miss Paula and all of her friends at Little Bugs Preschool, but she's so super excited to start kindergarten this fall. She asks me at least three times a week if it's time for her to start kindergarten yet. We bought all of her little uniforms and she tried one on and I thought I was going to cry. I have a feeling it's going to be a rough Aug. 27th for me...here are a few pics of her big graduation day, plus a video that shows her funny saucy little self. Man, I love this girl!!

Lily and Miss Paula. We'll miss her so much, although I probably won't miss showing up at her house at 9:00am looking like a street vagabond while she looks like a supermodel.

Some of you may remember the picture of her at last year's graduation ceremony looking bored out of her mind...things haven't changed much.

Lily and all her buds at Little Bugs. Of course she's smack dab in the middle of all the boys, it seems like she always is. Tomboy or crazy flirt, I can't decide.

This video is a great glimpse of Lily's personality...I love her silly yet matter of fact tone of voice. I don't know how she pulls it off, but she does.

Lily's 5th Birthday

2009-05-06T16:36:00.001-07:00

It's taken a little longer to get this blogged because I'm a crazy lady. Lily's birthday festivities were a bit more subdued than Connor's, but they've stretched out over a longer timespan so that's gotta count for something, right? We started things off with a family party with our Las Vegas relatives while we were there for Spring Break. It was totally fun and we were so happy to be able to celebrate with Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Darrel. Among the highlights...a beautiful new Sleeping Beauty dress from Grandma and Grandpa, you'll see it featured below. Back at home, we had a small family (Olson's included of course) "birthday dinner" with pizza and cupcakes and presents. Lily got the movie "Bolt" from Auntie and Michael, which she had been just dying for!! The next day we were off to our home away from home...Disneyland. We were there from opening to closing, doing anything and everything our little princess wanted and we had such a fun fun day. Auntie, Jane and Grandma Lori came and joined us for a few hours, that's about all the Janie was in the mood for. But it was fun while it lasted.

Lily got a "Birthday Fun Card" because we're annual passholders and spent her very own $59 on- a Baby Simba stuffed animal, a Sleeping Beauty toy that has a spinning/light up dress, and (this is my favorite) a sword and shield "just like Prince Phillips'"! She's awesome!!!! Half the time she's in love with Prince Phillip and the other half of the time she wants to be just like Prince Phillip. Anybody who doesn't know, Prince Phillip is the guy from Sleeping Beauty who slays the dragon and he's Lily's "favorite prince" her words, not mine.

They tried and tried, but it just wasn't meant to be...

My little hobbits, towards the end of the day.

I know she doesn't look like it, but she was dying to meet Pluto, she even waited in line. There's nothing Lily likes more than a stuffed dog, and I'm not exaggerating.

The face paint...so stinkin cute. It was only about 1/2 rubbed off by the end of the day, much better than I had hoped for.

The money shot. Lily, in her new Sleeping Beauty dress, posing with Sleeping Beauty. We waited in line for over an hour and a half to meet her, and Lily didn't even complain. That's true devotion.

Connor's Birthday-Part III (The End)

2009-03-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

The birthday festivities came to an ending this evening with a small soiree we had at the house with all of Connor's best buds. It seemed like a small number of boys in our head, but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in quality (of loudness). Seriously, they had such a great time. They played some bizarre basketball game outside for about two hours and only came in when it was so pitch dark that you literally couldn't see the ball anymore. They ate pizza, chips, strawberries, cupcakes, ice cream, m&m's (all the good stuff). They played a little Rock Band and ended the night with a Mario Cart tournament. It was super fun and I found myself just feeling really grateful that Connor has such wonderful friends! I can honestly say that I'm all birthday'd out for now. I gotta gear up for the Lily in April. Here's some pics of the crazy boys...

I had to include this picture because I just love Andy's awesome dancing in the background. He was cracking me up. And Christian (singing) has definitely missed his calling in life, we're pretty sure he's gonna be a rock star!

The band getting ready for their big gig.

The traditional birthday dogpile. It never ceases to amaze me how much 9-10 year old boys love to pummel one another...whatever floats their boat I guess.

Andy taking Connor down, as he often does. Could he look any happier? How can you not love a kid that smiles like that?

Lily was so happy to be included at dinnertime. She loves Connor's friends so much. She spent the first hour of the evening trying so hard to get anybody's attention. She eventually gave up and went and watched Kung Fu Panda instead. From left to right, we have Lily, Christian, Connor, Andy, Kyle, Caleb and Rusty.

Connor's Birthday-PART II

2009-03-12T22:34:00.001-07:00

Day 2-Devyn and I took the three kids to Disneyland/CA adventure. We actually spent the gazillion dollars and got annual passes this year. It's our first time getting the passes and we're all super excited to get the most out of them. The weather was perfect. The lines weren't bad. We all had a fantastic time. We got there around noon and left at closing (9:00). Lily didn't complain about being tired until we were walking out to the car. Jane was a perfect angel baby (as usual). All in all, it was a perfect day. Here's a few pics of the happenings...

I love it that it looks like Jane is waving. It's also pretty awesome that she has her zipper in her mouth.

They honestly couldn't be any cuter if they tried. I love them more than churros!!

The aftermath.

"C" is for Connor and, incidentally, cool. Just in case you didn't know.

Connor's Birthday-PART I

2009-03-12T22:25:00.000-07:00

Connor's birthday festivities actually began the day before his birthday (3/10). He had a baseball game and we were in charge of snacks. So, being the awesome mom that I am, I made cupcakes for everybody. I even went the extra mile and put red/black Astros-colored sprinkles on them. They were adorable and delicious, even if I do say so myself, and I do. It's one of my goals in life to make homemade buttercream frosting as good as my friend Vanessa's. I'm not really close yet, but I won't give up.

We went home after the game and Connor opened his presents (cause Daddy had to work late the next night and he didn't want to miss it). The highlight of Connor's life thus far was opening his present from us, which was RockBand. He actually hugged the box. His auntie got him the book he's been dying for. Grandma Lori and Grandpa Jim got him some awesome baseball training cards, a cool drawing book, a magazine subscription and another unknown gift that hasn't yet arrived. Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Darrel got him a totally awesome practice tee and a bag of baseballs. He loved everything he got and was super grateful for it as well. Thanks all. Here's pictures of Day 1 of Connorfest 2009.

These babies were good! My mouth is watering now just looking at the picture.

King of the Derby and the Diamond

2009-03-06T00:51:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy busy week for the Conman. He participated in his first pinewood derby on Wednesday night. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it and tell you that his car did well, but it was a mighty fine looking car. Connor went for the classic dragster model, which he painted midnight black. He refused to put any embellishments or ornamentation on it at all, proving once and for all (to anybody who wasn't sure) that he is definitely my son. He had a good time at the pinewood derby and we learned a lot. Watch out next year, cause our car is gonna kick booty!

In more optimistic news, opening day was last Saturday. And while the schedule of baseball season basically makes me a crazy lady, it is so fun to watch Connor play and I look forward to it every year. Connor is playing for the AAA Astros this season (yippee, no Dodgers again). He started the season out with a bang! He made the first out of the opening day game by catching an infield fly, we were so so excited! In tonight's game he walked to first at his first at-bat, then he stole second, stole third and stole home!! Then he hit a 2-run homer! Okay okay, it technically wasn't a true home run, it was a fly ball that didn't get caught and then got way overthrown at first. But he made it all the way home and he got the game ball from his coach! Regardless of circumstance it was an exciting game and Connor was on cloud nine. We can only hope the rest of the season continues along this way. I'll keep y'all posted.

Here's a few pics. Enjoy.

A Mother's Work...

2009-02-18T14:29:00.001-08:00

So, the kids and I were piling into the car one day last week (and don't ask me which day because they all kinda roll into each other) to run some errands. We got inside and my bambinos started to argue over whether or not we should listen to The Shins (Lily) or Radiohead (Connor-although truthfully this was his 2nd choice because I didn't have the correct David Gray album in the car for his highness). Let me just tell you that I love love love that my kids love music, and I especially love love love it that they enjoy the same music as me (although this isn't an accident, I've basically brainwashed them since the womb).

Anyways, the argument continued for a few minutes and no agreement was reached. They both sat there for a second thinking about what to do and the conclusion that was reached was that since they couldn't agree on a cd, they would just sing "Book of Mormon Stories" instead. And all I could think was, "my work here is done."

Verbal Assault

2009-01-23T18:04:00.000-08:00

Lily's new catchphrase - "This is a total disastrophe!" - awesome

Connor's response to Lily's new catchphrase - "Apparently, english isn't her first language." -snarky and awesome

I love my kids, they keep me laughing.

Ingenuity...

2009-01-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

I was just remembering this and wanted to share the funniness...

Every winter my kids despair that we live in So. California and it doesn't snow at Christmas. Lily talks constantly about all the things we're going to do in the snow the next time we go to Reno for Christmas-snow angels, snowball fights, building snowman, building igloos.... But daydreaming wasn't enough for her. The week after Christmas she decided to make her dreams a reality. She covered the entire playroom floor with legos and blocks and toys, layed down in the center and made a "block angel"!! SHE IS SO AWESOME!!!!

You mess with the Bat...

2009-01-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

Poor poor Jason Bourne, he was just a little bit dillusional to even think of taking on the freaking Dark Knight. Batman didn't want to do it, really, but he was forced to kick the trash out of our favorite rogue government killing machine (21 to 12). Next time Jason will stick with CIA thugs...he should've known better. RIP Bourne.

Chrismtas (Part II)

2008-12-26T01:36:00.001-08:00

Christmas Card (Part I)

2008-12-26T01:12:00.000-08:00

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!!!

Rockstar!!

2008-12-21T01:08:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-02T22:28:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-10-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

...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

2008-10-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

"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!!

2008-09-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-07-05T16:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-28T15:31:00.001-07:00

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!!

2008-05-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-03T16:18:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-30T00:07:00.001-07:00

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.

Jane Watch-Day 4-Welcome Home!

2008-04-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

They're finally home! Devyn is doing great and getting around like a champ. Baby Jane is sweeter than ever and we're so so so glad that she's here. Connor was so excited to meet her and he just wanted to stare at her while she was sleeping, it was really cute. Here's a couple pics of her in her crib, I think she looks like a pea pod. I'm sure there'll be more tomorrow. Enjoy.

Jane Watch-Day 3

2008-04-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

Baby Jane is even more perfect today than she was yesterday, it's incredible. I did manage to snap a few pics in between holding her today. She just got out of the NICU today, so most of my energy went to staring at and/or holding the little darling. Michael's got tons of pictures on his camera, so maybe tomorrow we'll switch out memory cards and I can share some of his. Until then, here's a few. Just so ya know, these pictures really can't do her adorableness justice. I can't even put into words how beautiful she is...you'll all just have to come see for yourselves. Love to all-DeEtte

Michael might just get the award for "cutest dad ever". He's so excited and in awe of just about everything Jane does. It's fan-freaking-tastic.

The Happy Family. I'm sure Devyn won't be in love with this picture, but I am, and since this is my blog, I'm putting it on here. By the by, Devyn's doing great and is also in the running for "cutest mom ever".

Baby Jane had her eyes so wide open that I got massive red-eye in this picture. It can't really be fixed all the way, but I wanted to put this picture on so you could get the full effect of her lips, cheeks and hair. Is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen? I know it looks like my Mom is kinda strangling her, but I promise she wasn't, it's just a weird angle I guess.

Perfection.

Baby Jane is Here!!!

2008-04-26T00:49:00.000-07:00

After much anticipation and a really long day for Devyn and Michael, our little Baby Jane is finally here. She arrived at approximately 7:30 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs. 4 oz., and measuring 18.5 inches. She's pink and round and perfect in every way!! She's got Devyn's little pouty lips and adorable nose, and she's got the Mann-baby full head of hair (so far anyways). Needless to say, Mommy and Daddy Mann are extremely happy to have Jane here (as are we all). Devyn and Jane are both doing great. They'll be spending a couple more days at the hospital, and then home to let Auntie DeEtte commence the snuggling. Here's a couple of pics that Michael managed to capture. Look at those lips!!!!!

For realio

2008-04-21T00:15:00.000-07:00

I swear, this is not fake. Lily fell asleep in the car last Thursday after a fun-filled day at Legoland. I caught her in the rear-view mirror and Darrin started filming...it was so funny. Check it out.

I like that she's holding onto an empty bottle. She looks like a freaking drunk on the street. And the big smear of chocolate on her face only adds to the ghettoness of it all. Then she ruins the whole "homeless vagabond" look with her adorable little "Whoops, you caught me" smile at the end. My kids rule.

Here's a cute picture of them, just cause...they're cute and I don't want anyone to forget that.

Happy Birthday Dad/Grandpa!!!

2008-04-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Dad/Grandpa! We wish we could be with you for all the birthday fun...but alas, it's just not meant to be this year. So, the kids teamed up to sing a rousing chorus of 'Happy Birthday'. Then Lily decided that she needed to sing her favorite song for you. Then Connor decided to play his new favorite song for you. Lots and lots of birthday treats. Hope you enjoy. We miss you! We love you! Hopefully we'll see you soon!