Daddy's Birthday!

We have been so busy with moving in, getting adjusted and taking advantage of our new surroundings. We had to take some time out and stay home to celebrate Nick's birthday. Matt helped me decorate the cake when he woke up from his nap. He was so excited! I couldn't keep his hands out if the frosting as you can see. He may be Nick's clone, but he sure does like birthday cake like his mommy!

It was so hard to get Matt to understand that the letters had a purpose and had to go in a specific order. I had to rearrange things a few times.

After dinner we sang "Happy Birthday" to Nick and Matt got to enjoy a piece of cake.

Cardinal, Gold, and a Pouty Lip!

On Saturday I was awakened to Nick saying "how fast can you get ready?" Turns out USC was playing their spring scrimmage that morning and being so close, we just couldn't miss out on something like that! I jumped out of bed and into overdrive. In just under an hour, all four of us were ready, donning our SC gear.

We tried to get a few shots of the boys interacting. Matt is trying to get Jonathan to hold his plastic frog he brought along.

In between looking for Traveler and climbing in and out of the seats, we got Matt in a couple of shots.

This was the best we could get of me and the boys. Watch out, there's a hint of a smile on Matt's face, while looking at the camera!

Nick and Jonathan curled up together for a shot.Here's Matt reaching for the camera, again!

A shot of Matt's favorite animal, Traveler. He loved seeing him in person and was so excited to see Tommy Trojan riding around on him.

The day before the game, we headed to a local mall to go to the USC store. We saw this and had to get Matt on for a ride. For some reason he showed off his pouty lip the entire ride.

Here's a great shot of the lip! He was surprisingly excited about the ride afterward and told us how much fun he had riding Traveler. Any white horse gets that name these days!

Not that he needed anymore stuffed animals, but we just had to get him a Traveler.

Our two boys!

Brotherly love is running wild at our house these days. Matt can't get enough of running up and kissing Jonathan when he sees him first thing in the morning, or after his nap.

Matt was trying to push Jonathan in the swing in this picture. I had to stop him shortly after this.

Jonathan encourages his brother when he sees him by smiling at him most of the time!

More backyard fun!

For so long, it was hard to get Matt to put on a hat. Now, he likes playing around with his baseball helmet and he recently found the straw hat we took pictures of him wearing when he was only months old. Still makes me smile!

He started dancing and running around after he took off his hat!

This is just one of Matt's many looks that shows his personality! He's quite a character these days and cracks us up constantly.

I am not too sure what he was doing in this picture.

Sand & Surf

The weather turned hot and we headed to the beach with the boys!

Matt's pensive beach look, again! (see July 2007 for our visit out here)

There's nothing like shoving "poofy crackers" in your mouth, having a snack on the beach!

Nick tried to get Matt in the water, but with the water temperature still on the cool side, he wasn't going for it.

He threw around his USC football with Nick for a while and then came back up to tell me and Jonathan all about it.

Jonathan and I just enjoyed ourselves on the blanket under the umbrella while Nick and Matt got some sun.

Backyard Playtime!

We have had so much fun playing outside and letting Matt take advantage of all of his "outside toys". Here are a few pictures we took while playing outside the other night.

Matt got out all of his baseball gear and got to work rounding up someone to play against.

Learning how to wear the helmet, while bending over has been a challenge, but Matt has finally mastered it and can now pick up the baseball without tipping over!

Matt told Nick to "go in my jungle, Daddy" and then he ran over to the camera to take a picture.

If you look closely, you can see Matt deep in his jungle playing and showing his daddy around back there.

Jonathan is awake more and more and is able to hang out with us in the evenings. This evening he got to hang out in his pack 'n play.

Here's a close up of our blue-eyed baby!

Matt peeks out of the roof of his "house". I think he was coming out as a tiger and growling in this picture.

Here's a picture of the boys. It's rare that I can get everyone looking the same direction. this one was close.

Matt just had to take a picture of me taking a picture! I finally had everyone looking and he put the camera in front of his face.

FINALLY!!!

Jonathan wanted his own picture, I guess!

Then it was my turn. Everyone's in the picture, but Matt kept refusing to sit with me and Jonathan.

I tried to corral him and it turned out the tickle bug showed up!

He looks shocked in this one!

Go Fly a Kite!

The boys and I went to find some kites earlier this week and have been saving them for when Nick got home. Little did I know, I should have put together the kites at home before we took a family outing! We went to a grassy open area near our house and once we finally got the kites together, the boys played and flew their kites while Jonathan and I watched and took pictures!

Here's Matt running after Nick as he is trying to get the Elmo kite aloft.

Matt took over the reigns and flew the kite "by self".

Although he sat on his bike on the way to fly kites, he still has not shown an interest in pedaling consistently. He was happy to go for the ride though.

We had trouble convincing Matt to stay in the open area away from trees so Elmo didn't get tangled up. He only needed the string to be rescued once. Not too bad.

We go one picture of Matt with his kite. I couldn't believe how long he held onto the string.

I am no expert of buying kites and chose a 3D airplane kite along with Elmo. It wasn't quite windy enough today to keep the kite up, but the boys tried their best!

If you look closely in this picture you can see the moon. Matt kept saying that Elmo was flying to the moon!

Still holding on to the string, and running in this picture!

I think Matt was getting tired in this picture, but didn't lose hold of the string.

Matt had so much fun running around and talking about Elmo flying in the sky.

Once again, standing near a tree with his kite. I was so amazed at how well he did, as long as we occasionally directed him to move to keep the kite up in the air.