Thanksgiving Away

We packed up and headed for a repeat trip to Texas and Oklahoma, this time to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. Matt's birthday celebration also continued on our trip!

Here's Matt at Granny & Grandpa's, hiding in the toy bin!

The boys were grilling up something for breakfast, I guess!

Back in the bin!

One afternoon we headed over to my brother's house to spend a little time with Uncle Steve and Aunt Kimberly. We got to see the boys' cousin Chase while we were there too! Here's Jonathan with Uncle Steve.

Matt was upstairs making noise and playing with Chase while Jonathan got handed off and entertained by all of the adults! Here he is with his Aunt Kimberly.

Chase tried to get Jonathan to look at the camera. One of the rare occasions where he wasn't looking.

Back at my dad's house, he found his cheesy grin and looked at the camera on cue, while cooking something again!

One morning we all headed downtown to go watch Grandpa at his swim meet. Matt wasn't too sure what to think about all of it, but he seemed to enjoy the new environment as long as he was walking around in between my dad's 2 events.

We waited for Grandpa to get dressed after the meet, and Nick & Matt hopped a ride in the glass elevator for some entertainment!

Coming back down!

Granny & Grandpa introduced Matt to Candyland one night. He did a great job for about half the game. I am not sure what he thinks Grandpa is up to, but it looks like he doesn't agree!

I think he repeatedly tried to go two squares for every one we picked. He did a great job searching for the special spaces on the board.

We went to Northpark mall one day to see the trains. We had lunch first, and since it was Matt's birthday celebration week and a half, we got him a birthday song and sundae at lunch. I think he liked it!

Jonathan had a good time too!

He actually shared his ice cream with me. I was shocked. I thought he was going to fake me out, but he let me take a bite.

We were a bit of a mess by the time he was done with his sundae!

Time for the trains!!!

He kept going back to the "working trucks"!

The train exhibit was amazing. They had several cities and scenes set up. You can see D.C. in the background, and New York City is over my other shoulder. It was so detailed!

It was hard to tear Matt away and move through the exhibit.

The hat they gave him upon entering was donned as soon as we left. He didn't even want to touch it before we saw the trains.

More cooking at Granny & Grandpa's house!

That night, Matt's cousins, aunt and uncle came over and we had a big family birthday dinner for him.

Grace and Jonathan played together, but it looks like Jonathan thought she was up to something.

Matt got to sit at the kids' table without audult supervision, so Granny went to check on things at the end of the meal. He did a great job!

Jonathan was at the adult table, entertaining us all!

He had just learned how to do "touchdown", so Grace was trying to get him to do it for her.

Playtime on the floor again!

We tried to get a group photo, but this is the best we could get. It's a bit hard to get 6 kids to stand still AND look at the camera. Well, at least it's hard to add our 2 in and get it to work. Here's Matt with his cousins Chase and Ethan.

Aunt Kimberly stole a little more time with Jonathan.

Time for cake and more trains!

Once Matt realized the tracks came off and someone suggested he lick off the icing, it was game on!

I think they liked the cake!

Let the Celebration Begin!

Matt's actual birthday came and went without much celebration, but don't feel bad, he had 3 parties throughout the week and a half surrounding the 21st of November. He was definitely not short on celebration.

His first "party" was at preschool with his friends. He got to wear the class birthday hat and wore it for a good part of the day. I went up to class to try to get a picture. This was the best I could get. I can't remember what he was saying to me at the time, but it didn't involve a big cheesy grin for the camera!

I think he was saying "cheese" to me for this one.

A couple of days before we left for our Thanksgiving whirlwind trip to Texas and Oklahoma, we decided we'd give Matt the gifts we had at the house from us, his grandparents in Ohio and Grandma in Sacramento. We gave him a train table and Grandma contributed to the tracks and multiple buildings and accessories to make the table a fixture in the living room! Grandma Karen & Grandpa Marcus gave Matt his first camera. He is having so much fun with the camera and can't stop taking pictures of everything. Below are some of his best shots from his first photo shoot!

Here's a picture of Jonathan crawling away from the camera. That doesn't happen easily. Maybe he didn't recognize it as a camera because it's large and blue and doesn't have the red light cue.

Matt took a picture of Nick, but he is still figuring out how to stay still while taking the picture.

Here's a picture of me and Jonathan, or at least my arms and his legs!

Matt went around telling everything to "smile". In this one he exclaimed, "Smile, forklift" and snapped the shot! The forklift is actually in the center of the shot if you look closely.

Ahhh, everyone needs a picture of the fireplace, especially when it's not lit!

Photogenic anyone?

Even with his crazy smiles and expressions, Jonathan is a boy who LOVES the camera! He sees the little red light, which is apparently his "smile" light, and he just lights up. Most of the time there is a serious crinkling of his nose too!

Jonathan recently took to baseball. His technique involves holding the bat in one hand, hitting the ball with his other hand, and pounding on the home plate button with his heel. It's original, that's for sure!

Play at the Beach

Matt and I took off to the beach a couple of weeks ago and left Nick and Jonathan to play at home. We had a much needed hour together at the beach.

Matt took his pail and shovel and got to work making sand castles.

Time for digging!

A little sly look from the swings!

Here's a rare smile toward the camera.

Watch out! I hear a train!

Choo choo!

Grandma Comes to Town

My mom came in town for a long weekend visit on Halloween weekend. We had a lot of fun, even though we didn't get a chance to go many places. We played all over with the boys, turned our living room into their own padded playground and decorated the heck out of the box.

Matt finally got me to agree to let Jonathan have a turn inside the box. I just had to convince Matt not to jump in with him!

Me and my little guy!

Jonathan is the king of funny faces these days! His laugh is so contagious and I just love it!

The poor guy just started crawling, and now his therapist mother is trying to help him cruise around the table. Never a break for the poor guy!

Now that Jonathan is a bit more mobile and more balanced when he encounters obstacles (like his brother), they boys are starting to play together more. It is so much fun to see them make each other laugh!

A little Halloween mayhem started after Jonathan's bath. Grandma had just arrived that morning, the boys were done being pirates for the night, and they just let loose!

Matt loves to make Jonathan laugh and then run away. Jonathan has now started to chase him!

This is when parental intervention is still necessary. Matt loves to just push Jonathan away while laughing. Unfortunately, it usually means he pushes Jonathan's face, and makes Jonathan fall down on the floor.

We got one picture of Grandma while she was here. Jonathan enjoyed Goodnight Moon read by Grandma that night.

HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween was so much fun this year! The boys tolerated, and even loved their costumes. The night was our first Halloween in our new neighborhood, and there were SO many people out. It was great!

Nick and Jonathan pose for a pic. Unfortunately, there was so much other than the camera to look at that this was as close as Jonathan's eyes got to the camera.

Who knows what the boys were looking at here, but don't they all look excited?

Matt was a perfect little Trick or Treater. He needed some encouragement at some houses, but for the most part he said his thank yous and his Happy Halloweens at each house.

The littlest pirate gives his best pirate look. Arrr!

Pumpkin Carving Time!

I took the boys out back with Matt's pumpkins and we just got silly! The pumpkins were a bit sad when we finished, but we had fun in the process and that's all that counts!

I figured the boys wouldn't be much help actually cleaning out the pumpkin, so they got some spoons to use to help me. Notice Matt's painted pumpkin in the foreground. The paint job was less than attractive, so we added that pumpkin to the carving party!

Matt would scoop out one or two seeds at a time and then flick them across the yard!

Jonathan dives into the fun!

He touched the pumpkin, but wasn't too sure about what I was handing him.

The pumpkin parts were flying, and between dinner and the pumpkin, the boys needed some major baths!

Notice the pumpkin on Jonathan's face!

Matt had fun, but only when he was in control of where the pumpkin parts were going!

I don't know if we really improved the look of the pumpkin, but we had a good time.

Preschool Halloween

Matt's preschool class got dressed up the week of Halloween and went out to Trick or Treat through the building. It was great to see all of them dressed up and going from room to room gathering all of their treats. Here are a few pics of Matt and all his friends!

Here he is trying to squeeze out of the way after he got his treat.

They are off to the next room! Peter Pan and Speed Racer are along for the fun!

Every little pirate needs a pink poodle for a friend! Here's Jonathan posing with Emma, a friend from the daycare at work.

Lean, baby, lean! Matt's getting costume adjustments in the background.

Here's the daycare gang that afternoon.

Another shot of the gang! My little pirates were so tolerant of their costumes!

Field Trip!

Matt's preschool had a field trip to a local pumpkin patch so we all jumped in the car and headed to Irvine to meet up with the class. Although it was extremely HOT, we had a great morning with the kids. They got to go on a tractor ride, pick some veggies on the farm, go to the petting zoo, and pick a pumpkin.

Here we are on the tractor ride. Jonathan actually fell asleep and took about an hour nap in the carrier. I couldn't have been happier about it.

The sheep came over to see Nick and Matt, but then he started trying to eat Matt's bag!

Not too sure what this look was for, but he and Nick were in the corn maze at the time.

So Happy Together!

The boys hang out in our room a lot these days. It's how we are able to get the morning going and how I am able to get the night time routine started when I am alone with them. They are really starting to play with each other and since Jonathan started crawling (yes, he's FINALLY crawling as of this week!!!) they are together even more. Matt isn't always happy about it, but they both light up when they see each other in the mornings and that's enough for me right now!

Here they are watching some Backyardigans and playing at the foot of our bed.

Jonathan can't keep his hands to himself these days and reaches out to touch Matt whenever he gets the chance. Can't you just see the love as Matt ignores him!

This one is a bit blurry, but I couldn't resist posting it. They just crack me up!