January at the Beach!

One of these days I'll catch up on the posts and not have to write my version of "Once Upon a Time". For now, I am still "a couple of weeks" behind, so here goes.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the beach with the boys. We went to one of our favorite pizza places and then walked across the street to hang out and play in the sand for a bit. It was a bit chilly with the wind, but the boys had fun (all 3 of them ;) )

Matt was playing with his bucket, truck and shovel, but keeping close tabs on the train tracks.

Matt's new dump truck/sand toy from our cousins Bobby, Aimee, and Emma. He loved this Christmas present!

I tried to keep Jonathan on the blanket at least in part. He kept taking handfuls of sand and trying to stuff them in his mouth. He's not particular about what is in his fist that gets shoved in his mouth!

See, he's trying to prepare even while we're taking a picture. His left hand went straight to his mouth after this shot.

Matt ran around chasing birds and entertaining us all!

Nick went down to get some water for the sand castle he and Matt were building.

Jonathan kept digging his toes into the sand and smiling.

There were several attempts to make it a big sand castle, but at this age, destroying it is more fun. I think this is as far as they got.

Jonathan was watching them most of the time.

Playtime with Friends

A couple of weeks ago we headed across the neighborhood to see our good friends! Aaron and Anna invited us over so we could all get some much needed entertainment for the kids. It had been a bit cold and rainy, so our outdoor play had been limited. The kids needed to see some new faces, so we let them loose to play for a bit.

Matt joined Avalon and Jonathan on the floor. I think Waylon had run outside to take advantage of the sun breaking through the clouds!

The little ones look on as their big brothers play outside for a bit.

It's so hard to believe Jonathan and Avalon are only a day apart. I think they are about 5 or 6 pounds different!

Ooooooooh!

Waylon's new train table was a big hit for the big boys! Matt was too preoccupied by the crane to look up at the camera!

Backyard Bubbles!

I am working on catching up on the blog, but as you can see in the pictures, I am still in the college football season! Yikes!

The day of the Rose Bowl, the boys and I played out back before nap time and they got really into the bubbles. Jonathan was pretending that he could blow the bubbles, but really he mouthed the bubble wand so much I thought he was going to blow them without the use of the wand.

Matt is very into spray bottles right now, so his idea of fun was to run around and spray the bubbles while I got light headed trying to keep up with the amount of bubbles he wanted to chase!

"You lookin' at me?" Yes, that's a huge bruise on his forehead. It's from one of my front teeth. We were playing on his bedroom floor and he either tripped or dove onto me. Surprise! Right away a bruise and a lump! My tooth was okay, but it hurt for a while.

His first true exploration of the grass. Other than the tops of his feet turning a bit red, he loved the experience.

A brotherly game of chicken is always fun on the paved patio!

I was once again on my mission to get Matt to smile on command for the camera. In an attempt at attaining my goal, I asked him to make a sad face.

We're getting somewhere now! This was his happy face.

All of the wet spots around Jonathan are bubbles. He didn't really need much soap in the bath that night!

Practicing for the game! "Touchdown!!!"

"Yea!!!"

Crawling through the tunnel and tent was a lot of fun for him!

He kept crawling through the tunnel and started celebrating early for the Trojan victory later that afternoon!


Then he climbed on his truck and just sat there. He's about an inch too short to actually make the thing move! He had fun thinking about making it move though. He's becoming an expert at getting on and off riding toys and has even started to climb out of the bath himself. Luckily, it's when the water is out and I am asking him to get out anyway.

Matt the Photographer!

Matt's camera was left at home for our trip, but apparently it helped train him for using our camera! One day while we were in Sacramento, we went to lunch with some of our cousins for a bit of catch up time. Nick and I didn't really get to socialize, keeping busy with the boys, but at least we got hugs and got to see everyone. Matt was the event photographer.

He wasn't too busy to model his daddy's sunglasses! There was a mirror to the side of our table. He's checking himself out!

Nick and our cool dude!

Jonathan decided it would be more fun to just open his mouth full of milk, instead of swallowing it!

Here's a bit of Matt's photography. In his defense, the sun was beaming in the window and off the river behind the end of the table. So, some people cannot be seen!

Ruth the Great, Aunt Trudy and Uncle Bob caught the camera pointed in their direction.

Matt sure likes his Great Grandma!

He told me to lean in closer to Jonathan and smile.

Jonathan was loving the oyster crackers.

"All done!"

"OOOOhh!" Matt captures all of Jonathan's expressions!

He told me to lean toward Jonathan again, but forgot to aim at his subjects!

An upside down self-portrait!

That night we still couldn't get the camera away. He took a picture of Jonathan in the bath!

Here's Jonathan brushing his teeth! Matt was on the move with the camera, can you tell?

We later had blurry pictures of each room in my grandmother's house. He also took each of his new Backyardigans' beanie babies and posed them each for a portrait. They were quite blurry, but it was funny to look back at the pictures and see what he took!

Playtime with Ruth the Great!

We did plenty of playing while we were in Sacramento. We enjoyed the time at my grandma's house because it meant we were staying put for a bit. The boys were quite entertaining (and loud!). They had fun entertaining us all.

Matt tried the laugh to smile again. Not great, but better than the "cheese" smile.

Ruth the Great and Jonathan aren't too sure what to think of Matt's new picture taking pose.

This one's a bit blurry, but Matt and Ruth the Great were enjoying a little Wheel of Fortune before his bath time! He loved watching all the letters!

Christmas Dinner

My Aunt Trudy always has Christmas dinner at her house. She and my Uncle Bob have hosted it since before I was born. It was even better this year because of the boys, though my cousins' presence is missed each year. This year, I sat at the kids' table with Matt & Jonathan. Hopefully next year they will let me join with the adults again!

We ate dinner and then migrated to the living room for gifts. Even though there are bows involved with the next few pictures, the gifts were not opened until after Jonathan went to bed. The boys took a bow off one of their gifts before we even had everyone in the house!

Jonathan was interested in the conversation on the couch.

Here are my best Christmas gifts! They will LOVE this photo in years to come, I'm sure!

Tickle war!

Jonathan got some lap time with his daddy before dinner!

He found his cousin Emma's toy stash on the hearth right away.

An attempt at a family photo with 3 out of 4 looking at the camera's not bad!

Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning in Sacramento was spent at my grandmother's house (a.k.a. "Ruth the Great"). Matt & I had made a big special key for Santa so he could come in the house since "Ruth the Great" doesn't have a chimney. Jonathan and I were out in the living room already when Matt came out with Nick to find out what Santa had left.

Matt was so excited that Santa got him some trucks!

A Backyardigans book wasn't too shabby either. His favorite Santa gift was his map blanket behind him though. He has now replaced his airplane quilt on his bed with his map blanket. He has even told everyone that his blanket was what Santa brought him!

Jonathan looked on as Matt made his first fort out if his new blanket.

Matt hid, giggling under the blanket waiting for Jonathan to come and find him!

Instead of crawling under the blanket, Jonathan got upside down to take a look!

I am still trying to get away from the "cheese" face Matt makes for pictures. Here's another attempt to just get him to laugh. Funny how he doesn't look like this when he's spontaneously laughing!