San Diego

We went to San Diego for Memorial Day weekend. We stayed at Kristal's and my mom and Dustin came and met us there. We had a great time! We went to the beach on Saturday and Monday, which the kids all just loved! Then Kristal had plenty of plans for us to go do when we weren't at the beach. They have a Cow Parade in La Jolla right now. They decorated 40 life-sized fiberglass cows and put them all around the downtown area. We had a great time walking around finding the cows. I think we found 23 of them. We had a picnic at the park and saw the seals and went in a cave. And we rode the ferry to Coronado Island to get ice cream. It was a great little vacation.

Aaron Whining

Forward to about 32 seconds in and listen for Jean's question and Aaron's countering question.

Back in the day

We recently came across a good dozen or so statements that Danny and Rachel made when they were between the ages of two and four. Here they are:

Danny when talking about eating his carrots: "I'm going to eat mine so I can glow in the dark."

Rachel complained about hurting: Jean: "Rachel, what hurts?" Rachel: "My boogers!"

Danny: "You can't eat me because I'm not a cookie!"

Bob: "Rachel, you're so smiley!" Rachel: "No Daddy, I'm poopy!" (Rachel was in diapers)

Jean told Rachel to call her dad a 'punk'. Rachel mistranslates and calls her dad a 'hunk' instead.

On another night, when Danny was eating his carrots he said: "I can see because I've got carrots in my eyes!"

Rachel: "It's Aaron. He's so born! He's so cute!" (Rachel would use the word 'born' as an adjective)

Rachel: "I'm not cool, I'm Ashley Cox!"

Danny: "If you watch too much TV, it's bad for your body and you'll die."

Rachel to a neighbor boy "Hi. Your helmet is . . . . pretty."

Excerpt from Danny's prayer: "Thank you that we could live on Earth."

Rachel: "It's OK Daddy, I'm not goint to eat you. You're not a food, you're a Daddy."

Rachel used to call Young Women's Wong Nimmins (when Jean was in the Young Women's Presidency in GA).

On demand Rachel would say "Nice and smooooooooooth!"

Seth and Aaron

Aaron adores Seth. He can't get enough of him. He asks several times a day for me to hold Seth down low so Aaron can "hug him and kiss him". And Aaron loves to suck his thumb and rub Seth's head. Today I asked Aaron if he thinks they'll fight when they're older. Aaron said "I won't pinch him or do pitochio (I have no idea where he got that but he says it's where you pinch someones nipple and twist it) or punch him in the eye and I'll share my toys." Is that love or what? Aaron and Seth must have been buddies before this life. Aaron knew our baby would be a boy from the beginning. He was excited for Seth to get here and he's loved it ever since.

Rolly Polly's

Our kids love Rolly Polly's. Rachel started it, but the boys have gotten into it tool. They've been collecting and playing with them for the last year or two. The Rolly Polly hunting slows down in the middle of summer and winter when they aren't so plentiful, but in Spring and Fall our backyard is pretty much a bug garden. And those things must really reproduce because at any given time, they can go out in the backyard and find 30 easily. Everyday. Then the kids put them in a jar and they die by night-time. Then they do it again the next day. It's such great entertainment.

Webkinz World

Our kids love Webkinz. They get stuffed animals that have a code that lets them login to this website and take care of their virtual animal and play all kinds of games. They love it. They each have accumulated several animals and they've created quite a world for them online. They earn money by playing games and then they can buy things for their pets. I love webkinz because the kids go online first thing most mornings to take care of their animals, which allows me to sleep in until they're done and want breakfast.

Graduation Party

Friday night we had a graduation party for Bob. This weekend Penn State had their graduation ceremony. Since it was clear across the country, the kids and I set up a party just for Bob. We decorated and had cake and ice cream. Rachel made him a diploma. We're very proud of Bob.

This is Rachel's interpretation of a diploma. There's a red heart and a blue heart. The blue one is circled and the red has an x through it. Because she knows her dad loves blue and hates red.

This is Aaron when he's saying "Mooooooooom". I can't count how many times I hear that every day.
While we were at the store getting decorations, we found a candy "grill". We just had to get it for Bob because we used to see people in Georgia with the real version now and then.

Sefy

Aaron can't say th yet, so Sefy is what our baby is most commonly called around our house. Seth is growing so fast. He's such a sweet, mild baby; such a blessing for our family. We think he felt he needed to compete with his cousin Jeremy because he's really been putting on the pounds. He gained three pounds last month. That's 20% of his body weight. That'd be the same as if I put on 25 lbs in a month! I think that's quite an accomplishment. Here he is in all his glory.
And Seth has always loved to sleep with his nose up against something--he'd snuggle up next to us when he slept in bed with us and he'd snuggle into our chest when we held him. Now he scoots over to the side of his crib so he can use the bumper to comfort himself.

Area 51s

Area 51s. That's the name of Las Vegas' baseball team. We took the kids to a game last night and had a great time! Our wonderful neighbors, Sandy and May, gave us a bunch of baseball tickets they didn't want. So we put them to good use. The weather was perfect. It was free t-shirt night, so Bob loved that. We were all happy and entertained.

The stadium has a grassy area for families with restless kids. We went straight there, we didn't even look at our actual seats. We brought blankets to sit on. The kids ran around the whole time. The only time they stopped was when they ate their sno-cones. It was just a great night. And it was fun to see the kids having such a fun time, hopefully making good memories. I know I have memories of playing outside on spring and summer evenings when the temperature is perfect and the grass is cold on your feet. I want my kids to have memories like that too.