Play, Play, Play

Since Matt starts back up with school on Monday, we have done nothing but play since we got home. Thursday was Disneyland. Who could ever get sick of this place? Crew the crazy driver.

Crew did the Ferris wheel for the first time that night. He was a little nervous the first time around but then relaxed and told us "that was fun" when we got off. Kids make this place even more fun.

Yesterday we hit up the beach with some friends. Crew and his buddy Emmy getting buried in the sand.

This is such a great age when the kids play and totally enjoy each other without too much entertaining on our part. Matt did have to make them into race cars but they were so happy sitting in them forever!

Maybe today will be a little calmer so we can all recover from Arizona and California fun.

More Swimming

Toasty Arizona

Christian flew back from China late Tuesday night, August 11th. We played Wednesday and found out about our baby boy, then Thursday morning Crew, Christian and I drove down to Arizona. For some reason, Crew loves Christian. Well, it really isn't too hard to see why but it is fun to have Crew love my little bro so much.
Why would we ever leave California in the middle of the summer to go to Arizona? There were a few times I questioned that myself but we had a great trip and loved being able to swim, swim, swim! Crew and I got to play with our buddies Ashley and Ethan Friday afternoon which was so much fun! Ashley is having a baby girl a month before our baby boy and Crew is two months younger than Ethan. It is so fun having our kids so close.

Crew and Ethan hit it off together right away, kind of like their mamas. They were both pretty good swimmers too!

Something strange about Richter grand children is that their eyes turn green around age two. Carson's did and look at the green eyes on Crew! He does still have some blue but green is really coming out. (I just looked at this picture on Matt's laptop and they don't look as green as on our home computer)

We were thrilled to have daddy fly in Saturday morning. After a quick trip to Last Chance, we were back at grandma and grandpa's showing off all our new skills for dad.

It was ok to be outside as long as you were wet. So Crew was still able to do lots of jumping on the tramp.

The mornings were still not too bad as well so of course we had a morning baseball game in our pj's. I love being able to just play in the backyard and so does Crew.

My dad busted out a bag of 100 of these balls. I asked Crew what he was going to do with all these balls and he told me "Its ok, grandpa will pick them up" Does he think he has them around his little finger or what! For the record, Crew did help me pick up the balls.

I just like the angle of this shot

Sunday morning we went over to the west side of the valley. Matt's dad was made the new Stake President so it was really great that we were able to be there for his sustaining and setting apart. We played at the Allens until Wednesday morning and then came home. I will post pictures of that part of the week when I get them but there was swimming with Buffy, Chloe and Bella, a fun get together with our good friends the Hunters, and lots of playing at grandma's house. We loved being able to be there even if it was 111 degrees!

Here's a video of my little fish

Oh Boy!

We love boys and are very excited about Crew's baby brother! Hooray!

Reese's Visit

I have loved having so many things going on this summer to keep Crew and I entertained while Matt slaves at his internship all day. Our latest activities were with Maren's family since they came up to visit last weekend. It is so great having her only two hours away! Friday we did the L.A. Fashion District, (Cool but crazy!), the Glendale Americana, and play time at the park and at Crew's house. Here are the mamas and the kiddos on the trolley at the Americana.

Crew and Carson enjoying a fountain show

Saturday we went to Santa Monica to visit Cam's sister Megan who just had a baby. We then did Tito's Tacos, yum, The Grove, and Griffith Park. It was a full day and that was just the day. Here is Crew on his pony.

At the Grove

That night the Reese's kind of fell to pieces!!!! Our friends the Poelmans came over to watch the kids while the adults went to a Dodger game. Well, Maren got a nasty migraine and couldn't leave the house or the bathroom. When she finally emerged later that evening Parker was still up and was excitedly going to see her when this happened! Poor guy!

But, while things were falling apart at my house, Cam, Matt and I had a great night at the Dodger game. Cam's friend of a friend got us awesome tickets 8th row right next to third base! Why did I forget my camera! We had great time minus Maren and the best part was Crew did great for the Poelman's! Even with Saturday night's tragic events, everyone was feeling better in the morning and we really did love having them up to visit!

Any Guesses?

Two more days until we find out if Crew gets a brother or a sister! Matt says he is positive this baby is a boy. While I tend to feel that way more, I really am not sure. I haven't really been sick with this pregnancy but I wasn't sick with Crew and my mom was never sick with any of her kids. I feel like this baby is pretty low but I also feel like it is further back and more spread out than Crew who was all up front. Salty food and bread always sound so good to me along with cold fruit, part of that could be summer. With Crew I don't remember ever really craving anything except Tia Rosa's Mexican food. Whatever this baby is, he/she is already very active! I felt this baby moving a month ago and even Matt could feel at 16 or 17 weeks. That is my favorite part of being pregnant! I love feeling my babies move. Anyway, I am not totally sure what to guess so if you want to leave your guess please do!

Bigger

So we have been really talking the big boy talk the past couple of weeks because we potty trained Crew (which by the way was by far the hardest task so far of motherhood! Talk about patience and long suffering!). So now Crew is all about the big boy thing. He loves his big boy underwear, everything he does is because he is a big boy, and now he has suddenly decided that he isn't quite as big as he wants to be. Twice in the last week Crew said to me "mom, I think I will be three now" I didn't really realize he put it together that he was turning three next, even though he can count, it just kind of surprised me. I said "What! You can't be three yet! Two is so much fun and we still have a little while to have fun being two." I'm not sure he was totally convinced.

This also fits in with our conversation Sunday evening while we were driving home from a fireside in Arcadia. Crew said "In three days, when I am bigger, I am going to be a basketball player and shoot hoops and dribble." We of course said "Oh really, you are going to be a big basketball player in three days?" Crew said "yes, in three days I will be bigger and Carson can be a basketball player too and we can shoot hoops and dribble."

Another cute moment occurred while we were on our way to Target last week. Crew asked "Mom what does Target mean?" I kind of laughed and then told him that Target was the name of a store like Crew is his name. He said "oh" and then I told him "good question!" These kinds of stories are getting more and more common. He also asked me what "ups" means after we say the UPS truck. We always call it the "ups" truck so I told him the real name was UPS and that stands for United Parcel Service. Then I explained that parcel is a word that kind of means mail. So, it is like a mail truck that brings us packages. He then said "packages from grandma" and I said "exactly!" I always try to tell him as close as possible what the real answers are to his questions and it always makes me smile when I see him incorporating his new knowledge.

It really is so much fun to have this big boy around but he is really getting big fast! Here are just a couple of recent pics. I took these first two before my camera battery died on our way down to Maren's a few weeks ago. Crew waiting for the train.

Staring out the window on the train.
Christian and his friend Ryan were in town for the day on their way to China last week so of course we hit up the beach. Crew really loves having Christian around. Poor Christian couldn't really even converse with us Crew was always saying his name to get his attention to tell him something else very exciting. Christian does make really fun sandcastles too.

Kind of funny that somehow Crew and Christian almost have matching suits!

For all the grief age two gets, it has really been a lot of fun! I'm getting a little nervous for what life will be like for this little buddy and I once this baby comes into the picture!

Speaking of number two, we should find out this Wednesday what we are having so we will keep ya posted!