Happy Birthday to Me!

Growing up I always thought it was so lame that my birthday was in October. For example, the picture on the calender for the month of October was always brown, not green or colorful with spring and summer, and not white with the snow of winter. However, in my old age, I have realized that October is my favorite month and having my birthday in there is just a bonus! I love fall. I love the crispness in the air, warmth of the colors, smells of the leaves, weight and warmth of my cozy covers, honestly my favorite time of year by far. This year my birthday was even more special because I got to celebrate Disney style.

Tuesday morning my parents flew in. After a quick nap for Graham at home, we heading down to the happiest place on earth. Here is Grandma getting some quality time with the boys.

Maren and her boys met us there. It is always fun to get all our boys together.

As always, Disneyland looked so fantastic all decked out for Halloween! I love all the little details.

If there was professional claw gaming, my dad would be champion. He got three toys with one grab, impressive I know :)

Holding out their prizes.

Matt was able to escape a little early and come meet us which was another birthday treat. My neighbors are starting to ask if he moved out he is so busy this semester! Here is the gang in front of the Haunted Mansion. I love this ride at Halloween.

Love this boy

At 6:00, it was time for the festivities to begin.

Matt was very insistent that I be a birthday princess. I was not so convinced until we found this dress at Salvation Army for $5. I then made the cloak with hot glue when my sewing needle broke at 10pm the night before! My best neighbor Haylee gave me a quick updo and... birthday princess I was. Not as cute as my boys though.

Maren and her boys Like I said before, love this boy!

Matt's costume was by far the biggest hit. It was hilarious to hear people talk about him when we walked past. The whole gang So, I think I started my 29th year off pretty well. I wish we were able to take better pictures of everyone dressed up. There was just too much to do and too many boys to chase after. But it was really a fantastic night. I am a total roller coaster junky so I was so proud of Crew for doing Big Thunder and Matterhorn that night. Splash Mountain next time maybe? Thanks so much to Matt, my parents and Maren for such a wonderful day and thanks to everyone for all your sweet birthday messages. Here's to another great year!

Update

Well, we have had another great week here in California. Amazingly, it has been cold and rainy, a much welcomed change from a week ago. Here are a couple of our highlights from the past week. A baby in the sink is always a highlight, but the main purpose of this picture is to show off Graham's hair. You can actually see it! Isn't that exciting!
Conference weekend was fantastic as always. What we heard of conference was amazing and it will be great to read what our children made us miss :). During the priesthood session, the boys and I went with the Ericksens up to the Observatory. I love this place. I also love these kids! Graham is so spoiled with Abby around to let him walk all over.

Isn't this a great picture? I am still trying to find a way to take Jake and Abby with us when we move. I'm sure their parents won't mind. We just love them!

Monday the kids and I went to the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley. First of all, I really like Simi Valley. I wish I could spend some more time exploring over there because I definitely like the vibe I get. Second, if you ever get the chance to go to this library, take it! It was awesome!

We had a little group from our ward that made the venture with us. The kids were so good and loved having each other there.
My dad's cousin Lynne volunteers there and was our personal tour guide
All the kiddos

Here is a picture of the oval office.

The highlight for the kids was definitely Air Force One. It was really neat to go on board and see this historic airplane. There were JellyBelly's in every room of the airplane (President Reagan's favorite) which Crew thought was pretty cool. It is crazy to think the new Air Force One is three times bigger than this! Obama really travels in style.

The whole gang

A piece of the Berlin Wall. By this time is started raining pretty hard so it is a little soggy.

I didn't get a picture of the mini White House exhibit but it may have been my favorite. It is there until March if you can make it up there. We didn't learn quite as much as we would have without our crazy kids but it was a great adventure and fantastic day!

Lastly, last night, Matt and I kicked off my birthday week by going to our first musical in L.A. Loved the music, loved Pantages theatre, and definitely LOVED my date! We haven't been on one of those for a while. It was a great night!

Our Family

We got to have our family pictures taken about a month ago. Here are some of our favs.

Quick catch up...

We have had a lot going on the past couple weeks but here are a couple of the highlights. Matt's brother Michael came into town a couple weekends ago and we went to a surf competition in San Clemente. It is pretty awesome to watch surfers this good! Here is Kelly Slater warming up. He won of course. He is pretty amazing. Graham thinks his power is in his bald head!

We also were so excited to see our good friend Lauren and her sweet kiddos at the surf competition too. Unfortunately there are no pictures to document the happy reunion, but it was so great to see them nonetheless!

Another highlight, the boys and I got to go with some friends to see the new Visitor's Center at the Los Angeles Temple.
After the visitor's center we had lunch on the mission home lawn. It was such a fun day and a great learning experience for all!

We love L.A.!

Heat Wave

First of all, let me make it clear that I am not complaining. We have had the most fantastic summer. However, yesterday was the hottest day Los Angeles has ever seen. At 12:15pm, downtown was 113 degrees and then the thermometer broke! The kids and I tried to escape to the beach, it was 98 degrees when we pulled up but still gave us a couple of hours of relief. We got back to our apartment about 3 and immediately started running the wall AC units in our front room and in the kids room.
Something you have to understand about our apartment, we have three wall AC units: one in the living room, and one in each bedroom. But, we can only run two at a time or the power goes off or, if I need to use the microwave, I can only have one running or the power goes off.
So, I was being good only having two units running but our power went out 8 times between 3 and 7:30.
We kept our house a cave, kept wetting ourselves with cold water, and managed to survive an unbelievable hot day for the end of September! Whew! Today was luckily 13 degrees cooler, much more doable! Definitely a day for the record books.

Graham, 9 months

This little boy is so much fun right now! Graham is nine months old today and growing up too quickly. He is such a happy boy. Graham laughs at everything thus he is always laughing. You just look at him and he gives you a little giggle. Much like his older brother, Graham also loves to boogie and dances to any music he hears. Although he prefers his quick crawl, Graham is starting to take steps. He took five steps to Matt the other day and was so proud. This sweet boy loves to explore and is into everything. He is a fantastic eater and loves drinking out of sippy cups, especially if it is Crew's. Graham loves his brother so much and laughs the hardest when Crew plays with him. Graham also loves to be part of the action. He is right there to assist in tackling mom or dad and he is a great little defender when we play soccer too. We love this little boy so much and wish he would stop growing up so fast!

Labor Day Weekend

Matt's parents came last weekend and we had so much fun having them here. Crew was beyond excited for them to come and asked about every 15 minutes when they were coming. Graham and Crew waiting so patiently in Graham's crib.
Matt is working three days a week over on the west side of L.A. so after the Allens got here we loaded up and headed to the beach to play for a couple hours while we waited for Matt to finish so we could meet him for dinner. It was a beautiful afternoon and so great to be with Grandma and Grandpa.

Crew loves having Grandma read him bedtime stories. She is so good at all the voices :)

Look who decided to be so big and show off for grandma and grandpa. Graham learned this weekend how to push his walker and LOVES it! He walks around smiling and panting with excitement. He is so precious.

It is so amazing how quickly they learn new things. It is fun that he kind of walks but seriously slow down and stop growing kid!

Monday morning Matt and Dave went surfing so Becky and I took the boys around the Rose Bowl. We brought Crew's bike but he pooped out about a third of the way around. Good thing I have a massive double stroller because we just threw him and his bike on top and I got quite the workout!

As always, it was a quick trip but we loved every minute. As soon as they left Crew started asking "When is Grandma coming back to our house?" Visitors are always welcome and encouraged since our time is running out!

"A" is for Ant

Crew started preschool yesterday and was seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen! He was ready to go 45 minutes early so we took a few pics to pass the time. The letter of the day was A and he learned all about ants. School is awesome!

I mention in one of my last posts that Graham is 8 months now. He seriously is the sweetest and funniest little guy. He is very social and wants to be wherever we are, especially if someone is in the bath or shower. He loves jumping and bouncing and is starting to stand by himself for 30 seconds or so. He loves food, all of it (which is a real treat after my first). Graham has two teeth on bottom and four on top too. He LOVES Crew, still hates his car seat or anything that restrains him, and is so much fun!

One of the many games Graham and Crew play. Love these boys!