old movies.

on tuesday nights, matt leaves work early so i can get to my young womens activity at 7.

he usually gets in the door with just enough time for me to show him what i have [or haven't] started for dinner, give him the lowdown on the boys, and kiss him goodbye.

then i leave the house. all. by. myself.

[insert angelic singing here]

no kids. no dog. and i even get to take my purse instead of our diaper bag!

tuesday nights are pretty exciting for me, no matter how lame the activity may be.

we just got netflix, and matt is excited to show chet all the movies he liked when he was little.
so last week, when i was away for my activity, matt decided to introduce chet to dumbo.
but matt's heart was quickly broken when, 5 minutes into the movie, chet said to him,

"when this movie is done, can we watch a good movie?"
dumbo got turned off pretty quick after that.
sorry matt.
but really, a movie from the 40's?! no thanks.

some pictures from our week:

we love weekends.

our weekend.

saturday.

we went to costco. for 2 hours!

we got distracted by the bazillion samples they were handing out, and took way longer then we expected to gather the few items we needed.

but we eventually got it all. and got out.

when we left the store there was a firetruck parked right by the main entrance.

chet loves firetrucks, so we couldn't pass up a chance to check one out close up.

as we were walking around the truck, trying our best to answer chet's questions with our pathetic knowledge of firetrucks, one of the firefighters hopped out of the truck and offered to show us around.

he opened up every single compartment on the truck, as per chet's request.

'what's in that one? what's in that one? how about that one?'

and then chet even got to sit in the truck.

talk about magical!

saturday night we had a stake pioneer days activity.

we were late, so we missed a lot of the fun.

but chet got to participate in his first 3-legged race.. which he hated!

but he raced with matt and, in all honesty, i'm not sure i would enjoy racing with someone twice my height either.

sunday.

well, somehow i have found myself playing the piano in releif society again!

what the heck.

matt and i were asked to talk in sacrament meeting about a month ago.

i had't given a talk in church since before we got married, so i was freaking out.

especially since the last time i got up in front of my ward was when i humiliated myself in our last ward's christmas program.

so i decided to start my talk out by describing that experience and then promising my ward that, no matter how much i butchered the talk i was giving, at least they wouldn't have to endure the awkwardness i put my last ward through.

it never, in a million years, crossed my mind that sharing that experience would give anyone the idea of asking me to play the piano again.

in fact, i pictured it doing the opposite.

but i was wrong. so wrong.

the very next week, during sunday school, i got a tap on my shoulder asking if i would play in relief society.. 30 minutes later!

umm...

i reluctantly agreed.

and i've been playing ever since.

so now i'm the personal progress cheerleader/unofficial RS pianist.

awesome.

the ward did let me steal a keyboard from the church library so i can practice at home. and that makes life much easier.

our ward meets at 10, so holden is always exhausted by the end.

this week, after nap time, we decided to head to the beach for a picnic dinner and a walk along the sand.

it was an overcast day, so we knew swimming wouldn't be a temptation!

we decided to check out a place called 'malibu lagoon'.

turns out it is a very popular beach for surfing.

there were insane amounts of people lined up in the water waiting to catch the next wave.

watching them was mesmerizing.

some of the waves were massive. biggest we have ever seen in person.

most of the beach you aren't even allowed to swim in.

i'm not sure if it is because the waves are so wild or just so you don't get in the way of the surfers but, either way, they won't have to worry about me sneaking out there.

i like playing in the waves, but that was waaay too crazy for me.

instead, we walked back and forth along the waters edge. finding shells and chasing seagulls.

we even saw dolphins again.

but i'm starting to think it's not as special as i once thought.. because we see them almost every time we head to malibu.

who woulda thought.

job site.

matt took us to see his job site on saturday.

right now he is working on the UCLA campus, on a medical building.

that was my first time seeing UCLA.

it's nice.

and big!

matt showed us his office and some of the different things he has been in charge of.

it was fun to finally see what i have heard so much about.

it's a neat project.

after we saw the job site, we walked to a trendy area right by campus to get a treat.

we went to this place called 'diddy reise'.

it is a popular little shop that sells cookie ice cream sandwiches.

[you pick out 2 cookies and an ice cream flavor and they make you a sandwich.]

the big draw - besides the fact that it is tasty - is how cheap it is.

$1.75/ sandwich.

a cheap treat in LA is unheard of.

so obviously the place is always busy.

and that definitely proved to be true when we went.

we waited in line for 30 minutes!

the worst part was chet complaining that he was cold the whole time.

[FYI: it was 80 degrees.]

it has been really hot these past few weeks, and apparently chet is acclimatizing.

by the time we got our treat it was dark so we needed to get the boys home.

but i'd love to go back to the westwood area and do some more exploring.

on the way home, we drove through bel-air.

umm.. wow!

matt and i love driving through snazzy areas and admiring homes we will never own.

it's depressing and fascinating, at the same time.

measurements.

we took the boys to see their new doctor last week.
for the record, these are their measurements:

chet. [3 years + 3 months]
weight: 31.5 pounds [38th percentile]
height: 37.25 inches [28th percentile]

holden. [12 months]
weight: 23.6 pounds [79th percentile]
height: 31.5 inches [95th percentile]
head circumference: 18.75 inches [88th percentile]

we knew holden was growing faster then chet ever has, but we were shocked just how fast.
the doctor couldn't believe how quickly holden caught up, after starting out so itty bitty.
three cheers for holden!

some holden tidbits:
holden now has 3 teeth.
we have switched him to milk, instead of formula.
[and we are super excited that we don't have to buy/touch/smell formula anymore.]
he isn't showing much interest in learning to walk.
but he pulls up on everything and can crawl at impressive speeds.
he puts absolutely everything in his mouth.
he likes to feed himself with a fork [we put the food on the fork, of course.]
he mastered the straw first try. and he figured out how to get off the couch on his own.
matt and i remember spending quite a bit of time teaching those skills to chet, so we were shocked when we didn't need to teach holden. either he is incredibly smart.. or the second child:)
he is a smoothie monster.
other favorite foods are: cheese, eggs, bananas, grapes, watermelon, noodles, anything sweet.
he follows chet everywhere.
he loves his binky. probably too much.
he likes to snuggle when he first wakes up.


here are some pictures of the boys together.
whenever i see them sitting together i always want to take a picture because i think they are too stinkin cute.
it's a bit ridiculous.
i must be their mom or something..

and here are some more pictures that don't really deserve their own post, but are still worth posting.

1. i found the hollywood sign!

2. holden moved into a forward facing car seat.

3. chet is a tricky stage where he doesn't always need a nap.

but sometimes he reeeally needs a nap!

yesterday, he was being nasty so i put him in a time out.

a couple minutes later i went in to check on him and he was out cold!

i guess that means it was a day where he actually did need a nap.

5. holden NEVER stops moving. and, as a result, almost always has a bump on his head.

6. chet loves singing 'i am a child of God'.
it is his favorite song, hands down.
he can sing every word on his own.
so you should have seen chet's face on sunday when our ward started to sing 'i am a child of God' in sacrament meeting.
his eyes lit right up, and he proudly sang every word.
when did my baby get big enough to sing hymns with the congregation?!
i was totally tearing up.
[this picture has nothing to do with that story, except that it is of chet]

7. we had some of the youth from matt's sunday school class over for a BBQ the other night.

we like them.

[it's hard to get a picture of 7 people treading water!]

tank top.

chet is matt's biggest fan.

he likes to do everything "like dad".

it's adorable.

matt recently purchased a tank top.

chet was there the night matt bought it.

and, over the next couple days, he watched matt wear it and asked lots of questions about it.

one day, while matt was at work, chet told me that he really wanted a tank top "like dad".

i knew we had a couple chet tank tops from last summer packed away in a box, so i found them.

and that night chet was beyond excited to wear one.. just like dad.

california plates.

we officially have california license plates.

it's our first time having anything but alberta plates on our car.

it's weird.

and sad :(

the saddest part was that the plates officially went on our car on canada day.

of all days!

talk about stabbing your homeland in the back.

we felt like a part of us died that night.

and now i feel like i am misrepresenting myself, driving around in a car with california plates.

our alberta plate is now just a decoration. it sits on a shelf with matt's BYU-I alumni license plate frame.

nerdy? maybe. but we like it.

other then changing over our plates, we didn't do a whole lot for canada day.

it's hard to find a good canada day celebration down here in america. go figure.

we ate some canadian candy.

and matt endured a lot of canada jokes at work.

and that was that.

matt got the 4th of july off from work.

that morning, i helped out at our wards flag raising ceremony/breakfast.

it started at an obnoxiously early time, so matt and the boys stayed in bed.

everyone in the ward was wearing red/white/and blue that morning. but i didn't get the memo. 

thankfully a lady in our ward made me an american flag scrunchie for my hair. so i sported that.

we spent the rest of the day hanging out in our friends backyard.

we thought about finding a fireworks show to go to that night, but our kids were too sleepy.

so we stayed at home and watched fireworks from our balcony. it was actually a pretty good view.

we thought chet would think it was special if we woke him up to watch them with us, so matt snatched him out of bed

but it didn't end up being as magical as we had hoped.

it was impossible to get chet to open his eyes. and, when we finally did, we asked him if he thought the fireworks were neat and he said,

"can i go back to bed?"

umm.. yes. you may.

and that was our july 4th.

dodgers & knott's.

we had lots going on last weekend.

on friday night we went to 'mormon night at dodgers stadium'.
yep, it's a real thing!
i thought it sounded quite discriminatory to have a night just for mormons,
but turns out anyone can go.
and apparently the dodgers have all sorts of themed nights.
for example, 'united methodist night', 'celiac and gluten free night', 'dermatology night' and 'crohn's and colitis awareness night'.
good to know.

we were excited to watch elder holland throw the opening pitch, but LA traffic made us miss it.
... and the first 2 innings.
oops.
but we enjoyed what we saw..
when we weren't wrestling kids, changing diapers, going potty, hunting down cotton candy, and - when we were told the cotton candy was sold out - convincing chet that slurpees are great too!
note to self: next time, go without kids.

there were hundreds of people in our section wearing these clever shirts.

the very next morning we hit up knott's berry farm.

i have 2 problems with knott's berry farm.

#1

the way people say "knott's berry farm" bothers me.

doesn't it make more sense to put the emphasis on the word 'berry'?

if it was "leavitt's berry farm", wouldn't you?

or how about if it was "knott's carrot farm"?

i swear i'm right!

[or at least i think i am..]

#2

i understand that they are going for a 'farm' feel, but the animals have got to go.

animals + 108 degree weather = no bueno.

i felt ill every time i got a whiff of the horse carriage.

and the ill feeling got even worse when chet convinced us to actually ride in a carriage.

i am oh so grateful that i do not live in the the days of horse and carriage.

and not just because of the smell.

i felt so claustrophobic in that carriage. it had such a tiny little door.

definitely not in compliance with fire codes.

but with all that being said, if we get treated to another day there, i will gladly go!

last weekend, PCL hosted a company BBQ at knott's berry farm.

we had never been there before so we were excited to check it out.

it was a fun, busy day.

 our boys got gift bags with knott's souvenirs, we met snoopy, the food was tasty, and we got to spend the day at the park.

chet has gotten so brave on rides in the past couple weeks.
it is insane.
and i'm pretty sure holden has broken the world record for amount of rides rode by a 1 year old.
we lug that boy on everything. he is such a good sport.

last few pictures.

these are the last few pictures from when my parents were here.

and now that they are posted, i expect my parents to hurry back so we can take some more :)

if only it were that easy..

our only real complaint about our new home is how far it is from family.

matt and my mom love to get on each others' nerves.

it usually ends up in some silly battle.

this is how their most recent battle ended:

an inside water fight.. real mature, guys.

my dad happened to be here for fathers day weekend.

talk about perfect timing!

we all went on a fathers day walk that sunday.

my parents loved the neighborhood.

but, despite my efforts, i was unable to convince them to move to it.

...yet!

we snapped a couple pictures as my mom was heading to the airport.

this one is super cheesy, but i like it!