highlights of the past few weeks..

i hate when i don't have time to update this blog very often, because i feel like my updates become more factual than personal. like, i am just stating what we did, rather then how our boys have grown and how i feel about things. but life has just been so full these past few months that i can't seem to do it any other way! 

anyways, here are some highlights:

we drove 30 minutes (each way) to get some krispy kreme donuts.
and it was worth it.

we played in a splash pad in january! three cheers for LA winters!

we caught another rat in our attic.
total rat count: 3

home depot workshop.

i really liked this picture chet colored. it warmed my heart!

we went on family valentines dinner date. we took the boys down to old town pasadena for a snazzy date night. the boys liked seeing all the happenings in old town on a saturday night, and we were hands down the fanciest people at the california pizza kitchen!

photo credit: holden :)

holden secretly made us all decorations for our plates on valentines day. he's cute!

ALWAYS checking out the construction at the boys' school. i now budget an extra 5-10 minutes every time we walk down that sidewalk... which is at least twice a day!

i took tad to story time for the first time in months, and he did so good! i used to always take him when holden was home, but i always kept him buckled in the stroller so he wouldn't cause to much ruckus. i was nervous that he wouldn't sit still very well yet, but he was the loveliest little library date!

we checked out the griffith observatory again. it is always a neat iconic (and free!) LA activity.

(see the hollywood sign?)

we became zoo pass people! this is our first zoo pass, and i am actually pretty excited about it. i have always had this sense of guilt when i take my kids to go stare at animals in captivity, but i suppose i am getting complaisant in that feeling, because we plan to do it a whole lot over the next year! we really just wanted to take the boys one time, but it cost $86 dollars for us to go one day and $108 to go for the whole year, soo... ya. 

our boys started t-ball and baseball! chet's team is the pirates and holden's is the muckdogs. chet is number 3 and holden is number 8. we are only a few weeks in, and i have already found a new respect for parents who have multiple kids in multiple activities. this is our first taste of having conflicting schedules, and it is tiring! i better get used to it though! holden hasn't been even a bit nervous for t-ball. it has been fun watching him go out on the field and play with confidence and make friends so easily. chet, on the other hand, was so nervous for his first game that he was sobbing when it came time to put on his jersey. somehow we got him to the game, and he did so great, and now he is very enthused about the rest of the season! we had to split up for their first games - matt went with chet and i went with holden - so matt called me during chet's game to tell me that he had actually hit the ball 2 times, and that matt had teared up the first time he did! matt and i were both so stressed about chet having a good experience, hence the dad emotions! we are proud of our boys, and so grateful for their healthy little bodies.

made a sea lion friend at the pier.

at the park. always, and forever.

hadn't seen him wear mittens in a loooong time!

bath buddies.

he loves to read!

tablet dorks.

tad and delphine :) this will be used in their wedding slideshow. haha

tad's a busy kid. always getting toted around to everything the big boys need to do, and he is such a good sport about it! him and i spend about 5 hours volunteering at the school every week, and he is such a patient boy with all that. i swear everyone at the school knows his name. he is like a little celebrity!

disneyland.

we gave the boys a countdown to a day at disneyland as their big christmas gift this year. they had been asking to go again for months, so we figured they'd think that is special. and they did. originally, we planned on just waking them up on a day close to christmas and nonchalantly being like, "gooOod morning. wanna go to disneyland?", and totally surprising them. buuuut turns out that the christmas season at disneyland is repulsively busy, so we did the countdown idea instead. not as cool, but much more practical! and speaking of practical, my mom also flew over to do the park with us, which was very sweet of her. we definitely liked having 1-1 ratio between adults and kids!

we had a fun day at the park. it was sunny, we ate tasty treats, we got on lots of rides, and there were no meltdowns or complaining about walking. and, since our boys aren't thrill seekers at all, it was a pretty mellow day. (i kept thinking how frustrated someone who knows how to maximize their disneyland visit would have been with our family!) chet's favorite ride was "it's a small world" (matt actually fell asleep on that one!), and holden's favorite was the mark twain river boat (is that even a ride?! boooring). our boys had fun and felt special, and that was the whole point. matt and i are in no hurry to go back, but we liked having the chance to take them somewhere that they think is so magical!