A sunny letter

Dear Sun,

Oh how I love you. Thank you for coming back and brighten our days. My kids LOVED being at the park today. William couldn't get enough of the teeter-totter or the slides. Sarah loved the slides and the sand. It was so nice not to have to wear jackets. It was lovely. Please stay for a while. We love you.

Sincerely,
Me

Back to "Normal"

Well, after two days of BLISS and SUNSHINE the fog has rolled back in and the expected high for today is 66. *Sigh*

To brighten the day, I thought I would post about our exciting news.


I'm 10 weeks pregnant with peanut #3. We anticipate him or her to arrive in the middle of March.

Several weeks ago - even before I knew I was pregnant - Sarah kept talking about a baby sister. Hmmm. Maybe she has some connection? But if how sick I am is tied to having girls I would definitely have to agree. I was pretty sick with Sarah but only tired with William.

I'm feeling more like myself and am getting back to normal. We feel super blessed!

92 Degrees

We had a real, WARM, summer day yesterday. I mean, not just for San Francisco. Weather.com says it got to 92 degrees. And oh it was oh so fine. We had such a fun, long-overdue beach day at the Crissy Field tide pools. We stayed for 3 hours! We had to re-apply sunscreen and everything.


Will, Sarah and I were in H.E.A.V.E.N. Will loved playing catch with this dog. He is so in that loving doggies phase.



The only down side to our fun day at the beach was when I left Sarah and Will with our friends while I went to pack the car and move it closer. I had told Sarah I'd be right back and to play with her friends, but apparently, that wasn't what she wanted to do. When I got back, I couldn't find her ANYWHERE. I don't think I've EVER been that scared. I mean, there were literally hundreds of people at the beach. I did notice her shoes were missing so I thought maybe she needed to go to the bathroom - not too far away, but when we went earlier, I had made her put on her shoes. I rushed back there, but no such luck. I was a wreck. I was crying and praying with all my heart.

As I walked back to the beach area where my friends were - not knowing what to do next - a woman saw me and asked if I had lost a little girl. "YES!" and then I saw Sarah sitting on a cement bench surrounded by 3 women and a few kids. She was found crying looking for mommy and they were trying to comfort her. One lady had even called the police to report a lost girl. I gave Sarah the biggest hug ever and we cried together. I was sooooooo happy to find my little girl. We went and got William and as we were leaving ran into the lady again - who was now accompanied by the police officer - and we filed a report. I'm so glad it ended happily.

See there are good people in San Francisco. There may be the random stealer of cameras and frisbees, but at least my little girl is safe at home.

William is 21 months!

With all the excitement building up to Cyndi's big day, I completely forgot to write about William's 21-month-milestone. It's so crazy to think that when William was born, Sarah was 21 months old. She seemed so grown up. Wow. I can't imagine having another newborn right now, but it will be fun to see what a good big brother he is at 28 months.

Our little boy has grown up so much lately. He's quite the talker. At Cyndi's wedding he kept saying, "Pretty Dress." He loved all the girls in their pretty dresses - especially Ninny's pretty wedding dress.

His new trick is to jump off of the couch or our bed. He's pretty fearless for sure. Of course, his forehead shows evidence of his many exploits. But he doesn't cry - or if he does at least it's never for very long.

He LOVES his big sister. William loves playing house with her and dress up. They also love running in the hallway kicking balls. William is quite the coordinated kicker. And he's got good aim in throwing too.

William continues to be a champion eater. This morning he ate through Sarah's and my oatmeal leftovers from breakfast. He's getting quite talented with his silverware. In fact, he doesn't like to sit down and eat without it.

Dora and Letter Factory top William's movie hits. He can sit through the whole movie without getting distracted or needing anything. Which, for now, is sooooo nice for me. My house should be spotless, but ...

Will loves running up and down ramps of any sort. He loves the park and being outside. Oh how we need a backyard! We did have a great, sunny time at the park today. Yippee for 70 degree weather! We hope it stays a while.

His vocabulary gets bigger every day. I love that he says "Ra-Ra" now. He still calls most adults "Mommy" (even Daddy - much to his Daddy's chagrin.) William will parrot most words and gets a big grin on his face when he knows he said it right. He's just adorable.

Happy 21 Months William!

Cyndi & Renato's Big Day!

We had a great time for all of Cyndi & Renato's wedding festivities this weekend. It was so great to get to know all of the "blog faces" from Cyndi's extra-large extended family. We had a great time hanging out with the Toomers. We felt so welcome that we may even consider attending their next family reunion!

This picture sums up the whole event:


I wish I had more photos to share. The memory card I used at the temple is corrupt and I need to have Roger's brother help me recover the super special pictures from when Cyndi & Renato came out of the temple. Cyndi looked absolutely amazing in her beautiful white dress. Her smile was the happiest in the world. I was so happy to share in her special moment.

UPDATE: Here's a photo I stole from Cyndi's cousin's blog. There are more where that came from so go ahead and click on the link. Doesn't Cyndi look so so sooooo happy? Even more pictures here courtesy of her nephew's blog.


Sarah was especially adorable. She was following Cyndi around with star-glazed eyes. She took her job as flower girl helper very seriously. She made sure Cyndi's dress didn't touch the ground. Cyndi was as real princess as the ones in Sarah's Disney movies. Sarah was in H.E.A.V.E.N. Hopefully, I'll recover some of the photos!

I did change my memory card for when we reconvened at Cyndi's parent's home in Auburn for the reception. I nabbed a few photos with my cute kids and some of the wedding party. Unfortunately, not one includes Cyndi or Renato. You may just have to wait until Cyndi gets back from her honeymoon and check out her blog ... but in the meantime here are the few I have:

The pink flower girls - Sarah, Elise & Anna. Oh how they LOVED wearing their pretty pink dresses. They all danced and twirled like princesses. It was adorable to watch.


William lounging while others are taking group photos with the bride and groom. Overlook those brown sandals - I forgot his black shoes at the hotel 20 minutes away. We were already 20 minutes late for the photo shoot so there was no going back for them.


Elise & Sarah with William. Isn't he so handsome? Will can definitely pull off this pink tie.


Will swinging at the edge of the meadow. He was one of the last people to use it before it unfortunately broke.


Again, my handsome boy.


Ah the porch swing. There were at least this many kids at any given time hanging out here. It was "the place" to be if you were under 10.


The Brown's home was absolutely amazing. The pink, white and black decorations were perfect. I'm sure there will be pictures I can steal from Cyndi that show how phenomenal everything was.

We ate and danced and full-on partied until after the happy couple headed out the door. Sarah and William had a really healthy candy-and-cake dinner. They couldn't have been happier. I loved the variety of salads. Yummy! While the kids roamed to and from the candy table, we got to chat with Jennie, Ryan and Teresa. It was so fun to catch up!

The live band was also so fun. When Roger and I pulled our kids onto the dance floor they just lit up! William and Sarah can really groove. I think we'll have to make sure Sarah's wearing biker shorts when she goes to youth dances. She gets pretty wild. And William does the monkey dance well. All in all we had the best time getting down.

Sarah fell asleep almost instantly when we got in the car at 9:45pm to go back to the Rocklin HoJo. (Fabulous by the way. Cyndi's entire extended family stayed there too. We LOVED the made-as-you-wait omelets & waffles for breakfast with the whole crew.) And as you can imagine, both kids slept soundly past 8 am - when we woke them up for breakfast. Sarah had such a hangover from the night before that she also slept the two hours back into the city. Both kids (and parents) fell asleep after church and Sarah & Will are still sleeping... I probably should wake them up so they'll sleep tonight.



Congrats Cyndi & Rhino. We sure love you!

One Fine Day

What do you get when you add this


with this


and this?


That's right friends, a bead up her nose. Awesome.

Just got back from the visiting the Ear Nose and Throat Surgery office. The doctor was fantastic - maybe a little to fantastic. I wanted Sarah to be a little traumatized - just a little - what's going to prevent her from sticking a bead in her nose? She thought visiting the doctor was fun! And she and William got Dora stickers to boot. We were in and out of the office in 10 minutes. Since it was so quick I may even forgive the person who told me to be there at 1 p.m. (The office is close for lunch from 12:30-1:30.)

All done. On to the next...

Uncle Glenn Comes to Visit!

Roger's youngest brother came to visit over the weekend and we had a great time! His last visit was right before he left on his mission - Sarah was just 10 months old. It was fun to play in the city with him: the kids and I escorted him to the Academy of Sciences & Exploratorium while Rog went with him to the Oakland Temple, beach, Legion of Honor, Fort Point ... All in all lots of fun!






Come back again Uncle Glenn!

William's New Talent

William says, "I Poopy" and with one hand grabs at his stinky diaper. If a new diaper is in sight he will lay next to it so I can change his diaper. Ahh, lovely.

A Princess Party

Sarah was invited to a princess birthday party on Saturday and she had the best time ever. What is more fun than dressing up in a princess fairy costume, eating a princess birthday cake, making a princess craft and swinging at a pinata to get lots of candy? You're right. Nothing! Thanks Katie for such a fun party!