Picnic Day

On April 18th we headed up to Davis for Picnic Day. I hadn't been feeling great, but Justin and Gianna were going up there with Johnny so Connor and I decided to tag along. We were glad we did because it was lots of fun and I even got to see some minor celebrities (Toni and Dallas from the Amazing Race).
Watching the parade.Gianna trying her first rice crispy treat outside Plutos. The verdict: she's still not sure.Planting clover seeds in a newspaper pot.Gone fishin'
Making a bracelet.Blowing bubbles.Showing a horse the bracelet she made.

Planting Beans

In Gianna's preschool class they made little greenhouses (super fun and easy project: Just dirt, bean seeds and a little water in a Ziploc bag taped to the window for a few weeks). When we brought the new plants home from preschool she could not wait to transfer them to our gardening beds. Of course she didn't mind that it was a zillion degrees outside (okay, it was really only about 95), but she did get to wear this cool hat!
Showing off her greenhouse.
Excited to plant beans.
Watering the plants.
Proud of her work.

Cute Baby

Connor is a traffic-stopper. I'm not bragging, but people actually stop me all the time to tell me how cute he is. Okay, maybe I'm bragging a little. Here are some pictures from tummy time (same day as previous post) that show how cute he is. I love his blue eyes and we can almost always get a smile out of him. What a trooper!

Flirting (he does this a lot)Cutie!Smiling.

Bro and Sis

Connor is pretty easy going when it comes to his sister. Here the are about 10 days ago hamming it up while Gianna holds Connor. Of course, as my luck has it, they never smile in the same picture. But both of these are cute anyway.

Cute 'do

Gianna's hair is finally getting long enough to try new styles. I liked this one a lot.

Sarah's Birthday

Gianna LOVES the "Happy Birthday" song--especially the part where you blow out the candles at the end. Here is is watching closely and helping Aunt Sarah blow out her candle.Happy Birthday Sarah!

Sarah's Lamb Cake.

Here's the lamb cake my mom and I made for Sarah for her birthday. Pretty darn cute. Just wanted to share.

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter morning at my parents' house is still pretty competitive. Johnny, Justin and I try to dial it down a bit so that Gianna gets to find some eggs too. I think we did a good job because everyone had fun and found some eggs.

Connor finds eggs (with the help of Daddy).
Gianna and her favorite helper.


Family Photo after the egg hunt.

Easter Morning

On Easter morning the kids (including Justin and I) had a great time finding and going through our Easter baskets. The Easter Bunny knows just what we like.

Here is Gianna finding her Easter Basket in her bed.Carrying out her new gardening tools. She now loves gardening and cannot wait to see what grows this spring and summer. She has already planted beans and flowers, tomatoes and herbs to come...Trying on her new [personalized] apron. Super cute. Plus she loves the matching hot pad, oven mit, and dishtowel.Connor is very excited about his blanky basket.Bright books are his favorite (as you can see).

On my mind...

I know I am insanely behind on pictures, but I'd like to take this moment to write a few more recent updates and tell you what is going on in our lives right now. I can finish catching all of you up on the pictures and events of the past 2 weeks later this weekend...but for now I'd rather talk about the "non-events".

*I think I'll just bullet them, since all of this is so random*

• Gianna is now in full potty training. Today we bought underpants. What happened to my baby? I think besides the underpants themselves, it really hit me when she picked Princess underpants over Elmo. I was thinking to myself, "Isn't princess stuff for little girls, not toddlers?" Then I realized that I don't know if she is technically a toddler anymore. I mean, she doesn't toddle. She can walk up and down stairs just fine. She can step off a curb (on of the more terrifying milestones). She can play independently, feed herself and do so many other things. Oh my gosh! I love every phase of her development more than the last; but I think I have SO LOVED the past 2 months or so, it will be hard to top.
• Connor has the most irregular schedule. It's hard to complain because he is technically sleeping through the night (I put "technically" in italics because STTN is quantified by 5 or more hours, which is not enough for a whole night for Justin or me). The thing that makes him difficult in the sleep area is that he doesn't nap much (if at all). So, while I may be getting some sleep at night, my house is a mess and I have very little time to do anything because he wants to be held ALL THE TIME. Of course, the beauty of all of this is that I know how fast it all goes by, so I can appreciate him and look past the dust, toys, and clutter. The one good thing is that he spends a good part of the night in his own room (by himself), something that Gianna didn't do until about a month after Connor was born.
• Connor is now attached to me, and he has been for about a month. We first found this out when our friends watched the kids so we could go out for our anniversary. Up until this point he never cared who held him, but for the last month or so he gets very nervous when mom goes out of sight. How did I completely forget this phase?
• Gianna speaks in full sentences now, and loves the phone. Although Justin and I (and my friend Jenny) are about the only people who can understand most of what she says). So if you get a rambling phone message from an ewok, it's probably Gianna. Also, if she is talking to you and you don't understand her, she will YELL at the top of her lungs, just repeating what she said until the listener repeats too. She needs to know that you understand. I equate this behavior with the way people often yell at foreigners as if yelling will make them understand english. I guess that is an innate behavior.
• The kids and I have been sick (just a cold, not swine flu-lol) all week and it has been a bag of mixed blessings. We had been feeling over scheduled and too busy and I was looking forward to just missing our Monday activity this week, but it turns out we missed everything. I guess it's a good week to be isolated, because hardly a chance we've been exposed to the: duh, duh, duhhhhhh....Swine Flu.
• Speaking of Swine Flu. Talk about the media blowing things out of proportion. I would just like to say that the regular flu kills half a million people every year. I don't mean to be insensitive, but for this "pandemic" to top the news (over pirates and everything) every day is getting a little exhausting. Not that I'm not terrified of getting it...I just can't believe how it is affecting literally everything right now.
• Justin and I have birthdays this month which means we are both really in our mid-to-late 20's. Boo. That's all I have to say about that.

***Warning: the next 2 bullet points include me being on a soapbox:

• Freeways should have emergency exits for moms with screaming (and hungry) infants. It took us over 35 minutes to make a 3 mile drive home yesterday during the middle of the day because of an accident. And you know what made the traffic worse: those jerks who think that their lives are so much more important than everyone else's who is waiting in traffic. You know the people: the ones who drive down the shoulder of the freeway and cut in when they see a law inforcement officer ahead. Rules are there for a reason, if everyone followed them and was curteous on the road I'm sure we'd have less accidents (which are the reason traffic was slow in the first place).
• Speaking of courtesy while driving, why is it still legal to smoke and drive? I was almost hit twice in the past week by people who were lighting up their cigarettes while driving. Not to mention the people who don't want smoke in their car so they dangle their cigarrettes out their windows so my kids and I get to smell and breathe their disgusting smoke. Note to smoker: If you don't want you or your car to smell like smoke, why would I?

***Off Soapbox.

• Please pray for Caelen on Monday morning. She is having surgery (she's not even 2 1/2) to have her adnoids reduced/removed so she can breathe better.
• If you live in Plesanton please vote to pass the parcel tax when it goes to vote in a couple of weeks.
• Congrats to Shara and Craig who got married yesterday.

Believe it or not, that's all that's on my mind right now...I better get back to my family. Hope you enjoyed the kid updates and didn't mind the other ramblings.
-Jessica