September's Update

Even I have gotten tired of the BYU logo staring at me on my blog. But hey, we're 6 games in and still undefeated... very exciting!

I can't believe how the time has flown! September was a rough month for me and I'm afraid if I get too behind on my blog that I'll end up just quitting altogether. So I'm hanging on... for now!

Here's the latest:

First, we got Max settled into Kindergarten... more traumatic than I even thought possible! We have gotten things worked out a little better, but it will be a learning experience for all of us, that is for sure.

He still says he "hates, hates, hates school", but I think that deep down that he enjoys a lot of it. :) He has lots of cute friends and they do lots of fun things. I'm going to school with him one day each month... this is a picture I took when I went in September of him playing with a water project.

Doman started preschool the beginning of September and he couldn't be happier! He has been wanting to go for the past two years that Max was there and his time has finally come! We actually weren't planning on him going because he wasn't technically ready, and it was too big of a pain to get a special needs teacher from Albany to assist him at a Berkeley school.   But the fabulous teachers at the preschool said to just bring him! This has been a big blessing for us. We adore these amazing teachers and they're so kind to work with us!

This is him going off to school... what a grown-up little guy!

Cali took her first steps which is so gosh darn cute, but it's hard to believe we won't have a baby in the house anymore. I'm usually already expecting our next little one, so it's never made me this sad before. :(

Finally, one of the reasons football season is my favorite time of year! First of all, BYU football of course, but secondly... new TV shows!  At the end of an exhausting day there's nothing better than a great new show to watch.

Here are my top 3 of the new season:

1. Eli Stone. This one is hands down my favorite. Clean, so interesting, and actually a bit spiritual. It just started it's second season, and if you haven't seen it, then I highly recommend it. Actually, the Season Premier was just yesterday... go to abc.com and you can see the full episode.

2. Amazing Race. Love it as always.

3. Pushing Daisies. A little quirky, but pretty clean and fun.

I know we're already half-way through October, but that update will just have to come later... my fun trip to Utah, Doman's first experience with anesthesia, and my boys going to the ward camp out will be coming up next.

Let the undefeated season begin!

First Week of School!

We made it through the first week of school... and it wasn't easy! Max has been saying all summer that he didn't want to go to kindergarten, and it turns out he wasn't kidding. There were a lot of tears shed, but I think we're making progress. Hopefully the second week will be better! :)

Max getting ready to leave for his very first day of Kindergarten!

Happy Birthday Cali Anne!

I can't believe my baby girl is really one! We had a fun little birthday with her and think she is just the greatest thing ever. We really do adore her!

First, on her actual birthday we didn't do much because Dan was busy. But we had cupcakes at the park with Cali's little twin, Teagan. Cali was born on the morning of Aug. 22nd and Teagan was born late that night. Besides Teagan's family, I got to be one of the first people to see her because she was delivered at the same hospital as Cali. :) And both girls were born to a family of 3 older brothers, so they are quite a match!

Here they are... Teagan happily enjoyed her cupcake while Cali just stared at hers. I even put cake right in Cali's mouth but she spit it out!

Saturday we celebrated her birthday by first having her open presents...

And then we went to a fun park in Hayward. Cali loved the train ride:



... and the merry-go-round:



... but not so much the jumper. :(



And the boys of course had fun on everything, especially the pony rides.




Then we came home and had cake... again, not too successful with our feminine little girl. She still wouldn't eat it, but she did at least touch it this time. :)

And it ended with her birthday bath. :)

Happy 1st birthday Cali Anne! We sure loved our first year with you!

A Fun Anniversary

You can see from the adorable picture a few days ago that Wednesday was our 7-year anniversary. We went on a ferry boat ride to San Francisco and it was a lot of fun (minus my motion-sickness!) The kids absolutely loved it and it was really beautiful to be riding through the bay.

This is after we went under the Bay Bridge that is in the background.

Max took this picture for us... he is becoming quite useful! Not to mention Doman held Cali while Max was taking the picture!.

So here is to 7 years of bliss! Okay, who are we kidding?... it has been a wild seven years! School, debt, sickness, living in apartments, having kids, more school, more debt, more kids... it hasn't all been fun and games, that is for sure! But, we have each other and because of that we can survive it all... together!!!

Early Birthday for Cali

I can't believe my baby girl is going to be ONE! Her sweet grandmas have sent her such cute little packages. We wish we could celebrate birthdays with our family around, but thanks guys for the packages! Here are a few pictures I know the grandmas would love to see of the kids opening everything.

First of all, her big teeth!
We've never had a one-year-old with teeth before, and she has six!

Here come the princesses! My mom made her this super soft quillow that she's gonna love.

Grandpa's 1-year old book... Pat The Bunny. Oh, and Cali holding a princess ball. :)

And the Thurgoods sent her a cute princess cell-phone with matching case! So strange to have princesses in the house!

Another fun toy phone and a doll from Grandma Briggs.

And both Max's grandmas were SO thoughtful to send him a bunch of school supplies for starting school next week. Just this morning he was telling me (again!) that he doesn't want to go to kindergarten. Then he remembered all the cool stuff his grandmas sent him and he got excited. Hopefully his teachers don't mind when he brings it all to school. But thank goodness for grandmas!

7 Years!

Muir Woods

The last time we went to Muir Woods was four years ago when we moved here to Berkeley. We decided we ought to go again now that the boys would enjoy it more. I was amazed how beautiful the giant trees were once again. Life is so busy, but I really hope we can keep seeing some of the great bay area sites before we have to leave!

On our way back from Muir Woods we also stopped at the lookout point to the Golden Gate Bridge ... pretty awesome view of the bay! I wish we could get a better family picture, but what can ya do with these four little nonphotogenic kids!? Plus they seriously were worried about the strong wind blowing them right off the ledge!

This is not my child...

Max has always surprised me by his eating habits. He eats everything, tries everything, and loves just about everything. But this was all I could stand. He got a big tomato out of the fridge and devoured it. I grabbed the camera just as he was taking his last big bite. I'm so glad that he didn't inherit my fear of vegetables! (which I'm working on , btw...) And earlier this week he found the colorful peppers in the fridge and wanted that for his snack. I gave him some red, yellow, and orange pepper slices with some ranch dressing. I noticed he wasn't dipping them (he loves ranch dressing, so this was strange). When I asked him why, he said he wanted to decide which color was his favorite first... red won. And no matter how delicious Max kept telling Doman that the peppers were, Doman tried one and quickly left the scene... he on the other hand is definitely mine. :)

We did it!

I've never dared take all four kids to the beach before. I feel bad even saying it, but I hate the beach. I don't like sand, I don't like being dirty, I don't like the hot sun, and I don't like the cold water. And what's worse than actually going to the beach?... taking your kids to the beach! But it had to be done and with the help of my friend Rebecca, we did it!

Max and Doman both thoroughly enjoyed it. Lincoln seemed to be more like me... he couldn't stand just his hands having sand on them and he wouldn't touch the water. Cali did alright just hanging out on Brit's blanket... but of course she had to add something to the experience by blowing out of her diaper!

All my friends were so nice to help me even though they've got their own kids to watch. But it sure made the experience enjoyable. And now I can check it off the list! :)

Holding hands walking through the waves of the ocean... isn't this romantic? :)

Max loved the water... I guess you just get numb after a few minutes! Hopefully he got his fill of the beach! :)

Doman and Lincoln just playing in the sand... note that Lincoln is holding sand! But then he kept begging me to get all the sand off his hands the rest of the time!

A picture of me and Cali before we left showing that we survived. :)

The 5th of July :)

July 5th... the anniversary of our very first date. We wanted to do something with the kids during the day. And then of course that night we had a babysitter so that we could get ice-cream at Dairy Queen. Oh- and Dan gave me the Wicked CD... love it!

So we took the kids to the Lafayette Reservoir. It was a lot of fun and not far away. There is a nice playground and a big, pretty lake. All the kids loved it! But take Marie's advice and go on a cool day!

The highlight was riding the pedal boats.
I got to take the boys out first... they loved it and it was so pretty.

Then Dan took out the boys and let Max do the pedaling while Lincoln was trying not to fall out the back!

This would be a great place to take a nice walk or run around the lake... a big nice paved trail.

Cali's too wiggly to go out in the boats, but she stayed happy in the stroller. :)

The Berkeley Bucket List

On the flight home from London we saw The Bucket List. I probably wouldn't have watched it had I not been stuck on a long flight, but it turned out quite interesting. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are these two old men who are dying. Instead of crying about it and staying in the hospital for treatments, they make a "bucket list" which is a list made up of things they want to do before they "kick the bucket". And then throughout the movie they go on to do the things on their bucket list.

Dan and I have just realized that we may possibly only have one year left here at Berkeley. And despite how incredibly happy that would make me, I'm already starting to have regrets! Hence... our Berkeley Bucket List. We've made a big list of things we'd like to do before we "kick the bucket" at Berkeley. Everyone knows we're kind of rigid with schedules around here... how else are we supposed to stay sane? :) So, some naps are gonna have to be skipped and bedtimes will have to be ignored. But we're gonna have fun!