Hearts for Momma!

We have a surprise for Momma when she gets home tonight. 

Genuine Baby made (ok, with some help from Daddy)

Fun in the sun

We had our fun in a Southern California vacation recently. It was a daring (and fun) trip that took us on 1500 miles of driving, 2000-3000 miles of flying, through new allergies, crying babies, family, friends, and fun. If it sounds tiring, it was. We needed a few days to get back to normal life after getting home.

We took a trip to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. It was big enough, and the children where finicky enough, that we only managed to see about half of the aquarium.

This little alcove is part of a tidal/wave simulator. Every few minutes a large wave of water would hit. Pretty neat. It also was a good place for every little person to congregate.

Nanna and Emmy

AJ really wants to play in the water.

Daddy, can I go play there. Please...

We also took a trip out to John Denver beach (the place where John Denver crashed). It is a pretty stretch of beach. There are lots of rocks to climb on and to make impressive waves with. There actually was someone surfing a hundred yards or so to the side, I hope it was sandier over there, the stretch we were on was pretty rugged.

Laura, with the waves crashing in the background.

This gave us some time to catch up with family. Aunt Kim has a drum set and karaoke that was popular with the young(ish) crowd. So many ways to make noise.

We also took a trip to Story Bookland in Fresno. It is a neat place for smaller children. The park takes you through several children's stories. At each spot you can use a 'magic' key to start telling the story.

Emmy is starting a story with her 'magic' key.

Emmy is on Captain Hook's pirate ship, in the Peter Pan area.

Let me in, let me in. The wolf will get us.

AJs favorite part was the train that goes around the pond. When we asked if he wanted to ride the train, he started running, full bore, to the train. Here we are with some friends, Crystal and Michelle, waiting for the train to start.

To be continued...

Fun in a winter wonderland

We had some snow recently. Not too much, but enough to cover everything. It was fun for the kids. Emmy really liked to eat the snow, almost every snow picture I have of her involves a little hand scooping up snow to eat somehow. AJ, well he likes to fall down in it.

Exploring

Emmy is piling up snow.

The snow tastes yummy.


This is AJs first time walking in snow. His first snow ever didn't even cover the ground.


A winter portrait of AJ

We saw a lot of this. He would take a step or two, but it was a little deep for him, so down he would go.

Here Mom is getting everyone ready for a ride on the sled.


Mom took them around the street, and I took them around the yard (real fast too, they liked that).

The snow was still falling while we played. I had fun trying to capture it.

For scale, here is about how deep it was.

Kermie and Mr Tumnus

We didn't have enough pictures of our cute kids. So we went off to the roomiest, comfiest, bounciest area that had simple background to take some pictures. What ensued was short of utter chaos, but it did involve jumping, climbing, eating, crawling, laughing, hugging, a few bumps, and not quite flipping around (we tried but it didn't work for us).

Arrr, yum, umm, ...
Food has always been important in our family. As you can see AJ diligently tries for large doses of non-dietary fiber at any and every opportunity.

Babies in Motion

We tried to get some with Emmy in motion. Flying, climbing, ...she loves to fly up.

Emmy is climbing Mt Daddy

We caught AJ as he charged across the bed. He can move really quick when he gets going.

Babies at Rest

I love this one, it is the 'hey what is going on here' face.

Emmy and Daddy together.

We think she could starting singing the song from Tangled, 'Flower ...'

Baby Masterpiece

This is one of our best AJ pictures ever. He is happy, smiling, and in motion.

This one is our baby masterpiece. Emmy loves her AJ and AJ loves his Emmy. What more is there to say.

Snowtime fun with Emmy

I walked into my office one day to find a sled sitting in the middle of the room. After a while one of my co-workers came by to explain. The sled had been given to him by another co-worker when he had small children. He was asked to pass it on when his children out grew it, giving it to someone else who needed it. So After having been passed around many times, Emmy gets a nice wooden sled.

We had enough snow in November to take Emmy around the house with the sled.

Daddy is making a snow angel.

We had some monster icicles.

AJ Pictures

When we did Emmy's two year old pictures we also got some more pictures of AJ.

Holding Daddy's finger

He has such long hair.

One baby is peaking out

The middle car is Daddy's and was made by Grandpa Hanks. The others are gifts from one of our friends in the area.

Big sister loves her AJ.

When you are this little taking pictures is tiring work.

Emmy's two year photos!

Here are some more past due pictures. These are some of Emmy's two year photos. We think they are pretty fun.

Hard at play

This set of pictures with her name are some of our favorites.