It's a beautiful day!

Yah! Matthew finished another quarter which means a week of daddy time. He finished finals on Wednesday and so we actually have the rest of this week too. It's so exciting! The weather has been perfect this last week so we've been trying to enjoy it as much as possible. Today we spent the afternoon at our little beach rolling around in the sand. I love my little beach boys!

Lions & Tigers & Bears

Another great "free day" at the zoo. We were pretty bummed that the little puffer train wasn't running, but we supplemented it with a carousel ride. This was Dallin's first visit to the zoo (okay 2nd, he was 2 weeks old the first time) and I think he really enjoyed it. His favorite part was playing in the duck pond. Evan's favorite part was being with his friends.

Look at the silly little monkeys!

Dallin and his best little buddy Nora checking out the Hippo's. It's the first time we've actually seen them move.

Feeding the lazy little goats!

I think Dallin is about to get bucked off of this horsey ride.

"Mamma this bear is a wild sleeper." He was rolling around trying to get comfortble for his afternoon nap.

CHEESE!!

Dallin is such a happy little kid and is always laughing and smiling. He has this big cheeser grin that he likes to give. He knows it cracks me up and so he's always throwing it my way just to make me laugh. It was a little deformed for a few days because he ended up with a fat upper lip, but he didn't let that slow him down. He's not to far away from walking. He's starting to cruise a little and he can stand on his own. He's taken a step, but I don't think it will be much longer before he realizes he can take off running and keep up with his big brother. I love watching my babies grow up. This has to be my favorite age!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Rub-A-Dub-Dub my two men in the tub. I just love bath pictures. Dallin is crazy about water and has reached the stage where he is completely filthy a the end of every day. So he is loving all his bath time. Of course Evan has to jump in. By the way he finished his parent/tot swim class and will now be a jellyfish swimming on his own. He is such a scaredy cat that this is huge for him. I'm trying to get him into a little preschool as well. He'll love it, I'm so excited for him!

Tennesse Valley Cove

We went with a bunch ward members and dental friends out to the Cove. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was beautiful and clear and the waves were enormous. The sad part is that we had taken a bunch of super cute pictures of the waves and the boys in the sand. We even took some cute video of Evan running from the waves and Dallin eating a fist full of sand and playing in the water, but our card had an error and we lost it all. I was so bummed, but one of our dental friends took this group shot. She's a really great photographer. We might get her to take some family pictures for us. You can't see Evan because he ran away scared that the waves were going to get us all. Dallin was just laughing at him!

The boys had a race which Matthew came in a very close second. Boys will be boys!

Sunny Days - Chasing the Clouds Away

We have had some absolutely gorgeous weather lately and after all the rainfall everything is so green and beautiful. So, we decided to enjoy it while we can and went for a hike on Saturday. Mike, Heidi & boys came over to join us. We went up Mt. Tamalpias to this old outdoor theatre which looked really neat and would have been fun to attend back in the day. We just strolled around for a while drinking in the amazing views. We could see Mt. Diablo, Angel Island & the Bay, San Francisco and then the great big ocean. The pictures really don't do it justice. We sat there and watched this huge blanket of fog roll in to SF. It was just so beautiful! Evan and Austin have become the bestest of little buds and they had great fun exploring and getting dirty like little boys do.

Matthew's note: It really was a beautiful area that we hiked in, I really recommend it to anyone who comes out this way.

You need to click on the pictures and see them really big to enjoy some of the views!

Happy Valentines Day!

I know it was yesterday, but I'm just running behind schedule always it seems. Plus we celebrated on Tuesday because I had an ortho appointment last night. I made Matthew a yummy dinner, at least I really enjoyed it. It was a grapefruit salsa with shrimp and then we had Sarah's yummy lava cakes. Yesterday the boys and I made Valentines and then took Matthew a ballon when we met him at school. Matthew and I had a romantic evening watching some episodes of 24 season 2. So very exciting.

Evan is doing really well in swim class. He gets to move on to the Jellyfish class next which means I don't have to get in the water with him anymore. Now, I'll probably get Dallin into the parent/toddler class. The kid loves the water and when he gets in the water with us after Evan's class he just splashes and kicks and then yells and screams when we have to get out. He's just the opposite of Evan in most things. Evan's never really been a fan of the water and Dallin can't get enough of it. Evan is very cautious and Dallin is fearless. It's so fun to have completely different personalities. They sure are a lot of fun!

Evan loves to share all of his food with Dallin. He tries so hard to be a good big brother. Well, yesterday we were driving back from play group when Evan said Dallin had a dirty eye. I didn't realize what he was trying to tell me until I went to get Dallin out of the car and this is what I found. Evan had shared a blackberry with his little brother.

Dallin is getting so big. He's starting to cruise a little bit and he's got a real speedy crawl. Of course he bee lines for the toilet every time he sees a bathroom door open. He loves that water.

He thinks he knows how to talk and refuses to do any sign language anymore. He shakes his head no when what I'm saying is not what he wants and then as soon as I say the right thing he says "yah-yah". He likes to get into mischief all day long and so I'm always saying "uh-uh-uh" to him and now he says it right back and shakes his head no. At least he listens to me for now. It won't last long I'm sure. He sure is a cutie. We had to switch him to Evan's car seat and get Evan a new one because they are both getting so big. Crazy!

We got Scrabble for Christmas and so we've played a couple of games and thought we would share this particular game. The board just looked really cool, at least we thought so. Some of you will appreciate it!

Where have we been?

Who knows what we've been doing that we haven't found any time to post our happenings. I guess not much has been happening. Except . .

Evan is too cool for school. He loves his new glasses and wears them A LOT! He also loves his swim class that he's taking and he only screams a little bit now after we scoop under the water. He has a love hate relationship with water.

Dallin is always into mischief and rearranging my house. He's so much more busy then Evan was and puts up a good fight when he and Evan get to playing a little rough. As you can see . . .
















Dallin has a nice shiner on his right eye (thanks to Evan) and then a red bump on his left cheek bone and one up there on his eyebrow (thanks to his curiosity). Evan gave himself a nice bloody and then black eye lid. I was afraid to go out in public for a few days for fear that someone might sic child services on me.


Matthew has either lost his mind or discovered a new method of studying that keeps all the knowledge from seeping out.

Nah, he's just being a good dad and wearing his helmet (Safety 1st) while driving his racecar.

Matthew and I had a hot date yesterday. It was an "Over the Hump" party in honor of his class reaching the half way point. G&G Willy & Uncle Josh came out and stayed the night with the boys while we partied the night away. We had some yummy food, entertainment and danced a few before deciding we were old fogies and needed to get home our rest our tired legs. It sure was fun getting dressed up and being childless.

Thank you G&G Willy.

Cops & Robbers

Not much has been going on for us lately. Evan is taking a swim class. It's a parent/child class so I get in and play with him while Dallin watches from the side. He doesn't like the water much, but he is enjoying the class and getting braver. Dallin is getting quicker with his crawl and is everywhere all at once. I sure have my hands full and I'm loving it. Matthew is busy-busy with school. He had a nice break today. A bunch of guys from his class got together and went paint-balling. We went and watched the action for a while and the boys had a great time playing with their friends and rolling around in the mud. Matthew came home with some great welts. We think it would be great fun to play sometime with the family, don't you think.

Happy New Year!

We apparently had a little too much fun because we've all been fighting the nasty colds and trying to catch up on our sleep. We had a wonderful Christmas in Brentwood with Matthew's family. We went out to the movies, played game after game, went on a gorgeous hike, played night games, opened presents, played a murder mystery game, soaked in the spa, had a girls day out, played with the new toys and just plain had fun. It was so great watching Evan and Arwen play together, or should I say Herbie and princess. Evan kind of has a thing for Herbie the Love Bug and likes to pretend that he's him. He had the nursery confused because we told them his name was Evan but he insisted it was Herbie. He would only call Arwen princess and was always asking where his princess was. They had so much fun together. It was so great to have Matthew back. He did really well on his boards and is back in school working hard. Dallin just keeps us all smiling. He has learned to clap and sign more and all done. He's got a pretty quick army crawl down and is nothing but trouble now. It's great! Here are some pictures of all our fun times. There were too many to choose from. Good-luck with all those resolutions.