"Bop"

Eden has learned a couple of new words: cheat (treat) and bop (lollipop). We are so proud. We find her pointing to the not so secret hiding place for treats/bribes and repeating "Cheat! Cheat!". One of the last times I gave in and let her have a "bop" she and Taj turned it into a sharing game and had fun until the cheap dum dum stick broke. It's getting harder and harder to say no to this girl.

Wigidy-wigidy-wigidy-wac

Taj has been dressing himself lately, which I love. He doesn't mind tags in his face or underwear backwards so it's barely covering his buns, so we leave it and tell him how proud we are of him dressing himself. Kris-Kross anyone?

Adventure in Ventura

My Uncle Rob passed away a couple of weeks ago, so we made some last minute plans to get ourselves to California for the funeral. It was a sweet experience in that the funeral was really small- 8 of us. His sister, Rose, had some Beetle's playing and we all just visited at the grave site his ashes will be buried in. I didn't really know him and actually never heard many good stories about my Uncle Rob while he was alive, but at the funeral I was able to hear a lot of great stories about him. I also heard some of his poetry which I loved and will share another time. Turns out my Uncle Rob was very talented and had friendships we never knew about. I really found a lot of hope in the experience and think of him free from his earthly problems. There was a lot of laughter at the funeral, and not too irreverent. It was touching and the kind of funeral I would like.

I flew with the kids while Micah drove and camped out the day before. Taj got to see the cockpit of our airplane and even press some buttons (thank you Southwest for helping a mom out). Micah got some o.k. waves then picked us up. After the funeral we checked into our house in Ventura. Micah loves to plan out our trips and found us a rad place 9 houses from the beach! We had great eighty degree weather and loved the area. We were next to a marina so we saw boats all day long.

Eden loved the cold water and charged for it nonstop. We all got sick on the trip, and Taj wouldn't stay asleep (new bed/sounds/lights...), but we had a great time. It was a reminder of how blessed we are and how grateful I am best friends with my family.

School is Cool

I thought it was a little overboard to do preschool pictures, but then I got to thinking about how fun it is to pull out my school pictures and thought we'd better get some.

My first thought was how stinking adorable this little man is. My second thought was how in the world did the photographer got Taj to smile for her. My third thought was how this photographer was smart to target preschools and how she's probably raking it in. Most recently I thought how red Taj's hair looks in the photo. Cute kid.

*just let us know if you need a wallet sized photo. We've got a few laying around.

"like an orange on a toothpick"

My little lady is a clumsy little lady. While these pictures show what a cute and perfectly round head she has, it also shows how large it seems in comparison to the rest of her little body.
I'm really not trying to sound mean here. I'm actually concerned because she falls down a lot (with the help of her big brother sometimes), and because her noggin is so big it hits every time.
These pictures are quite amazing because they don't show the permanent bump on the right side of her forehead. They do show her kissy face, which I LOVE!

I'm seriously considering getting a helmet for her, cuz at some point all this bumping and bruising has to cause some permanent damage. Yikes.

The Real Halloween!

We had a great night! We made our traditional "Witches Brew" or root beer with dry ice.

After dinner we got suited up and headed out for some Halloween loot.




I know they're blurry, but just think of them as spooky Halloween pictures:)

Here's Taj on his scooter. I had to laugh because the whole time we're trick or treating I kept getting those little scrub feeling of hurrying to as many houses as possible as to get the most candy. Pretty cute. He was so brave, and even though Eden got scared a couple times she was totally into it.