Ladybugs, Hugs, Blimp, Lunch and Vampire Scare?

What random pictures, huh?! Just across the street from our house is a treasure trove of ladybugs! We've taken quite a few little trips out there to see how many we can find. Lana loves trying to get them to crawl on her hand and finally succeeded!



Jared is always getting these AWESOME hugs from his big sister. They just love each other- Lana loves playing with Jared and Jared just cracks up at all her silliness.



We were really excited for Mat to ride on the GoodYear Blimp for work related reasons, but alas, it was too windy that day so the ride got canceled. We ended up with this cute picture of Mat and his creative pose. Oh, by the way- Don't forget to fill out and send back your Census 2010 forms!



Another day, we picked Mat up for lunch and this is how happy Jared was to see Daddy!





Lana has been jumping out from behind doors, the kitchen, blankets, etc to scare me. It really works and she's getting better at it. The other day she found these vampire teeth from Halloween, jumped out from behind the door and she scared the you-know-what out of me! Mat and I both know exactly where she gets this sneaky/cheeky side- ME! And we know where I get it from- MY MOM! And we know where she gets it from- MY GRANDMA! We come from a long line of pranksters apparently. I can't wait to explain April Fools Day to Lana. I think she'll get it this year. hehe. Watch out everyone!

Last week

Here are some pictures of our happenings last week. We took the kids to this carnival and Lana was so excited. This is the two of them right before we got there- totally passed out and squished together in the stroller!

Lana is keeping up with her photography and took this picture of me and Mat.

Chubby Jared in the bath. I should have put a before and after picture so you could see how dirty he can get while eating his food. But then again, maybe it's nice of me to spare you that sight!

Two seconds before this picture, Lana was asking me to read her a book and then I walked around from the kitchen to read to her and this is what I found!

Jared is crawling and leaving a trail of destruction in his path. I'll have to look in my archives of pictures because I think that I have this exact same picture of Lana getting into our DVDs when she started crawling. So funny.

Week Before Last

Well, here are some pictures that illustrates a few things from the week before last. The first is a picture of the hairstyle that Lana specifically requested. She wanted all those accessories in all those exact places. With two braids connected. She has a few different inspirations but regularly requests to make her hair like "Shana" (her cute friend from school).


We've had ottoman hanging around our house for the longest time that I've been meaning to toss. It comes in handy for things like jumping off of it to reach unimaginable heights, making tents on rainy days, playing board games while sitting on the floor, etc. So, for all those important reasons, I thought it would be a good idea to just cover it. My friend (insert shout out to Jackie here) suggested I just use a staple gun instead of sewing a cover. That made my life so much easier. So: thanks to Nala for helping me figure out how I'd cover it and Kristine for lending me her staple gun (with bullets!!! haha) Anyway, I don't think the cover will last too long, but it's much nicer to look at for the time being.

Those tights Lana's wearing are an ESSENTIAL part of her wardrobe. She wears them with LOTS of outfits. That explains why there are huge holes in them and it also explains why I made an attempt to patch them. Yes I did. The patch lasted the whole day. The pants are now in the trash.

And here's a picture of Lana kissing Jared. We just love that little guy. Can't help it.

Random

Here are some random pictures from this past week. Lana and I are attempting to make an "ABC" book and spell out the letters with her body (she may need an assistant for certain letters like..."Q" I would imagine). She did pretty good for the first three letters though, huh? The letters "B" and "C" got cut off in the collage. Sorry.

And we went to an FHE at our friends the other day and finally got a picture of "the girls." What great women and good friends!

Jared loves to check himself out in the mirror. I can't blame him...he's a cutie!

We made Valentines cupcakes today and they were yummy. Lana got really into it probably because it had to do with helping me cook, it was pink sprinkles and she got to decorate it and EAT IT TOO! Red Velvet...I always think of the armadillo cake from Steel Magnolias. ha!

Mat didn't make much of an appearance in these pictures but he was busy behind the camera this time. Thanks, Mat! His birthday is this Friday and I'm open to any good birthday ideas you might want to suggest. Have a great week!

Temptation

Who can relate to feeling totally tempted like these kids? I know I can! I loved this video and couldn't help but smile. I should try this on Lana.

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

New Years Resolution...reformated

Before the new year I thought it would be a great idea to do what I had seen someone else do: a 365 picture project. That's right: one picture for each day of the year. Well, January isn't quite over but I think it is more likely that I'll be able to do a few pictures a week. So, hold me to it everyone: I'm going to have at least 3 pictures each week. I want to do this because I think it will be fun after this year to see how much our kids and our lives have changed by doing weekly pictures, I'll have visual proof of all the morphing that goes on with the kids. Here are pictures to get me started...



Jared being cute



On our walk Lana discovered this tree-face and just can't get over it. We went back the next day just to check it out again.



This took a lot of work and patience to get it just the way she wanted it.




Jared weighs as much as (well, a little more than) one of these bags of rice.




Me, the kids and the Clarks- friends of our family from when I was little. They were so nice to drive down and visit us and it was fun to remember all the fun times we had together: riding on the barge, playing with April and Sheba, our Kailua 3rd Ward. They looked great and it was weird to think how long it had been since I'd seen them! Thanks again for visiting! I love you!



This was coming home after Lana's first day of Primary. She did a good job (so I'm told) and was very excited about the whole thing. She just didn't want to stop to take a picture. Her former Nursery leader, Mark, was newly called to Primary and was in Sharing time with Lana when she turned to him and said, "Mark I'm hungry for snack time." He said she was right on schedule with the Nursery snack time. Haha!




The kids and me on a boat ride in Long Beach while Mat was working. He called to tell me he was ready for me to pick him up and was confused when I said, "Ok, well, we're just about to dock and I'll come and pick you up." I don't know what Lana had more fun doing: riding on a boat or playing with the cute haole little boy the entire ride.




My friend Nala came over and brought some cute church clothes over that Shawn has outgrown. This is Jared's photoshoot.




We had a fun night with the Enos family: Jared rolling around with Vanessa, the adults playing Monopoly and Lana and Veronica playing princess dress up. Poor David was all alone watching Cars. He's so cute.





Me and Jared...I was carrying him around all morning trying to get some things done with one hand. Right after this he passed out in his bumbo.

Jared

Jared patiently waiting while Mat and I played volleyball for new years. Such a cutie.