Big Dub at {ONE} year

My little tiny infant baby turned ONE {a month ago} and Beckett helped me take some pictures to capture Wil at his year mark.



Some fun things to note at this very noteworthy time are:

He is a lover and always has a smile.






Loves to do patty cake, big boy (arms up in the air),
claps, and knows how to fold his arms for prayer.
And he loves his bink.






He loves his brother B and follows him around...



...usually stealing B's toys



He's adventurous and very active



He's a screamer. Think nails on a chalkboard. Oh, and he doesn't like hats.



He has officially lost all of his baby fat. Do you see THE role?






He's still my little angel.






I can't believe you're one year old, sweet baby boy. I love you more than I ever thought possible.

San Francisco...

Over Mother's Day weekend I {+ 7 of my fabulous LA friends} went to San Fran for a weekend of rest and relaxation. All of our wonderful hubbies watched our kiddos (we counted 20 kids between the 8 of us). Here's a photographic overview of our memorable 2 1/2 days together.



Flying was even a treat for us, as we each usually have 2 or 3 or 4 kids in tow. It was SO easy getting through security without the little yahoos.



After piling in ONE taxi-cab we got to our hotel at Union Square. Do we look happy to be there??



After chillin in our hotel room for a few minutes we realized we hadn't decided who was going to sleep where so Katie and Ashlee did the honors of drawing names. It was a very big job, and they did it so well.






That night was spent strolling down the streets of San Fran, eating amazing hamburgers, and cuddling up on our feather duvets for a romantic chick flick.
Come on, what did you expect us to go clubbing??

Saturday was busy and we saw a lot. Some highlights for me were a fun and yummy breakfast at this little cafe,



a couple hours at the salon, (I think they were a little overwhelmed by us)






shopping, (of course)



taking the Cable Car to Ghiradelli Square,



being together,



and a fun dinner out on the town.



On Sunday half of the party went home but the rest of us walked around the city,



took lots of random pictures,



saw Lombard Street and the amazing view from the top, {see picture at the beginning}



and ended up at the Botanical Gardens at the Golden Gate Park. It was beautiful.



We took pictures, and sat around enjoying the sun and kid-less-ness.












Also, I just have to give a shout-out to this lady who traveled over from London to be with us for the weekend. It wouldn't have been the same without you, Katie.



Sorry there are so many pictures. There were so many fun shots documenting such fun memories. I love you ladies!!

Visitors

So, Nathan informed me that my last post sounded creepy. As it was intended as a humorous post, I do realize there are people out there obsessed with bands/celebrities, so maybe it wasn't as funny after all. For the record, I'm not on the path to becoming a groupie.

Now, as promised, here are a few images from our weekend with our family from the South.





Beckett and Lydia had fun some of the time and annoyed each other the rest.
However, I loved having her here and especially enjoyed logging some bonding time as we tried on lots and lots of jewelry.
She's such a little princess.





Camille tried hard to keep up with the boys (that is, Nathan and Logan) looking hardcore in her bandana. This was taken at the top of our hike up Temescal Canyon. It was beautiful.





Of course, we had to go to the beach, even though it was a brisk and blustery day. It didn't stop Logan, Nathan or Lydia from the water.





We quasi-celebrated Wil's first birthday (6 days early) with Dan and Paula who gave him this fabulous toy. He was very pleased as you can tell by the clapping.





And of course, a highlight for all of us was seeing these two brothers back together again. I know it's hard for both of them to be so far away from each other.

Good times together.

For a more extensive post, Paula did a great recap here.

Do you know Jason Wade??

Last week we went to a concert with Logan and Paula and saw Lifehouse and Daughtry perform. It was AWESOME. One of my favorite parts was when Jason Wade (lead singer for Lifehouse) came out with Daughtry and sang 'Home'. Really good stuff. Jason Wade is really good. I've always loved Lifehouse, but to hear him and see him, took it to the next level.
What do I mean by next level??
The day after the concert, I called Nathan to give him the scoop on Jason Wade (because I'd wikipediad him) and Nathan said, "Wow Linds, you were really taken with him, huh?" Unfortunately I couldn't deny it.
Just so you can see what I'm talking about, I've included some pictures.


photo via photos

photo via photos

photo via photos

photo via photos

Does anyone agree with Nathan and I?? Here are some additional details to help you understand.

-He is adorable.
-He has an IN-CRED-IBLE voice. You've heard it, but it's just as good live.
-He's married and has been for 9 years.
-He's a talented songwriter.
-He is an amazing performer. Believable
-He's got an interesting story...Christian missionary parents, lived all over the place.

I digress.

Oh, and Daughtry was really good too.

Miss Lydia Lou Lou

Just spent a week chillin with this little lady.



More pictures from the trip later. Just wanted to stare at her sweet face for a while.

one of those days...

This summarizes the kind of day I've had today.



From being up all night with an inconsolable child, to dealing with a screeching younger child for an hour in the grocery store, to this {see picture}, I am about ready to throw in the towel and call it a day.
Fortunately while at said grocery store I was inspired to buy myself a refreshing Diet Cola and for a few moments I will bask in sweet silence and forget that I have a bottle of Pace Picante salsa adorning the inside of my refrigerator.
And I had fun photographing it.

Here's a post...

...just for 'new post' sake.

What have we been up to lately?? Hmmm... well, a couple of weekends ago we got to hang out with 6 really tough moving men all Saturday as we sent most of our stuff to long-term storage and moved 2 miles north to Westwood Village where we will live until heading to Sydney. Why the move?? In 20 words or less--our landlord got foreclosed on, the bank took the property back and basically we had 90 days. {Which fell just about 90 short of our time frame with moving to Sydney.} So, now with the move-before-the-move over, we are situated in our furnished place right in the heart of the UCLA neighborhood. It's been a fun little adventure, pre-adventure.
A few pictures of the move, and new place.









A few days after the move my parents came out for a visit. We loved having them here. We hung at the pool, the beach, did some shopping and celebrated Easter together. Here are a few images.

B had so much fun searching for Easter Eggs.



Lovin on Shosho


Headed to Redondo Beach to enjoy some sand and surf. Do you love that my dad is using Wil's blanket as a sun shield?


Handsome Babu.


The boys are both doing great. Wil has gone from 'Chill Wil' to 'crazy crawler, screecher and all-over-the-place Wil.'
Gone are the days of chilling quietly by himself for hours on end. He is Mr. Go. He gets such a kick out of life and is such a happy little boy.

I mean, come on, just look at that face.



Here he is giving me one of his big slobbery kisses. Yum.



B is still talking up a storm and has mastered identifying most of the letter sounds.
He has a crazy imagination...which has proved to be very entertaining.
Example #1: One day while packing I came into the kitchen to find B 'baking' his blank. He was using a canvas print as the sheet and even had the oven mitt on.
And yes, the blanket was delicious.



Example #2: Bear (aka. my 3rd child) and Blank (aka. his blanket) desperately needed to be washed. SO, instead of just tossing them in the washer and having to deal with an inconsolable B for the 2 hours while they washed, I told him that Bear needed a bath. We put him in the sink and scrubbed him down with baby wash (which B loved) and then transferred him to the washing machine aka. 'pool'. Every so often B would open up the machine to see where Bear was 'swimming'.



He has also become very artistic. No exaggeration, we went from lines and dots, to this masterpiece in a day. {You can kinda see that in the drawing...lines/scribbles on the left to making these...umm...things} Again, it was one day as we were packing, we laid out some packing paper with a marker and this is what he did.



And that's pretty much it. We're enjoying these last few month in LA, looking forward to seeing a lot of family and friends before we leave.