Halloween Festivities

Dylan's preschool halloween/pumpkin day party... enjoying juice with his best school friend, Preston (pronounced pWeston by Dylan).
Make and Take Halloween Party at Serena's house, complete with backyard trick-or-treating stations, a pumpkin cartoon projected in the backyard, and an eyeball pinata. Pretty fun stuff.
Mama and her little munchkins all dressed up and ready for candy! (Dylan is a racecar driver this year and Addie wore Dylan's pumpkin costume from when he was 16 months old).
San Diego Halloween weekend with family. Pumpkins behind the kids are the ones that Dylan and Ryan did together.
Who's this cute little pumpkin?

Trick or Treating in Ryan's aunt and uncle's neighborhood!


P.S. Today is the 5 year anniversary of when we found out we were pregnant with Dylan. Happy Conceiveiversary. No announcements like that this year for us.
But one of my best friends had her baby girl (baby #3) today. Welcome to the world, Taelyn!

Junior Scientist

Yesterday Ryan had some work to do at lab. So the family went together and spent a few hours on campus. While Ryan worked, the kids and I went down to the turtle pond and got some samples of pond water. Then we met back up with Ryan and Dylan was able to do a little experiment with daddy to investigate the pond water we collected. Dylan pulled on some gloves and they got to work.

They spun it down to concentrate the gunk into a pellet.

Then sucked off the supernatant.

Next they resuspended the pellet and mounted a sample on a slide to see under the microscope.

Meanwhile, Addie napped in the stroller.

It feels good to be back at Caltech after the past few months.

New home

We've moved. From Pasadena to north Glendale, so not far, but a move nonetheless. Lots of boxes. More stuff than we thought we had.
The highlights of the new place are this: it's a HOUSE and it has a YARD! We've already suppliied the patio with a new grill and patio furniture (happy birthday to Ryan). And this past week we've eaten more meals outside on the patio than inside in our diningroom, so it's clear we are enjoying being outside as a family.
I'm working hard to adjust as quickly as possible. As my mother in law has reminded me, "a family is as happy and content as the mom is". Very, very true.
The other fun detail about this new place is that despite being considered a three bedroom (because even a sliver of a closet makes a room a bedroom apparently), the kids are still going to share a room and we are using the extra room as a playroom/office. The windows look out to the backyard, so I can pay bills, catch up on emails, and even peek around the corner from the kitchen if the kids are playing outside in the yard (which is newly fenced-in). I'm enjoying this too because Dylan needs a LOT of outside time everyday and now I can continue to get things done in the house and keep track of him during Addie's naps. Win-win.
Pictures haven't gotten put up on the walls and there are a few nagging boxes of stuff that shouldn't be tossed into the garage but has no real place inside yet. We are still working on those, but overall it's beginning to feel more like home. And that is what is important.

Family Bowling

This past weekend, my mom was here for a visit and we all went Bowling.
Kathy came.
It was great fun.

Aunt Mimi

Aunt Mimi (Ryan's sister) came to visit us when she was in California 2 weeks ago.

These days it's pretty hard to get a good picture of Dylan. This one of him and his Aunt Mimi turned out pretty nice. You can tell he loved having her here.

Splish Splash

Last time we were down in San Diego, the kids got some nice pool-time in. It's no secret that Dylan loves his grandparent's pool - he asks nearly everyday when we are going back to Football Nama's house. But now the cats out of the bag... Addie loves it too!
I love her little bathing suits (she has two of them). She wasn't too keen on the matching hat, but I was able to keep it on long enough for a picture or two.
Dylan in his own little heaven Football Nama's pool!

Harnessing my inner 'white trash'

Last night was Thursday Night Thunder at the Irwindale Speedway. The drag races went from 5-10pm and we were there for about 2 hours of it. At first I felt pretty embarrassed by the fact that my baby was barefoot and without a coat of her own (wearing an extra of her brother's and wrapped up in my coat). Then I thought a bit about the noise. Was I doing unrecoverable damage to my children's ears? Then I saw the kid with a mullet, the King Taco stand, the VW bug racing, the Uhaul truck racing, the funnel cakes... and I felt better.
The engines roared, the folks around us could care less if my kids were dressed properly, there were M&Ms, I had my diet Dr. Pepper, and the cars raced on!
By the end of the evening, Dylan and his buddy Joshua were running in the parking lot between our cars and the King Taco stand, pretending to be cars in the Piston Cup Championship. It was a good night. And we ALL had fun (Addie included!)

Disneyland Birthday

For my birthday this year, we went to Disneyland. Sure it's a fun place to visit, but the real treat was being together with my sister, her family, and my parents for a couple days. The kids LOVED being with their cousins and I soaked up the time with my family.

In Toontown, waiting for everyone on the rollercoaster behind us (see the red rollercoaster? It's made for kids and it's pretty sweet.)

In Mickey Mouse's House, with some balloons to mark Andrew's birthday. (My nephew and I have the same birthday. Happy 4th Birthday, Drew!)

On Small World. Somehow it's even more special when you go on it with your parents and sister, remembering the first time you went on it as a kid.



Pixar Parade. Waiting for Lightening McQueen!
I love that parade. So much in fact, that the day before I dreamt that I was trying out for a spot as a dancer in the parade.

Little Minnie Mouse, asleep after a long day... along with her brother.

Dylan asleep in my dad's arms on the tram back to my car.
I didn't get home that night until after midnight. Thankfully I had my new GPS (thanks Mom and Dad for the awesome birthday gift!) to help me home (otherwise with the poorly marked detour on the 5, I'd have gotten lost for certain. Not good with two sleeping kids alone in LA!)

My Valentines

I'm trying to focus my energy on what is important, what is positive.

This Valentine's Day I focused on the small gestures towards my family to remind them that I love them. It was a good day. A simple day filled with smiles. Just what we needed as a family.

Our Holidays at a Glance

Dylan and Addie enjoyed the holidays this year.
They met Santa at the Americana Mall, which was pretty impressive.



We spent two days at Disneyland with Ryan's family, complete with the Pixar Parade that knocked Dylan's socks off!



Then we went down to San Diego up through Christmas Day.
Dylan had fun waking everyone up on Christmas morning, opening presents, and giving Addie a present he made and wrapped by himself:



On the day after Christmas, we headed up to Lompoc to spend a week up at Briana's sister's house, where Dylan soaked up some time with his cousins and Addie popped out her second tooth.

Here's some footage of the cousins helping bring the presents into the livingroom for opening:

Last Day :-(

We canoed out to a cool sandbar today with Dylan and realized we should have been using that spot all week because it was perfect for Dylan. He played on the sand and the water was only knee deep for him. A good idea for next year!

Heceta Head

Yesterday we spent the day up the road at Heceta Head.
We hiked up to the lighthouse.

Taking pictures and picking wild blackberries along the way.
Then a picnic by the ocean.
This morning Ryan took the canoe out by himself for a bit while the lake was still quiet.

Swimming with Daddy in the lake.
And here's another one of Addie with a new hairbow debut...

Oregon Day 1

We got to Florence, OR yesterday and had fun today playing on the lake.
Dylan's grandma and grandpa have a trampoline raft anchored out in the cove of the lake they live on, and Dylan and I (Ryan) swam out to it. Dylan had fun jumping till he had no energy, and I had fun watching him.

Dylan and I took the paddle boat out, then came back and picked up mommy for another ride. By this time Dylan actually was so tired he almost fell asleep in the boat.

Meanwhile, Addison enjoyed the cool breeze off the lake all day.

Neuron!

Awesome news:
Ryan's paper is being published in Neuron!!! It's really something to celebrate, as he will have had one paper published each year now for the past 5 years. This Neuron publication will be something that hallmarks his post-doc and hopefully will pave the way for an academic faculty position this next year. I'm so proud of him and all his hard work and diligence.
And while he has proved to be highly productive at work, it doesn't mean we don't see him at home as well, which is a blessing that I count each and every day. He is home every night for dinner and stays around each morning to help me with the kids, feeding Dylan breakfast and letting me get the baby settled with a feeding before he leaves for work. He makes time to spend with Dylan, like going with us for family walks on nice summer evenings and staying involved in Dylan's extra activities such as sports class.
I love this man. Not for his accomplishments (although I'm SUPER proud of him!), but for his heart, his soul, the love for both his family and his work.

Cousins

Dylan spent some time up at his "Candyhouse Nandma and Tapa's" house up in Lompoc a couple weeks ago.
He soaked up some quality time with his three cousins and even got to celebrate his youngest cousin's 2nd birthday (Dominick) at his party before coming home. Here's a picture of me with my sister, mom, and cousin Hayley during the party.
Trying to get a picture of the boys...
Dominick decided to turn around the opposite way just as Ryan shot the picture.
Gotta love trying to pin down three toddler boys for a picture, hoping and pleading that they'll look at the camera, not run away, and cooperate just a smidgen. Here is the best one we got of the three of them outside the bounce-house at the party.
The combination of no nap and hours playing with his cousins, led to a VERY tired toddler at the end of the day. Both of our kids were asleep already in the back seat as we rounded the corner to head back to LA and stayed asleep until we pulled into the garage 3 hours later!

Family of Four

Nevermind that Baby Addie is crying in this picture. It just happened to be that this is the best one of the rest of us, where Dylan is actually looking AT the camera instead of squirming off of the couch. It seems that the older he gets, the harder it is to take pictures of him like this.

Siblings

Baby Addie, cozied up in her blankie.

Along comes her brother, wanting to snuggle and hold her... and she takes it.
He wants to know where she is, what she is doing, what I'm eating (that she'll get from me when I feed her again), if she needs a blanket, a pacifier, anything. He adores her. And I know that in the next few months, she's going to just adore him right back!