Grammy

New Year’s 2019

January 1, 2019 by Rebecca Whitehead

While the rest of our family left for Portland/Utah/Wyoming, only brave Grammy stayed for a few extra days past New Year’s! She courageously volunteered to watch all four girls so that Jake and I could drive down to San Diego for the Utes Bowl Game and stay overnight in San Diego.

Our friend and fellow Ute fan, Lucero, went to the bowl game with us, as well as Kennedy and Sebastian, plus Lucero’s sister. It was cold and rainy, but fortunately our seats were in the suite level, and we were so grateful we weren’t watching the game in the miserable rain. Little Sebastian understandably started to get tired, so they ended up leaving at half time, something we probably should have done too! The second half of the game was a disaster and we’ll just say Jake didn’t want to talk for like three hours afterwards.

We walked the coast and Seaport Village on New Year’s before driving back home to relieve Grammy of her duties!

Back at home, the girls had a little New Year’s celebration of their own. Grammy was pretty exhausted when we got home, but everyone was in one piece!

Eleanor had a great first day of 2019 on the swings.

After New Year’s, we took our annual new year’s beach photos at Aliso Creek.

Attempting to get Eleanor to sit up long enough for a quick shot.

Good job, Eleanor!

2019 here we come!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: New Year's Tagged With: aliso creek, eleanor swings, Grammy, new year's 2019, new year's beach photos, new year's eve, San Diego, seaport village, utah utes bowl game

Grandpa’s 89th Birthday and Post-Christmas Fun

December 29, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

After Christmas, Auntie Lynn threw Great Grandpa a party to celebrate his 89th birthday (90th year!). Mike and Ali came from Wyoming, Sarah and Mike from Portland, cousins from LA, and the rest of us local family and friends celebrated at Wood Ranch in the Irvine Spectrum for Great Grandpa’s big day.

Family photos by Aunt Sarah!

All the grandkids and great grand kids.

The girls were excited to have extra family around to carry them.

Uncle Mike and Meredith.

Cousin Ben thought carrying around Eleanor would be a good bicep workout. He was right.

Ali and the chunk-a-monk.

Eleanor was excited to sit with Grammy at dinner.

The kids table was a little crazy.

Cousins doing what cousins do.

Must…touch…sparklies.

Happy birthday, Great Grandpa!

While most of the grown-ups chatted at the restaurant after dinner, the rest of us high-tailed it out of there for a walk around the Spectrum before the kids trashed the place.

Good thing Ali, Mike, Sarah and Mike were there to help carrying screaming/tired girls!

Meredith and Hailey were so cute! Two-year-old Hailey borrowed 6-month-old Eleanor’s coat for the evening and it actually fit!

A trip to the Spectrum would not be complete without a ride on the ferris wheel.

Ferris wheel photos by Aunt Sarah.

While we had aunts and uncles in town, the girls took them rock climbing at Sender City. This time, Meredith joined in for the first time and was pretty fearless.

We attempted lots of board games while we had family in town, even though they nearly always ended in tears. Samantha and Amelia are not the best gracious winners or losers, despite our best efforts.

Roasting s’mores with the fun aunts and uncles.

With all the extra hands, I got a lot of projects done while Grammy and Grandpa took on outings to the park.

Too much fun with their new chalk markers.

During the break, we also had a Secret Santa gift exchange with the Nguyens and the Erpeldings, which was supposed to be before Christmas, but we ended up having to reschedule. Since all the kids are in different schools, it’s been a long time since everyone has been able to play at the same time! Sheela had the kids draw names at the beginning of the month and wrote up cute letters for everyone, giving a few gift ideas for each kid received. The girls were so excited to see their friends open their gifts and announce that they were the Secret Santas. They also loved all the bonus gifts they got!

Practicing the art of balancing on the slack line with the neighborhood kids.

Practicing our tennis swings.

Amelia’s swing is getting pretty good!

Grammy watched Eleanor at home while I took the girls to the zoo. It felt like a lot less work just having three for a change.

We saw our friend, Brian, who works at the entrance!

All aboard the ferris wheel.

Jake and I celebrated our anniversary by staying at Pelican Hill Resort in Newport while Grammy and Grandpa watched the kids. Beautiful views and sunsets!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ali, anniversary, ben, ferris wheel, gerin, Grammy, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, Great grandpa's 89th birthday party, hailey, irvine spectrum, mike, Noah, pelican hill, rock climbing, santa ana zoo, Sarah, secret santa, sender city, tennis, uncle mike, wood ranch

November Happenings

November 10, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

After Halloween, Grammy stuck around for a few days and Eleanor took full advantage of all the extra cuddles!

Grammy and girls indulging in their ice cream bar creations at South Swell in San Clemente, right after pizza at Pizza Port.

Meredith started meeting up with a playgroup of other 2016 babies every week. Most of the moms also have a 2018 baby like Eleanor, so in a few years, she’ll have a bunch of friends she’s grown up with!

Amelia and Samantha’s school pictures– first time they’ve looked at the camera for school photos and smiled (sort of).

Fall artwork from kindergarten.

We met up with Lucero, Kennedy and Sebastian at the Spectrum one night to check out the new-fangled play structure and play games at Dave and Busters.

“Bowling!”

Sebastian reached for Amelia’s hand and I almost died. Cuteness!

Meredith requested to ride the ferris wheel with Lucero and Kennedy– I guess they are more fun!

We were so sad to say farewell to our favorite babysitters, twins Charlotte and Claire. We’ve know their family for years and Charlotte and Claire have been the girls’ favorite babysitters of all time. They were a lifesaver during the fall when they came back from school before leaving on their missions, babysitting after school a few days a week for me. Every day, Meredith would wake up from from her nap and ask, “Are Charlotte and Claire coming today! I want to chase Charlotte and Claire!” It was perfect having both of them because one of them would do whatever the twins wanted to do and the other would run around with Meredith. Sometimes they would go out to the park or play games all together. Nice to have options! The girls still ask when when they are coming over to babysit again! Hopefully, they will be able to babysit in a year when they get back, so in the mean time I’ve been placating Meredith by telling her Charlotte and Claire are going to come when they get back from a very long trip!

Charlotte went to Warsaw, Poland and Claire went to Berlin, Germany. It’s the first time these identical twins have been separated by that far of a distance (5 hours!) We still laugh how they are serving in bordering missions. We miss them!

Amelia being silly while waiting for her tennis lesson. She is pretty accurate with her swings!

The twins attended two birthday parties at Pump it Up– a popular choice for kids at school, apparently.

Crazy-eyed Meredith.

Eleanor loves story time before Meredith goes down for her nap.

Maple is always so generous sharing her seaweed snack with Meredith at the park.

A typical crazy Family Home Evening.

Jake worked on refinishing an outdoor table, with Meredith as his crew member. She’s a pretty good sander.

The twins love to show off their Magnatile creations.

Curling hair before a Christmas pajama photo shoot.

Behind the scenes!

The weather was so nice that we spent our mornings going on bike rides or picking flowers at the pocket park.

Meredith’s saying of the month was, “I know my colors!” Even if she had identified the wrong color.

I had to get a few more pictures of Eleanor in her poodle skirt costume before storing the Halloween stuff away.

Eleanor was so chubby and always so hungry that Dr. Young gave us the go-ahead to start solids at 4 months! We waited closer to the 5-month mark to start oatmeal and then vegetables, but she was definitely ready. She was SO happy to finally have something to eat other than liquid!

The twins were at school during Maple’s 3rd birthday party, but Meredith was so excited to go and celebrate with her dear friend. The party was at Maple’s brother, Parker’s, tae kwon do studio and was so fun! The TKD instructors were very engaging with the kids and Maple did some impressive moves! She even cut her cake with a giant sword, which was pretty much the coolest thing Meredith had ever seen.

Group hug.

Meredith re-connected with her friend, Owen, who lives in our old neighborhood. They were obsessed with hugging each other!

Meredith is normally not shy about hitting at home, but seemed confused that it was actually encouraged at the party!

The hugging game was very entertaining!

Give him some space, Meredith.

All the kids took turns doing their best chop to break a board!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: charlotte and claire, Eleanor poodle skirt, eleanor solids, first solids, Grammy, irvine spectrum, Kennedy and Sebastian, Maple, maple's 3rd birthday party, meredith knows her colors, oatmeal, Owen, sweet potatoes, tae kwon do

Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Picking and Zoomars

October 29, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

This year, for their fall field trip at school, Samantha and Amelia’s classes took a trip to Tanaka Farms for some good old-fashioned pumpkin picking. Grammy was in town and agreed to chaperone the field trip, so the girls were ecstatic to have her along. Not that I don’t love field trips, but I definitely didn’t miss riding the bus!

In addition to picking pumpkins, the girls got to take a wagon ride around the farm and taste all the fresh vegetables.

While the girls were in school a different day, Grammy and I took Meredith and Elle on a little field trip of their own to Zoomars.

Last year, Meredith was kicked out of the guinea pig pen for picking up the poor little creatures by the scruff of their necks and tromping around with them. This time, she was a lot more gentle!