June Recap

Our June was filled with perfect weather, lots of beach and pool days, wrapping up preschool, and basically just surviving until the baby came. Those last few weeks of pregnancy were not exactly comfortable, (if I had a dime for every time someone told me I looked like I would pop any day now, I’d be rich!) and every day was filled with the uncertainty of if that would be our last day as a family of five or not! I was exhausted and Meredith was frustrated that I couldn’t do much– including sitting down on the floor to play with her or reading with anyone in my lap. I was also in full-on nesting mode, staying up all hours of the night to organize the pantry, dust the baseboards, clean the fridge, and frantically pleading with Jake to do the most random jobs (changing out lightbulbs, painting the bathroom– not joking!)  Saint that he is, he took it all in stride and tried not to point out the fact that I was crazy! Somehow, we made it through the month.

Celebrating our friend, Marisa’s, graduation from college at the beach in Newport since we wouldn’t be able to attend the ceremony. At some point during our morning, Meredith crashed some kid’s birthday party and I found her over at their picnic table, eating treats and trying to steal balloons!

Weekly park day with our friends. We usually have some boys in the mix, but this day it was all girls and for whatever reason, the balance was off and the girls fought the whole time! Maple and Meredith both ended up with scraped knees and bruised faces (not from each other– each took a spill). It was a crazy playdate!

Field trip to the Discovery Cube Museum. Since there was no way I was fitting my pregnant self into those tiny bus seats, Jake valiantly chaperoned in my place.

 

I was just about to commend ourselves on how peaceful of a morning we were having, when Amelia threw up in the pool and the lifeguards had to shut it down for a few hours to shock the system with chlorine. She mostly threw up water, after swallowing a ton of it swimming, but it was still gross! Fortunately, there weren’t too many people there, but we still apologized as we took our walk of shame back home. For the rest of the summer, we stayed at our own pool!

We somehow made it the entire summer without Meredith pooping in the pool! The waterpark in our neighborhood is constantly getting shut down because of “code browns,” and if your kid is the one who pooped and was not wearing one of the diaper cover ups they hand out for free, you will be publicly shamed on the Ladera Moms Facebook Page! I usually put three layers of swim diaper/diaper cover ups on Meredith, but was still paranoid whenever we went out to the public pool. The only pool she ended up having an accident in was our own pool!

Meredith investigates a two bicycle crash.

You guys okay?

Morning at the park.

Meredith somehow grabbed my phone and was taking pictures of me at school pick-up. I guess this is how I look from the kids’ point of view!

We had several false labor alarms, one of which was right before heading on a family Costco run. After feeling some contractions, I told Jake we better zip it to Costco to stock up on food, and we raced around the store, literally telling people to move out of the way because I was in labor! I was doubled over in pain a few times in the  middle of the aisle, but we made it through and still had time for what we thought would be our last meal as a family of five. I took a picture to commemorate, but it didn’t end up being our last evening out. I was dilated to a 3 for WEEKS before going into labor for real!

Samantha and Amelia have an obsession with putting undies on their heads at bedtime.

The weekend of my due date (June 17), Grammy and Aunt Sarah came to town. Even though the baby hadn’t come yet, it was perfect timing since I was too exhausted to really do much of anything with the girls. They took the girls to the Oso trail for a nature walk and fairy hunting. A local artist had set up cute fairy houses all along the trail and the girls loved examining the teeny tiny fairy sculptures. 

Movie night with Aunt Sarah!

Our last few weeks of June were quite eventful– birth story up next!

Lots of love,

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May Photo Recap

May was beautiful with lots of outdoor time! It wasn’t too hot, which was perfect for my hugely pregnant self!

Samantha boogies at the park.

Apparently, everyone was in a good mood at the park today!

Snacking and lounging at the Lake Forest Sports Park.

Our caterpillars finally emerged into butterflies and after a few days of trying to keep Meredith from poking them, it was time to let them fly free (likely to get eaten by the plethora of hungry birds in our backyard seconds later).

Our neighbor had the cutest flower planting/gardening birthday party and one of the games was eating donuts off a string. Very entertaining for the parents!

Meredith totally cheated!

One perk of Jake being on the Board of Directors is being invited to special events, like this private party at the water park for Board Members and volunteers in our community. It was a little chilly, but the kids didn’t care and due to the live steel drum/reggae band and catered dinner, if I closed my eyes, I imagined I was in the Bahamas for just a second…

Meredith made a new friend!

The girls’ favorite part was the ice cream sundae bar.

Arts and crafts time.

I was lounging by the pool when Jake was with the kids at the craft table. He later told me there were some old lady volunteers nearby whom he overheard remark, “Did you see that lady in the blue and gray? She looked like she should have given birth YESTERDAY!” And then I walked up to Jake about two seconds later and they realized I was with him haha! Gossipy old ladies!

Knocking over the Jenga tower was a huge source of contention, so we left when the girls started fighting!

The end-of-the-year fundraiser at the girls’ preschool was the Helicopter Golf Ball Drop, which like last year, was a huge hit with the kids. Meredith couldn’t believe she got to see a helicopter so up close, and one dropping hundreds of golf balls to boot!

Another highlight was finding this eerily friendly bunny on the green.

I wish the kids would pick up their toys at home as fast as they picked up these golf balls after the big drop.

The girls were so excited to meet up at the splash pad with Noah and Hailey who were visiting town. Cousin time!

Hailey was not too happy about Meredith constantly being in her face!

Noah and the girls making mud pies.

 

We started our yearly swim lessons with Miss Conni and Miss Erica and the twins worked on their freestyle stroke, began learning the butterfly and breaststroke and of course, had fun on the diving board. Meredith does her own separate swim lesson with Miss Conni that Jake takes her too and Miss Conni says Meredith is a natural! She looks forward to her Daddy time twice a week and is the only kid in the class who can jump off the diving board and float to her back. I need to remind Jake to take some pictures and video of her, because every time I go to the twins’ lesson, Miss Conni raves about Meredith.

A monthly recap would not be complete without documenting squabbles and fights. There’s a lot more where this came from.

Meredith begs to sleep in the twins’ room every day at nap! This month, Meredith also had her first impromptu day of preschool. I had to be at school setting up decorations for Teacher Appreciation Week and asked Miss Debbie if Meredith could join the toddler class while I was setting up. Meredith didn’t bat an eye or say goodbye to me– she joined the other kids right away and had the time of her life! We were there all morning and Miss Ericka said she was the star of the class!

Our new pool cleaners.

Don’t know that much pool cleaning is going on.

S’mores time in our backyard fireplace.

Who you looking at?

Weekly park playdate with friends.

A rough day for Amelia!

Experimenting with curlers.

Highlight of the month: playing with this enormous box for a few days until I got sick of it being in our garage and threw it out, to the girls’ great disappointment.

I can’t believe the girls had never actually done a pinata before, but they got their chance at Allie’s birthday party. Meredith was especially fascinated with the concept of whacking something with a bat and collecting the candy that spilled out.

 

At the end of their ballet/yoga class, the girls do a relaxation time and then a craft– their favorite part!

Movie night.

I spend a good majority of my afternoon ignoring tattle tales over who knocked over their block towers.

Playing with neighbors at the pocket park.

We spent pretty much every weekend in May working on projects. Meredith helps Daddy with the closet floor!

Lazy hammock afternoon.

Samantha and her acrobatics.

This is how Meredith wakes up:

Meredith’s crazy toddler tantrum side:

Sweetly singing!

Our ward went on a Memorial Day morning hike to the top of a peak in San Juan Capistrano overlooking the ocean. At 9 months pregnant, I stayed home, with Jake braving the hike by himself. I was concerned it was 3 miles roundtrip and really steep, but the girls did great, even though they were the last ones up the trail!

At the top, they signed the visitor book and sang some patriotic songs before heading back down. Apparently, our Bishop helped push Meredith in the stroller while Jake carried both exhausted twins on his shoulders!

A sweet post-hike reward.

Lots of love,

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December Happenings

In December, Meredith geared up for Christmas decked out in her hand-me-down holiday outfits from the twins and spread the Christmas cheer!

Meredith couldn’t make up her mind whether to be naughty or nice this December! We rarely went on an outing without some kind of throwdown… even preschool drop-off had turned into a nightmare because Meredith refused to leave and would regularly throw herself down on the ground, kicking and screaming.

I never take her to the store anymore, unless it’s an absolute emergency because she always manages to make some kind of spectacle. In December, I was at Target with her when she started tantruming in the check-out line over the fact that I was putting the various candy bars and random items she had thrown into the cart back on the shelf. Restraining her in the cart seatbelt is impossible and she can climb out of the cart herself, so I was left with little option but to scurry out of there once I was done with the self-check out. A kind soul felt pity for me and offered to escort me to my car, pushing my cart for me, while I held a kicking and screaming Meredith under my arms like a football so that she wouldn’t be able to kick my stomach! Once in the car, it was another 20 minutes before I could restrain her in her carseat. She is SO stubborn, this one!

Not so cheery today.

Elfie returned and while his hiding spots mostly included climbing candy-cane striped pipe cleaners and literally sitting on shelves, the girls thought his antics were hilarious! They didn’t even seem to mind that he stayed in the same spot for several days in a row (no one ever told them the actual rules, so our elf goes at his own pace).

The twins chatting before their holiday dance and yoga recital.

The twins had just barely moved up into the 5-7 year old class and tried their best to keep up! We had Mele Kalikimaka in our head for weeks.

The girls were mostly excited about the recital because they got to wear a little makeup and received a rose and Yogurtland afterwards.

Sammy the reindeer pulls the sleigh.

Cheese!

I am terrible at any kind of construction project and cringe at the thought of putting together gingerbread houses, but this train wasn’t so hard.

Practicing their ice skating skills.

Checking out the camels and other animals at the live nativity in our city.

Jake was elected to the Board of Directors for our city and enjoyed texting me pictures of his picture in the office whenever he had a board meeting.

We had some warm days in December, which meant doing basically the same thing we do every day… going to the park.

Starfish!

Biking to the orange grove.

Lemons and limes, yum!

The girls rarely wait until we get home to try out their spoils. The blood oranges and clementines here are super juicy, and I rarely buy oranges at the grocery store anymore.

More sunny December days and park shenanigans.

Amelia on a random Daddy-Daughter date to the sporting goods store.

We’ve got a crazy on the loose in the orange grove!

Speaking of crazy, Meredith is a Little Miss Bossy Pants! Poor Bandit!

Lots of love,

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Eclipse Day (aka just a regular, slightly less sunny morning at the park)

There was so much hype here about the eclipse on August 21, but had I not already known there was going to be an eclipse, I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell! Not willing to shell out $8 a pop for eclipse glasses, we headed to the park for the event and borrowed some from other eclipse enthusiasts while we were there. It basically felt a little bit cooler for a few hours and was a bit hazy at the peak of the eclipse, but other than looking at the cool orange crescent through the eclipse glasses, it was a normal day at the park. Too bad we couldn’t join Aunt Sarah, Uncle Mike, Uncle Michael and Ali in Idaho to witness the totality! We were also jealous of Grammy, Grandpa, Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle David in Utah who enjoyed a lot more of an eclipse in Utah than we saw in Southern California. So just a regular, slightly cooler, more hazy day at the park it was.

Enjoying life.

We ran into Olivia, one of Amelia’s classmates, who was a kindergartener last year and is at a different school in first grade this year. She played with the twins and Meredith the entire time and was super sweet.

Even with her giant cast, Samantha still loves to try and help Meredith.

Olivia read countless stories to the girls.

Eclipse time with glasses we borrowed from someone at the park.

Looking good, Amelia.

Lots of love,

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