Jeep Admirer

Very often, when we go out in our Jeep, the shiny red beauty gets admirers. This was a great one. He was walking around the Jeep for a good 3 minutes, examining Matt and Tanner's handiwork. I spotted him and covertly snapped a picture.

Let the Nightmares Begin

I heard that the Natural History Museum here in LA had a really amazing dinosaur puppet/robot of sorts. I have been to the museum a bunch but had somehow missed out on this super cool feature. So, I took my kids to see the dinosaur . . . and well . . . it was WAY more realistic than I ever would have thought.

I was so into how cool the dinosaur was, I didn't realize what effect it was likely having on my children. Poor Tanner was terrified that the thing was going to come after us. I kept having to explain that it was just a costume--that there was a man inside making the dinosaur move and walk. I even showed him the man's legs that were very visible . . . but Tanner was shaking scared.

 It brought me back to when I was a kid and developed an irrational fear of dinosaurs. It was when Jurassic Park came out and my parents wouldn't let me see the movie. So I began having these horrible nightmares about dinosaurs taking over and eating everyone. I finally rid myself of those nightmares by actually seeing the movie and realizing that the dinosaurs were stuck on some random island and couldn't possibly get me. Side note: I was 9 at the time people! My boys were not even 3 and 1 when I introduced them to a "real" dinosaur. Thankfully, Tanner hasn't complained about dinosaurs coming to get him in the night. He does have other strange nightmares of men attacking mom in the garage and pulling her nose . . . but no dinosaurs.

Happy 4th of July!

Since moving to California seven years ago, we've always spent 4th of July with friends. But this year, we decided to make it a family affair--now that we're a family of four and all. :)  It was such a fun day!

We started out the festivities in South Pasadena for an early morning, small-town 4th of July Parade. The kids loved it. But it was HOT. Whew. 

After nap time we headed up to La Crescenta for a Fireworks show. We found a nice secluded parking lot and set up camp--opened up the back of our Expedition, pulled out the bike and stroller, and blasted some patriotic country tunes.  

Tanner made friends with our parking lot neighbors. The poor teen kept trying to disappear behind his headset and enjoy his music, but Tanner wasn't having it. He just wanted the kid to check out his bike and play with him. 

And I'm pretty sure the mother thought I was lying in saying that Kaden was indeed a boy. She kept trying to correct me saying, "girl, right?" I even went with a mohawk to try to give my pretty little boy a more manly edge. Ha. 

The boys looked so cute in their tie-dye shirts and chocolate-stained faces. 

Matt and I had so much fun with our boys.

How blessed we are to raise our little family in such a great nation. 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!