Other Stuff

And some other random stuff that is worth blogging about:
Philip's little sister had a new baby girl and I was able to pop in and see her for just 2 days when she was one week old. You will have to be lucky enough to be subscribed to her blog to see all the pics.
Ben is saying all sorts of words and animal sounds. He loves Amelia's baby and will hold it and pat it's back. It's very sweet until he then stands up and throws her like a ball. He also enjoys showing us how strong he is by finding heavy stuff to pick up and drop. Philip thinks he will be a weightlifter when he is older.
Amelia is getting much better at swimming and likes to swim on her back like Annie does in the movie Annie. Annie was my favorite movie growing up and I am proud to say it is hers right now too. She loves Miss Hannigan and it makes me laugh that she is always walking around the house quoting her until she says something like, "kill kill kill" or refers to Ben as a "little pig dropping" and then I question if she should be watching this movie. We watched some pretty racy musicals growing up.
Everyone has had a bout of the flu in the last 2 weeks EXCEPT for me. (knock on wood) Amelia is still battling it, so we are seeing the dr tomorrow. We also get her allergy tests redone. Cross your fingers.
Philip is in his last year of school!!!!! It is less than a year until he is done with school, finals and the bar. All of us cannot wait. He is the school paper legal counsel and has done really well in his classes. This semester he is taking a mock trial course, so we will see how his feelings about being a trial lawyer are after this.

Amelia's 3

Amelia had a birthday. She is 3. She has been sick off and on for the last 2 weeks, so it very low key. She did receive more stuff than I think she did for Christmas, thank you everyone who sent her something. She has had so much fun with all her new stuff and keeps reminding Ben that, "that was for my birthday". She is very in to recognizing things that match and is so happy to show us "they are the same" so I decided to make her a cake like one of her favorite purses. Not one of my best works, but it was fun and delicious.

I also made a blanket for her new doll and the baby's bassinet to match her bedspread. She wasn't as impressed by that as I hoped. I did find the most perfect doll for her and she has not yet appreciated it's full glory, so sometimes I have to hold it and make a big deal about what an awesome doll she got. Philip thinks that I should have gotten one for myself since I love it so much. Maybe next time I will. I am totally living vicariously through her and her doll stuff. I loved dolls growing up and played with all my cribs and highchairs and clothes for my dolls for hours, so it makes me giggle to see Amelia have them too.


I don't know why she is pretending to pout while we are singing, but you can see her little grin.

We moved

I still have almost no bloggable pics of our new place. I am super unmotivated to blog lately and I have not finished decorating (or even started). I guess I also haven't put anything on the walls because they are so nice and clean I don't want to poke any holes in them. Our new place is still in the same neighborhood. Phil walks right up our road to his work. We can see the building from our place, it's so close. We moved right after my sister left. It all happened so quickly and it took forever to get the internet up and running, so I guess that is my excuse for not blogging. It has 2 bathrooms, central air, a dishwasher, a balcony, a HEATED swimming pool, legitimate landlords, and more square feet. The paint and carpet are new and we only share our ceiling. No neighbors below or beside us on any sides. Now my kids can run and jump and no one pounds on the ceiling. We can go swimming every day and we love the patio. This is the view from our patio. It is very serene, beautiful and clean. More pics later when I have "finished moving in"

So far behind

I have seriously neglected my blog so I am going to attempt almost 2 months worth of stuff in 2 or 3 posts. My sister came for a visit right after Ben's birthday. We enjoyed swimming, the beach, the Skirball museum, lost of yummy food and late night video games and movies.

Birthday Boy

Here are the pics from Ben's birthday "party" (just us, but it's still a party right??) I guess I really went over the top with blue, but it just happened that way. I love making a fancy cake so here his is. I actually made 2, which ended up being nice when we had a video malfunction for the first one and had to sing to him a second time (see the video).

I attempted to make the cake argyle, but I made fondant from scratch and it was not easy to use, hence, it is not my best creation, but not my worst either. I had fun making it and Amelia helped me frost the cake and told me the whole way how beautiful it was. She also helped me wrap up Ben's gifts including picking the paper and bags for each one and where it should go after it was wrapped. He loved his cake and opening up his stash of balls. He loved hammering his workbench and looking at his books. Thank you everyone for your calls, texts, emails and gifts. Ben had such a good time and so did Amelia. It was a great birthday. Can't wait for next time.

Benjin's One

Exactly 1 year ago today at 11:49am our little Ben was born. He has been such a sweet, cuddly, happy and easy going baby that it's hard to believe he's one. I'm not much for slideshows, but I love my collages, so here's a picture tribute to Ben's first year of life.(you've probably seen a lot of these and click on it to zoom in) More to come of all the festivities today.

Santa Barbara

Last weekend we went to Santa Barbara for the day. We spent a few hours at the zoo, which is one of my favorite zoos. It overlooks the ocean and a lot of the exhibits are open and you walk through them. Check out the prime piece of property this giraffe has in the collage. You get to be so close to the animals and the landscaping is genius. I highly recommend it to anyone who goes up there. The weather was perfect so after we headed to the beach. Amelia is funny about being dirty. She wouldn't cross this line of dried out seaweed for about 5 minutes. Finally after she figured out no one was going to come and get her, she screamed as she tippy-toed across it. Then she refused to put her feet on the sand so she sat in this position until finally crawling on top of me where not one inch of her was touching the ground. When it was time to go sit on Phil's lap, she walked to the end of my feet and jumped to Phil's leg as if the sand were hot lava. I know I say this all the time, but seriously, Amelia is definitely a city girl.