Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Camping at Carpinteria State Beach (August 2011)

We ventured down to the Santa Barbara area to do some camping at Carpinteria State Beach in August. The big kids had a lot of fun playing in the waves on "the world's safest beach". Deven was not such a fan of camping and was extremely annoyed at how hard it was to practice his new walking skills! The weather was less than ideal, but we had a lot of fun times.

Trip to Houston, July 2011

Mandy took the kids to Houston in July to visit Grandma and Granddad. Her brother, Ryan, and his family were there for the first week so the kids got to meet their cousins for the first time! Mandy also got to visit some dear friends the second week; her college roommate/maid of honor Kinsey came through town with her 3 little ones and her childhood friends from Oklahoma drove down from Dallas as well. Mandy and the kids also spent a day with college friend Arjun and his wife Simy. The kids had a blast at a local pool. Here are some pictures:

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It was a great trip and we all survived Deven's first flight. Deven used his time in Houston to learn how to stand up on his own in the middle of the floor, clap, and even take his first step.

Fourth of July 2011

We took a day trip to the beach to celebrate the Fourth of July. Here are some pictures.

Deven's Eleventh Month - He's Walking!

Deven spent a great deal of time working on standing on his own during his eleventh month and figured out how to get from the ground to standing without holding anything toward the end. He made his first airplane trip to Grandma and Granddad's and did quite well. He's very smiley and friendly and loves to socialize.

Deven took his first steps just before he turned 11 months while visiting Grandma and Granddad. He saved his best efforts for once we were home and he could show off for Daddy.

Here he is at 1-2 steps on day 5 of "walking" (11 months, 2 days):



Here he is at 3-4 steps on day 8 of walking:




Here he is at 7 steps on day 8:

Mali's Fourth Birthday

Mali celebrated her fourth birthday at a park with her playgroup and school friends. Mali is quite grown-up these days. She loves to play with her "girls" (aka dolls) and little people, building beds and houses for them out of blocks. She loves to do the monkey bars and anything to do with water. She knows how to write all of her letters now and even learned how to spell "elephant" recently! She still loves her clothes and will change outfits all day long if left to her own devices. She's also very artistic and especially loves to draw rainbows, flowers, people, and cats (see some of her artwork below!). Here are some pictures from her birthday celebrations.

Here's a picture she drew of herself with an ice cream cone:















Here's a picture of a cat and she wrote the names of everyone in the family (except for Deven!):















Here's a picture of her and Roan with ice cream cones under the sun:















Here's a picture of the family (minus daddy or roan):

And here is a picture of some rainbows (note the gold on the clouds :)), flowers, butterflies and hearts:

Roan's last day of kindergarten!

Roan made these beautiful cards for his teachers on his last day of kindergarten...big guy!

Deven's Tenth Month

Here are a few pictures from Deven's tenth month. Deven got four top teeth this month and got really fast at his crawling!






Here's a video of Deven in the bath!

Roan's PLP Presentation

At Roan's school (San Carlos Charter Learning Center), every "learner" (they're not called students there...) does a special learning project during the year and then presents at the end. The kindergartners were given the option to do one, so Roan chose to present his state coin collection. Here is the album.

Deven's Ninth Month

Here are a few pictures from Deven's ninth month! Deven got two more bottom teeth this month, but his biggest claim to fame was learning how to crawl right before his nine month birthday! He also finds the word "no" to be very funny right now and looks for all kinds of way to get into trouble. He may be our orneriest one yet!

Mali's Ballet Performance

Here are some pictures from Mali's final 3-year-old ballet recital! Although she loves to go to class, the past two recitals have gone a bit awry as she refuses to perform. It seems like she's nervous, but we're not all that clear on why she does it. As you can see from her attire, Mali is not interested in conforming to the norm.

Here are a few video clips of the performance:

Roan Turns Six!

It is so hard to believe that our first-born has turned six! He's growing into such a sweet, curious, smart little guy. He now routinely corrects Mommy's math (in my defense, I haven't slept in years) and he's more excited by the score of the basketball game than trains (never thought I'd see the day...) Here are some shots from his birthday celebrations. We went miniature golfing as a family on his actual birthday and then he celebrated with his friends at the bowling alley the following day.

Here's a video of Roan enjoying the moment of his birthday wish:


Here is a video of Mali miniature golfing because, well, it's just too funny:


And here's a video of Roan bowling:

Easter 2011

Here are some pictures from Easter. Mandy's parents came to visit and a lot of fun was had!

Deven Month Eight

Here are some pictures from Deven's eighth month. Deven figured out how to push himself up to a seated position from his tummy this month and was VERY proud of himself when big sister noticed! Mali's new favorite phrase is "bad baby". She screams it particularly loudly when he tries to join her "picnics" which usually involve her favorite ice cream scoops and cones--items Devy particularly loves as well.

Roan is still very fond of the little guy, though did have a bad day this month and tossed (well, no, threw) a shoe in Deven's general direction. Upon questioning it seems he is not so fond of "watching" Deven from time-to-time when Mommy and Daddy have to leave the room. Fair enough, he is only 5!

Deven also got his first two teeth this month and moved out of Mommy and Daddy's room--Roan has been bumped to Mali's room until Deven sleeps a bit better at night. It didn't take long of being in his real crib to learn how to pull himself up to standing.

Deven Month Seven

Here are some pictures from Deven's seventh month. Deven is now sitting up all by himself and started "creeping" around the house as well, creating lots of headaches for big brother and big sister.

Roan's T-Ball Game

Here are some pictures from Roan's first t-ball game. Roan is LOVING t-ball and can't wait to play baseball next year!

Visit with "the Cousins"

Jan's sister, Elena, and her family came to visit us from Canada in March and it was the first time our kids had met any of their cousins. Needless to say, it was VERY exciting. It was all we could talk about for several weeks leading up to the visit and "the cousins" are still brought up on a near daily basis. Tanisha is 12 and Serena is 10 and the kids thoroughly enjoyed every minute with them. We are very grateful that they made the trip to see all of us!

Trip to the Snow!

We headed up to Pinecrest, CA (near Dodge Ridge ski resort) so the kids could play in the snow. The timing worked out perfectly as the snow started to fall right as we unloaded our car. The next day it snowed quite heavily, and there were a few blizzard-like wind gusts, but the big kids had a blast sledding and building snowmen. Deven enjoyed the snow for about 7 minutes, and spent the rest of the time in the cabin, refusing to eat his solids or sleep, but he did it all with a smile as always.

Deven Month Six

Here are some pictures from Deven's sixth month. He celebrated his half-year birthday in a cabin in the snow. Deven weighed in at 22lb 3 oz at his 6-month check-up and is 28 inches long. He's almost sitting up by himself and is starting to wave good-bye, but not quite there. His favorite game is playing peek-a-boo. Here's a video:

Deven starts solids!

Here are some pictures from Deven's first meal. Well, no surprise, Deven took to eating immediately. As Daddy says, "that boy was born to eat". Roan thought the whole experience was utterly hilarious and Mali was so excited that she could finally help feed Deven.

Deven at Five Months

Here are some pictures from Deven's fifth month. Deven now weighs a whopping 21 lbs and is showing no signs of slowing down yet. He finally mastered rolling from his back to his tummy the night before he turned 5 months and is happy to do it all day long. He's trying to figure out how to move once he's on his tummy but is a ways from crawling.

Deven Month Four

Here are some pictures from Deven's fourth month.

Deven Month Three

Here are some pictures from Deven's third month.

Halloween 2010

We were very lucky this year to have Nana staying with us for Halloween! We made a couple of trips to the pumpkin farms. We also had our annual playgroup Halloween party. Mali showed off her costume in her preschool parade.


And we finished the festivities with trick-or-treating in our neighborhood this year. In case it's not obvious, Roan was a fireman and Mali a ballerina this year. Deven was Roan's fire dog.

Christmas 2010

Grandma and Granddad came to share Christmas with us again this year. Santa brought Roan some legos and Mali some blocks this year.