Taft is 5!

Taft turned 5 over a month ago but a lot has happened in that month!

 A day or so after Taft's birthday he climbed up a part of the jungle gym that's he always been too nervous to do. He came running to tell me he had done it and when I asked why he decided to try it he said, "Because now that I'm five, I'm not afraid of heights anymore!" He was really proud of himself.

Taft's birthday celebrations were a little lower key than in years past. I wasn't really feeling up to throwing a huge invite-his-whole-class-and-everyone-from-church-plus-everyone-else-we-know-and-their-parents-and-siblings party this year. I pitched the idea of going to Chuck E Cheese with two friends of his choice for his birthday instead. He was sold from the start! He loved it and didn't ever mention not having a big party. He decided to invite his friends Anthony and Lenox from his preschool class. We took them to Chuck E Cheese to play games for about an hour or so, then headed back home for pizza, cake, and presents. The boys were so adorable together!

Taft's actual birthday fell on a Sunday but we still tried to have it be a good day for him. His birthday breakfast request were German pancakes (or Hootenannies) and for birthday dinner "Noodles with Green Sauce" aka pasta with a pesto sauce.

(I did this same video last year)

Taft is at a very sweet age. He loves to help me out, play with Seth, and be a great big brother to Luke and especially to Jonah. Any chance Taft gets he's kissing or hugging or trying to soothe Jonah. Taft is very giving with his compliments to others. Taft is still our social butterfly and will talk to anyone endlessly (I often have to cut off his conversations with random strangers). Since the move we've met several of our neighbors. One lady in particular has been great with humoring Taft and listening to his many stories. Taft is always wanting to make new friends and introduces himself to any kids we see at the playground or anywhere else really. It breaks my heart when some kids aren't very interested in playing with him. Right now he seems pretty oblivious to the fact when someone isn't interested in playing, but he's only truly had his feelings hurt by other kids one or two times. I'm dreading him starting kindergarten in some ways and that is one of them, that one day, someone will be mean at school or make fun of him and or hurt his feelings somehow. I totally get that it's part of growing up and it's important to have those experiences, but the mom in me just wants to be able to protect him from all that. Speaking of kindergarten, he is pretty excited to go. Although, he started saying he didn't want to go because Seth had told him he'd be gone all day, every day. What Seth meant was just a longer full school day, M-F, as opposed to his half day T/TH preschool. Taft thought he'd never see us! Poor thing. We cleared that up and he's excited about going again. Taft loves to learn new things and most recently has learned to read. He also really, REALLY loves learning about different animals, bugs, etc. He always spouting off random animal facts to us.

I often get comments by other adults about what a good kid Taft is. I know I'm biased, but I have to agree! Like all of us, he has his moments, but he is a very easy kid to have around. Seth and I really lucked out on having Taft as our  kid.

Big Bear 2014

This was our second annual trip to Big Bear for skiing. I didn't ski, I'm not confident enough in my abilities to ski while pregnant. Taft had a great time in his lesssons and did AWESOME. I need to get some video on here. Last year he was too young for the ski school but they had a pre-K snowboarding program that he did. This was his first time actually skiing. It's amazing how quickly kids learn this stuff! I was so proud of Taft for wanting to do run after run despite getting hurt several times.

I love this little trip with my family and I hope we keep going every year that we live in San Diego.

It was a really warm winter so although we were able to ski, there wasn't snow anywhere other than the manmade stuff at the resort. We took a little hike one day and it was gorgeous!

Tubing. The boys had fun but I'm pretty sure they'd agree that the tubing hill at Soldier Hollow in Utah is loads more fun. I wasn't allowed past this chain link fence due to the baby bump. They wouldn't even let me cross to take pictures!

We put Taft is a ski school for the morning and Seth took Luke out (no classes for Luke's age). However, it took serious convincing for Luke to put his skis on. He had a love/hate relationship with skiing the rest of the day. 

Turns out he was feeling super sick this day. He has NEVER fallen asleep on me since he stopped taking naps over a year ago. Later this night he threw up in our hotel. I felt terrible that we made him ski when he probably felt so sick.

After Big Bear (or before? I can't remember) we went to Disneyland for a couple of days. This was our last chance to use our annual passes before they expired. I'm so glad we bought those passes even though they were NOT cheap. I'm bummed that we won't be getting them again this year, but we figured with Taft starting Kindergarten we won't be able to go up as often to make it worth it. Sad :(

A Winter Trip to Utah

The boys and I headed to Utah the day after Christmas. I had decided before going out there that I wanted to have a family-only visit this time. I love getting together with friends and catching up, but I always feel like I'm trying to fit too much in when we visit. It was nice to just relax with my family for a week. Plus, everyone basically had the whole week off from work which NEVER happens when we visit! 

Highlights of the trip: 

Eating at all the bad-for-you places I love

A quality afternoon with the Herways, Herways, and Stouts

Sledding at Sugarhouse Park 

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

A Bluth family party and my parents house with extended family

Wedding dress shopping with Tates

Grandpa and the boys building a snow fort turned sharks mouth. 

Goodnight hugs with Nana and Grandpa

My mom and dad remodeled their kitchen/family room and added on. They added this darling breakfast nook. 

Trip to Scheels.

Looking the part in his camo coat. 

We saw "Saving Mr. Banks" and I fed my pregnancy cravings. For the record, I have always thought Red Vines were gross until like 3 months ago. Now, I LOVE them.

So inappropriate but he was so excited to show everyone his new CTR ring he got in Primary at the parents' ward. He just chose the wrong finger. 

Target practice with Grandpa. My brother sent my dad and the boys Nerf guns for Christmas. They were a major hit. I think Grandpa liked them the best.

Sledding

Sledding at Sugarhouse Park

Train ride at the mall.

Tubing at Solider Hollow. I loved this!! This is a must do next time we're here in the winter again.

Everyone knows these boys can be pretty cautious at times. I was shocked that they BOTH insisted on going down the sledding hills by themselves. They go pretty fast!

Christmas 2013

For a recap of this years Christmas festivities I should just copy and paste from previous years. The kick off to Christmas started with Santa coming to Coronado via the ferry. They had all sorts of activities at the Ferry Landing that day, including bounce houses, cookies and hot chocolate, ornament decorating, cookie decorating, and a snow hill. That night Coronado held their Christmas parade along Orange Avenue. 

We also checked out the Boat Parade the next week and had our best seats yet! We walked down to a dock that we had always thought was private, but turns out it isn't! It also happened to be next to the judges so the boats were sure to come up close to the dock. 

I wanted to go to our Stake's live Nativity, but like most holiday seasons one or more of us was under the weather and we had to miss it. 

Seth and I went the Anesthesia Dept Holiday Dinner at a hotel downtown. It's always fun getting dressed up for a date. My hair looked better earlier in the night. Sigh. 

Letters to Santa. Taft asked for a Finn McMissile that shoots ink, a Lego police car, and a grabber.  Luke asked for a Lightening McQueen and a Mater. 

Our ward holiday party was chaotic. For the last couple years the Primary was in charge of the Christmas party and they would put on the Nativity. This year the party planning responsibilities changed and we had a "Christmas Around the World".  Our ward has a lot of diversity in cultural backgrounds so it was fun to try all kinds of different ethnic foods. 

Taft's preschool puts on a short singing program around Christmas and Easter each year. He did a great job. Unfortunately Seth had to miss it this year. 

It was our warmest Christmas yet so we headed to the beach Christmas Eve. At this point Seth was out in the water with his SUP. Later in the night we had our fancy dinner, opened pjs and Christmas books, and left out cookies and milk for Santa. Sidenote: Poor Taft forgot that our  Christmas Eve present is always pjs. He was excited to open a present and the disappointment on his face was heartbreaking. He was trying so hard not to cry but I saw his eyes filling with tears. He wasn't snotty about it, just disappointed and unable to hide it. I also had the epiphany that since we're having all boys the pjs tradition will probably just be something they tolerate and eventually protest. I loved this tradition as a kid!

 The next photos are my attempt to get a shot in their Christmas Sunday outfits.

The boys woke up Christmas morning happy to find that Santa had fulfilled their requests. I was horrible at taking pictures but we got a little bit on video. We had invited some friends to spend the afternoon with us and had plans to have a bonfire dinner at the beach. I came down with a most terrible cold and had to withdraw the invitation. I felt terrible about it, but spent a good part of the day in bed, slowly dying. The best part of Christmas was seeing the boys so excited and having Seth around all day for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Luke is Three!

Like last year, we (minus Seth) were in Utah over Luke's birthday. For MONTHS, Luke has been saying that he wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday with "Mom, Dad, Taf-Taf, Luke, and no more peoples!" I really didn't want to disappoint him so we kind of breezed over his actual birthday while in Utah and celebrated the way he wanted to the day we got home. If these pictures look familiar it's because this is the EXACT thing we did last year. I'm not complaining, this kid is easy to please.

For gifts he got a new balance bike and a Spider-man costume. Both boys love dressing up. We're starting to grow quite a collection. He also got great gifts from other family members.

Lukie was THE BEST 2 year old. He rarely threw fits and was pleasant almost all of the time. It's kind of funny, because I'm already noticing that 3 year old Luke might be a little trickier. We'll see how it goes. Luke's personality is much different than Taft's. Luke likes to play with kids he knows well, but is hesitant about playing with new kids. He is shy around new adults. When he gets in trouble, he doesn't cry or get mad, but will just hang his head and walk away. As different as the boys personalities are, they are great at playing with each other.

Luke is a charmer. He will randomly tell me he likes my lips, eyes, hair, teeth, hands, or whatever else he notices. He also thanks Seth and me all the time for stuff. Most places we go, he says "Thanks for taking us here!" It's really sweet.

Luke is a great eater! This gives me so much satisfaction as a parent. I seriously beam with pride when he clears his plate of whatever I make for dinner, including multiple vegetables, things that have unique textures or sauces, and a wide variety of items. The other child of mine is quite opposite in this department.

Taft goes to school Tuesdays and Thursdays for 4 hours. I love being able to give some undivided attention to Luke. Often times we'll walk to the beach after dropping off Taft to look for shells and crabs in the tide pools. We've recently started doing "Mom School" in the mornings Taft is gone. He loves doing his projects and school books. He'll start preschool in the fall.

Lukie does not like to go to sleep. He doesn't put up a dramatic fight about it, he'll go along with the whole process but once we've said goodnight he'll quietly creep out of his room multiple times before falling asleep. It's hard to get mad at him because he's just so dang cute.


Favorites (according to him):
Color: Blue
Food: train tries (french fries)
Lunch: Crackers with Laughing Cow cheese or Hummus
Show: LeapFrog
Toy: Duplos and cars
Book: Knuffle Bunny
Game: Spot it
Drink:
Place to go: Legoland
Friend: Alex. (I don't know who this is. I asked him and he said, "He's a zebra!") I think his favorite friend is actually Taft.

 

Hangabur and Train Tries. 

A mini-camping trip and a trip to Monterey, CA

Back in November decided to take the boys camping. We had to laugh because it wasn't really in the wilderness, you could see houses from our campground, but it was close enough to the real thing for two little boys. I would love to camp more with our family but we need to invest in some camping equipment. Like sleeping bags. It actually got pretty cold at night and both Seth and I woke up several times during the night FREEZING. We had the boys between us with the bulk of the blankets and they seemed to sleep fine. We were close enough to civilization that we just hopped in the car in the morning, drove to breakfast, and then came back to take down our tent. The night before we did manage to cook our dinner of hot dogs over the fire with coat hangers. See? We need real camping gear so we can do it the right way. Like dutch oven style. Anyway, here are some pictures:

At the beginning of December, Seth had an interview in Monterey, CA. He had to use one of his vacation weeks for it, so we made a family trip out of it. We spent the first two days of the trip at Disneyland. The highlight of this particular Disney trip was when Taft got picked to be a Jedi trainee in Tomorrowland. He was so stinking excited. He got to fight Darth Vader with a light saber and later asked if we thought it was the real Darth Vader.

Monterey is GORGEOUS. Oh my. So Gorgeous. We loved it up there. We decided against taking the Monterey job at this point in our life, but man, it would be awesome to live there. During Seth's interview day, the boys and I drove about an hour north to have brunch with my cousin Katie in San Jose.

In line at Disney.

We never see Seth in the mornings in our regular life, so having him around in the mornings on vacation is extra special.

The water! This picture doesn't do it justice. It was so clear. To the left there is a cove and we saw a group of seals and a few seal pups. It was cute to see the pups sneaking off into the water to play with the grown ups slept.