Documentation of the video variety

I think this blog is a testament to how awful I am at keeping things up to date. I'm not the best pen pal, it takes me forever to return phone calls, and I really only download photos and/or videos off my phone when I absolutely have to (i.e. the iOS needs an update and there isn't any space because I have 1200 photos saved on my phone).

I am just now posting videos from earlier this year because I finally downloaded them from my phone and they are too cute to keep to myself. I'll post a few of my favorites this week as I uncover and edit them.

This one was taken at my mom's house, where she will take the boys on "The Crazy G-ma Ride" and they loooooooove it. Can you tell? I just adore their faces when she's about to start the "ride". They're a little bit scared and a lot a bit excited.



Just too adorable. Hank's face makes me laugh every time.

This one is old, too, but I wanted to put it up because Hank's little voice is so sweet, isn't it? (Just in case you can't tell what he's doing, he's naming all of the "sauces" that are in his little kitchen cabinet.)
"This is one's orange sauce and this one is ketchup and this one is jam and this one is yellow mustard... And that's all the food we have." <---- synopsis; he repeats some a few times.

Summer pool picture dump

I took a bazillion pictures of the boys swimming this summer. Probably because they were in the pool everyday and they are ridiculously adorable when they're swimming around. But now I'm realizing that I haven't shared very many on the blog. Therefore, I'm going to share ALL THE POOL PICTURES. In no particular order.

Fearless in floaties

Fearless without floaties. Or a swimsuit.

More naked jumps to Uncle Dylan!

Uncle Dylan showing off.

Escondido Renaissance Faire

[WARNING: Picture-heavy post]

You guys. We had the most ridiculously fun time at the Renaissance Faire on Saturday. So much fun that I don't even feel nerdy raving about being at the Renaissance Faire. :)

Johnny's favorite movie right now is Brave, which is about a young Scottish princess who is not into getting married, but very into horseback riding and archery. Thus, Johnny has been obsessed with riding a horse and with shooting a bow and arrow. All kinds of things get turned into bows and arrows: bamboo skewers, drumsticks, branches he find at parks, etc. When I heard about the Renaissance Faire in Escondido was happening this past weekend, I figured Johnny would get a huge kick out of it. I mean, what little boy wouldn't like knights, swords, and pirates?

So we went with my mom. And spent all day there. Seriously. We got there at 11am and left at 6pm. It was crazy. We saw pirates, fairies, fauns, a queen, knights, cabin boys, wizards, and LOTS of cleavage. Of course, once the boys spotted the playground, they bypassed everything else and played there for awhile.

Arriving at the Faire. Hank was sleeping in the car with John.

Trying out a fireman's pole for the first time.

Victory!

The Queen's Parade. Both boys stopped playing on the play structure and watched. They were enthralled by the costumes and music going by. Heck, I was, too!

But by far, the best part of the day, was when Johnny and Hank spotted the archery area. Remember how I said Johnny was really into bows and arrows? He spotted the bows and said, "I wanna try!" My original plan was for John to take the lesson with the archery instructor and Johnny could watch, since Johnny is 3, and therefore not so much into taking direction. But when we bought our ticket, Johnny was SO EXCITED to pick out his bow and try it.

This is what unadulterated excitement looks like. For Johnny.

When we got to the front of the line and met our instructor, Johnny tried out the easiest bow, but he couldn't pull it back. So the instuctor just said, "I can make that work for you," and he walked us back to the farthest target (he said we'd get the best pictures there), where he proceeded to instruct Johnny on how to pull back and shoot an arrow. 

The guy was SO patient with Johnny. Since Johnny is, you know, THREE, he had a little trouble following the man's directions. He would say, "Okay, now let go of the string. Let go of the string. Just let go," over and over and over again without raising his voice or getting impatient. For all seven arrows. The man was a saint.

Look at that face!!! Such excitement.

The kid was stoked.

You guys, it was magical. Johnny has been talking about shooting a bow and arrow since the first time he saw Brave a few months ago and he got to fulfill his dream this weekend. When I uploaded all of the photos, I got all teary-eyed looking through them because just look at the JOY! Gosh, it was awesome.

Anyway. Moving on from the archery. The rest of the day was spent watching the entertainers, listening to music, eating some lunch and more playing on the playground.

Eating some lunch. Fulfilling dreams is hard work!

The handsome hubby

The boys dancing to the live music and vocals of Mister Mac (not pictured)

Watching a juggling show.

Juggling with fire.

Standing on top of five precariously balanced chairs and juggling fire.

It's fun when you run, Daddy!

Playing a "choking on water" game with G-ma. Hank thought it was hilarious.

Watching some play sword-fighting.

Old school teeter-totter on our way out.

It was a little pricey to get in ($17 per adult, 4 and under free) but for a whole day of fun, I thought it was worth it. Especially since both boys SLEPT ALL NIGHT! Whoo-hoo for tired children! :)

Halloween 2012

So.... October in San Diego was kind of mean this year. It was supposed to be all cool and crisp and kind of fall-like, but October decided that autumn wasn't going to happen on her watch and threw us some blazing sunshine, Santa Ana winds and some 100+ degree days just to watch us SUFFER.

What does this have to do with Halloween? Nothing, I just felt like ranting.

Anyway.

Hank and Johnny's costumes all revolved around a certain plastic hat that Johnny got from the Safari Park a couple of months ago. Up until that day, Johnny was not a hat guy. Not in the slightest. Then some random older kids give him a plastic safari hat and BAM! He won't take it off. So, I figured I'd make him a zookeeper/person on safari and Hank would be some kind of animal you would see on safari. So when I saw a lion costume at Costco two months ago, I grabbed it. Then I got an "explorer's" vest off Amazon and I was done.

It was the perfect plan. Johnny is REALLY particular about what he wears (more on that later), so I planned for him to wear some khakis and whatever shirt he wanted. Then I'd slip the vest on him and convince him to wear his beloved safari hat and we'd be done.

Turns out that my nearly-3-year-old is SO not into doing things that I want him to do. The whole day I talked up getting CANDY and wearing a COSTUME and getting CANDY and seeing Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Jana and OMG DID I SAY YOU'RE GETTING CANDY?!?!

Not fazed. Candy? Pish-posh. I guess that's what I get for not giving my child candy, right?

So Grandma stayed inside with Johnny while the rest of us took Hank around in his lion costume to get some candy. And he was SO STINKING CUTE. He'd ring the doorbell, stand there patiently, and when the host arrived at the door, he'd wave at them and say "Hi!" They'd (without fail) get down on his level and gush about adorable he is while showing him a bowl full of bright colored treats. At first, he hesitated about taking something, but by the end he had no problem grabbing something and putting it in his bag. He wouldn't say "trick or treat" since he's only 16 months old, but I would prompt him with "What does a lion say, Hank?" and he's say "Roar!!"

The lion without his hood

Not stoked about the hood.

Still not stoked about the hood.

Please don't mind my hip hair-do. It's called "mom-chic"... and also "I haven't looked in the mirror for three days"

YAY DOORBELLS!

He kept pointing at the jack o' lanterns saying "pumpkin!" Then he'd point to the fountain and say "FOUNTAIN!"

 My heart exploded a few times that evening at the sheer cuteness of it all.

After a few houses, Grandma had managed to get Johnny outside, but he required her to put his orange shirt on him. So this was Johnny's costume (from the back since he refused to slow down long enough for me to snap a shot of his face):

Then shortly after we got all excited about Johnny coming outside, he bolted down the block and John followed him to the park, where they stayed until Hank and I picked them up in the van after we were done seeing all of our neighbors.

I think Johnny may have seen his error in skipping out the trick or treating when Hank was digging into his spoils:

Pool time

It's been pretty hot lately. Yes, we live in SoCal, where it's supposed to be hot, but it's been the humidity that has been killing us, actually. So we've been spending lots of time in the pool. Which has been AWESOME. The boys are thrilled with water time now, even Johnny who wasn't very excited about the pool earlier this summer. Plus it's a fun, relaxing thing to do as a family in the evenings and on the weekends. And the boys are pretty cute in the water.

Playing around with color in editing.

This is as good as it gets when it comes to everyone looking at the camera and not flailing around.

 The previous three pictures I edited, but I got lazy and didn't feel like editing the rest... especially when I *should* be editing the twenty or so senior portraits I have left from my last client.

What do you mean I can't breathe underwater? I was BORN in the water, Daddy!

I took a lot of pictures of Hank because he's a lot easier to catch on camera. Johnny tends to be a complete blur or just a shot of the back of his head. He's being strangely uncooperative lately... but that's a whole different post.