Paint

....does a body good, right?

Sleeping Beauty

We've been trying to re-figure the whole nap thing out.

Sofia takes one a day, but it needs to be a fairly long one, and if she wakes up early it needs to be an early nap (too early for Hannah).

Hannah doesn't need to take a nap every day, but some days she does
If I put her down when sofia goes down, then she takes a long nap and doesn't go to bed at night.   Or else she wakes Sofia up when she wakes up.
If I don't put her down at all, she gets crabby about 6 pm and make life miserable for all else.
If I put her down partway through Sofia's nap, that sometimes wakes up Sofia and results in a crabby baby and a crabby toddler = crabby mommy!

Our solution has been:  put Sofia down for a nap when she needs it and spend some 1-on-1 time with Hannah for a half hour or so, then let Hannah sleep on the couch while I get a few minutes of child-free time. It's not fool proof, but it is working for us.

We're Moving!!

We're moving and we're pretty excited about it.

* Rent is the same price

* It's smaller - a STUDIO!!!! 

* There is no washer and dryer in the apartment complex

* There is no parking with the apartment (but it is close to the Institute and we can park there)

All of these things might make you wonder why we're actually excited about this.  Here are a few reasons why we're so dang excited to move:


* the cops arriving at 2 am to break up domestic violence disputes (at the neighbors, not ours!)
* the parties thrown with loud music and lots of drunk neighbors
* being right next to the Institute and campus.  I average about 3 days a week going to the Institute (for meetings, church, activities, etc...) and it's such a nuisance to spend 20-30 minutes for it.
* being able to meet up with James for lunch occasionally because it's within walking distance!
* there will be some other lds friends within walking distance
* there will be a park closer to us
* we can run with James in the mornings around campus
* there's a security guard right on the corner of the street
* we are ready to be done with cockroaches and mice. VERY ready!!



We are really looking forward to it, but there will be a few things we will miss:

The breeze - it's always lots cooler in our apartment than it is outside, and there's almost always a breeze.
The covered parking garage

School Girl

This little girl thinks she's ready to go to school.

As a total side note, this headband has become her 'must have' accessory as of late.

Rumpai's Visit!!

One of our favorite Thai friends came to visit. We spent Friday afternoon at the beach. We walked along the pier and had our first ride on the merry-go-round.  Of course, both girls loved it.  Hannah wasn't too willing to get off when it was all said and done.

James was willing to brave the water with the adventurous Hannah.

While I was happy to stay safe with Sofia playing in the sand

 We spent Saturday at Descanso Gardens

Here she is showing Hannah a magazine filled with pictures of Thai food.  Hannah was pretty intrigued (anything involving food!!) and kept asking, "Is it spicy?"

It was so fun to see her.  Now, it's our turn to visit her!

She's 3

Hannah just turned 3 (meaning it was really 2 weeks ago, but I'm finally documenting it).  It was a Saturday and James took the entire day off from school.  Hooray!  It was a fun day.

Per her request, we had pancakes for breakfast.

We gave her a few options for the day (going to the beach, etc...) and she chose to ride a bus.  She REALLY wanted to ride a bus.  So, we went to campus and rode the DASH downtown.  We had planned on getting off and going to the library downtown, but she was having so much fun she wanted to stay on.  So, we did the bus loop downtown and got off right where we got on at.  Pretty simple.  Unfortunately I didn't take the camera.  I did manage to get a picture with my phone, but it's definitely not the best.

That afternoon we went to the park and the girls played so hard they fell asleep on the ride home:

After dinner we had cake and opened presents.

  She's not excited at all!!  She was bouncing up and down waiting to open the gifts.

Here are her 3 strategically placed candles on the cake!