Olde City and beating the heat

      This is a flash back post but it was so great that I had to post. Weston had some free time (June 19), and we were thinking that we really need to take advantage of this time and do some exploring around the city. He hadn't seen Elfreth's Alley yet and we just had to go. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited residential streets in the country since 1702. There was a little museum dedicated to it in one of the houses but they were out for lunch. So instead we went to a couple more places, like Christ's Church and I can't remember the other one. It was a wonderful day and to top it off we walked all the way home. YIKES! It was a long walk but it was worth it because we found a broken sprinkler and the kids just had fun with it. It was kind of fun watching other people watch our kids and seeing their reactions. Most people approved of us letting our kids run wild on an ivy league campus, and just a handful of envious folk that wished they could throw propriety out the window. I love my family and really love being here in Philly.

 

 

2....9.....29!!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday Weston Dear! This is obviously a few weeks late but it was a wonderful day, even if he did have to work. Despite the short day we still had a day of fun. We went to our peaceful place out here, Ridley Creek State Park. We went to "our" part of the creek and threw sticks and stones down then dipped our feet in the water and just had a grand ol' time. Weston is a wonderful man who is devoted to and is the light in our family. We love him and he's our daddy, my husband, our HERO! Yay Weston for being born and coming into my life and making it so much brighter and happier! My man ROCKS!

Mads is ONE!

                 I'm almost a month late on this post since her birthday was on June 15th but oh well. It was a great day! It was just full of fun with her Lolo and Lola there AND if I remember correctly we were also able to skype with her Gramma and Grampa. It was definitely a day filled with love, family and some great friends. 
                I just can't believe that she's already one! People always say that it goes by fast but oh boy does it go fast. Perhaps it feels like it has gone by so fast because she's learned how to walk early which makes it feel like she's a toddler already. She loves to carry a little sandwich bag with snacks in it and just walks around the house snacking. Then when she's done she just hands it back and continues doing whatever it was. And she LOVES to pester her brother in a cute sisterly way without meaning to, sometimes. Mads will of course knock down Oliver's blocks when he's ready to show someone or pushes him when he's in her way. OH I LOVE IT! Sometimes I wish that I had a video camera on me all the time to capture those moments. And more recently when I've been putting the kiddos to bed, Mads likes to poke Oliver when he's been all tucked in ready to sleep. Oliver just whines and says,  "Stop, I'm trying to sleeeeeep!" and Mads laughs/high pitched excited screech. Weston and I just watch and snicker. Anyway I love my Madeline and I'm so glad she joined us. She's adorable. And despite Mads and Oliver's moments of discovering how to interact with each other, they absolutely love each other. She love to snuggle in bed at night! And Oliver is very protective of his sister and Mads just loves to follow him around and do what he does. They make us so happy! ENough of my ramblings here are the pictures of Mads awesome birthday!

Birthday girl so Happy!

FRIENDS!

Birthday CAKE! Kuya Oliver helping Mads blow out her candle (courtesy of Adia)

Our awesome friend, Adia, for making little miss' cake! It was DELICOUS!

Yay LOLO and LOLA!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRESENTS!

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to everybody who helped make her birthday special and for showering her with so much love!

New York

   Weston and I have been in Philadelphia for almost 2 years now and we haven't been going to the temple, whether it be the Washington D.C or New York, as often as we would have liked. So about a couple of weeks ago we decided that we would just do it. We would take turns while the other would watch the kids. When I looked out the window the next day I had asked Weston if we should prepare for some rainy weather but he had reassured me that he had checked the weather online and the hour by hour forecast. It was going to be cloudy but overall a beautiful day. As we were driving in to New York, of course it was pouring rain, but we did not let it dampen (get it? ha!) our spirits. We went to the temple and had the best day.
      While Weston was at the temple I went with the kids to FAO Shwartz, my first time there, and I just thought to myself, this is the Costco for toys! It was amazing! Oliver even got to meet Spiderman AND Captain America. Oliver is so funny with superheroes. When we spotted Spiderman he was just ecstatic and was running trying to find the way to get up to him since he was on the second floor. When we got there he got shy and timid and wouldn't even talk to him. One of the workers asked if we would like to have a picture taken and when the camera man started asking Oliver to smile, he just stood next to Spiderman with a mixed look of boredom and I-just-woke up face. Of course when they were done he smiled the cutest smile and was jumping up and down and climbing on the rail to show his Spiderman moves. What a funny kid!
       When Weston was done he met up with us and we perused through the store together and we both felt like little kids. It was a lot of fun. And we had to look for the famous Big Piano which Oliver had a blast on. We then walked back to the temple to drop me off for my turn while daddy and the kiddos hung out at central park. I wasn't able to stay as long as I would have liked but it was incredibly rejuvenating. I felt my spirits lift! I had been having a difficult time with my patience and I would pray for help and I kept feeling like we just needed a temple trip. After I was done I could feel more strongly the Savior's love for me and the feeling that He was very much aware of me and that He understands. Just knowing that my Savior is aware of me and loves me and feeling that I wasn't alone, even though that's how I had felt on my bad days, has helped me be a better mom. I love my Savior and I love my family! And I am grateful that He helps me be a better person for my family, so that they don't have to deal with a grumpy mom and wife everyday, just sometimes :)

Bow Bridge in Central Park

     Overall, a beautiful and adventurous day with the family!

Chocolate lovers!

For those who don't know Weston and I, we love chocolate! We love chocolate soooo much that it is starting to rub off on to our little ones. Here is our little 'sweet' Madeline (pun intended), in perfect bliss for finding a small bag of chocolate chips and sneaking a few nibs before we took it away.

She was pretty proud of herself too I think for figuring out how to dump it all out.

Certified Nursing Assistant

buuhhmmmmmm buhm buhm buhm buhhhmmm buhhmmm  (in case you didn't catch that, it's the graduation song, Pomp and Circumstance.) Weston graduated his CNA course! He graduated as valedictorian and gave a heart warming and inspirational speech; there was a lot of 'aaawwww' from his classmates ^_^. I am proud of Weston for sticking to it and for not being turned off by the unattractive work that CNAs have to do. During clinicals, he has developed greater empathy for the elderly and has found that he doesn't want to grow old. Even though we cannot escape the inevitable, unless you die young, which is not an option for him because then I will have lost my Weston and that's just unacceptable, we can definitely help others grow older with a little bit more dignity in hopes that karma will return the favor. I'm sure it's not fun losing control of your bowel movements and having others wipe you down or needing someone else to bathe you.*sigh*  We really do leave the world the same way we came in (o.0) I'm starting to stray, what I'm trying to say is Weston is a great man with a lot of compassion which makes for a great CNA and in a few years a great PA as well.

Some great people in his class!

After our big event we thought, 'hey, we're downtown lets do something!' and since our lives revolve around our little ones we went to the park! It was a lot of fun being able to go to the park with Weston since a lot of the time its just the mama and the kiddos.

Then on the way home, we decided to go to the Penn museum. Weston was able to get in for free since he has a Penn student card and I have a spouse card, which is suppose to get you in for free, but no go. Luckily, we had a very nice young lady at the front desk that let us in anyway and just told us that next time we'll have to give in to the system and pay some moolah.

We were being dragons! Can you tell?

Oliver especially loved the Egyptian portion of the museum, specifically the mummies! We would explain it to him in toddler language then he would ponder the information we had just given him then say, "Talk about it again." If he still wasn't satisfied, he would say, "Sing a song about it." Oh man do we love this kid! He loves to learn about different things and he loves museums! There was a lot of cool stuff that we enjoyed but since it was a few days ago and we had failed to document the awesomeness to its fullest that's all I have. Okay I just remembered that there was a Greece section that had some coins that Weston was in awe with but have no pictures to prove how cool it was. Just ask Weston. He'll tell you! The day was a blast and we thought man it cannot get any better, but (wait for iiiiittttt)  IT DID! Our awesome friends came over and gave us a surprise graduation treat, look at the awesomeness! The Noyces are rad! All in all, a great day full of pride for my hubbers, adventure, and friends.

Feeling something like cheese whiz

Both were sick and wanted MOMMY! YAY

     This picture is not the most flattering and I really hesitated putting it up for others to see but it just captures how HAPPY I am! I love my kids! I love my cheese ball of a husband! I love my life! It's perfect! It's not perfect but I sure am blessed with so many great people in my life that I can't help but just shout for joy! So little side note, there's a good chance I will be using a plethora of very cheesy cliches so if you don't want to read, stop now. Who knows, though, I may not. Continue if you dare. 

   Anyway,  I have been feeling a roller coaster of emotions lately and thought 'hey I should share'. My twist and twirls starts with this overwhelming sense of love for my innocent little goobers that keep me on my toes, then the next minute I want to just burst into tears because they're not allowed to grow up and leave me. Then feeling my heart slowly let go to the idea of them getting old and getting married and not needing me anymore, followed by excitement of having grandkids and thinking of what that would be like. And then I end up back to square one and just feeling lucky that I have them in my life. Did you get dizzy? 

    Weston, my lovely, cuddly, adorable, sweet husband is so patient with my emotions that I think he deserves a plaque to be hung on the wall of being the WORLDS BEST HUSBAND! He's so amazing with the little munchkin and the little lady always lights up when she sees her daddy. When he's been working all day and I forget to return the library books he's willing to go out and return it for me. And He'll even play games with me even when it's late at night when he should be sleeping. It may not seem like big things but its moments like these that make me weak in the knees and fall flat on my face because I'm so in love! Weston...you are MINE!

     I love my family! Everything about me is inseparably connected to my family. I know I am my own person but I have found out so much of who I am because of Oliver and Madeline and Weston. They challenge me to be better everyday. I live for my them! Mom, Dad, if you're reading this, I'm starting to get a glimpse of how much love you have for us. And all those things you've done to try to keep me safe but I thought you were trying to ruin my life, Thank You! Even if I was being a pain in the rear end, thank you!   Ok, so not as many cliches as I had hoped for but here are some pictures of my awesome family!

 

Happy Birthday Oliver #3

HaaapppPPPYYY BIRTHDAY TTOOO OLIVER!!! (pretend I wrote this on his actually birthday 1/26)

     This year we had more friends to celebrate with which made it a lot of fun and we did a little bit more decorating as well. We put up some purple streamers with some different colored balloons and made an Oliver shrine. It was a lot of fun especially when we got to watch his face light up in the morning. He was somewhat in awe, I think, because it took a few minutes before he finally said, "The balloons are beauutifull!" I love him! Those weeks of bed rest were worth it. Yes I will hang it over his head for the rest of his life! I'm such a great mother, HA!
      Oliver got some great new toys which Mommy loves because it keeps him occupied very well! Thank you again to the grandparents and friends that contributed to giving me, the mommy, some alone time. 
      Oliver we LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! And we are so glad you are part of our family!

Just a couple of his toys that he got for his birthday. We forgot to pull out the camera because we were having so much fun.

New Years with the Mahanas!

After a fun filled Christmas we had the privilege to host the wonderful Mahanas in our home. When they got here we got to eat some Philly cheese steaks from Pats and Genos. We thought we would decide which is better for ourselves. Both were really good but the general census was Pats. It was GOOODD! Who knew processed cheese could be so good?! Anyway they were only going to stay for the night then visit the Big Apple early next morning. I had a dentist appointment in the morning, so when I arrived they were all gone. Now Weston and I don't normally have a lot of people visit us from out of state so it was really sad that our house went from FULL to EMPTY in less than twenty-four hours. Weston had to go in to the lab for a few hours but he came home early. We thought well hey why not lets go NYC too. We stalked them to NYC and had a lot of fun seeing the lights and the skyscrapers. While we were there there were a few places that we a must-see, one being the ground zero and Chinatown.  It was amazing to be walking around New York with its boisterousness but, walking into the memorial and feeling everyone's respect for the heroes and those that had lost their lives was beautiful and quiet in comparison. It was sooo crowded.
        Overall New York was a blast. I was a little overwhelmed but the good company made it worthwhile.   Glad that the hotel was in NJ where we can park the car and just take the bus to NY. Definitely worth avoiding the hassle of finding parking.  The fun part of taking the bus was the drop off at  NJ. The bus stop was seriously at a median on ramp exit where we then had to walk through the underpass of the highway. It was insane! I should have taken a picture of it. We all got off the bus a little confused and had a good laugh afterwards. Hahaha! Thanks Stephen for figuring it all out. We came home on the night of the 31st to avoid the craziness of New Years Eve which was quite nice.
        When we arrived home it was late, however, we still stayed up with the kids to watch our local New Years celebration. Fireworks just aren't the same on television but it sure was an adventurous weekend!

SO awesome for letting us tag along! Thanks again!

Me being overwhelmed! HA!

The clan headed over to Chinatown