Saturday we went to UCLA to visit my brother, Timmy, who is a freshman there. The kids were PUMPED to see Uncle Timmy! When we first got there he took us on a tour of the school. I was worried that it was going to rain, but it ended up being a beautiful day. The campus is really nice and we had a great time walking all around.






After the tour, we drove to a restaurant called Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles. Their most popular dish is literally a plate of chicken served with a plate of waffles.
Hannah liked the waffle part!
We had a great time visiting Uncle Timmy and seeing UCLA. Thanks, Timmy!

The second and fourth Thursdays of the month the kids and I go to a Mom's Group. I try to reserve the other Thursdays for fun outings using our passes at the Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea World and Legoland. We often go with friends, but last Thursday just the three of us with to the Wild Animal Park. It was really fun.





Lunchtime is always nice at the Wild Animal Park because they have a fun little playground and eating area. This is probably the kids favorite part!

Our weekend started out with a date night for Andy and me. Well, kind of. We went to a parenting class at our church. We are reading a book called, The Faithful Parent and watching a video series called, The Case for Kids.

My parents came over to watch the kids for us, and I found this picture on my camera after they left.

My mom emailed me later with the back story...
"I was playing with the extra large duplos with Hannah in Joey's room right after bath time, and Dad was brushing Joey's teeth. Joey comes in and asks me if he can play a video game. I said yes and he quickly left and Hannah just pops up, turns and runs downstairs. She grabs a hand set and just throws herself down on the couch and starts pushing buttons watching the Super Mario video demo on the screen. Joey is playing away and I said to Dad "look at Hannah pretending". Then Dad tells me that Joey is just pretending also. Neither Dad nor Joey know how to get the game to start. "

Now that I know the story, I think it's funny to see how focused and serious they both look.

See that dress up skirt Hannah is wearing? She was still wearing it the next morning when I got her from her crib. She wore it the whole next day and to bed that night. I thought she was going to wear it to church, but she got oatmeal on it Sunday morning--praise God for small miracles!
Saturday Andy and Joey went to Lowe's and Fry's to buy some boy stuff, and then I wanted to take Joey to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday present for Hannah. Since it was almost lunch time, Andy had the idea that we would each take out one kid for a one-on-one lunch date. He took Hannah and I took Joey. It was really fun and both kids loved it. The funny thing is that both kids ended up picking to go to McDonald's, much to their parents' chagrin. We did go to different McDonald's though because I drove to the one that was closer to the Toys R Us. Joey and I scored because we picked a McDonald's with a play place which is really why Joey wanted to go there in the first place.

Saturday night we had a family movie night and watched Star Wars: Episode 1-The Phantom Menace. As I mentioned before, the kids have really been into Star Wars lately. Andy is living the dream. This may be the reason he wanted to have kids in the first place--to share his love of Han Solo, Chewbacca, and all the rest.

Sunday was a pretty uneventful despite some minor parenting frustrations. Let's just say the Lord is trying to keep us humble when it comes to our children's behavior! Nap time was my favorite part of the day.

Sunday evening, however, was Andy's favorite part of the day because the NBA All Star game was on. He looks forward to it every year. We celebrated by eating chicken fajitas in front of the TV.

All in all, it was a nice, quiet weekend!

Andy's brother and sister-in-law flew out to Phoenix this past weekend so we drove out to join them. Timmy and Sarah got in late Wednesday night and we got in late Thursday night.

Friday morning, Hannah and Aunt Sarah got right to work coloring together which is one of Hannah's favorite activities right now (and maybe Aunt Sarah's).
Late Friday morning, Dave Logan came over and then Timmy, Sarah, Andy, Dave, and I drove to the White Tank Mountains for a little hike. Andy's mom stayed home with the kids while they took their naps. It was a glorious day for a hike--not too hot, not too cold. We felt very adventurous on our hike until we realized that every other person on the trail was probably over 70 years old. That evening it was Uncle Timmy's turn to bond with Hannah. Hannah is not generally a fan of boys unless their names are Daddy, Joey, Papa J, or Bubba, so this was a huge step in their relationship.

Saturday, Andy's mom, Sarah, and I drove up to Sedona to walk around this cute little shopping area and have lunch. It was nice to have some girl time, and Sedona is just gorgeous!
While we were shopping, the boys stayed home and played video games. They also took the kids to a car show that was close by.
When we got back from Sedona, Dave's wife, Brooke, was at the Lanzones. She is 32 weeks pregnant now, so we got to see her cute tummy.
Saturday night Papa J did a fish fry, and we celebrated his birthday.
Sunday we spent mostly relaxing. This was the kid's favorite place to relax. Timmy and Sarah brought their Ipad and Sarah showed them fun kid videos on it.

As usual, it was a short, but wonderful trip!

For Valentine's Day the kids and I made heart cookies and then drove over to Andy's work to bring him Taco Bell for lunch. Unfortunately when we got there Andy was gone. Later we found out that he was at the store buying us fun Valentine treats.

Here are the two Valentine cards I got for Andy.

While we were waiting for Andy, we dropped off some cookies for Bubba.

After Bubba was properly loved on for a while, we headed back to Andy's office to wait for him. We were about to give up so I took these pictures of the kids and planned on leaving my camera on Andy's desk with a note to look at the pictures.

(Note the "sad faces.")


Just as we were walking down the hall to leave we ran into Andy. Hooray! We got to give him the cookies and Taco Bell and have lunch with him. In return, Andy gave the kids their Valentine treat, Star Wars fruit snacks. They were thrilled!

Joey and Hannah both love any game that involves hiding. Each night, after Andy gets the kids ready for bed, they call me upstairs to tuck them in...but only if I can find them first.

One time when Hannah was probably about eighteen months, she scared us to death. I had to run to the grocery store while Andy was giving the kids a bath. When I came home, Andy called downstairs and asked if Hannah was down there. I said, "No, isn't she upstairs?" We called out to her several times, but she did not come like she normally would. We were concerned when we searched the whole house several times and couldn't find her anywhere. I was definitely starting to get panicked and thought, "Do we call the police? What do we tell them? Um, we lost our daughter...in our house?" Finally, Andy found her hiding in a little corner behind her crib. She had been sitting there completely silent, waiting for someone to find her for probably about 10 minutes.

Thankfully, she isn't always that hard to find...

Joey: Daddy, ask your boss if you can come home early today. I think he'll say yes.

We were talking about a story where one character was being mean to another character.
Joey: Why was he being mean?
Me: Well, have you ever been mean to someone before?
Joey: Yes.
Me: Why were you mean?
Joey: I don't really know.
Me: Yeah, sometimes we don't even know why we are mean.
Joey: But that's my favorite thing in the whole world.
Me: What? Being mean?
Joey: Yeah, and guess what, I'm really good at it!

Joey has really been into Star Wars lately...
Joey: When I was 3 1/2 I was on the dark side, but now I'm on the good side.

Me: Hannah guess what? This morning we are going to have breakfast and then get dressed and then...Mollie and Cody are coming over to play!!!
Hannah: Binkernell? (Tinkerbell)
Me, laughing: No, I don't think Tinkerbell is coming to our house.
Hannah: Elmo? House?
Me: No, Elmo is not coming over either.

Joey: Can we play lightsabers?
Andy: Sure.
Hannah: Vader? Daddy, Vader?
Andy: Yes, Hannah, I'll be Vader.
Hannah: Joey, Luke?
Andy: Yeah, Joey can be Luke, and who are you going to be?
Hannah: Leia.

My cousin, Marin, worked at the Wild Animal Park last summer (now called the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park which I will never call it because I don't like change), and she was given tickets to the zoo and Sea World. She was never able to use them, so she gave the tickets to us, and man, have we loved using them!

Since the kids and I already have passes to the zoo and Sea World, we've been able to use the tickets for friends and family. Andy used both Sea World tickets, and for the zoo we got our friends, the Spears, in for free, along with my brother and mom, and Andy's parents. So great!

Last Saturday Andy used the second Sea World ticket since it was going to expire on Monday. We had such a fun day together. We went to the sea lion show, the dolphin show, we visited the arctic area and saw the polar bear, beluga whale, walrus, and penguins. Then we went to the kid's favorite place, the Sesame Street play area.

Joey LOVES meeting the characters and always wants to stand in line over and over again just to hug them.

Hannah LOVES the characters in theory. She has mixed feelings about meeting them in person. This time she decided just to shut her eyes and pretend they weren't there.


So, thanks again to Marin, we had a wonderful visit to Sea World with the whole family!

My friend, Tami, is having her third baby at the end of this month. Until then she has a bunch of doctor's appointments and I offered to watch her kids for her about once a week. Joey and Hannah have had so much fun getting some extra time with their friends, Mollie and Cody.

Hannah and Cody bonded over their love of their blankies.
Mollie and Hannah bonded over their love of literature, particularly anything with "Binker Nell" (a.k.a. Tinker Bell) in it.
And Joey and Cody bonded over their love of being goofy boys.
My kids are going to be sad when Mollie and Cody's new baby brother or sister is here, and we won't get to see them as much.