An Uncooperative Subject

Carter came home from school looking especially disheveled & dirty so I decided to take a picture of his dirty face & crazy hair, but as usual, Carter had his own idea of how things should go.

Sleepy Time

My favorite pictures over the years have been pictures of the kids sleeping. I don't remember to take them as often as I used to but I still manage to snap a few pics here and there.

Pretty Pretty Princess

Abigail has been fascinated with nail polish for a few years now and loves to line up every color she can find and pick out her favorites. I let her paint her own once and now I am the sole nail painter! I am so thankful that she is such a girly, girl & I get to do these kinds of things with her.

Misc Photos

We finally got Abigail a twin sized mattress set & she was very excited for her "big girl bed"

And of course, her "little bother" was even more excited about it & wasted no time making herself comfortable (& yes, he is wearing her hair ties as bracelets)

And, just because I think it's funny

Movie Night

"Baby" Jake came over last night & joined me and the kids for a movie night. As usual, it started out with all the kids sitting sweetly eating popcorn & soon became a jumping off the couch party.

Happy Birthday DJ!

Carter eagerly eyeballs the cake, enthusiastically decorated by Abigail
A glimpse of the mischievous dimple

Somehow, I managed to light 31 candles (much to DJ's dismay!), keep the kids from blowing even one of them out before DJ got into the room, & sang the entire happy birthday song before the candles melted the ice cream cake!

Daddy's Cake

My little Abigail is always more than willing to help in the kitchen, especially when it involves anything chocolate. Of course, she insisted that Daddy would want a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for his birthday!

Los Angeles Zoo

Carter's favorite exhibit was the first one we came to- the meerkats. He squealed with delight everytime he spotted one and screamed, "Mommy, I found another one" over and over, so cute! The meerkats seemed to like him despite his extreme enthusiasm and kept standing up on their back legs right in front of him, much to his delight.

Abbie was most excited to see the flamingos (otherwise known as "mangos") and talked about them all morning before we got to the zoo, but once we got there, she was not all that impressed.

The giraffes were one of the few active animals that day and this one was quite interested in Carter. It was pretty amazing although I must admit that I have watched way too many episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos to be entirely comfortable as the giraffe wiggled its very long, agile tongue around.

Abigail used her skills from watching years of Dora the Explorer to navigate around the zoo

Finally we made it to the much anticipated monkey exhibits. The orangutans were napping for the most part but a baby swung around on its ropes for a few minutes for us.

Abbie was much more interested in the telescopes set up all around the zoo than in any of the animal exhibits

And now for the most anticipated exhibit of all- the gorilla habitat. It was under construction the last time DJ & I went to the zoo (during the time we refer to as BC, before children) and we have been excited to see it ever since. They weren't especially active either but we did see them walking about a little.

Carter didn't make it for more than five minutes on the car ride home before he was out cold.

Carter's 1st Trip to the Beach

We took the kids to Manhattan Beach on Tuesday- Carter's 1st trip to the beach. We took Abigail at 9 months & she has been several times since, but the Carter man is an entirely different creature. We finally mustered the courage to take him & of course, he loved it. Dirt & water, what's not to love?

Carter managed to find a ladybug (which he LOVES) and it crawled up on his head & stayed there the entire time we were there. That was one smart ladybug if you ask me, staying high & dry & out of an endlessly curious 2 year old boy's fingers.