Dr Play

Yesterday while Eden was "napping" she found a bag full of hand-me-downs in her closet that I had yet to sort (given to us before Christmas). I assumed they were clothes that were 2-3 sizes too big so I was taking my time in getting to them. Turns out it was a bag filled with goodies. When I went in her room to check on her she was surrounded by play dr equipment and was quite busy taking care of all of her dollies. When I asked her where all the stuff came from she said "I don't know, must be from Santa". Anyway, she is obsessed with her Dr toys, and loves using Zion as her patient. He is a very good sport, and she is actually very gentle, I have some cute video that I hope to upload at some point.

I love how intent her expression is in this picture.

Cunningham Visit

The Cunninghams came for a visit over the weekend and we all had so much fun. I wish I had taken more pictures or just gotten better pictures...it always feels like I am taking tons of pictures, then when it is all said and done I feel like I didn't take any. These are the best of what I got.

Playdates and Firetrucks

We had a playmate with Makai and Finn yesterday. Eden was so excited to spend time with Makai that she misbehaved all morning. But we had a blast! I am bummed I did not get any great pics of the two of them, or of Finn and Zion but I got a few that were alright. Before we went to Makai's we stopped by to say hi to dad at the fire station, which is normally a big hit, but Eden was so excited to see Makai she didn't even want to get out of the car. Once we coaxed her out of the car though she had fun riding in the truck and hanging out with the guys.

They would've walked the whole way home like this if we let them.

Every time we try to take pics of the two babies, it turns into a baby mosh pit. This time I couldn't get one good shot of everyone looking.

Birthday Weekend

For my birthday Jon and I left the kids with Grampy & Grammy on Sat and we went climbing out at Joshua tree. We got 4 pitches in. One single pitch and one multi-pitch climb. Both of the climbs were super easy but it felt so amazing to be out there and to be moving our bodies like that again. Incredibly enough, it was my first time really climbing since I broke my ankle, and it did not give me any trouble at all! It was such a special and beautiful day, the ground was covered in snow. We have been out at Joshua tree at least 100 times and this was only our second time being out there in the snow - it was pretty special!

The next day was my actual birthday and we had such a nice family day with church, breakfast, and the farmers market. Then Jon's mom watched the kids in the evening so that we could go on a date. I was very spoiled this year and am very thankful...

Easton loves baby Zion. He would have held him all night if he could have, it was so sweet..

Grampy with his snuggle bug

If you look closely you can see 3 groups of climbers on the rock. This was the multi-pitch climb we did.

Getting ready to walk down to breakfast

Kawaii 2011

I wanted to post some pics of our trip to Kawaii back in November just for memories sake. It is just so nice to be able to look back on the blog and see the kids grow so I wanted to make sure we had some documentation of that trip on here.

The trip was about 3 wks long, Zion was 2 going on 3 months old on that trip, and we were just coming out of our rough spell with him which was such an answer to prayer. During that trip he was cooing and interacting so much, seemingly trying to explain to us just how much better he felt. Eden grew a lot on this trip as well. There were two older boys with us ages 11 & 13 and they played and played with Eden as if she was their sister. I have never seen anything like it. By the time we came home, Eden was speaking in full sentences and has been ever since.

It was hard to be there with a 2 month old, mainly because it was hard to protect him from the rain and the sun while at the beach all day, and by the time we came home I was more than ready. But already I am more than ready to go back. It is funny, I never had a strong desire to visit Hawaii, but once you go it sort of gets in your blood and I often find myself day dreaming about our days on the sand and in the sun and rain, and our afternoons of eating snow cones in town. Counting the days till we can return....

This was Eden's third trip on an airplane, she was super excited!

Zion getting ready for his first airplane ride

Zi sleeping in the sun tent

Zi's first dip in the ocean!

It is raining super hard in this pic. Zion, Kerry and I are huddled under a beach umbrella waiting for it to pass while Eden and Jon were playing in the water.

Best pineapple ever! (sp?)

An endangered monk seal - this little guy crawled right up to us while we were camped out on the beach. We ended up having to move all of our stuff so that they could put a "do not enter" perimeter around him.

One of Eden's first waves actually standing up.

Back to Blogging!

For Valentines day/my birthday, Jon got me a new computer. It is very exciting since we have been without one since mid November. I have so much to post and to blog about - so much I want to catch up on...the last 3.5 mo of Zions life to start with, not to mention our trip to Kawaii and Baja and everything in between. For now, I will just start with today. Today, both kids had swim class. Below is a little video of Eden swimming. I am so incredibly proud of her and how well she is doing in her swim class. This video is pretty awful and un-edited but it shows her swimming, and I know Jon will appreciate watching it while at work tonight. We have some video of Zion too. He is pretty funny in the water. He just acts like it is any other element, nothing different, like it doesn't matter to him whether he is in or out of the water. So silly. It is a very special time for he and I, our only one on one time and I try to appreciate every second of it. We will post some video of him swimming at another time.

Rhythm

I have been away from the blog for too long and I just can't take it anymore. I can't add any pictures, but I feel like I need to document our current situation and give praise and thanks to God on print that we are in such a sweet and happy place these days.

Zion is finally starting to settle into a rhythm. It seems like it took so much longer to get here than it did with Eden. In part because he is just a different baby than Eden and because he is the second. Things feel so much different with two and just a bit more complicated but good and amazing nonetheless. He is a very sweet and loving boy. We call him our koala bear because of the way he loves to just hang around our neck. That is his happiest place, cozied in to just about anyone's arms but especially mine. Every time I am near him my heart fills with peace and warmth.

Then there is Eden. I don't even know where to start with her. She is at the sweetest and most tender age. I can not believe the things she is doing and saying. She try's to be so good all of the time. Of course she has her moments but wow, most of the time she is angel for us. Words do not rightly describe the joy she brings us everyday. She is the most loving and sharing big sister and just pure fun all day every day. Some days I wish I could freeze her and keep her this way forever.