Baby Update

One of these days I hope to write Quinn's whole birth story, but a few pictures will have to do for tonight. I've got my hands full with the transition to three kids!

Trenton is such an invested big brother! At almost every nursing session, he sits RIGHT next to me, because according to him, he "likes to pet her head." He says sweet things regularly like, "She's so cute," or "I really love her."

And, especially during the first few days home, we constantly would catch him sitting or lying next to her, just staring. I'm proud of how well he's taking this in stride! Chase is doing well with it, too. He's not as crazy into her as Trenton is, but he does often say, "It's okay, Baby Quinn," if she fusses.

Here are a couple of fun pictures of our little sweetheart!

Baby stretches are the best! Sometimes the stretching goes on and on. My mom and I could watch her stretch all day!

It is hard to catch this girl with her eyes open! Love those sweet lips.

Our EPA House

In the spring of 2009, we bought a little house in East Palo Alto. I never blogged about it, but I want to include it in our family blog books, so here we go!

East Palo Alto is right across the 101 from Palo Alto, and although we all hope the area is gentrifying, the city's crime rates have historically been high. We bought the house in the best neighborhood of EPA (called "the Gardens"), but let's face it, it's still EPA! When we bought it, it was bank-owned and had been vandalized (which saved us quite a bit of money on the purchase price!). We spent a lot of weekends there, with eight-month-old Trenton in tow, participating in a bare-bones renovation of the house and yard. (You know, painting over graffiti inside that said "F da police"! Just a normal Saturday!) Our neighbors on both sides were wonderful the whole time we owned it.

Interestingly (annoyingly?), we found ourselves doing the exact same thing come winter of 2012/2013, thanks to a renter who bailed and left the place in poor repair. After the work and stress of spiffying it up again (most of which Ryan handled), we decided to casually look into selling. When we found out there were only nine houses on the market in the whole city, we decided to list it. After one open house, we got an offer we couldn't turn down, so this weekend, we said goodbye to our cute little house in EPA!

Although it was often a lot of work, it was a valuable learning experience for us, and we're grateful to have had the opportunity. We'll miss you, "Dirty House" (that's what the boys called it all winter), and we hope your new owners take great care of you! It's bittersweet to say goodbye!

The Latest of the Boys

Trenton - 4 1/2 Years Old

• Just after he turned four, this guy turned a corner. He's always been a sweetheart, but he had a major stubbon streak from about age 2 1/2 to 4. :) But now, he is SO easygoing, obedient, and helpful, especially with me being pregnant. He hops to it any time I drop something. The kid picks up more things off the floor day after day, at my request, than I probably do! 
• He does one chore every morning, unloading the silverware, as well as making his bed and brushing his teeth. 
• Usually his prayers involve him looking around and saying he's thankful for whatever he sees (the table, his shoes, his food, his bed, etc.), but the other night I talked to him beforehand about things that really make us happy and make our lives better, which we can thank Heavenly Father for. The one thing he said in his prayer a moment later was that he was thankful for "Mom's baby." I love my little sweetheart! 
• The other day I was sighing to myself about how quickly the house had gotten messy again, and Trenton said (cheerfully but fervently), "Having boys is a lot of work!" No joke! I told him it was but that I loved it. 
• He's not particularly interested in "academics," but he does know letters and numbers well, and he loves to read with me. He still struggles getting 13-20 in the right order, but we're working on it! Besides, how many four-year-olds know what "whops" are and how to ride them on a motorcycle? :) It's great to be a kid. 
• Trenton is very receptive to gospel teaching and loves to read the Book of Mormon every night. 
• He's thriving in his second year of preschool (at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church) and starts kindergarten in the fall! 
• He is awesome at reminding me every Monday that we need to have family night. SO helpful for this forgetful mama! 
• He's very coordinated on anything with wheels. You should see him stand up on his bike or little motorcycle when he wants to get more power. It's times like that that I just look at his skinny, long frame and wonder where my chubby baby went. He's growing so fast all the sudden! 

Chase - 3 Years Old 

• Chase is our resident goofball. He's imaginative and silly and, honestly, a little weird! Sometimes his constant chatter or his random body movements accompanied by loud gibberish sounds drive me nuts! He particularly likes to bust out the latter when I'm trying to get him dressed. Hmph!
• He still loves those "beadle friends," a few strands of red Christmas beads that get turned into everything from a finish line to a racetrack. They go in the car and in the bath—such a versatile toy!
• He is the instigator of most of the boys' play, and Trenton is beside himself with boredom on the rare occasions when Chase is napping or not with us. 
• He stopped napping several months before he turned 3. Now the two of them sit on the bed in their room and have about 25 minutes each of ipad time midday. I tell them when to switch, and they watch each other when it isn't their turn. Thank goodness for that little midday break for mom! M-Th are educational games, and F-S are "weekend games." 
• He is a messy eater. I think it's that creativity of his. He can't eat a banana and not pretend it's a ship and rub it all around the table. Subsequently, his daily chore is to wipe down the kitchen table after breakfast. :)
• The greatest insult in life you can give Chase is to call him small. He fairly regularly comes to me completely dejected, saying, "That boy called me small! I'm NOT small! I'm BIG!" (It probably doesn't help that Trenton's always talking about how he's bigger. Poor younger-brother complex!) 
• I bought Chase a big set of colorful gears for Christmas, thinking they'd be educational. Now, at Chase's idea, all the boys do is build them into "guns." Boys! 
• He's awesome on his balance bike and is so excited to start at Trenton's current preschool in the fall! 

Overnight in SF

Ryan and I had such a great time on our mini-getaway to the city!

Friday afternoon we dropped the boys off with our friends Sarah and John Farrell around 3:30. The boys barely gave us a second glance before they were off playing, and Ryan and I drove straight to the Omni Hotel, the same place we stayed the last time we did this, almost two years ago. In fact, our night was almost an exact recreation of that night. What can we say? We got it right the first time!

After sipping some complimentary hot apple cider and checking out our beautiful room, we headed on foot to Tony's, my favorite restaurant. It's about an eight-block walk, and I savored every minute of holding Ryan's hand; it becomes rare once you have two kids to hang onto! I relished being unrushed in the city, taking in the random sighs and smells, the tiny Asian markets that gave way to the glowing Italian restaurants of Little Italy.

Don't mind the no-flash, nighttime iphone photos!

After the best pizza ever, we walked a few blocks up Columbus to get hot chocolate from XOX Truffles, whose yelp reviews brought us in. Made from melted chocolate just like it should be!

I felt like a different person, walking the city at night! Usually I am homebound by 6pm at the latest!

Back at the hotel, we sat in the elegant lobby and talked for almost an hour. We agreed later that that time spent talking about our future was our favorite part of the getaway. 

The next morning my eyes hit the clock at 7:18, which is unheard of around our house because the boys wake up like clockwork at 7. I didn't even bother getting out of bed until almost 8!

(Our morning drinks spread, complimentary thanks to Ryan's hotel points.)

On our way home we made two quick stops at Honda and Toyota dealerships, because would you believe it's time to start at least thinking about a van? We will be a family of five in 8 weeks or less! 

Boys and Bikes

I admit this is one Christmas present I was hoping would not happen. I avoided the subject as much as possible with hopes that Ryan wouldn't find time to buy it, and I'd be left to buy Trenton something totally tame for his Christmas present. :) But bikes of all kinds are in my husband's blood, so I should have known he'd pull it off! He had the motorcycle shipped directly to Provo, and we managed to pack our suitcases and other gifts around it in the trunk to get it back home with us to California. 

Since then, we've ridden it a couple of times, but only as practice runs in empty parking lots. Today was our first day taking it to our beloved "Shells," a beautiful, hidden spot with sculpted biking hills, right next to the bay. 

Today we also bought T a dirt biking helmet. Our 4 1/ 2-year-old wears an adult small, and even that is a little snug! (I love how it compresses his cheeks!) I think he loves the helmet almost as much as the motorcycle. It hasn't left his side all day, and he's sleeping with it right now as I type! 

He did SO well on the hills today! He was the perfect amount of cautious, starting out slow and only choosing hills that he thought were manageable. He was much more confident after a couple of hours of practice. 

Even Chase got some practice in today! Ryan would hold onto the handle bars, like you see below, and run/push from behind. But it was Chase using the throttle! So funny! He was giggling the whole way. (And it gave his dad a pretty good workout!) 

The funniest was when we let them try it together, with Ryan holding on/staying really close. 

Even though this bike is electric and small enough to fit in our trunk, it's still a leap for me to let our kids get into motorcycling this young. But watching Trenton today, I could see how it challenges him mentally and physically—teaches him to know his limits but also to push them gradually. I'm curious to see how this whole hobby plays out over the years. 

And who knows? Maybe someday we'll live in place where it's a little more feasible for Dad to have one of his own! 

Christmas with the Nielsens

We started our drive to Utah at 2pm (mountain time) and enjoyed chasing this gorgeous, full rainbow across the East Bay. It turns out it was not, however, a good omen, because the drive ended up taking us sixteen hours rather than twelve! Christmas traffic at Donner's Pass and overregulation due to a bit of snow delayed us a few hours, and we ended up driving until 6am! But after that, our remaining seven days of vacation were smooth sailing! 

We enjoyed visiting my Grandma Williams in her new retirement community in Orem. The boys loved the "grandma with the balloons!" 

The boys enjoyed so much play time with uncles Kyle and Javier, from wrestling to reading to plain ol' cuddling. 

The traditional Christmas Eve reading. Chase wandered, but T was in rapt attention to the end. 

Christmas morning lovin' with one of my favorite people in the world! 

A post-Christmas BYU basketball game! Both boys followed the game SO well, with Chase telling me authoritatively to "clap your hands" after every basket. 

Other highlights: 

• A belated anniversary date with Ryan to Pizza 712 in Orem. Delicious! 
• Seeing my darling sister-in-law Sarah, who is due about 7 weeks before me, and sharing pregnancy complaints! 
• The boys helping Julia make cranberry sauce and fudge. 
• The boys playing in our room downstairs until surprisingly late several nights in a row. I'd tuck them in and then go down later to find them still playing. One night, I walked in at 10:30 to find them both under the bed chattering away, with Chase stripped down to only his pullup. Crazy boys! But I love that they're such great friends. 
• Seeing Lincoln and Les Mis at a real live movie theater! It's been ages! 
• Great Grandpa Nielsen (whose name Chase bears as his middle name) pulling many, many "vitamins" out of the boys' ears! 
• Ryan's ski trip to Alta and my lack of desire to leave the house due to the 18 inches of snow! 
• Getting to see my sister's cute baby right before we left town! 
• An impromptu Cafe Rio lunch date with Sarah & Javier, Kyle, and Rachel & Chad on our way out. 

This trip was just the rejuvenation we needed. We so appreciate the Nielsens for their amazing hospitality and the sweet gifts they gave all of us for Christmas. 

Thanksgiving and Halloween posts are below! I'm all caught up! 

Thanksgiving in Arizona

We are so, so glad we drove down to Arizona for Thanksgiving! It was a highlight of my year.

We loved having Bell de Mar (the Tempe house my grandparents have owned since I was little) to stay at, on our own. The boys went down amazingly well every night in the teddy bear room, and my sister Mary had the kitchen stocked with Cinnamon Toast Crunch (a family favorite!) and plenty of other food! Plus, we took home oranges and grapefruit from the trees in the backyard!

On Thanksgiving, we spent the entire day at Mary and Tom's, just riding bikes, playing with toys, and cook-cook-cooking. Mary and I loved being head chefs together, and I'd say we pulled off a delicious meal! Even if it was a couple hours late because we semi-forgot about starting the rolls. :) The beauty of it was that we were in no hurry!

Bikes in front of Mary & Tom's. Not sure I would have signed off on this little stunt had I known about it at the time! haha 

On Black Friday we visited Tia Rosa's, a Mexican restaurant that holds a lot of memories for us, from family meals with G&G to Corey and Sally's rehearsal dinner to my dear friend Kimber's wedding luncheon. Both the decor and the food are always amazing. Equally amazing was how much green salsa Chase put away while we were there. He was literally drinking the last drops of each bowl, before his refill. (Raising 'em right!)

We visited our childhood home, which has changed a lot since my parents sold it while I was a sophomore at BYU. The new owner noticed us snooping around and came out for a friendly visit. She sweetly filled us in on their changes to the house and all the latest with the neighbors. (I was holding back tears when we introduced ourselves!)

I've always loved Hold in the Rock (who wouldn't?), near the Phoenix Zoo, but it brought some added jitters now that I have children old enough to climb around!

From this trip, I'd like to always remember Chase gripping Mary's hand on the hike back out, telling her all about the different fruits he likes; Tom taking Chase's socks off after dinner one night and Chase laughing like crazy; and Trenton stroking Kizzie the Dog through an entire episode of Busytown.

I didn't get many pictures with Corey and Sally's family, but this blurry one is proof that we did party at their house and, obviously, we had a lot of fun doing it! 

We can't thank you enough for such an incredible trip, Babb and Williams families!