Our handsome boy was born on April 26, 2012!

8 lbs 10 oz, 20.5 in

Sometime we’ll post the whole story, but for now we’ll just post a few photos to let everyone see our chubby cheeked, black-haired boy!

Below is from the 27th shortly before going home…

…and here he is, ready to get home and be back with his big sister.

Our first day home is going well so far.  Like we said…we’ll put up the story and how Elli’s taking things soon, but for now we are just feeling so blessed and happy and we are loving our two amazing babies!

Easter this year started a couple days before the actual event. Over at Taylor and Aubree’s we colored eggs with them and the Tangs. Not only did Elli actually color on an egg, but she also rough-housed with the other kids…very adventurous for our kiddo!A little dye and Elli’s purple egg was beautiful. Mom made Elli an egg with her two favorite shapes: stars and hearts. We actually donated these to the Horspool egg hunt since we had other plans…

…such as the next day we were heading to an Easter egg hunt at Billy and Katie’s, where a few other families would be gathering. Elli was so excited her hair stood on end.

For some reason when the time for the first hunt of the year came, (and Elli was much too little to remember last year’s), she took the task very seriously. No egg was out of question, even if it was under the trampoline…

…or stuck in the flowers.

Here’s one of Elli’s favorite people these days. She asks if we’re going to Tommy’s pretty much every other day. Elli loves her cousin…

…and his slide. When eggs were no longer fascinating Elli went down this slide for about half an hour! Thanks to Katie for an awesome egg hunt!

The next day was actually Easter, and Elli got to dress up in her Easter dress from Grandma M. What a pretty little girl!

Later in the day Elliot got to find her Easter basket…

…for some reason finding the basket was a little harder for her than the eggs, but she made it.

Then it was off to Chris and Robin’s for a big get-together with a ton of Matt’s family. We ate super-delicious food, played games, and of course, another Easter egg hunt. Elli was still taking the job to heart…that kid scored enough candy to kill a diabetic horse! (It helped that she was the only kid under the age of 20 searching for eggs at this particular hunt, but still…she did good).

We hope everyone else had a Happy Easter!

Chris and Robin invited us up to the mountains for a beautiful day of fishing! Even though we did not catch any fish, the day was absolutely gorgeous, and nothing beats fresh mountain air!

Matt did finally get bored watching his cousins fish without him. Even though we do not have licenses, most likely the rangers would have let Matt’s rigged “pole,” with a rusty hook he found on the ground, slide even if he was caught. (You might have to make the photo bigger to see the branch Matt was using…classic.)

By the end of the day we were all a little worn out, but Elli was lucky enough to nap to the tune of a babbling mountain brook. We cannot wait for our next fishing excursion!

Ideally we would have posted this back on Elliot’s birthday, but let us say just a little late: HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR SWEET GIRL!

As hard as it is to believe Elliot has now joined the ranks of all the two year olds out there. Honestly there has been little “terrible” about it, despite the classic title. If anything our girl just keeps getting more and more fun. For the sake of Grandy’s and Grampy’s who were not here to celebrate our sweet Elli-Bean, here are some photos from the big day:

We had this genius idea to blow up some helium balloons the night before Elli’s birthday so that when she woke up they would be all over the ceiling, (she loves balloons these days). Little did we believe the warning that the helium wears out in 5-7 hours. But when Elli woke up Sunday morning she was still ecstatic to run around and play with all the balloons on the ground.

Along with our balloons we had a banner up to surprise Elli in the morning.

And on the table were the cupcakes we both decorated the night before. Since Elliot has been loving Horton Hears a Who, that was the theme for her day. Thus the pink “clover” has a Who-Ville speck on top…

…and some cupcakes featured images from the actual book.

Since Elliot had to get spiffed up for church, we thought we would try to do a little birthday photo shoot with her right after. (This is something we were hoping to make a tradition every year for each of our kids…we did it last year for Elliot’s first birthday). While we got a couple cute shots, they came with a lot of blood, sweat and tears…Elliot was just not having it…

…so we’ll take what we got for her actual “birthday shoot,” but hopefully we’ll get some more professional two-year portraits another time. Oh well!

While Elli took a little nap we redid the whole balloons on the ceiling thing…

…and began to set up her little family party we would be having.

When Elli was awake and our guests had arrived twas time for dinner. Elliot got to sit in her birthday-a-fied high chair and we only made her eat the foods she liked.

Next was present time and Elliot dove into one from Grandy and Grampy. For some reason her first inclination was to throw her present onto Daddy’s head…maybe she thinks green is his color?

After a little while of ripping into gifts Elliot assumed her “ham” position on top of the couch and enjoyed everyone’s attention being on her!

When it came time for making a two-year wish Elli thought that being sung to was pretty cool…

…but she looked at Mom like, “You want me to do what?” when we tried to explain the whole blowing out her candles thing…

…then she looked even more confused when Mommy “helped” her extinguish the flames…

…that’s OK…a finger-dip in the frosting and Elli was on her way to dessert bliss.

For the rest of the evening Elliot got to play with her cousins, we got to play with our fun family, and all in all we think that Elliot’s birthday turned out to be a great start to her third year of life! We just love our little girl!

So the novelty of what happened last week has probably worn off for most people since they probably already posted about it…but hey…we are a little behind. However, you will not want to miss the saga of Elliot’s first “real” snow experience (she has been in snow before but when she was much too young to care, and we are not sure that you can call one day of Southern California snow real. But we digress)…

Most of our readers have already heard how we had a week/weekend of 70-80 degree weather, only to be surprised with snow the next Monday night. By Tuesday morning a lot of the snow was gone, but since our front yard stays shaded we still had a couple inches. Melissa thought that sharing this beautiful, white morning with Elli would be a good idea. Elliot thought she was being tortured…

…there was a lot of crying involved!

But finally with the bribe of her favorite outdoor chair and a “treat,” (one M&M, usually reserved for going to the bathroom), Melissa was able to make it look like Elliot can handle snow for at least a few seconds. After this Elliot was promptly taken back in the house for some Horton Hears a Who therapy, (one of her current favorite movies).

Even though our town had melted by afternoon, Oak Glen still had some considerable snow. Therefore, we thought we would give Elli one more try, (poor thing could not move her head with all the warm clothing we had on her!), this time with Matt there to help…

…and her favorite Chris and Robin.

At first Elliot’s attitude had not changed much, though she did let Robin take her down a small hill, using a snowboard as a sled. (As soon as Robin had to set her down though to pick up the snowboard the tears were back and Elliot was back in Mama’s arms.)

Despite Elliot’s snow-a-phobia, Matt, Chris and Robin went straight to work building a kicker at the base of the incline we had stopped at. What can be more hard core than about 12 feet of run and a 2 foot kicker?…

…perhaps falling on your face trying to do a 360 off that kicker? But hey…you gotta take what you got when you got it, right?

Finally, after about 45 minutes of Melissa and Elli watching everyone else take falls in the snow…

…a miracle happened and Elliot asked to “walk.” The only way she accepted this feat was to hold Mommy’s hand and say, “Crunch, crunch, crunch,” for each step. But whatever works!

And thus we ended with snowy success!

So despite the constant threat of being laid off, teaching does have some perks. Matt had a few days off in February so here’s what we did:

A day at Disneyland with our Tang/Horspool buddies is always good. Here are Melissa and Elli on one of the Bug’s Life Land rides, (she actually did like it despite her serious face).

Waiting for Autotopia. Elli’s love for cars made this a big hit for her! Our day at the Magic Kingdom was great. We tend to not take as many pictures when we are there these days, but fun was had nevertheless!

Valentine’s Day Matt actually did go to work. But when he got home Elli posed sweetly for a little e-card to grandparents…

…we all exchanged gifts…

…we went to Taylor and Aubree’s brand new house to decorate festive cookies…

…and just had a great time. Thanks to those near and far for sharing the love!

President’s Day was probably Elliot’s favorite outting since she was surrounded by animals. (Definitely her mother’s daughter.) All the giraffes were way up close to the fence so Elli got very excited. Grandy would be so proud! (And Grandy, these pictures are for you:)

The Living Desert in Palm Springs is cool not only for their fauna, but also for their plant life…if you like the deserty sort of stuff!

For kicks and giggles we went and watched the bird/animal show. Melissa really liked the kookaburra. Elliot was slightly stunned when their hawk that flies through the audience hit her in the face with its wing. Our tough kid did not cry though…she just kind of jumped and then pointed to the hawk saying, “bird!”

Every good day needs a good break in the grass…

…and some fun cousins to meet up with!

This shot may not seem like it is very awesome, but if you know our timid girl the fact that she was running around like crazy, playing in and on the assortment of zoo-themed play equipment is amazing! She climbed into that nest all by herself, several times! Way to go, Elli!

Elli and Tommy were having so much fun together…cute little cousins!

A big hit with all the McNuggets was the merry-go-round…

…Elli, not so much. But we forced her anyway being the decent parents that we are.

It’s ok…we made up for the carousel experience by taking Elliot to the petting zoo. No goat was safe with Elli around! She would go up right to their faces and pet or brush them…

…even being head-butted by ginormous horns did not stop her. (Of course that’s when we would intervene and turn her to the next goat). Funny kid…Elliot that is…not the goat.

And our super fun day with Billy and Katie ended with an excellent view of the leopard. By then we were all tuckered out, but felt thoroughly fulfilled!

Ok, this last photo has nothing to do with holidays, but for those not living close and are curious as to how ginormous Melissa is, here is a peak. As you can see Jude is sufficiently stretching out his territory, and Melissa is starting to take on a Jabba the Hut like physique. Only eight more weeks to go though and hopefully Jude will be in our arms! Crazy!

For those of you who already hit your third decade, you know that day can come with some denial and depression. However, for one Matt, he dealt with turning 30 using his usual techniques of apathy and humor. Maybe it’s his personality, or maybe it’s because you just need to celebrate the appropriate way in order to get through such an ordeal. How does one get through their 30th birthday? Well…

…you should probably wake up to panda muffins and presents along with your breakfast (complete with bacon if you’re Matt…this is essential to the healing process).

Then you should open said presents and have your adorable daughter give you a card she made just for your big day.

Next you ditch your adorable daughter and take a bowling trip with your wifey.

And how about finishing the day off with a lot of delicious food, fun family and friends, and a good old pizzookie at BJ’s?

Yep! That oughta about do the trick!! Cheers to turning 30!

So hard to believe that our beautiful niece, Lia, turned six years old the other day! She is one funny, smart kid! In order to share with her parents/anyone who was at the party Katie threw for the big day we just put all the worthy photos we took on here. Hope you guys enjoy and let’s hope time stops flying by quite so fast!!

Well, we are actually getting to a post sooner than later…maybe this year will be better for us. Despite our recent postings it feels like there is still so much to share though!

First off, we have to make mention of a couple December items that almost got missed somehow, (as in they got lost in the world of too many memory cards…thankfully we found the files though!):

Before heading to Oregon we had a mini-Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa M. Elli was really getting into the presents they gave her…

…and got really excited to give her present to them. We had a lovely evening complete with matzo ball soup, desserts, lots of laughing at Elli…

…and everyone got to enjoy their gifts, (even Jude).

The very next day we were able to go to Melissa’s Grandma and Grandpa K’s house. Thankfully Annie, Edgar, and their sweet, new baby boy were there too. Mateo is Melissa’s youngest cousin! Elli liked to talk about the baby, and we had such a great time with everyone. Grandpa’s brother, Don, and his wife, Gale, were there, and we are always so happy to see all our family!

So, since all the holiday madness, we have actually had time to just spend at home, which has been really nice. Elliot has been grooving on all her new toys she got for Christmas, and is still loving to sport her “cheese” face.

Ikea got a lot of business from us in the month of January. Elli loved to climb Mt. Furniture, which was taking up a large part of our living room for awhile!

We got to work putting some of the new items together, which still provided plenty of entertainment for Elli.

In between home improvement projects, we took a little break and headed north to see Phil, Heather, Cozette and Lily. Our first day with them we met up at Alameda Park in Santa Barbara. The kids had a ball watching ducks at a gorgeous pond. Then it was off to the ginormous play structure, where Elliot was having a good time trying to keep up with her cousins.

Cozie and Lily happily fed the park shark…

…while Elliot remained skeptical of any such large, fish-like creatures.

It’s always nice to get together as adults with Phil and Heather. We have such classy, mature fun, which should always be shared on the blog.

Our weekend with our fun family ended with Aunt Kathy, Uncle Tom and Niki joining us at Oso Flaco. A small walk over a pretty lake and through some brush takes you to a beautiful, sand dune beach.

Despite the cold, cold wind, we looked for sand dollars. Every single one we found had at least one barnacle on it…some sort of ocean creature battle going on apparently. Melissa thought this was pretty cool though – the inside of a sand dollar fully in tact.

On our walk back we stopped for a snack and Lily and Elliot called a truce long enough to eat next to each other. There was some fierce competition going on between these two most of the weekend…

…attacking Daddy can always bring two cousins together though.

Before heading home we went with our cousins to one of the places on the coast where monarchs gather. This spot is right near Pismo Beach. When we first walked into the trees we just saw a few butterflies here and there…

…which Elliot thought was super cool!

Pretty soon though we found the main attraction: the tree where clumps of butterflies gather together. We learned that monarchs do not do this to keep warm, (they are cold blooded so heat is not happening), but to weigh the branches down in order to keep from being flung around in the wind. Five butterflies weigh approximately as much as one penny, so it takes a lot of the little bugs to keep their perches stable!

Hopefully this picture shows all the huge masses of monarchs. There were about 24,000 in this location alone.

Here’s what a clump of the little guys looks like as close as our lens can get:

And here Melissa was just messing around with what she thought was a cool composition.

After our fun weekend up north it was time to get back to work. The next Saturday Elliot got her very first hair trim!

Even though Elli was a little skeptical of the experience…

…there was no real need to worry. Below is all the hair that she lost, so not much at all. We really were just trying to get rid of her little rat tail that was trying to make it’s way down her neck.

Her “after” shot was very dramatic…what can we say…she’s a natural model! (Of course this does not really show “the cut,” although we did take a few little flyaways off the top).

Since Elliot has an affinity for modeling we thought she should show off the coat that Grandy made her for Christmas…

…and a couple days later she sported the hat Grandy created. So cute!

More Ikea was waiting to be assembled, and one of the biggest pieces was Elliot’s new bed. Since she was very interested in what was going on we put her to work. Surprisingly she got really into her task, and even did a pretty good job!

Elliot’s room will not be finished for a little bit, though we’ll post photos when it is, (there’s some sewing to be done by Melissa coming up…her favorite thing. That was sarcasm). But, the other ginormous project we completed this month was the organizing, cleaning, and refurnishing of our room. We know you guys are dying to see the finished get-up, so here are a couple pics, (and of course no room of ours is complete without a cat in it):

Ok, we actually put these photos up because we, (especially Melissa), are really proud of this transformation. It’s been a long time coming, and for those of you who saw our room in it’s “before” state, you know that this must have taken us a LONG time. But now we love being in our bedroom, which is great!

And while we are bragging about what’s going on with us, (hey…Elli can make a little room for us on this blog here and there, right?), Matt figured out how to make a scrumptious Artisan baget…

…once we speedily devoured the first two loaves he made, he stepped up his game by making round two half whole wheat. Even better! So Melissa added a vegetable soup, (made up using different things she remembered from different recipes), which turned out awesome! Yeah…we’re kind of full of good food these days!

…guess it’s ok that we are just now blogging about Christmas.

And, since we are behind anyway, why not back-track and talk a little about Thanksgiving!?

Aside from learning that we will be having a Jude, we got to spend Thanksgiving with a whole lot of Matt’s fun family. Grandpa was loving being with his grandgirls.

Elli learned how to avoid eating any of the Thanksgiving dinner she did not approve of, (though she was being crazy…that food was delicious!).

Later we took a walk to Uncle David and Aunt Becky’s horses. Aunt Trudy was a surprise guest, and everyone was SO happy she was able to come!

You would think that Elliot would have a healthy fear of large animals she has never seen in person before…

…but she didn’t even care when one of the horses tried to eat her shirt! Guess you gotta give her props for bravery.

A couple days after Thanksgiving most of us who live around here met up at Oak Glen on a beautiful day!

We were able to get lots of fun group shots…

…awwww…brothers.

Our beautiful aunts.

We even got one big group shot, which actually turned out halfway decent!

Between Thanksgiving and our Christmas getaway, we were just hanging around the house. A particularly exciting phenomena has been taking place lately, which is that Elli can actually achieve some bedhead. This is only amazing since before recent times her hair was too sparse for such occurrences.

Along with her hair Elliot’s affinity for helping Mommy out is beginning to grow. We caught her at one of her favorite chores: throwing away her dirty diapers…

…when she turned around we were able to catch one of her crazy “Cheese!” faces, and please note that her pockets are full of crayons. This was the safe place she decided to store her drawing tools on this particular day.

Finally we went up to Oregon for Matt’s Christmas break. Melissa was extremely excited to see her parent’s new home. And Elli was excited to play with all the toys Grandy had stored for grandkid visits. Rufus has been around since Melissa was a little tike…you can tell he’s had lots of love.

Thanks to Jared’s birthday being so close to Christmas we were able to celebrate him turning 19. Off to a mission for him, very soon!

Christmas day came right up, and as it was Sunday we actually got spiffed up for the occasion, (we usually just hang out in our pj’s).

After a great service it was back to opening presents. Luckily one of Elli’s gifts provided the perfect place for ripping into more packages. (the chair actually has a panda face…too cute. Elliot loves it!)

When presents were sufficiently opened and being played with it was time to make Christmas brunch. Nothing says macho like wearing a manly apron while cooking bacon. Way to go, Grampy.

The day after Christmas we decided to try for some family portraits. This one turned out all right, we think!

Here Melissa is with all her handsome/gorgeous siblings.

Just look at Grandy and Grampy, all loving and what-not!

Christmas around Melissa’s family would not be complete without the family village.

This year Melissa went with a tree house theme…

…while Matt went with the spooky house on the block. Everyone’s creations were fancy and festive, as usual!

One day Melissa’s parents treated us all to a trip to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Elliot really liked the animal displays…

…and the kiddie set-up where you could get soaked. She actually grasped the concept of getting balls to float in the fountains fairly quick and spent a good 20 minutes trying to pull off that trick.

Everyone always loves OMSI. They have lots of little displays and experiments to see and this was Matt’s first time going to this attraction that Melissa grew up with.

For most of our trip we just hung around the house, eating scrumptious victuals, (those cookies were awesome, if Melissa does not say so herself)…

…and playing games, from dominoes to Settlers of Catan. Overall the vacation was relaxing and a lot of fun, so we returned home very thankful for the experience!

New Year’s Eve we were back in California and decided to have a quiet night over at Chris and Robin’s. Since we had been gone they saved Elliot’s Christmas presents for this evening. Elli was a little skeptical of the scooter, but we know she’s going to love it very soon!

And well, the bubbles are always a favorite, even if they sometimes end up in Elliot’s mouth. (She actually got so much soap in her mouth trying to “do it herself” that she was literally blowing bubbles…without the wand!)

2011 had been a pretty good year to us. When it was time to toast the new year in we were feeling, (very tired…we never stay up till midnight these days), like 2012 was going to be just fine!
We hope you all have been enjoying your new year so far, and hey…maybe this year we’ll post a little more often so there aren’t a bazillion pics per entry! (It could happen).