First Week in California

We are spending a couple of weeks in California because we love visiting family and friends here, and because Matt was going to be out of town and busy a lot of the time. The plane ride was less than smooth thanks to Emilyn's shrieking and my exhaustion. We flew during her nap and she was not happy. Luckily she was her smiley self at least part of the time, and Matisyn was fabulous, so we made it without too much trouble or discomfort to the other passengers. I was frazzled by the end, however!




We spent Wednesday night and all day Thursday in Folsom visiting with Mike and Alison. Alison and I escaped to a movie Wednesday night, Leap Year, we both want to go to Ireland now. Thursday we just stayed around the house so the babies could nap. Jens and Matisyn ran around and played being their normal energetic selves, squirted each other with the hose (on two different occasions), and wrote a lot of messages! The first hose squirting was pretty funny because Jens squirted Matisyn first and she ran in crying. We dried her clothes in the dryer and the minute she went back out she sprayed Jens and soaked him. I didn't know she had a revenge streak in her! The second round they both thought was funny and came in wet, dirty, and happy. That afternoon we went to the park for an hour or so, and they made friends with some other kids at the park. I'm always amazed at Matisyn's ability to make friends and socialize in all different situations. She is such a people person. Emilyn and Sylvie spent most of the time at the park in the swings. It was Emilyn's first time and she thought it was wonderful. Alison kept saying how rewarding it is to look at her because she always gives you big smiles, which is true. We had two delicious dinners made by Alison. I have a new goal to try to be a cook like her! I'm grateful for their hospitality, we always have so much fun during our visits. Matisyn and Emilyn both fell asleep in the car before we hit the freeway!

These are their bubblegum bread rolls that they made before Alison and I had come downstairs. They used most of a bag of bread to make them.

Matisyn tried out Jens's big kid bike. I think she'll like her new bike at home from Santa when the snow melts and she gets a chance to ride it.






Here are their new friends. The girl below was Matisyn's little buddy. She ran around the park calling out, "friend, friend, where are you?." I don't think she ever learned her name, but that didn't seem to be a problem for the instant friendship!










Emilyn has had a bunch of new food since we got here. It hadn't been a problem until she broke out in hives this afternoon after beans and rice from a Mexican restaurant. I think I'll be more careful now. So far I've lost track, but she's shoveled in lots of different people food including chicken, sweet potato fries, regular fries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, peas, peaches, lunch meat, juice, rice, Mexican food which included lots of things from my mom's plate so I'm not sure what she had a reaction to, yogurt, ground beef, frozen mixed vegetables, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and pizza.

Saturday we braved Chuck E Cheese's for Matisyn. It was busy, but worth it because Matisyn just lit up and ran all over the place. Emilyn just happily sat on the table (they were out of high chairs) and ate pizza and knocked things over trying to get to our sodas.














Here Emilyn is dumping out a cup of ice all over me!

We've been visiting Grandma Anne whenever we can. Here she is checking out Matisyn's new crown that she got with her tickets from Chuck E Cheese. She's so proud of it along with her Diva Singer Card from one of the games.

Here is a coloring contest from Matisyn and Grandma Karen. I know it is actually difficult to tell which one drew which picture because, wow, just look at them both. Matisyn won in case you were wondering, hers is above. Grandma's is just plain scary. I'm not sure what is with the spiky arms and ears, but my mom says she never claimed to be an artist. I'm afraid Matisyn's skills might surpass hers far sooner than we would think. I'm pretty sure she already has more skills than me!


This would be Matisyn's solution to a sleeve that got wet. She did this while we were visiting Grandma Anne at the hospital. My mom said, "Wow, you look like a sexy movie star. That's how they wear their dresses." She tells Matisyn how beautiful and wonderful she is often, (Chunk is worried she'll have a big head soon!), but she really liked the idea of the sexy movie star, even though she had no idea what sexy meant when we asked her, thankfully. She went out in the hall with her dress like that and smiled and performed for everyone passing by. The rest of the night she's been saying, "I'm such a sexy movie star."

Today Kate and Matisyn had a playdate. It is amazing how much they remember each other and love playing. They had so much fun and Kate has apparently been asking to come back to play with Matisyn all day today. Here they are watching a Romper Room episode which is a show from my childhood. Kate's Grandma was actually on the show before her Dad was born, so it makes the memories even more special. They were cracking up watching the puppet show. Matisyn really goes for the slap stick comedy!

We did a picture session for Emilyn's 9 month photos at Picture People this weekend. We got some really cute pictures, and it was nice to focus on just her. My mom kept Matisyn at home. We had the front room that had a big glass opening to the mall. We did some pictures of her in the overalls that Matisyn wore in her 9 month pictures with Jana and then we took some naked ones, tasteful and covered, of course. She was so adorable and chubby that she was attracting the attention of every passerby. When I wasn't looking I could hear constant comments about the cute, naked baby, and when I looked up there was always a big crowd watching her work the camera. Em's put on quite the show, and I'm sure she'll love the story someday! At one time I looked up and there were literally 50 people gathered around. Between her rolls and her smiles, she is quite mesmerizing! When we came back to look at the pictures they said they wanted to do another session and wanted her to be a model for their wall. One of the pictures was so cute they were going to send it to corporate. So maybe someday we'll end up on a coupon or flier for Picture People! I know every parent thinks their baby is the cutest!

Matisyn's Quotes:

Uncle Chunk is pretty much obsessed with the Kings basketball game. He was talking about how much he loves "the Kings". Matisyn said, "Well, I love the princesses."

"Have you seen my moves? I can fight. Look at my Kung fu dance."

Before we left on our trip Matt and Matisyn were having breakfast together. He started to throw a tantrum about not having a fork (we do fake tantrums now and then to show Matisyn how silly it looks). Matisyn patted his face and said, "It's ok Daddy, I'll get you one." When she got back she very tenderly asked, "Daddy, don't you have legs to get your own fork?"

I asked Matisyn who ate all the gummy bear vitamins. I was worried, but it turns out they weren't actually gone. She said, "I think Morton did it. That stinker snake, he must have opened the latches while we were sleeping!"