One more, please!

We could sit like this for hours...

When he asks for one more please, how can I say no...

 He can't wait to read.  

What worlds that will open to him through books.  Such fun awaits!

we had a date night!

Last night we had a date night!  We are getting better at putting dates on the calendar ahead of time,  and it has been such a blessing to have those evenings where we can look forward to uninterrupted conversation time and connection! It has been a long process to get into the habit of carving out time for them and we are so thankful when they happen...

First we made a stop here.  Our new favorite in Tustin:

Then we headed here:

We went on the Haunted Mansion, and Big Thunder Mountain. 

It is so funny to go to Disneyland without a stroller and children...

Then we headed over to California Adventure to go on the Radiator Springs Racers:

Someone gave us their fast passes from earlier in the day so we were able to get in before they closed.  Neither of us had ever been on it and realized that Ryder would LOVE it!

I just love every second that I get to be with this man... He brings such joy to ALL of our lives...

sweet friends

We have been loving our new house, but the best thing about the move is that it puts us SO much closer to our friends and community.  We have been making playdates and having dinner with friends and feeling such a fullness and richness with those around us.  I am so thankful.  Yesterday was just one of those days: 

A playdate with the Thrashes:

 Bikes:

 Eden had the hardest time that I wouldn't let her hold baby Mae.  Poor thing

Last time we were here, was June of 2011:

The guys were in South Africa for a wedding:

 

What a difference a few years makes...

Kit and Ryder time

Have you seen these kit's at Lowes?

There are a couple of different styles, I think you can do a boat, truck, car, and bus.  They say that they are good for 5+ but it was PERFECT for Ryder!

He and Kit spent some time the other morning doing the car version:

 He got to use hammer and nails and everything.  I didn't get any pictures of the actual assembly.  It was Kit and Ryder ONLY time...

We got the truck and the car kits.  Ryder does NOT want to go anywhere without it!  Such a fun project for my guys...♥  They can't wait to build the truck!

Eden was very happy to sweetly watch:

She will NOT be using a "hummer" (hammer) anytime soon.

anyone need a baby sitter?

She's fun, energetic and playful.  She's nurturing, independent, and, um, assertive, yah, let's call it that...  She's reasonably priced in that you can pay her with food and treats.  Playing with babies is currently her favorite pastime.  Eden can totally handle anything your kids can dish out. 

Now if YOU can handle Eden?  That's another story...

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On a very serious note, she is FULLY convinced that she can take care of herself and anyone around her, which poses a problem when she is yet to be potty trained or prepare her own food...♥

To my girl, those are just minor set backs...

time with close friends

Our college years brought us some incredibly deep friendships and to this day, almost 16 years later, we are still close.  We still choose to live life together, and raise our kiddos together and be community to each other.  We have grieved and celebrated together.  I am so thankful for these friends and the richness and joy that they bring to our lives... 

On saturday we got together for some hangout time:

This is Mark, one of Kit's freshman roommates, turned best friend, turned best man, for life!

 The guys:

 The girls:

The kiddos:

 Making silly faces:

Talking outside at the Jones' house: 

(photo brought to you by my daughter, who insisted on staying with the adults while the kiddos watched Curious George, and on holding my phone and emptying my diaper bag and purse to keep herself occupied...) 

I just love these friends that have become family and I am so thankful that we have the privilege to do life together!♥

my son...

He's funny, brave, sensitive, and kind...

He's a helper who wants to be right in the thick of it...

He's nurturing and relational and loves to be with people...

He's independent and passionate and I see a strong leader developing inside this boy... 

I love who he is and who he is becoming and I love that I get to play a part in his life.

I am so honored to be this  little man's mama.   Even on our hardest days, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world...

a medallion home (a.k.a. that time Gina was obsessed with the year 1968...)

I didn't really pay much attention to our door bell until my mom said to my dad, "Oh, this is one of those medallion homes... remember those?"  

I was curious.  So I did a little research on why my new house had this little plaque on it's door bell and why that was a sign of "living better".

Here are general facts I though were interesting:

(also, my dad loves this kind of stuff.  Dad, this is for you:)

Our house was built in 1968.  The year Martin Luther King , Jr and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, and we were at war in Vietnam, the year the Tet Offensive was launched by the Viet Cong on January 30.    It was the year before we put a man on the moon, Lyndon B. Johnson was president, Nixon and Agnew were campaigning to be voted in the following year and bell bottoms were all the rage.  The summer olympics were held that year in Mexico and Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power salute while on the podium receiving their medals.  Hot wheels made their first appearance that year, as well as it being the year that Roy Jacuzzi invented, you guessed it, the jacuzzi.  The movie Oliver! won best picture, a  Super Bowl add cost $54,000, and "I Heard It Through the Grape Vine" and "Hey Jude" were a few songs that made number one on the billboard charts that year.

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My mom was a junior in high school living in Long Beach and my dad was a junior in high school living in Seattle.  Good times!

So back to that door bell, the whole reason I started looking up these facts in the first place...

Here's what I found online:

To keep demand high, the electrical industry launched the Live Better Electrically, or LBE, campaign in March 1956. It was supported nationwide by 300 electric utilities and 180 electrical manufacturers.

The campaign got then-actor Ronald Reagan, the popular host of "General Electric Theater," to take his television audience on a series of tours of his and wife Nancy's all-electric Pacific Palisades home.

An in-house GE sales pitch declared that "by Thanksgiving, there should not be a man, woman or child in America who doesn't know that you can 'Live Better Electrically' with General Electric appliances and television."

In October 1957, LBE launched the "Medallion Homes" campaign, which sought to sell 20,000 all-electric homes nationwide by 1958, 100,000 by 1960 and 970,000 by 1970.

To earn a gold medallion--a decal affixed to a home's entryway and considered the apex of modern, all-electric living--a home had to have an electric clothes washer and dryer, waste disposal, refrigerator and all-electric heating.

The Medallion Homes campaign was a huge success. By some estimates, the nationwide goal of about 1 million all-electric homes was achieved, according to the Edison Electric Institute, although data on the actual number built is unavailable.

I love thinking about what it was like when the homes in our housing track were being built.  To think that people have come and gone but the house still stands and that we get to be part of IT's history for awhile is pretty special.

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This sunday marks that we have been living here for three months.

I LOVE living here and I am so thankful that we made the move!

a new favorite for Ryder...

Legos.  The little ones.  He can't get enough.  They occupy him for HOURS!

He gives them voices, makes them go on adventures around the house and 99.9% of the time, there is a lego man in his pocket or by his plate while he eats.

Now if I can just keep his sister from destroying his creations, that would be awesome!