"Painting" and Pool

We refinished the used swing set Derrick's parents just bought. Caleb loved to help paint. We gave him some paint in the lid as you can see in this video but he soon realized others were getting paint straight from the bucket and he wanted nothing more to do with the lid. He got pretty dirty but he had fun. The day after we did it he was showing Derrick everywhere he "painted."

We had a fun Saturday night. We went to the community pool. I stayed out of the pool with Brynn and Caleb had fun with everyone else. One of his favorite things to do was watch the kids come down the medium sized water slide. He also loved the water shooting out of the ground. I was surprised to see him jump from the edge of the water into Grandpa's arms.

Brynn is doing well. She is an allstar sleeper. I thought Caleb was good with sleeping through the night at 2 1/2 months, Brynn did that before she even hit 2 months. She loves to lay on the floor and look at lights. She is often more happy on the floor than in our arms, go figure that one out. Caleb is still so sweet with her. He will often stop when he is walking by her and say, "Hi Bwynn."

Father's Day Stitches

At 2 years and 2 months Caleb got his first stitches. He fell off Grandma and Grandpa's bed, hit the side table directly above his left eyebrow and split his head open. It didn't bleed a lot but boy was it opened up wide. I did not want to see Caleb get stitches so Derrick and his dad took Caleb to urgent care. Derrick said it was good I didn't go. They put Caleb in a straight jacket, the assistant held Caleb's head still and they put a cloth completely over his face, except where the stitches were being done. Caleb was crying like he was going to die. I'm sure I would feel the same way too in his position. Derrick talked to Caleb (not that it helped much) and watched the procedure. Derrick said when they cleaned it out it was twice as deep and when we saw it *shiver.
However, after the 3 stitches were done they gave Caleb a lollipop and he was much better. In fact, Caleb went straight from urgent care to nursery at church and he did great. I did feel a little bad though because they missed the cookies and brownies that were handed out to all the dads at church. Sorry guys!

Photo Shoot

I wanted to take some newborn pics of Brynn and 2 year pics for Caleb. Lisa has a friend from high school with a nice camera and he loves to take pictures. We set up a little make up studio in the kitchen and took some pictures there and in the backyard. I think they turned out so well! Brynn is a month and a half in these pictures so it's not brand new but it's close enough for me. I didn't show Derrick the pictures until yesterday for Father's Day. I printed out my favorites and put them in a frame for a decoration for our new home, whenever we get one.

Family Fun Day

On Saturday we had a stake activity where Caleb enjoyed the ice cream, bouncy house and playing in a sand pit.


First smile caught on camera and a video.

Jungle Jim's

Clever name isn't it? Caleb, Brynn and I headed out to Jungle Jim's. Brynn was so good, she stayed asleep in the stroller the whole time. Caleb had been there once with Grandma and he had fun but not as much fun as I thought he would have. Maybe it was because it was his second time there.

Caleb did love the rides you put tokens in. His favorite part was actually putting the tokens in the slot.

His favorite ride was the jeep:

A close second was the airplane:

Loving Life

This is now one of Caleb's favorite things to do. The neighbor has a bigger slide that he also likes to do this with. We have even started bringing a car or two to the park with us so he can do it there too.

I just though Caleb was so cute that I got out the camera and started asking him random questions.

Story and Memorial Day

Story: At dinner the other night Caleb said, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy," really fast. When Derrick turned to look at him, Caleb smiled really big then let out a burp. It was the funniest thing ever. We can't believe he had the self control to hold it in until he got Derrick's attention.
Memorial Day: Lynne's side of the family came over. It was a full house and Caleb loved it. It was so cute to see him smiling so much while running around with the other kids and having the adults pay attention to him and play with him a little bit. I am never more happy than when I see Caleb happy and yesterday he was truly happy.
What surprised me though was when I told him it was time for bed and he smiled the whole time walking to his room and getting ready. Even though he was leaving the fun, he had just been so happy that it carried through until he went to sleep. He is such a happy kid and life is a genuine joy to him. I hope that doesn't change.

Kids

Caleb found shoes to match his pj's:

Here I asked Caleb to roll like a dog:

I love seeing my kids awake and happy near each other. I still find it hard to believe that I have 2 children.

We are borrowing a swing from a neighbor. Brynn likes it but doesn't love it. Here's when she is happy in it:

That kid...

1. At church on Sunday I brought Caleb to nursery. He was the first kid there and I was afraid he would be nervous with me leaving since it was a new nursery and there were no other kids there yet. He quickly found a very big dump truck to play with and when I told him I was going to class he responded, "bye, bye." That kid loves nursery.
2. Good Night Moon is a book we read often. In the great green room there is a clothes line with a pair of socks and a pair of mittens. There is another page with just the mittens on the clothes line. Caleb pointed to the clothes line, looked at me and said, "Socks, go?" I had never pointed out to him before that the socks were missing in that picture. That kid is very observant.
3. Caleb was watching Sesame Street videos on the computer. I told him he had watched enough for the day and we were all done. I then told him I had to go to the bathroom. As soon as I closed the door of the bathroom he calls out, "Lisa, Lisa!" Lisa comes and turns on the video for him (of course she didn't know I said no more videos). That kid knows how to get what he wants.

We're Here

Well, we made it to Utah! After the grueling task of packing and cleaning we're here. Derrick's parents drove the truck rental with my car in tow; Derrick and I drove Derrick's car with the kids. Caleb and Brynn both did so well in the car! Caleb was only fussy outside of the car but almost never in it. Brynn slept the whole time. We couldn't be more lucky. None of us got very much sleep for about a week but that's all behind us now.
We are staying with Derrick's parents for now and the kids couldn't be happier about that either. Caleb loves everyone so much. Whenever Kent walks in the room he says, "Kent" with a smile. He knows Lisa will play with him and says her name well too. Grandpa is also a favorite but he's at work and they don't get to see each other as much as Caleb would like. Grandma is the best at reading books:

Brynn started being constantly fussy early this week but finally, since last night, she has been more content, saying lots of "ooo's" and smiling at you when you talk to her. She even rolled over from tummy to back twice this morning for the first time (6 weeks).

Since Monday, Derrick and I have been running around like crazy working out things to buy a home. We went house hunting on Monday and Tuesday and yesterday we put in an offer on a home. It is a short sale so we won't hear back for a little bit but we are excited about the home we found in Saratoga Springs. We really hope it works out.

We're Moving!

I've done a lot of posts in a row and this one had to get it's own post. We are moving to Utah! Derrick interviewed at a few companies and he got 2 great offers. One at a start up in downtown San Francisco and another for a small but growing company in Utah, Corda. We were completely torn and had a really hard time deciding where to go. At first we accepted the start up in SF because he's always wanted to do one and I wanted to support him even though I did not want to move close to the city.
A week after we accepted the offer, Corda wanted to give us a better offer. Derrick got a call from Josh James, the former CEO of Omniture (a company sold to Adobe for 1.8 billion) and the person who just bought Corda. After talking to Derrick for a few minutes he gave Derrick an offer we couldn't refuse. Not only was it a great offer but Josh told Derrick he would be there for him to help further along his career (that is invaluable). Derrick accepted the offer right there on the phone. It was very hard to call the SF company and tell them we were taking another offer because they had been so nice to us but we knew it was what was right for our family.
Tomorrow (Friday) is Derrick's last day at Microsoft. We will hit the road one week later.
We have felt so blessed in our lives for many reasons. We know that all our blessings come from a Father in Heaven who loves us and we are hoping we can do even more good knowing that we have just been given such a huge blessing.
In conclusion, we now get a good job and Utah! We are looking forward to being near family and buying a home (oh how I shout for joy). Utah here we come!

Gram and Pop Visit Conclusion

All in all, we had fun together. It was nice to have 2 other people to help with the kids too.

We celebrated Derrick's 29th birthday together. Happy Birthday Derrick!

We can't wait until their next visit!

Brynn's Blessing

It was a wonderful blessing day. Our neighbors, Ivana, Isabelle and Cristian came (in the middle of this picture) and Derrick's friend, Abraham, from Stanford came as well (on the left). Brynn looked beautiful and she didn't cry at all during the blessing.

Happy Hollow

My parent's came in town last weekend for Brynn blessing. On Friday they took Caleb to Happy Hollow. He loved it!




At story time Caleb walked right up to the story teller and his hat was on crooked. I think it is so cute! The story teller gave Caleb five.


Caleb never wanted to go home he was having so much fun. He just wanted to ride:

Our Easter

On Saturday we went to a church Easter egg hunt and Caleb picked up very quickly how to hunt for Easter eggs. Derrick took Caleb around and Derrick said Caleb would find eggs he didn't even see. So on Sunday morning when I did a little egg hunt for Caleb he knew exactly what was going on and what would be in the eggs.


In the mid morning Caleb was jumping on our bed. He likes to jump forward and land on his tummy. Well, when he lunged forward he went too far and hit the window sill at the top of our bed and got this scratch:

He cried while it pussed and became a scab. Yesterday he noticed it in the mirror for the first time and said, "nose, nose" while touching it. He knew it was not normally on his face.
We went to church then headed right to Mark and Mary's house for Easter dinner. It was a good day.
Here's a video of Brynn: