Perfect Park Day

Dear Kids,

Sunday in San Francisco was one of those days where you could take a deep breath, soak up the sun and love that we live here.  The skies were blue, the bay was glistening with America's Cup action, and we were burning some energy at the park.  We passed a cute lemonade stand on the way that happened to sell pot holders too.  Who could resist?  (we haven't seen them since about 5 minutes after the picture).

 Taylor, you are growing before my very eyes.  

 Buddy, you were so determined to climb these stairs, it was adorable.

 Taking pictures of you with any sort of "face of happiness" is virtually impossible.  

I promise you were having a great time.

 Me: "kids, get together so I can take your picture."

You three: This below was your best effort.  Really, don't hurt yourselves.

 Me: "Please... I really want a picture of the three of you."

You three: less effort than above, which is saying not much at all.

 Love you so much Taylor!  

A great day in the city.  Loved it.

xoxo

mom

Flashback Friday

Dear All,

I am not sure why I would torture myself with pictures of you all as sweet babies, 

but gosh were you the cutest!!  I definitely thought so.

Taylor, here we are trying on your baptism gown.  Love:)  You look like a porcelain doll. 

With drool.

Anna.  Your lips are real.  In this picture, in real life.  People used to ask us.

As though we would actually use injectables on a baby. Please. 

Seriously though, you were such a sweet baby and the cutest flower.

 Hudson, I look back and am now so surprised you wore that costume.  I can't imagine you would now, but that is ok. I will now spend the rest of the day trying to remember if you had the same funny "issues" then that you do now, and will then analyze if it is my own anxiety that has made you so anxious.  I am sure it is.

 Daddy, if I don't say it enough.  You are so handsome.  This was a few years ago, but boy I would sit and have a bloody with you right now.  

I saw this on Pinterest here and thought, "yep, that's my guy."

Well kids, we are off to the start of a great weekend.

I love you all so much.

xoxo

mom

Go Cardinal!

Dear Girls,

Our Stanford Cardinal football team was back at it!  Last year, the home opener was a dead zone.  No one was there.  A team wins the Rose Bowl and the place is packed:)

We took our friends the Trollmans.

Our superfans:)

My one issue with college football is that they don't sell beer inside.  I am not much of a drinker, but I do love a beer when I watch football.  Who knows why?  

We had a great time tailgating before we went in.

  Girls!  It is such fun to do this with you each year.

Waiting for cotton candy time.

YEAH!  This might be the only reason you come to the game Anna.

We left in middle of the third quarter... just after 10pm.  Daddy was sleeping, and Anna wanted dinner.

xoxo

mom

AYSO

Girls,

I love a good AYSO game.  It says Fall, competition (expect Anna's age doesn't have a goalie or keep score), and community.  This time of year reminds me so much of my dad.  I wrote about it here.  Last year, writing that post was so difficult.  The memories were painful and hard.  This year, I thought of my dad so many times while cheering you on (or yelling at you to go after the ball), but fewer tears shed.  I guess I am in a better place than a year ago, but boy do I miss my dad.

Happy soccer players- check :)

Taylor, your league is official.  Goalies, scores, bigger fields, off sides.  You played goalie the first quarter and I was SO NERVOUS!  You were fantastic though.

Here you are below in goal!  

 Hudson was there for a bit and very busy putting his little people to bed with baby wipes in his little chair.  They had more shade than anyone at the game.  I was super jealous.

 Hubbie, the superfan, bounced from your game to Anna's at 1/2 time.  Go Hubbie!

 Bubba! You are looking so old here. I almost ran after you for a quick snuggle, I felt like Hudson the baby was walking away from me:( sob

 Your team's cute banner.  I love that you all helped make it.

 Hot and tired and it was only 1/2 time.

 End of the game cheer.

Next up was Anna's game!  Anna, your Zebras are the cutest.  Luckily there is a site where other moms uploaded photos since I was at T's game, and Daddy was the referee for your team.

Great games girls!

xoxo

mom

Perfect Day

Kids,

I love getting my hair done. LOVE IT.  

I love my happy blonde roots (neither brown nor grey).
I love sitting in a salon where no one needs me to do anything 

other than move my head for almost 3 hours.

Then,  I love that my hair is dried and straightened to perfection.  

Better than a hair appointment is coming home to this!!  You guys are so amazing.

This note.  The flowers.  Alex taking this amazing picture and printing it.  

Daddy getting a great bottle of white wine for me.

Such a perfect end to a day.

One lucky mama.

xoxo

Cupcakes

Dear Kids,

September 1 was the opening of dove season.  That doesn't really mean much to us other than daddy going hunting for the day.  We mad the really bad decision to go to Ikea with 1,394,294 other people, then thought we would hit cream, where it turns out the other 3,473,492 people in Palo Alto were located.  So, we skipped that business and hit Sprinkles.  Don't get me wrong, this picture tells a story of a happy family outing.  The real event was annoyance, chaos, barf and water spilling....all for me.  You three were fine.

 Cheese:) Or chocolate as the case may be.

 Oh buddy.   You are sorta nuts.  You were so happy for the first few bites and then the top and bottom came apart and the s*&t hit the fan. You started crying that it was "broken." When I finally got you to take a little bite, you got mad that the cupcake was broken, and then threw up everywhere.  Then, in an effort to help, Anna tried to hand over her water, but wound up shooting it at my head.  

Chaos.  

Total f*&k$%g chaos.

It's a good thing we really love you buddy because boy you can be tricky sometimes.

xoxo

mom

Great America... Labor Day Weekend

Dear Kiddos,

We had such a fun, busy/laid back labor day weekend.  We headed to Great America on Saturday morning, with a stop for a 10:45 am lunch at In N Out.  It was such a hot day, and the long weekend brought out a special crowd. 

 On our way in.  Ready to start our day!

Hitting the little kids rides to try and get Hudson to relax a bit and actually go on a ride.  

 Well, Hubbie got Hudson on one.  He was mostly happy but by the end he was crying to get off.

 Yep, happy to have done it, happy to get off.

 Hudson was lounging while you girls were in the wave pool with daddy.  

Hudson, you wanted back scratches, arm scratches, leg scratches. 

 The wave pool.

 My suave little buddy.

 Another one because I think you are just too cute buddy.

It was a great day, a bit hot, a bit crowded, but super fun.

xoxo

mom