Owen

November Happenings

November 10, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

After Halloween, Grammy stuck around for a few days and Eleanor took full advantage of all the extra cuddles!

Grammy and girls indulging in their ice cream bar creations at South Swell in San Clemente, right after pizza at Pizza Port.

Meredith started meeting up with a playgroup of other 2016 babies every week. Most of the moms also have a 2018 baby like Eleanor, so in a few years, she’ll have a bunch of friends she’s grown up with!

Amelia and Samantha’s school pictures– first time they’ve looked at the camera for school photos and smiled (sort of).

Fall artwork from kindergarten.

We met up with Lucero, Kennedy and Sebastian at the Spectrum one night to check out the new-fangled play structure and play games at Dave and Busters.

“Bowling!”

Sebastian reached for Amelia’s hand and I almost died. Cuteness!

Meredith requested to ride the ferris wheel with Lucero and Kennedy– I guess they are more fun!

We were so sad to say farewell to our favorite babysitters, twins Charlotte and Claire. We’ve know their family for years and Charlotte and Claire have been the girls’ favorite babysitters of all time. They were a lifesaver during the fall when they came back from school before leaving on their missions, babysitting after school a few days a week for me. Every day, Meredith would wake up from from her nap and ask, “Are Charlotte and Claire coming today! I want to chase Charlotte and Claire!” It was perfect having both of them because one of them would do whatever the twins wanted to do and the other would run around with Meredith. Sometimes they would go out to the park or play games all together. Nice to have options! The girls still ask when when they are coming over to babysit again! Hopefully, they will be able to babysit in a year when they get back, so in the mean time I’ve been placating Meredith by telling her Charlotte and Claire are going to come when they get back from a very long trip!

Charlotte went to Warsaw, Poland and Claire went to Berlin, Germany. It’s the first time these identical twins have been separated by that far of a distance (5 hours!) We still laugh how they are serving in bordering missions. We miss them!

Amelia being silly while waiting for her tennis lesson. She is pretty accurate with her swings!

The twins attended two birthday parties at Pump it Up– a popular choice for kids at school, apparently.

Crazy-eyed Meredith.

Eleanor loves story time before Meredith goes down for her nap.

Maple is always so generous sharing her seaweed snack with Meredith at the park.

A typical crazy Family Home Evening.

Jake worked on refinishing an outdoor table, with Meredith as his crew member. She’s a pretty good sander.

The twins love to show off their Magnatile creations.

Curling hair before a Christmas pajama photo shoot.

Behind the scenes!

The weather was so nice that we spent our mornings going on bike rides or picking flowers at the pocket park.

Meredith’s saying of the month was, “I know my colors!” Even if she had identified the wrong color.

I had to get a few more pictures of Eleanor in her poodle skirt costume before storing the Halloween stuff away.

Eleanor was so chubby and always so hungry that Dr. Young gave us the go-ahead to start solids at 4 months! We waited closer to the 5-month mark to start oatmeal and then vegetables, but she was definitely ready. She was SO happy to finally have something to eat other than liquid!

The twins were at school during Maple’s 3rd birthday party, but Meredith was so excited to go and celebrate with her dear friend. The party was at Maple’s brother, Parker’s, tae kwon do studio and was so fun! The TKD instructors were very engaging with the kids and Maple did some impressive moves! She even cut her cake with a giant sword, which was pretty much the coolest thing Meredith had ever seen.

Group hug.

Meredith re-connected with her friend, Owen, who lives in our old neighborhood. They were obsessed with hugging each other!

Meredith is normally not shy about hitting at home, but seemed confused that it was actually encouraged at the party!

The hugging game was very entertaining!

Give him some space, Meredith.

All the kids took turns doing their best chop to break a board!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: charlotte and claire, Eleanor poodle skirt, eleanor solids, first solids, Grammy, irvine spectrum, Kennedy and Sebastian, Maple, maple's 3rd birthday party, meredith knows her colors, oatmeal, Owen, sweet potatoes, tae kwon do

Newborn Eleanor Week 2

July 1, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

Newborn Eleanor Week 2 was another very tiring blur of feed/pump/change diapers/wash bottles/feed everyone else/sleep/repeat. Eleanor was still sleeping most of the day and waking up frequently at night, so we were basically zombies just trying to survive. Luckily, Grammy was still there to help out and Grandpa also came to visit and meet the baby, along with out three other little “mommies” who couldn’t get enough of the baby. In Amelia’s words, “A REAL baby is SO much better than playing with our dollies!”

The girls did lots of swimming, park days and lounging around!

Nice to meet you, Grandpa!

No one, apparently, wanted to be in this picture.

The cousins came for a visit and went to the waterpark!

Dinner out in San Juan Capistrano– the kids were occupied by the trains passing by and all behaved really well!

Eleanor and I hung out at home while the cousins were out and about.

I want to go toooooo!

Queen Eleanor received many royal visitors every day. Pleasure to meet you, Phi and Sheela!

Maple is always the sweetest with Eleanor.

Meredith wanted to be a baby too.

All of the “babies” swaddled up!

Meredith had her own private beach morning with cousins Noah and Hailey while the twins were in preschool.

Magnatiles and trains are always a winner at our house.

Nice to meet you, Lily and Avery!

Walks around the neighborhood were the extend of Eleanor’s outings the first few weeks!

With school out, the twins were really excited to see some of our friends again, and Meredith had to learn to share with the crowd!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Avery, beach, cousins, gavin, Grammy, Grandpa, hailey, Lily, Maple, newborn eleanor, Noah, Owen, parker, phi, sheela, sisters

April Happenings

April 15, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

Here’s a random April photo dump!

Samantha and Amelia are SO silly– particularly when they don’t nap (we still do quiet time for a minimum of 1.5 hours a day, even if they don’t fall asleep). They literally walked downstairs on a random Tuesday after quiet time was over like this and I started filming– it’s one of their funniest videos of all time. And in case you are wondering why they are wearing sports bras, they convinced Jake to buy them each one on a random errand run to Target (because they are manipulative and know they can convince Daddy to buy them anything!)

I have a feeling Amelia was the instigator on this one.

Our friends, the Erpeldings, got a new bunny, Mango! Meredith and the twins could spend hours over there cuddling him.

Meredith and Gavin on a “date.”

The girls always make me the prettiest bouquets.

Meredith loves to make cakes and cupcakes for me at the park.

Toddlers not interested in the games their mommies want them to play!

The days where it is just Meredith and me can be the most challenging. The twins are really great at distracting and entertaining her, so when it’s just her and I at the park, she’s bored out of her mind!

So strong willed. This happens 5.8 times a day.

Easter crafts!

We worked on refreshing our table manners because meal times were driving me absolutely crazy with all the getting out of seats, bouncing up and down in seats, elbows on the table, talking with mouth full, etc. We instituted a short-term ticket system where the girls were able to earn tickets to a private “Manners Tea Party” once they reached a certain number of tickets for good table manners. The twins were so excited for their tea party (Meredith obviously did not earn enough to join us!)

A fun taco, s’mores and movie night with Kennedy and Sebastian!

Daddy daughter date checking out a fun new park.

Meredith loves gymnastics and is very strong compared to the other kids.

Daddy daughter date to the Bubblefest show at the Cube and dinner out afterwards.

One of Meredith’s favorite pastimes is dumping out the contents of my purse. She loves to sneak away after breakfast when I’m distracted getting the girls ready for school and cleaning up and usually runs under the dining room table, going through lipstick, my wallet and any other treasures. Here she is caught red-handed!