A lovely weekend

You know sometimes I have remember how lucky I am. We do so many fun things each weekend. And we are so lucky to live here. Where else can you have a picnic on the beach in January? And honestly even in July unless we were on vacation? We live so close to the beach and there are so many wonderful and beautiful things to do. Yesterday we went to Point Dume near Malibu. See the picture: the right rock is where people rock climb and to the left is where the trail head starts. First we started with a picnic lunch.

Check out the climbers.

Then we were off. I love this picture. Harrison looks like he is trying to walk all cool. And check out the background!! It looks like a postcard.

How pretty is this?It was a nice walk even for the boys. There is a lookout where you can see whales and seals. And at the bottom there are tidepools. There was only one scary part that I clung to the boys. This was it. After our hike, we came back to the beach and played some football. Then we headed to Paradise Cove for dinner on the beach. Really, dinner on the beach?! Yes, again how lucky. I want to remember this is like a vacation and not normal for anywhere else we have lived. The view at night.

What a lovely weekend! We are so lucky!!!

Harry is 3!!!

My BABY turned 3 on Thursday. I can't believe it has been three years already. After preschool and church work, I tried to take the boys to the park to feed the ducks Thursday but they wanted to be home bodies. Harrison doesn't like cake. I know, weird, huh? But he loves ice cream. So I picked up an ice cream cake for him and he was in heaven. William was asking to have a side of ice cream with his ice cream cake. That is an Archer in true form there. :) William bringing Harrison his presents...

The band. I have learned it is much easier to buy the boys the exact same thing in the exact same color to avoid any issues:) It worked!

Oh Harry Bugs. Three years ago we were in the hospital with a blizzard outside. Seriously, Scott drove off the road one time. We had only one visitor in the hospital and I was so surprised she made it there. You could barely see out the window it was all white. And now we live where I freak out if it gets below 65 degrees. Ha.

Harry, I love that you are so lovable. I love that you hold my hand just to take me to the kitchen or living room. I love that you get excited to pick William up at school or to come home to see Belle. I love that you love the simpler things in life, like marbles :). You are definitely your mommy's kid with being stubborn. I love you my little bug. Happy 3rd Birthday!

Monster Jam Birthday

We surprised the boys in the morning (Saturday) with a Monster Truck cake. You know with all of the cakes I have made the boys in the past, this one was the easiest and they were happy with it. It isn't hard to make a cake look like mud and ramps! Ha. They were especially happy that they got to eat cake and ice cream after breakfast.

Harry even cleaned up his new Monster Truck.

Then we surprised the boys with tickets to see Monster Jam. I wanted to wait until the last minute to get tickets since Harry had gotten sick on Monday and I was sick on Wednesday. But William and Scott never caught it (knock on wood). So we bought the tickets and headed for San Diego. We got there in plenty of time and had a blast.

Look how crowded the stadium is! It was completely full.

All air!

Watch the videos. This is the reason the boys loves this stuff. The drive home was long and we had to take turns driving. We didn't get home until 2 in the morning and then had to get up for church a few hours later. The boys deserved the night of fun! Happy Birthday little men!

Oh Chris!

I guess I can't say "Toddler Tidbits" anymore when it comes to Will since he is 4 now. :(
My oh My. Here is just one conversation I had with Will recently:

Will: "Mom, can you get me that toy up there?"
Me: "Which toy?"
Will: "the one Chris bought me."
Me: "William, who is Chris?"
Will: "that is your mommy."--My mom's name is Chris.
Me: "William, call her Nana."
Will: "No Mommy, her name is Chris!"

Now this isn't the first time he has called her Chris. He has been referring to her as Chris since our visit in December and he learned that was her name. I hope he doesn't start calling me Jymme-Lyn soon!

The other day William came home from the store with Scott. He came to me and said, "uh Mom, I didn't get anything." I told him that if he wanted something he had birthday money from Nana that he can buy something with that. And in a heartbeat he ran up to Scott and said, "Daddy, we have to go to Wal-Mart right now. I have lots of money from Nana to spend on toys! We have to go now." It must of been burning a hole in his pocket. Of-course he calls her Nana when it comes to toys or money, huh? And what's even more interesting is how do all kids know that Wal-Mart is the place to get toys? We don't even go to Wal-Mart that often.

Here are my cute little boys sporting some new clothes from Nana and Pawpa. It seems every time I put something on Will, he has grown 4 inches and luckily I just move the clothes to Harry's dresser. Besides being a string bean, Harry can wear most of the hand me downs. Thankfully Nana and Pawpa sent a box of new clothes to help with this most recent growth spurt!

William turns 4!

Well the day did not go as planned. Harrison woke me up at 6:30am with the stomach flu. By 10am, he was already in his 4th pair of clothes. So we couldn't go anywhere. I thought maybe my saving grace would be that I had to drop Belle off at Petsmart for a grooming appointment. William LOVES to look at all of the fish, reptiles, birds and small animals. Well that didn't go as planned either. Harrison started coughing and I told William we had to leave NOW. Well we were quick enough. Harrison threw up all over my hair, face, neck and shirt. I was soaking wet. Not fun! The drive home wasn't too exciting as Harrison got sick in the car again. Harrison finally took a nap at 1:30 and got sick while sleeping but I thought he needed the sleep more than cleaning him up at the time (I know how bad that sounds but he looked sheet white beforehand). William and I used that time to play alone together in the front yard. It was 88 degrees yesterday!. I'm so glad I let him sleep because when he woke up, he got a bath and the bug was gone! He was back to normal and jumping around. So it was a 13 hour bug. After 11 changes of clothes!
Thank God!

Here is William taking care of little brother.
Harry and Will received a special birthday basket full of their favorite treats from Gramma and Grandpa Archer.
Since William told Petsmart it was his birthday, they sent Belle home with a birthday bow. By the way, Thank you soooo much to Shawn for picking up Belle since I couldn't. I don't know what I would have done.

As soon as Scott got home, William was ready for his birthday presents. Harrison had no problem helping him open them. And I love that William encourages Harrison to help him.

And I really didn't do it on purpose: dress Will in a guitar shirt. That is what he picked to wear.

All that William wanted: more freight cars.

Books from Auntie Kelly and Stephanie.

And since I didn't have time to make a special cake (I will this weekend), a little personal cake will do.

I have to say I never imagined how great these years have been. Four years ago, there was snow covering the ground and Scott and I bet what time our little guy or girl would join the world as we drove to the hospital. My birth plan did not go as planned at all. But in the end, the best present that I could ever received was given to me that day, becoming a mom.

William, you make me the proudest mom. You are so smart and caring. You are polite and generous. I love that the FIRST thing you say to me EVERY morning without fail is, "good morning mommy, I love you." I love that you always think of your little brother. I love that you want to be just like your daddy. I love that you take care of Belle and your fish. I love that you are you. You make me so happy! I love you little guy. Happy 4th Birthday!

A Six Flags kind of day!

Well it's been an interesting weekend. I have been sick with a migraine but wanted to do something fun since William's birthday is today (Monday). Scott usually takes off on the boy's birthdays but can't today. I toughed it out and took the boys to Six Flags. We had a blast. It feels like summer here in Southern California. While the rest of the country is cold, we are heating it up in the mid 80's. Today it feels warmer than yesterday!

A very warm day and no lines! What is better than that?! Check out the fun we had!

I had these great plans for the boys today but Harrison woke me up at 6:30 with the stomach flu. Right now Mr. 4 year old is comforting his little brother on his special day. What a great big brother. Harrison is on his 7th shirt of the day! I keep telling him to go shirtless but he refuses. Looks like I have a lot of laundry ahead of me. Hopefully the rest of us don't catch this bug.

Toddler Tidbits

This week has gone by fast and I am so looking forward to resting this weekend. Anyhow, I made a quick decision to get the boys haircuts on Tuesday. Harrison loves his long locks and he was really upset with me last time I took him to get his hair cut. This time was so much worse. He cried bloody murder as he saw the locks fall on his lap. I was ready for a change with his hair and he can always grow the surfer look back.

He wasn't happy with me and William made it much worse for him. William went up to him and said, "you don't look like my brother Harry. I want my brother back." That made Harrison cry even harder. So I had two upset little boys on Tuesday. Scott was funny though because he came home from work and said, "wow Harry, I haven't seen the back of your neck in over two years!" Too funny.

In other news, my parents cat of 17 years died this week. They are really sad about it. I told William that Bob (the cat) died. He kept asking "why, why, why?" I tried to explain he was really old. And then the cutest thing ever came out of his mouth. He said, "Mama, is Nana sad? Tell her to be happy because Bob is with God and Jesus and the Lord. They will make him really strong and ......really big too. God likes cats and he wanted a new one. They will play with him. And he is happy so tell Nana and Pawpa to be happy too." My heart just melted that he came up with this all by himself. We haven't really talked about death at home besides when we flush a fish which doesn't count for much. He's obviously taking in what he learns from Sunday School, Preschool (it's Christian based) and Bible study. What a noble little 3 year old (almost 4) we have!

Week in Review

Last week was a bit busy. Scott had a lot of extra vacation time left over for the year and could only carry so much over. He decided to take the week off. It worked out nice because we have/had all of these annual passes to places and wanted to get in our last visit. I don't think we are going to renew any of our passes this week. Money is tight and we are better at being mindful of that:) So it was the perfect opportunity to get that last visit in. Scott's parents also bought us season tickets to Six Flags Magic Mountain (Christmas present-thank you mom and dad Archer) so we look forward to making our field trips there this year. It's closer to our house and they have a huge Bug Bunny land that is fantastic for the boys. So here is what this week had to offer:
We went to SeaWorld San Diego Monday. If you are ever in California, this is a must go to. No matter how old you are, I promise you will enjoy SeaWorld. I think it has probably been my most favorite place in California. Since I have posted so many Shamu and Dolphin photos in the past, I will spare you and post different things from there.
We watched the animal show. It was really cute. We thought it was just a dog show but it ended up being a dog, cat, pig, bird, etc show. It was really cute. This guy really loved us and seriously put on a show. This is a Bengal Monitor and he came right up to the window and every time Harrison put his hand on the glass next to him, he would act like Harrison was scratching him. It was hard to pull the boys away as they really loved the interaction. I have to admit, it was pretty cool.

Onto the rest of the park.

The cool bridge overlooking the flamingos. We went to Knott's Berry Farm Tuesday. I think the highlight was watching Snoopy on Ice.

Friday we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo. This picture makes me laugh. He has one hand on the wheel and it looks like he is trying to pick up a girl with his posture the way it is.

Sunbathing.

Feeding the giraffes.

He really wanted me to take his picture while looking through this. And of-course he didn't want a boost to look through the hole :)

This guy was not shy this visit around. He came up close and just starred at us.

The boys feeding the pigs and goats at the zoo.

We rung in the New Year New York style. We let the boys stay up till 9pm our time to watch the ball drop on the East coast. Check out our little boys getting dressed up. William was so excited about it. He is still Mr. Christmas and is non-stop talk about it. He keeps asking when Christmas is coming back. I think New Years was a good little distraction for him :)

And right after the ball dropped...

In bed by 9:05pm. Ha.