happy 2nd birthday sully!

Sullivan's birthday is september 8th, but ryan was gone that day so we postponed celebrating until the weekend. and then sully caught some sort of virus, so we further postponed. then an ear infection. then ryan was gone a bunch, and we got busy doing other things. but i still wanted to celebrate with him, so saturday, october 2, we finally did. we ate brownies and sung 'happy birthday.' this year, he ate his dessert AND didn't cry when we sang. it was only ryan and i, but still. theo sat pretty happily in his bumbo watching all the action. we should have celebrated for him to because it was his 4 month birthday. 4 months already!

here's a little video for dad. sully heard an airplane outside:

theo tries the swing

i can't get over how fast time is going. it hadn't even occured to me to put theo in the swing because i thought he was still too little. as you can see, he fits perfectly!

that's right, they're in matching outfits.

i never, ever thought i would do this, but here it is: the boys in matching outfits. and i must say, they look adorable! thanks to my mom for buying these for them. they will get worn a lot!

look at that face!

grandma (nana...?) visits

september was a really hard month for me because ryan was gone A LOT. he had to go away for several meetings to prepare for a big meeting that took place in anaheim the last week of the month. thankfully we have a lot of loving family members who either took us in or came to visit for the longest stretches ryan was away.

my mom came down for the last week that ryan was gone. We were sad my dad couldn't make it, but we made the best of it and had a really great time! And she was amazing; she got up at 6 a.m. with sully and watched cartoons so i could sleep in a little and she always managed to calm theo when he was at his crankiest. she made me breakfast and played endless games of 'hoops' with sully so i could take a shower or nurse theo in peace. I took sully to sharyn's one of the days she was here and we did a little shopping and went to a nice lunch. her visit made me realize how much i miss having my parents around!

towards the end of the week my sister came down and we had some fun 'lagerman girl' time. when we finally dropped my mom off at the airport sully went into hysterics; he didn't want her to go! it was so sweet. :) i put nana in parenthesis in the title of this post because while sully was eating breakfast one morning he looked at grandma and said, 'nana?' My mom said, 'that's right! nana!' before we realized he was asking for a banana. :) but i thought that might be a nice name for her, that way the boys have ryan's parents as grandma and grandpa and my parents as nana and pappy. what do you think, mom?

anyway, the above picture sums up the whole visit: love love love! and the cartoons sully is watching. :) thank you mom, i love you!

taking the wagon out for a spin

sullivan got a pretty awesome wagon from my parents for his 2nd birthday. his 'waw-waw' as he says. this day (i believe it was a monday because ryan was home and able to take pictures), we took it on a spin around the block.

dinner at the beach!

during the summer the jenssens pick a day during the week and go down to the beach at avila, eat a dinner of appetizers and play in the surf and sand. we only made it to a few of these gatherings this year, and this is the first of them. once the sun went down it was freezing and we were totally unprepared. thankfully colleen was double prepared and she lent us one of oliver's jackets and a beanie.

this was also the first time iris went boogie boarding! after an initial crash involving salt water up her nose, she got back out there and didn't come in until her lips were blue. eric was delirious with excitement at her enjoyment and enthusiasm.

teeth brushing au naturale

sullivan went through a very brief phase where he thought brushing his teeth was fun. now it is a battle to even get him to open his mouth, but here are some cute photos of him after his bath.

grandma and grandpa visit! and fire trucks!

when grant and ginni were in town we made our usual trek to andreini's. while we were having coffee some fire fighters walked in and we thought, 'maybe...do you think they...brought the fire engine?!?' and the answer was YES! ryan and grant took the kids out to take a look and the fire fighters were more than happy to show off their pretty awesome transportation.

who looks more excited to be sitting in a fire truck...?

afterwards we made our way to the gazebo where sully proudly showed his tree climbing skills to grandma.

hiking the bob jones trail

we spent the afternoon a little while ago hiking the bob jones trail. it was nice to get out of the house and watch sully run around. we made it to a cute little cafe and then i had to send ryan back to get the car because sullivan was getting bored of walking. so he and i sat and ate ice cream while ryan ran almost a mile in flip flops to get the car.

birthday party!

happy birthday to me! here we are first thing in the morning, enjoying a little quiet time before sullivan woke up.
and ryan entertaining sully while theo and i sleep a little more...

after we all got dressed and ready we headed down to andreini's for breakfast with the jenssens.

later in the afternoon we had a bbq in our backyard and invited the jenssens and our neighbors, miles and shawna and their kids zachary and natalie. here is the kid crew...

natalie and sullivan...

the boys making faces in the dog house.

and here i am blowing out my candles. i am pretending to do it since ryan didn't get the actual blow out on camera. i like everyone's expression (including theo's) in this photo. :)

all in all it was a great day. ryan cooked AND did all the dishes. colleen and iris made me a delicious lemon blueberry bundt cake. the weather was gorgeous and sullivan had such a fun time playing with all the kids. i can't ask for more than that. :)

here's some video from the day. ollie and sully in the gazebo:

racing at the park:

kids in the dog house:

adam's wedding extravaganza

here are meredith and sully packed in the car, ready to embark upon our adventure to camarillo. It should take 2 hours to get there which should've been no problem. i'll explain after the photos...
here is sully showing us his dance moves after we had arrived....

we ran into construction in santa barbara, and all the stop-and-go motion woke theo up who decided he had to eat RIGHT THEN. i was driving because ryan was in the peak of his mono sickness and i don't know the freeway as well as he does. i got off at the first exit i could and found street parking, which was lucky because i think the beach was only a few blocks away. while i fed theo ryan took sully out to walk around, and by the time i was done sully decided he was done driving in the car. we loaded him back in screaming bloody murder and then had to find a bathroom for meredith. it took us (me) forever to find a way to get back on the freeway because i was flustered and listening to screeching. i finally got back on and found another exit in montecito (of which meredith said, 'everyone is so attractive!')where meredith found a coffee shop to use the bathroom.

getting back on the freeway involved a crazy 6-way stop, but we eventually made it. the whole stop, inlcuding feedings and bathroom breaks, took one hour.

here's a little video from our stop in montecito.

ice cream truck!

i think we've (or grant!) created a monster listening for the ice cream truck...