Serenity is:

both girls down for naps - one in her bed, the other in the swing. This is the most productive hour of my day because I am able to: get the dishes done, finally; call the girls for church activity days; fill out insurance forms; eat a bagel topped with homemade orange marmelade from Cass; surf a few blogs and find this adorable idea:
I love Cookie Magazine - I've been a reader for 2 years now. Their blogs are quite popular and the info on this cute invitation and bday party idea can be found here

I'm in the thick of party planning myself as we prepare the house for the baby blessing this weekend. We'll have 22 adults over for lunch after the blessing and an easter egg hunt for the 14 kids!

Well, Little S is calling from her room - that's the end of nap time...sigh

Spring Break

Just a quick update: We are on spring break for 2 weeks! Last week I filled the schedule with a trip to the LA County Arboretum on one day and Kidspace Museum in Pasadena the next. It wore Little S out by the second day so we chilled on Thurs and Fri. Saturday we drove to a wedding reception in San Diego and Sunday we drove to Palm Springs to meet Chris and Nicole's new baby, Isabel (born 1 week after baby J). Whew, what a week!

When Little S and two friends were playing outside today, our neighbor, who has a beautiful yard filled with productive citrus trees, invited the kids to eat as many tangelos as they wanted. After 4 tangelos we made the kids stop (better they eat tangelos than twinkies, though)! We love having delicious citrus all around us.

5 Weeks Old

Just a gushing mother posting too many pics of her new baby that's growing up so fast! (Baby J and I had a photo shoot while Little S was at school on Friday.) Our quiet time together is on hiatus while Little S is off from preschool for the next 2 weeks for spring break!! I'm trying to book various play dates and outings for us to keep her entertained...

One Month Old

We celebrated the baby's one month birthday with a quick visit from my baby bro. He flew in from Washington DC to meet his new niece and celebrate his own birthday, too! We had a fun but brief visit with him and were so glad he made the long journey.
His favorite cake is yellow with chocolate frosting (I know, I didn't think that was any one's FAVORITE.) I made a bundt cake and homemade frosting because the box mix and packaged frosting just didn't seem right. We were out of candles so D lit a skewer on fire for the fiesta. Little S insisted on adding sprinkles to the cake (she eats them by the handful if we aren't watching her carefully.)
She came home from church with this cute mini plant after her lesson on the earth and plants. She has the BEST Sunbeams teacher - she brings home something like this every week, in addition to a coloring sheet related to the Sunday lesson that we use for Family Home Evening on Monday night.

3 weeks old

Little S loves holding the baby, but the baby doesn't always love being held by her big sister. I think big sister tries to sneak in some squeezing and harassing under the guise of "holding" the baby.

A glamor photo shoot with her bear. Little S loves her stuffed animals. The dolls and animals are the toys that get played with the most - making believe they are on picnics together, at parties or the park, etc. I was never big into dolls or animals as a kid but I love listening to her chatter to her animals all day long. So cute.
Also this weekend Little S and her daddy went sledding with cousins in the nearby mountains. We lack adequate snow gear, but we made do and the temps up in the hills weren't too bad. She and her 3 year old cousin were fearless going down by themselves. Her older cousin was a bit more cautious.

2 weeks old

Two weeks old in the pics above. My mom was visiting when these were taken. She and Little S had a great time together. You know grandma is in town when the curlers get put in her hair! Little S loved makeup and hair time with both of her grandmas during their visits.

I walked into the room and found this sweet scene!