Don't tell Finn

one more pic from Disney Photopass

Finn is 3

On Finn's 3rd birthday. . .

he smothered Franco with a big hug.






He went to Disneyland.



He met his favorite faerie friends.
(I think we might have had the only two little boys in line to see Fawn and Tink.)




Franco lingered after pics.
We think he's in love.



Finn had a batman bday cake.



Played with his cousins.



And fought with his new light saber.

the end

The Holidays. . .starting with (ahem) Halloween ;{

Holiday season is well over, unless you want to consider MLK day part of the Happy Holidays.  I will now recap some of them.

Halloween

Finn was Speedracer this year.  His portrayal was close to spitting image, as shown here.

Franco. . .sock monkey

These were some of the best nights of Finn's life.  Between Aunti Di's Trunk-or-Treat (where children "trick-or-treat to the trunks of the cars in the church parking lot), to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat, to the actual Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood, Finn started to think that Halloween was another day of the week, like a new Friday.  It was very hard to explain to him that Halloween was "ober".     Quick story about the big thing of candy corns, we trick-or-treated on our favorite street in the neighborhood.  It's amazing, all the houses are quaint and everybody decorates.  One of the ladies on the street gave Finn this special treat.  Somehow Finn got lucky because I saw her giving the other kids pixie sticks.  Let me say that this did not go unappreciated.  Finn talked exclusively about the candy corns the rest of the night.  The only thing better than Halloween as a little kid is Halloween as a parent of a little kid. 

He eventually got it and quickly transitioned to celebrating Christmas time.

Franco's Birthday

Check out the difference a year makes.  (I think his cheeks quadrupled in size.)

I really love this little man!

He's learning how to ham it up, just like Mr. Finn.

The Christmas Season

Making Christmas Cookies

Pictures with Santa

Franco:  Run for your life!  Finn:  Is this supposed to be cool or something?  Where's the candy?

Does anyone know of a contest for worst photos with Santa?  I think we'd be a strong candidate with the one above.  Franco has a problem with characters at Disneyland and so I knew he would have a tough time with Santa.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Franco is following suit with the bike obsession.

Other fun things we did over the past four months since I last blogged ;).

Trip to Oak Glen

La Habra Children's Museum with Rika

We felt like we were in The Science of Sleep.

Franco's Stage Fright and Finn's addiction to the limelight.

Underpants are Cool!

We are trying to warm Finn up to the idea of using the potty.  He definitely warmed up to the Pixar character underpants, and so did Franco.  Superheroes to the rescue. 

Franco, use your magnetic shield--or something recue hero-ish.  Be strong young one.

So that wraps up 2008.

It was groovy. 

Next post coming to you sometime in 2009--no promises as to how soon.

Franco and Harper turn 1

Ruth and I threw a party for our little dudes together. I never want to throw a party alone again! It was awesome, and I even have pics to prove it, thanks to Ruth. Check them out on her blog.

Mopping post

Kids make your priorities straighter.

The Red Baron

We have been watching this lately. Don't cha just love it?



It's so weird to me that Finn does not know Snoopy. He was calling him the doggy until I told him his name. He had forgotten the name the second time we watched it, so I reminded him and he said, "O Yea, Snoopy dog." Doesn't that seem weird? Seems like they should be born with that tidbit of knowledge. The beauty of being a parent is to be the first to tell someone about Charlie Brown.

Duster

This doodad has changed my outlook on dusting. Now if I could just find its equivalent for organizing finances. Help if you can.

Pics of SuperFinn and Francostein

Obviously, I needed to post some of these.



I went on holyoak.net to find some old pics, but they are gone :(. I couldn't help but think of Joshy when I saw these. I think it is the head. Send some pics to me Joshy if you have them.





Here are some of Frankie's new moves. I like my babies to run around in onesies that are unbuttoned. Usually, he holds his arms out in front of him for balance, resembling his nickname.

Early to rise

For some reason, my kids think its a funny joke to wake up before the crack of dawn these days. So awesome. My response is to make them wait in their beds for a while. For instance, when Finn woke up the other morning at 5:40 am, he had to chill in his crib for maybe an hour. He finally got me out of bed with this comment, "Aww Man! Come on!"

Rika's Challenge

Rika is one of the most motivated, productive people I know. Like 4 weeks ago, Erika challenged me to write on my blog everyday that week. Rika knows I do not like her to "go army on me" so just to show her who's boss of the challenge, I waited four weeks to do it. Let's see if I can make it happen this week.

Halloween!

Today we had a FUN birthday costume party. Franco already has his costume, but Finn's has been hard to come by. I couldn't make it happen before today, so instead we bought him some Superman jammies (thanks Julie and Craig for the idea). Aside from the pirate dressups from Aunti Di, this was Finn's first dress up outfit and I did not know what I have been missing.

Finn talks non-stop. When we got the jammies on, he babbled about how he was "Superman, no SuperFinn, to the rescue". . .the whole nine yards. Then I told him to check himself out in the mirror. Amazing. Hands went to the chest, he let out a huge sigh, hands moved above his head, face grew a hugh smile. He was pleased with his bad self. Next thing I know, the little dude is climbing on all the furniture, because hey, he's a superhero, he gotsta fly right? He's jumping off of everything. The sad moment came when he decided to climb up on the dining room ridiculously-too-large-for-our-house-but-I-love-it-too-much table, despite the warnings to keep off it. The poor little Kryptonite slipped off, wedging his little face between the wall and the table (like I said it doesn't fit our room) and he did one of those cries where he cries and then cries really hard, then shakes his head because it hurts so bad and resist the hugs even--something Finn never usually resists--and lets the cry go silent for a while. But Superman was invincible and he got back up and sweated up that little white matted hair before any party festivities even began. Dressing up is seriously awesome!

The party was groovy, down in that beautiful Rancho Santa Margarita, Beda put on a great party with Amy, who I actually knew--Jill Berrett's sister-in-law, small world. So all our friends were there, there was homemade rootbeer (the bomb!), a Frankenstein pinata, pass-the-pumpkin game that Finn won with Braden, amazing pumpkin cake (Brock, I am very impressed) party favors galore, a nice pitbull named Daisy. Finn was in hog heaven, Franco was pretty cool with it himself. I love this time of year!

Department Store Photos

You just have to do it for the peeps--grandmas, aunties, etc. Let me know if you need some.

Suddenly I feel like quilting, and eating

How genious is this quilt? It is called Hostess, like the cupcake.

Turning Point

This year I have undergone a change of perspective on many things because of this:

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
--Shakespeare's Hamlet

Universal truths--as far as I can know them--aside, I have taken the liberty to apply it to everything else in my life lately. Essentially, it has made me consistently aware of and responsible for my perception of the good and bad about things. Herein I have found new liberties.

Um. . .Hello?

May I re-enter the blogosphere?

So I took a break. I told you I would. The reality is I have far exceeded the expectations of most of my family members who had suspicions that my first entry on this blog, posted by my husband as a Christmas gift, would be my last. At that time, I explained my communication issues. Therefore, no apologies, on we go.

How about a quick summer recap in pics?

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
BMOR
Big Man on Resort

So we took an amazing trip to Mexico with the little dudes, a bold move. For Mexico outtakes, scroll down. This was a celebration for my Nana's 80th birthday. Thank you Nana and Papa for this amazing trip!

Some of our activites included. . .

coloring and taking baths in the spa on our balcony, shown behind Finn in the photo on the right. Never has bath time been so good.

Anyone who has been to Mexico in the summer knows that all you do is sit in water or swim in your own sweat. We chose swimming most of the time.

Check the Lucie action, Melissa left, baby sister inside.

And, of course, we ate/threw/played with sand.

As I said, this trip was a bold move. Here is how I survived Mexico with two little dudes:

Contain [stroller] and Maintain [food and entertainment while in stroller].

We also took advantage of some seriously good uncle and auntie sitters--Saweeet!

Nana had a beautiful party with amazing dedications from her family members that made everyone cry, especially the Holyoak clan--who passed on that gene?

I want to be just like this on my 80th, sub Dr. Pepper for left hand.

Check the technology going on here.

We loved our trip, although we did have a few mishaps--outtakes to follow.

On to more summer fun.
Swim lessons, yo!

Guess who loved them this year?

Bliss!

Come on little man, jump!

Or get dunked.

Lots of Dr. Pepper ;)!

A few last trips to Disneyland before the passes run out.

What is that dragging on the ground? A monkey's tail. Do not judge, this was the best trip to Disneyland ever because of the monkey on the back. Thank you people who disguised the child-leash. Honestly, I have criticized those things so much that had I known that it makes them feel like they have just enough freedom, yet they are oh-so-bound to you, I would have saved a lot of wasted breath. Hail Baby Harness, you have made my "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" [Finn's name for Dland] visits tolerable.



Fun times with Ber-Ber and Margaux.

Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come. Poor Franco :/ Thank goodness for Julie & Craig's number 3 on the way.

And. . .finally. . .drum roll. . .



A new back yard,
which has officially changed our lives.
As Scott put it, our quality of life just went up 80%.

Franco milestone recap:

• 4 teeth, with 2 more peaking through
• crawling
• pulling self up to furniture
• standing
• clapping
• saying "Ah-oh"
• 2 steps

Whenever Franco comes crawling into a room, Finn always laughs and calls him "Franco monster".

Other momentous occasions that I do not have photos of include:

Ryan and Brook's Amazing Wedding
Scott was the photographer so I did not bother to take any myself, though I regret it now. R&B, had one fabulous wedding celebration. They DJ-ed the wedding themselves from Ryan's iPhone and thereby unduly entertained us all. Entertainment did include a lip synch by Ryan to Brook of "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins, I will try to track down video footage somehow, and the most amazing [stuck on this word tonight] line up of music that ended in all the leftover guests singing along to that epic Arcade Fire song that they use for their encores. Did I mention that we were on a stage. How poetic is it to be married on a stage? Beautiful wedding Ryan and Brook, I did not expect anything else.

Moth infestation

Moths. . .how do I hate thee? Throwing away 6 bags of food is a small tragedy--right? I mean I do feel silly mentioning this as I observe other ailments that far exceed it, but finding a little moth floating around my room is just a spit in the face after the cleansing that our kitchen underwent last week. How groovy is my husband for instigating and taking on the task? So we continue to kill them and fill my freezer with weird things like pretzels, rice, and napkins. I will not allow those little pests to survive in my kitchen. Snapware here we come.

Trip to Mexico Outtakes
Our Mexico trip was half amazing, half absurd. Had I chosen to blog a month ago, you might have gotten the detailed story. A month and a half later, you get the abbreviated version. . .

• LAX, a mishap in itself
• Almost missed our flight because of confusion with the babies needing a ticket, we had a total of 4 lap children that all had this problem
• Little Lucie, niece, split her lip open in Phoenix airport on the way out. Mel, Lauren and Lucie spent the night there and flew in a day late
  
• Original hotel was supposedly overbooked despite a reservation made 1 year ago, somehow they found room for us midweek and we moved--it was not even half full.
• Almost everyone got sick
  
• Return Flight was cancelled from Puerto Vallarta--went through security four times that day with gear for two chilluns--enjoyed that very much. The Holyoak gene kicked in when I discovered we had to go through one more time in Phoenix
  

I want to say "here, here" to Toni, pregnant, who coordinated the trip (that included 7 little ones under 4--can you say "survival mode") and dealt with more mishaps than I have the brain power to remember.

Its good to be back in business with you Sand in the Sieve.