"He's so cliche"

Owen has started making baby sounds. He coo-s, squeels, sucks on his fingers, and attempts to laugh. It's real cute. So I said to Casey the other day, "Owen really does make the goo-goo, ga-ga sounds we use to stereotype babies. He's so cliche." Casey thought that was kinda silly. I guess what I mean to say is that he's "normal."
Here's a taste of his latest sounds (not exactly coo-ing, but just happy talking to himself in the mirror of his floor mat):

The other thing he does that's so cliche is to wake up a few times in the night. When Lucy was 3 months old, she was sleeping the entire night pretty regularly. Owen, however, seems to be up every 3 hours. And last night was exceptionally special because Lucy also decided to wake up a couple times. At least she was happy in her bed reading books outloud and playing with farm animals. But I had to shake my head, "why are both my kids wide awake at 4:30 in the morning?!" Thankfully everyone went back to sleep. Of course they're still adorable when they get up in the morning. We couldn't get Owen to look at the camera, but Lucy just sat there posing for me:
And then she gave Owen a kiss on the head. I like her weird laugh at the end:

Sara and Makenna came to visit

(be prepared for lots of pics)

It's been fun having so many visitors this month. First Kam and Gerrit and now Sara and Makenna. Stay tuned next week for pics of Rachael, Carter, and Savanna! (they're already in town)
My brother Mark had a computery conference/competition in Memphis for a few days, so Sara and their baby Makenna came down to hang out with the Suman side for the week. It was fun spending time with both of them. Papa was in heaven holding all his little grandbabies.
Makenna is only 3 months older than Owen, but what a difference that makes in baby-years. She's way more active than he is. And so cute!
Bummer she's not old enough to get down and play with the other kids. But soon enough she will be. The first day we went to the Irvine Spectrum and let the kids play in the jumping water fountains. Lucy loves playing with Jeremy and she wants to do everything he's doing, as you can see in this picture:
Jeremy is a sweetheart and loves playing with Lucy too. Maybe he feels like her big brother. Even though they're years apart, he has fun running around with Ava and Lucy:
Makenna watched from the sidelines:
Camille, Makenna, Sara, and Mere:
Laura and Ava:
Post water fountains. All dried off!
Of course there are about 5 other fountains at the Spectrum. And Lucy wanted to stick her hands in.
The next day we headed to The Santa Ana Zoo. I remember going there as a kid and well, it was pretty much as I remember from being a kid....small and not that exciting. But fun when you're with fun people! And tons of monkeys to look at.
Lucy's favorite part was the farm animals. The chickens frightened her at first with a huge "baaaak!" in her face. But she warmed up to them, seeing as they are one of her favorite toys at home.
After looking at the animals, we played on the park toys. Brilliant idea. Ava and Lucy shared the slide.
One morning while we were there, Jeremy asked Lucy if she wanted to have a picnic. And since the grass was all wet, we set up towels on the concrete and they had their fun...
...with tons of little snacks. It was fun to watch them. Jeremy enjoyed the food more than Lucy, but they were good at sharing.
And then they wandered the backyard, still sharing snacks. Lucy has just figured out how to say everyone's name and it's cute to hear her following him around saying, "Jairmy! Jairmy!"
Other fun stuff we did with Sara: yogurt from Golden Spoon, American Idol nights, and watched "Reality Bites". Total flashback to college freshman year. I love that movie.

And to finish our week-long update....we went to a cool park on Saturday with Casey's co-workers for the annual Hall and Partners Play Date. Most of his coworkers are young and single. But there are a handful that are married with kids. So Jackie organized a play date for everyone with bagels, fish crakers, and park toys. The park is in a little valley RIGHT behind The Grove. It's perfect. You can park, play on the toys, and hit up Nordstrom afterward!
Owen looked like a little pea pod with his hat on.

Something in the bushes?
The whole work group. We were missing a few people that couldn't make it. Lucy loved hanging out in a pirate ship.
And a typical Saturday...In N Out for lunch. Followed by a typical Lucy face...crusty nose and left-over ketchup.
Fun week! We're glad you came down Sara! It'll be fun to hang out this summer while Mark does his internship.

Easter Weekend

We had a productive and fun weekend. Not only has the weather been beautiful and perfect for Easter Egg hunting, but Casey had Good Friday off of work. So the fun lasted even longer.But let me start at the beginning...
Lucy was ready for a nap when we left the house Friday morning, but we pushed her a good 3 hours. First we went to Travel Town and climbed on all the trains.
Casey and Owen spent time checking in on March Madness games. Yes, that's a portable TV:
Next, In N Out for lunch. Lucy actually ate a grilled cheese and of course, dipped her fingers in ketchup. Yum? Lastly, we stopped at Home Depot and bought our first family BBQ! Both parents gave us money to buy a BBQ for Christmas and we finally got around to purchasing one. Thanks parents! It was not the easiest Home Depot process and took an hour longer than anticipated. But well worth it. Lucy was overly tired by this point and yep, fell asleep in the car. This was her 20 min nap for the day:
I spent the afternoon painting while Casey set-up the BBQ:
Then we put the new equipment to work and grilled shrimp and pork kabobs with sweet jalepeno dressing for dinner:
Yum yum. Good first attempt at grilling.

Saturday we got out of the house early and went to Panera Bread for breakfast. YUMMY bagels and mango smoothies (Thanks Jean!). Lucy sported her new gold Easter shoes:
I made her wear them a day early because she freaks out over new shoes (and not because they hurt her feet, just because she's being silly). It's the funniest/most annoying thing. Whenever I put a new pair of shoes on her, she BAWLS and throws herself on the floor. She did the same thing with her Crocs. Of course, a day later they were her favorite shoes.

After breakfast, we came home and put the kids room back together. I've been painting walls and furniture and sewing bedding for the past week. The room isn't quite finished yet, so more photos to come later! Then Casey left for the LA temple while I stayed home with the kids. Our good friends Ed and Maria from Glendale we're sealed in the temple with their little girl Bridgette. They joined the church a couple years ago and it has been so cool to see their progress. They are a really amazing family. When Casey got home, I headed back to Glendale for the dinner portion of their sealing day so I could chat with everyone. They had cake for Bridgette's 1st birthday:
Then we BBQ'd again for dinner. This time, hamburgers. They turned out great!

Happy Easter Sunday! This picture makes me laugh. Nice double-chin Lucy:
Lucy really loved the Easter Egg hunt. Casey and I hid plastic eggs all over the backyard. She totally got it and even started looking in some hard spots for them.
Once she was done hunting, she started putting them back where she found them. We did this over and over about 10 times. It was so cute to see her having fun.
Here she is really hunting for eggs. I love the chirping birds. But the camera got a little over exposed with the sunlight:

Easter night we went to our friend Kristen's apartment on the west side (my old apartment when I was single) She had about 15 people over for a yummy ham dinner. Casey's favorite was the Red Velvet cupcake dessert. Seriously Kristen, those were GOOD.

So Happy Easter to everyone. We hope you had a nice weekend. We sure did!

Syesha, Syesha, in. my. life....ooooo-ooooo

I can't believe this never occurred to me till yesterday. I was painting Lucy's room and an old favorite YouTube song popped in my head. But instead of singing the chorus "Aicha, Aicha", I started singing "Syesha, Syesha." And I realized:
A- I haven't watched that video forever and I MUST watch it again
B- Syesha should perform her own version on Tuesday night's American Idol
C- I used to know all the Aicha dance moves. I need to learn them again.

Please indulge in 1 1/2 minutes of pubescent pimple-faced love:
Aicha and Gellieman....Pfffffff

Last Week

I'm a little behind on my posting. But here's what we were up to last week. We went back down to OC to hang out with family and we went to Disneyland twice. Two days in a row!
Lucy had fun playing with her little cousin Chloe (although I'm sure she was confused why she didn't look like her good friend Chloe from Pasadena). Gerrit helped them play hockey. They actually look pretty good here. But mostly it was Lucy almost decapitating Chloe with the stick.
Most of my family will be in Arizona for Easter, so we decided to play Easter Egg hunt early. We hid the plastic eggs in the backyard for Lucy, Chloe, and Jeremy. I tried to teach Lucy how to "hunt". And she eventually got the hang of it. Though she wouldn't do anything without the bike helmet on. She's very into hats lately. And when she found this in Gram's backyard, it was on her head to stay. Well, actually it kinda fell off so she continually had to hold on to one of the straps as she bent down to pick up an egg. Funny girl. She kinda looks "special".
She found a helmet for me too. I'm glad it says "Dr. Pepper" on the side.
Chloe was much better than Lucy at finding eggs.
And since Kam hasn't posted any pictures on Delilah on her blog...I'll keep em coming! :)
She is the tiniest little thing and has skinny long limbs. It's real cute. I love that her leggings are baggy (even at newborn size)
Precious:On our drive back to Pasadena, we hit up Disneyland with everyone. It's right off the 5 and was the perfect way to avoid rush hour traffic. Ava looks so old to me in this picture. She's not a baby anymore. So cute.
Camille and Jeremy on the tram ride. It's harder for them to get to Disneyland during the day now that he's in Kindergarten. So it was great that we went in the afternoon!
Lucy did a little better on the rides this time around. She actually liked the Alice in Wonderland and Buzz LightYear rides.
And of course she loved the water. It was 4 pm when we got there, so we weren't going to let the kids play in the water. But everyone else went on a ride and while we waited, she found it. And she played in it. Good think I always have extra clothes .Lucy and Ava are the perfect age for Toon Town and loved the Mickey and Minnie houses.
It was a really fun day. And little Owen was fabulous. He either slept or looked around. And when he was awake, this was the cute face peering up at me:
To top it off, we did all again the next day! (joined by Karis and Marty and our friends Sarah and Chloe from Pasadena). I was pretty exhausted Thursday night, but well worth the trips. It's great to have family in town and spend time together. We were going to spend the weekend hanging out with Casey's brother's family, Jeff and Nicole. But they all got sick and weren't able to come. Such a bummer for them and us. We're excited to see them in May when they come out! And we still got to see Grandma and Grandpa Willard on Sunday for dinner. It was a real family-family week.