When 6:45 rolls around

Lucy rarely naps anymore (because then she's up till 10pm). She does pretty well though and often hits that second wind right around bedtime...and starts jumping off the walls. Tonight however, went something like this:
L: "I want to watch my show!"
Me: "Nope, it's time for stories and then time for bed."
L: "I don't want books!"
Me: "Okay, then you can just go to bed without reading any books."
- no comment -
- more crying-
Walks into her room and exclaims, "I want to go to bed!"
Climbs in her bed and pulls up her blanket.
(in between sobs), "Can you turn off the light please?"
"Where's my rag?"

And, scene.
Both kids are in bed, asleep, and it's 7pm. What a wonderful night!

Quiet Keys and 24

Often during the day (and night) you'll find me sitting here, clanking away at these keys:
Casey will hear me typing and ask, "bloggedy, blogging over there?", which is code for, "what is all that racket???!" Can I help it if I'm a fast typer? I only worked in an office for about 10 years. To quote Casey, "Seriously, you type like you've got long nails or something. You know, kind of violent-sounding."
Whatever.
Well, for Christmas, I got Casey a gift the whole household will enjoy. THIS new Apple keyboard. And we LOVE it. It's super thin, like a laptop keyboard. And the keys are so much quieter. The space bar is still a little loud, so I cause a bit of clank with my blogging. But well worth the small investment. It's weird now to use any other keyboard. Our old one feels big any chunky after using this slim guy:
And since we're talking about workspaces...our family mouse pad:
I'd like to think Chloe would be proud. A co-worker gave that to me five years ago (he also gave me these strange but interesting Book of Mormon comic books. He's quirky). Basically, we're proud to be 24 nerds....and currently, the quiet kind.

Not meant to look like Christmas

but....
A. Dreyer's were only $2.69 each at Ralph's today (so I uh, purchased three)
B. The Samao's flavor did NOT disappoint (and neither have these, since I already did the preliminary taste-test)
C. There should always be more than one flavor of ice cream in the freezer to satisfy everyone's needs (we've also got this).
D. Casey's playing games with the guys tonight. So I'll be indulging in all of the above.

Noah's Ark, round 2

Last week we played at the Noah's Ark exhibit again at the Skirball Center.
Laura and Ava joined us:
And the kids spent a couple hours roaming around and just playing...
This was their favorite room:
And this time we were brave and climbed to the top level:
Ava, who is normally scared of bridges, did GREAT!
Thank you Laura for climbing around with them in the small, no-standing room enclosures. We had a fun day! And with family coming to town next month, we'll be doing it all again very soon!

a match

Lucy's been into playing Memory these days and loves to find "a match". So when Chloe came over on Saturday in her black and white outfit, we put on Lucy's same outfit and I told them "you're a match!"
What cute girls together. Makes me appreciate mothers of twins.

Competitive

So far, Owen's been pretty lax about someone walking on his territory or snatching a toy from his hand. But that era has ended. Sunday night was the first time I saw his real competitive side. Grandma has a little doll bed he likes to sit on and just hang out. Lucy came over to join him and he did NOT like it. He pushed, shoved, and cried till he got her to leave.
The series of events.....

"Um, excuse me? She's gonna sit here too?"

"move"
"move"
"come on""get OFF"
"Dad, Lucy won't move!"
"What? It's cool. Nothin's going on."

Sibling rivalry has begun.

Party Animal

She's finally 3. And we spent 2 weeks celebrating.
First we partied at my parent's house. Camille had made these fun BINGO cards and put one on each person's plate.
With conversation hearts as place holders, we had a mean game of Vday bingo while waiting for dinner to start.
Guess who won with a blackout card? Yep. I'm amazing at non-skilled games.
Meredith was in town from BYU-I for the weekend. Her birthday is the week before Lucy's, so here are the two birthday girls:
Token group shot. Casey and Eric's faces are makin me laugh.
Lucy loved opening presents this year. She's starting to catch on and was thrilled with a box of Legos....
and this cool magnetic paper doll from Gram and Grandpa. Really fun!
And a night in the OC would never be complete without some silly games (a great round of Spaz Ball - a Brett/Casey game)....
and some awesome dancing:
My mom turns on Jock Jams or Yo Gabba Gabba songs and the kids go crazy:
They even jump off the coffee table (which is allowed and often encouraged):
--------------------------------------------------
The next Sunday, on Lucy's actual birthday, we headed to Casey's parent's house.
We read books with Grandpa:
Owen climbed on anything he could find:and Lucy opened more presents! Grandma Willard has a tradition to give the girls American Girl bitty babies when they turn 3. So this was Lucy's year.
Though Casey may have had more fun dressing her than Lucy did:
And from us, I made a little bed/basket for her baby. For more info see my sewing blog here.
Bitty baby fits perfectly!
We finished off the night with yummy Chocolate Marshmallow cake (my mom's delicious recipe which I'll be posting soon). Happy Birthday Lucy! Can't wait to see what the next year brings.