California Science Museum

When we discovered the science museum in Los Angeles only cost as much as the parking fees to get in ($8), we decided to make the best of James's 4-day weekend and go check it out! For the most part, the majority of the awesomeness that was the science museum was lost on our 2 year old and our 1 year old probably would have had as much fun being pushed around the apartments in her stroller. However, it was still a blast. We invited Robyn and Cameron to join us. Since Cameron was just baptized recently, we also took advantage of the trip to stop by and visit the new LA temple visitor's center. Now that the summary of our fantastic Friday is over, on to the details in the pictures:

Cadence checking out the wall of ice at the cool ecosystem exhibit. This was the "Poles". There was also a cool jet ski but the one person let their toddler sit there and play with it for the whole time we were in that exhibit. Meanies.
Megan thought being this close to the fish was awesome.
Cadence was equally as thrilled. She LOVES fish.
Not only is this an awesome shot (at least I think so), the bubble window was awesome in and of itself. It extended INTO the aquarium and when you leaned forward enough it literally seemed like you were in the aquarium surrounded by the kelp and the fish.
Naturally, the place they came alive was the "house" ecosystem. It was for children only under the age of 7, so everything was childproof. Except this puzzle, which Megan thought was lunch:
I did not intend to dress them matching today, it just worked out that way. They LOVED this red couch in the mini living room of the family play area/house ecosystem, though.
They had toys for part of the science exhibit. How cool!
For $2 you could experience hurricane winds. Cadence insisted on joining us for the experience.Cadence was NOT amused in the end. (This picture makes me giggle)
The best part of the new visitor's center? The coloring center, of course!
Playing near the fountain. Cadence was excited up until she realized just how cold the water was.
No, she did not fall in. Robyn had a good grip on her. She just really liked the water.
Yes, I still love my husband.
Family picture did NOT work out well at all. Megan's crazy hair and blank stare, James blinking, Cadence refusing to look at the camera. But in the other one, James was making a face. Butthead.

Robyn & Cameron. Who knows, if they get married at the LA temple (that's awhile away, but hey, who knows? It could happen!) they can have this pictures to put side by side with a similar one on their wedding day.

Obligatory Christmas Post

There's not much to blog about this Christmas. It was enjoyable. We spent a lot of time with family and a fair bit of time just watching the girls play together and enjoying ourselves. James had Thursday and Friday off, so we got an extended weekend together. Friday we spent the morning with friends from church, Jacob and Laura. Jacob and James went home teaching, so Laura and I hung out and let the girls play. Once the boys got back, our little family headed out to Taft for an early Christmas with family out there. The girls got spoiled, naturally, and James and I took advantage of them doting on the girls to go do some shopping kids-free.

Christmas morning was quite enjoyable. Santa filled stockings with gummi bear packets. Smart guy. The girls also got new monkey toothbrushes as well. From us, they got matching pajamas, two movies, a video game (that didn't work, so we returned it and will be getting the next Leap Frog movie instead) and the favorite present: a Diego trike. We ended up playing outside for awhile and playing with the new favorite toy.A few videos to enjoy of our time outside, including Cadence chattering at me. She's really begun to grasp simple sentences, but since her verb lexicon is so limited, she babbles a lot recently.

James got a pocketwatch, a scope for his .22 rifle, and a role-playing rulebook for the Wheel of Time world. I got a beautiful red wool coat that was a size too big Christmas morning, so it got traded in for a different wool coat and a necklace & earring set (as always when viewing pictures of my apartment, you must ignore all the little messes or you're not allowed to look at the picture anymore, lol):
We then headed out to my mom's house for dinner (which is always a good spread). There were a few more presents. James got a cool looking sword set, I got an all-time favorite DVD: "A League of Their Own", and the girls got a Dora DVD (which Cadence has already watched twice). We headed home for naptime, then back to mom's for pie and a phone call from Seth, who should be coming home from the Philipines in only 6 weeks! All of us are beyond excited to see him again. And whoever else might be showing up around then, too *wink wink nudge nudge, Erin* (I'm honestly not sure who I'm more excited to see, lol).

Sunday we went back to Monica Ward to hear James's friends farewell talk. The lucky guy's going to Fiji for two years. The girls wore matching outfits to church, I'll admit. I swore I'd avoid that at all costs, but the dresses Jen bought were just too pretty not to wear right away (no pictures, sorry). Next week our ward switches to the 9am meeting time, so no more church through lunch and naptime, at least for a year. In the Smith household we're having a post-holiday cleansing, as far as food goes. After all the rich foods from the holidays, we're having nothing but soups and stews for the rest of this week. Perfect excuse to try all sorts of new recipes! Yummy.

Look what Megan got

Since Cadence did so well transitioning so young, James and I had discussed moving Megan about as early. We hadn't actually planed on THIS early, but she's done so well napping on Cadence's bed and due to some recent sleep problems and the Christmas bonus giving us a little more wiggle room in our budget this month... Well, the stars simply aligned, so wish us luck! I'm optimistic.

Though I'm not sure how I feel about my baby being in one already. A part of me would love to keep her in a crib for another year, but I'm really hoping this early transition helps us solve a few new sleep problems.

Leap Frog Letter Factory

While my girls are thoroughly transfixed by the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD for the umpteenth time....

...I find myself pondering a few very important thoughts about it:

1.) If the letters are 3D and very nearly child-sized, how in the world will Mr. Websley publish them in a book?

2.) How do they train the letter instructors to speak?

3.) Do the "guest speakers" come every day for teaching? (On that thought, do the ducks argue every time they're a "guest speaker") Or do they have rotating guest speakers? If they don't have regular guest speakers, how do the S and Q letters learn their sounds?

4.) If the M's consume food to learn their sound... do they have to use the bathroom too?

5.) Same thought with the H's, if "water makes them h-h-happy" do they need a bathroom as well?

6.) How did Professor Quigley get Mary Poppin's tape measure?

7.) Why do some letters have hands, while others don't?

8.) Why did the dad ask the kids to watch their younger brother when the mom is right there?

9.) Why does the mom not join in the search for her youngest son when he's wandered off in a factory?

10.) If Mr. Websley's business is so important, why is the all-important presentation left in the hands of children?


Yes... I've watched the DVD far too often...

One week of nothing exciting

Well, I try to post at least once a week... and it's been a week since my last post. We don't do much that's exciting around here. Slowly getting ready for Christmas, though I am way behind in my crafts. I had hoped to finish my niece's present by this Saturday so I can give it to her. But with everything else on my plate, I'll be lucky to finish a complete set for my girls by Christmas! It's not that I'm busy. It's more that the only time I can do it is when the girls are asleep and that's also my cleaning time around here. I think I'll have to push back my bedtime by an hour and see if I can't crank these things out!

It's been a nice, quiet week. We had our ward Christmas party Saturday night, that we had to leave before Santa pictures, since Cadence decided to be inconsolable. She literally ran screaming across the gym to get to me. That was after being restless the whole time. So we packed everything up (not that there's much to pack anymore, no bulky diaper bags for us!) and headed home.

Anyway our adventures of the week in pictures. Thursday night, we went grocery shopping and it took long enough (since we can no longer go during the quieter mid-morning and have to go in the late afternoon) that we just bought dinner on our way home. Megan loved the coleslaw:
Cadence wasn't a big fan of any of it. But she's loving the reindeer antlers we got from the $ section of Target:
We stopped at the dollar store to pick up some snack containers that we saw last time we were there, so the girls had little snack containers for church (since sandwich bags and sharing were not going well). We'd searched for similar containers while out and about running other errands recently, but found nothing. So back to the dollar store we went! Outside they had some rides and I happened to have some quarters:
Let's see... upcoming plans. We have the annual Christmas luncheon for James extended family next weekend. Trying to decide whether to crash another ward's Christmas party, just for another shot at Santa pictures. Looking forward to the next few weeks. Next week James only has a 3-day work week. And the week after that is yet another 3-day work week. So we get lots of James-time coming up. Two 4-day weekends in a row. Yay!

Cadence's 2 year check-up

Well, from here on out, Cadence only needs to go to the doctor for a once a year check-up. I think she'd be more relieved if she actually understood that idea. As it is, she was quite happy to run down the hallway towards the exit once today's torture was over.

As always, the doctor was impressed with our little girl. I'm starting to think it's all an act and he's impressed with all of them. But when he expressed surprise and questioned me further in her colors and letters knowledge, I was quite the proud mommy! Even if she did bury her head in my shoulder every time he got too close and refused to talk to him. She was quite calm through most of his exam until he had me lay her on the exam table so he could examine her stomach and hips and the like. At that point I felt like a rotten mommy because she just laid there with her arms held up and looked at me and cried.

Felt like an even more rotten mommy when I had to pin down her torso so they could administer the booster shot for her flu vaccine. Luckily, when they did the finger prick to check her iron levels so she was so curious about what the contraption on her finger might be, the prick was over before it even registered that she should cry about it. (At least that experience wasn't half as rotten as having to stand back while two nurses took Megan and gave her 6 shots last week. I find it much easier to handle the whole ordeal if I kind of hold her and whisper comforting things. Just watching my babies tense up and shriek and having to just stand there and watch... not fun at all.)

Anyway, Cadence's stats:

At 18 months-
Height: 33"
Weight: 23 lbs

At 2 years-
Height: 34.25"
Weight: 25.7 lbs

She's remained steady hovering right around the line for 25th percentile as far as weight, but she's dropped from 75th to just over the 50th percentile over the past year. The doctor was awesome and ran a quick calculator they have and said given her current growth curve and mine and James's heights, we can expect her to be about 5'6". Megan's curve is slightly taller, I think, so maybe 5'7"? Guess we'll know in 20 years!

Well, I suppose that's all for now. Be sure to check out the post below this for birthday pictures (in case you somehow missed them...)

Birthday Party Pictures

My dad was gracious enough to bring the pictures over to me after he got off of work today, so I can share them with those that were unlucky enough to miss out on the fabulous shindig:

First, my dollar store decorations to decorate the area of Pizza Hut we reserved. I was quite pleased with how easily the place transformed into a little party get together, without costing me an arm and a leg. We had crayons and coloring pages for everyone. It was a toddler party, after all. Crayons seemed a fitting theme. For the most part, everyone just hung out and chatted:
The tasty food we served. Gotta love pizza. Certainly can't go wrong there!:
Cadence having fun on the coin-operated car, though we didn't put any coins into it:
The lovely cake. I was quite pleased with how it turned out. So far from what I initially envisioned. But I made do with what I had and it turned out cute nonetheless. The smash cake was nothing special, so no need to share that. I just loved the crayon scribble idea:
Cadence attempted to blow out the candle with me:
Both girls enjoying their cake. Cadence was quite neat with it (until she attempted to clean her hands with her shirt). Megan dove right in. (Be sure to enjoy the video my dad took!):

Look, I was there too (it's not often I post pictures of myself, since I'm usually behind the camera. I couldn't resist). My mom took over cutting the cake soon so I could sit and enjoy Megan making a mess:
Opening the presents. Cadence and Megan got constantly distracted by all the new toys, but we did coax Cadence into opening a few between new toys. A few favorite shots:

Just another post of nothing important

Still waiting to get my hands on the birthday party pictures. We had a lot of fun with friends and family, but I'll have the details for the photo montage that I will hopefully have soon. The girls have been dealing with a cold that Cadence brought home from nursery. A few pictures to show off real fast.

Megan and her snotty nose (notice the surplus of Mega Blocks littering the floor):

Cadence chatting it up with me. Look how old she looks:

Daddy made sure her nose stayed clean (I love daddy-daughter pictures and wish I had a ton more of them):

They were counting to make sure all the soda cans were accounted for:

Things continue to be both quiet and hectic all at once. Megan is chatting up a storm and mimicking new words every day. She's walking like a pro and helping her sister get into everything they're not supposed to. Cadence has mastered about a dozen or so letters already, all from watching "Leap Frog Letter Factory" over and over and over... and over... But, the sucker works and it entertains her, so I let her watch it at least once a day. I'm putting off working on numbers until she gets all of them down. I don't want her confusing her numbers and letters, since the two have very different functions.

We put up our Christmas tree today and both the girls were fascinated. They weren't so interested until I plugged it in and it lit up. Then they were enthralled when suddenly toys were hanging on the tree, too. Unfortunately, my only shatterproof ones were silver, so our tree looks a tad plain (white lights, silver ornaments...). I'll be purchasing some more shatterproof ornaments in a different color to add some more sparkle to the tree. Cadence tried to put the ornaments on the tree, but kept trying to put the ornament directly on the branch rather than using the hooks. Megan's only contribution was to pull the ornaments off that she felt were in the wrong place on the tree and bring it to me to correct. So helpful. The tree would not look proper with our her critical eye...