Our Jacob

We are mid-birthday season here in our household (two down, two to go!) and were recently able to celebrate our little manchild Jacob. He's a handful, that one. The morning of his birthday we were eating oatmeal and he managed to dump his entire bowl into my lap. Emily promptly started reciting from The Seven Silly Eaters:

Mac was charming, round and plump;
But if his oatmeal had a lump,
Mac would dump it on the cat.
(Mrs. Peters hated that.)

I was surprised, after seven years of living with little children, at how much that bugged me (the oatmeal in my lap, not the impromptu poetry recitation). Poor Mrs. Peters! Oatmeal is icky stuff to have to clean up!

I also remember for probably the week leading up to his birthday whenever I would go up to check on the kids I would find Jake sleeping on the landing at the top of the stairs. It would totally freak me out every time, so I would scoop him up and deposit him in his bed, only to find him at the top of the stairs again in a couple of hours. Thankfully, this behavior has stopped. Maybe turning two has made him too grown up and mature for stunts like that!

Baby Jacob is also a funny little guy, and a sweetie. He is forever making us laugh.
One of my favorite things is when Joseph walks in the door after a long day at work and Jake drops everything, yells "Wo-wuff!!", and runs to give him a great big hug around the knees.

And here are a few pictures celebrating Jacob.

All tuckered out after church. I took off his tie and loosened his collar, but didn't get him changed into the onesie. That blue blanket there is his best friend, btw.

Normally Jake rides on my back for our hikes, but he decided to tough it out for a while this day (I think it was Thursday the 7th).

Aren't they all great little hikers? Actually, on this particular hike, Caleb was a baby about it the whole way, Em brought some toy binoculars so was totally happy to go for as long as I wanted, Elinor was a tough, stolid little trooper as always (wearing leopard print tights, an apple skirt, and her "running shirt"), and Jake was content to hike for a while and then ride the rest of the way while munching on graham crackers.

Jake enjoying a lollipop at the bank after we deposited a birthday check. These pictures are always sort of fun to see what we can get as I twist around awkwardly with the phone in my hand.

All the kids enjoying their lollipops at the same bank. This picture was taken on Emily's birthday though.

Let the festivities begin! The kids were all so excited for Jacob to open his little stack of presents, and Jake was elated to be able to do it on his own without someone bigger and faster getting the job done first.

Jake's present from Grandma Cooper. It was a total hit! ... literally. That hammer has been confiscated more than a few times. But all the kids love it.  Plus, Jacob can practice passing the sacrament with the tray the tools came in. He's getting pretty good.
Sidenote: one of my favorite memories from Physics at BYU was when two guys were asked to hand out polarized lenses to an auditorium of students, and I heard them discussing strategy beforehand, deciding to do it "like the sacrament."

Grandma Oba's gift. Everyone loves these stacking toys, though they're meant for smaller kids. They're neat because they stack like a regular stacking toy, but can also be arranged in all kinds of other configurations that the older kids get a kick out of. Surprisingly, Emily has probably spent the most time with this toy.

And, the birthday cake. He did require some assistance from Emily to blow out that second candle, but it was cool to see how much he'd progressed in his understanding of everything since last year. This was a cake that Joseph MacGyvered using kitchen tools on hand. He ended up beating everything by hand, but it turned out perfectly (and with three layers!)! Very yummy, especially with a scoop of s'mores ice cream on the side.

And just because, here's a group shot of the kids at Google. These chairs were cool, but pretty typical of the kind of stuff around campus there.

Book rant.

Okay. For those of you that know me well, it may come as no surprise to you that moving to CA and having a lapse in our library access was challenging for me. I made sure to pack a few books that would keep me busy (Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything has done the job pretty well!) but I was not prepared for Emily's sudden, very dramatic upsurge in reading. We've been buying her a bunch of books from Savers and other used bookstores, but I've been getting tired of paying money for books that she would read once and then never look at again. And the other bad thing about this whole thing? I cannot STAND the books she loves. I remember my dad talking to me when I was her age about reading quality literature and even non-fiction every once in a while and I would have nothing of it. Now I'm getting my comeuppance. Have you ever heard of these books?

The Rainbow Magic Fairy books. Ugh. There are literally hundreds of them, all with the same plot, and all ghostwritten by Daisy Meadows. (Frankie the Makeup Fairy, anyone? No? How about Mara the Meerkat Fairy or Kathryn the PE Fairy? I've got more!) But they are what Emily reads, and some reading is better than no reading, and since these books are ubiquitous we pick a few up nearly every time we are out at a thrift shop. I've tried my hardest to make her branch out, even stooping so low as to push books like Just Grace, Cam Jansen, Daisy Dawson, Princess Posey, Magic Pony, Frankly Frannie, and others of dubious quality but still a step up. (I can't bring myself to pull out the Junie B. Jones stuff though. I just can't.) I've read some Roald Dahl, Little House, Indian in the Cupboard, Harry Potter, Narnia, and others aloud to her, but she just won't pick them up and read them on her own unless they are on par with the fluffy brain-candy that is those fairy books. I am hoping The Wizard of Oz does it for her, once I can find my copy. Or maybe Fablehaven. Anything. I just need her to progress and be exposed to some better writing!

Okay. Rant over. In other news, I needed a water bottle to run with (I hate carrying stuff when I run, but 13 or 14 miles seems to be about my limit with no water) so I hit up the local running store today. I had a choice between FitGeek and Zombierunner. Geeks or Zombies?? I chose Zombies. It was a great store and I love my water bottle. :)

Waiting for the elevator.

The Beach

Yesterday I decided sort of last minute to take the kids to the beach. I looked one up online really quick, packed up a lunch, and we headed out.
We stopped at Target on the way for sand toys, but all they had left was one single, lonely little bucket. So, yep. That was our equipment for the day.

This was the moment I knew we had made the right decision in making the trip to the beach.

Jacob and Bel spent a lot of time playing in the sand.

We put that bucket to good use.

Jake was a little distressed by all the sand sticking to his hands. And I'll be honest - he had reason to be distressed -lunch was a touch more sandy than I prefer.

Emi and Caleb spent a LOT of time in the water.

I've gotta get this girl some surfing lessons.

We had such a great time at the beach. We are very lucky to live in a city so close to so many beaches! I think I'm slowly bringing the kids around to liking California (they were very opposed to leaving the snow in Colorado).

Today we just went to the dentist. (I know, I know. Sort of a let down after beach day!) It was a pediatric office so they totally knew how to handle kids and let Elinor and Jake do their whole checkup and cleaning in this chair together! I thought it was pretty adorable.

Happy Birthday Emily!

Birthdays in our family seem to happen during big moves lately. Remember how we postponed Elinor's birthday last year? So sad.

Emily's birthday was yesterday and I think she had a pretty fun day. She was greeted by a birthday crown and a pack of birthday cake M&M's at her place when she came downstairs in the morning. And me. I greeted her too. :) Pancakes with Nutella, fruit, whipped cream, and syrup were for breakfast, after which she opened a card and one present.

This was a joint gift from Joseph and me and Grandma Oba. Em was ecstatic - she's been eyeing this Lego set for a long time.

She spent a lot of her spare time throughout the day working on it.

For lunch we visited Joseph at Google. This is the outside of the building he works in. There's a cute candy-themed statue for each of the different android platforms that have been released.

 Once inside the building we helped ourselves to the free Odwalla juices they had available to all in a little fridge by the front desk, raided the candy basket, donned our Google guest badges, and headed to one of the restaurants for a free lunch. It was pretty fun to see where Joseph spends his time all day.

And here's a picture of the kids running in a field. Actually, we were waiting for Joseph to get home here. I opened the car door and all four of them just shot out across the grass like they'd been tied down all day (or like maybe they'd been gorging on sugar all day... who knows?).

Once Joseph was home Emily was finally able to open the rest of her presents. She had been surprisingly patient about it all day. The other kids... not so much. They were so ready for her to get down to business!

She had quite the attentive and helpful audience throughout the process.

Grandma and Grandpa Bartlett gave Emily a lot of books. She's been happily devouring two or three a day.

Grandma Cooper sent a Rainbow loom with tons of rubber bands to get her going. This was a perfect gift for Emily! (One that I had actually been thinking about getting for her too!)

The other kids were clearly fascinated by it as well.

An ice cream cake (only slightly hideous) from Baskin Robbins because we don't quite have the equipment to make a cake in our kitchen right now.

7 candles! Big girl!

Mint chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate cake and enjoyed by all, as is evident by Joseph's face. And that, there on his wrist, is a very stylish Google watch. It basically looks someone taped a smartphone to his arm. But it's cool.

 And now, just because I found them while going through pictures, a few random things for posterity's sake:

Both boys are in heaven here. This is far-and-away Caleb's favorite thing to do - Minecraft in a joint game with Joseph. Especially since the upgrade, which added Endermen and slimeblobs and, I'm sure, many other wondrous things to the mobile game.

And Elinor. I took this picture mostly to make note of her awesome s'mores shirt and her incredibly fabulous Peggy Bundy pants. The whole outfit is just so... Elinor.

our new digs

So...
we moved.
See?

And there were a lot more boxes that I didn't take pictures of. I did feel bad for the movers, having to drag everything down two flights of stairs and across a field, but at the same time I was SO glad we weren't doing it ourselves. (Aaaah! This was our first time using movers instead of doing everything ourselves and roping friends and ward members to help and it was sooo nice! I was trying to play it cool here, like movers are a totally normal thing for us, but really, I was ecstatic to have these guys doing all the hard work.)

So, we've been in corporate housing for the last couple of weeks, and it's been fine, but I'll be very glad to move into a more permanent house that's all on one floor soon. You ready for the grand tour?

Okay. Be prepared: each floor is teeny tiny and the pictures are bad because I'm a bad photographer and took these at night. This picture was taken from the front door. The laundry room is on the left through that vented door (We have a laundry room!!!). Straight ahead is the room that Joseph and I sleep in, and on the right are stairs up and stairs down.

This is from the base of the stairs that go down. The closer portion of this room is the kitchen. Not much counter space, but we've got a nice gas stove and a dishwasher. (Alright, I'm trying to play it cool again there. We have a DISHWASHER!!!!) Further in is the living room with a nice tv and not enough seating for our family. But still nice. And there's a door to the outside leading to what the kids call "the skinny balcony" and which is strictly off-limits at all times.

This is the base of the stairs that go to the third floor. It is directly inside the front door and Emily's favorite place to plonk everything down and read.

The third floor is just two bedrooms and two bathrooms. This is the boys' room with Caleb's head peeking out of his blankets there.

This is the girls' room which has a bathroom on one side and a flight of stairs leading up to the roof on the other side. Those are strictly off-limits also.

So, our apartment is sub-optimal, but is fine for a temporary living space. Remind me to never, ever paint our family home in a matte finish. There are grubby fingerprints all over our walls (mostly from the previous tenants, but we have contributed our share.) One thing we have enjoyed about this place is the pool.

It's a great pool for us because it only goes to 5 feet and both ends are 3 feet. Jake's becoming a little too comfortable in the water - he happily climbs in at 5 feet and thinks everything is good.

Emily and Caleb have progressed so much in their swimming. They can pick diving toys up off the bottom of the pool from anywhere I throw them. Emily is like six shades darker than she was when we moved here... which is a totally arbitrary measure of tan-ness, but she's really dark.

Jake is a grumpy boy lately. My other kids had terrible threes, but he might be moving into his terrible twos.

Bel is always happy to pose for a cheesy picture comfort her baby brother. As you can see, the poolside area is pretty posh. There are always hipsters out barbequing or tanning or hanging out in the hot tub. 

We also have a nice exercise room which I end up using way more than I want to (I really hate treadmills), and a fancy community room which we've never been to besides when we first toured the place.

So, there you have it. It's been a good place to stay, but we'll be moving to Sunnyvale in a couple of weeks which I am so excited about! We're still transitioning into this new area and this new life, but we're happy and doing well!

Playtime

Alright. It's been a while, and we've been busy. First of all, we are now residents of the great state of California! The move was as low-stress as a move can be, with a quick stop in Utah before we drove out to our new home.

The kids always have fun at Grandma's.

We took a moment to get some new tires for the car.

This is how normal people wait.

This is how Elinor waits.

The Fourth of July was a lot of fun too. I loved seeing all the cousins gathering and playing together.

After spending a couple of days in Utah we drove the rest of the way to California. The kids and I have had a lot of time to do fun stuff together while exploring this new area. We go to different parks or on different hikes most mornings, and spend a lot of time in the pool in the afternoon.

Cuesta Park. I'm always surprised at how close the kids always end up playing, even when they have a huge playground to run around.

A hike in Almaden Quicksilver County Park. Not the greatest picture, but I love how crazy Elinor is.

A better picture of the scenery. The drought has made all of our hikes really dusty and dead-looking, but most of the trees are still green.

And Jake. On my back. This was a tricky picture to take.

I take the kids hiking. A lot. I used to want to go all the time but couldn't because Joseph was always working, and then one day I realized that I could do it myself and since then we have gone at least once a week. (The same exact thing happened with my attitude about getting to the temple! Except I don't go once a week.) Elinor is a trooper. She is always enthusiastic about the prospect of a good hike and super tough throughout. Jake rides on my back most of the way. Caleb and Emily are babies about it so we have a deal where they have to pay me back for taking them to the pool by going hiking with me. Because, you see, I have a secret crazy plan to take the whole family on a 30-mile backpacking trip one day (probably the Skyline to the Sea trail) and I want hiking to be something they are used to and comfortable with by then. Don't worry. I won't attempt the long distance hike until Jake is at least five. I'm excited about it. I might be the only one in the family excited though. :)
 

Juana Briones park in Palo Alto. This park had a fantastic playscape, but the kids only wanted to play with the little water toy. All together again.

Shoreline Park this morning. The kids were intrigued by all the windsurfers. I'm pretty sure there was a windsurfing/sailing camp for kids going on right then. Awesome, right?!

Here's a picture of Emily and Jacob exploring the tunnel-caves at Central park in Santa Clara.

This park was fabulous. Emily (our climber) was in heaven.

It had a pretty fast and scary slide that the kids loved, but Jacob would not go down alone.

Elinor made me take this picture like four times until she got the pose just right.

These giant concrete tree-planter things were so much fun for the kids to climb all over.

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. For some reason, the kids could not stop staring at a little silver tag stuck on the trunk of a tree. Jake was staring at first too, but he has a really short attention span.

California has been really fun so far, and the weather is perfect (besides there being no rain here). I am always so surprised to step outside at 4 in the afternoon to feel the cool breeze but also see the bright sunshine. I have also been impressed by the number of great hikes and trails around here. I'm excited to keep exploring!