San Jose Rose Gardens

We walked through the San Jose Rose Gardens in May 2017 and took pictures of our beautiful kids.  Isak and Kira are now 4.5 years old and Sofie and Noah are 1 year olds.  I wanted to capture what they look like at this time. 

Isak is a sweet boy.  He loves to talk and learn and ask lots of questions.

He has a very tender heart.  If you're sad he will do something to cheer you up.

Kira loves to learn and draw and play, play, play.

She is sweet, but she definitely has a stubborn side to her.

I love that 85% of the time these two are good friends and play very well with each other.  It makes me happy.

Nels is a great dad and is always making the kids laugh.

Everyone loves time with dad.

I'm not the fun one...I thought I would be.  But there's too much work and I find that I have a hard time having fun when I'm cooking/cleaning etc.  It's something I want to try to do better at.

This picture makes me laugh.  Their faces!!

Nels and I try to connect in between taking care of the kids and working.  It's hard, but I'm always glad when we get a few minutes to ourselves.

The gardens were large and beautiful.  We enjoyed seeing the variety of roses.

Sofie gives some big old smiles!

We tried to get one with all four kids.  haha.  :)

Brothers.

Isak was sweet and wanted to help Sofie stand up.  She almost knocked him over!

Yay! Sofie is 1!

OH Noah!

You can see the progression....From sad to happy....

Yay!  Noah is 1!

And that was our outing.  I love these pics and I'm glad we did this!!

Happy Birthday Sofie & Noah May 2017

We were so exhausted from our Disney trip that we ended up celebrating the babies birthdays on May 13th instead!  We wrapped presents, dressed them in their birthday girl/boy onesies and made cupcakes.  

Here's our before getting a cupcake picture...

Pretty cute and happy!!

Then the cupcake came....hmmmmm.

Not sure about this!

"I think I like it!"  I love Sofie's scrunchy nose face.

Noah still wasn't sure, but the frosting was yummy.

He did give me a cute smile though!

Sofie ended up smashing hers and actually ate it pretty well.  It was fun to watch.  We gave them a bath after cupcakes.

Opening gifts.
"Do we eat this?" Oh Sofie...

Curious Noah.

We gave them toothbrushes and then Nels made them this sensory board.  All the kids immediately wanted to play with it.  Lots of fun...

A little about Sofie...she is trying to walk.  She is getting better at knee walking.  She feeds herself her bottle very well.  She's a handful and has a way of making us all laugh.  She just wants to do everything the big kids are doing.

Noah is getting better at holding his own bottle.  He likes to walk holding our hands.  He has become very possessive.  He only wants me or Nels to just hold him.  If any other child sits on our laps he starts to whine and pushes them off!

Sofie is getting her molars.  She also loves to reach up and pull stuff off the table.  Ah!
Happy Noah...Sad Sofie...

Sofie- "I think we eat the sticker."  This girl loves to eat!  Thank goodness!

The cupboards are not safe.  Noah loves to put smaller toys into a cup or bucket.

It's a cute/stressful stage.  They constantly get into trouble and love to explore.

At their one year appt. Sofie weighed 18.5 lbs and was 27.8 in tall.  Noah weighed 17.8 lbs and was 27.5 in tall.  Pretty close in weight and height to each other.

But they also love to snuggle and just be with you.

We love our one year olds!!  (May 2017)

Monterey Bay Aquarium in May

Day 4 of Disneyland - We were all lazy and slept and got ready, ate breakfast.  Then we packed and were out the door by 11 a.m.  Right before our Disney trip, Nels was asked if we would be willing to relocate to Exeter, CA.  So we took a little detour on our way home to check out the area.  It's out in the country with lots of crops with little trees/orchards.  We drove through the Exeter Box plant parking lot, found Costco in Visalia (a nearby city), ate at the Corner Bakery, found an LDS church and then drove home.  We got home at 7:30 p.m. and crashed!  

We took a day to rest.  

Then we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was so enjoyable because it was not crowded at all.  

We saw the otters play this time.  And of course we saw my favorite jellyfish and octopus.

I took the babies to the toddler section.  There was a waterbed type thing for them to crawl and sit on.  I also let them splash in some water and put shapes in holes.  They enjoyed exploring a new place.

We walked to Ghirardelli's and ordered the mint hot fudge ice cream sundae.   Mmmmmm.  :)

We then enjoyed pizza at Gianni's.

And that was the last official day of Nels's vacation!

Day 2 Disneyland

Day 3--We made it out the door earlier, but sadly Nels forgot his phone.  So he rushed back to the hotel.  I waited in the Red Lion lobby and fed the babies.  We still got to the park by 9:30.  The weather was cold, cloudy and sleet-not rain-just wet sleet.  Luckily the sleet only lasted an hour or so.  We went to California Adventure.  The good thing was the lines were pretty short.  And we learned a lot about the day before of how to do things.  We did the child swap and fast passes a lot.  So here's the rides we went on. 

Nels and Isak did the Zephir, then Kira and I did it.  

We all went on the Ferris Wheel.  We did the swinging gondola which was a little wilder than we thought it would be.  The babies had worried faces but didn't cry.  

We rode the Carousel.  

Then I stood in line for California Screaming.  It was my turn to get on when Suddenly they shut the whole ride down!  So I got a fast pass for later.  Nels took kids potty while I did that.

We ate lunch-which we brought-peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  

Nels and Isak rode on the swings (Kira was too short)

Then Isak and I rode on the Jelly Fish.  No lines.  We just walked on.

We fast passed Toy Story so we just walked onto the ride.  It was an awesome ride!

Then we rode the carousel again.  

Then we rode on Ariel...(all of us did the carousel, toy story and Ariel ride) I liked the family rides.  

Then we did the child swap for Mater and Luigi.  So Kira and Isak got to ride each of those rides twice!  

More bathroom breaks.  Then to Bug Land.

We all rode Flick's, Ladybug and Chew Chew Train.  

Then we walked to Hollywood.  We were just in time for the 5:30 Show of Frozen Live.  We fed the babies while we watched.  It was awesome!  Shortly after the "Let It Go" song Sofie was done.  So we quickly packed up and left.  But Isak and Kira wanted to stay.  They liked it.  

We all rode on Monster inc.  Fun ride.

Then we rode the carousel again

Nels and I took turns riding California Screaming.  or is it Screaming California?

Both Nels and I loved the rollercoaster ride.  Nels did potties while I rode and I fed the kids while Nels rode.

We finished by riding the carousel two more times!  I think I missed one other time we rode the carousel...we ended up riding it 6 times!!

Total Count: 21 rides. 1 show.

We ate our own food all day.  Then we left the park.  We didn't buy souvenirs because we didn't take the time to shop.  We walked and walked.  Nels's phone tracked both days.  Each day we walked 7-8 miles.  We ate dinner at Red Robin.  We got the kids to bed around 10:30.  We were all exhausted.

Isak and Nels shared a bed and then Kira and I shared a bed.  Sofie and Noah each had a pack n play and slept in the living room.  Oh and sadly I fought a cold while I was there - sore throat.  So I wasn't a 100% healthy.  But I still had a great time!  Overall the kids were amazing and we all had a blast.  We made wonderful memories at Disneyland!