Have I ever mentioned how much I love Erik’s sister Kirsten and her husband Dallas?  They are the coolest!  And what is even cooler about them is that they actually think we’re cool!  Well, they attacked us Sunday night. As we sat on our comfy couch watching the Winter Olympics, they stealthy crept up to our front door and plastered the entire thing with dozens of paper hearts complete with funny, kooky phrases.  I love them!

I think Rulon would make a great subject for a flip book:

Lincoln thought this one was extremely humorous.  He also mused over the notion that if Mom was, indeed, “hot” that he might be able to fetch a good price for me so that he could buy himself a new guitar.(Should I be concerned, flattered or just insulted?)

I’ll admit, manufactured holidays that guilt me into spending more money have never been my cup of tea until I had such enthusiastic kids to share it with.  And when you really get down to the nitty gritty of it all, a holiday that reminds us to celebrate the people we love and cherish most isn’t half bad, is it?  Here’s how we celebrated our day:

Valentine’s breakfast…thank goodness for food coloring!

My little helper, Ellis.

My sweet lovable Ruly-guy.

Valentine’s from Mom & Dad!

Will ravenously attacking his poor heart pancake.

Ellis turned 3 on Tuesday, July 7th but we decided to go ahead and celebrate on the 4th of July while Aunt Kirsten and Uncle Dallas were here and Erik was home from work.  We had a fun barbecue, opened presents and had cake.  It was definitely a princess birthday!  We gave her the Cinderella dress and Barbie but Aunt Kirsten stole the show with the gorgeous Tinker Bell outfit and wings!

I love this picture.  What a crazy little family and what’s with Lincoln using his party favor as a stogie?

We couldn’t let the day of Ellis’s actual birthday go by without any fanfare.  She got the customary candle in her breakfast, wore her cute birthday outfit she received from Grandma Doris and got to do lunch and play land at Burger King.  It’s official our baby girl is all grown up!

I couldn’t resist posting a few random pics from the last week.  (Sorry about the quality, they’re from Erik’s iphone.

Lincoln and Rulon in a rare moment of zen…

Ellis and Dad trying out Rulon’s bike.  Not much peddling happened.

Our DVD player after we discovered why it wasn’t working (thanks to Ellis).  Mind you this is a single disc player…

I realize that Ellis gets largely overlooked in my posts because, well…she isn’t generally causing the noise and chaos.  So this post is an ode to Ellie.  Don’t get me wrong, Ellis causes plenty of drama but that is only when we have the nerve to tear her away from Little Einsteins, Dora or her beloved blanket.  On top of those most cherished items she loves her purses, necklaces, gloves, helping mom in the kitchen, playing with her brothers and snuggling with Daddy.  She’s got an opinion about most everything and is very independent but has certainly added some spice to our family.  

As part of our “summer survival” plan our family has been trying to do one big outing a week.  This week we chose to go on the tour of the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield.  We had lots of fun and stuffed our own jelly bellys full of candy!  Thanks to Aunt Lisa for helping to keep Ellis safe as she tried to escape us many, many, many times…..

Aunt Lisa and brood

Many eager Jelly Belly lovers (it was a 45 minute wait..yuck)

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of contention that takes place in our home but every once in awhile we have are moments, and even more rare we have those moments caught on film.  My friend, Sarah Parker, referred to them as “Ensign moments” on her blog.  Well, here are a few that we’ve documented.  It’s nice to see that my kids enjoy each other at times…..

Little Mateys…

We celebrated Ellis’s 2nd birthday on Monday.  Hard to believe our baby is so old!  Having another girl in the family has been fun but also very interesting.  A few observations:  girls are extremely articulate at an early age.  I mean, Ellis is speaking in full sentences, telling me exactly what she wants and expressing her displeasure when it doesn’t happen in the time frame she specified.  Girls (even two-year-old girls) can be talked out of a bad mood when the promise of Dora, chocolate chips, or when a pretty red and white swim suit is offered.  Girls can be down right manipulative.  I know this is not too surprising for most but for me I couldn’t believe is started so early!  Even on the day of her birthday, Ellis was milking it for all it was worth as she batted her long eye lashes at me, pursed her sweet little lips and said in her little baby voice…”Park…birthday..me?”  I am in so much trouble…..  Alas, we love our sweet little girl and have been so happy to have her in our home.  We love you little Ellie Bellie!

Ellis with her presents.

I never thought I’d be saying those words, but here I am with a blog.  After fighting off the desire to join the droves of my friends and family who now have blogs, I’ve decided it’s time to conform. So here we are world, the Adams family is making it’s debut!  

We just got back from a 3 week vacation which started with a trip to Utah for Dallas and Kirsten’s wedding (Kirsten is Erik’s only sister).  It was beautiful and we had a great time.  The photographer got to know my kids very well as Rulon was making all sorts of crazy faces and being his usual maniac self and Ellis would not have any of it and screamed the entire time.

From Utah we traveled to a really hot vacation spot.  Some of you may know it…..yep, I am talking about Rexburg, Idaho.  It’s a well kept secret among us seasoned travelers so don’t let the word out.  Erik and I hadn’t been back to Rexburg since we graduated from Ricks in 2000 so we decided it would be fun to visit a few friends who live around the area, see one of Erik’s old teachers and check out all of the changes they’ve made to campus since we’ve been there.  We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a long leisurely stroll down memory lane.  While we were there we took the kids up the road to a fun yet sorta of unsettling place called Bear World.  Essentially they open some big gates and give you a brief warning about not getting out of your car and you follow a little road that takes you through this gated area with bears wondering around. Very cool to see them so close and walking by your car but I kept fighting the urge (against all of my better instincts) to open the door and jump out.  After escaping the danger of the bears we took the kids to a petting zoo on the other side of the park and let them ride some kiddy rides.

After Idaho we drove to Washington to spend about a week on the farm with Erik’s family and a couple days in Othello with my family.  We road ATV’s, went swimming, camped out in the orchard, went to the movies, and visited friends and family.  It was bliss!  We love going home and enjoying a slower pace that we don’t quite get around the bay area!!

Now we are back at home and Erik is back to work.  We joined a pool and the boys are taking swim lessons every day as part of a swim team called the Forest Park Flyers.  We are loving the beautiful weather and are looking forward to more adventures.  I told Erik last night that my goal was to completely exhaust the kids this summer.  I am sure it will be the other way around!!