Lombardi Ranch

Our first visit to Lombardi Ranch this year was with the Page Family. We had a lovely evening and the kiddos had fun together looking at the animals, playing in the pumpkins, and "driving" the fire truck. Summer had her camera along and (as always) got some great shots of our time there.
Our first family shot since last year's Christmas card! Thanks Summer!

Aden loved "driving" the antique fire truck.

Aden taking his girl, Maddie, on a date =)

I love his little profile...it's so sweet.

This was Aden's first choice for a pumpkin...a spaghetti squash! What a goose!

Daddy with his little boy

You can tell by the look on his face that Aden was SO excited to be there!




Peek-a-Boo!

"I want this one Mom!"

Our second visit to Lombardi Ranch was with my Mom last weekend. She treated Aden to a pony ride and boy was he thrilled to be on that pony! He had a huge grin on his face the whole time.

Meanwhile Jonathan (who was too young to ride) stood outside the pony ring saying, "Doggie, Doggie, Doggie!" Yes, (with the exception of cats) all creatures with four legs are "doggies" to little Jonathan.

My Little Love Bug

Aden has been so loving and sweet lately that I wanted to post a few of the things he has said and done that have melted my heart.

1) The other day he brought these flowers in from outside with the proudest little grin on his face, handed them to me and said, "I cut these flowers for you Mommy!"
2) Lately he has been really good about starting his requests with "please" and he often stands in front of me, reaches his little arms up and says, "Please hold me Mommy." How can you say "no" to that?
3) He's learned the art of giving good hugs...a true embrace. I love it!
4) Yesterday morning when I went in to get him my hair was still down. As many of you know my hair is pulled back (either in a pony tail or in a twist with a claw) 99% of the time. Anyway yesterday when he saw my hair down he said, "Mommy's hair 'ook' good!" (he can't pronounce his "L's" yet.)
5) This morning he said, "Mommy's a princess!"

He really is a little love bug and I am cherishing every minute of it!

Parades and Princesses

The boys LOVED the parades at Disneyland! In our three days at Disneyland we saw California Adventure's Pixar Play Parade twice and Disneyland's Parade of Dreams twice. The parades were definitely a highlight for the boys...lots of smiles, squeals, and clapping! Anyway, last week I was folding laundry on the dining room table (that looks out onto the patio) and I heard Aden say, "Jonathan come! See a pay-ade (parade) in the gass (grass)! Where is it, Jonathan? Where's the pay-ade? Where's the princess? Where is 'em?" (He liked the princess float a lot!) and when I looked out on the patio this is what I saw.

Aden and Jonathan patienly waiting "on the curb of Main Street" for the parade to start.


Now almost every day Aden asks if he can "See a pay-ade in the gass?" and I can't figure out if he's using his imagination and pretending that he sees the parade or if he actually thinks the parade is going to come. I hope it's the former of those two or once again this poor kid will be waiting a LONG time for his wishes to come true!


Last spring this Sleeping Beauty figurine (probably from a Mc'Donald's Happy Meal) mysteriously showed up in the basket of our stroller after a church gathering with a bunch of little girls. Aden liked playing with it so we've kept it in our toy box ever since. Since our trip to Disneyland this princess has secured a spot in the top ten "Most Played-With Toys" in the Moore home.
The backpack was spotted by Aden in the clearance bin at Wal-Mart this week and he just had to have it. He was SO excited about it and was so sweet about it (no fit-pitching or anything and saying "please" in the cutest little voice) that I decided to indulge him and his fondness for Disney princesses. It is actually really cute to see a litte boy innocently enjoy something that is very girly. I know it won't be long before he'll respond to things like princess backpacks with comments like, "Ew, that's for girls!" so until then I am going to enjoy the innocence of my sweet little boy!


"Jonathan look! It's a other one princess and a other one princess too!"


Yes, he actually wears it and he is so proud of it! The best part about though is that he normally fills this very girly "back-kack" with his oh-so-boyish cars and trucks.

Disneyland

Rebekah (Daniel's sister) is back in the US after a 10-month tour in Baghdad and to celebrate her homecoming a group of us all met up in good ol' Anaheim, CA to spend a few days at Disneyland. It was great to see everyone and the boys had a blast!

Above: Aden and Cousin Kyle sharing popcorn and swapping stories about their adventures in Tarzan's treehouse.

Below: Anaheim was experiencing a bit of a heat wave while we were there. 100+ degrees in October! Needless to say all the "water play" areas in California Adventure were quite the hit with the kids. Honest to goodness I think they would have stayed here ALL day if we let them.

Jonathan loved playing in the water and was squealing and clapping the whole time! This picture brings a smile to my face because it does such a good job of capturing his sweet excitement.

The Boys!
Uncle Jakey, Jonathan, Kyle, Aden, and Uncle Lucas

Splashing around in the water at "Redwood Creek" (a.k.a Brother Bear Park) continues to be a Disneyland favorite for my boys.

Tuckered out after a several hard days of water play, carousel riding, tea cup spinning, Dumbo flying, and parade watching

Here's proof that Disneyland is (at least for this little one) the "Happiest Place On Earth!" Maddie LOVED the parade and was SO excited to be watching it!
On Sunday evening we met up with the Pages for a few hours and enjoyed watching Aden and Jonathan experience some of Disneyland with their sweet buddy Maddie Ruth.

Aquarium Fun

Last week Carolyn and I took the boys to the Aquarium of the Pacific. The boys enjoyed seeing all of the marine life and they loved spending the time with their Grandma. We had a nice day together.

Aden seemed to enjoy the sea lions and sea otters the most and I thought this picture was pretty cool!

Where's Nemo?

You can't miss Aden in his orange hat!

The boys were amazed by the size of this halibut. Aden said, "Big fishie!" about 100 times.

So colorful!

Of course, swinging on all of the railings was a highlight too!

This boat in the water play area was quite the attraction for this little boy. It was even more exciting to him than sharks and stingrays. He didn't want to leave it and repeatedly said, "I ride in a boat!"

Too Funny!

Look closely...do you see something other than spaceships, rockets, and stars on those jammies?

That's right, Cheerios! Multigrain Cheerios to be exact. I took Jonathan out of his highchair this morning and as he waddled away I notice he had several Cheerios stuck to his hiney. It was pretty funny.

Yum!

Piggy Bank

Jonathan has had so much fun playing with this little Fisher-Price piggy bank lately that I thought I'd post some pictures of him playing with it. When you drop the coins in the slot it plays music and counts to ten. Whenever he fits a coin in the slot he claps his hands and does a little wiggle dance to the music. It's adorable! Anyway, it's such a cute little toy and he (and Aden too!) enjoy it so much that I actually wrote a review and posted these two pictures on Amazon. Thanks Uncle Mike and Aunt Tanya for the great gift!

Waiting For Snow

Everyday this week Aden has wanted to play in the snow. He puts on his snow hat and snow gloves, grabs his "snow shovel" from the sand box, and tells me that he wants to dig in the snow. Now, there are two funny things about this: 1) It has been in the 90's all week with sun, heat, and humidity and 2) Aden has never even seen snow much less play in it! Where does he come up with this stuff? Anyway, I love the top two pictures because he sat in the chair for quite some time as if he were waiting for it to start snowing. Poor kid. Little does he know that given that we live in Southern California he'll have to wait a LONG time for that! The last picture I had to include because it was the hottest day all week and he insisted on wearing his jacket! He was crying because he didn't want to pose for the picture and I made him...what a stinker!

A Visit From Cousin Isaac

What an adorable little face!

Aden, Isaac, and Jonathan playing with Auntie Loan

The boys had a blast in the bounce house!

Monkey See Monkey Do

Something tells me that we are one of few households that actually allow toddlers to stand on glass tables!

A couple of weeks ago Daniel's cousin Kelly and his wife Loan came down for a visit with their sweet son Isaac. It was great to spend time with them and it was a lot of fun to see our three boys together. Isaac is smack-dab in the middle of Aden and Jonathan age wise and they really had a good time together. We wish we could see them more often!