easter and spring break

easter totally snuck up on me this year. i think last year it was a lot later and so this year i realized it was easter, oh, i don't know, a week before it actually came. nova had a lot of fun decorating easter cookies with a friend, going on 3 easter egg hunts, going to an easter party at a friends and an easter themed preschool. we tried to fill the week with a lot of fun. i think we accomplished it, but by the end of the week i was wiped.

easter cookies


easter egg hunt

our ward had an easter egg hunt at a golfland and we could mini golf for a discounted price. nova did pretty good--but when her ball went in the little river running through the course, she just jumped in. good thing she was wearing flip flops. swinging on her own

bunny ears that she made at the easter party with friends---they also decorated cupcakes, colored pictures and eggs--and i took zero pictures. nova had a blast


and although nova doesn't have spring break, some of her older friends do. which means, our friends plan fun things and we benefit from it! we went to the park this week a few times, went to happy hollow, and finished off the week with the beach and some sunburns. we had way to much fun at the beach for pictures, but needless to say, california is the right place for nova. she was in the water the entire time and has no fear of it. a lot of her friends like to just dig in the sand and run away from the waves. nova wants the "big waves", and then the "bigger waves." she was chasing after some friends when one of them stopped and bent over and she flipped over them and landed face first in the sand. i ran over and was trying to wipe her face off in the ocean and i told her to let me carry her to the towel and i would wipe off her face with some clean water. she just opened her eyes and said, "its ok! i can still see a little bit!" and off she ran to go get back in the water. when we got home she told me we needed to live closer to the beach---and this morning she slept til 8:30----which is UNHEARD of for this girl. maybe we should move closer to the beach! :) ha!

happy hollow: her buddy weston--he was her best friend on the roller coaster---they rode it several times---and screamed and screamed. she LOVED it!

if you blow this picture up bigger you can see her face---mix of fear and excitement

on the carousel

her other favorite ride which she also rode over and over again with weston. and here is just a video of nova and weston on the roller coaster---its not the greatest quality, but i love to see how she interacts with her friends--sometimes its not all good--, but its so fun as a parent to see her becoming her own little person. plus you can hear them screaming--and it cracks me up every time.

let me explain....

i wish i had the energy to be witty and funny and all that jazz. but i don't. i am behind on the updates and its been a busy few weeks. (insert something witty and hilarious that makes you laugh) "so let me explain....no, that would take to long, let me sum up".....(can anyone name that movie?) anyway, here are a few pics of what we've been up to.

dan's sister janalee came to visit. we hung out, went to san francisco, went to the exploritorium, drove around fishermans wharf, got lost several times, and stopped by the beach. it was so much fun having her and nova loved having time with her. thanks for coming jana!

at the beach

dan had a birthday shout hooray! we celebrated with pie....and smoking? he was just trying to show nova how cool he looked......but i think she was just alarmed. nova had fun decorating our living room like a space ship and making a pie with about a pound of sprinkles on the top. (also as a side note, dan ordered his birthday present and we got it in the mail. dan opened it early and when nova woke up the next morning and realized that a) he had opened his present BEFORE his birthday, and b) opened it WITHOUT her, she was more than appalled. she asked to call him at work and she gave him a tongue lashing. she was really put out that he would do something so horrible. we can really see how we parent because the conversation was made up of mostly these comments----"that was not a good choice. i really love you and that makes me sad when you make bad choices. there will be consequences. NO CANDY for 10 years. i still love you and i am really really frust-a-dated and i love you-that was a bad choice. i love you. lets talk about it." i wish i would have recorded it because it was hilarious.



nova set a lepracaun trap, and didn't quite catch one, but he left a trail of gold to the door and left some lucky charms, green nail polish, and turned our milk green. he is one 'tricky guy.' according to nova. she really wanted to set a trap to catch one because our neighbor made one. dan helped her to build one and he told her that you have to leave something that the lepracaun would want, so she drew a red hat for him to have if he left her some gold.

success!

and the lucky charms with green milk.


and last but not least, april fools day. this year we kept with tradition and dressed up like a crazy folks. i opted to not wear my bathing suit outside of my large preggo body this year. and we ate on garbage bags with strange utensils. nova was a bit concerned with the whole thing. she was alarmed when i just dumped noodles on the table. and when we ate dessert first nova was almost in tears because, "you can't eat dessert first! its not right!" sigh.....at least the things we are trying to teach her are sinking in right? but after the initial shock of it all, i think she had fun with it.

also, i hung the pictures upside down to see if nova would notice, and nova didn't like it at all, and she particularly did not like the mustache i gave her. alas.....

eating dinner

and the whole family, in all our sweet sweet glory......

3/12/12

guess what?




.................................

the words pretty much sum up the truth.

and nova's face pretty much sums up how every single one of us feel about it.

money well spent

nova has been begging upon begging to go to dance class. for months. as in, nearly every morning she would ask me, "is today my dance class?" hmmmm.....talk about major hint dropping. i kept putting it off hoping against hope that she would start begging me to buy her a small basketball hoop......however, that never happened. so dan and i discussed it and we decided to let her do it.

next to the money we spent to birth nova, this is the most productive amount of money that we have ever spent on her. and she has been to 1 class. she was literally glowing.

noteworthy items from the morning that i want to remember about her first day at dance class:
*she was standing by the door with her shoes on, jacket and bag ready an hour and a half before it was time to go.....it was a long morning.
*we read miss lina's ballerinas 3 times before we left
*we did her hair 5 different times. she kept changing her mind on what ballerina she wanted to look like in the book until finally she decided that she wanted to look like nova the ballerina--she can't stand her hair in a high pony tail or bun.
*she wanted to wear her tights on TOP of her leotard.
*she insisted that she dress in pants on top of all her other layers so she could "change" when we got there.
*she went to the bathroom twice before we walked into her class.......nervous bladder?
*she kept exclaiming over and over, "i can't believe it! its dance class day!"
(this is the best pics i could get before we left and then when we got there. she would not hold still because she was shaking she was so excited.)

wednesdays will definitely be the highlight of this girls week i think. and to top it all off, one of her best friends is in the class.

2 letters

dear katy perry,
please get off my radio.
its nothing personal.
have a good one.
suzanne

Letter 2:

dear grandmas and grandpas,
here are some pictures.
love ya!
nova

working out with mom in the morning
face painting at the childrens museum in san jose

shaving creme paint at the childrens museum---note the painting on one leg---she kept telling me, "mom! look, i am painting on one leg!" and then she would sing tangled songs.
at preschool with her friend justin--the letter was J and they went on a jungle safari....she must have a good preschool teacher.....ha!

L is for the way you...

1. Lick your fingers after we make pink pancakes and heart shaped cantaloupe for breakfast.
2. O is for Our Outing drive to the train station to decorate dad's car in sweet nova fashion...she sure knows how to dress to go out to do secret decorating.

3. V is for Very sleepy on our way to go to dad's work for a special valentine lunch.......no pictures. and for Very tired walking around downtown menlo park with dad looking at all the "princess houses"...again....no pictures

5. E is for EATING! (making rice krispie treats for dinner)
6. and more Eating "waffles" per nova's request for our "dymantic"--aka romantic dinner complete with candlelight(i know it looks like she is crying/screaming....but, she was just loosing her brain because we just lit the candles. she was so excited to eat in the dark by candlelight.....ah...the little things.....)

it sure is easy to love these people i live with!sidenote....or rather end note: i also love to watch how her outfits change as the day progressed. and that most pictures are taken with her nightgown...also....let it be known that on feb 15th, nova cried because valentines day was over..........and i tried not to laugh because it was so dang cute that she was so devastated. we may or may not still be eating heart pancakes because that is really what love is all about right. love is about doing little things for those you care about to make them really happy. here is to heart shaped pancakes until march!

3 1/2

i am a big believer in half birthdays. but i knew that because nova is three year she wouldn't get it too well. regardless, i wanted to do something anyway, so on jan 12, she was in the living room and i called her in the kitchen. i surprised her and stuck a candle in a cupcake and sang happy half year birthday to her. she about died. here is the aftermath. even as a three and a half year old, she had frosting on her cake like she was turning one. alas.....
also, i have been meaning to take some pics of nova seeing that i haven't really taken purposeful pictures of her recently. so today we headed to the park. i can't believe how big she is getting. as much as i hate her growing so fast, i love the little person that she is becoming.