peru

the olympics were a big deal at our house. and although they may be over the memory of certain events still lives on.

may i present peru in a syncronized swimming routine.

7 years

7 years ago, dan and i

went to the temple did this.

and its been a pretty fun trip with this guy right here.

our anniversary was actually yesterday but with i never finished writing about it. i normally don't share really personal feelings on here, i feel like i want to save that for my own journal. so at the risk of doing that, i do want to write one thing to my 7 year ago self:

dear self--7 years ago--
good work. you picked a good one.

a really good one. :) and pretty easy on the eyes if i do say so myself. :)

sincerely,
me

and here are some totally random stats for the last 7 years:

moves: 6
jobs: 3
pregnancies: 5
children: 2
states lived in: 3
fires started due to burned dinners: 1
cars purchased: 1
bad hair cuts: 4

dan and i talked yesterday about what we would think about our life if we would have had a glimpse of ourselves now. i probably would have swallowed my tongue that we were living in california.  he said he would be appalled at his weight gain. HA! (at least i have something to blame the weight gain on?)


and regarding the cute kiddos.....
here is griff-unzel---and those are NOT my legs---they are dan's. mine are not that white OR hairy. just to clarify.

 nova has been really into being a 'puppy' lately.

 and still a swimming a TON.

 griffon on the other hand doesn't know how he feels about the water situation.

 but he sure does love his naps!

here is to 7 times eternity more!

one of those moms

yep, i am one of those moms. who post multiple pictures of pretty much the same thing just because i can't pick which one i like the best. we have the worlds worst camera--(i am SO grateful i that even have a camera though) but i tried to get some newborn pics the other day. (thanks aunt carmel and marion for the cocoon! we love it!) 

 

 my little helper

 also, the other day nova started into this tangent that it wasn't fair that we weren't going to disneyland. and she decided to go by herself. we hung up this sign and she took pictures and met all the princesses and hid them throughout the apartment. she was so excited that the next day she made plane tickets and rode the plane to go again. this is a much cheaper option than actually going to disneyland and i am so grateful that she was thrilled with her 'visit.' however, at some point she is going to want the real deal, but i am glad in the meantime she is so easily pleased and has such a clever imagination.

 what a girl!

this little griff

i don't have the brain cells to really write anything right now, but i did want to post some more pics for the grandparents. we are loving this little guy!

our dynamic duo

his enormous feet

 bright eyed and awake at 12:30 in the morning after peeing through his diaper twice, pooping on dan, and projectile vomiting in his bed. keeping this boy clean is a busy job---someone needs to tell him laundry isn't free around here. :)

waiting for him to wake up in the morning is seriously too much for this girl. maybe i need to give her a night shift......

honestly to say this girl loves her brother is the biggest understatement of all time. i am glad he had 9 months in the womb to get a sense of her energy because it doesn't even phase him. he is her little prince charming and just eats him up. its pretty fun and also makes us a little crazy, but our house is pretty thick with love right now and i just love it.

 merry christmas?

 nova finished swimming lessons. she has no fear of the water and enjoyed it so much. it was so so so much fun to watch her.

 snuggled up after a sponge bath

 and sleeping with socks on his hands.

You Wanna Go Where Everybody Knows His Name

The moment has arrived. You've been wondering for months what we would call our new baby boy, and it's finally time for the big reveal. We've named him Periwinkle Abernathy Hope, and we call him Perri for short.

Worth the wait, right?

Okay, fine, just joking. His real name, as officially recognized by the state of California, is Griffon Clark Hope. He was born Tuesday night (July 31) at 7pm, he weighed 7lbs 11oz, and he measured 20 1/2 inches. He came out screaming like his hair was on fire, berating the nurse for letting the room get too cold. The birth went very well, even better than Nova's. We were admitted at 3pm, then Suzanne had the epidural around 6pm, and she only had to push for 10 minutes before our little Griff entered the world.

What follows is a slew of shamelessly fawning imagery of the new baby, so only scroll down if you're medically certified to handle cuteness overloads (images of me were edited out so as to maintain purer levels of cute).

 The last shot of Suzanne's belly just before we headed out the door to go to the hospital.

Moments after Griffon was born, with mom and baby both looking healthy and happy. As you can see from the ecstatic look on Griff's face, he had yet to identify the differences between a finger and a nipple.

 A proud little sister stakes her claim on the poor unsuspecting lad.

"Can we keep him?"

The whole family together at last.

A shot of what we've come to call "The Scowl." Evidently he's pretty unimpressed so far with the family he was assigned to. Every time I smile at him he gives me The Scowl. I was unaware that dads could achieve "uncool" ratings before the child was 10 years old. I can't wait to see the looks I get when he's 16.

A straight-on shot, to facilitate your debates about which parent he most resembles. I'm pretty confident he got my toes (pictures forthcoming at a later date), judging by the freakishly long lemur feet he's sporting.

The scowl returns. He's pretty disgusted that everyone seems so concerned about those girls on the TV, flitting and flipping about in pursuit of those golden circle thingies. Hoping the scowl goes away when I introduce him to Star Trek.

More scowls and disgust that his parents never seem to stop taking photos. This was taken just before we were discharged from the hospital this morning.

And finally, a shot of Griff's intense skepticism about this whole car-seat thing. Fortunately, he was asleep by the time we got home, so maybe he's okay with car travel now.

That should be enough pictures to satiate your ravenous desire for baby photos. If not, then we're obviously never going to be able to help you with your addiction. In such a case, I refer you here. For the rest of you who can wait a few days, rest assured that there are more where these came from.