Pictures from our flight

Our flight

I am happy to tell you that we made it to Ukraine in one piece. The kids love spending their time with their grandma and grandpa and their uncle Vanya, and it is nice to have extra help with the kids. Although I am way behind on my sleep, I already feel refreshed and rested.

So here is the story of our trip. First of all, I lost my keys (maybe I packed them?) and we spent much of the Sunday searching for them to no avail. I hope we come back to our apartment with all of our stuff still in it. As usual, packing came down to the wire. Ashleigh was able to come and help us out with the kids while we finished and also drove us to the airport (THANKS!!!). At check-in, we were informed that our seating assignment had changed, even though we had called to make sure we were sitting together. There was some conflict with the row that has a bassinet holder, so in the process of fixing that, they decided that we could all sit separate from one another. They put a random person between me and Andre, and Jeff was sitting several rows away. Lucky for us, the only way to solve the problem was an upgrade to business class, which I have to say was awesome and really helped us manage the kids. On that note, I am glad I prepared for the worst, since the flight wasn't all that easy. Harper was napless when we got on our plane at 3 pm, so he was exhausted as it was and I really thought he was going to be zonked soon after take off...not so...all the new gadgets and sound made him as wide awake as he could be. After a few hours of him being crazy and trying to climb, touch and walk everywhere, I decided it was time to Benadryl him. I tried it a week ago at home and it worked. However the plane case was quite the opposite, and Harper only fell asleep some 6 hours into the flight, only to wake up 2 hours later! (the little bassinet was a sardine can for our bulging boy, and he just could'nt turn around in it). Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep, and it has been difficult to adjust for all of us.


Here's a juicy sidenote--skip this paragraph if you don't like soap opera type gossip. There was a couple in their early 40s across the isle from me - rich and good looking. He was a bit annoyed with having two kids in business class sitting across the isle from me (which annoyed me). Anyway - fast forward, the guy falls asleep about 3 hours into the flight, and she is up. Since I was up with Harper, we struck up a conversation for some time, and she told me the she felt for me since she has 3 kids of her own and also mentioned that her husband/boyfriend (not sure which) also had 3 kids (all of them under 8). As I was standing with Harper in the bathroom/flight attendant area for a while, I kept noticing she was coming back for more and more wine. After downing probably a whole bottle, she started to talk with some guy in his 20s and eventually they started making out. Then she sat down and pretended to be asleep, while the guy kept waiting for her by the wine and kept walking back and forth past her. It was funny, but more sad--made me think about how living a life that is of the world can cause pain regret, and that the word of wisdom is tied to being faithful in other things.

The second flight was rather uneventful, and all of us fell asleep at some point. We arrived to Kiev to find that our stroller was lost, so that took a good hour of standing in line to file the claim, etc. but we got it back today, which will make our walks much easier.

We are still jetlagged and slept most afternoon yesterday, today we have fun plans of going downtown (Just Jeff and I - radical!) and the watching ballet at night. We have eventful days to come and not enough of Jeff's time to do everything we want.

Doctor's appointments

Andre had his 3-year and Harper his 14-month check-ups. Here's where they measure.

Andre
Height - 38.5 inches (77%)
Weight - 32 lbs 3 oz (57%)

Harper
Height - 31.5 inches (75%)
Weight - 24 lbz 2 oz (51%)

Andre's dream

Andre came to our bedroom in the morning and this is what he told us: "Monkeys spilled. Monkey spilled water, green water, on me".

Andre's 3rd Birthday Party

Since we are leaving to o to Ukraine on the day of Andre's actual birthday we moved Andre's birthday up a week. Andre was very excited about his birthday party and about 3 weeks in advance he reminded us: "My birthday is in week" , he would continue "I see friend, get presents, Pluto cake". About a week before his birthday he was announcing it to everyone (aka strangers anywhere we went - store, park, etc.) The day of the party he woke up and first thing he said was "It's my birthday". It was very cute to see that for the first time he really cared about his birthday. We let Andre open one of his presents in the morning - it was "Junglebook" DVD

Andre requested a Pluto cake, and as many times I tried to convince him that Mickey Mouse cake would be just as fun, he insisted on Pluto. Therefore, I had no choice, but to make a Pluto cake. The ears are made out of rice krispy treats and covered in fondant, so the whole cake was edible.

Can you tell he is excited?

Jeff made the straucture of the pinata, and I painted the face of Mickey on it. My friend Ashleigh came over the night before and helped me pain the ears while I was working on the poster (I free handed Pluto and baloons, and then painted over).

And here's the video of Andre singing "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" theme song:

While we were setting up for the party, Andre made his own kind of cake. He even found a leaf to represent a candle.

Andre opening his presents
The coolest present Andre got was from his friend who lives down the street. His name is Julian and he is a few months older than Andre. He had an idea that Andre would like to get some rolly-pollies, so his mom Natalie got him a little jar, he went out in their front yard, caught about 5 bugs and even created an enviroment for them by putting in a rock, a few leaves, and a flower. Kids are too funny.
Violet is watching Andre playing with his new present
Setting up Andre's new goal posts - Andre present from Jeff's co-worker Flo (thanks)
Mike is very focused on figuring out the transformer. I have to admit Jeff has enjoyed the present just as much.
Goal

One of the drawbacks of having a party at the park is that it is almost impossible to light the candles due to the wind. We had a second of calm and Andre was able to blow out his candles, needless to say I had no time to take the picture, so he was nice enough to stage it for me.

Despite Andre really wanting a Pluto cake he didn't take a bite of it and preferred ice-cream, and then candy.

Phoebe working the pinata
Andre was the one to break the pinata, our little strong man

Candy frenzy
Andre definitely came out a winner

More pictures from our photo shoot

Here are a few (quite a few) pictures from the photo shoot we did on June 1st. I tried to put up only the best pictures, but as you can tell I had a very hard time selecting. It must be the combination of my cute kids (not at all bias) and an amazing photographer Amber. If you live in the L.A. area, I would highly recommend her - she is an amazing artist and is great with kids. Check out her website at www.AmberBella.com.

Andre's sayings

I realized that I don't write down too many things Andre says since he talks so dang much, but he is so cute (most of the time :).

As Andre accompanied Jeff yesterday to the trash can they walked by a few potted plants we have on our porch:
"Papa, look at the plants! They are growing! Andre is growing too." - he said straightening up to look taller, and then with slightly disappointed tone continued - "No, papa, Andre can't grow and be big like papa...Andre can't go on rides in Disneyland..." Sigh.

New creation - Key Wristlet

Hip and stylish keychain that fits around your wrist.

Made with 100% cotton designer fabrics.Wristlet has a 3" diameter opening for your hand/wrist, which is perfect to easily slip it on your wrist, yet it won't easily fall off. The fob comes with key ring attached. This wristlet is perfect when you are on the go. How many times have you unlocked your car and went to put your kids in their car seats and had no idea where to put your keys in that moment? Another great benefit of this key fob is that the keys are are easy to find! Beautiful and funky fabrics stand out anywhere.

The price is $6 + shipping. If you would like to buy one, contact me or visit my website (http://aandhcreations.blogspot.com/) or Etsy store (http://aandhcreations.etsy.com/)

Softball Season

Jeff is playing on our ward's softball team. Due to the lack of shoes with any kind of traction this was the result of one of his games:

Violet's Birthday

A friend of mine, Ashleigh, asked me to help her with her daughter's first birthday cake. Violet loves her rubber ducky toy, so the birthday was themed just that. We definitely had a cake saga, let's just say 2 times the batter failed to rise (as it said it would in the instructions) to fill in the 3-D pan. Ashleigh and I ended up staying up through the night - I came home at 6:30 am! I then took a 3-hour power nap and then had to make the lettering. I then hurried over to Ashleigh's house to finish the cake before the party. As you can tell, the lack of sleep shows - 'Happy BirHTday" - we were able to catch the error and fix it. All in all - the cake turned out pretty cute.

Here's the fixed version:

Birthday girl with her parents

The Duck was Violet's smash cake

Harper decided to be all proper, and use a fork to eat his piece of cake - I had no idea he could do that!
Cake-eating duo
Andre enjoyed playing with his friend Felipe