Tommy on a two-wheeler

For Christmas last year my dad gave Tommy a 'running bike', which is a bike with no pedals and no training wheels and you just run a bit then lift up you legs and ride the bike. They are how Europeans teach their kids to ride bikes in stead of training wheels. They totally work! He was awesome on his running bike, and really loves it, then one of your neighbors gave us a two-wheeler bike with no training wheels, so we decided to let Tommy try it. He rode around our culdesac on the very first try, all by himself! It was amazing. He is not yet 3 1/2 and he can ride his two-wheeler like a pro. The whole culdesace has come out to cheer him on and talk about how cool it is that he can ride. The only problem is that he is still a little bit too small for his bike so we have to help him get on it, so I try to get him to ride non-stop as much as he can around and around the culdesac.
This is Tommy telling me how many times he has ridden his bike around the culdesac so far. This is Tommy's very first try.

More mediocre talents

As many of you may know I love to learn to do things, yet I have neither the natural talent or the patience to become really good at any of these things. For example: playing the piano, singing, dancing, crocheting, doing hair and make-up, sewing, cooking, baking...really the list could go on. And I am very excited to let you all know that I am adding to that list by learning how to knit, and also gardening! I was first inspired to learn how to knit when I read the book "The Friday Night Book Club" which is amazing and you should all read it - if you haven't already. So Candise and I and a few other moms in my ward and some of my young women are learning to knit and my first project is a Griffindor scarf in honor of the new Harry Potter movie coming out - woo hoo!

I am also learning to garden - I am really proud of all my tulips and daffodils that I planted last fall and they all came up - this was a real miracle to me, because I have never made anything grow before. I am really pumped and might even plant a small vegetable garden. We'll see. But for now I am loving all the beautiful flowers that grow so easily in Vancouver weather.

April in a nutshell

April was a busy month, I turned 23, again, at the beginning of the month, and had a good birthday, thank you to everyone who remembered. Jesse and I went to see a play that was weird and artistic, we feel very hip. Then there was Easter - which was nice, we had an Easter party with all the little kiddies around my boys age and their mommies. They searched for eggs in the backyard and then just played there for awhile, it was such a beautiful day for an outside party. I love Vancouver because spring actually means warm. I taught a class at our stake relief society women's conference, which consumed my thoughts for most of the month - I only took a break to read "the confessions of fitzwilliam darcy" - which for all of you P&P fans out there, was amazing. The boys are loving being outside and I'm loving getting out of the house too...it's easier to ignore the laundry that way. Here are some pics from this month, sorry it's all just one big clump, I'll try better next time.

Tommy reading some weird mag on the potty - honestly not a set-up.

Sammy is getting so big, and he loves to eat, a nice break from picky Tommy.
When I ask Tommy to smile for the camera he insists on being weird - how long will this last?Sammy loves to ride his bike - and I promise I fixed his hair after awhile, but it's very hard to cut a 1-year-old's hair!Tommy with his head under at swim lessons, he was the only one in his class who would.The boys got cold so Daddy made them their own personal hot tubs.Playing at the park.No, we don't make him wear a helmet all day(although I've considered it), this is just a stop on a long bike ride.

"New Moon" sets in Vancouver

For those of you in the know, they are filming the second movie in the twilight saga here in vancouver, and I would be sad if I missed out on the opportunity to see some of the sets they are filming at. I am trying to avoid full-on stalking by only seeing the sets when they are not filming, and I have not yet hung around outside their hotel...although the thought has crossed my mind. It has taken some serious researching skills to discover the sets, mainly done by Candise, including, google-earth, twitter, fan-websites, youtube and a bunch of emails sent out pretending to be teenagers who write lol and :) all the time. Kudos to you Candise. But all of it has paid off and we have been to 3 of the sets.

First, what is believe to be Sam's house (confirmed by a questionable source).

Second, Jacob's house, where, althought filming was done there was still a big scary security guard who chased us away, it was all very exciting.

and finally, we went to the site where they rebuilt Bella's house, but I don't have any sweet pics yet because there was a cop there who wouldn't let people pass because apparently they were filming. we did see the forks cop-car, and as you can see, a bunch of teenage girls who had been hanging out there waiting for their chance to see the stars for over 9 hours. We'll go back again in a couple days when filming should be done, to get some good pics of the house. this site is actually only about 15 minutes away from my place, so ya, whatevs, we're cool.

We went back to the site today, because we heard they were done filming and it was great! we saw Bella's house up close, the security guard was super chill and just wouldn't let us go around the front or side of the house. Yes, that is the window that Edward comes in and that in this movie Jacob jumps out.They also had all the cars parked there, this pic shows bella's truck, the forks cop car and alice's car, the bikes were there too, you just can't see them.And my partner in spying - Candise, we had so much fun finding all the sets,now I feel like reading the books again.

A little chat with Tommy

The other day I noticed Tommy was in a particularly good mood so I got out the old video camera and did a candid interview with my little 3-year-old. What a funny kid - I don't know where he gets it from.

Stalking the wrong set *UPDATE* MAY ACTUALLY BE ONE OF THE SETS

Candise and I recently discovered what we thought was one of the sets for New Moon. As you may know they are currently filming New Moon here in Vancouver, so there it was a definate possability that this was in fact one of the sets. We thought it was Jacob Black's house, it is just a little shack in the middle of nowhere, and there is even a little work shack behind. We drove by it a MILLION times, trying to get pics or see people, unfortunatly we saw nobody, except a really big security guy who watched us drive by repeatedly.This is a close-up of the house, you can see some of the tarps and movie stuff around, the night before this they were definately filming something. Unfortunately for us we later came upon these pictures of what is the actual set of the Black's house...somewhere in Vacouver. It is definately the right place because Bella's truck was spotted outside it with the two bikes in the back. owell, perhaps I'll happen upon the set still, it has to be here somewhere! If you want to see more pics of the filming, a good site is http://www.newmoonmovie.org/

Fiji-rific

My mom and dad left last thursday to serve in the Fiji temple for the next year and I miss them so much! As soon as she was gone I had a million questions for my mom about recipes and sewing and books and a million other stuff. I don't know what I am going to do without them. They called last night but the time difference is craziness! It was 11:30pm on sunday my time and 6:30pm on monday night in Fiji. So we are still trying to figure out when we can skype and I can finally ask my mom how to make a stinkin' button hole!

I miss you mom and dad! but I hope you have a wonderful time there!