Mothers Day/Johns Birthday

Spending some quality time in our backyard. Mason had so much fun swinging with Daddy. Look at how he is even holding on.

At Torrey Pines Beach celebrating Mother's Day for me, Brooke, Kelly and Margie. We still think of her everyday. Look at how big that belly is getting-23 weeks here.

Daddy kept pretending to be unable to blow out his candle; he thought one of the boys would blow it out for him. The boys however just sat there and got more and more concerned with each "try"! Look at Riley's face! Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

The boys helped bake and then decorate Daddy's birthday cake. They were so proud of it, and did such a good job.

New Addition to the Fiedler Family

Well here it is...baby number three's first picture (taken 5 weeks ago)! He or she is due to join the chaos in our house September 1st. I'm just about to wrap up the first trimester which is wonderful news. I've been STARVING for the last three months, and have had morning sickness on and off the whole time, plus I've just been exhausted (although who knows if baby, two toddlers, or the holidays followed by tax season are to blame for that!). The boys started asking me just a few days after John and I found out we were expecting if there was a baby in my tummy because I started to show at six weeks. It's been quite an adventure so far. I can already feel the baby everyday kicking around in there, and after last week's visit to the doctor it's no wonder why-this little thing is a dancing machine. The doctor tried to take a couple pictures last week and couldn't get any because it didn't stop moving the whole time. Every picture is just a blur.
Looking forward to the arrival of our newest love...

December Fun!

We went to Disneyland to see the park with all of it's decorations last Friday. It was raining which was great for keeping the crowds away, but bad because we were soggy. It wasn't a hard rain at any point, just a constant drizzle- just enough to keep us damp.

Smiles All Around

Riley's school did a Christmas pageant, clearly he was the cutest Sheppard around! He was all smiles when the kids were lined up at the door, but once he walked by us and down to the front of the church he was ALL TEARS!!! Everywhere! He ran to the arms of his teacher and cried for most of the performance. He finally perked up towards the end and sang a couple of the songs the kids had learned.

Papa and our favorite Sheppard.

M Turned 2

Well it's official now...we have two toddlers in the house! Mason turned two just after Thanksgiving and we celebrated with a small family breakfast. The birthday boy loved his muffin (although it looks like a cupcake), and even managed to blow out the candle, after Daddy picked him up a little bit. Riley was a great assistant in opening the gifts, and Mason was very kind to let him help. It was a wonderful day.

Mommy & Daddy with the birthday boy

Mesmerized by the candle, and being so patient while we sang to him
Trying to blow out the candle-note the tiny bit that the flame moved


Daddy picked Mason up to help him blow it out-and he did it all by himself!

Halloween 2010

Mason's first candy ever-STICKY

The sweetest scary shark I've ever seen

Great Grandma with all five of the Great-Grandkids...I don't know who liked dressing up more, the kids or Grandma!

That's one way to take a picture with the pumpkin Mason

Checking out what's inside the pumpkins we grew

Waving like a champ at the Hallowen parade with his friend Nidhi

Well Halloween has come and gone, and here we are left with a pile of candy and some great pictures. We started off the weekend with a Halloween parade at Riley's school. They practiced all week walking around the playground (the parade route) and waving. Riley ran right over to John and I when he saw us, but promptly went back to the parade lineup and walked around and waved and smiled the whole time-I wish I had brought my video camera!!! He was way too cute!

We carved pumpkins on Saturday which was interesting. The boys wanted to pick the seeds out of the pumpkins one at a time-and John had high hopes and cut the tops off of FOUR pumpkins!!!! It was a long process, but the boys had fun and they turned out great.

Then on Halloween we visited family with John's sisters. It was so much fun to see our niece and nephews and to have all the kids together, even if for a short time. Finally the big moment came and we hit the streets for trick-or-treating. We went to a grand total of six houses! Riley did a great job saying "trick or treat Happy Halloween". The boys each opened a tootside pop when we were almost done. It was of course getting close to bed time at this point so we told them that they could have them for ten minutes, then told them we had to wrap them up and save them for later (which they did without so much as a fuss-yes you don't have to tell us-we're mean and we know it). Of course, first thing the next morning Ri asked if he could have his for breakfast! I told him that he could have it after dinner-and we of course did-sticky night #2.

One of the Mason's favorite things over the Halloween weekend was saying "Boo" to Daddy-it turned into quite the game (with Mason laughing so hard at times that the "boo" was high pitched and squeaky and barely made it out of his mouth), and was a lot of fun to watch and listen to-they both had so much fun.

Fun with Uncle HC/Disneyland yet again

We went to Disneyland with Uncle HC a couple weeks ago to see all of the Halloween decorations and ride the "super fast Matterhorn with the pretend scary bad guys". We had a great time, and even stayed to watch Fantasmic-which the boys LOVED (Riley still talks about it)-and the fireworks. We're planning another trip in December to see all of the Christmas decorations, and we're hoping that Daddy will go then!

Snuggling with Mommy waiting for FantasmicSo happy to see Uncle HC-we miss him!!!!

Believe it or not, this is the face he makes when he says "cheese"-cute isn't it?!

I think this is my favorite picture of Riley ever. He loves the teacups, and Disneyland in general.

Such joy!

Mason knows "O", and Ri can spell his name

Well Mason is using more words these days, and is finally stringing some together. More often than not, he is stringing together "mama, ra-ra, baa boy" and then swinging his arm to tell me that Riley was a bad boy and hit him. Tattling on his brother already---can hardly wait for a year from now! Make no mistake though, Mason is generally the instigator!
However, yesterday he surprised us, in fact really blew me away. We know that he knows a lot of things, he just CHOOSES (so frustrating) to not talk-and why should he bother, Riley talks for him. Yesterday though he pointed to his shoe (which said POW) and said "O"! Then laughed hysterically. Over and over and over again. Then later in the evening he was pointing out all of the 'O's on my shirt! I feel like he just stores his knowledge in his head for when he wants to use it. I'm just waiting for full sentences to come pouring from his mouth.

Riley is learning all sorts of things at school and can now tell us how to spell his name, and can correctly identify pretty much all of the letters in the alphabet (both big and small). The other day we drove by a Chase bank and he correct told me "C-H-A-S-E!". He was so proud of himself. His vocabulary is growing too-he loves to tell us now that things are "delicious" which always makes us laugh, it just sounds so funny coming from a three year old!