Good times... Noodle salad

Such an awesome surprise when Uncle Chris called to say he would be coming to visit us for a few hours.  The girls wouldn't leave him alone after he taught them how to play hide-and-seek.

Ben bought the girls new pink keds and Jaycee would wake up at 6:30am and come in our room fully dressed with her new kicks on.  She takes after Ben with her love for shoes and her keen sense of style. I love letting her dress herself, she's so particular and ends up in the funniest outfits.  Although most of the time she really does a decent job herself.

Spaghetti nights are always good for a laugh!

Hiking in Carmel...  We started off each carrying one girl in a backpack, but my hips started aching pretty early on, so Ben ended up carting both girls down the mountain.  

Such a good man - and freakishly strong!!  It was pretty funny, another couple passing us by laughed and said "and you're not carrying the dog too".     

Benny's birthday - we found a small park on base and had Papa John's pizza for lunch :)

Wild Thingz

We just barely heard of this little zoo we and it was awesome!  Although it's small they have quite a few different animals: lions, panther, bears, kangaroo, alligators, etc.  And you're really close to them... dangerously close - one guy was peed on, those animals have some range when they spray!  

Jaycee and I even got to feed the elephant carrots, such a fun time!! (sadly I didn't get a pic - too fast)

Hyena

We fed Buster (the big one) - weighs over 10,000 pounds

Buster also tossed rocks at Lydia right after this - no harm done :)

Wrestling bengal tigers

Jaycee giving Ben a smooch - she loved it!

The Petting Zoo

We had plans to go into San Jose for Memorial Day, but instead found ourselves enjoying some delicious fruit and a small petting zoo in Carmel Valley.  Jaycee has always been in love with pigs and it's spread to Lydia so they were both in heaven - they pretty much glanced at the goats, ducks, bunnies, ostrich, and fish.  But spent their quality time watching, giggling and squealing at Oreo - the pot bellied pig...

P.S. I promise I do their hair - after about the 3rd re-do of the day, I give up :)

When Jaycee gets really excited about something she does this with her hands as she talks. 

Cracks us up!!

Coarse hair!

Catching Up

Our 5-year anniversary

Seriously, where does the time go?  Ben and I were blown away reflecting on the past 5 years, how different our lives our now, and how much richer they are because of our precious girls.  We sat and laughed at the thought of someone foretelling us that we'd have our third child on the way at this point. But sure enough, the belly is growing and come the beginning of November we'll have a family of 5!

  Easter Excitement

Glimpse of home sweet home

Lydia's first boo-boo.  She is a climbing machine and makes me a nervous wreck!

Our gorgeous little Jaycee

It's been so amazing living so close to a beach, even if it is freezing water...  Once Lydia finally got over wanting to eat the sand by the handfuls going to the beach became that much better.  Both of the girls are so in love with the ocean and the waves. They want their feet in the water at all times.  I'm a sissy with the ice cold water and I laugh, but still scream every time it touches my legs.  That said, I absolutely love seeing the joy in their faces as the girls experience the tide rushing in to surprise us.

Moon jellyfish.  They are all over the beaches here, and supposedly don't sting much in comparison to jellyfish with long strings attached.  Needless to say, we haven't experimented yet, but Tikka didn't seem bothered when she checked it out.

Lydia sneaking in a snuggle with her sister... She adores Jaycee, they both can be so sweet to one another and I'm grateful for moments like these where I see them loving each other like sisters :) 

Birthdays!!

Lydia turned 1 in December

Jaycee turned 3 on St. Patrick's Day

Loving her birthday money

Presents she picked out and bought all by herself with birthday money

Uncle Devin came to visit and we headed home to Utah for some fun in February.

 The girls were in heaven playing with Unca Dev

The Sweatbox

Ben and I went to a movie and left the girls with a sitter and came home to our sweet little Jaycee snuggled up inside her newly self-created bed.   

We cut a super small hole in a diaper box earlier that day to make a house for Jaycee's piggy.  The sitter told us how that Jaycee insisted on sleeping in the box and set it up "all by herself".  Somehow Jaycee managed to wiggle not only herself, but two large stuffed animals, books, a sippy cup, and two blankets inside.  We about died laughing as we broke the box to set her free from her sweatbox - poor girl was drenched!!

Sunny California

Brief update since my last post two years ago...  We've got a new addition to our family.  Our sweet baby Lydia, "Dia" as Jaycee calls her is almost one year old.  Ben is working in the Army National Guard and we've spent the last grueling 8 months apart from him while he went through Basic training and AIT.  We're now living in Monterey California for the next 9 months and simply loving life being reunited as a family.  We've got a beautiful view of the ocean to wake up to every morning and have had lots of fun little adventures.   Here a few pictures from some of our recent excursions.


Day One - The Beach

The first morning after we arrived we visited the beach.  It was windy and FREEZING, so Ben stayed in the car while Lydia slept.  But Jaycee's facial expression shows what all of us were feeling.  She was in awe of the waves, half frozen and wrapped inside of my sweatshirt.  Despite her complaints of how cold she was, she refused to leave.  We stood and watched the waves together on the beach for a good while, it was awesome.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is incredible.  We went there for Veteran's Day and had a blast.  The place is huge and had tons of stuff for the girls to see and feel - they went crazy!

We saw Nemo!!

Moon Jellyfish

Dennis the Menace Park - Ben ran around the park juggling the girls and racing down the slides like a little kid, we were all in heaven.

Hilarious!

Jaycee ran across this bridge a billion times

Jaycee won racing down the slides

The girls LOVED their snow cone

Hike at Point Lobos - beautiful and quite chilly!