Playing at the Park

I love the color of Emma's eyes. I didn't think it was possible to have a blue eyed baby, let alone two!

Daddy and Emma

She doesn't usually suck her thumb but it looks so cute!

Brother and sister and still best friends

Emma is already 5 months old

I have so many pictures of Austin like this. He never looks at the camera long enough!

My big girl Ava

It's been a year...

Hello my long lost bloggers! It has been a year and a month since I have posted anything on here. I could blame many things but I think I'll just say I chose other things that I deemed more important at the time. Much has happened, mostly within the last 6 months. Here's a quick recap and a couple of pictures and then I'll make my usual promise of doing better to keep up with blogging our life.

Ava started kindergarten last August but was quickly pulled out when I realized how horrible her new school was. I have been homeschooling her ever since. We had our third baby, Emma Jayne, on October 23, 2009. Two weeks later, Adam graduated from DLI for the second time. He now speaks 3 languages besides English. We moved a week after that. We miss Monterey SO much! We traveled between CA, UT and AZ for the holidays. We are currently living in San Angelo, TX but only for another month.

Wow... writing it all in a quick paragraph makes it seem so much easier than it was. I left out illnesses, the fact that we had less than a week to move, our 3 day drive from UT to TX, stopping every 3 hours to feed Emma and the nightmare of trying to find a place to live when the one we had set up was given to someone else. Needless to say, it has been crazy and we are more eager than ever to be out of the military!

I hope everyone is doing well and yes, I promise to blog more!

All of us at the Dinosaur museum in Lehi, UT

Our monsters

Emma

Happy Birthday Ava!

We had a little birthday party for Ava on Saturday. She chose a "Dora the Explorer" theme this year. She had a lot of fun and is still talking about how great it was. Here are a few pictures of her fun day.

Waiting for her guests to arrive

Auzy couldn't wait to snack

This cake was much easier to make than her last couple birthday cakes. I made it the night before and had stuck it in the fridge. I didn't realize the m&m's that are supposed to be her pupils would turn so light when refrigerated. Oh well, lesson learned :o)

About to blow out her candles... see the video in the next post

Presents!

I can't believe they all looked up and smiled!

Blowing out the candles

We bought trick candles (the ones that relight). It was so funny watching her have to keep blowing them out. I had to take them off the cake to get her to stop! All the kids thought it was hilarious :o)

My little girl is 5

Five years ago today, I became a mom. I can't believe it's been five years since I first held her in my arms. I'm so thankful for her and the joy she has brought into my life. It was so hard choosing only a few... but here are some pictures of how much she has changed and grown. Happy Birthday Ava!!

2 weeks - On our way to Monterey for the first time

6 weeks

4 months

10 months - First Christmas dress

11 months - My all time favorite Ava picture

14 months - She still likes putting socks on her hands

15 months - Her first trip to Texas

20 months

2 years

3 years

3 and 1/2 years

4 years

4 and 1/2 years

Taken a couple days before her 5th birthday

In God We Still Trust

I love this song! I received it in an email and had to share it. I admit that I do love country music and this song is sung by Diamond Rio. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

The Stevenson House

My parents came to visit all last week and we went to a lot of tourist attractions. The first one we stopped at was the Robert Louis Stevenson house. He was the author of Treasure Island, among other things. My mom was given a book as a child of children's poems that he wrote. She passed this book on to me and I remember her reciting these throughout my childhood. I included a couple of my favorites at the end of this post.

Adam and the kids

My parents

A couple of children's poems by Robert Louis Stevenson:

The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow-
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an errant sleepyhead,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

17 Mile Drive

I love this drive! I especially like the awesome houses and the amazing views. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

The Lone Cypress. This tree has been on it's rocky perch for over 250 years.

My Dad & me

My Mom & Dad by the Lone Cypress

Seal Rock

I'm pretty sure this beautiful beach was called Stillwater Cove

The Lone Cypress again

This and the following beach pictures were taken at Spanish Bay. It was a little windy by the water, as you can see from Austin's hair.

Me & my monkies

Another wind blown portrait

They were very excited to get out of the car and this was one of our first stops. You can imagine how anxious they were to get out by the end of our drive.

I'm not sure what the name of this place was but I thought it was a pretty picture