Our family vacation!

As most people were going back to school, but finally got our family vacation in. We went to Sedona, Az. Which is AMAZING! if you haven't been there i highly recommend it!. it is beautiful. if many not be the most kid friendly vacation spot, but it was georgeous and so fun. There are tons of hikes, we only did two small ones because we had the kids. My parents went too, which was great having grandma and grandpa there.

Sedona is just surrounded in huge red rock formations! Just beautiful. This was on the only hike we took the kids, i had to carry caleb the whole mile, which seems a lot longer when you're hiking and lizzy asked are we there yet? 50 times or more. But it was still beautiful.

We went to Montezuma's castle, which is indian ruins in the side of the mountain, she became a junior ranger there.

Caleb and I trying to stay cool in the shade.

We found an amazing Kaleidoscope store in the ghost town of Jerome and you could take a picture through the scope. pretty cool

One day we went to the Grand Canyon, and i thought for sure it would be sooooooo hot in August, we were actually cold. But this is a stop on the way home at Bedrock City. We actually were too tired to go in the run down playground, but this care was out front, so the kids had fun in it.

Living on the edge..... the Grand Canyon

Just a few pics of my growing kids!

Lizzy finished her first year of preschool, she LOVED it! this was the last day of school.

I remember when Lizzy used to do this know Caleb is taking over.

Caleb was loving this corn on the cob, and was going to town with it.

What can i say.... I AM SO BLESSED!

Not the best pic, but still makes me smile

Time passes too quickly, but here is an update

CJ and I are celebrating our 7th anniversary this year and we took a trip to Ventura, Ca to celebrate, and a little get away. We stayed at a quaint and very historic hotel called the pierpont inn in Ventura. They were celebrating their 100 yr anniversary so we got a great deal! We decided to spend more time and money doing something fun...Like the Channel Islands. We took a ferry across to the Santa Cruz island and went kayaking in sea caves. It was a lot of fun, a bit overcast, cold, and a bigger swell then desirable, but we had a blast anyway. the sun even peaked out at the end of the day. It was so nice to be out getting some exercise, being with my hubby, who i am so grateful and blessed to have! We also saw the movie Inception and ate out a bunch, i actually had one of the best meals i've ever had eating out. Eric's on the ventura pier! We also rented bikes and rode along the beach strand. Went to the hot tub and SLEPT IN! What a fun getaway, just wish it could happen more. But of course we missed our little ones too much!!!





Do you see the elephant in the rock? and marge Simpson in the space between the rocks.

this actually happened a couple weeks ago. the kids pushed this box against the couch and had the time of their lives sliding down it! Kids are awesome! they can be so easily entertained sometimes. Caleb's laugh was priceless!

Easter -simply Fun

Holidays are so much more fun with kids.... They are so easily excited to see and do... We dyed easter eggs with cousins, had an easter egg hunt at home on saturday and then at Grandma Mary's with all the extented family on Sunday. How fun is it to find an egg with candy or money in it!!!!

A Birthday BOY

WOW talk about crazy, my little baby turned one last week. i can't believe it. This year has flown by. Caleb has just been so fun to have around. The first 8 months he was my angel baby. Happy, smiling, go with the flow, content. Then he hit the crawling age and a bit attached to mom (i mean a lot, the second i walk away from him he screams bloody murder, but at least he likes me right!) So the last 5 months have not been quite as easy going as the first 8, but stages right. It is so fun to see Lizzy and Caleb interact together. They wrestle, play, and already fight just like siblings should, but they also show a ton of love to each other. Those of course are the priceless moments. So caleb has shown some signs of strong will and opinionated just like his sister. He will let us know with a shriek, or sad pouty face, he has perfected, and when he cries it is instant tears, he doesn't have to work up to it at all, the first cry, his tears flow like a river. So we didn't do anything too big for his first bday, i guess cause i was in denial he was turning one and because i didn't want to give him sugar! aka cake. but i did, however no frosting, i know i'm no fun, but i didn't really want to clean him up either.

Ready to dig in, the cake was actually made by my sister in law Erika, for her twins bday, but we celebrated together! it was a really cute cupcake cake.

This was his pouty face when the cake was gone, and him trying to figure how to get the last few crumbs in... (don't worry he shrieked too, for more... but being the first sugar, i wasn't about to over do it)


A Happy Birthday Boy, with his cake. Too bad now he knows................


A few of Caleb's favoites at age 1. He loves to lay on this footstool and rock back and forth:

He LOVES to empty draws, and lately has found the joy in sitting or standing in them, i turn my back for a minute and he is in this drawer.
One of his favorite spots, cause he can crawl up on the fireplace and hang out, or get into things i don't want him too.
We actually went to the beach the day before his birthday and the weather was great, I let him crawl around, he loved it, and didn't even put too much in his mouth. Maybe we're leaving that stage...hopefully
Of course sissy was with us too, she wanted me to take this picture as a joke up close, but it turned out being really cute!
AND Sadly he got his first black eye, i'm sure it won't be his last, but it was really sad... He pulled a step ladder over on top of him, luckily he got over it fairly quickly and doesn't seem too bothered by it. But oh so sad.

Having an older sister....

A package arrived the other day..... it was an older sister, or a doggy, or whatever santa wanted to bring. (Lizzy's favorite game of the last two days... is you go to sleep and wake up to have a present from santa, look in the box and see what he brought you.) She really has had a ton of fun with this box. which is driving me crazy cause i have to be the one to put her in and out and make sure she doesn't fall on her face. But the smile is priceless!


This about says it all! Lizzy is very loving of her brother, but also has been smothering him. Either a tad jealous of the time he gets with mom, or doesn't quite remember he is still a baby, or just overly excited to give loves!???


Caleb has just been moving up in the world (literally too) he is crawling everywhere and anyday will be walking i'm sure. he has conquered crawling up on anything he can. tonight he crawled on the box (lizzy's fun box) and then onto this chair and just was sooooo happy and proud that HE DID IT himself! He also has a priceless smile, as well as some other faces he does on cue. i'll have to find a pic a post it soon! He has quite the personality and besides the biting is just as fun as can be. (unless mom walks out of the room... Definetly a momma's boy, which lizzy is not fond of cause she had the momma's girl thing going for quite some time before this guy came along. Now they have to share and neither like that much. Sometimes i just hold them both as they cry that they want to be held. oh well at least i know they love me!
Lizzy just loves and adores Caleb, for the most part. She is either doing his hair in bows and playing baby with him, or her favorite is puppy. I honestly won't be surprised when caleb thinks his real name is puppy. She follows him around the house saying," here puppy, or fetch puppy" as she throws something for him. the great thing is he really is just like a puppy, he bits, drools, fetches, makes a mess of everything, and loves to be held and petted! We get a good laugh out of it at least.

So, do boys do this, if you have an older boy what does he do to his little sister???





Lizzy has hit another stage... a testy one. For the most part she is so fun, very creative, and full of life. But a little firecracker, one wrong move and its an emotional breakdown. She is so sensitive, that its hard to 'correct behavior' w/o getting a huge meltdown. it may be contributed to the fact that she is still having trouble sleeping all night in her bed...or that may be my reason for emotional meltdowns. Anyway.. she is loving preschool and learning and growing in sooooo many ways. She can write her name, and learning other letters. She surprises me with songs all the time that she knows from school. It really is so fun to see her learning new things. One of the best things is her prayers. they are so tender to hear her talking to her father in heaven. When she prays that she is glad we can be together(as a family) forever. And when she tells me, "mommy, i love you so much" it is the reward and what its all for. I just love her and know she is a strong, but sweet spirit that i am blessed to have in my family. And even when its challenging, I'm so grateful she is mine and my best friend! (as she often says)

Snow in San Diego!

Well living in San Diego, we are very blessed to normally have great weather and even when its bad, some rain or cold, its no where near what many parts of the country are going through. However, this past week we had probably the worst and longest storm i have experienced while here. I have to admit, i do love the sound of rain on my roof. Maybe because i'm from Oregon and the rain reminds me of home. and there is some enjoyment to see a storm outside as long as i have a warm place inside. This first picture is of the ravine behind our house. Usually very dry even after some rain, but we actually had two fast streams going. So, after a week of watching the rain fall, our bathroom roof leak, Cj finishing our crown molding he started 7 months ago, and even buying a new car we were ready to get out of the house for an adventure, and we had to break in the pathfinder!

So our adventure only took an hour drive to Palomar Mountain. The storm ended, and the conditions were near perfect. The sun was breaking through, roads clear, unfortunately lots of people, and a tad cold, but then again we were in the SNOW!


Most of you probably live in snow, but I have not been in show since 2000. Its been ten years, that is hard to believe. Well lizzy heard or saw pictures of snow and has been asking to play in it, so i decided this was the best day to go, before it got old or melted. So we packed snacks and took off. Besides not having proper snow attire. Luckily Lizzy's cousin , whom she gets all her hand me downs from had a nice coast with gloves attached and boots. Caleb we just kept up and out of the snow, but i felt bad his little nose was red. (But thanks to our new car, we were able to open the back and the kids could crawl around and eat, and stay warm.
Lizzy kept saying "look frozen milk." We finally had her taste it and she loved it!
Of course you can't buy a sled in san diego, unless you want to spend $30 for a round saucer at the store on the mountain. So we took our boogie board and it was awesome! It slid fast. Totally took me back to the days i went in the snow as a kid. I couldn't help but laugh and smile to myself cause no one was there to watch, CJ and i took turns cause the kids wanted to stay in the car. Next time we are gonna go with someone else so we can go sled together.
It was such an awesome Day! Just able to get away and enjoy each other and introduce Lizzy and Caleb to snow, even though i wouldn't let caleb touch it cause his hands were already cold enough. But i did go down on a sled a couple times with him and he just loved it, he would laugh and smile! So, apparently the thing to do at the mountain was people would fill up there truck beds or the roof of their car with snow and drive home. Don't know if they just wanted to show it off, or see how long till it melted, but there were tons of people doing it. I couldn't help but laugh that only here would that happen, no where else would people want to take the snow home with them.