How Time Flies

So I know I have been a bad, bad blogger.  I promised myself that I would update more often but, as I so often find now, time escapes me and by the end of the day I am ready for the couch instead of writing. 

I have a ton of pictures and videos to share and lots of fun stories to tell so I will be updating you all over the weekend.  To tide you over until I can write a massive post, here is a little bittersweet tease.  After a two year hiatus, we returned to the Carlsbad Flower Fields today and recreated a picture we took of Kate two years ago.

I hate to be cliche, but it is incredible how quickly they grow.  At the end of this month, Lily will be 1 and at the end of the summer Kate will be 3.  Before we know it, they will be headed off the school, bringing home boyfriends, and applying to college. 

For now, check out the picture link on the left for some updated photos and I promise to get some updates up this weekend.

Family Photo Fun

Since we are a little behind on updating pics in the web album, I thought I would throw up some recent pics from our holidays. So here are some of our favorites.

Family shot for the Christmas card at Kate's favorite destination: the park.

Celebrating the holidays the Southern California way- at the beach in short sleeves.

Mommy hates sandy feet but the girls loved it.

Sisters forever (their shirts say big sister and little sister)

Mommy and Lily at the beach

My friends with multiple kids always say it is so hard to get them both looking at the same time.
After this photo shoot, I concur. Most of our pics looked like this.

Daddy and Kate checking out the waves. She got pretty brave this trip.

Check out that framing. Lily enjoyed her trip to the beach as well.

Christmas Extravaganzas

Kate really loved Christmas this year. A few weeks before Christmas, she started saying "Mommy, Kate is ready." When we asked her what she was ready for she would reply "Christmas." We had fun with Elf on the Shelf. She named our elf Dean after her friend who lives next door. The elf looked nothing like Dean, but I'm guessing that was the only boy's name she could come up with so Dean it was. Every day Kate would look around the family room until she found Dean, gasp, say "moved," and then giggle.

We have the most amazing families who are so incredibly generous, and the holidays are no exception. Christmas is so much fun when there are kids around and our family jumps in with both feet when it comes to all things Christmas. We were so lucky to be able to have four Christmases between December 23rd and 26th and our girls are probably some of the most spoiled loved around.

Our first celebration was at Yia-yia and Papou's house in LA.

Kate got this great Elmo blanket.
We also got to visit with all of J's family which hasn't happened in a long time.

Our second event was at Papa and Gigi's house in Orange County.

Kate loved checking out the little Christmas tree adorned with all her favorite Sesame Street characters.

Kate got suited up to be Papa's helper elf.

Uncle C thought Lily would look really cute in this box.
I have to say that she is a wonderful gift.

Our third Christmas was at home on Christmas morning.

Kate had an Abbylicious Christmas thanks to Ti-ti. She has been sleeping with Abby (tonight she informed me that Abby's wand had to be out from under the covers) and her new Super Why! doll.

Lily even enjoyed opening some gifts,
though, again, she really just wanted to eat the paper.

Our final stop was with J's family in Temecula. We got to visit with Papa T and Grandma L. Kate learned some new yoga moves while they were here and got to visit two different beaches. T and L stayed with us for a week and a half and the girls got to spend some great bonding time with their Southern grandparents.

Ryan family photo