Happy New Year

It's kind of amazing how quickly the years go by now. I feel like time is flying the older I get. But still looking back I can't believe all we've accomplished and all the changes that have happened in the past year. Paige was still just a little baby at the beginning of the year, and now we have another baby. What were we thinking!? Seriously, though, we've had a good year and we really love doing things with our little family.

January - We started out the year with a pretty mild winter so we spent a lot of time outside and at the park.  Lucas learned to ride a bike and Paige learned to give me a heart attack by climbing up the ladders and things at the park like her brother.

February -  We found out that Logan was going to be a boy this month and I spent a lot of time making his baby quilt and getting the nursery ready for him. We also went to the fire station on a preschool field trip.  Lucas loved going to preschool with his friends.

March - On a particularly warm weekend we went to the beach with Grandma Crapo and some cousins. Our kids get spoiled with warm weather very early on in the year. We also continued our family bike rides in the warmer weather.  Now that Lucas could ride a bike he wanted to bike with us rather than ride in the trailer.

April - This year we started taking advantage of free museum tickets from the library.  We went to a wildlife museum, the California Academy of Science, and later on in the year we went to the Exploratorium. Lucas also started taking swim lessons. He loves swimming and has gotten pretty good at it.

May - May was a big month! We started off going to Disneyland. This was our last trip on our annual passes and will probably be our last trip for a while. Ryan went on a business trip to London and got to visit so many cool places while he was there. While he was gone the kids and I went and stayed with my mom and dad and we got to go and do fun things too, including a visit to Happy Hollow. We ended the month by celebrating Lucas's 5th birthday. We went to a fun indoor water park with my family, and then later had a little superhero themed birthday party with Lucas's preschool friends complete with capes, an obstacle course, and a pinata.

June - June was hot so we spent as much time at the pool as we could. I also finished getting ready for the new baby to come. Logan was born on June 24th at 4:38pm. He weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. He was by far my easiest labor yet. He is such a sweet little guy. Both Lucas and Paige love him so much!

July - Most of the next month was spent at home snuggling with our new baby.  We did get to have daddy stay home for two weeks for some baby bonding time.  We went to Super Franks and did some bowling too. Paige and Lucas got good at entertaining themselves while I was taking care of Logan. They liked playing in the backyard and drawing with chalk.

August - In August we blessed Logan and had some of our family come out and visit for it. Then at the end of the month Lucas started Kindergarten.  He was SO excited!!  The days were a bit long for him at first, but he has really loved going to school and he is doing and learning so much. He has really taken off in his reading too.

September - Paige turned 2 this month and we celebrated by going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Grandma and Grandpa Crapo. The kids love the aquarium. I love eating at the Fish Hopper beforehand. And of course we all love eating at Ghirardelli afterwards.

October - The kids wore the same Halloween costumes this year that they did last year. Score! I'd like to say they enjoyed getting dressed up for trick-or-treating, but to be honest they have been dressing up in their Halloween costumes all year long so trick-or-treating was just another day to them. Although they did really enjoy getting all the candy!

November - This month we got our family pictures taken, which wasn't particularly fun for the kids, but was quite a feat for Ryan and I to accomplish.  Logan started crawling this month at 4 1/2 months. All of my kids have been early movers, but he is by far the earliest.  Ryan and I also celebrated our 8th anniversary this year.

December - I turned 30 this year. It was actually a really fun birthday and I'm pretty happy to be 30 - I love my life and my family!  The kids and I had a really fun time celebrating Christmas all month long by making cookies, watching Christmas movies, and listening to Christmas music. We also had a great time going to Utah and spending time with both mine and Ryan's family for Christmas.  The kids especially loved playing in the snow.

I love looking back at the year to see all of the fun we've had and all the blessings we've received. Here's to hoping that 2015 is a great year too - for us and for all our friends and family.

Happy New Year

For the last two New Years I've done a recap of the previous year and I like looking back at all the fun we've had throughout the year so I'm going to keep up the tradition.  I have to be honest, though, 2013 was not my favorite year.  It was a rough one with lots of ups and downs, but I'm trying to count our blessings and what better way than focusing on all the good that happened to us in 2013.

I started off the year teaching preschool for the first time.  It was really fun but also super stressful because I had never done it before and I was so worried about not doing a good job.  Throughout the year I taught a bunch more times and I have gotten pretty good at it.  Now it's not nearly as stressful or as much work.  Lucas has made some serious advances as well.  I can see a huge difference in his learning from January to December.  He is getting to be so smart and so creative, and is even starting to read!

Paige has obviously made some huge advances over the course of the year too.  She started out the year only being able to roll over. Then in February she started sitting up. In March she was crawling, getting her first tooth, and drinking smoothies through a straw. In April she was crawling and climbing the stairs, and eating baby food.  In May she was trying to walk and eating real foods like grapes and sandwiches.  She also developed her love of shoes around this time, except she was still in the phase where she just ate them all the time, which was not my favorite.  
In June she went on her first airplane flight, learned to clap and wave, and really started getting into mischief.  In July she was walking and crawling down the stairs and was nicknamed the "tower of terror".  In August she got her first haircut from Lucas and started saying her first words. In September she turned a year old.  In October she graduated to a forward facing carseat.  In November she had her first overnight babysitting experience.  And in December she got to play in snow for the first time.  She is such a different baby in some ways, and yet she is still the sweet little angel we started out the year with.

Another big change of 2013 is that we bought a minivan.  We went on a lot of fun trips in the mini van and have discovered that it makes traveling with kids SO much easier!  We went to Disneyland - twice!  We drove to Utah twice as well.  We also did lots of driving around to the zoo, museums, the beach, and a couple trips to the airport to drop people off for flights cause we now have SO much room for extra people and cargo!  That's probably one of my favorite parts about the van is we can pick people up and carpool places rather than having to take lots of vehicles.

Some milestones for Lucas this year: he turned 4, he started his second year of preschool, he rode tower of terror for the first time, he went to the dentist for the first time and was amazing!, he gave his first haircut, he gave his first talk in primary, had his first of probably 30 starbucks vanilla bean frappuccinos this year (he might be addicted), and turned into one of the best and sweetest big brothers I've ever seen.

Ryan and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this year by taking a trip to Mexico.  We started a new tradition as a family of having pizza and movie night on Friday nights and the kids love it!  We also went on a lot of family bike rides with our double bike trailer that we love!

And last but not least, we found out that we will be welcoming a new baby to the family in June of 2014.  Lucas is very excited and he wants to have another girl and name her Paige.  We're going to have to work on that.

Well, when you only focus on the good stuff, 2013 doesn't look too bad.  Here's to hoping that 2014 is a great year for us and for all our friends and family.

Happy New Year

We had another exciting and eventful year.  I love going back over all the blog posts from the year and seeing what we've been up to.  We sure have been busy this year.

We went to a lot of different museums and parks throughout the year, starting with the Exploratorium where Lucas got to make huge bubbles. We also went to the Train Museum in Sacramento, Happy Hallow Park and Zoo where Lucas rode his first roller coaster, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Dennis the Menace park followed by yummy food at the Fish Hopper and Ghirardelli Square.  We went on preschool field trips to Fairyland, the fire station, Super Franks, and the pumpkin patch.  

We also went to the California Academy of Sciences, went camping, toured the USS Hornet, took Lucas to his first baseball game, drove to Big Basin, and capped off the year with a visit to Alcatraz!  The biggest trip of the year was probably to Disneyland.  This was our first time ever going to Disneyland as a family.  I think we might have to make it a yearly tradition. 

We spent a lot of time in the water - going to the pool with friends, playing in the sprinkler at home, going to the splash park, and going to the beach a bunch of times too.  Lucas made his first sand castle with daddy earlier in the year.

I feel like Lucas has grown up a lot in the last year.  He was definitely not a baby anymore at the beginning of the year, but this year I feel like he's been making the transition from being a toddler to being a kid.  His vocabulary has expanded a great deal.  He graduated from riding the Mater to riding his tricycle. He started going to preschool, and most recently has entered the phase where he asks a lot of questions about how the world works and why certain things happen.  At first I thought it was so cute, then two days later I wanted to pull my hair out if he asked me why one more time.

Another first for the year was for me and Ryan.  We got our first bedroom set with matching bedside tables and a dresser.  AND we upgraded to a King!  Best decision ever.  I got to decorate our bedroom and the nursery and do all sorts of fun crafts.  I can't wait till we own a house and I can go crazy with the decorating.

The biggest thing that happened in 2012 was that Paige joined our family.  We started out the year big - I found out I was pregnant on New Years day!  We all went to the doctor and saw Paige's heartbeat for the first time 2 weeks later when I was only 6 weeks along.  Lucas loved going to the doctor to hear her heartbeat.
We found out she was a girl in April, felt her kicking and squirming throughout the summer. And on September 5, 2012 we got to kiss her chubby cheeks and welcome her to the family.  I don't know how we ever lived without her.

2012 was a great year - can't wait to see what 2013 will bring!

Happy New Year

Sorry, I know this is about a week late, where did the time go?  My sister did a New Year's blog post with a recap of 2011 and I thought it was cute so I decided to do one too.

January - We went to my Grandpa's funeral and a few days later had a scare with Lucas where we ended up in the hospital.  Wow, we did not start out the year very well.  But on the bright side, Lucas learned to say "please".

February - Ryan got a job offer with Lawrence Livermore National Labs. Yay!

March - We took Lucas to see farm animals and have his first pony ride.  I also started tutoring high school students in Math.

April - Lucas had his first Easter egg hunt and we went green and started using reusable shopping bags.

May - Lucas turned 2 and we started potty training. We also spent a lot of time visiting Ryan on campus while he finished up his research.

June - Ryan defended his thesis and passed! We also spent a lot of time playing outside in the sprinklers, at the pool, and at the duck pond.

July - We went to Brasil!  We also said good bye to family and friends, packed up our apartment, and moved to California.

August - We lived in a hotel for three weeks before moving into our first real house; we don't own it but it has a yard and a garage so we're still pretty much in love with it.  We also went driving around, sight seeing, and eating Ghirardelli sundaes in San Francisco.

September - We made some new friends and spent a lot of time unpacking and getting settled into our new home.  Lucas graduated from a crib to a toddler bed.

October - We went to the Discovery Museum with Grandpa Crapo, and Lucas went Trick or Treating for the first time.

November - We celebrated our 5th anniversary and went on a family trip to San Diego.

December - We had a fun Christmas visiting both sets of parents and lots of Brothers and Sisters.  Lucas had a blast playing with cousins.

I had fun looking back at all our old blog posts to see what we had done throughout the year.  There were also a bunch of craft and recipe posts and I was pretty impressed by myself, and remembered a few recipes that we need to make again.  We had a pretty good year and I'm looking forward to making this year just as good, if not better.