Friends

Earlier in the month, we had some unseasonably warm weather (blocking the sun from his eyes!) and we took full advantage by playing outside!

Carson has a couple little boys; William and Carson who where all born within a month of each other and so are their sisters! Luckily, they love to play together and us mom's are great friends too so it works out nicely-the kids get energy out and we get to catch up!


There is picturesque park close to where we live called Coyote Pond Park. So beautiful!

Mesmerized by the ducks and showing us their fannies while checking out the creek.

Love them!

8 years!

Andrew: sarcastic, neat, handsome, thorough, hard working, manly, thoughtful, tenacious, generous, kind, sincere, athletic, strong, handsome, smart, financially wise, great dad, brother and friend, did I mention handsome?!...and to think he's all mine!

I love him and couldn't be happier with our little family!
Happy Anniversary honey!

Love seeing our family grow; I think they're glad we're together, don't you?!

Merry Chrtmas

From us {above}

to YOU {our amazing family and friends}:

This time of year always makes me think of how blessed we are to be surrounded by those we love. We hope this season finds everyone healthy and in good spirits.

School Time

Being as we decided that Carson would be prepared for Kindergarten with one year of pre-school instead of two we have been having daily school-time where we are working on the letters.

Carson has been able to spell his name for over a year and he can now find the letters of his name and write the letter C. Although the letter learning is coming slower than anticipated, Carson enjoys it and will remind us when we haven't practiced.

note: he doesn't usually wear his fancy glasses! he does however, always have some sort of pointer.

Contrary to popular believe, we aren't slave drivers because school time can also include an educational game, coloring, cutting things, or reading. I have also started doing "saturday school" for church topics. I have found it helps get him ready for church the following day.

10 months

Can it be, another month come and gone! It was more challenging getting a picture of Cait due to her increasing mobility...she doesn't sit still!

Cait loves to stand and has even begun to balance for up to 10 seconds before plopping down on her bottom, then getting up to try it all again.


She also enjoys bath time and the swings at the park.



Cait can feed herself her bottle and anything else she can make to her mouth before I realize {like moss from the tree, paper and random specks of dirt she finds around the house.} She has eight teeth, 8! She doesn't really play with toys, instead enjoys cruising around getting into trouble!

We are excited to share her first Christmas with her; although she probably won't be interested in her gifts for long as I am confident that she is going to love the Christmas wrapping paper!

Bowling

Thanksgiving weekend we went bowling and Carson loved it! I bowled terribly and think Carson even beat me-sad huh?! Can you tell he thought the ball was HeAvY!

While we bowled Cait enjoyed time with Grandma Jean who was visiting from Utah and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed that!

I love his personality, LOVE IT!

Visit with Santa

Today we went to visit Santa! We have the book, Elf on the Shelf...best book for encouraging good behavior.

It comes with an elf who is the eyes and ears of Santa! Carson named our elf Buddy-like the movie Elf and enjoys showing him things and impessing him throughout the day with how good he can be. Definetly recommend this fun tradition! Buddy "flies" to report to Santa each night and Carson was anxious to see the big man himself!

Carson told Santa (just as he tells us numerous times each day) that he wants a light saber--a pretend light saber.

Later, Carson said, "Santa even knew my name, that's funny!"

Caitlin checked Santa out and immediately looked forward and cried! First time she has shown starnger anxiety, poor thing!

After visiting with Santa a singing Elf made a balloon candy cane that Carson LOVES!


Next stop was Elf's workshop to make ornaments


Ending at Mrs. Claus's Kitchen to decorate gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate.


Thanks Eric for living in Whitney Ranch!

Thanksgiving

What a fun weekend! We sure have so much to be grateful for! The day before Thanksgiving, Carson had a few friends over for a play date and we made Indian headpieces. Upon completion, the boys were happy and even started chanting a rain dance song. Carson was so thoughtful and said, "mom, what about Caitlin? where's her hat?" So, I made one for her too.

Thanksgiving morning, I went for a run with some friends. I am glad that I was able to go because I have been too busy to exercise and Andrew sacrificed playing football so that I could run, he really is the best! We had to bundle up because it was freezing!

The best part about Thanksgiving is that we live near both of our families. While this could be stressful it has worked out nicely in years past to include both of our families in one place for a combined Thanksgiving because who really wants to drive back and forth and stuff yourself twice, not me!

My siblings and I aren't often in the same place at once...too bad Cait was pulling my hair!
(she ended up with a handful-it really hurt!)

I am truly blessed to have such great kids and an amazing guy to share them with!
Just realized that Andrew and Carson sure are tricky dressing in layers making it look like the pictures were from a different day!

9 months

Caitlin is 9 months going on 12...most people think that she is older because she is so daring and fearless and is climbing up on everything! She is happy and quite dramatic but I hear that's just girls in general!

Take these pictures for example, do you sense a theme?

Caitlin is not interested in toys unless she can stand up on them, but she does like paper and will shove it into her mouth as fast as lightning. She only crawls as a means to get to somewhere where she can pull herself up to standing. As a result, I call her crazy all day long and she has had a couple bruises already (mostly from the above fireplace) on her forehead. Andrew says that at this rate she'll have stitches before her 1st birthday-let's hope he's wrong!

Cait likes to feed herself. Her favorites right now happen to be cheerios, bananas and pizza crust. She also seems to favor blackberry applesauce which has a little kick to it, just like her!
As much as she likes to eat, she detests having her face cleaned after.

She still likes the blanket right by her face to sleep and thoroughly enjoys splashing in the tub.
I love the way she smiles with her eyes and enjoy hearing her babble.


We call her crazy yet we are all crazy about her! Can you blame us?!

aLmOsT dONe!

This semester is winding down! Yesterday I took an exam which means I have only 1 left and 5 more clinical days to go! For me, this semester the puzzle pieces have fit together meaning that I am connecting what I have learned and things are actually making sense-YAY! It also means that I will soon be on my own precepting/interning next semester, crazy!

Our clinical instructor is amazing, so knowledgeable and not afraid to make us think! Apparently, some people want to stangle her...luckily she was a good sport and didn't take offense!

Day 13

Northern California is where I call home. I love it here!

Specifically, life in Lincoln is great! Super family friendly with more than 10 parks within 10 miles and 5 of those are within walking distance!

We've walked to the park 4 times this week!

We have open space, trails and our library is 1 mile away. I also love how close we are to Roseville without having to be in busy Roseville.

We are also close a diversity of places; my favorites being San Francisco, Tahoe and Monterey.