Family Photos

We all got together and planned a family photo session to surprise Meema for her birthday this year!  We were all really excited about it but I think we all realized that shooting three toddlers was going to be interesting!  We used my friend Taylor again (http://taylorkinziephotography.com/) and against the odds-three toddlers who are like herding cats-we got some amazing shots!  Meema was super surprised for our photo session and all the little girls seemed to be on their best behavior.  It was a fun day followed by a nice family dinner back at our house...enjoy...

Gardening Girls

This weekend we all spent time together building a raised bed garden for some fruits and veggies. We thought this would be a great activity for the girls each day--to water and take care of their plants. Luckily we have Alex to guide us (former Green Thumb employee and all).

Dad built us a couple beds...

Picking out some plants and a whiskey barrel

Ready to plant!

Alex listing what we are going to plant, "strawberries, lettuce, bell peppers, onions, carrots, tomatoes..." Lu, "but can we plant crackers too?" Maybe we need to go over our gardening lesson again :-/

Team watering

She didn't even realize I turned the water off :-)

"So he can grow too!" Man, I must have really messed up the gardening lesson!

Valentine's Day

We had a nice, quiet Valentine's Day this year. The girls and I worked on their Valentines for two weeks before the big day because their attention span is about 20 minutes :-) Friday morning we left out the Valentines they made Alex and his favorite cowboy cookies so he could see them before work. Then we took all the Valentines and trail mix they worked so hard on to gymnastics. We just relaxed the rest of the day and Alex made us some dinner :-) My kind of day! Today we decided to do a little family Valentine's celebration and went out to Santa Barbara to visit the zoo and the small aquarium on the pier. Olivia was quite the fearless explorer--getting all up in a giraffe's face and then nearly squeezing the life out of a small shark at the aquarium. That kid makes my heart race and I entirely blame her for my gray hairs.

 

I fear their stroller days are numbered...

Emma wasn't too sure about this iguana-type thing

I don't notice their size difference until pictures like this-holy cow!

She was practically crawling over that railing. I kept telling Alex to get ready to grab her because I think she would have gladly gone over!

Busy Busy

We have started off this year keeping the girls super busy. For the most part I haven't been big on taking the girls out to do things because it's a lot of work on me and frankly the two of them entertain each other all day long anyways! However, the girls have really matured and made huge improvements in listening and following directions. Thankfully this means I worry less that they'll run in opposite directions from me :-) Recently we added a music class to our weekly routine (they're still in their gymnastics class).  While we did have a rough second class yesterday (it ended with Emma outside laying on the cement for 15 minutes...) it's been a great addition for them. We also took them back to Disneyland since they did so well the last time. We are trying to get in as many "free under three" days as we can before our passes expire and they turn 3! Here are a handful of phone photos from this year so far:

Music class with p-nut, Lolo, and Grandma

Our first attempt at a puzzle! 

BFF's since birth :-)