Happy Second Birthday Kira

It is hard to be believe that it has already been two years since you were born. In many ways I am happy that you are growing up and becoming your own person but because you have a role model that you follow you seem to be growing up quicker than I’d like. This year we have seen your personality develop. You started the year saying a few words and now daily you come up with phrases and questions and crack us up with your interpretations of words. One of my favorites (and sometimes not) right now is when I hear a little voice traveling up the stairs asking, “W’are you mommy?”.

You also started the year out following in your brother’s footsteps loving Thomas and Lightning McQueen and then slowly our living room began to transition from all boy, to a happy medium between Nathan's toys and yours, but now pink seems to have taken over most of our house (something you definitely didn't inherit from me). You absolutely love your babies (all 7 of them) and you carry them around and feed them and talk to them. I think it must be what you see at daycare because Nathan certainly doesn’t model that for you. You still love doing whatever your brother is doing and you like to play lego's and will sit and watch Star Wars a million times in a row if it means you can be with him.

Recently when you wake up in the morning, I no longer hear you calling for me, but instead I have been lucky enough to listen in on the conversations you and Nathan are beginning to have. You now look to him to be the first person you see in the mornings. That being said, you also get easily annoyed by him. You are much like me in that you like your space and he really knows how to push your buttons. You definitely let us know your likes and dislikes with a big smile or a very LOUD no!

I am looking forward to what your third year has in store (no more diapers please!). Happy Birthday Kira!

2011 Review

I guess the busier life gets, the less time we devote to documenting the events that make it so busy. This would be evidenced by the absence in posts here and the less than up to date baby books that each break I promise myself I will update. Oops, oh well, I wouldn't change being in the moment for sitting on the side line documenting it. So 2011 has come to and end and with that comes lots of firsts in 2012, the most important being that my first baby will head off to kindergarten and my younger one will hopefully start preschool as in just a few short days she will be two and in two short months he will be 5.

Some of the highlights of 2011 include the usual desert and river trips and as the year progressed, the achievements these kids made, made it much more enjoyable to go on these trips. Nathan got his first quad and took to it quickly


We made a couple to trips to the Sierras and the most recent included a trip to Mammoth where Nathan tried snowboarding for the first time. It was awesome to see him enjoying something that we also enjoy:


Summer brought many trips to the beach, zoo, Seaworld and now our new favorite Legoland. In the fall we did our standard San Elijo camping trip. In October we also did another trip to Legoland and trick or treated with the cousins as always.

We did our biannual central coast trip for the week of Thanksgiving. We stopped in Santa Barbara to visit Chris and Kristin and to meet Miles who is just a few weeks older than Kira:


We also hit Morro Bay, San Simeon and Nathan skated at skateparks in Santa Barbara, Cambria and Los Osos. Then we headed over to Fresno to celebrate with the family. It was the first Thanksgiving and Christmas since both of my grandparents passed away and I know that their presence was greatly missed.

Christmas was spent here in San Diego and both kids had a blast. They enjoyed all the goes along with the holidays; cookie making, parties, gingerbread houses, Christmas lights, boat parades and another trip to Legoland.


That brings us to New Years, which was once again spent in Mexico. This year it was a very mellow crowd and it was nice. So here is 2012!