the latest

a couple of catch up pics:

It's done! And it looks very sweet if I do say so myself...

Abby took this one. :o)
This is about the extent of Emma's cooperation when you tell her to smile lately. But she loves her new highchair...and she loves wiping her sticky fingers all over me now that she can sit by me.

I have been so worried about these 2 being bored since Caitlin started school. But Abby stepped in right where Caitlin left off and is taking such good care of Emma! I found them in Emma's room and Abby was reading Emma her favorite book in the rocking chair. I have a video clip of it..but I'll have to find it.

The Foot Book. Emma could read this book all day.

our little first grader!

As usual, I can't believe how time flies! Caitlin started 1st grade today...and she was thrilled about it. She has a wonderful teacher this year, but I just can't believe how big she's getting. Happy and sad all at the same time. We love you so much Caitlin, and hope you have a wonderful year!

oh sad!

the short story:
emma's high chair takes up WAY too much space, and she'd rather sit at the table with us.
our table only has 4 chairs.
we can't buy more chairs to match our table anymore.
i fell in love with a modern-looking, convenient high chair at carl's jr. on the way to san diego.


i had nate take a picture with his phone.
i said the word...nate built it. (gotta love my handyman)
and was almost done.
just had to sand off the wood filler and paint it tonight.
and then....
gravity got the best of it...and it fell right off the work bench. nate's already out there re-doing it..but SAD! he's been working so hard on this project the past few days. bum deal for sure.

now that's more like it...

ok, so it's not perfect, but it'll do for my 1st try! thanks emily for the tutorials!!! :o)

oh boy...

i am in trouble. you can see how it would look cute if it worked, but i obviously did something wrong. really wrong. help!

Pardon the Dust...

Just trying my hand at the creative blog thing...we'll see if it works, or if I throw in the towel and go back to the easy shmeasy way. (Nothin' wrong with the easy way!) Stay tuned....

if everybody had an ocean, across the USA....

The good ole' California Sun. I think it's healthy to catch some southern California rays every now and again. And the weather there is WONDERFUL! Nate had a week off, so last minute we got a STEAL on a Marriott in Del Mar (on Priceline of course) and took the kids for a few days to get out of the HEAT WAVE here in Arizona. And it was such a nice break. We went to the beach, spent tons of time for a few days at Sea World, went to the USS Midway, etc... (Ok, so we didn't pay $17/each to go IN the USS Midway...but we SAW it up close. :oD) It was a wonderful family vacation and the girls were great! Now it's back to real life in the heat I guess.

Emma LOVED this hole Nate dug. She wanted to be in it nonstop.

Abs and Ems..this is about as close as Abby liked to be to the waves. For some reason she just didn't enjoy the crashing surf much. Caitlin, on the other hand, was tossed about a few times by big waves...she loved it!

Yes, Abby's hiding her face. Wow..the REAL beach sand is sooo different than the sand at our 'beach' here. The sand there was sooo fine...and it got EVERYWHERE! Caitlin enjoyed it though.

Emma wasn't afraid to get a little sandy either. She had so much fun!

Well...we drove by the beautiful San Diego Temple several times, but the only picture we got was from across the freeway in this parking lot. So in your mind just crop out the fence...

The girls favorite show...the sea lions (and walrus).

Abby holding a starfish BEFORE they told us not to take them above water. Whoops...

Shamu! Shamu! (Ok..if you've seen the show you'll get it...) How can you not think this show is amazing? Seriously...TRAINED Killer Whales that perform amazing things WITH trainers? I loved this show. These dolphins are sooo obedient...I said to look at the camera and smile, and there you go! (Ok..so Abby has a candy in her cheeck...she really doesn't have THAT big of cheeks.)

Sesame Street playground in Sea World. So cute.

Caitlin petting the bat rays. They were MUCH bigger than the sting rays at our zoo that we can pet. Pretty cool.

I think this was Emma's favorite part of the whole trip. Anytime we'd come out of our hotel room she wanted to hold Caitlin and Abby's hands and they go running squealing down the halls. I'm sure all the other guests appreciated it.

My LEAST favorite part of the trip...(and Caitlin's favorite) The Bayside Skyride. It's the skyride that goes OVER the bay. Yeah...afraid of heights, especially a million feet above the ocean. White knuckles, the WHOLE time.

What Mom?! It's FUN!

Caitlin holding the starfish UNDER the water. Phewf.

Elmo's Flying Fish...girls loved this ride too.

Emma's 2nd favorite part of the trip...this little kid area at Sea World. She pretty much was the boss.

We went on this ride SO MANY TIMES! This was both the girls favorite ride...Oscar's Rockin' Eel. Pretty fun..and YES Emma got to go on...she's a thrill seeker, what can I say.

They made a ride JUST for Abby! How sweet of them...

Caitlin could have frolicked along this beach for hours by herself...she was having a blast.

The Star of India ship...maybe?

There are countless pictures from our trip with Caitlin striking all sorts of poses..sheesh.

Another cute baby gecko we found in our house. This is #3 in a year...so I guess I can't complain. He was so tiny and cute, Nate caught him (in the process chopping off part of his tail) and Caitlin named it Lizzy and kept it on her dresser overnight. Then she would take it out back and let it play outside the bowl and then put it back in. After a couple hours I found her on my bed just sobbing. Apparently she tried to scoop up Lizzy the last time and crushed it. Sad! I don't think I've ever seen Caitlin really sob sad tears from something like that. It was a cute little lizard though while it lasted.