Birthday Boy!

A turns 5!!!

Today A celebrates his big #5 birthday. It's bittersweet for mom because he's my baby and it's been hard to let him grow up. Time has definitely flown by, but we have cherished every moment with our little dude. He continues to be a very active, curious, busy, and charismatic little guy. Today we celebrated with extended family: Joseph and Kathryn and Aunt Emilie, Eric, Stephen, and Ashley. We spent a few hours at the pool, then barbecued in our backyard, and partied with Asher. What a great day. And how happy and blessed we are to have such a special boy in our lives. Happy Birthday!!!

We're finally here!

California is awesome! When we arrived it was 69 degrees, sunny, and beautiful. Where we live is simply breathtaking. The community is masterplanned so there are bike trails interwoven throughout all the neighborhoods. You can pretty much get anywhere on a bike trail: schools, parks, shopping, library, etc. Which is good since gas is almost $4 a gallon! Anyway, I can walk T to school every day, and the gym I hope to teach at is like 2 minutes away. We also have pools and hot tubs all over our community we can use. Honestly, I have a feeling that we're never going to want to leave here. Of course Roman's career will dictate where we'll be in the future. We could very well end up in the D.C. area in the next couple of years. But, wherever we end up it will be an adventure as long as we're close as a family. So now I'm busy unpacking the house and got T registered for school yesterday. Next week will be decision time for T's future in gymnastics. They are VERY competitive here in California. In Utah T would be ready for competition level 5. Here she's probably a competitive level 4. But the committment and financial responsibilities are HUGE! I'm not so worried about the financial committment as I am the time she'll have to invest. I'm talking 12 hours a week to start, manadatory meets, mostly on Sundays. It'll only get worse as she progresses along. Anyway, I wish there was a gym here that could teach her skills without competing on Sundays, but there aren't. I have a few ideas up my sleeve. I'll keep you posted. As far as A is concerned. I'm not enrolling him in preschool for the last two months we're here. For two days a week, it's almost $300 bucks in some places! I may regret my decision especially on those days A drives me to banging my head against the wall. I'll just have to be creative I guess. Quality time with Mom. Should be interesting....

Beautiful T shines!

T and I played two pieces together for her recital last Thursday evening. She did awesome, even though I messed up a few notes. Sadly, I haven't been keeping up on my piano skills. I played competitively as a child and then quit at age 14 to pursue dance. Yes, I regret it a bit but meanwhile discovered a love of dancing. Anyway, I hope T can stick with it. She seems to really enjoy piano, and it's an additional plus that her teacher is her grandma!

We're moving back to Cali!

We will be moving back to CA the end of March. We're looking forward to being close to R once again. It's been too long!! In the next few weeks I'll send our new address via email or postage to everyone. Please come and visit us anytime. We would absolutely love it.

California trip

Putting that boy to work. Washing daddy's car on a sunny warm California winter day.
Snuggle time with grandma Ida.


No lie. The Crabcooker truly has the best seafood! And the best clam chowder. It's our family tradition to eat here whenever we're in town. R introduced me to this place when we were dating. So we definitely have history here.
Kids and I waiting to eat some delicious food at the Crabcooker in Newport Beach.
Daddy and kids on a windy day at the Newport pier.

Fun in the sun at Huntington Beach. I just get a little crazy when I visit the O.C. Sadly, I returned to Utah the same shade of pale as when I arrived. Oh well. What can ya do?

Friends Since Babies

The kids and I spent Saturday in Provo. What a fun time going down memory lane. We spent a few hours hanging with some old friends of ours, the Carrolls. T has been friends with Skye since they were babies. It's amazing to see how fast they have grown up! And so beautifully. A and T also had fun playing with Skye's other siblings, Ethan and Chloe. Ethan is A's age as well. Anyway, our families were pretty much inseparable during the early days of poor college student life. I pretty much lived over at the Carroll house while R worked full-time and went to school. (Not too difficult since they lived about five feet from our condo.) It was always a blast, and Kirsty and I had a lot of laughs. Thanks Kirsty!
After visiting the Carrolls, we picked up Aunt Kathryn, Joe's wife, and headed to BYU. So much of the campus has changed, but it was still fun to show the kids where mom and dad went to school. We then picked up Joseph at the family history library and headed to the Pizza Factory in Provo. Joe and Kathryn had never been there, so it was quite a treat for them. A very fun day. We just wished R had been with us. :( But we'll be seeing him this week in L.A. So look for more pictures to come!