San Diego Trip Part 1

We were so lucky to get an awesome vacation this year before the baby comes!

Dia's parents were so generous and gave us a time share of our choice for a week!  Of course I chose sunshine and ocean :)  San Diego!!

We drove...and drove...

Stopped in St. George overnight then onward to San Diego.

(Sofie puked in the backseat from Vegas to San Diego.  It took us 10 hours instead of 6 because of traffic.)

View from our hotel balcony.  We stayed at the Welk Resorts in Escondido.

Our wonderful kitchen!

Unfortunately, the first few days were too rainy to play, so we went to the clubhouse for entertainment.

Mei and Dia working hard on a puzzle.

Resort grounds.

Director Mei in the clubhouse.

Playing Candyland on a rainy day.

When the sun finally came out we went to the Zoo.

Dia and Sofie at the Panda exhibit.

People kept asking Dia if she was our Nanny.

Mei and Daddy with the panda.

Takin' a break.  Tired feet!

Crocodile Meili in a gift shop.

They LOVED the zoo!

"Mingos!"

Enjoying some sun!

Bipolar Spring

I appreciate the variety Utah spring has to offer.  One day it's below freezing, the next it's nearly 80.  However, it does confuse the children...

Cartoons on Mom's bed on a freezing day....

I laughed so hard at how deathly BORED they looked!!

Sprinklers on a hot day!

Derek made this sweet toy out of pvc pipes and some misters.  Super easy, cheap, and fun!

And sometimes if we were lucky we got to do some yardwork.

While the girls played in the dirt :)

20 Weeks

Most family and Facebookers already know,

but we were so happy to find a healthy BABY BOY at our ultrasound at the beginning of this month.

Easter Time

Easter is always a wonderful time, with lots of pictures!  This year we had an early family Easter party and egg hunt.  It snowed and was super freezing!  (of course, the next week, the real Easter weekend was nice and warm)

This little dolly Mei is always full of the silliest faces to make us laugh!

Here she is enjoying her Easter picnic lunch inside.

The three stooges.  I found them all giggling in the corner, hiding from crazy cousin Kyle!

 Our indoor egg hunt.

They were dying to open their eggs, but patiently posed for a picture with G-Grandma P

Pure Joy

(p.s. I made those eyes, took me 9 months, but I did it!)

Once some of the snow melted we made the teenagers hunt out in the below freezing temps.

Decorating eggs

So thrilled that the Easter bunny came!

A peep dipped in chocolate.  hip hip! 

Too bright to look into the camera, but sooooo cute!

Mama and company at 19 weeks.

Still sicker than I ever want to be, but able to shower, get dressed and even smile.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was once about a Christian Missionary.  He went to Ireland to spread the gospel of Christianity.  He used the shamrock to help explain the Godhead.

Now St. Patrick's Day is about Green, Luck, and Leprechauns.  So, that's what we did! 

Sofie and cousins got to have a special party with Grandma and Grandpa.  They had party favors, scavenger hunts, games, movie, and tons of food.  (Which I'm grateful for, 'cuz at my house, I felt crappy and could barely get dinner on the table with Derek's help.)

So, on actual St. Patrick's Day, it was about having a fun dinner.  That was enough for me.

Shamrock pizzas.

Minty Milkshakes

Shamrock Jigglers

Lost my cookie cutter and had to just cut them out, turned out looking more like trees... and they were totally disgusting.  Even the kids wouldn't eat them.

Green garlic bread

Pot O'Gold cupcakes

Meimei Turns 2

Totally forgot my camera on Mei's birthday... and I don't have all the copies of other people's pictures yet, but it's holding me back from blogging the last month and a half, so this will do for now!

Mei turned 2!!

(Mei's messy face shows signs of sneaking cookies before it was time!)

It took her quite a while to blow out the candles. 

Daddy trying to help.

\

Mei got lots of fun gifts from family.

Here's her new bike

(we're still working on pedaling, it's too hard for mom to bend and push at this point...)

She is my favorite 2 year old.  She's funny, silly, determined, unafraid, and still naps 2 hours a day thank goodness!  She repeats everything she hears, and loves to sing primary songs (and add her own words, pretty funny). She's the only one that can make me laugh out loud on my worst days.  I'll keep her another 2 years at least :)

Candid shots courtesy of the 4 year old.

Can't keep this girl's hair under control!

Sofie got ahold of the camera and helped herself to a few videos, I'm just now watching them, silly girls!

Pics of the Day

Okay, so this one wasn't taken today, but the next one was.

Made my entire day when I discovered this next to my porch.

School Days

With all these kids I got these days, we were bound to have recitals and programs.

Dia is in the winter drumline at her high school and has started competing locally.

Here she is with her awesome chimes.  Their performance is pretty impressive and they got 2nd place at their last competition.  (the video was too long to upload, sorry!)

Sofie had a fun parent activity day.  We got to do games and stuff together, then they had a program at  the end.

Her teacher Mrs. Loni.  Sofie LOVES her!

Hee hee hee.  So darling.

(Wow, somehow the quality from my camera to blogger really got lost.)

Tada! Cupboards!

We started the finish project on our basement last winter.

This was the laundry room...

This is where we finished in the summer while we waited over 6 months for the cupboards to go on sale.

Here they are finally!

I love the blue and white contrast.

But mostly, I'm excited to have the storage space in this house that has some serious lack of pantry.

The last thing we need is a door on the crawl space to the right.  Way too tempting for the girlies.

Of course, Mom's slightly invalid right now, so Dia came to the rescue.

"Mei, go tickle Dia!"