WEST SIDE!!

How to sum up our trip to California?!?! We had such an amazing time. The packing and the super long plane ride were horrible and I don't want to do either for a long long time. Overall, however, I am glad we went :) We had some disagreements with the flight attendants on the first flight. In short I ended up having to hold a wiggly, very cranky and irritable Autumn on my lap for 45 minutes. I really didn't hold her. She more like flailed and rolled around on the dirty floor while screaming bloody murder and smacking Sophia because she was sitting in her seat...sigh. By the grace of the Lord, we were able to put Autumn in the car seat (as planned) for all the other flights. We had a two hour layover both coming and going (definitely not recommended with kids) and my legs were so numb from Sophia sleeping my lap that I wasn't sure I'd ever walk again!! haha Anyways, we finally arrived at some ungodly hour on Christmas Eve. My sister-in-laws house is just beautiful. The view from her backyard consists of "snow-capped mountains" and gorgeous dessert with palm trees. I sure wouldn't mind waking up to THAT every day. We had a lot of fun filled family time. My girls got to bond with their three older cousins and they enjoyed every minute of it. Lia and her husband Chris took us on some wonderful day trips (including one to Newport Beach where we were able to meet up with my best friend from Maryland!!). We were so blessed. I am tearing up even as I type about it. I miss Tiffany dearly and the Lord was so kind to orchestrate our vacations to meet each other out west. We all had a very relaxing time and hope to be able to go back when the girls get a bit older. I can't say thank you enough to Lia for housing the mass amounts of family that showed up at her door :) We love you Lia!! This post contains some pictures that I took of the trip. If you want to see some amazing pictures Brian's cousin took (he's a very talented professional unlike myself) than you can view them on his Facebook page (Justin Mein)!!

Ok so I lied...I HAD to put up some of the pictures Justin took...he's so talented and they are so great, I had to share...these first eight are his...

Now are mine...the difference is saddening right?? LOL

Detour...

Alright, so I know I SAID the next post was going to be of the California trip. However, I forgot to post about Sophia's first hair cut!! After over 2 1/2 years of combatting Brian to let me take the girl for a hair cut, he FINALLY agreed that it was time. I must admit I was really nervous. She doesn't always take well to new situations and I did NOT want to scare her off!! I ended up being sooo proud of my girlie. She was very excited when I told her where we were headed. She had remembered me telling her I was going to get MY hair cut not too long prior and automatically grabbed at the chance to do something mommy had done!! The place we went to was awesome. It is designed for kids and caters to them in every way. She got to watch a special video, hold a princess mirror and even get a surprise from the "magic machine" when she was done. She sat very still, gave her opinions and politely thanked the stylist!! We didn't cut much of,f since she has such gorgeous hair. We did get a cute little trim though. Here are the pictures!!

Where has the time gone?

It has been quite a while since I posted on this blog...or my personal blog...or on anything for that matter!! I tend to go through periods where I just simply forget :) Many months have passed since fall (although I guess I never did finish my pumpkin patch post) and winter has been showing its chilly personality. For the very first time since we moved, this past week I was able to say "I am glad we don't live in Maryland anymore!!". They got hammered with loads and loads of snow. It did snow once here but all was virtually melted in the next 2-3 days. Good old southern sun :) Anyways, the most recent events that have transpired were of course Thanksgiving, Christmas and Sophia's 3rd birthday!! I'll just put up a few pictures from each. We were able to spend Thanksgiving here at our house with my mom and Brian's brother's family. Christmas we were so blessed to be able to travel to beautiful California to spend time with Brian's sister's family (and his parents and grandmother and aunt's family and again his brother's family!!). And for Sophia's birthday we played it low key with a few days of special birthday surprises and a mini family party. As we sang to her and cut her cake I was reflecting on how much my girls have changed just in the past few months. Sophia's most commonly used phrase has become "I do it a-self, mama" (aka "I'll do it myself"). I can't believe how independent and grown-up she is becoming. Although she can still be a bit hard to understand, she has amazingly intelligent conversations with me and just LOVES to play pretend. It brings me such joy to listen to her pray at night and to hear her new found excitement over going to church to play with the other kids. She has come a long way in the social sphere so thank goodness for that!! Autumn's new favorite past time (besides eating and mimicking all that big sister does) is taking off her diaper and declaring "No no diii-paa...pee paw-ee" (aka "No no diaper...pee potty"). She loves to say it but isn't so fond of actually following through haha She'd rather play with the toilet paper and flush than be productive with the process. Anyways, they have both been sick with colds and stomach bugs for about three weeks now. Today they are finally feeling much better and back to their usual energy level. Praise God for his healing :) Enjoy the pictures I will post more specific updates later today.

I apologize for the brevity of the account and images of each of these events...once you get this far behind in posting it's hard to catch up unless you just bundle things together!! haha

Happy 3rd Birthday Sophia!!

(We went to the build-a-bear factory as a special treat...she built a birthday bunny as you can see!!)

"Christmas" Morning in NC (we did our own mini christmas before heading out to California...I will document the Cali trip in the next post)

Thanksgiving festivities (Sophia really enjoyed making pies with us!!) :)