2011 in Pictures

We started out 2011 with a trip to the happiest place on earth.  Here I am with both of the kids on Main Street USA! (February 14, 2011)

Here's Matthew at the beginning of 2011, one of his favorite things to do this year has been going to McDonald's and playing on their indoor playground!(February 2011)

Here's Lilly at the beginning of 2011.  She has changed so much!(February 2011)

Matthew jumped at every chance he had to play outside!!  Here he is in his "hideout"!(March 2011)

Here is Lilly when she started feeding herself! (March 2011)

Matthew chilling on a road trip to visit Rick's mom!(April 2011)

Easter 2011

We have struggled all year with potty training!  Here Matthew is entertaining Lilly while on the potty!(May 2011)

Our only beach trip this past year. (May 2011)

Still potty training...(Matthew loves books!!!)May 2011

Lilly is full of personality!!! (May 2011) 

Matthew learned how to play hide'and'seek and this was his go to hiding place!(May 2011)

Matthew turned 3 on June 18th!(June 2011)

Random picture of Lilly after her bath!  Look at those teeth!(July 2011)

Monkey see monkey do...this is typical in our house Lilly sees Matthew do something and she has to do it too. (August 2011)

Matthew was watching rick play call go duty and decided he needed a gun.(August 2011)

We took another trip to Disneyland in September!(September 2011)

Lilly turned one on September 12.  She started walking about a month before her birthday and we pierced her ears a week before her birthday! (September 2011)

We went to the park a lot this past year!! (summer/fall 2011)

We took Sam to the dog park a lot too!

We went to the Kern County Fair with our church play group! (September 2011)

We went to Murray Family Farms for their Oktoberfest! (October 2011)

Matthew was Peter Pan for Halloween. (October 2011)

Lilly was Tinker Bell for Halloween! (October 2011)

Matthew learned how to ride his bike. (November 2011)

Lilly developed an extremely sassy personality this year! (November 2011)

Lilly has become such a Daddy's girl this year! (December 2011)

We went to look at Christmas lights with the Family!(December 2011)

Merrie has a boyfriend (December 2011)

One of Lilly's many temper tantrums! (December 2011)

Rick deep fried our first turkey! (December 2011)

~THEN AND NOW~

Matthew February 2011(then)

                                                                              and
                                                          Matthew December 2011(Now)

Matthew has grown so much this year!  We still struggle sometimes with certain parts of the "potty training" but he's basically got it.  He is a very sweet and fun loving boy!  But he IS all BOY!!

Lilly February 2011(then)

and

Lilly December 2011(now)

Lilly has changed sooo much!!  She was a sweet little baby at the beginning of the year now she is a super sassy little girl, but she is still as sweet as can be! (Lilly's goal for the new year is to grow some hair!)

This year has definitely had it's ups and downs, but the highs and lows have made us stronger and we are ending the year on a high note!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Christmas!

Christmas seems to come and go so fast every year and this year was no exception!  Christmas Eve I spent the morning baking and cleaning while the kids were watching Christmas movies.  Rick had to work Christmas Eve and ended up having to drive to LA (but he brought back a wonderful surprise, fried macaroni and cheese cake from the cheese cake factory!) After all the baking and cleaning was done my mom came and picked up the kids and took them to her house so Merrie and I could run some goodies around to a few friends, and pick up a few last minute things.  We then gathered at my parents house to do some Christmas caroling for our neighbors.  We had BBQ for dinner, the kids opened their Christmas jammies, and my mom even gave them a bath so they would be ready for bed!  The kids and I then headed home to get ready for some of Rick's family to come over.  Matthew and I made reindeer food and sprinkled it all over the lawn!  Then it was time to get Rick from work.  We came home and exchanged gifts with Rick's Mom and his sister Susie's family!  After Rick's family left it was off to bed with the kids so that Santa could come!   

Lilly fast asleep in her Christmas jammies!

Matthew conked out in his Christmas jammies!

Christmas morning after Santa visited our house! 

We allowed the kids to open one gift each before church.  Which conveniently turned out to be there Christmas church outfits (wink wink).  Matthew was actually ok not opening the rest of his gifts until after church!  Matthew loves going to church and he was really upset that church was only one hour that day, he really wanted to go to Nursery!  Rick had to take him down to the Nursery room to show him no one was down there!  Next Sunday is going to be interesting!  (Matthew is going to be a sunbeam...I foresee a meltdown!)  After Church we came home and had lunch while we opened presents!

Matthew was soooo excited!  Here he is in his Sunday outfit getting ready to open presents. (we made him take a bite of his lunch in between opening each gift to slow him down and to give us a chance to clean up the paper.)

This is the best picture I could get of Lilly in her Christmas dress...she was busy eating!

Matthew was very specific about his Christmas list this year!  Santa knew exactly what he wanted! 

Matthew loves Thomas the train!

Lilly loves Tangled!!  Here she is giving her Rapunzel doll a kiss.

Here's Rick wearing Lilly's Santa hat!

Matthew was really excited about this present!

Matthew has been asking for his own tools since September!  Dad thought they were pretty cool too!

Cute little Lilly enjoyed ripping the paper off her presents.

Lilly was really excited about this "baby"

After all the presents were opened and the room was cleaned up it was time for Lilly to take a nap.

So while Lilly napped Rick and Matthew busted out the tools!

After Lilly woke up from her nap we got dressed and headed over to my parents house to do gifts with them!

I think by this time Lilly was burnt out on opening presents!

On of Lilly's favorite gifts, her very own cell phone!  She even got a new purse!

We had a truly wonderful Christmas!! Matthew was the perfect age to enjoy Christmas this year! Everything was magical for him and that made everything magical for me!! He also loved talking about the story of the first Christmas (he even memorized most of it and could tell the whole story if you asked him questions about it!) He loved playing with his Little People Nativity set (and he cried yesterday when I boxed it up.) The first time I told him the story of Baby Jesus this year he had some interesting things to say! 

Me: When Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem Mary had to ride a donkey. 

Matthew: Why? ( typical 3 year old thing to say!)

Me: Because they didn't have cars back then.

Matthew: Why?

Me: Because cars hadn't been invented yet.

Matthew: (Looks at the hot wheels car in his hand puts it down and slides it towards Mary and Joseph) well they can use my car.

Me: Thank you Matthew that's very sweet, I'm sure they'd appreciate that.

After Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem there was nowhere for them to sleep.

Matthew: What?! That's not very nice! Someone needs to share!