Mission San Antonio de Padua Trip

We surprised Maggie with a trip last weekend to see her 4th grade mission. The weekend began Friday in Pacific Grove with a night there at the Lighthouse Lodge where Grammy & Grandpa Terry met us. Saturday we walked the beach in Pacific Grove collecting rocks and shells and explored the water life amongst the rocks and tide pools. Grandpa Terry even gave a brief lesson on bull kelp. The afternoon was spent on the wharf in Monterey where we had lunch and walked around for a bit. We then traveled on to Mission San Antonio de Padua where we spent the night. Grammy & Grandpa met us there the next morning and we started off the day with Mass at the mission and then walked the grounds. What a special weekend for Maggie. We are looking forward to doing the same thing for Sam.

Amelia ~ 11 Months

Amelia turned 11 months old yesterday.  I am astonished how fast time has flown by. It seems like yesterday we were talking about having a third child and enjoying all the moments of pregnancy (yes, I said enjoying :) Amelia is a very happy baby. At 11 months, she is not walking but showing all the signs that she will be possibly soon. She is crawling all over the place at high speed and traveling along the furniture quite well. Amelia loves her brother and sister and they adore her. Maggie is always eager to pick her up and walk with her and Sam enjoys making her giggle. Both kids are very protective of her and even question us sometimes on what we are giving her. She is a great eater and loves variety and lots of flavors. Her favorites seem to be acorn and butternut squash, most fruits, Cheerios and peas and carrots and she loves chicken. Soon we will be introducing more things like milk, yogurt, cheese and she will transition from formula to milk. How nice that will be. Even though she's not dependent on her pacifier like Maggie and Sam were, we plan to wean her of this soon. Amelia is pretty fearful of everyone except for us. She prefers to be close to us if not held by us when anyone is near her and if anyone attempts to touch or hold her she will scream. She does however do pretty well with Grandpa Joe. Amelia loves being outside and will be my little gardening partner this spring for sure! Happy 11 months, Amelia. We love you.

February 2012

Can't believe it's February already. The last few weeks we have been consumed with battling viruses in our house. Everyone here managed to catch a bad cold and relentless, exhausting cough at almost the same time. Little Amelia had us all quite frightened with a 6 day fever. She was diagnosed with pneumonia last Thursday and is finally being treated and recovering fast. Her charming personality has returned and life once again seems almost back to normal here for us all. Amelia is crawling all over the place these days and pulling up on everything. She now traveling along the furniture - soon a walking cutie! Maggie talked me in to getting her hair cut short and is sporting a new cute shorter length. I love it. She is very excited about her fourth grade mission project. We just booked a night at the mission and will enjoy a whole day there walking the grounds (she's going to be SO surprised!) Sam is fabulous. He is really excited about reading right now and I really enjoying our reading time together in the evenings. He is so proud of himself and is gaining so much confidence. We are going to be signing the kids up for swim again this year and are considering signing them up for the swim team. We are really looking forward to our first summer with Amelia and our first dog, Cobie. I'm so happy they are here with us.  

Amelia at 10 months

Amelia is all over the place now and discovered the fun room.

Get well tulips from Maggie

I love these PJs. They were Maggie's. The girls look almost identical at this age.

Port Costa last Sunday

Port Costa