My sweet baby boy turned 1 year old!

Happy Birthday Baby Owen! You have grown into a little BOY in just one fleeting year! I blinked and now you are terrorizing your sisters' toys, throwing EVERYHING--mostly food and balls, and taking your first steps! Each day we fall more in love with you...you're hilarious "cave man talk", your squishy little cheeks, and all the loves (when you'ree not pushing us out of your face). We love you little man. You bring so much joy to us (your parents), your sisters, grandparents, aunts uncles, cousins..and we're so excited for all the fun times yet to come and all the things you will learn. We thank the Lord for sending you to us to care for...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Bubby!

We love the beach...in February!

I love Southern California! Where else could you go to the beach in February and swim in the water wearing a swimsuit? And have no crowds to wade through to find a spot. We had such GREAT weather on Saturday--so we decided to head to the beach. The girls have been begging us to go to the beach for months now. When I got Owen out of the car and he saw the ocean, he starting bouncing and laughing, reaching towards the beach. As soon as we got there, the girls dropped their stuff and ran to the water!

Owen was definitely in his element--so much open space to cruise around--actually, he did the gorilla walk all over the rocks and sand (you know, hands and feet, not knees). He was so intrigued by the sand...and eating the sand...He chased his football all over the beach--it was so fun watching him explore this new place (he doesn't remember coming last summer).

The girls had so much fun riding their boogie boards in the thirty-degree water (sure felt like it)! Avery surprised me and didn't take anytime getting use to the ocean (in the past, she wouldn't go in the water until a few weeks into the summer)...they played in the watere until sunset.
Just in case you were wondering, I DID NOT tell Avery to pose like a swimsuit model (Hope this isn't a preview of her future)!

Avery's Portrait Day

Ok, there is a wonderful tradition in my husband, Marcus' family, to do a formal portrait of each child at the same age. We do our kids' portraits just before they turn 4. So last week, it was Avery's turn in the spotlight,and she just ATE it up! She looked so sweet with her hair all curled (thanks Aunt Coco) and her pretty pink dress. Also, thanks to my sister Coco for watching little Owen while I helped Avery! And to top off the day, Mom even took Avery to her favorite place-McDonalds-for lunch!Here are a few snapshots I took outside the studio...

Our little babygirl, Avery (almost 4-not a baby anymore)...such a beautiful little face.

"Oh, please (posing with a cheesy smile), no pictures!"

Some fun photos...

Ok, since I'm having issues with my camera, I decided to pull some of my favorite old pics...

I just thought these pictures were so funny--just shows how TINY those little baby heads are...and really put into frightening perspective just how FAST my kids are growing up!

Owen (10 days) with his big sistas!

Avery got to go to the Wild Animal Park ALONE with Dad a few days after Owen and Mom came home from the hospital--she had a blast!

Madie got so excited that Owen (2 weeks)fell asleep on her lap!

Cute little Owen at 2 months old!

Hoping for pictures soon...

I know, I know, I'm terrible at keeping up with this blog! I've been out of town and then trying to play catch up ever since...My sweet husband took me to NY for my 30th (yikes) bday (hopefully more pics to come--we've been having issues with our camera). That was a really fun trip--we saw a couple shows and shopped in good ol'Chinatown. My AWESOME mom took ALL THREE of our kids for like 4 1/2 days--thanks Mom--Happy Birthday to me! I'm sooooo grateful to have such wonderful grandparents for my kids--I could call any one of them and ask them to watch the kids or help and they would come running! We're so lucky!

I just posted a few pics that I COULD get from my camera...


Well, this was the closest thing we got to a decent Christmas pjs picture-hard to get dogs and babies to cooperate!

Little Owen is cruising around, holding onto furniture, people, animals as he walks...my little boy is almost 1 (sob,sob)!

New Year's Day fun!

The kids got Legoland passes for Christmas so we took them on New Years Day. Avery was finally big enough to go on most of the rides, so the girls had lots of fun running from ride to ride and nobody had hurt feelings-yeah! We had so much FUN! Here are a few pictures...I messed up and accidentally hit the button to post them before I explained what they were--HA--I'm such a rooky at this!

Owen was thrilled to just be outside...here he is going crazy in the storybook boat.










Madie's favorite ride is the dragon roller coaster, but I couldn't get a picture of her on that, so here she is on the little knight's horse ride (not quite so exciting). The girls had so much fun --we haven't had passes for the last year and a half. They're excited to be able to go a lot this year.

Avery was causing all kinds of traffic

accidents at the little speedway! Poor kid--she could NOT figure out how to turn. She kept getting herself stuck--it was hilarious! (It WAS her first time driving though) Here she is doing her little chipmunk smile...what a funny girl;)

Here are the little munchkins with the Lego carolers...

check out Owen--he doesn't have a clue what's goin' on;)