Let the undefeated season begin!

First Week of School!

We made it through the first week of school... and it wasn't easy! Max has been saying all summer that he didn't want to go to kindergarten, and it turns out he wasn't kidding. There were a lot of tears shed, but I think we're making progress. Hopefully the second week will be better! :)

Max getting ready to leave for his very first day of Kindergarten!

Happy Birthday Cali Anne!

I can't believe my baby girl is really one! We had a fun little birthday with her and think she is just the greatest thing ever. We really do adore her!

First, on her actual birthday we didn't do much because Dan was busy. But we had cupcakes at the park with Cali's little twin, Teagan. Cali was born on the morning of Aug. 22nd and Teagan was born late that night. Besides Teagan's family, I got to be one of the first people to see her because she was delivered at the same hospital as Cali. :) And both girls were born to a family of 3 older brothers, so they are quite a match!

Here they are... Teagan happily enjoyed her cupcake while Cali just stared at hers. I even put cake right in Cali's mouth but she spit it out!

Saturday we celebrated her birthday by first having her open presents...

And then we went to a fun park in Hayward. Cali loved the train ride:



... and the merry-go-round:



... but not so much the jumper. :(



And the boys of course had fun on everything, especially the pony rides.




Then we came home and had cake... again, not too successful with our feminine little girl. She still wouldn't eat it, but she did at least touch it this time. :)

And it ended with her birthday bath. :)

Happy 1st birthday Cali Anne! We sure loved our first year with you!

A Fun Anniversary

You can see from the adorable picture a few days ago that Wednesday was our 7-year anniversary. We went on a ferry boat ride to San Francisco and it was a lot of fun (minus my motion-sickness!) The kids absolutely loved it and it was really beautiful to be riding through the bay.

This is after we went under the Bay Bridge that is in the background.

Max took this picture for us... he is becoming quite useful! Not to mention Doman held Cali while Max was taking the picture!.

So here is to 7 years of bliss! Okay, who are we kidding?... it has been a wild seven years! School, debt, sickness, living in apartments, having kids, more school, more debt, more kids... it hasn't all been fun and games, that is for sure! But, we have each other and because of that we can survive it all... together!!!

Early Birthday for Cali

I can't believe my baby girl is going to be ONE! Her sweet grandmas have sent her such cute little packages. We wish we could celebrate birthdays with our family around, but thanks guys for the packages! Here are a few pictures I know the grandmas would love to see of the kids opening everything.

First of all, her big teeth!
We've never had a one-year-old with teeth before, and she has six!

Here come the princesses! My mom made her this super soft quillow that she's gonna love.

Grandpa's 1-year old book... Pat The Bunny. Oh, and Cali holding a princess ball. :)

And the Thurgoods sent her a cute princess cell-phone with matching case! So strange to have princesses in the house!

Another fun toy phone and a doll from Grandma Briggs.

And both Max's grandmas were SO thoughtful to send him a bunch of school supplies for starting school next week. Just this morning he was telling me (again!) that he doesn't want to go to kindergarten. Then he remembered all the cool stuff his grandmas sent him and he got excited. Hopefully his teachers don't mind when he brings it all to school. But thank goodness for grandmas!

7 Years!

Muir Woods

The last time we went to Muir Woods was four years ago when we moved here to Berkeley. We decided we ought to go again now that the boys would enjoy it more. I was amazed how beautiful the giant trees were once again. Life is so busy, but I really hope we can keep seeing some of the great bay area sites before we have to leave!

On our way back from Muir Woods we also stopped at the lookout point to the Golden Gate Bridge ... pretty awesome view of the bay! I wish we could get a better family picture, but what can ya do with these four little nonphotogenic kids!? Plus they seriously were worried about the strong wind blowing them right off the ledge!

This is not my child...

Max has always surprised me by his eating habits. He eats everything, tries everything, and loves just about everything. But this was all I could stand. He got a big tomato out of the fridge and devoured it. I grabbed the camera just as he was taking his last big bite. I'm so glad that he didn't inherit my fear of vegetables! (which I'm working on , btw...) And earlier this week he found the colorful peppers in the fridge and wanted that for his snack. I gave him some red, yellow, and orange pepper slices with some ranch dressing. I noticed he wasn't dipping them (he loves ranch dressing, so this was strange). When I asked him why, he said he wanted to decide which color was his favorite first... red won. And no matter how delicious Max kept telling Doman that the peppers were, Doman tried one and quickly left the scene... he on the other hand is definitely mine. :)