Just Another Day in Paradise

After Rylee's birthday party, we headed down to the beach. So while most of the country was covered in snow (it's right about now that I don't miss living in Utah), here's what we were doing:

I took two of my favorite pictures I think ever of Rylee (:

Aunt Anne (or Sister Anne, as Rylee and Cailyn called her) is the most fun to play with!

And, in classic Anne style, she did some Iron Man training in the ocean.

I got lots of Liam snuggles in.

After her swim, Anne gave surfing a shot!

It was a perfect way to spend a warm January afternoon in San Diego!

Four (going on five...)

When Rylee woke up on her birthday last week I said "You look so old and grown up! You look like you must be four!" She said "No, I'm three." I asked why she wasn't four yet and she told me "I haven't had any cake yet!" All day when people told her happy birthday and asked how old she was, she told them she was three...until after she blew out these candleson the cupcakes that we brought in to her preschool class, at which point she officially declared herself four years old.

That night at her family birthday dinner she blew out the candles on her second cake of the day. I think that at this point she still said she was four.

But I think we had one too many candle-blowing out ceremonies, because after her Cinderella birthday party, she insisted that she was five!

I made these invitations for her party:

Apparently what I thought was a clever way to say that Rylee was having a Cinderella party (the "CindeRylee is turning four" line) was a bit confusing; I got an RSVP email for one of the girls in Rylee's preschool class saying that Amanda would be attending Cinde's party! Oh well...

My sister, Anne, was able to come in to town for the weekend, which was fabulous for many reasons...including that she helped me make these cakes!

Rylee was very excited that we got her a Cinderella "Piana" as she calls it.I just love this little face.

Rylee was very excited when her friends showed up! We had a little reverse Cinderella moment when Rylee helped Jack take off his shoes.

These two totally crack me up...they are always hugging and wanting to sit together, and one time I even heard an "I love you!" as we were leaving preschool!

All the princesses and princes made crowns

Oh, how I want to just eat those little legs up!

We played a ball sweeping game...I intended it to be a relay. Note to self for future reference: three and four year olds aren't quite old enough to grasp the concept of a relay race! They had fun sweeping the balls around anyway though!

Is there anything cuter than little girls in princess dresses?

If I weren't as tired as I am, I could come up with a funny caption for this one...

The cakes were a hit!And Rylee hit the Barbie Princess jackpot with the gifts!

Fun was had by all, but afterwards I was too tired to think about what to do for Quinn's and my birthdays this week...I'm thinking about filing a request to officially change the birthdays in our family! Cailyn's is 2 1/2 weeks before Christmas, Rylee's is 2 1/2 weeks after Christmas, and Quinn's and mine follow right afterwards. Too much celebrating if you ask me!

Short and Sweet

Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dave came out for a quick and fun visit at the beginning of the month, and the girls loved it!

We celebrated Rylee's birthday (for the first time) while they were in town.Grandpa Dave was only here for one night and then he went up to work.

Grandma Karen stayed for 2 more days and the girls had fun baking cupcakes,
baking in their room,

and reading with her.

It may have been a short visit, but it was plenty sweet, too!

Sunbeams and Quail

Today was the day. Rylee has left nursery and moved on to bigger and better things...she is now a Sunbeam!After church today our friends, the Barretts, who are in town for the holidays came over for lunch. (Ryan and I were good friends at BYU, and Debi's dad is our bishop here...small world!)

After we ate, we went over to Debi's grandparents' quail farm.

Rylee LOVED the quail!The eggs were very cool - all so unique!

But the highlight of the afternoon was seeing these little guys - about 8,000 3-day-old quail chicks!

Rylee was very interested in seeing everything.

Cailyn was a bit more hesitant.

And little Joshua was about as interested in them as you could expect for an almost-1-year-old.

Rylee loved catcing and holding the babies.

She kept making the funniest high-pitched giggle!

Cailyn never really wanted to hold one, but she did finally decide that she liked petting them.