DECEMBER

Taking Lily to see The Grinch

Visiting Santa

Me and my girls

Christmas Eve with our besties

Merry Christmas

NOVEMBER

Celebrating the season with friends

Matt runs the Silver Strand Half Marathon again... and beats last year's time!

Walking the St. Jude Give Thanks. Walk in support of our friend Claire

Happy Thanksgiving... Happy Family

She wanted the drumstick!

OCTOBER 2009

Between Karlyn's 1st birthday, her Family Day (the anniversary of the day all four of us were together for the first time in Virginia), her baptism and Halloween, October was spent celebrating!

Karlyn's first birthday cake at the 'cousins' birthday party (Karlyn and her cousin Nicholas are only 8 days apart)

Celebrating with her bestests on her actual birthday

A little celebration at the pumpkin patch


Family Day 2009

Family Day 2008 (aren't they so sweet!)

The Gillespie's annual Halloween party

Just a cute picture of Karlyn... she loves climbing into things

Giddy-up at Julia and Katy's birthday party

Pre-school parade

Getting ready to trick-or-treat

Happy Halloween!

SEPTEMBER 2009

Silly me... thinking I could stick to my resolution of posting once a month. In my defense, I'm taking 2 classes right now and had no idea how much work they'd be. Besides taking care of the girls, I do homework, and that's about it. Ugh. Anyhoo... here is a catch up of September.

Lily's 4-and-a-half birthday celebration

Lily was the flower girl in Auntie Michelle and Uncle Vinh's wedding


Having fun on Uncle Vinh's shoulders at the Chinese banquet

First day of Pre-K

Karlyn had a little surgery to have tubes put in her ears. Here is the 'before' shot...

...and the 'after' (poor baby didn't come out of the anesthesia a happy girl)

Disneyland

AUGUST 2009

Only 21 more days of summer...

I found myself browsing the seasonal section of CVS today with all of its pumpkin and scarecrow merchandise, and you know... I love fall!!! Don't get me wrong, summer is always fun, but every year, after the crazy summers that we have in our household, I look forward to getting back to the routine that fall and winter bring.

Lily will start her Pre-K class next week (thank goodness... it has been a long summer), and I actually start school again this week... not as a teacher, but as a student again. I began my MA program last Spring, but have taken the last year off to focus on our new family member!

I've also decided that maybe these kind of monthly posts will work best for me, now that life is going to be a bit more hectic with school and all. So, without further ado...

Karlyn falling asleep while sitting up

Oma's birthday

Our favorite park in Encinitas

Lily loves rock climbing


Swinging girl

Getting ready for Halloween?

Look Mom... I can stand now!

Children's Museum


Disneyland

HAPPY CAMPERS

Once again, we were able to take two fun camping trips this summer. It was our first year camping with Karlyn; she was a trooper and loved every minute of it!
In July, we camped with our 'poker group' (although they are so much more than that!) at Paso Picacho Campground in the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Luckily, this year we could have campfires (they were banned last year) which added so much fun to our experience! There were seven families... 14 adults and 16 children, and we had a great time.











In August, we traveled to San Simeon State Beach for the 12th annual SLO camping group trip. Although the 7-8 hour drive each way was interesting with a 4 year old and a 10 month old, it was well worth it. There are six families who go on this camping trip each year, and this year we had a total of 15 kiddos. Because we don't see many of these families during the year, as we're spread from Sacramento to San Diego, it is fun to see the kids reconnect with one another year after year. This year, they all seemed a great age to hang out with one another, and many times Matt and I had to call out Lily's name to find out whose tent she was playing in.