Katie's wedding and Matt home

We made it out to Utah for cousin Katie's beautiful wedding and festivities and were able to see my family and most importantly, Matt-just home from his mission in Hawaii! Val watched our girls so we could be there for Katie and Adam's ceremony
Ellie playing with the tether ball
Mom with little Grace
Lisa and GG

The girls had so much fun with Uncle Matt, their cousins and grandparents. It was really fun to watch. Syd, Emily and Kyler are especially cute together. I didn't take enough pics.

March update

I haven't had much time to try out my new camera and to make it even harder, Sydney has decided she doesn't like having her picture taken right now. So most of my pictures are of her running away from the camera. Here are a couple I snuck in.GG spends all her time walking around the perimeter of the house, inch by inch and smiling. She is so happy! She loves to stand in front of the washer and dryer and watch the clothes spinning, it's so funny.

I took Syd to the Dr. Suess anniversary celebration at Target and she had so much fun. We bought a few more of his books

and have spent almost everyday since reading "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham" Pete and I have them almost memorized.

My little Valentines

My little sweeties were being so cute yesterday. We had so much fun learning about and celebrating Valentines day together.
look at that mischievous grin. GG just started crawling this week and she's getting into everything!
the squid being a goofball

Solid food

GG started eating baby food and cereal a few months ago and I still feel like it's an exercise in futility. She just wants what we are eating, not the mushy stuff she gets.It's pretty entertaining, but not much stays in her mouth. As you can see, she's become quite expert at pushing it all back out with her cute little tongue.
Oh well, it's not like our little chub is wasting away

January catch up

GG is finally big enough to bathe with Syd and they both love it. Water everywhere, but lots of funOur chubby bunny
Sydney is 2 and 1/2 going on 13: with leopard-glitter shoes,
with shades and her cell in the car seat. Direct quotes: "Sorry I missed your call Snow White, we are just here hanging out." and "Mom, can you turn up my speaker phone, I can't hear Cinderella"
GG is getting cuter, chubbier and curly-er,
and rolling all over the house!
Syd has become a little chef and loves to help in the kitchen
and she is now riding a big-girl bike.
It's all happening so fast!

Elephant Seals

My good friend Jacqui set a group of us up to see the elephant seals out at Ano Neuvo on a beautiful January morning. It was very interesting. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the intricacies of elephant seal reproduction, but loved hanging out with good buddies.

Here's Becca and I enjoying the view.

Here Syd is pointing out a adolescent seal. They reminded me of a mixture of the monsters from Tremors and that dinosaur thing from "The Land Before Time", but definitely a mystical creature.

There were also a lot of fun sunglasses shots
Mostly we just enjoyed being in beautiful, warm, California weather on a gorgeous day.

Thanks Jacqs!

More fun

The last few days in Utah we packed in the fun. We saw the lights at temple square,

Pete and I got to go skiing, and had some birthday fun with both families. I must say having a birthday around Christmas is the pitts when you're a kid, but as an adult it's pretty cool because you get to be with your family.

Here we are at Cafe Rio with my parents, John and his family.
Then we spent the rest of the day sledding while mom watched Ellie and GG. Syd and Kyler had so much fun together and insisted on riding in the same car.
Sierra, John and Kyler
Syd and grandpa Prina
Me and Sierra
three of us on one tube=a wild ride

Then it was finally time to head home. Thanks to our families for all the fun!