New Year's in Santa Barbara

We spent the new year with Pete's parents in beautiful Santa Barbara. We had a lot of R&R, fun hikes and beach time.

This first picture is my favorite. You can see how we slept with Sydney in our bed. She sleeps all sprawled out. Pete slept on the left and I was on the right with that little pillow bridging the gap between the bed and side table for my head. She takes up a lot of room for such a little munchkin!

Thanks to the Stowells and Pam and Wynn for such a fun weekend!

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve day on the coast at half-moon bay. It was sunny and warmed up to 62'. We had fun spotting marine life and laughing at Sydney's explorations. Then we grabbed some grub at Sam's Chowder house on the way home. What a perfect day!

A day out with Syd

We have been so busy getting ready for Christmas, but Sydney and I have had a few days where we just got to hang out.
This was after we spent the morning at the children's museum with the Jensen kids.


Here she is with Millie&Will at the Cal Academy

Thanksgiving in Utah

We had so much fun seeing both families over Thanksgiving. Here are a few pics.
Grandma Pam enjoying her girls.

Sydney with Ellie and Olivia

New baby Ellie on my side is so beautiful!

Me and Easton

Look at all these cuties!

Pete with Emily&Syd

Talk, talk, talk

Sydney has become quite the chatterbox lately. She makes me laugh all the time with the funny little things she puts together. It's still hard to get her to talk to other people, she gets all shy, but I did get her to say a few things on video here:

Happy Halloween!

It doesn't get any cuter than kids this age in costume!


Syd's partner's in crime; Jackson, Evan and Shaan. Taking these guys trick-or-treating was hilarious! There was lots of uncertainty about what we were doing until the doors opened and then the little munchkins would rush inside, not really caring about the candy, but thrilled to be "welcomed" into a new house they could explore. All the parents would have to apologize as we also rushed into our unsuspecting neighbors homes to retrieve our kids. Good times :-)


Mom&Dad, are you sure it's OK to just take this candy from our neighbors?


Sydney ready to be done at the end of the night