Beach House 2012

 I stole this picture from Jen. We stayed here Friday night and it was disgusting. I am no hotel prude, but this place was gross. As was Primm's McDonald's in the morning. Seriously... so many dead flies everywhere and absolutely no Diet Coke.

Almost to the beach!

First look from our temporary digs. Pretty awesome, right?

 This is what swimming with a regular diaper looks like.

 Just a little junk in the trunk.

 Our first sunset of the week. Gorgeous.

 The next morning the sun was out early (and so were we) and we all headed to the surf to dig for sandcrabs.

 I don't know who enjoyed it more, the kids or Blaine.

 It didn't take Sarah long to warm up to the little creepers. I, however, did not warm up to them.

 I love Miles' face here.

 Dig, dig, dig.

 Oh, Van. You are adorable.

 Jack teaching Sarah the art of throwing them back, "Now, let them be with their families."

 Poppy and Van.

 Van and Jen.

 I think pictures like this are so funny.

 That's my boy!

 And my little family.

 Miles sitting still... for about two seconds. :) Love this guy.

 Taking it all in.

 Sarah has become quite the Daddy's girl.

 Dennis and Daddy with Jakey and sandcrabs.

 Happy.

 I love Blaine.

 Awe. The beach is super awesome.

 More digging. I think this is actually the next day (Monday.

Someone finally got tired... the beach will do that to you. :)

Jake is busy building sand castles with Brent and crew.

 I love my determined kid.

 Sarah's stance is a little more dainty. :)

 And she loves spending time with Poppy.

 Shovel in hand...

 And not above eating the sand.

 Taking a family walk to collect some rocks and shells. (This is kind of a tradition... we have vases full at home.)

 Sarah was loving the birds. She wanted to hold them all and pet them. She would try and mimic their beaks by sticking her tongue way out and bending over a little. It was hilarious and took Blaine and me forever to figure out what she was doing. We also laughed hard at her hurt feelings when they'd fly away when she tried to grab them.

 Took these with my cool lens off our balcony... did I mention that we got the bitchin' room this year? Lucky us. :)

S'mores. (Stolen from Sean.)

 We spent a good few hours in Carlsbad...

We hit a shoe shop (SCORE!), a book store (DOUBLE SCORE!), a waffle stand (YES!), and even saw the train (WOOT! WOOT!). Can't lose. Wish I had taken more pictures here.

Sunset Market. Jaana (LOVE!) came and took pictures of the whole Carter clan at the beach house and then came with us to Sunset Market afterward. We ate our faces off (did you see the chocobobs???) and oh, how much I love you Jaana. Thanks for coming! (And, I stole this picture from you. )

I also stole this one from Jen (also from Sunset Market), but I just love how Jakey makes little Van laugh so hard.

Last day. High tide.

Last light of our last day at the beach. Next stop: Disneyland!

My Kid is a Pre-Schooler!

I have a Pre-Schooler... I can't believe it.
We have been working toward this for a while. I have been really nervous about it (weird dreams, making charts, lots of conversations), and well-- today went really smoothly.
Jake was so excited and brave about today. He marched right up to the front door (we are doing a co-op -think "Joy School"- deal with some other families in the hood) and he didn't even look back at me. It was a huge relief... and yes, I did cry all the way to the store with only Sarah in tow. I mean, this is big deal. From here on out, my life is different. Everything has changed. It's the weirdest feeling. Yet, I am really proud of Jakey today. We will work on the whole "joining in" thing, but he had a great day. He learned about the letter A and can't wait until next time.
Things are a-changin' around here. I'll just try my best to adjust.

Rainy Days and Mondays

No real explanation here... it rained and we walked and splashed in some puddles. It was a great Labor Day. 

Sunday Pancakes and Neighborhood Walks

Jake's actual birthday was on Sunday and since we are too lazy to wake up super early for a birthday breakfast, we had pancakes post-church (The Special Plate with candles and all!)

Sarah had to have a candle too... we went ahead and let her.

Here's a (poor) shot of the streamers that were up for a week straight.

Later on that evening we decided it had cooled down enough to take a little walk around the neighborhood and trail. Always a good decision.

I just love our view of Timpanogos.

Funny girl adjusting her flip-flops.

And if you squint (really hard) you can see Draper Temple. Pretty.

Jake turns FOUR

My baby boy is four years old. Man, I love this kid.
We've been planning a train party for a few months now and I think it turned out pretty cute. Of course, I failed to get pictures of the tracks we built through the house with electrical tape (thanks, Pinterest!) and I suck and didn't get a single picture of the food table or (and I'm seriously so sad about this...) a picture of all the cousins wearing their conductor hats and bandanas.
Oh well, Jakey was in heaven and lapped up all the attention.
Happy birthday, buddy.

Side note: Blaine and I were up late the night before taping up the floor and making tracks for our big boy. When Jake woke up and came into our room in the morning the conversation went something like this: 
Jake: Hey guys! I saw the tracks!
Me: What tracks? Who put tracks down in the house??
Jake: You builted them, Mommy! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 The invite.

 Here's the birthday boy opening up some presents. Thanks again, Jen--for getting pictures for me. :)

 You know how there's usually one present that "takes the cake" each birthday or Christmas? Well, this was it. My mom bought Jakey the flying Lightning McQueen Hawk toy. He has seriously barely put it down since last Saturday.

 Checking out more toys.

 We laughed at how long it took Jake to see his new bike (which he helped pick out) but when he did, Jen caught the best reaction ever here.

 Big boy bike!

 Blowing out some candles.

 Even though these Lee kid pictures are so adorable, I'm still kicking myself for not getting the Carter kids before they left.

 Scarlett kills me... she never stopped smiling and posing.

And yes--Sarah is wearing no shirt, FOUR skirts, and one shoe. There was some princess dress wearing by the older girls and I guess Sarah thought four skirts was the best way to go.

 "All aboard!"

  Kaiya and Jake hamming it up for the camera.

 Sarah (with a shirt on, now) riding the trike.

 And there he is! Already a pro...

He just looks so big. I love this boy.

Baby Belly (#3)

I took this a couple weeks ago. I had some medium-sized plans of being better at documenting  myself this time around... bigger belly and (much) bigger ass.
Here we go. (I'm about fourteen weeks along as I type this. I'm guessing I was closer to ten or eleven weeks in this picture.)
Maybe I'll take another belly picture soon. Maybe not. It's harder than it looks. (Hence the face hidden behind the camera.)