Happy Birthday to Me!!!

I turned the ripe young age of 26 at the end of August. The fun started a couple of weeks early when I received a package of all of these goodies off of my Amazon wish list from my mother-in-law.

The day of my birthday started off with my request of donuts for breakfast.

The girls were fans of course :)

My favorite donut is a Powdered Bavarian Cream donut from Dunkin Donuts. We don't have Dunkin Donuts here so Robert called the place that we go here and gave them special instructions on how to make a Bavarian Cream donut. They got close. Not exact, but close, and Robert's thought behind it make it extra special :) 

This is the life!

Robert and I decided that we weren't doing presents for each other this year, but Robert couldn't resist giving something to me so he got a babysitter for the girls and "gave me permission" to get a phone upgrade 2 months sooner than we had planned. So we went to the mall and got this beauty.

Then after having lunch at Chili's, we picked up the girls and went back home where I spent a lot of the day relaxing and playing with my new phone :) Then that night Robert had gotten a babysitter and said it was completely up to me what we do. I chose playing around with the recording equipment Robert gave me for our anniversary, and we recorded songs all evening.

The recordings didn't turn out too great (still figuring out how to work the stuff) but we had a lot of fun.
I was completely happy with the day and thinking it couldn't have been any better when 2 of my close friends showed up on our doorstep as we were putting the girls to bed and kidnapped me for ice cream. We were at Marianne's for several hours eating our ice cream and chatting. It was a perfect end to the day. I'm so thankful for each of the 26 years of my life that I've had. I love where I'm at right now and it will only continue to get greater.

Robert's New Calling

Back in June we found out that some of our friends were moving away from Santa Cruz, one of which currently held the calling of early morning seminary teacher. After hearing about this Robert approached me and said he was getting the feeling that he would be called as the seminary teacher and we should start preparing ourselves for that. I'm pretty sure my exact thought as I thought of the new baby coming was, "Yeah right! They wouldn't dare do that to us right now." But the answer I vocalized was, "Well maybe you will, or maybe you're feeling this way just means we need to improve our scripture study and the way we manage our time." So we started doing that. Among other things, we gave Robert specific hours every weekday that he could do his research/school work uninterrupted as close to uninterrupted as possible and me scheduling my days around that. We also set an exact scripture time for our family and have been sticking to it instead of just letting it happen (or not happen) at some random time during the morning routine. As I watched the positive influence this was having on our family, I started thinking not only that this calling might happen but that it was going to happen and we would be just fine.

Lo and behold, 2 weeks before seminary was supposed to start, one of the high councilman of our stake came to our home and extended the call to Robert to be the early morning seminary teacher, and Robert accepted.

August 29th - First day of seminary

I'm so thankful for and proud of him for how excited and willing he was and continues to be for this calling. He teaches all of the high school age youth from ours and one other ward which equates to 19 kids that come regularly. He's still finding his groove, but he's been loving it so far and I've handled taking over the girls' morning routine just fine (this had been his job for a while). We're already seeing the blessings this calling is bringing to our family, and I'm sure they'll keep on coming.

Mary's 2nd Birthday!!

Yep, Mary's the big 2! Instead of throwing a party we had a whole day of family fun, since that's what I figured she'd enjoy most anyway.

Birthday decor: Banner and balloons. Simple yet effective :)

First thing we did in the morning was go to Santa Cruz Diner for Mary's birthday breakfast. We love that place!!!! Leaps and bounds ahead of Denny's in deliciousness and being family friendly and nearly as affordable.

While we waited for our food Mary kept dancing to the juke box music. Everytime I got the camera out she'd stop, so the few seconds I caught at the beginning of this video is all we got.

Mmm chocolate milk!

Happy baby with her pancakes.

So much deliciousness!

We then went to Toys R Us so Mary (and Lydia) could pick out new night lights. They settled on these flashlight friends.

Robert got a prize too. These crayons that were on super sale (4 boxes for $1). He was, for whatever reason, over the top excited about it. Even requested this picture. Silly boy. ;)

Cake Time! Mary picked out chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

And you can't go without a couple of messy face pictures on your birthday.

Then it was time to open presents.

Crayons!

Some new floor puzzles.

And the "big" present from us, creative wrapping job credit to Robert, a scooter. 

She wanted to ride it right away :)

He headed to the church cultural hall for a big flat area for her and Lydia to go to town with their scooter before calling it a day.

Happy birthday Mary!! You'll never know how blessed we feel to call you our daughter!!

P.S. I should also mention that Mary also got a few presents from Robert's parents that were delivered a couple of days later. Among those things was a slide that the girls, especially Mary, have been loving! I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but I'm sure it will be featured in some in the future.

Summer Wrap Up: Random Fun

Tower Building

Robert and Lydia worked forever (or at least for most of Mary's naptime) and finally, successfully built a block tower that was taller than Lydia. 

She was ecstatic :)

They then tried to blow it over but it wouldn't budge.

Lydia was so proud

Once they combined blowing forces on one side of the
tower it finally came tumbling down.

Pregnancy Bump at 26 Weeks

I plan on doing a more thorough pregnancy update post after taking a 32 week picture this Tuesday. Also, I have been wearing these shorts in public lately. I still don't know how I feel about it. I prefer long pants or capris.

Going to the Movies

We all went to see Despicable Me 2 together. The girls had a blast.

It was looking like we'd have the whole theater to ourselves so we snagged a pic, but right as the previews started a few more people came in. They sat on the back row though so it still felt like we were alone.

Temple Trip

We did a temple session swap with some friends. All of us went up to Oakland and we watched all the kids while they did a session then they watched all of them while we did a session. I love the temple! I snagged a few pictures of us after.

I love, Love, LOVE this picture of Mary.

And of course I couldn't resist getting a quick selfie with my man.

Deer Friends

I don't think people realize how much I am NOT exaggerating when I say that we see deer at our place all of the time. But it's really ALL of the time. These pics are taken from our front door. The girls and I were coming out to water our flowers and this herd greeted us.

Lydia's yelling at the deer to stop eating our flowers ;)

Our summer was definitely filled with fun :)

Summer Wrap Up: Date Nights

Ice Cream Sculpting

First you mold the ice cream...

Then you set the ice cream...

Repeat with smaller molds...

Decorate...

And STUFF!!!

Night of August 14th

This wasn't a date night, but I figured it was fitting to include in this post. Robert surprised my with this little beauty in honor of 5 years since Robert first told me he liked me and we held hands for the first time. He's a keeper. :)

Singing in the Rain Day/Gene Kelly's 101st Birthday

August 23rd was Gene Kelly's birthday so for date night we made a cheesy video to go along with the song "Singing in the Rain" which will be posted as soon as I can get it all edited.

It was also Eat a Peach Day so we ended the night by going to Baskin Robbins thinking they'd have some sort of peach ice cream. Alas, they did not so we settled for mango which was super yummy.

I love dating my man!

Summer Wrap Up: Boardwalk Dollar Nights

We hit up so many of the Boardwalk Dollar Nights this year. We always had at least one or two friends there with us too. So many fun memories!! Here's just a few pictures from our visits.

Mary got more and more comfortable on the rides. She even got
to the point where she would wave and try to give us high fives.

Lydia's hiding behind her finger. Something Robert taught her ;)

The girls' first cotton candy experience.

Lydia was really anxious for it if you can't tell.

It was a hit with the girls. The sugar high that followed
was not so much a hit with the parents ;)

Robert took Lydia on the Log Ride with one of her friends and the friend's dad. They got soaked and they loved it!

Cute kids!

Robert finally got to ride on a coveted outside horse. Coveted because there is a point on the outside where you can grab metal rings and then try to throw them into a clown's mouth (pictured below) while you're riding.

He was excited.

Mommy and Lydia rode the Ferris Wheel together our last night there and had a blast. 

The girls weren't in a family picture taking mood, but I still love these pictures of our little family.

Love the finger in the nose. Classic toddler.

So much fun! I can't wait until next summer, though I'm sure it will be a much different experience with another baby in tow :)