Brooklyn Grace!

2 and a half months ago (where have I been, I know), my brother and his wife, Kristen, welcomed their first baby into this world, a beautiful baby girl whom they named Brooklyn Grace!! I love each and everyone one of my nieces and my nephew to pieces, but I do have to say it is a little different experience when your own sibling becomes a parent. We got to be at the hospital when Brooklyn was born, and the incredible part was hearing Brooklyn's very first cry....that sound.....it all came flooding back and brought me to tears for my brother and his wife - so awesome. Congrats to my big little brother Greg and to Kristen of course! And welcome to the world, Baby Brooklyn, we love you!

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"Time to come out Baby Brooklyn!" - Kaylie whispers to the baby bump, just days before Brooklyn came out to play :)

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The proud papa and his beautiful baby girl, and an elated mama looking on!

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My first time holding sweet Baby Brooklyn - oh newborns!

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I love this shot my bro took of brand new baby and her mama.

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The proud Grandparents and Great Grandma - and the Stache, can't forget the Stache :-D

Under the Sea (and more!)

Our sweet, silly, sassy little girl turned 4. Years. Old. Ohmygoodness. Time.....flies!!!

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After Kaylie's first visit to Disneyland, and the purchase of The Little Mermaid movie (love it!), Kaylie (ok, I) decided that the theme for her birthday party this year would be Under the Sea, loosely based on The Little Mermaid. I was so happy that this year her birthday (March 1st) fell on a Saturday - we could have her party ON her actual birthday! I mean, that only happens every 5 or 6 years or so, right?! So yay, Saturday birthday! We had it all planned, evites sent.......and then we saw the weather forecast. Rain. 100% chance. Of rain. Ok, step back....we live in a little So Cal bubble of wonderful weather, we really are blessed. While the rest of the country is posting pictures of rulers in the snow, snow angels, or gales of wind blowing things over, we post pictures of 80 degree January days at the pool/beach. This winter in particular, has been unseasonable warm. And now that we live in the desert, our amount of rain per year is extremely minimal....think drought. So really.........you're telling me that the one weekend we have a birthday party planned (where with a multitude of kids hopped up on sugar, a backyard/outdoor play area is a must) it's 100% chance of rain?!?! This just would not do. So we rescheduled. And boy am I glad we did.....this was our backyard......

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While I "complain" I really LOVED that weekend of storming and rain, we definitely needed it! So amidst the deluge of rain, we celebrated the newly 4 year old Kaylie indoors :)

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The week after her birthday warmed up and dried everything up, thankfully, and her birthday party day finally arrived! To throw something else into the mix.....the day of her party ended up being the beginning of daylight savings, meaning we lost an hour of sleep....meaning that the delivery of the bounce house at 6:40am (when 7am was supposed to be the earliest possibility) felt mysteriously a lot like 5:40am.....

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Again, while I "complain" about the early delivery, at least my day was started early, I needed as much time as possible to get everything ready :) I had the day to myself to ready the house, while the kids were spending time with my parents....they all arrived an hour before the party and helped me pull it all together.....and here's what I pulled together to make Kaylie's Under the Sea birthday party - photos courtesy of my talented photographer brother, Greg Helton (check him out!)

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The snacks: Goldfish, Whale crackers & Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish

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Clever Crabs....chicken salad croissant sandwiches.....Mmmmm!

The snack table/display :)

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Sea Foam Punch! Sprite, Pina Colada mix & Vanilla Ice Cream. A little strange, but fun :)

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Sweet treats display :)

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Had fun with the cupcakes :) Wish the glitter was visible!

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While I didn't have the time/energy to make cake pops this time around, I had a lot of fun with these marshmallow pops :)

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The sweets for the goody bags....just bags of multicolored swedish fish, tied with a hand-stamped tag with love from Kaylie :)

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Bounce house!! Not sure we'll be able to have another party again without one....what fun!

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Look at them.....brother and sister, best friends, so excited for her party to begin! Love these two :)

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We were enjoying ourselves so much we didn't take the time for many pictures actually during the party, but here's one of Kaylie blowing out her birthday candle :)

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And there you go :) What fun it was to celebrate in our new home, our first party, and the first time many of our friends/family had made it up to the house! Thanks to all who came, and all who wanted to make it but couldn't - we had a blast and can't wait to celebrate many future events in our home! 

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BUT WAIT!!!! I might have to turn in my "good mom" card......I'm here writing this big long post about Kaylie's birthday, while I skipped Matthew's birthday blog altogether (from November...) So I'll remedy that here. Remember that "whirlwind" I talked about a few blogs ago?? Unfortunately, Matthew's 6th birthday kind of got swallowed up in that.....between Kaylie's surgery/recovery, holidays, and our move *which happened in November*, Matthew's birthday was special, but very low key. We celebrated in the morning with cinnamon rolls, spent the day enjoying Matthew and whatever he wanted to do, and ended his birthday at the Spaghetti Factory, where he LOVED being sung to by the restaurant!! Happy belated (way-belated) 6th Birthday, Matthew, we love you!!! 

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Portland or Bust!

In February, my mom, Kaylie & I got to take a girl's trip to Portland to visit my brother, Greg, and his wife Kristen and celebrate Kristen's baby shower! It was Kaylie's first plane ride and first trip to Portland - as well as only my second trip to Portland! I'm so glad we were able to go, since immediately following our trip Greg & Kristen made the move down to Oceanside, to start their new family here close to family (among many other things)! Here are a few photo mementos of our trip, what a great time :)

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At the airport, excited and ready to go!

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We made it! First meal: Food truck - some sort of fusion....mexican korean?? It was spicy, but delicious! :)

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We found SNOW!!!!! Wow! Maybe even enough to build a teeny, tiny snowman! If we had only arrived a week earlier, it would have been a whole different story :)

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Waffle Window! Probably the BEST meal of the entire trip. I'm still craving those waffles....one sweet, one savory....sugar pearls...omgoodness....

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We got to spend a lot of time with Kristen's family that is in Portland, which included her Aunt Joyce & Uncle Steve, as well as her sister Jessica and husband David, and their niece and two nephews: Avery, Jack & Max. One of our fun outings was seeing Frozen in the theater - such fun :)

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And the original reason for the visit - Kristen's baby shower! It was so beautiful, and really a lot of fun. Baby showers are the best :) 

Kaylie & Avery with Auntie Kristen, the guest of honor :

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Uncle Greggy & Auntie Kristen with 4 our of 5 of their nieces and nephews - Kaylie, Avery, Max & Jack (clockwise) - they are such an amazing aunt and Uncle, their little Brooklyn is a lucky girl to have them as her parents :)

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Wait.....I thought this was a girl's trip? Well, towards the end of the trip, Josh flew up to join us for a few days (while Matthew stayed with Grandpa down in Carlsbad) so that he could make the trip with Greg from Portland to Oceanside in a big moving truck!

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The picture doesn't do it justice....just as we parked to go for a walk at a river we heard a very large crack and crash.....we walked down the path a ways to find a giant tree limb had fallen from a large tree into the creek. Kaylie was fascinated!

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And I include this picture for 2 reasons.....1, I think she's beautiful :) 2, this was one of 171 selfies she took one night we went out to dinner in Portland. Yep you read that right. 171 selfies. Silly girl :)

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Portland is gorgeous - but very rainy! It rained the majority of our time there, which I actually really enjoyed! Now that we live in the desert, we don't get to see much of that....wish they'd share with us! :)

The Happiest Place on Earth!

For Christmas this past year, my parents gifted us a two day trip to Disneyland - one day at California Adventure, one day at Disneyland. We had taken Matthew to California Adventure for the first time on his 5th birthday (remember that here.) So while California Adventure was a only a first for Kaylie this time around, Disneyland park itself was a first for both kids! We were all so anxious to go, the countdown began in January for our early February trip to the Happiest Place On Earth. Day one, at California Adventure, was a lot of fun - although it literally rained on our parade - the Pixar parade as well as a few of the other things we were looking forward to were rained out, but overall it was worth it and loads of fun :)

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Found parking, loaded up, and headed our for CA Adventure, Adventure :)

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Bug's Life Land, first ride of the day!

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Downtown Radiator Springs is probably our favorite part of CA Adventure, it is really neat!

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Kaylie didn't want to pose for the pic, lol, but really loved Toy Story Mania!

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I know, you don't have to say it, we're trendsetters. Next rainy season you'll be seeing these all over town ;-D 

Sure did help keep us dry though!

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Up until this trip, the kids had been really into Phineas & Ferb! They've watched all three seasons on Netflix multiple times - they were so excited to get to meet them! If the rain hadn't stopped it from happening, they were looking forward to the Phineas & Ferb dance party :)

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Day 2 - Disneyland!!! Our first ride was the train that went around the park. Why you might ask? Because the ride goes through a scene of Dinosaurs, of course! It was a fun start to the day :) Then off we went to explore the rest of the park!

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Me and my girl, waiting for Buzz Lightyear :)

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The kids loved meeting their friends from movies! First up was Tinkerbell!

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Next was Tinkerbell's friend, Fauna, she was very nice!

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Rockets with Grandma & Grandpa!

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Trying their hand at pulling the sword from the stone - Kaylie's turn!

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As buff as Matthew is, he just couldn't quite pull it from the stone this time :-/

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For whatever reason, Kaylie was VERY excited to meet Princess Tiana! Probably because she was the first princess we saw. Nothing against Tiana, we've just never seen the Princess and the Frog before! She was very nice, Matthew and Kaylie both loved her :)

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What an amazing trip to Disneyland - love our family, so blessed :)

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More princess meetings, such fun memories!

Aurora/Sleeping Beauty!

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Next up Ariel (with legs!)

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And finally, Cinderella. She was a lot of fun, very sweet, talked to Matthew about being a true prince :)

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Grandma and Kaylie enjoying some tea in Minnie's backyard :)

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And finally, waiting for Mickey's Soundsational Parade, what a lot of fun :) Not pictured is the fireworks spectacular that ended our evening - really incredible and a perfect end to our first visit to Disneyland. 

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Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for such an amazing trip to Disneyland - they are memories the kids (and we) will have for a lifetime. Wish we could go more often....but then again, it really is magical when it's only now and again :) Until next time!