New Guy

Our new guy is here! Canon Wada Williams was born on October 7, 2011 at 5:06pm. He was 8lbs 4oz and 20.5" long, our heftiest (but tied in length) baby. This was a long labor- I was induced, but instead of taking a few hours like Alexa and Brody, this guy took almost as long as Stila. The hospital where he was born have changed their birthing "philosophy" so now they put the baby skin to skin with the mother right after birth. Weight? No. Cleaning? Nope. Gooey gross mess? Yep.

All cleaned up:

First pic with happy (tired) parents

 Meeting big brother the next day:

Brody loves him some Canon. He was really the only one who was remotely interested in the baby. The girls were too busy playing with the toy Canon brought them.

Our first week home has been good- it's nice to have some helping hands. Sleep is scarce, but we're happy. My parents leave in two days. Uh oh!

Baby Shower

My sweet friends Melissa, Leslie and Jen threw a baby shower for me last week. It was the cutest shower (in my unbiased opinion) EVER! The colors and theme were perfect for our little guy. Topped off with yummy food and terrific friends, it was the best night!

 The sock monkeys were so cute- I love this one riding the trike! 

Jen made the adorable garland- complete with dye-cut monkeys. I had to take a couple home for Stila.

 The centerpieces- the runts and banana candy sticks were a cute touch.

The food was a bunch of fabulous salads, bread and yummy desserts. And some delicious red punch!

My girls: Jen, Melissa, Leslie:

The guests:

Thanks to everyone who came and especially to Melissa, Jen and Leslie for a fabulous night! Love you guys!

Summer!

We went to Utah for a couple weeks in June. It was great to spend time with family, especially since we hadn't been for six months! Probably our longest absence ever! The kids had a great time going to the zoo, playing with cousins and going to Nana and Dewey's condo in the mountains. Mostly, they got their faces painted and swam. What could be better?

Smores!

  The zoo (why doesn't OC have any good zoos? We only go to the zoo in SLC)

 Water balloon fun (this was John's idea)

 Smallest guy on the bounce slide

Fishing in the mountains (this lasted about 15 minutes)

Another school year down...

We're heading to Utah tomorrow, so today was Stila's last day of school. She had a great year, with amazing teachers for whom we are so grateful. She's headed off to Kindergarten next year! 

Then:

Now:

Alexa missed her last day today because of scheduling conflicts. She made amazing progress in her first year of pre-school, already recognizing almost all her letters and numbers, and writing them, too.

Then:

 Now:

Spring Break

Spring break (for Stila) ended up the week of my dad's 70th birthday, so we all headed to the desert for a week to celebrate with my parents and brother. Apparently, the girls thought "the desert" was some pretend place you only see on tv because Stila kept saying, "I didn't know there was such thing as the desert! Are there really cactuses?"
We stayed in a resort, complete with kiddie pools, lazy river and a couple of big pools. Add a couple of playgrounds and the kids were in heaven.

Happy birthday to my dad (who wanted banana cream pie instead of birthday cake. What?!)

Bittersweet

Do you find yourself wishing that the present was different? Often I think, "I can't wait until my kids are old enough to ___." Usually this involves them doing something on their own. And then I catch myself. Tonight John emailed me a few photos he took with his phone from the past 18 months or so and it made me sad. Because some how, these girls turned from this:

to this:

And our little guy turned from this:

 

 to this:

In the chaos of every day life, I have to stop and remind myself to enjoy and treasure every moment because they're so fleeting. And they never return. Someday, Stila will stop wanting to pretend she's a hamster. All. The. Time. Someday, Alexa will stop calling her siblings "See-ya" and "Bwodes." And someday, Brody won't say "Sssss!" for "thank you" and "Pss-pss" for "excuse me."

Someday they'll be too cool to play with us at the beach

Or jump in the air just cuz. 

Please don't happen anytime soon.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Ok, not so good at updating. Earlier this month, we had my parents and John's mom come in town. We haven't had visitors since last fall, so we were excited to have family come!
My parents came first- along with a new bunk bed for the girls and a new TV for us (payment from my brother for helping with his restaurant). My dad is amazing- he can fix or build anything. I showed him this website last summer and he volunteered to make a bunk bed for the girls. It turned our fabulously, and the girls love it.

 We enjoyed some nice weather and went to the Dana Point Festival of the whales. 

Some park time:

A couple days after my parents left, John's mom came for a quick visit. The kids were so excited to see Nana. We spent lots of time outdoors and Nana was so nice to play with the girls. All the time.

I just loved this picture because it sums up Brody pretty well. Candy boy.