birthday bash

we celebrated corinne's first birthday on sunday. she had so much fun with all the kids.

was i really thinking they'd all sit still for this?!

you can't tell but the pink cupcakes were decorated with little orange flowers and yellow dots.

let's just say her first birthday cake tasted a lot better than ella's. this was a carrot-raisin cake with cream cheese frosting. corinne ate almost all of it. of course, the icing was the first to go.

happy birthday, corinne!

today was corinne's first birthday. as i nursed her tonight i looked at the clock and it was 8:15pm. a year ago that same time i was snuggling her in my arms for the first time. i can't believe it's been a year already! i am so thankful for our sweet little treasure. she is growing so fast and has 5 teeth with a sixth on its way. she can walk but still prefers crawling unless mommy or daddy are right in front of her. she gives hugs and kisses and she has started talking. this morning as i got her dressed i could have sworn she was trying to sing "baby beluga" with me. thank you God for our precious gift: corinne. she melts my heart!

cookie monster

as a treat i made snickerdoodles last week. when ella woke up fom her nap i gave her a few cookies and a cup of milk. she made the mistake of leaving her cookies on the table...isn't that more than enough explanation for this picture?

green thumb

if you've been to my house you know i don't have a green thumb. but i decided that it would be fun for ella and me to plant an herb garden. so, we picked up all the stuff and while corinne took a nap, ella and i planted the seeds. she was interested in planting a few and then just wanted to play in the dirt. i couldn't believe how quickly they sprouted! we've got sprouts in all the little "pots". very cool.

this is ella playing with rocks in the yard after "gardening" with me. she did enjoy herself.

cool playground

they had a really cool play area in the aquarium. ella had a ball. she really loved these little spring cars or whatever you call them.


heres ella sportin' a crab shell.

this is just one of the many amazing tanks right next to the playground. look at the colors on those fish!!

more monterey

my little cutie! she just loved the fish!!!!

these tiny gold colored fish were pretty cute.



i think we all were thinking this, it just reads better on a kid's face!

monterey aquarium part 2

this is just a cute picture of ted and corinne having fun at lunch. who doesn't love riding on daddy's shoulders?! you can see everything from up there!

after lunch we sat on the deck for a few minutes enjoying the fresh sea air.

the girls had fun tickling each other and "bonking" heads.

then we headed over the to "secret lives of seahorses" exhibit-awesome! how many seahorses can you find in this photo?

monterey bay aquarium

after staying at santa cruz sunday night, we drove down to monterey on monday. the girls absolutely loved looking at all the fish! monterey really does have some impressive exhibits!

this large tank housed many schools of fish, tuna and several different types of sharks including a baby white shark.

corinne wanted to get as close as possible to the fish. she kept getting upset that she couldn't get in the tankss and go swimming too.

ella having some lunchtime entertainment!...more photos to come...

santa cruz

so, sunday after church we were sitting down to lunch (or breakfast since that's what we ate). ted says, "i was thinking we could go down to santa cruz." i say, "ok, when would you like to go?" "after lunch". wow! an hour later we were packed and all in the car.

we made a reservation at a hotel while en route and got there around santa cruz. we did hit a bit of traffic south of san francisco.

the girls did so well during the drive and during dinner. their was a woman sitting at a table across from ours who kept both girls entertained! thank you jessica!!

we made it back to our hotel room around 9pm and i ended up falling asleep before the girls- yawn! it was a good night sleep that i was not expecting!

all by myself

in order to have sanity during the day i try to get the girls down for their naps at the same time. in order to accomplish this i have to put ella down and once she is asleep corinne goes down. so, typically this means that corinne gets playtime by herself while ella is falling asleep. she has realized the benefits of having mommy and ALL the toys to herself. look how happy she is in the top picture sitting at the table in the playhouse. of course, ella's bookbag is open and the teaset is there, too.

she climbed in the tv cabinet just the other day. she was playing with a "veggie tales" dvd box. it didn't last long, i mean, look at all those wires! not the safest place to play!

sick day

the girls really weren't feeling well, so i let them cuddle under blankies and watch "the tigger movie". corinne didn't watch much of it, she wandered off to play with some toys a few minutes after the photo, but they were cute together while it lasted.