New year's day beach day

How lucky are we? Beach day on January 1st... amazing. We headed to Coronado and it was picture perfect. The guys loved building sand castles. 

We have loved having Pete home more during the holidays. What a treat.

Chuck E. Cheese

Parker has been potty trained since last February. He's done a really great job with hardly any accidents... except for one major issue... he would never poop on the potty (TMI???). Anyway, it's been a major stressor here. We've tried incentives, sticker charts, ignoring the issue, etc.... Nothing has worked. Until a few weeks ago, Parker suddenly told us he was done pooping in diapers. Pete had really been encouraging and empowering him lately and it finally worked. So after a very long wait... he did it. And after doing it 10 days in a row, he earned a visit to Chuck E. Cheese. And this kid was in heaven!

Giggling with Dad

These guys make me happy.

Love starting a new year and thinking about where we've been and the new things that we'll be able to accomplish this year. So much to be grateful for.

Legoland

It was a sunny, pleasant day at Legoland. Unfortunately, Aussie was too short for all the rides the kids wanted to do, so he was left pretending:)

 Cousin lexey... who he gave the flu to... SOOOOO sorry Lex!

 San Diego snow.

This year Parker was old enough to drive his own car. He is so used to pedaling a bike, we didn't think to prep him on how to drive the car... the gas pedal was a whole new concept and it didn't go so well. 

While we were gone...

While we were gone, we thankfully received lots of picture updates on the boys. They looked older and more mature in every picture!

Washington DC Wedding

So we went to DC for Pete's brother's wedding. The funny thing is... we didn't actually make it to the wedding. We flew all day Thursday, arrived just in time for the rehearsal dinner at a great Indian food place. We ate our fill, and then got hit with the stomach flu. The next day, we were in no shape to show our faces at a formal affair. So sad. So the documentation of the wedding won't be in this post, but we did have fun the rest of the weekend.

Off we go... no children on your lap while your fly makes it a MUCH more enjoyable experience.

 The calm before the storm...

 Scott's son Lance swimming at the hotel pool.

 After we had a recovered, we went to Potbelly's for lunch. Ahhh, Ann Arbor memories!

 The crew the day after the wedding.

 We drove down to Charlottesville on Saturday to see Scott's new house. It's pretty amazing and it offers all the outdoorsy space he could ever want. So happy how life has come together for him.

 Backyard view. Not bad.

 He has recently become a falconer and has his own hawk named Fox. Fox actually brought the rings in during the wedding ceremony. Sorry to have missed that.

 Us and the happy couple. The new Mr. and Mrs. Dahlquist! He found a shorty like me:)

 Then the bonus of the trip was getting to see our best friends from law school, the Burtons. We got to meet their new baby James and have a great dinner with them. We sure miss living nearby, but glad weddings can bring us together every year:)

 We couldn't wait to get home to see our boys. We had picked out some treats for them. Austin got Mickey Mouse slippers, and Parker got this awesome pilot shirt. He is obsessed with the patches. Austin was ready for a nap in this pic... 

Fun to have time away, but coming home and being a whole family again is what it's all about!

Another shout out to my awesome parents who took care of the boys! Love you!

Christmas House

There's a very generous couple in our area that decorates their house and lot for Christmas every year. They invite the whole world to behold their festiveness:) It's pretty amazing. You walk through their house to behold themed decor, you can sit on Santa's lap (still not happening with my boys), pick a toy to take home, have hot chocolate... the works. Loved that Pete was able to join us.