A New Start

So 2014 really got away from me when it came to blogging so I decided not to worry about catching up and just move on to 2015. (Which is pretty sad since it is almost October).  I do print out our blog pictures so I just put them into the book and our 2 readers will just have to wonder about what we did for the rest of the year.

In February Taylor finally turned 6.  Taylor is always anticipating the next birthday the day after her birthday.  She just can't wait to grow up (which we all know is highly overrated).  I really don't love planning birthday parties but it was her turn to have one with friends so we did it.  My girlie girl wanted a princess party and any excuse to wear her Elsa Halloween costume again (yep, we had Elsa and Anna and a ninja for Halloween even though I didn't blog about it last year).  So she invited several sweet girls from church and the neighborhood and we had a fun time playing princess games, girlie crafts, eating delicious snacks, and just being fancy.  Girl parties are so much easier than boy parties!  And it helps when we have so many sweet friends around.

 I love her pictures with all of her adorable friends.  You can tell how happy she was in each of them.  She is so easy to please.

Ethan's Baptism and Birthday

Ethan decided that he wanted to be baptized and he wanted it to take place in Utah since his birthday is over Christmas and more of the family could be there.  We are so lucky to be within driving distance of family again and lucky that my parents and sister were willing to come out and visit us as well.  It was such a special time as Ethan's grandmothers taught him about baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost and his dad performed the baptism.  His grandfathers served as witnesses and help confer upon him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  Ethan has some pretty amazing people there to support him and love him and we are so proud of him for making the decision to follow Jesus' example and be baptized.

 

 

 

 

The Fastest Trip to Utah

Back in October we had the chance to head to Utah for our niece's baptism and we had a blast visiting with ALL of Abe's immediate family.  It was such a whirlwind trip that I didn't take nearly enough pictures but thanks to Abe's parents we did have some professional pictures taken with everyone that we can treasure for a long time.

 We had almost forgotten what Fall looked like after our time in Texas and Arizona.  It sure was a lovely reminder, although when we had to take a bathroom break on the way back and it was snowing we decided we weren't quite ready for that cold of weather yet.

We can't wait until the next Fish reunion. Hopefully we won't have to wait quite so many years for it to happen again!

Has it already been 18 months?

The 18-month milestone is big in our house since it means that Brooklyn is finally old enough to go into the nursery at church.  I think it is even more highly anticipated than the 1st birthday at our house.  I can't believe how much Brooklyn has changed in the last 6 months so it is a great time for me to catch up on what she is doing.

Brooklyn is starting to realize that she can make us all laugh with her choice of words.  She is getting a little bit bigger vocabulary but it is totally random.  Her favorite words are "taco" and "attitude" right now.  Ethan was getting a lecture on having a bad attitude and Miss Helpful decided to chime in by saying "attitude" over and over again like she was taunting him.  If you ask her if she has an attitude she will smile and nod her head yes.  And she is usually right.  She is full of sass and attitude, just like her siblings.  If you ever ask her what she wants to eat she will always say "tacos".  She can even identify a few places in town that sell tacos and point them out to me as we drive.  She still doesn't say Ethan or Taylor but she can say: mom, bye bye, socks, shoes, up, cracker, chip, ball, dog, no, dad, more, cheese, book, waffle...and a few more.  I need to get a video of the way she says "no". It is pretty darn cute.  She holds the "o" for a really long time and pushes her lips out.  She will probably out

 grow it so I need a reminder.

She loves to scrunch up her face for pictures when she smiles and although it makes for some terrible pictures I love it because it is usually when she is the happiest. 

She loves to dance and loves any type of music.  She constantly begs for "Elsa" while shaking her shoulders, which means she wants to dance to the Frozen soundtrack.  She has learned that it is more fun to dance with someone and hold their hands.  But she is just as willing to shake it in her carseat if she hears a song she likes.  She is still obsessed with books and would let you read to her for hours.   Luckily I have a lot of good readers in the house so no one person goes crazy, except when they are all gone during the day and I have to read the same books over and over again because that's what she wants to hear. She always asks for books to look at in the car so I have to have a good supply ready to hand back while I drive.

She is a daredevil when she tries to keep up with the big kids and loves to stand in the 3-wheeled scooter and rock herself down the drive with its slight slope and she screams if anyone tries to touch her.  She figured out how to climb out of her bed using stuffed animals for boost, which I say as I found her laying on the railing of her bed. But she is terrified of anyone in a mast (which Ethan loves to torture her with), large stuffed animals, Cabbage Patch dolls, and many other toys at the store that are even a little creepy.  She doesn't cry but just says "no" in the saddest little voice to let us know she is freaked out.  She loves to play with older kids but she is a terrible sharer when kids her age try to get near what she has.

She loves being with her big sister and reading together.

I love her sweet hugs and kisses and the little firecracker that she is!

Abe's Loving His Job

After way too many years I think Abe would say that he is back in his element.  He is back in the Army where he gets to do Army things.  I may not understand it but I sure know that it makes him happy.  And we love having him home every weekend and seeing him most nights. 

There are definitely some perks to being the only doctor at the clinic, like a sweet parking spot. 

And not every doctor gets paid to play around in the wind tunnel during the week.  I think any other job Abe ever takes won't quite compare.

 Abe finally got back in the air for his first freefall jump in a very long time.  I don't think I am ready for him to be jumping again but he sure does love it.  Now if Abe could just stop seeing clinic patients and get an ER out here to work in then it would probably be the perfect job.  But we will take what we can get.

San Diego Trip

In October we took our first trip to San Diego.  I totally understand why people love this city.  The weather was amazing and such a contrast from the 100+ degree heat of Yuma.  We took the dog with us and went to a dog beach and had a blast.  Zoey was a little bit of a handful with some many other dogs around and all her puppy excitement so we never got the camera out at the beach.  But Coronado Island is beautiful.  After a day at the beach I tried to convince the family to take some pictures near Balboa Park but I didn't have the most cooperative subjects at the end of a long day.

Brooklyn had no nap and was totally slap happy so she wouldn't stay still to save her life.

This was pretty much all she did as she ran around in the soft grass.  I think she was just as excited as I was to see green grass and trees.

These kids were pretty darn patient with me under the circumstances so I will just be happy to have a few pictures of their adorable faces.