Kiana-14 months!

Here's some recent pictures of Kiana! She's now 14 months old, but seems WAY older! She loves to play around, and pretend she's one of the big kids! She likes to lean into you, get right in your face, and whisper like she's saying something really important! She also sticks her cheek out to get kisses, but rarely gives them! She's so funny!

Ye Old Country Fair '09

Yesterday was the BHS Country Fair! It was a fun day! We enjoyed smoothies, pizza, and baked treats from the bakery booth! The kids did the tug-of-war, 3-legged race, and egg race, played at the game booths, and rode all of the rides! I came out of the book tent with two shopping bags full of books, and Kiana enjoyed walking around and checking out the petting zoo! We all had a great day!!!

Variety Show '09

Jalen was in the Dad's Club Variety Show at his school with his friend Ruby! They did a dance as the Penguins from Madagascar 2, to I Like To Move It - by Will.I.Am! They were so cute! Here's a video of the dress rehearsal when they were still learning the routine. Their actual performance was awesome, and so high energy the audience started clapping along, they brought the house down! Here are a few pics of the show too!

Kiana's 1st Birthday!

I can't believe the baby is already ONE! I've never seen a year fly by so quickly! Kiana is such a little sweetie, so animated, opinionated, playful, and curious! She has 5 teeth, and she's walking on her own now. She says, "Bye", "Hi", and "More". She likes to eat, play with her toys, follow her brother and sister around, explore anything and everything, and she LOVES to be chased! It's her favorite game!

For her first birthday we had a baby playdate with some of her little friends from our playgroup, we had a birthday dinner at Yamato, and baby's first cake at home! Here's are some pictures...Enjoy!

Ice Cream Cake...Yum!

Great News!

We received wonderful news! Maleia has been accepted to Berkeley Hall School for the following year! Congratulations Munchkin! Now Maleia and Jalen will be at the same school next year!!!

California Science Center

Ok, so I'm a little behind on our blog but I'll work on some retroactive posts to catch up!

The kids are both on Spring Break this week! We've been busy relaxing, jumping on the trampoline, playing Scattergories, riding bikes, watching movies, and yesterday we spent the day at the California Science Center. It's such an awesome museum, and everything is hands-on so the kids loved it!

Flying the Simulator

Maleia reached the top!

The beautiful rose garden.

High Wire Bike - 3-Stories High!

Our Road Trip to Sedona!

Jason really wanted to take a road trip this Christmas, so he did some research online and discovered that Sedona, Arizona was not only seven hours away, but was rated one of the most beautiful places to visit in the west! The kids and I weren't sold on the idea at first. The kids really wanted to see the snow this winter, and I wasn't sure the long drive was going to go smoothly with 3 kids! But not only was the drive absolutely beautiful, the kids were amazingly well-behaved, and there was snow! We only stopped twice along the way and everyone, including the baby, enjoyed the drive!

(Stay awake Jason! :)

We stopped about 3 hours away from Sedona at The Cracker Barrel and had some down-home Southern cookin'! It was so yummy we had to stop there on way home as well! We also stopped in a little town outside of Flagstaff called Williams and let the kids play in the fresh powder! It was only 16 degrees outside, so that only lasted five minutes, but at least they got their first taste of snow!

Sedona itself is unbelievable! The red rocks surround you, the air is so crisp and clean, and there is so much to do and see that our week there flew by! We walked along the main town and visited the local shops, and restaurants. We drove around the area and toured The Chapel of the Holy Cross built into the side of a mountain, hiked through the Native American ruins at Montezuma's Well and Montezuma's Castle.

And we visited Out of Africa - a wildlife reserve where we viewed handlers playing inside of the tiger cages! We watched them feed the large predators whole turkeys, and huge slabs of meat. The hyenas completely freaked us out! (They laugh when they are fed in this crazy, almost man-like chuckle over and over again!) The best part was the safari ride in a large school bus without windows! The kids fed giraffes, and camels who stuck their heads inside the bus!

It was unlike any place we've ever been! The trip was the best we've taken as a family! It's a vacation we will always remember, and we'll definitely be going back! I ended up taking nearly 600 pictures in Sedona so I'll put just a few of my favorites in a slideshow below!