Friends Forever

I can't even tell you how much I love these pictures of my girls.

 

Not because they're good quality pictures (because they're not). But because of the way they love each other. Some days they fight and Anayah gets annoyed that Samara is taking all her dolls (which are really Samara's dolls to begin with) or Samara gets mad that she can't do all the things that Anayah does or they both just want desperately to do things on their own. But then there are moments like this that I know they love each other and will take care of each other and will eventually be the best of friends.

It really just melts my heart.

11 Months

It's hard to believe that this is the last (monthly) post before my baby is a year old! I keep saying it but it really is true. Time goes by way too quickly...especially after your first child. I don't think I've done an accurate job of documenting how much this little girl has grown but then I go back and look at her monthly posts and it's crazy to see her "grow up" in pictures. It's funny that the last few posts have only been about her monthly stats. It really goes to show that I don't have time to do any sort of projects or crafts or DIYs around here anymore. I'm lucky to sneak in a few minutes of blogging! This girl keeps me BIZ.EE.

It's been a whirlwind for sure but I wouldn't change any of it. We are so blessed to have these two beautiful little girls and I am so thankful for them everyday.

Holiday Happenings

I think the last time I updated was right before Thanksgiving. Now it's past Christmas so here is probably my last post for this year! Nothing too crazy going on over here. Since we last checked in, Samara turned 10 months, Anayah performed in her first Christmas program at preschool, we all had the stomach flu, and the holidays came and went in the blink of an eye! Nothing new going on over here so I'll just show you what we've been up to for the last month or so:

 Christmas program at school:

One last trip to Disneyland before the end of the year. She was beyond excited to see Sofia!! Samara still isn't quite as enamored with the place hehe:

Checking out the lights with her bestie Jack:

 Samara and Bruno tearing up the house:

 
First present "opening" of the season. Daddy did an amazing job putting this thing together the night before! There were soooo many parts!

 Christmas Eve with the whole family:

 Christmas morning...waiting for everyone to wake up so they can open presents:

 Samara's first Christmas:

 Anayah was spoiled blessed again this year with tons to open!

 I love her screams in this video:

Day 3 of opening presents. She may not look too excited about this chair but this was the ONLY picture I could get because she wouldn't keep still from jumping for joy when she saw it! Thank you to great-Grandma S. who surprised her with it. The pictures on the left are the pictures she took with my phone of her dolls sitting in the chair. Haha they had a photo shoot apparently :)

This cracks me up. In Anayah's words: "this is me and this is sissy" Bahahaha!!!

Hoping to post Samara's 10 month deets tomorrow. We'll see if it actually happens. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

8 & 9 Months

These last two months have flown by even faster than before! Since we've gotten back from vacation, I've been busy with weddings and holiday photo sessions, my grandma was here visiting, we got a puppy (!), and the girls are just growing like weeds! I realized I never posted Samara's 8 month pictures so here is 8 & 9 together. She's reached quite a few milestones in the last two months and before you know it she will be ONE!! Geez, time moves too fast! Anyway, here are her 8 month pictures first:

In the last two months she has finally gotten her first tooth! And another one is very close behind. She's also mastered crawling and has taken to pulling herself up and cruising along the furniture. She will also stand by herself for quite some time if you put her there. I'm pretty sure she will be walking within the next few months, probably sooner than A did, and most definitely before her first birthday! She continues to sleep through the night, going down around 6:30 and wakes up between 6:30-7:00 the next morning. Most days she naps at 9, 1 and 3:30 but recently has been dropping her last nap. This girl can eat (just like her sister did) and loves being able to feed herself. We're not sure exactly how much she weighs but around 17lbs is what we're thinking. She's small like A was but definitely longer...she can fit in 6mo pants but they're too short on her. These 9mo pictures are all from my phone...apparently I haven't used my camera on them in a while :/

She's still the happiest baby I've known, always smiling, even when she's cranky. Lately she's been giving us some 'tude which I'm sure she's learning from her sis, but hopefully she stays mellow, because I don't know if I can handle TWO divas! Hahaha. Samara, you continue to be a constant source of joy in our lives. You really do light up a room and make someone happy just by looking at you. I can't imagine what life was like without you. We love you so much, love bug, more than you'll ever know!

About That Time

And so it begins...

 Yep, we're in trouble now!



 In related news, this is what the older one has been up to...

They keep me on my toes for sure!

Our Disneyland Adventure

The last time I remember going to Disneyland was when Brian and I first started dating in 2005. Before that, I honestly don't know. I knew I wanted to take Anayah there eventually because she, like most kids, loves all the Disney shows and is enamored with all things Minnie Mouse or Daisy Duck! I also knew that with the price of tickets these days I wanted to take her while she was still free. Call me cheap but a trip there for just me and Bri is equivalent to a car payment! Add a ticket for her and we'd need to take out a loan hehe. So we kept putting it off and saying we'd save more and take her soon. Well "soon" never came then I was pregnant then had the baby and there just never seemed to be a good time. So when a situation came my way which would allow us to get in free, you better believe I jumped on that! Despite it being a Saturday and a somewhat busy time of the year, we decided to just do it.

Obligatory button:

Meeting as many characters as possible!

Ok, not a character but apparently exciting, nonetheless...

This one slept ALL day...I think I had to wake her to eat which is rare...but she had fun too!

When she wasn't bored.

After a long day and only 5 rides (all at California Adventure, mind you) we headed home...I think I enjoyed California Adventure a lot more than the main park. The Disney Jr. show and Crush the Turtle were awesome and I'm so glad we were able to catch them. I'd love to go back when it's less crowded (is that even possible) and check out Disneyland again though.

One more picture. She didn't meet the "real" Daisy so she made do with the parking structure! Hehe

All in all it was a good day. It was definitely crowded and definitely hot, but it was worth it knowing our little girl was having a great time! Next time though, if there is ever a next time, I wanna go during the winter. On a weekday.


*All these pictures were from our phones so excuse the quality.

Happy Anniversary/Birthday!

This year we combined our April celebrations since they're so close together plus the whole "having a new baby and can't go out for more than a couple hours plus we're too tired anyway" situation.

Our anniversary was on the 5th...5 years this year. Again with the time flying analogy. I know, I know. I need new material. Anyway, Brian ended up having to go back to work that Friday so it was kind of a bittersweet day. I ended up taking my first solo trip with the girls and met up with Mandy and Jack at Chuck E Cheese's. It was actually quite a successful trip as Samara slept the entire time in the carrier so I just had to chase after Anayah. She and Jack kept each other company though so really I just walked around and carried tokens and tickets.

The drive home however was a different story! We stayed longer than I had intended due to said great behavior. The problem with that was it was too close to A's nap time and it was past S's feeding time. That pretty much equaled chaos in the car on the way home. Both of them screaming crying the whole way. I thought I might get lucky and they'd sleep but they had other plans in mind. Rookie mistake. Overall it was a good day, just not how I thought I'd be spending my 5th anniversary :) 

Five days later we "celebrated" my birthday. We didn't do much...just lunch out together as a family. Anayah loved the birthday sundae I got for free and Samara just hung out and was her usual happy self. Perhaps next year will be a bigger celebration since we won't just have had a baby. Or maybe I'll just start planning now for my 40th! Hehe.

*All these pictures are from my phone so don't mind the quality. Carrying a big 'ol camera in addition to all of this is sometimes too much! :)