Cienna is 23 Months!

We started the month off with a quiet Thanksgiving dinner with just the 3 of us.  Cherie and Cienna made a wonderful dinner and pumpkin pie.

The next weekend we were glad to see lots of our family when we flew up to the bay area for Uncle RJ and Auntie Megan's baby shower.  We got to stay with them at their beautiful new home.  It was great to be able to spend some time with them and help get ready for, and enjoy a couple parties.  Our soon to be new niece is going to be lucky to be surrounded with so much love.

We were also invited to a Christmas party at the Geithman's with homemade everything to eat and great company including many kiddo's to keep us all entertained!

Cienna had her first trip to the snow for a day with less than ideal weather but we all had fun anyway!  We met Uncle Joe at the mountain for a wet and cold day of Boarding/Skiing and play time in the lodge.

After a smooth drive to Northern California we have just began our week vacation with family and friends and look forward to the rest with details and pictures for next month!

Click the picture below to see the rest of the pictures from last month!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/L136Y8jEWAWUesem7 

Cienna is 22 Months!

We started the 22nd month with a quick trip down to San Diego to meet up with some good friends and help celebrate their new baby girl to be.  Little Whalen should be coming sometime around Christmas day!  The next week we spent preparing for Halloween, with costume making and pumpkin carving.  For Halloween, Uncle Joe came up and we all went down to our old stomp'n ground on 2nd street where we got to trick-or-treet at all the shops and check out lots of costumes!  Even the dogs were in costumes for the annual doggie costume parade.  Later that night we came home in time to visit the neighbors and hand out candy to all the other trick-or-treeters.

Towards the end of the month Daddy went to help Uncle B finally move into a fantastic place of his very own.  Congratulations Uncle B!  We also had a very nice visit with Grandad Rolland who flew down to see us for the holiday's.

Click on the album below to check out the pictures of the month!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vVpMTK3CDYEZcPUx5

Cienna is 21 Months!

Another action packed month!  Cienna has enjoyed riding her "hog" that Grammy and Grandpa sent.  Can't quite reach the pettles, but man can she scoot along using her feet!  We helped celebrate Stephanie's birthday at their house complete with bouncy for the kids.  It's amazing how parenthood has changed our adult birthday parties.

Nana and Poppa came to visit and we started the weekend off with a "fry" party.  They brought their deep fat fryer down and we pretty much fryed everything that wasn't screwed down.  Veggies, fish, shrimp, onions, sweet potatoes, to name a few.  The next weekend we all packed up the bus and headed down to San Diego and stayed at the Los Coches RV resort that Shannon's parents own.  We stayed in the windmill house while the folks stayed in the bus just across the path.  What a beautiful place.  George and Shannon made their world famous chile rellenos and enchiladas.  We played horseshoes and picked up some burgers from "Hodads" that poppa was dying to try ever since he heard about it on the Food Network.  The next weekend we layed low, carved some pumpkins and tried to stay healthy.

Click on the album below.  Enjoy the photos!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/D4gvDn8U54eyDNEn8

Cienna is 20 Months!

It seemed like this month was full of parties. Starting with a fantastic flight right into Santa Rosa for a visit with family and friends, to a Laua party at the Ferrario's, then a housewarming party with the Chavez's, and finally off to Carlsbad beach for camping.

While up north, we enjoyed visiting with Grammy, Grandpa, Nana, Poppa, The Paynes and celebrating Linda Fountaine's 60th birthday party complete with a "60's" theme. We also found time to hang out with all of Cherie's friends and family.

We celebrated Jeff's 40th birthday party Laua style complete with smoked pig and Hula dancers.

Eric and Kristin, soccer buddies of ours, bought a new house and threw a housewarming party where we had a great time swimming, drinking, and watching soccer.

We ended the month with a trip to Carlsbad State beach for a camping trip with the Bakx family, Netter family, and Uncle Joe. There we enjoyed swimming, playing in the sand, boogie boarding, surfing, washers, and playing with all the kids.

We also had some visitors stop by the house this month. The Dunbars took a night out of there busy Disneyland adventures to come over for dinner and let the kids play. The Ordonez's for an impromtu night of fun. Also, Cherie enjoyed watching Kai for a day while his mommy and daddy were away.

Enjoy the photos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rX7kp19L8zpzQeyF8

Cienna is 19 Months

Good Times at home, a great road tripping family vacation, and more party time filled up the last month! We are lucky to keep such good contact with our close friends with fun-filled play-dates. But our biggest adventure this month was our big family vacation of the summer.

We started our road trip (which Cienna did amazing for) with a stop in Rocklin at the Wagner's where we got to meet Luke and Brady for the first time, spend some more time with Jessica, and help celebrate with Maisie and Bill. Of course seeing Abbey and Shaun was the highlight along with the eggs benedict!

We then headed more north to Collins Lake for four nights of exciting Rydman family time full of lake side camping, swimming, hiking, fishing, and ice cream to go along with our smores pizza! Cienna loved every minute hanging out with Poppa, Nana, Auntie Dana and Uncle Mike, and of course cousins Ashley and Eric. We also got a visit from Auntie Erin, and Cousins Alex and Cameron. We survived the camping trip with no cut's and bruises until the last day when Cienna took a spill (you'll see the cut on her head in the pictures) but she handled like a trooper.

We then headed more north to good ol' Chico. The evening we arrived was spent at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company where we met with Great Auntie Lynn and Uncle Jay, the whole Kyle family, and the Cusick family for a great dinner (you'll see that Cienna had spaghetti) and beer including the famous 16 flavor taster set. We got some more one on one time with Kari, Addi, and Landen the next morning before our next stop in Merced.

Why Merced... you ask. Well it's almost half way, and why not. We found a terrific BBQ restaurant which was also a micro brew and tree house with bull riding and games all in one. The next morning we also found a local zoo and neighborhood park which started the day full of activity to tide us over for the rest of the drive home. (again, wasn't expecting such an easy drive with a 1 1/2 year old).

We got home and all helped unpack. Uncle Joe was in the neighborhood after a big day on an outrigger so he stopped by for a relaxing evening. Then, the next day we headed an hour and a half south/east to Temecula for the Jarmila and Justin's baby shower. We were glad to see them after too long.

The next party was to celebrate Uncle RJ and Brandon's/Chad's birthday. RJ wasn't there but we celebrated never the less with a trip to Santa Monica and InfraRed BBQ'd burgers and dogs.

Also along the journey of last month our motherboard on our home computer finally laid to rest after 8 great years, which is why we may be a couple days late with the blog.

Enjoy the pictures (there are a lot!)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KDxYaL87WA8S7LEB8

Cienna is 1 1/2 Years Old!

Along with many love filled memories of Brodie throughout the last month and every month to come, we started it with celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary which we finally settled on buying a fire pit. We also took Cienna to the beach for the first time! She loved the never ending sand box and had a love hate relationship with the waves. We also went to the Nature Center that weekend which is a fantastic get-a-way only 2 miles from our house which has wilderness hikes and an animal awareness center.

The next celebration came with a party before the bang (fireworks show at the vets stadium) with play time in the pool and a great BBQ at the neighbors! Then we had an incredible visit with Grammy and Grandpa which included a trip to San Diego (staying at Uncle Joe's... more pool time!) and a soccer Tourney for Mommy which she played for 2 teams and won both Leagues, thanks to our routing section!! Both Cienna and Uncle Joe got some guitar lessons from Grammy and Cienna got her first taste of Tapioca pudding followed by a major swing session from Grandpa Kim!

This month included a successful/event full night of fixing/repairing the washing machine and Cienna's first bandaid from a scraped toe! We have also had continued success in the garden with flourishing tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, squash, our first onion, (surprising) artichoke, and upcoming garlic and butternut. I see tomato soup and marinara sauce in the future! We've had some successful Honey Wheat and Pale Ale homebrews, as well as some fantastic pickled eggs happening too!!!!

Enjoy the photos!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yw2sSXnjaPxmRzir7

Cienna is 17 Months

Well we have good news and unfortunately bad news to share this month. The good news is that Cienna is constantly growing and learning. She is picking up almost every word we say. She's even learning her manners saying "Please" and "Thank you." We've visited with friends and have enjoyed bbq's with neighbors. Fresh vegetables from our garden have been great. Nana and Poppa came to visit and we had a wonderful time getting spoiled by them and had a terrific father's day complete with a crab boil.

The tragic news is that we've lost Brodie, our 5 year old yellow lab. We took him into the vet because he was lethargic and wouldn't eat. And for Brodie not to eat, we knew something was up. We first thought it must have been something bad that he had eaten, but the vet took one look at him and knew it wasn't good. They ran every test known to man and even had to do 3 blood transfusions to buy time. His body was rejecting his own blood cells and every time we would give him blood, his PCV count would drop soon after. We had one last resort/hope and it was to do an ultrasound and finally a splenectomy hoping to remove the major organ that the red blood cells filter through, but he didn't make it that far, he passed away after a week in the hospital.

Obviously our family is devastated by this and can't believe such a young, strong dog would have to go through this. They finally diagnosed it at AIHA (Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia) which is a horrible disease they rarely find the cause too. We're lucky to have support from our family and friends to help us through such a difficult time.

Below are some pictures from the last month and a photo album tribute to Brodie a best friend, brother, and protector. We'll miss you!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LTf5u47LUxixNDR59

Tribute to Brodie!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UDeZAmVEPoZuL7rN9

Cienna is 1 1/3 years old!

It's hard to believe it just gets better! She understands almost everything we say and is using more and more of her own words by the minute. Uncle Joe's first work he taught her was thankfully "bubble" which she now loves! She is climbing on everything even at the big kid playgrounds, and loves when Mommy jumps but she does it one leg at a time. Cienna has even began to walk Brodie all by herself with Mommy and/or Daddy close by!

This month we had many playdates. We saw Kai and Kristy a couple of times, and saw Georgia, Shannon, and George, as much as possible since they are unfortunately moving away at the end of this month. We also had so much fun when we got to visit with Auntie Dana for a day!

We celebrated Daddy's Birthday after he had a great weekend at Brewfest we had a small dinner at home and made him a sign! Then Daddy and Cienna made Mommy heart shaped pancakes and had an all day smoking ribs in the backyard, playing games good time for Mothers Day! Mommy and Daddy also went out alone for a few hours after Cienna was in bed to help Celebrate Brett's graduation.

Lots of this month was spent having fun in the sun, playing in the sand, and making the garden grow, in our backyard.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UPLgecH25Mwb3f3X7

Cienna is 1 1/4 years old!

Amazing how fast she learns! She has words, understanding, curiosity, creativity, and dance moves you wouldn't believe. This month was full of outdoor activities since the weather is always great and now with a newly landscaped backyard and a spectacular garden it's hard to stay indoors. Since last month, we've celebrated Mommy's birthday with a fun trip to Uncle Joe's, met some new neighborhood ducks which we chase every night during our family walk, got spoiled for Easter at our neighbors The Snow's, had a whole week at home with Mommy for Spring Break, and had so much fun in the sun with Brodie and Georgia (Shannon too)!

She listens to what Mommy and Daddy say and ask, and is perfecting her first chore of feeding Brodie twice a day! Many times she also perfers books over her favorite toys. Some of the words she has perfected are up, snack, duck...(quack, quack), Daddy, hop, hat, hot. We also recognize songs that she loves to sing such as Twinkle Twinkle, the ABC's, Old McDonald, and Happy Birthday.

We are amazed!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZcVuZ6WZw3dr8MERA

Cienna is 14 Months!

Fantastic times! We've been spoiled this month with a visit from Nana and Poppa. A new Sand box was built just for Cienna and her friends to add to the new landscaping that we are currently creating in the backyard, along with a swing hanging from our peach tree. We have also finally started on our garden behind the garage! The down side of the month was getting blood drawn from Cienna's arm, part of a routine check up, but she and Mommy both handled it like champs. We got to celebrate Brodie's 5th birthday, he's growing up so fast and has been such an outstading brother! We also had some good party times with friends and family for St. Patty's day and back to school for Shannon, even ended the month with a trip to San Diego to help Uncle Joe with some home improvments. We've added some great pictures below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UW9yiArUBtQWS6v96

Ride'em Cowgirl...

My new sand box!

Cienna is 13 Months!

Is it 13 months or 1 year 1 month? Don't know the right child etiquette, but anyway, Cienna is one month older today. Cienna has learned so much this month. How to get off the couch and bed on her own (safely) . Standing up on her own and walking full of confidence.

We attended two - 1 year old birthday parties and had lots of fun playing with all the other kids. We threw a Superbowl party and one of Cienna's friends won the whole pool....(put it towards college Rylee!) We got to share Valentines day cards with the other kids in daycare. We are now over 20lbs and about 30 inches tall and continuing to grow and be absolutely amazing.

Enjoy some photos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UW9yiArUBtQWS6v96

Having Fun with the Rocker!

Standing up on our own!

Fun with Brodie!

Cienna is One!

That's right, the big day has happened, Cienna turned "1" today. We had a very fun party on Sunday with friends and family. Cienna enjoyed her new sports climber and lots of presents and cake made by Mommy and Auntie Meagan.

She continues to walk, unassisted, all over the house and is enjoying the new grass in the backyard. She has also learned to manage the steps to the den so no more "Mommy & Daddy to the rescue." A couple of her favorite things to do is to walk holding your finger and push her toy train around "sideways."

Enjoy the pictures of the last month.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/0MrCSbuDI82S1Wxa2