Back In The Game

So, after an entire year we are back!!! I know all of our readers (ahem...mom I'm talking to you here) are going to be so excited! But before you get too excited I have a confession...I'm obsessed with dates when it comes to journaling. Or at least having things in the right order in which they happened. So, I am going to be doing some major catch up. We're talking like 18 or so months. I hope you can stick with me through this.....Holy Moley this is a large commitment! So, get ready for lot's of posts! Before we begin does anybody know (help me mom?!?!?!) how to change the date on your posts so they seem to be posted when they happened??? Does that even make sense? In order to satisfy your craving for Carpfam pictures I present to you our girls in all of their adorable glory. Thanks to our favorite, most darling photographer and my bestie Ashley Henry. If you like this you should see what else she can do on her photography blog at ashleyhenryphotography.blogspot.com.

Hopefully this will hold you over while I work on like a bajillion million posts, all because I love you...mom.

Spring Break Part Three

We took the girls to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and we all had a blast! It was a little crowded being Spring Break and all, so we tried to hurry our way through a little bit. The girls had fun putting their hands in the water trying to touch some of the little sea creatures.

Checking out the fishies.

Little Olivia sitting in the clam/oyster thing. I think she was a little scared about the whole thing.

After fighting the crowds in the aquarium we went walking around the little strip nearby. It was really cute. I think our favorite part was the keyboard player. He was seriously rocking out and loving himself through every second of it.

Afterwards we went over to the Dennis the Menace park and let the girls run around for a little bit. It is a darling park. You can tell it had been re-done but they still kept some of the old school things like cement slides, super tall metal slides and jungley gym things.


These poor girls, their mother wants pictures of everything!!!

We drove around Monterey a little bit, and it is a gorgeous place. Someday Matt and I would love to come back and stay for a weekend.

After all of our sight seeing and before the hunger grumps really started to settle in we got some dinner. We took the girls to a lounge/restaurant place called Lalapalooza -I think that's how you spell it. The food was incredible. Maddie and Olivia shared a chicken pasta deliciousness and I could have licked their plate clean! It was really yum!!

Sweet Baby Kate

Our sweet baby Kate joined our family on Thursday, January 22 at 12:50 p.m. She weighed in at 8lbs 7oz. was 21 inches long and couldn't be more perfect. We have loved every second with her. Maddie and Olivia are thrilled with their new baby sister and smother her with all kinds of love as often as they possibly can! A few precious moments with the girls have included Maddie holding tightly to Kate's and Olivia's hands and saying "best friends today, tomorrow and always." Another gem, when we arrived home from the hospital Maddie was telling me about how great it all was and she said "I was your first baby, and Olivia was next and Kate was last...well not last because we need to have a boy baby too. How about two boy babies, and three girl babies?" I said "we'll see...what if we were just a family of all girls?" Maddie's quick response was "that would be cute!" What a doll. Olivia loves to sing to Kate whenever she can and wakes up every morning runs into our room whispering "I want to give her kisses." Another great Olivia moment was when Kate was sleeping in her little cradle while I was folding laundry and it was too quiet, I quickly came to check on Kate and Olivia had climbed into the cradle and was sitting next to her -just hanging out! Olivia loves that cradle and has already tried to take a nap in it herself! We are loving being home and together with our family and our new baby Kate. We feel so blessed to have this little piece of Heaven in our home.

Spring Break Part Two

For our first big adventure during the break we went down to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. We left the city having checked the forecast and thought that long sleeves would probably keep us comfy but not hot...we were wrong. It was really warm, and we felt kind of silly walking around with all of the tourists in their shorts and short sleeves. We survived the warm weather though and had a lot of fun playing. Once we bought ourselves some tickets to ride, we were on our way.

This was one of the rides the girls could go on all by themselves. I love how as parents we are so "proud" as we watch our kids go around in a circle on these carnival-ish rides! I have to laugh at myself everytime I do this.

Here's Maddie enjoying another ride.

We were waiting in line to go on the boats and little did we know what we had in store for us...a meltdown of major proportions.

Are we having fun yet???

After a few fun filled hours we got some lunch and decided to head home. For our drive back we decided to drive along the coast, and it was so worth it. It was beautiful. There were lots of little places to stop and look out at the ocean, cute little towns, and lighthouses all along the way. We decided to stop and check a few out.

Matt and Maddie checking out the view.

Another great family shot of all of us -haha.

Spring Break Part One

For Matt's last Spring Break as a student EVER we decided to stay in San Francisco and do a couple of touristy things. To kick off our fun week we went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. I wish we could still go there all the time, so do Maddie and Olivia. We have so many fun memories of that place. I think this is one of the only times Matt had ever been there so the girls had fun showing him around.

Hard at work with the moon sand, the girls love this stuff. It's really tempting to buy because it keeps them so busy, but then I imagine the clean up...it would be bad.
Olivia being her happy little self playing with the blocks.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! We had so much fun putting together this little scavenger hunt for the girls, that led them all around our little apartment and then finally to their Easter baskets. This is Maddie with the first clue.

I love the intensity on her face as Matt is reading to her, it's so cute.

Another clue, and they're on their way.

The last clue...and a view of our scary apartment hallway.

Easter baskets at last!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that Maddie loves peeps, most kids do. But, she talks about them all year long. She is such a treat lover, wonder where she got that from...

Little Olivia checking out her basket.

Speaking of treat lovers look at those jelly bean filled cheeks! I love it!

Coloring Easter Eggs

After our Ward Easter egg hunt we decided to dye some eggs. This was the first time we had ever colored Easter eggs as a family so Matt and I were pretty excited! The girls seemed to enjoy it too. These are just a few pictures from the day. I think Olivia was a little more concerned about what she was holding rather than coloring the egg.Maddie hard at work.

Serious concentration face! We used a kit from Target that had all of the Princesses and glitter and stickers -it was perfect!
Pretty little eggs all in a row.

I love Maddie's excited face in this picture. Once we colored all of the eggs Maddie wanted to wrap them in the little Princess stands, she had to make sure each egg matched the Princess! I love my girl.