Brody’s hair is starting to grow so fast! I guess it’s been almost 2 months since his last trim, but he’s already ready again. Here are some cute photos from his last haircut on the porch.

He’s a modern kid alright.

Hallee usually takes a shower with me, but sometimes she gets in the tub. It’s a bit chaotic when all three are in there, but not too bad when there’s just 2.

Buns!!

As for Gigi…

We started doing some reading lessons together! When she doesn’t get frustrated, she does fabulous. We’ve done I think 12 out of 100, so still a ways to go.

SuperB owl Party!

We had a really fun party for the big game with David’s parents and our Community Group friends. We are really loving getting to know our group.

We had tons of good food!

Lots of kids = lots of chaotic fun!! (Thank you, Lord, for our playroom!)

Mandy & Ben

Sarah & Rob

David and Jeff watching the game.

Hallee teething on my beer bottle.

Getting tired.

Bedtime!

A bit more…

Gigi did a fun craft that I blogged about on Simple Organic.

I also did a 10 on 10 for February on Gidget Goes Home.

More January Photos Here

More Early February Photos Here

More February to come!

After clearing our iPhones, I found a few more October photos to share.

David got to go to Brent (his boss) & Livy’s wedding. Unfortunately I missed out because Gigi was sick!

Brent showing off his custom cufflinks.

Brent made this really cool cake stand, and then friends brought cakes.

David, Gigi & Dan met our friend Ryan and his daughter for a TCU/SDSU football game.

Gigi & Madelyn were stoked to meet the cheerleaders!

We’ve become honorary TCU fans thanks to our friends (who are alumni).

Go Frogs! (Here’s SuperFrog!)

Stephanie set the girls up with wigs and tattoos!

Gigi and Daddy headed over the pumpkin patch one day to celebrate our old neighbor Tiago’s 4th birthday.

Tiago, Sofia & Gigi

Halloweenie

We love heading up to Alex and Angelina’s for their annual Halloweenie party which means pumpkin carving and chilli dogs.

My brother made a really cool video of the night, too.

Brody trying to get in on the girls’ pretend play.

My friend Amber and me on a walk in Cardiff.

Gigi and I made a wreath…

And it’s now hanging on our front porch!

We were blessed with lots of veggies this year (from our CSA and a farmer friend) so I made ratatouille like five times this summer.

This particular version was modeled after the dish in the movie Ratatouille.

My handsome little man got another haircut.

Hallee started showing off her huge smile.

At the end of the month we finished up our Women’s Summer Discipleship, which was a small group that I led that met all summer. Four of the five women had babies early in the summer!

It’s going to be so fun watching these four girlies grow up together.
From L: Hannah (born 6/18), Lia (7/7), Harper (6/15), and Hallee (6/7)

These are all the kids (from five families). (missing one- wonder where Bella is?)

Such a great time of growing and getting to know each other- for kids and moms alike!

That’s all! To view the whole August album, click here.

We had so much fun when the Dears came to town. We miss them dearly (and yes, I’ll keep on using that pun forever probably) and were so grateful to catch up and have our kids play together for the weekend.

For those of you who don’t know, Beth was one of my first friends at Cal Poly. We lived in the same dorm, were roommates the following year, and then she up and got married to David Dear, and finished school at Sac State.

Fast forward, and we both ended up in Orange County for a few years. We hung out at least weekly probably until we moved to Colorado. Then just after we moved back to California, the Dears moved to Iowa. We have so many fun memories, including lots of traveling, baseball, game nights, and inside jokes with the Dears from those years in Orange County and I love that now our kids are going to grow up as sweet friends who we will hopefully get to see at least yearly.

Their 2 kids are each 6 months younger than our first 2 kids (sorry Hallee!), which is so fun. Gigi loves Kaitlyn and refers to her and Owen as her cousins (probably because most of her real cousins also live far away).

We stayed up late chatting like the old days and had a really fun day at the zoo, too.

The Girls

This did not, in fact, last all night (Gigi couldn’t quit chatting!). Maybe next year!

I made them matching skirts.

Dads Are Awesome

The Davids.

A few more fun ones…

All the kiddos.

{Photo by Gigi}

The boys didn’t interact a whole lot yet, but I’m sure they will next time!

Dears, we love you guys!! Can’t wait to come visit you in Iowa one of these days.

View the whole photo album here.

We started our celebrating on the 3rd with a little family outing to the Wild Animal Park. Gigi had the great idea to go there with a picnic dinner, so that is what we did!

We arrived around 5pm, when many people were leaving and when the weather was perfect (it gets really hot out there during the day), and stayed till closing at 7pm.

Just enough time for dinner, the playground, a few animals and a carousel ride… oh, and some African music, too.

Then we headed to my parents’ house where we spent the night (and Hallee slept great!) and enjoyed a sunny 4th of July as well.

We swam, ate and hung out with friends and family before heading over to our “secret spot” to watch the San Marcos fireworks. Well, it used to be a secret spot, now lots of other people go there, too.

View the album here.

Before Thanksgiving, David was reading a book to Gigi where a family was making preparations for the holiday in their kitchen, when Gigi asked, “Are they in their motorhome?”

I love that Gigi totally associates this holiday with our annual beach camping trip! It’s always stressful on May 1st to try to book those campsites, but amazingly we got what we needed (although not next to each other, not too far apart) for the crew to enjoy a fun a week at San Elijo State Beach.

We had a chilly week- probably the coldest we’ve ever had, but there were a few warm moments in the sun as well. We powered through, sleeping in our tent with lots of layers and only giving up and taking our pillows into the motorhome on two of the nights.

The kids did great. Brody was easy as (pumpkin) pie and napped great, and chowed on mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving day. David loved how Gigi seems to be finally at an age where she can really enjoy camping in his sense of the word, that is lots of playing and bike-riding. She also seemed to be much easier going to sleep in the tent than she used to be (maybe she was just worn out from all that bike-riding!).

Our Thanksgiving dinner was a delicious pot-luck of family recipes, family and friends, all with the backdrop of the sun dropping into the Pacific {happy sigh}.

Add to that donuts & coffee from across the street, knitting, reading, good food, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, friendly visitors and a smoking volcano on the beach, and you’ve got a pretty perfect week of camping!

You can view the whole album here.

We had a very full October!

One of the highlights was getting to see more of the out-of-town Bennett family, this time, as David’s brother’s family came down from Washington for Craig’s induction into the Chapman University Athletic Hall of Fame. Go Craig! (Above we are all standing by the plaque with his name on it).

It was so fun to see Gigi and Riley playing together. They are only a month apart in age but do not get to see each other very often. You can definitely tell these two are cousins!

Can you tell how much Brody liked his first football game? He actually got to go to two this month, as we hit up my high school’s homecoming game, too, with a few friends. It was actually SMHS’ 50th anniversary celebration, too, so it was an extra special night to go.

Sarah and I were totally sporting our letterman jackets- probably wearing them for the first time in 11 years or so. Kelsi and I didn’t actually go to HS together since she’s four years younger than me, so we had fun “reliving the high school memories we never had together”- heehee. We had fun critiquing the cheerleaders together.

There are a lot more fun photos from October, but for now, I’ll leave you with this awesome one of my two 80s babies, all dressed up for our friend Russell’s surprise party.

Here are the rest of the photos!

We had a great time in Julian over Labor Day weekend, camping with my parents and our family friends, the Eccles. David’s parents joined us for the day on Saturday, too. We enjoyed the warm weather but swimming, hiking, eating, fishing, mini golf, playing Sequence and relaxing.

The place we stayed at, KQ Ranch, reminds of something out of a movie with all the activities they had lined up for the holiday weekend. The kiddos did great sleeping in the tent, but we also enjoyed the comforts of an air-conditioned motorhome.

And of course, no trip to Julian is complete without apple pie (and ice cream!)

When we got back, Alex, Angelina & Micah drove down and we had a Labor Day BBQ to extend the weekend fun a bit more.

Here are a few favorite photos…

There are more here in the album.

Here’s a quick look at August. We finally got some warm weather and the month just seemed to fly by!

Look how cute these two are!

We put up the crib so Gigi could start getting used to it…

We met baby Simon Frey!

We had our annual pool party with little friends.

Brody tried rice cereal (he’s starting to like it more and more).

Too cute for words, this guy!

We had a BBQ with David’s company,

where we watched a beautiful sunset.

We played with cousins…

and had a family BBQ at Granny & Granpa’s house…

Aunt Jann

Granny & Brody

You can view all the photos here!

We had a great fourth of July this year, taking part in the Rancho Santa Fe parade, since my dad had the honor of being the Grand Marshall.

It was a fun small-town event, although on a bit different scale than other small towns, because this was of course in one of the richest communities in the world {small exaggeration}.

In this small town, the parade consisted of Ferraris and Lamborginis and fancy vintage tractors.

We had a lot of fun!

At first Gigi was a little nervous about riding in such a loud car (Lamborgini), but she warmed up to it. She loved all the American flags. Last week she even asked the librarian for a couple of books about American Flags.

Brody and Micah both looked adorable although those lazy bums slept right through most of the festivities, heehee.

After the parade, we had ice cream and took a little walking tour of The Inn, a beautiful little resort in downtown RSF.

Then we headed back to my parents’ for a BBQ with family and friends, and finished off the night with a great view of the La Costa Resort & Spa’s fireworks show from our friends’ back patio.

Happy Birthday, America!

Here are all my photos, and my brother has some great ones too.