So this is what having twins would be like

Meet Malia and Gisele. 7 weeks apart and budding best friends. I got to babysit Gigi while the Bradys packed (moving to Utah- SOOOO sad!!!)
I'll tell you this much about having two babies in the same household- you can't get much done! I don't know how parents with multiples do it! Props to you, I am not nearly that awesome to handle it full time!

The girls like to play with a lot of the same stuff. Only difference is Gisele is crawling and moving ALL over the place! Malia is a little more stationary (which makes it a little easier to keep track of her)

They are so much alike

Malia to Gisele: "Do you really have to move to Utah? I hear it's cold and snowy right now." Gisele to Malia: "Don't worry Malia, you'll still be my best friend and I'll be back to visit really soon."
Love these girls, love the Bradys, hate when good friends have to move away:(

4 years Later...

Kirk and I celebrated another anniversary together! Phew, we made it;)
Nah, just kidding. I knew we would. We love each other more every year and although we look run down and exhausted in this picture (pretty standard these days) we are so happy and are glad to report we'll be celebrating these anniversaries for many more years to come!
I love my best friend!

Malia's a rolling machine

So I am kind of frustrated. I was spending like 15 minutes trying to attach a video of Malia rolling, and it didn't work! So now you have to imagine you are watching a video of a really cute Malia rolling all over the place. She doesn't really enjoy her tummy so will roll over instantly when put on her tummy. And then she's get curious and roll onto her tummy again only to remember that she doesn't love her tummy and roll over again. She does this until she gets tired or bored and then needs something else to keep her occupied.

Here are some still shots of her so you know what she was wearing to make the imagining easier;)

Happy 5 months to Malia and Happy 4 years to us!

Malia turned 5 months old yesterday (December 16th). It's hard to believe that she's almost a half a year old! I would really like it if she stopped growing. Here's some of the amazing things Malia is doing now:

• She is rolling! Not a ton, but she does
• She is eating rice cereal and LOVES it. She makes "mmm" sounds the whole time eating
• She is graduating from size 2 diapers soon
• She is wearing 9 month old clothes and has been known to wear some 12 month stuff too!
• Her hair is coming in lighter and growing long
• She giggles and laughs and "talks" so much
• She sometimes gets scared if she wakes up in a new place and doesn't see mom or dad
• She sits up almost all by herself
• She does sit-ups in her carrier now
• She can grab and pick up just about anything
• She may be teething, tons of drool
• She had her first blood drawn to test for allergies- they did a horrible job and I cried
• She laughs at Hobbs and he likes to give her kisses

Kirk had to go out to Chicago for a quick job and so Malia and I had a slumber party in our room while he was gone. I let her nurse as much as she wanted, cuddled and kissed her and we woke up smiling at each other this morning. I love these moments. I don't care that she wakes up in the middle of the night still because it's my favorite time with her. She's always happy, never cries and we just get to be close.
Kirk and I also celebrated our 4 year anniversary on December 16th also! Now that's really weird to think we have been married 4 years. It goes so fast. Everyone says that, but it's true. In keeping with tradition, we have been having cold and rainy days here in San Clemente the last couple of days, just like when we got married. We went out to lunch for our anniversary and will have to celebrate a little more this next week. My darling husband got me flowers and made me the most awesome card with pictures cataloging our fun times together.
I can't wait to celebrate another 50+ years with him and spend all of eternity loving him. He is my best friend. I'm so lucky!

A quick shout out to Kirk

I don't thank him enough, but I'd be lost without this man in my life. Kirk is the BEST husband in the whole world. He is also the best dad in the universe!
Yesterday I had a Holiday Boutique that I hosted here at our house, and he was so helpful and supportive!
He vacuumed, he cleaned, he put up Christmas lights even though he really did not want to, he put all my Scentsy out to sell, and then he took the baby over to a friends house to feed her and take care of her. It was like he was this champion do everything man! And then when he got home he put Malia to bed and helped clean up!
Kirk gives me massages when I've had a rough day, supports me in all the work that I do, and takes such good care of the baby that I don't ever have to worry about her when she's with him.
I'm not sure how i deserve him, but I sure am the luckiest girl in the world!

Santa Barbara with Sami and Dave

We have been on the go lately! Geesh! I think we have traveled more this last month than we have all year!
This last weekend we met up with the Halvorsens in beautiful Santa Barbara to spend some time with them.
We love them so much and wish we could see them all the time!
Our activities included: going to the beach, a few parks, the zoo, downtown, shopping, lounging, and cruising around enjoying each others company.

The men and their girls: Kirk with Malia, David with Kamryn our neice!

This little peanut makes the FUNNIEST faces that crack us up all day long!

Each night after a days worth of fun, we would take our baths and lounge on the bed together. Malia is sitting up so well (being propped up) and just laughs and smiles all the time. We are so lucky to get to hang out with her!

On the pier in Santa Barbara, and yes, that is a dirty diaper Kirk is holding in the picture. Not sure why.

Sami, David, Kamryn and Bentley

The zoo in Santa Barbara was so cute! It was small but perfect because it covered all the animals you need to see there: lions, elephants, crocodiles, snakes, monkeys, giraffes, and all sorts of birds and creeping things.

The kids got to feed the giraffes some lettuce which was pretty neat. Did you know that giraffes have long, purple, and pointed tongues? They do, I saw it.

Malia at the playground. She's not quite there on playing by herself, but she's getting there!

Bentley in an egg. I told him to pretend he was a baby hatching from the egg and this is what he gave me.

Did I mention that Malia had her first cold this month? Yes, complete with a running nose and everything. I was a little panicked at first but it only lasted a few days. I was reading that it's actually good for babies to get some colds each year to help build their immune system. So that's good.. I guess. Glad it wasn't anything worse than that.Elephants. Last time we saw some elephants we were in Bali before having baby. That was a fun trip!

Malia and Bentley with the giant Anaconda!

Zoo-ing it Halvorsen style!

Alameda Park hanging on the whale

K & C & M kicking it on a shark. Yeah, that's how we roll.
Ta da! That's the end!

Stop the Press!! Malia started Rice Cereal!

On December 1st, when Malia was exactly 4 and a half months old, we started rice cereal! She did fantastic! Our pediatrician said usually he likes them to start at 5 months but when I mentioned how Malia is staring us down as we eat now, grabbing for our glasses and utensils, and sometimes still seems hungry after I nurse her at dinner, she said we could go at it. At go at it we did!
Malia's face kills me above. She's like "what mom, you are the one that made me all messy and you expect me to smile at you? Whatever."

This was actually her first spoonful fed by her Nana. Do you see how she is even opening her mouth in anticipation?

If watching Malia make funny noises and sounds isn't entertaining enough, you get to watch mom, dad and grandma make funny noises and faces as well. Yeah, we are all dorks and Malia is probably so confused at her weird family;)

It has to be a weird thing for a new little baby! All this time she has only been on breast milk and now she is sitting up in a high chair with a spoon of firmer stuff on it being put in her mouth! I am surprised she did as well as she did! She will be 5 months this next Thursday (also on our 4 year anniversary) and has begun rice cereal for breakfast and dinner.
I cried that night of her first real meal experience. I still want to cry sometimes when I see her eat or roll over (which she started doing this last week!). I don't know what my problem is! I'm so excited for these milestones but at the same time I would really like it if she stayed my little baby forever.
Guess this is why you have more kids. But no, I am not pregnant or ready for that again.

I forgot to mention we saw some Christmas Lights

We love the Brady's and love how they are always thinking of the funnest things to do. We went up to Fashion Island in Newport Beach to see them light the big tree and listen to carolers and watch dancers celebrate Christmas. It was of course very fun. Malia is game for just about anything we want to do which is really nice. Above she is trying to do an "Ab Crunch." I think she over heard me call her "Chubba Love" (one of our favorite nicknames) and perhaps became self conscious;)

Our family of three in front of the big and beautiful tree at Fashion Island

Merry Christmas to all!

Malia and her very handsome Daddy

The adorable Brady girls. We love you Sophie and Gisele!

Thanksgiving 2010

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their fair share of turkey:) Of course us Weber/ Schillings understand the importance of eating around this holiday. While the eating and time spent with family is so special to us, I am so grateful for the many rich blessings I have been given! Including the following:

• Family! I love our new little family that we made this year
• Friends! We are so lucky to have so many fun and loving friends
• The Church! Kirk and I are so thankful to be apart of the true and living church of Jesus Christ and to have such a loving ward and wonderful callings
• Our home! We love where we live, love that we can own a home, and love that we have heating during these cold winter months!
• A free country! We get to have so many liberties and freedoms that we sometimes take for granted
• Food and all other necessities! We have ample food, clothes, transportation, and health care.We started off our Thanksgiving trip with another plane flight (Malia's 2nd now!) to Denver Colorado to visit my family. My cousin Amber lives out there with her family.
  

This is Malia with her newest cousin Kiyoshi!! Kiyo is 5 weeks here and just the cutest thing you have ever seen! I was so glad these two were able to get to know each other and am sure they will have so much fun playing with each other as they get older.
I really loved holding Kiyo and it made me scarily baby hungry for another newborn! Yikes! I better be careful for what I wish for, I am NOT ready for another one just yet (but ask me again in a few months;)

Of course no vacation is complete without our fair share of site seeing. We hiked, toured, shopped and hung out tons. Almost anything is fun when you're doing it with your loved ones!

My beautiful cousin Amber and I! We got to be pregnant together which was so fun and now we have beautiful babies to play with! Can you believe how awesome she looks after 3 kids?! I love her!

Me and the Hubs hiking Flatirons in Boulder. It was gorgeous!!

We were supposed to get a gnarly storm while we were there, but it never came. Amber's pointing out the little snow that we saw during the whole trip. It was plenty cold for us California folk though!

I am obsessed with these girls! They are instant best friends: Teya, Tiegan and Malia.

Tiegan is such a good girl and big helper. I really love the fact that Malia is about the same size as Tiegan at 5. What a porker!

Hiking with dad. This is as close to pregnant as Kirk will come. These two sure did have a blast hiking around Eerie.

This Thanksgiving we celebrated as a family of 3. I can't remember what life was like before having this bundle of joy now. This Thanksgiving I reflected on how grateful and happy I am to have had a baby. After trying so long to get this munchkin down to us, we finally have her. And now life is complete! (Until Kirk can convince to me start making more!)

Colorado is beautiful! We loved it there! There are so many wide open spaces (which Kirk wishes we had more of in San Clemente) and the snow capped mountains, clean air and delicious water beacon our return sometime soon;)
I'm always talking about how good the water is in other places. I wish we had decent water in southern California, but our water is junk.

Cousins!

Auntie Lori (Bubba) with Tiegan and Malia

The whole Martinez, Petersen, Weber and Schilling crew. My cousin Maile (who ironically also married a Schilling of no relation) is pregnant!! We are so excited for her!

The birds we partook of. They were yummy of course

Cousins! Bubba, Maile, the little ones and us!

This picture just makes me happy. I can't get over how cute Teya and Malia are holding hands and looking at each other. And then there is adorable Tiegan and my newest nephew Kiyo that I already miss so much!

We call baths "buchas" in our family, so this picture is entitled, "Bucha Time!!"

Alrighty! That was a lot of pictures to post! Malia is a fan of Giraffes- both on her feet and in her mouth. Thanks for the great times family and for the great hospitality Martinezs! We love you a whole whole bunch!