Carpinteria

On Sept 11th we left on one of our favorite vacations...Carpinteria! We always have such a great time and make great memories. We were the first to arrive and Mia was having a blast checking out the water!

Mia in my little sand eater!! Luckily it isn't handfuls and handfuls but still!

LOVE these three and love that they love the beach as much as we do!!

The kids were SO anxious to get in the water and Daddy is always happy to take them!

The kids were excited to have Claire make it!

I don't even tell Ellie to pose =)

Going to the train station now is a MUST for the kids but mainly Cayden. We always check the schedule so we know when an Amtrak will be coming in..

The next morning the train station was our first stop..

The kids love finding all of the smashed coins, we are getting a nice little collection!

After the train station we headed into town...

our trip just wouldn't be the same without stopping at our favorite candy shop

this picture cracks me up! She was just in her own little happy place playing in the sand..

While Mia took a nap Mike and I took a nice long walk with our sweet Ellie. This trip we were having so much fun collecting shells and we found some really pretty ones..

Unfortunately the weather was not the greatest so Daddy gave up his sweater to keep Ellie warm..

We headed into town for The Spot..

And of course catch another train!!

The kids had one last request to bury a deep hole...and then just like that our trip was over. Its always so hard to leave but we always get to look forward to next year!!!

Twins!

I was SO excited when I realized the girls had the same shirts that they both fit into to! Ellie of course was happy to match her little Sister and I was excited to snap a few pics..

I hope these two are always friends and stay close..sisters are the best!

First day of preschool!

I was SO excited when I found out my ward does a co-op! I was really hoping that Ellie would be able to get involved with something but preschools are not cheap! She was really excited to see all of her church friends and ready to learn!

I love that she wants to be Ariel..

Laying in isles and making messes

Mia was cracking me up one Sunday at church. She decided to lay in the middle of the isle and play peek a boo, very loudly of course, with her dress. She was laughing so hard at herself and would even just lay there with her dress covering her face..

that night we had spaghetti and Mia has been loving eating all of the food we eat now that she is our big one year old. She also loves to make messes!

dessert was homemade chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven so of course that was all over as well=)

Mia's first Birthday party

Time for picture overload!! We were able to have Mia's Birthday party the day after she turned one. I really kept it as simple as I could let myself this time around and it made the experience much less stressful =) My mom's club house is free to use so we decided to have it there and the best part is there is a pool! So we made it a swim party since it had been so hot!! I let the kids come up with the theme and they picked Sophia the First since Mia likes to watch that..

We love Sam's birthday cake and even better they had a Sophia one and I didn't have to make one!!

Cayden was SO ready to get in that pool

Mia with her Great Grandparents! What a blessing to have two sets around..

Friends and cousins enjoying some pizza..

Ellie went the whole summer refusing to use her arm floats and finally decided to give them a try and was swimming around the pool all by herself!

Mia and her buddy Ollie..

Mia got some amazing gifts and I didn't want to post every one but she sure had fun seeing them all..

This picture makes me laugh, I noticed Ellie is laughing right along with us prob having no idea what we are laughing about =)

This one takes the cake..I am so glad I captured Mia doing this through all the chaos of the kids, there were a lot!

We already knew Mia had a big sweet tooth so we had no doubt she was going to devour her cake, and she surely didn't disappoint!

Mikes parents, sister and her kids were awesome enough to travel all the way from Utah just to be here for Mia's big day. So we got a picture of us with the grand kids. It was exhausting but such an amazing day.