Date Night

We were lucky enough to have a date night this weekend to see the Sound of Music. Wow, this is a fabulous musical. Aaron knows the whole thing by heart and it brings back such great memories for both of us. It was a fabulous performance and we both agree that we need to make sure our kids start watching this soon. A fun night out with the hubs. 

The Yard

The Yard, our yard! It has taken over our lives people. But in like a good way. We love having our big, beautiful yard but it has been a lot of work. We have been cutting down trees, trimming and cutting back all over the place. We still don't have a clear vision of what we are going to do in some places but we are sure enjoying getting it done. Aaron has especially enjoyed spending his Saturdays working out there for HOURS. 

This past weekend we worked on cleaning out this section. You couldn't even see the fence before we started. 

It took a lot of cutting and trimming and cleaning up branches. 

In the process Aaron was able to make walking sticks for the kids. They LOVE them. 

And of course after working so hard in the yard everyone deserves a movie and ice cream in a princess dress. :) 

Introdcuing Cora and Juliet Pierson!

We are so happy that Cora and Juliet Pierson made a safe arrival last night. They were born at 36 weeks weighing in at almost 5 pounds each. My sister in law, Cassie, did amazing and we are so happy that they are both here safe and sound. We can't wait to get our hands on these beautiful girls!! Oh seeing these babies makes me very baby hungry!! 

Lately

Just some things we have been up to lately. 

Taking care of babies. This baby in my belly is one lucky baby. He has two big sisters who are getting very excited for him/her to get here and are preparing themselves. They go everywhere talking about their babies, taking care of their babies and feeding their babies. Millie especially takes care of her baby day and night. She tells me what she needs while she is at school or her activities. It might be the cutest thing ever. Here she is singing to her baby in the car. 

I tried to convince her to let me hold her baby so she could go get ready for something and she said, "sorry Mom my baby just likes for me to hold her." :)

Millie had a birthday party for her friends at school and all the kids got to go and had so much fun. I love watching Millie with her friends from school. 

:

I'm pretty sure Brooke sat in the what was supposed to be one of the birthday boy's seats.  

Carson also made himself right at home. 

Millie's friends from school.  

We also had a lovely President's Day. I was so happy to have a day off school. It was a gorgeous day. I subbed a class at the gym and then came home and we packed lunches and rode our bikes to the park. Millie carried our lunches on her back the whole way. 

Then we spent a couple of hours in the park playing and then Aaron came and picked us up to go home. It was so nice to have so much time to relax at home and play outside. Then Aaron flew out and it was back to real life but I sure love these days off. 

February

Our February has been unseasonably warm. It has been just gorgeous, pretty much 70s or low 80s every day. The kids have been begging us to get in the pool. It gets harder and harder to keep them out. Hopefully just a couple more months and we can start swimming! 

We finally let Carson take the plunge. As soon as he got out, "It's freezing!"

My Valentines

I love my girls, I love spoiling them, I love cuddling with them, I love kissing them, and I love watching them be best friends. No one loves each other like Millie and Brookey love each other. 

Even when she stops on a walk to throw a small fit I can't help but watch and smile. I love her so much.

We got a special delivery from my Dad for his girls and Millie is obsessed with these flowers. Sunday morning she woke up and immediately wanted to find her flowers if they had opened up any more. She insisted on eating her breakfast with them. 

We wanted to tell my Dad thank you and that we love him very much! 

Family Selfie.  

Our Valentine's Day was nothing super spectacular. It was filled with heart shaped waffles on heart plates, lots of hugs and kisses, a special dinner for my family and expressions of gratitude for each other. I sure love this family of mine. 

Our Brookey

We decided not to take little Brooke on our Costa Rican adventure. She's just not an easy age for traveling but we were so worried about missing her. She is my sidekick. We do everything together and she has my heart in the palm of her hand. We decided to have her stay with my parents for the trip and she was so excited to go. We had talked it up big time and nothing about her special trip to Grandma and Grandpa's disappointed. Every time anyone asks us how Costa Rica was she screams, "I go Grandma and Grandpa's house." Her vacation was every bit as exciting to her as ours. And you know what, she didn't miss us for one second. 

She was happy as a clam to spent so much time with her cousin Jackson. Kim and Jack drove up to help my mom out with Brooke. She was a big help and I'm so grateful she did that. 

Of course Grandpa took the kids to get donuts. 

Brooke was thrilled with her own sack of donuts, not eating them but carrying them around. 

The weather was amazing so she spent lots of time playing outside and Grandma's house, at Sheppy's house and at the park with Grandpa. She even got to do a chick fila trip. 

Kimmy brought cute shirts for the kids to wear. She looks so big. 

And of course Grandma took her shopping. She got this new outfit and when she wears it and people say oh I love your new outfit she tells them, "it from Grandpa." LOL. 

When I got these pictures of her my heart nearly burst at the seams. 

Then it was time for us to see her!! The kids started counting down the hours to be back to Brookey as soon as they woke up Wednesday morning. We had missed her SO much. 

Reuniting. 

It took some adjusting back to sharing again by our darling 2 year old, "no dat my toy." But after a day or 2 we all settled back into being our tight little click. And Brooke went right back to wanting her Millie anytime she gets sad. 

We were also very happy to be reunited with our sweet pup who was taken care of by our good friends, the Harmans for a whole week. Trust me friends that is a lot of dog hair.  

Can't believe life is back to school, work and responsibility again - man was Friday morning a hit when the kids expected ME to make breakfast for them and man when that alarm went off... :) 

Costa Rica - Part 2

Monday morning after a big, delicious breakfast (Carson ordered this breakfast sandwich that was the biggest sandwich I had ever seen) we decided to let the kids check out the kids' club. They spent some time playing in there while Aaron and I got to do some alone swimming and relaxing. It was pretty fabulous. It would have been a very different vacation without those 2. Then it was time for Aaron and Carson to head to the jungle for their adventure. This gave me and Millie some girl time. We went to play at the playground and play in the sand (per her request).

Then after a lot of digging and playing we decided to order some smoothies and head back to the hotel room to eat lunch and relax for a bit. 

Meanwhile the boys were on their way. 

They made it up to where the ziplining started. Carson was so excited. We were nervous that he was going to be scared but this is one tough boy. 

They got all ready. They were super lucky to be in a small group so they had no wait time. 

I so love these boys. Carson climbed right up and headed out, not an ounce of fear. 

They did 11 ziplines in all and they both reported that they had a great time and it was beautiful. Aaron had packed them some lunch and Carson kept saying he wasn't hungry. As soon as it was over he downed two sandwiches and anything else Aaron would give him.  

On the way home they stopped by the grocery store and got more pineapple and a few other essentials, like more aloe. :)

As soon as the boys got back we changed immediately into our swimsuits and hit up the pool for a couple of hours before dinner. 

Monday night we decided to eat out for dinner at the asian restaurant. We ordered sushi and fried rice and amazing sweet and sour chicken. 

It was a gorgeous view perfect weather. 

After dinner we decided to try out the ice cream shop, well actually gelato. It was super yummy and we spent some time laying in the hammock and enjoying our ice cream before heading back to crash. 

Tuesday was our last full day and we decided to make our beach day. We drove to the playa Avellana, we layed our some towels in the shade of some trees and got right in the water. The kids spent time climbing the trees.  

This girl, oh I love this girl. 

We spent the day doing a lot of the same, riding the waves, building sand castles, and swimming. The waves were really big and I got knocked around a few times but I could spent all day in the ocean. 

After several hour of swimming we decided to break for lunch. Lola's of course. We got our smoothies and nachos and then each tried something new. It was just as amazing as Sunday. I told Aaron my new goal in life is to move to Costa Rica and buy Lola's.

After lunch Camilla was worn out and cuddled right up on Aaron and fell asleep.  

While they were napping Carson and I swam and swam. They napped for about an hour before Carson woke them up. Aaron and Carson ran right back out to the ocean and I stayed with Millie to help her wake up and we heard a strange sound above us. We looked up to see a monkey right above us. Camilla was so excited. She immediately ran to tell Carson and her Dad. 

We stayed for awhile longer, ordered more smoothies and packed up to head out. We stayed as long as we possibly could to get back in time to make our fancy, last night dinner. We decided to eat dinner on the beach for our last night. They do it buffer style with a man making any meat you want out on the grill. The beef was the best, followed closely by the pork ribs. The kids mostly just wanted rolls. :)

It also came with yummy drinks. One last pina colada for us. Oh how I miss my pina coladas. 

The kids finished before us and started digging in the sand. 

Our last family picture in Costa Rica. Such a beautiful night.  

After dinner I wasn't feeling well so I went back to the room and Aaron took the kids to get ice cream one last time. Double scoops. :)

They ate ice cream in the hammock and talked about all the things they would miss about Costa Rica. We couldn't believe our very last night had finally come. This trip went by so fast. 

Then Aaron had promised the kids one last late night swim. Carson was all over it, Millie preferred to take her backpack and color. They swam for a bit and then got into the warm tub and swam a bit more. Aaron is so nice to take them swimming one last time because goodness knows I was exhausted. I can't believe how much Carson can swim. This boy is part fish. 

Wednesday morning we got up early to get started on packing and I wanted to get one run in before we left. I set out on a loop outside the resort. It was a beautiful morning and I'm glad I did get a bit of exploring in but I was so tired and my legs were dead after our beach day. 

Then Aaron took the kids swimming while I packed up our hotel room, real tears. I was so sad to be leaving. I got everything packed up and went and met them to eat one last amazing Costa Rican breakfast. The kids got waffles with berries and fresh cream, Aaron had these unbelievable nutella pancakes and I got an omlette filled with fresh veggies and avocado and hash browns and one last cup of yogurt filled with berries. It was all amazing and we had a great view. 

Then we had to leave. The time had arrived. We rushed out (because of course we were running late) and returned the rental car. When we got to the airport they told us we needed to pay our exit fee before we could check in for the flight. We were aware of the exit free but not aware of the line to pay the exit fee. It was over an hour long. Like legit long, two workers casually taking money. We did not have 2 hours to wait. Aaron begged someone at the front of the line to let him cut. She thankfully obliged, reminding him that this is why they tell you to get to the airport 3 hours early (um no one told us that). Aaron rushed back to us and checked us in. Sadly in bag security they confiscated all our sea shells. We had collected sea shells every day and could wait to fill them up and keep them. Plus the kids went on a last walk on the beach with Aaron that morning and filled up a bottle of sand and they took that too. Sad face. That was a bummer. We made it to our gate just before it boarded but we were starving to I grabbed the kids and we ran to some airport restaurant to pick up some food. I got quesadillas, sandwiches and pizza thinking there would be something for everyone - sadly it was awful food. After 6 days of nothing but amazing dishes this was as let down. Camilla gave the pizza a good try. :)

Once again I rode in first class, passing my food back to my starving coach class family. The kids were much better on the way home. They watched movies, read books and relaxed. I also finished my book and relaxed on the flight home. 

And just like that our dream vacation was over. Aaron and I just keep saying that we will probably never take another vacation to top this one. Aaron's busy travel schedule is not always the greatest but man did we enjoy those travel perks on this trip. We love Costa Rica and hope that we can make it back some day!!