plugging along...

We've been busy this last month. Busy season is FINALLY wrapping up and I'm practically counting the days, hours, minutes - you name it! Jay is too. I keep thinking each year it can't get worse than the year before, but good old Deloitte always has something hidden up its sleeve. It was rough these last few months and I will be excited to talk to my husband again when it's all over and done with this week.

Luckily we had a few visitors to pass the time. My mom was here for an entire week! So much fun! She worked a lot of the time she was here, but we squeezed in as much as we could, but unfortunately I didn't take many pictures. Taylor is honestly in heaven when my mom is here. When my mom went home Taylor sat on the stairs and when I made her come out and say goodbye she was hiding her face. I asked her what was wrong and she totally broke into tears saying how much she was going to miss Nana. Ooh - if you could have seen her little face. Priceless. Here is the only picture I took of the girls with my mom and a ride on the mini carousel at South Coast.

A few short days later my sister, Brooke, and her family came for another fabulous week of Disneyland (two days, no Jay) and a day at the beach. We had so much fun! I want everyone to come back asap! I stole most of these pictures off her blog - so they're not that great of quality, but I didn't have a lot of free hands, sans Jay.

We took breaks at Disneyland amidst the serious crowds of Spring Breakers (I'm too spoiled for these kind of crowds :)

We waited for a parade to start

Hailey and Taylor told crazy stories and laughed non-stop

A lot of digging and burying were done. They are mermaids in this shot, if you can't tell by my awesome sand sculpting skills.

And lots of babies with bottles, nursing, and cuteness were to be found. Especially my little peanut. I could die over her swimsuit in case you were wondering. Oh - and that she's practically a toddler and holds her bottle. Amazing.

We really did have SO much fun and I wish they would have stayed longer. The girls and Caden played non-stop. Even after an ENTIRE day at the beach, we came home - threw them in the bath and then they played outside for hours.

Hailey displayed some serious twirling skills

Caden gave all the girls rides on the "rollercoaster"

The girls rode bikes and scooters

Caden was just plain cute!

So here we are - wonderful, glorious April. The weather is just plain beautiful, Jay will be home more, the sun sets late and life is pretty sweet. Ellie will be 9 months old next week and is our busy bee. Speed crawling, walking around furniture, saying a few words (mama, dada, baba, hi), waving, clapping, and constant motion seem to be her forte. We love her, and Taylor might love her a little too much - if that's possible. But with this constant motion comes Taylor needing to understand sharing and maybe a few slaps in the face (on accident, of course - I hope- HA!). We love our little girlies- pirate face and all!

P.S. This last photo is courtesy of my wonderful friend Kristy Dunning (see link on side). We ran into her family on a Sunday night walk and she snapped a few of my girls and I hoenstly feel like I need to pay her! They turned out amazing. I want to frame every single one she's emailed me. Thank you, thank you!

P.S.S. After reviewing my post, I'm dying laughing that Jay is not in ONE of these pictures. So I looked in my iphoto, and realized he's not in ANY pictures I've taken in the last few months. Hilarious and very telling of our lives lately.