A message for Daddy from Rhode Island

Lily wanted to make a special video for Dad :)

Moving Date Set

So we are set to move into the Marina house on... August 15th!

It's been a long time in the making but it was absolutely worth the wait. The amount of work that Yoko and my In-laws put into the house is astounding. What a transformation! I feel honored to be able to live there now :) Everything is cleaned up, replaced, painted, redone... it's gorgeous! I can't wait to post some after video for you all to see and compare to the one before.

I am really excited about giving Penelope something she hasn't had before - her very own room! I think we'll all be resting more comfortably after that. I'll finally have room for all the clothes this girl has too! My word, she has tub after tub of outfits! A closet will make things so much easier.

We have also made an addition to our little family.. no, we're not having a baby! We're getting a roomie :) Alicia will be moving into the house with us. She needs a better place to stay than the one she's got and I want to be able to afford all the fun things Lily has coming up like Preschool and dance classes. So it's the perfect solution for us. Plus she really is a part of our family so it won't be a hard transition to make. Lily will be so excited the first time Sheesha isn't gone when she wakes up in the morning! :)

I'll keep you all posted and get some pictures up as soon as I can.

xoox

Jenny

Birthday Videos

Lily's 3rd Birthday

On Wednesday July 7th we celebrated our little Lily turning 3 years old! Yes, 3! It's hard to believe that she's gotten so grown up in such a short amount of time.

We took a trip up to San Jose to spend the day at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, a place Shaun spent a lot of time when he was a kid. It's been completely remodeled so he didn't recognize any of it! Lily loved it, just about everything was designed for her age group so it was a wide open playing field.

The weekend after her birthday we had a party at our house with all of her loved ones. Unfortunately the kids were both battling a bit of a stomach bug so spirits were a little low and we had to ask all of her little friends to stay away, but we were very glad to have those that came. It was a Ni Hao Kai Lan theme and Lily loved it! She got spoiled rotten of course :)

Happy Birthday, Lily Raine!

Stacey Perry Photoshoot

I was lucky enough to have the best photographer in Monterey County agree to take pictures of the girls for our annual July photographs. This was also the first time we got pictures taken of the girls together. Stacey did an amazing job and I am so so so in love with her work!!

Enjoy! If you have a favorite please let me know, I'm having trouble choosing :)

Click here to see the whole album

Empty House Tour

All About the Busywork

I haven't posted much recently, we've been fairly busy with busywork and not really doing much else. The kids are just their wonderful selves and aside from Lily getting smarter and PJ still trying to move as much as possible (no actual crawling, pulling up or walking yet but she is working hard at all 3) we haven't had any major milestones to report.

We've been spending a lot of time preparing to move into a new house. Shaun's Grandma Yoko has moved into Shaun's parent's house and decided to fix up her house and rent it to us. It's a great big house, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, dining room, family room, garage, backyard, fenced in front yard. Yoko has owned the house a long time, it's the house Shaun's mom grew up in. It's kind of an honor to be able to live there and raise our kids in those same rooms. We're incredibly happy with the move, and very grateful to the family for thinking of us.

The house is in need of some work so Shaun spent a lot of time over there clearing the house out so that the construction and repairs could begin. When he was done he recorded a video walkthrough. He was very proud. Can't say I blame him, it was a lot of work! He was going over there in the evenings after working a full day at Comcast too. What a guy!

Since then there's been a lot of progress. Floors ripped up, appliances torn out, bathrooms picked to pieces. We did our part by painting. Eventually we have to do every room in the house but figured our lives would be easiest if we could put the kids somewhere fun while we work so the Playroom is the first to be done. We even got the rug and curtains already so once the floor is in we can finish it up and have it all ready to go for them.

So now we just have to get to the rest of the house, slowly but surely. I'm also starting to work on boxing up our current place and starting my least favorite part of moving - cleaning up the old place :( Boo! With all that's on my plate and the little amount of time I have to work around the kid's schedules I may just hire somebody to clean it for me. We'll have to see how much work there really is to do once we get all our stuff out of here. Maybe I'll just have friends come and pay them in pizza! Isn't that what friends are for? ;)

xoox,

Jenny

We went with a happy yellow, called "Tigger's Tummy".

The fireplace is a little out of place in a playroom. We're going to build a castle facade to cover it up! Nothing too elaborate but it will be cute. We'll attach it to the wall to block it from kiddies and it will be functional too!

PJ is enjoying the deconstructed floors! She can't zip around like that at home on our carpet!