Back from Utah, TONS of pictures ahead

Two weeks ago, our little family got in the car and headed off on an adventure! A 20 hour adventure (split into 2 days)! Luckily for us, we love roadtrips. Can't you just see it in Juan's face? 

 And the girls? They were dream babies. Amelia LOVED having me right at her beckon call. I heard this for 20 hours: Toy please, Drink please, Show please, and repeat. It was so fun to watch her play by herself and even entertain Maya and get her laughing now and then. Maya did not like the car on day 2 of our return trip. She whined a lot and even cried for 30 full minutes, we'd never heard her like that. But she pulled through and was a happy girl once we were finally home.

The big occasion was Ginger's baby shower, she is so close now! Only 6ish more weeks! I didn't get any pictures from the shower, but I got tons of the girls with family and friends.

 Kent and Barrett, giving Maya a run for her money on her tan.

 Big family barbecue at Heather's place. Maddie, me, Rachelle, Crystal, Mom. Maya, Tyler, Heather.

 Amelia and Judson on the trampoline.

 Amelia and Sadie playing.

 Cute Maya having fun in the car.

 Amelia with the Old cousins, Chris and Sadie.

 The whole group hanging out at City Creek. Heather, Sam, Ginger, Sami, Mom, Maya, Dad.

 Maya just loved cheek to cheek with Heather.

 Maya with Grandma.

 Griffin and Amelia on the trampoline.

 Amelia with Grandma.

 Amelia and Benjamin in their Minnie and Mickey shirts.

 Juan and Amelia at City Creek.

 On night we went on a big quadruple date and did a food crawl. First stop Asian Potato.

 Second stop, a BBQ place. And the third place (no picture) was a burger/custard place. And they all had to be places we'd never been. So fun!

 Juan and I stole away and walked around our beloved BYU campus. We just love it there. I love this family picture we got!

 Ginger was the Baby Whisperer with Maya, often getting her to sleep for her tiny evening nap. She'll be the best mom! I cannot wait.

 Maya loved being passed around to everyone. Here she is with Paul.

 And Crystal.

 Ginger sneaking a picture with Amelia.

 Sami with Maya. Sami was obsessed with Maya, wanting to hold her at every second. She also kept a good eye on Amelia for me too. She is a natural with kids!

 The girls with grandpa. It was the end of a long night for Amelia. I kept letting her stay up late to play with cousins. Well right after this picture she came up to me saying, Sleep please. Ha! Tired girl.

Mom, Me, Maya. My mom was the best this trip. She works late every night until 2 am cleaning the temple. She would wake up early every morning just to get some alone time with the girls before the crowd of family came over. She'd bring out a stack of books and read with Amelia. And just snuggle Maya before her morning nap. I love that my girls will have those special memories with Grandma. 

We are home now. Maya didn't get too spoiled, she is back to playing by herself on the floor and rolling all over the place now. Amelia's vocabulary is a little larger and I feel like she really grew up, playing around those older kids all the time. Utah treated us well.

Favorites

Some of my favorite Maya pictures from this month:

Amelia has been spoiled this week with some fun new toys:

 Kasee gave Amelia this table and chairs last night and Amelia cannot get over them. She loves them, and went out and had to say goodnight to her chairs before bed.

I also finally got Amelia a set of blocks and she builds builds builds. She says, Cah for castle constantly and has learned the word, Tall. She brings the baskets over to friends houses and wakes up for her nap asking to 'play blocks'. 

Sisters

The sweetest thing happened tonight. The girls have been sharing a room for about a month now. It is mostly going well, Amelia sleeps through a lot more than I thought she would. But 2 timesI have woken up to Maya crying and go in to see Amelia has filled her crib with toys in the middle of the night. My mean mom mind assumed Amelia was bored in the night and tried to wake up Maya. But tonight after I put them down, I heard Amelia get up and decided to watch in the monitor.

Maya whines as she falls asleep, for probably 5 full minutes. Nothing too loud or sad. Well Amelia got up and went to Maya's crib. She now knows she should never throw a toy in the crib. So I watched as she reached her arms through the slats and patted Maya's face and then held Maya's hand and patted Maya's hand. Maya immediately stopped fussing and just stared at Amelia. Amelia was so gentle and loving and patient. Then she reached in and turned on Maya's music box, Maya turned toward the box and was definitely dosing off. So then Amelia walked away and climbed back into bed and tried to put her blanket back on. Now they are both sleeping soundly.

So many lessons learned. Those few times, Maya probably woke Amelia up and the toys were Amelia's attempt at comforting Maya. My automatic reaction is to think my 2 year old is up to something, when really she was being the sweetest and best big sister possible. And she was so motherly, it was a really special moment. I love my girls so much. I love seeing their friendship develop. It is so good to be a mom.

More Pictures with Friends!

I guess I need to provide proof that we were actually with friends on our vacation. Ha ha, Kasee sent me some pictures she took, she is so good at remembering to get group shots.

 Me and Kasee

 Shopping on the Strand with Lindsey, Blakely, Jason and Kasee.

 Family picture in the sunset. I love Amelia in this one. No idea where Juan is looking... And check out those tans on Juan and Amelia. Maya and I are jealous!

The whole group!

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Galveston Beach Friendcation!

 We hit the road this weekend and went on a vacation to the beach! It was a 4 hour drive and this sums up how the girls did. Amelia falling asleep mid-draw and Maya was happy as always.

Disclaimer: This picture was taken at a restaurant, not in the car. We buckle her up when she's in the car, don't you worry. But she really was this happy.

 Our 3 couple friends joined us on this "friendcation": Cameron & Steph, Blakely & Lindsey, and Jason & Kasee. We each had our own bedroom and the best part was being able to stay up late and talk and play games after the kids were all to bed! Who needs sleep?

 Our house is the one in the center of the photo. It was SO nice and perfect to have a kitchen and the same common area for everyone. And reasonably cheap when split between the 4 of us.

 The weather was beautiful all weekend, the highs were 85.

 We went on walks and found this cute park for Amelia to play nearby.

 Each night after the kids were to bed, we'd go in the yard and play frisbee as the sun went down.

We had beach access about a 2 minute walk from our house which was so fun! Especially at night we took walks down there and saw all the crabs and had cute, tiny frogs in the front lawn.

 We went to the beach in actual Galveston and spent the day. Amelia was in love with the sand! She just parked in her spot and was set for the day!

 She slowly warmed up to the water. 

 By the end, she made friends and they were "swimming" (laying in the sand at the shallow part). 

 This trip made me so happy that our family will have these fun memories at the ocean and we are so blessed to live within a short drive. It was the perfect vacation. We have so much fun with our friends and we want to do this every year!

Maya is 4 Months!

Our little Maya, she LOVES the camera. There were too many good ones to pick just one:

I can't say it enough. Maya is the best baby, awesome sleeper, so happy, super chill. She is growing too fast! Here are some of her favorite things this month:

• She loves to stand. She spends almost all 3 hours of church standing and smiling and looking around.
• She and Amelia share a room now. Maya likes to wake up around 6:30 am cooing and talking as loud as she can. A couple times I have been able to rush in and scoop her out before she wakes Amelia, but some days we have early mornings.
• Maya will smile at anything. We were at the doctor and he couldn't get over it, he kept saying, I am not even smiling at her and she is giving me the biggest smiles. She also braved herself through her shots and whimpered a little, but didn't even cry. 
• She loves Mr Owl, her hanging toy. She is obsessed. I move him back and forth between her playmat and carseat and she will always migrate over to her Owl. It is so sweet. (Especially since I just had to buy it for Amelia and then she had no interest in it whatsoever).
• She loves to play with her sister. Even when Amelia gets a little crazy with Maya, Maya is all for it and keeps a smile on her face.
• She weighs 14 lbs 15 oz and she is 25 1/2 inches long. 
• And I finally caught her on video rolling over onto her tummy. The remote was her motivation: