2014 Year in Review

In looking back over 2014, I can hardly believe my eyes! Everyone tells you how much your baby will change in the first year  (if I had a dime for every time someone told me to enjoy it because it goes by fast…), but I wasn’t prepared for how quickly the second year would fly by and how much the girls would change.  I blinked and S and A were suddenly three feet tall and talking, climbing, running and actually sharing OPINIONS. It’s scary and exciting at the same time!
I wanted to keep this recap short by posting one picture to recap each month in 2014, but let’s get real…we both know there’s no way that’s going to happen. Here’s my best attempt at concisely summarizing (ha!) our year. And what an amazing year it was!
January: Happy New Year!
We ended our holiday stay in Utah with lots of football.
At 10 months, the girls were interacting with each other more, actively climbing around the park for the first time, and getting into lots of trouble at home thanks to their newfound motor skills.
I couldn’t recap January without including pictures of our messy eaters! There’s 10,000 more food pictures where this came from.
February: we celebrated Grandpa’s 60th birthday in style with a huge surprise party.
S and A celebrated their first Valentine’s Day, enjoyed visiting with Grandma and Grandpa and spent many afternoons at the park swinging.
March: The big ONE!

I can’t speak for all my slaves party helpers, but it was a blast putting S and A’s Baby Love first birthday party together and we were so grateful to celebrate it with family and friends. Jake and I were especially grateful to have survived the first year. Self high-five!

S and A’s first taste mouthful of cake. Samantha started walking and Amelia followed suit a few weeks later, bringing on a whole new level of crazy.

April: We celebrated my birthday and the girls loved meeting the Easter Bunny and hunting for eggs.

May: My second Mother’s Day, a visit from Grandma, the girls’ first haircut, first train ride, and many days at the beach, thanks to the beautiful weather.

June: The girls, Grandma and I threw Allison’s Ahoy It’s a Boy Baby Shower in preparation for Baby Noah. Can you say sugar overload?
2014 was defintely a year of ups and downs and arguably our lowest point of the year was Samantha’s one night hospital stay. We were so glad she was fine and the girls were so happy to be reunited after a day apart.
After a rough start to June, we had a relaxing month playing at the beach, hanging out with friends at the park, celebrating with Marisa at her graduation, enjoying Father’s Day, and walking Bandit.

The girls experienced the splash pad for the first time, began swimming lessons and gymnastics class, and we got creative keeping the girls occupied at home…

July: The girls toured the neighborhood in style on the Fourth of July, got their first tattoos, caught candy being thrown at the parade, went swimming and fell fast asleep before the fireworks began.

Grandpa came to visit, we celebrated Jake’s birthday, the girls discovered the joys of digging holes in the sand, began perfecting their use of utensils and worked on Jackson Pollock-inspired masterpieces at home.

Our friends from Utah came to visit and the girls had a blast giving them tours of the park and beach.

 

Cousin Noah arrived and the girls couldn’t stop saying “Baby!”

 

August: The girls enjoyed ice cream sandwiches at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Utah and caught up with cousins.

While in Utah, we attended my ten-year high school reunion, and the girls enjoyed the park, water park, riding horses, and rolling down the hill in Grandma and Grandpa’s backyard.

On part two of our road trip, we visited family in Idaho and stayed at their vacation condo in Sun Valley. The girls were spoiled silly and were doted upon by all their cousins.

September: Aunt Sarah and Grandma stopped by for a short visit and the girls were stoked that the college football season had officially begun. S and A’s language skills took off like crazy and they began adding tons of new words/putting words together.

Fall officially began with several visits to the pumpkin patch and train rides at the Irvine Park Railroad.

The girls and I had fun at home with tot school activities, artwork, and neighborhood playdates. The girls also began music class, continued with gymnastics, and began Montessori Spanish class.

We tried to beat the stifling heat by spending our afternoons at the splash pad, pool and playing with our water table.

October:  Weekend getaway to the San Diego Wild Animal park with the Nguyens.
Still hot weather– Samantha took lathering on that sunscreen to heart.
We picked out more pumpkins with the girls’ twin friends, celebrated the girls’ 19 month birthday, and witnessed many giggle fests and wrestling matches.
Halloween 2014: S and A dressed up as Madeline and showed off their costumes at the gym, church, and neighborhood parties.
Samantha, Amelia, Maliyah and Allie’s Halloween playdate:

The girls stayed up past their bedtime to go trick-or-treating for the first time and totally killed it!

November: After two attempts on separate days, we finally captured a few decent family pictures with the girls smiling. A huge triumph!

 

November was filled with sister hugs, beach days (we had a few really hot days clear into November!), hiking excursions and playdates with Great Grandpa and cousins. Samantha discovered her penchant for art,  S and A spent hours pushing their dollies around in their strollers and cooking us gourmet meals in their play kitchen.
These girls were just too silly!
On Thanksgiving, we ran the Dana Point Turkey Trot.
We then celebrated the rest of Thanksgiving with cousins at Aunt Linda and Uncle David’s and the girls went wild exploring the desert.

 

December: Five Santa visits!

Our 25 Days of Toddler Christmas included throwing a neighborhood Christmas toddler party, holiday baking, riding the Irvine Christmas Train, seeing the lights, riding the carousel and decorating our tree. We also managed to fit in the girls’ first balloon ride and celebrated Great Grandpa’s 85th birthday.

 

Having fun with the guinea pigs and ponies (NOT the ostriches) at Zoomars.

We made it to Utah and the girls built their first snowman. Sledding lasted for about five minutes until they couldn’t stand the cold anymore.

Amelia went crazy opening (everyone’s) presents on Christmas Day.
The girls’ second Christmas was truly magical!

 

We were blessed more than we could have ever imagined in 2014 and can’t wait to see how much the girls will grow and change in 2015. It’s going to be an epic year!
Lots of love,
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Comments

  1. This was so fun! and I can't believe how much they've grown and changed since last January!