A vacation…finally!

Brad and the kids at the aquarium.

One of the few pictures you'll see of me:)

All of the kids: Stockton, Jade, Annika, Dominic, Sawyer and Sophie

We headed down to Carlsbad, CA on Thursday with the kids and my sister Lori's family. This was our first "family" vacation to a real spot besides Utah! (Well, okay, we went to San Diego when Dominic was a baby, so our 2nd family vacation).
We got to Carlsbad around 2:00 in the afternoon. It was too early to check into our hotel, so we decided to get a treat at the mall super close to our hotel. It was a pretty cool outlet mall. After exploring a little bit, we used our Aquarium tickets to check things out at the Legoland Aquarium. It was cool. Dominic was excited to be with his cousins and look at all the fish, sharks and rays. He even got to pet starfish and hermit crabs.
We ended the day with some Mexican food randomly found with the assistance of the GPS!
On Friday we loaded up and headed up the street to LEGOLAND. Now, I've heard some mixed reviews about the place. But for my kids, it was great. Dominic totally loved riding rollercoasters and seeing all the characters built out of legos. It was a beautiful day weather wise and they even had a little water park area to cool off a bit. Super fun! My sister said it was more crowded than usual. So we didn't ride a few of the rides. I did not ride hardly any rides because of obvious reasons. So Jade and I people watched most of the day!
We went got back, we ventured into the hotel's pool. Again, Dominic was in Heaven! He loved swimming. Jade even liked it too.
On Saturday, we went to a strawberry field and the kids got to pick their own strawberries. For a bunch of city kiddos, it was pretty darn cool. Dominic really liked picking and eating the berries.
On the way home we stopped at Tom's Farms in Corona. It was kind of a tourist trap, but we ate some good food and the kids got to pet these little mini goats. I left my camera in the car, so sorry, no pictures.
We had tons of fun with the Stevens clan. I wish we could go on more little vacations like this more often! This might be it for a little while with the new baby, CPA exams and audit season starting up!

Happy Easter!

My sweet little DD

Three years ago, our sweet little Dominic made his debut into the world! After being a few days overdue the doctor decided to induce me. We went in around 11:00 p.m. on April 11. I was induced and actually got to a four. I thought I was in a lot of pain, so I got an epidural around 2:00 a.m. I was also given two Ambien to get some good sleep to prepare me for the upcoming delivery (sometime the next afternoon.)
I was feeling pretty good. Next thing I remember is the nurses coming in telling me I was going to need a c-section because my baby's heart rate was dropping too low. I was so out of it that they could have told me they were going to chop off my arm and I would have been okay with it! That was at 6:00 a.m. Dominic was born at 6:43 a.m. The cord was wrapped around his neck and he had a bowel movement. He weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz.
We seriously love this little guy. He was such a good baby. At about 18 months he started to get a little wild and crazy. He has just continued to blossom into an inquisitive and talkative boy. I always joke about him having OCD - but most of the time I'm not joking! He likes to have certain things his way. He loves to play with his cousins. He talks about them and asks about each one frequently. Which I think is impressive because he has over thirty first cousins!
He is a very good big brother and lets everyone know that he is the brother. He is a good helper around the house. He is almost potty trained! Yippee! He knows his colors, can sing the ABCs, loves Taylor Swift. His favorite songs are I love to see the Temple and I am a child of God.
I could write a book about all the funny stuff he does. The most important thing is that we seriously love this kid and couldn't imagine what joy and happiness even was until he came into our lives. Happy birthday Dominic!

Cute little bug!

Saturday is Dominic's birthday party. I am hoping we don't get rained out! We have some awesome plans for his bug party. Here are a few shots of this cute little guy that I can't believe is turning three on Sunday!

Back from Utah

We got back from visiting Joey and Lori and their families on Tuesday. I was hoping it was going to be a two for one trip. Annika was getting baptized and Joey and Brittney's baby being born - not quite yet on that one. That little bugger is still cooking! I feel for poor Brittney!
We had fun going to Annika's birthday party, her baptism, shopping and just visiting with everyone.
Sophie and Jade were so cute together. They were hugging each other all the time.
Utah has the best scrapbook stores and I totally had to refrain from going nuts-o in the stores:)
We love to visit Utah even if it was snowing in March!