Golden birthday

So my baby is officially 2! She turned 2 on 10/10/10, which is something special, right? Our little Nina is a ball of energy and enthusiasm. We swear that she only has an on/off switch and is going the whole time she is awake. She loves music and singing and dancing. Her favorite songs to sing are the "ABCs" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". She loves animals and babies. She has an amazing high-pitched scream that she likes to surprise me with in the car and when we are shopping, just to see my reaction, not because she is angry. She potty trained a couple of weeks before her birthday and is doing AMAZING! She's only had about 5 accidents since we started and none in the last week and a half. I love her like crazy and I can't imagine anyone calling the twos terrible, because she is far from terrible!

Here she is in her special birthday outfit that she wore to church.

After our 1 o' clock church which leaves us both a bit drained.

Grandma Beth and Grandpa Larry came up to spend the evening with us.

My attempt to make a nemo-inspired cake.

The family picture

Trying to figure out how to blow out the candles.

Nina with her two sweet best friends, Sadie and Atley. They are seriously darling together!

The best part, opening the presents.

Oh Nina, what did we ever do before we had you?

Good times at the fair

We took Nina to the fair again this year and she loved seeing all the animals. There were a ton of them and the only ones I couldn't handle with my increased ability to smell were the pigs.

Nina checking out the chicks. They had a little incubator where chicks were hatching in front of our eyes. Really cool!

Loved the goats!

Tyson: "Nina, give the goat a kiss." (Nina makes her move, followed by me doing a quick grab before their lips meet. Aah dads, what would we do without them?)

We got to pet this guy and he was so sweet.

Tyson and I went back later that night for a work BBQ and to go to the Collective Soul concert. They were actually really good in concert!

Aah, I love this place...

Bridget and I took a trip out to my Grandma Lemmon's house in Los Osos and I was once again reminded how much I LOVE it out there. It is absolutely gorgeous, there are so many fun things to do, and we get to visit the coolest lady in the world: my grandma. We ended up following my Garmin's suggested route (bad mistake), which turned out to be a very windy road (for 2 1/2 hours) with nowhere to stop to go to the bathroom (a problem when you've gulped a 44 ouncer halfway into the trip). We got there with a few stops for carsickness (Nina) and had a great time. (and drove a different way home)

We drove up to Cayucos Beach to look for sand dollars and to play in the surf and sand.

Nina loved playing in the water. The only problem is her mom's a wuss and couldn't handle the cold water for more than a minute or so.

Aah..I love Bridget and my Grandma!

Other things we fit into a 24-hour period: A quilt group meeting, a mean game of Rummikub, a trip to Farmer's Market, feeding the sea lions, and strolling the shops in Morro Bay.

Halfway

I am officially past the halfway point in my pregnancy! Woo hoo! We are excited to have a new baby girl join our family. She is expected around March 7th. It will be a miracle if Tyson and I can agree on another girl name, but we feel confident since there is still plenty of time to decide. We feel very blessed but are also kind of nervous to have 2 kids!!!

Palm Springs

We are really lucky that Brandon married Lindsey for a lot of reasons. For one, she is such a sweet, down-to-earth, funny gal. It doesn't hurt though that her family owns a vacation home in Palm Springs....which meant a great vacation for us this summer. We met up with Tyson's parents, Brandon and Lindsey, Lindsey's parents and sister, Ashley. The boys spent three extremely warm (by warm, I mean 120 degrees) afternoons playing golf. The girls hit up the amazing outlets, the outdoor street market, and watched movies in the air-conditioned house. We had a great time. Thanks Adams family!!

Nina was just longing to jump in the pool. Unfortunately they were having pool issues that week and she couldn't swim. :(

Nina and Aunt Lindsey

Nina and grandpa

Nina and grammy

Nina and Uncle B

The family

Seriously??

The last few weeks at bedtime have been very strange for us. Nina has all of a sudden developed a love for going to bed. She will usually initiate bedtime herself by telling us "nite nite", grabbing her blanket, and crawling in bed. It seems awfully suspicious and I don't know what sorts of parties she is throwing in bed with her animals or what ulterior motives she may have, but I'll take it for now.

San Diego-Day 3

On day 3 in San Diego we checked out the town. I was born in San Diego and wanted to check out my first home that I can no longer remember. Below is a picture of my first childhood home.

Our hotel was near Torrey Pines golf course. For anyone who knows the Fieldsted boys, golf is an obsession and Torrey Pines is a golf course Tyson dreams of playing on. It is a gorgeous golf course in the most beautiful location. It's in the background of the next couple of pictures.

We went downtown and saw Petco Park. Too bad there wasn't a baseball game that day.

We walked around the Gaslamp District and ate lunch at a cute little deli there. After that we had to head home. I could have stayed in San Diego forever. I think our yearly income would have to have a few more zeroes on the end of it to afford to live there though. :(

San Diego Zoo

On day 2 in San Diego we headed over to the San Diego Zoo. Man, that place is amazing and HUGE! We spent an entire day there and still didn't see the whole thing.

Here we are taking the bus tour. We did this first so we could scope out what we really wanted to see.

Nina couldn't get enough of the fish. Maybe we should have just done Sea World twice!

I think Nina enjoyed the statues of the animals more than the animals themselves. Makes sense, easier to see, touch and smell I suppose.

Here we are on the sky buckets. Anyone who knows me well, knows I am very afraid of heights, hence the firm grip on the center pole and my baby.

Nina loves a good petting zoo, once again, easier to see, touch and smell.

Here we are at the end of day 2. Nina showing clearly how we all felt.

Sea World

In August we took a family trip down to San Diego. The first day we went to Sea World, which was Nina's idea of heaven. She has a recent obsession with fish (ever since we bought "Finding Nemo") as well as Elmo. Well, there were plenty of fish and a whole area of the park was "Elmo" themed.

Here is Nina after the day at Sea World in her "Shamu Shoes". Poor girl got her first sunburn. I guess I forgot how strong that San Diego sun is!

Waiting outside the "Pet Show".

Checking out the star fish at the tide pools.

Riding the Elmo ride.

Watching a dolphin show.

The end of summer

Let's see if I can remember back to the end of summer...now that it's October. Bakersfield gets hot in the summer. Usually up to 110 in July and August. Luckily this summer it was cooler and we only had a handful of days above 100. It was still warm enough to get creative in finding ways to keep cool. One of Nina's favorite ways was to run around the backyard while we sprayed her with the hose. Who really needs a fancy pool when you have a hose, right?

Here she is after it's all said and done. Drenched and feeling a lot cooler.

In July I was lucky enough to have my sister, Betsy, from Iowa, visit with her two girls. She mostly stayed at my parents house, so Nina and I went and stayed as well. Of course, I forgot my camera, but here are some fun things we did: spent an afternoon at the beach in Ventura, went to Disneyland, had a baby shower for Tom and Mayer, and spent some quality time playing together and catching up.

Here is Nina with Tricia. These girls just loved each other!

My cute sister Betsy, Daphne, and Tricia trying out our favorite restaurant in Bakersfield: Sequoia.

Me and Nina just chillin'. No need for a shirt when it's so hot outside.

I love all the flowers in the spring and summer. Nina loved the pink tree in our front yard.