I love birthdays, especially my own but I tried really hard not to have this birthday....the dreaded dirty thirty. Eeeek.  All of my friends say that 30 is the new 20 but I'm not buying it.  So today I celebrated my second 29th birthday. I still feel like a teenager and I am in denial that I could possible by this old.

I had to speak in sacrament today  as part of the Easter Sunday meeting, since Easter will fall over General Conference this year. I generally don't get too nervous speaking in front of others, but speaking in church is a whole other story.  The good news is it totally took my mind off of my birthday! Tenley was not the most reverent child today during sacrament meeting and Dave ended up taking her our into the foyer when it was finally my turn to speak.  Crazy little cutie, I love her just the way she is.

                                            

We later celebrated my birthday by going out to one of my favorite restaurants, the Elephant Bar.  I sure do love my people.

Pool Play Date

 Last week at church I met the cutest girl who has 2 darling little girls. Tenley played so well with Jordynn (her little 2 year old) during nursery and we knew we had to set up a play date. There is a little kiddie pool at our clubhouse and it was so fun for the girls to get to play together!

Tenley loves rolley polley's. Unfortunately for them she also really loves to squish them and then say, "a gone.....mwooooooore?"  

I am so happy I met a friend who has little girls for Tenley to play with as well.

Tenley Turns Two

I feel like such boring mom this year. We have been in Riverside, California for about 6 weeks now and I haven't managed to make any friends. Lame, I know.  Throwing a big birthday party for my 2 year old, with just myself and Dave seemed weird.  So we just kept is real simple this year and it was still super fun. I took Tenners to Target to get some party supplies & she had a party just helping me pick out the decorations. Can she please always be this easy to entertain?

{oh hey, crazy face!}

I spent all night blowing up balloons and I nearly passed out several times but T's reaction was so worth it.

Then we hopped in the car and headed to Newport for some beach time.  We had to stop at the grocery store for snacks and of course more "balls" aka balloons. 

Oh Crystal Cove, you are a gem.

What a perfect little stream for my baby to play in right!?...oh no, just kidding. I apparently missed the sign at the top of the beach sating that this lovely stream is actually run off water and is toxic. Thank goodness for concerned strangers watching out for Newport newbies like myself. I quickly rinsed her off and said a quick prayer.  Major mom fail. Sorry Tenley baby.  I did see the sign as we were leaving and it was pretty intense. Like, maybe if the water really is that bad they should have more than one little sign? Just a thought.

We spent the rest of the day building sand castles and chasing seagulls.

Happy Birthday to my sweet & sassy, tender & determined, shy & outgoing, happy, energetic, perfect little daughter.  She lights up any room she goes in to. If we're at the grocery store, she makes it her job to get the attention of anyone around us and make them laugh. She'll put on a show and dance and clap and sing "go" (which is her version of Let it Go, from the movie Frozen) to everyone she sees. She's an attention seeker most of the time, but then sometimes if you laugh at her (because she's pretty funny) then she'll cry and get all embarrassed. She is always on the move. The only time she will sit still is to watch Despicable Me, and even then she has to get up an dance every time there is music. She absolutely loves to dance. Her little feet move a million miles a minute. Lately her favorite is the "Hot Dog Dance" from Mickey Mouse club house. (I swear we don't really sit around and watch TV all day.) She sings "hot gog, hot gog, hot giggy gog" and kicks her feet out just like they do on the show. It's pretty dang cute. She loves all fruit, broccoli, green beans, mac & cheese, pickles, cashews & string cheese. She's currently a bit of a vegetarian though because she will not eat meat. She also won't drink milk. She is an amazing sleeper and sleeps 12 hours through the night and also takes a 2-3 hour nap every day. She loves to play outside and loves anything involving water. She absolutely adores her dad. Dave has to sneak out in the morning because if she sees him leave she has a major meltdown. Every night when he comes home from work she runs to the door screaming "Daaaaddy! Daddy!"She loves me and gives me kisses all day long. She makes me feel so important and needed. I love being her mom. Happy Birthday baby. 

Moving Day

After spending the last few weeks searching for a house in the Inland Empire area, we finally found a place we love in Riverside! I am so thankful to Dave and his friends who came over and moved everything into the moving truck. 

And I'm so thankful to his other friends in the Inland Empire area who helped move everything out of the truck for us!  This house is a bit bigger than the tiny apartment we were living in before, so it looks pretty bare. The next step for us now is to get the rest of our belongings from our house in Utah and bring everything to Riverside. I haven't had all of my stuff in one place in so long, I'm not going to know what to do with myself. I'm pretty excited about the thought of getting to stay put for a little bit! I look forward to making this place my home.

Job Transfer

Yipee! Dave got promoted to manage his own solar office in Riverside, California! He was offered a few other offices earlier in the year, but nothing felt right until now. I am so proud of him and all the hard work he does for this family. I've never met a more determined and driven person in my life. I am so excited to move to Riverside and plant my feet for some time. I have loved living in Oxnard for the past 10 months but I am really looking forward to moving to a place where I know we will be living longer than just a few months! Dave had to take off and start working on his new position immideately which left just me and the little rugrat to pack everything up. I drank of lot of Diet Coke, I mean A LOT,  and pants were optional for a few crazy days but I managed to get everything boxed up.  Hooray for new adventures!

San Buenaventura

Today I went for a run (ok, it was really more of a walk) with my cute neighbor Stacy and her darling baby Mekk. We started our walk at the San Buenaventura State Park and made our way to the Ventura Pier.

On weekends this place is completely packed but today we had the entire place all to ourselves. Dreamy.

The Christmas Bug....aka the flu that got everyone sick

{Friday December 26th}

I packed up the car with a few things so Tenley and I could go spend a couple of nights at my parents house.  My parents moved to the Dutch Fields in Midway a few months ago so I was happy to finally be in Utah and get the chance to go see them. Tenley was immediately in love when she met their new puppy Oscar. She chased him all around the house and the two were quick besties.

 My dad bought this little play house for Tenley and she was having so much fun being his little helper.

I started feeling a little sick about and hour after I got to my parents house and Tenley was acting really tired and her cheeks were so rosy so we went to bed early. I woke up about an hour later with an intense stomach ache and spent the next few hours bent over the toilet. Ick. I just kept thinking, please just let ME get sick, don't let Tenley get whatever I have. Pleeeeease.  Unfortunately, around 2 am Tenley started violently vomiting and after a couple hours of us both being so sick, I had to go wake my mom up and ask her to help take care of Tenley because I barely had the strength to lift my own head.  My sweet momma stayed up taking care of us all night long. It was heartbreaking to watch Tenley get so sick. She would throw up and then just look at me like, "make it stop mommy!" I felt so horrible for her because I knew exactly what she was going through and it was awful.

{Saturday December 27th}

The entire next day we both were sleepy and weak and couldn't keep any food down. My mom and sisters were so sweet to help take care of Tenley for me because I was too weak to do much of anything. I was so weak and dizzy that my mom had to help get me in and out of the tub! Talk about feeling like a little baby again. I was slightly embarrassed but mostly just really thankful she was there to take care of me and my baby.

My entire visit at my parents house was pretty much spent right here on the couch in front of the fireplace.  At least they have a great selection of movies on their appleTV...even if I did sleep through almost everything.  Later that night, Dave drove up to Midway to come rescue the two sickies. I was so happy to see his face and have his help.

{Sunday December 28th}

I started feeling slightly better and I got Tenley bundled up to go play in the backyard.  My dad pulled us around on the sled but sweet little thing wasn't really into the snow. 

That darn flu bug really put a damper on my visit to see my family.  My mom then got sick and I felt sooooo bad.  She was so sweet and helpful to me and I just got her sick!  We headed back to Draper and a few days later loaded up the car and drove back to California. As we pulled into our home in California, Dave then suddenly got super sick.  We spent our New Year's eve and the next day inside sleeping and recovering. Worst flu bug we've ever had! So here's to hoping 2015 will bring us all health and happiness!