Maybe it’s the pregnancy fog, but thinking back on 2015, it seemed to all blur together as just a series of mundane, every day happenings. Compared to the previous baby years, it didn’t seem like the girls had hit any huge milestones. Then, I actually looked back at our photos and previous blog posts and wow– we actually had quite a busy year!

The girls hit some major milestones, including potty training, being moved to toddler beds, talking non-stop, and giving up their Wubs. Major events included starting a new law firm, being pregnant with Baby Girl #3, birthdays, our anniversary, Sarah’s wedding, and a year of major home projects. If I had to classify 2015 as a movie genre, it would definitely be an action-comedy… between work and home life, it was a year of adventures., laughs (and definitely some tears!)

Previous Years in Review:

2013 Year in Review

2014 Year in Review

JANUARY: 

For the first few days of January, we were wrapping up our Christmas vacation to Utah and having some New Year’s fun!

On the way home from Utah, we stayed in St. George and played with cousins (Jarom’s family) on Jake’s side. Later in January, Grandpa came to visit and the girls had a blast eating crab and going to the beach with Noah.

Since the girls had started showing interest in using the potty since they were about 20 months, we started potty training in earnest as soon as we got back from Utah. The girls did really well and, while they definitely had periods of regression over the following months, we said goodbye to daytime diapers forever! We waited until this December to nap and night train and now they are officially done, although accidents do happen! Thank goodness, because there is no way I was going to do three in diapers!

Looking back on January, it must have been hot because we spent a ton of time outdoors. The girls and I took our first solo outing to the San Diego Wild Animal park on one of the warmer days.

FEBRUARY: 

We celebrated Valentine’s with our two funny valentines:

We also celebrated Valentine’s Day with the Moms of Multiples club at the park and S and A tried their hand at baseball and their first cake walk.

Sunny weather meant lots of park and beach days.

In addition to potty training, the girls hit another big milestone when we moved the girls out of cribs and into toddler beds. I cringed reading back on the post I wrote about transitioning them to the beds… it did not go as smoothly as planned!

The girls also started “dance” class (basically just an excuse to prance around in tutus and fairy wings) and we began our first construction project of the year, the upstairs flooring. It was definitely the year of construction projects! Until I sat down and listed it all, I didn’t realize how much we had actually done this year:

Master bath flooring

Master bath vanities, mirrors, lighting,  fixtures, baseboards and paint

Master bedroom flooring, baseboards, plantation shutters and paint

Upstairs living area flooring, plantation shutters, baseboards, paint

Laundry room flooring, trim and paint

Upstairs bath flooring, vanities, mirrors, fixtures, cupboards, lighting, paint and baseboards

Nursery wainscoting, crown moulding, baseboards, plantation shutters, paint and closet

Stairs and hallway flooring, trim and paint

Downstairs bath cupboards, paint and trim

Downstairs kitchen/family room: Plantation shutters, crown moulding, baseboards, paint, replacement of windows and sliding glass door.

Basically, we spent the year at Home Depot and the girls were so used to having tools out and contractors in and out that it was weird not to be working on something/have workers at the house!

MARCH:

A busy month! We celebrated Samantha and Amelia’s second birthday!

Park and funfetti pancakes on their big day.

We celebrated with family and friends at the park for a Dr. Seuss/Elmo themed birthday party, complete with a taco cart, Elmo and Cat in the Hat characters who did face painting and games with the kids, and lots of cake, of course!

Grammy and Grandpa came out for the girls’ birthday and took the girls to the park and San Diego Zoo. Some every day events included lots of green smoothie making, carousel rides with our friends, park days, visiting the dino exhibit and a few of our friends’ birthday parties.

One of the best outings of the year was going strawberry picking with a bunch of our friends at Tanaka Farms.

More beach days– it really was a hot year!

The girls talked to a creepy mechanical Easter Bunny at the annual Moms of Multiples Easter Breakfast at South Coast Plaza.

We rode the train, paddlewheel boats, and met another, slightly less creepy, Easter bunny at Irvine Park Railroad.

APRIL: 

Happy Easter!

Major Easter Kite Fail (we couldn’t get their kites to stay in the air for anything):

Spring celebration up at the park (and more creepy bunnies):

Easter egg hung with neighborhood friends, Passover with Cousin Noah and more “ballet” shenanigans:

The girls tried their hands at gardening and played ring around the rosie in the warm spring weather:

We took a weekend trip to San Diego to visit the Wild Animal Park and the beach in Oceanside:

We celebrated my 29th birthday (the age I will stay forever, right?) and the girls wasted no time claiming my cake as their own.

MAY: 

Our big main adventure of May (and probably the entire year) was Jake officially starting his own firm, Whitehead Employment Law. After becoming a partner at his firm last year, we decided this was the year he would finally be able to go out on his own, a dream of his since the very beginning. Having his own business has not come without its challenges, but Jake loves, loves, loves (did I mention LOVES?) being the one to call all the shots. Everything about being a managing partner was a huge learning curve, from building a website to managing the paralegals and other attorneys who work for him (we had some tough hirings and firings this year), but taking that first leap was a huge (and scary) step and he’s done a tremendous job growing the business these first few months.

I had fun picking out his headshots!

The rest of May included spring family fun and photos at Salt Creek Beach:

Mother’s Day at the beach and spa afternoon for me at Pelican Hill as my present:

Splash pad, park playdates and more beach outings:

We took a tour of UCLA and visited Marisa there one Saturday. While we were in town, we hung out with our cousins and played with their zipline all afternoon. 

Our first trip to Legoland, which we shared with the Aldens and their cutie, Sam:

The girls went on several “hiking” excursions (more of a workout for us, than them):

JUNE:

Beach fun at the Montage beach:

We went on our first (and possibly last?) camping excursion with the girls. I still have nightmares.

Park playdates, beach days with Noah and our friends, feeding geese at the lake and Samantha showed off her new jewelry fetish:

Pool and splash pad playdates and swimming at Great Grandpa’s:  

For Father’s Day, we made a short weekend trip to the U.S.S. Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego and the girls completed their first flight training. I actually found out I was pregnant right before we left for our mini trip– Happy Father’s Day!

JULY: 

It’s so funny looking back on my posts from the year– blogging dropped off precipitously in July and the following months, which directly corresponded to my morning sickness, Jake being crazy busy with his firm, and huge construction projects. Looking back at my photo stream, there are way more photos taken from Home Depot and various renovation stores than there are of our actual family!

Happy 4th of July! We watched the parade in Ladera with the Wrights and barbecued with our neighborhood friends.

The girls started swimming lessons with the Swim Nazi and met up with Marisa and Meredith for smoothies:

Happy 1st birthday, cousin Noah! It rained as if there was going to be a re-do of Noah’s Ark, but everyone had a blast at his adorable and aptly themed party.

Grammy and Grandpa were in town for Noah’s birthday and took the girls to the OC Fair, Discovery Cube Museum, and pool. Turkey legs, anyone?

AUGUST:

Announcing Baby Girl #3 coming soon! The girls were ecstatic to pick out some baby clothes and have talked about “their” new baby constantly ever since we introduced them to the idea.

Jake’s niece, Maddie, visited from Michigan and was a huge help to me with the girls. We took a day trip to Legoland and the waterpark while she was here and it was nice not having to go on the rides myself!

Our buddy, Parker’s, fourth birthday party at Cal Elite Kids, was definitely one of the girls’ favorite parties of the year. They were exhausted after all the trampoline jumping and acrobatic swinging!

Hunting for star fish and sea creatures at Crystal Cove and lots of afternoon swimming:

Someone in our neighborhood has a pet pig that they walk like a dog! The girls enjoyed watermelon on hot days, eating cake at Camdyn’s birthday party, lounging on the chairs at church and “helping” with construction projects:

Congratulations to Sarah on her upcoming wedding! Auntie Lynn, Allison, Mom, and the girls and I threw Sarah a “Love is a Journey” themed bridal shower and we all gorged ourselves on fresh crepes to order and yummy cupcakes.

SEPTEMBER:

We took a day trip to Legoland with Parker, Phi and Michael and spent half the day at the regular park and the other at the water park. The kids had a blast together!

First Utes game of the season, the girls tried their hand at bowling for the first time and we spent more than a few days at We Play Loud or other indoor kids places as the weather was still so scorching! Thankfully, I had a lot more energy by then and my nausea was pretty much gone as I entered the second trimester. 

Jake drove us out to Utah and flew back home to work during our extended stay in Utah. We hiked and fed the fish at Bridal Veil Falls with Grammy, rode the ponies at Thanksgiving Point and visited several museums.

While the girls and I were hanging out with Grammy, Jake took a much-deserved road trip with Jarom, one of this brothers, to see the Oregon-Utah game in Eugene. After returning home, he worked and finished up a few flooring projects while we were in Utah.

OCTOBER:

The beginning of October was busy with final wedding preparations and visiting with family who came into town. We took a morning walk to Bridal Veil Falls with Noah and family and traveled up to Solitude in the mountains where we stayed for a few days during the wedding. Grammy and Grandpa rented a cabin for other family members staying there for the wedding and the girls had a great time exploring and roasting s’mores around the cabin.

The big day! Sarah’s wedding was gorgeous, it didn’t rain (or snow) and the girls walked down the aisle in their handmade dresses from Aunt Annie and their flower girl baskets without a hitch! After performing their flower girl duties, Samantha and Amelia clocked out and were crazy cranky the rest of the evening, but we still managed to enjoy some dancing and photo booth fun with family and friends. It was a wonderful wedding and we were so happy for Sarah and Mike!

 

For a few days after the wedding, we hung out in the mountains at Solitude and relaxed. 

We were sad to end our extended Utah vacation, but quickly got back into the swing of things at home. We picked pumpkins at Tanaka Farms with cousin Noah and again with our friend, Grace.

We made the trek to USC with the Smiths for the girls’ first in-person Utes Game! Kennedy shared her peanuts and cotton candy with the girls, which got them through the fourth quarter.

Two of Jake’s sisters, Angie and Gigi, visited us with two of their kids while they were staying at Disneyland. The girls were entertained all day by their cousins, Max and Mason. Jake also took the girls ice skating for the first time!

Halloween festivities and parties with friends:

Happy Halloween! Despite changing their minds every hour about what they wanted to be for Halloween, the girls ended up embracing their Bat Girl and Robin (or “Red Bat” as Amelia insisted upon) costumes and were total pros trick-or-treating. No shyness that night whatsoever.

  NOVEMBER: 

Fall family photo fun:

Slices of every day life included bike riding, making various projects out of cardboard, reminiscing about when Daddy used to carry them around in the Moby wrap, park days, dinner with Great Grandpa, and keeping busy at church.

The girls’ first plane ride was successful and we made a short trip to Utah for my friend, Kati’s, wedding and to have a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with family. The girls had never played in such a big leaf pile before and braved the cold to frolic in the leaves.

We were back home for actual Thanksgiving and the girls helped make some pumpkin pie. The Erpeldings graciously invited us over for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and we had a great time watching all the kids play dress up, romp around, dance and perform musical skits.

DECEMBER: 

The Christmas season was a blast with the girls this year since they were more aware of Christmas traditions and were better able to participate this year. Some of our Christmas festivities included a few live nativities, gingerbread house making, cookie decorating, meeting Frosty and Rudolph at the MV Santa’s Village, meeting Santa at Pretend City, and hanging out with the Smiths at the Newport Beach Light Parade. I officially became a real mom when I handed over my SUV to Jake and we got our first minivan!

Christmas Pajama party at Crystal’s:

Happy Hanukkah to Cousin Noah and a trip to Irvine Park Railroad:

Carousel rides and putting on the most annoyed-looking faces you ever did see while meeting Santa at the annual Moms of Multiples Breakfast with Santa at South Coast.

We missed traveling to Grammy’s this year for Christmas, but it was nice to wake up and celebrate in our own house this year!

The girls originally asked for “pie and cookies” from Santa, but once they figured out he brought toys, they changed their minds to asking for a football and soccer ball. No idea where that came from! The girls (particularly Amelia) were totally in the zone opening their presents.

The girls received American Girl Bitty Baby dolls and accessories for Christmas and have been busy taking good care of their babies ever since.

Grammy and Grandpa flew in on Christmas Day and spent the week with us taking the girls all around town while we did some major work on the nursery and baby prep organizing. Jake surprised me by taking me away to the Ritz for a whole 24 hours to celebrate our 9th anniversary.

Our last excursion of 2015 was well spent at the zoo with cousins Jack, Eleri and Rhys, Grammy and Grandpa.

Phew… and that’s a wrap! We were blessed to have good health and a wonderful year and are so grateful for all the family and friends with whom we were able to enjoy it! Farewell to an action-packed 2015 and we are looking forward to a sweet (and likely more chaotic) 2016!

Lots of love,