Winter Weather?

I took this picture on January 30, 2012. It has been such a strange winter this year. Hardly any rain, and when we did get rain, it was only for two days. I love the rain. I wish I could move to Seattle and be in the rain all the time; I always look forward to winter. This winter has been so disappointing to me that I want it just hurry up and pass by and get on with spring already. Even though I'm missing the rain, I am still enjoying the beautiful sunsets were having. This is a completely unedited photo. Nature never ceases to stop me in my tracks and make me take notice. 

~Here's to an early spring~ 

Happy New Year!

Yes, yes, I know it's late February- but I haven't blogged about our lives since Christmas! Sheesh!

What have I been doing all this time?! Oh, right, working, chasing a toddler around, growing a baby AND knitting! No wonder I haven't blogged in over two months.

Here is a picture of me taken in early January, where I'm roughly six and a half months pregnant. I look totally different now and I'll post more recent pictures as I work my way through my back log of photos.

Back to the New Year...how was yours? We didn't do much as far as ringing in 2012, which was nice. We were both exhausted from the fall semesters at our jobs and flying though the holidays right after that. So if I remember correctly, we watched a little dvr and went to sleep. It was wonderful.

After our *huge* New Year celebration, I skipped town for a night to visit my even-more-pregnant friend Brooke. We met up halfway between our towns and spent a night talking. Oh, and we had a delicious, leisurely, child-free meal. The only thing missing was a nice bottle of wine...

As soon as I returned, we jumped in the car and drove to Santa Cruz to visit Adaline's Grandma and Grandpa. We took a long stroll along West Cliff Drive and enjoyed the fresh sea air. 

The next day we tried to go to a beach, but finding a beach was hard to do. This is a huge wave winter for the coast and most of the beaches were being sucked out by the currents. So we kept our distance and watched the 10-12 foot waves from the park in front of the beach. 

Grandpa checking out the waves

As soon as we returned from Santa Cruz, we went back to work. All in all, it was a great holiday break, but we were all exhausted by the end. As all you parents know, traveling is hard, but traveling with a child (and two dogs!) is even harder. 

Christmas Weekend

As busy as the Christmas holiday is for us, I look forward to it every year. We spend Christmas Eve with my grandparents, my parents and my sister and her family. This year, Adaline's cousins showed her how to open her own presents. She was fascinated watching them tear through the paper and soon learned it was okay for her to do the same. It was non-stop fun! 

Christmas Day breakfast is the one time each year that we get to see my extended family all in one place for a few hours. This year we were only missing one person!

Meet the Tornquist Family...

This is my dad's family: his parents, three brothers and one sister, their spouses, children and grandchildren. My dad and his siblings had a total of 10 children. We, the grandchildren, are currently up to 13 great-grandchildren (the newest being 5 weeks old) and still counting (our new April addition will be the 14th!)
It was wonderful to see everyone and I wish we could have spent more time with each family, but there simply wasn't enough time.
After packing up, we headed to the Walsh cabin for a cozy Christmas dinner. Adaline really enjoyed opening her presents and spending time with the family. The only thing missing was the snow :) Unfortunately, none of our pictures from that evening turned out- but trust me, we had a great night!
Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday was as enjoyable as ours was.

Merry Christmas!

~Happy holidays to you and yours~

I hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as Adaline enjoyed hers :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope you are able to spend today doing exactly what you want to be doing surrounded by people that you care about. Have a wonderful day!

Weekend Entertainment

At some point in the weekend, we run to the window to watch the backyard show.

It never gets old for any of us :)

Pictures Taken on November 12, 2011

Doesn't everyone harvest tomatoes in November?

This year's weather has really messed up Travis' tomato season. He didn't get any tomatoes until August and now it's November and the plant is STILL producing.

Granted, it's a monster plant...

Travis calls it his beanstalk...

It's so tall and heavy it pulled the support spike over.

 He planted six tomato plants this year, and only this one took off (thank goodness!) I love tomatoes as much as the next person, but could you imagine SIX of theses beasts?!