I recently pulled out a few of Nicholas' baby clothes to save as a keepsake.  Samantha got a hold of the outfit that Nicholas wore home from the hospital and discovered that it fit perfectly on her baby doll.  Since he was only 5 lbs 11 oz when he was born he was still swimming in this preemie outfit.  He's still our little guy.  Samantha is catching up and they are now both wearing size 4 pants...

This praying mantis was my excitement for the day.  I drove away from work today without realizing this guy was sitting on the hood of my car.  He crawled to this spot on my side mirror and rode all the way home.  Nicholas and Samantha put him in a glass jar and watched him for a while before we let him go.  He's a long way from home, but hopefully he likes Torrance as much a we do.

Samantha's First Day of School

Daddy had the honor of taking Samantha to her first day of preschool. Sadly, I had to work.

Her best buddy Violet was waiting for her and didn't want to go into class without her.

She jumped right in to the first activity and had a little sticker fun with her classmates.

Back to School

All good things have to come to an end. It was hard to say good bye to summer, but right after we got home from Yosemite I headed back to classroom to set up for the new school year.

The day before my school year officially began my niece Hazel was born. My sister Nicki, Adam, and brother Luke welcomed Hazel Tsing-Ling Bettino on August 29th at 5:30 pm. She was 6 pounds 8 ounces and is the cutest little hazelnut!

That same week my other sister Barbara got married. Congratulations Barbara and Antosh!

The following week Nicholas had his first day of Kindergarten. He met his teacher Mrs. Kawaguchi and had a great first day. It's pretty nice being able to walk 3 houses down to his school!

Samantha starts preschool next week with Mrs. McCamant who Nicholas had his first year of preschool too. Since she's officially a big girl now, we finally got her out of her toddler bed and got her a big girl bed. It sure is BIG!

Summer - Part Two

In August, we went on our 3rd annual camping trip to Yosemite. This year there were 5 families that stayed for a week. We scored with our reservations back in March and managed to get 5 camp sites all in a row. We spent the week riding our bikes to the river, swimming, hiking, making s'mores, watching the stars, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. It doesn't get much better than Yosemite!

Summer - Part One

We had so much fun all summer that we had no time to blog! Being the first summer that no one required a nap (I could have used a few though) we seemed to be going non-stop.

We started our summer off with a trip to Palm Desert with 5 other families. Altogether there were 15 kids and 12 adults. We had a great time lounging in the pool, going down the water slide, watching movies, and having picnic dinners on the lawn by our hotel villas.

We came home just in time to celebrate the 4th of July.

Mid July, Chris and I got to go on our own little trip to Seattle. We had a great time eating great food, enjoying the sights, and getting a little R and R.