the d. family

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving here in San Diego this year.  The kids had such a fun time running around Gran and Grandpa’s house.  Since everyone was dressed up and miraculously clean we decided to go down to the dock to attempt to take our Christmas card picture.  100 pictures later we ended up with 5 decent pics.  Thanks Uncle Corbin for being patient with our crazy crew!!!  

This picture is a little blurry, but I never get a picture with just Emme and I.

This one didn’t make the cut, but thought I would share Palmy’s cute smile.

Emme was so good during our mini photoshoot.  It was freezing but she stayed happy the whole time!

Halloween fun

If you know the Donnelley kids you know that they LOVE Halloween!!  This October the kids had such a blast celebrating with their friends.  We had a few parties, several trips to the pumpkin patch and a fun night trick or treating with our friends.  After many costume options Clare finally decided to be a Barbie ballerina and Palmer decided to be Spiderman.  Emme sported a pumpkin/tutu ensemble.  The kids had such a great time and it was so fun to watch them have a blast. Clare is even starting to talk about what she wants to be next year!!

Palmer’s Halloween parade

Palmer’s class.  Uh oh…I see another spiderman!!

Palmer with his favorite teacher Ms. Trez

Ready for trick or treating!!

Emme being festive

All that trick or treating made these kids hungry!  They ended the night with a cupcake!

Where did the Donnelley family go??!!

I’m sure that’s the question you’ve been asking yourselves!!  We have been beyond busy with very little free time to do anything!  I have tons of pictures to share from Halloween and the past couple of weeks.  But before we head off to Clare’s Thanksgiving party I wanted to post a few cute pictures of us hanging out.

Clare showing off her new accessories

Clare still adores her baby sister!

The kids dressing up as fairies.  Yes, Palmy loves to dress up with Clare!

Emme doesn’t know what’s going on…

The kids were very proud of the puzzle they finished. The did a great job!

More accessories

Silly Palms!!!!!

Future cheer captain???  Clare is loving gymnastics!!!

First day of school

As a good friend pointed out to me recently “wow this west coast party really isn’t stopping is it??” referring to my lack of posts.  Well I’m so behind that I’m trying to figure out where to start. I guess we’ll start with the kids first day of school. Clare started Pre-K this year and is going 5 full days!!  We also signed her up for gymnastics and starts this Wednesday afternoon.  She is very excited!!  Palmer also started school.  He’s in 2 full days at Carmel Valley Preschool.  Hopefully he can join his sister at NDA soon.  But for the meantime, he’s loving it.  I love picking him up from school!  Everyday he’s usually playing some game with older boys and when he stops playing to leave, they say “Wait, Palmer come back!”  But they are both doing really well and we’re so proud of them.  

Clare dressed in her uniform ready for school!

Ok, now she’s really ready to go.

Palmer’s all ready for his first day of school.  Tattoos and all…

Ain’t no party like a west coast party…

‘Cause a west coast party don’t stop!!!  We celebrated Clare’s 4th birthday with a cupcake party!  It was so fun because we planned it for her actual birthday and she had such a blast with all her friends.  We had a Strawberry Shortcake themed bouncy, her friends got to paint cupcake piggy banks and we ended the fiesta with a cupcake pinata.  But of course the highlight of the party was a giant cupcake cake (baked with love by Auntie Sara)!  A lot of preparation went into the party (by a lot of people), but it was worth it to see how happy Clare was on her special day.  

Lots of fun decorations!

Her Auntie Courtney made her this adorable banner!

This was the perfect craft for Clare.  She loves painting, cupcakes and piggy banks.

Happy Birthday to Clare!

Almost Happy Birthday to Clare!!!

I can’t believe my baby girl is going to be 4 tomorrow!!  I feel like it was just yesterday that I was bringing her home from the hospital.  And now I look at her and she’s so grown up to me!!  I feel like she’s even changed a lot just within the last couple of months.  She carries herself like a big girl and the things that she comes up with are absolutely hilarious.  It’s funny because I also see a lot of myself in her as she grows. Just today we were at my friend Kristin’s house and she asked to use the bathroom.  Kristin shows her the way and I hear from the bathroom “Oh I love your bathroom”.  She clearly inherited my love for home decor :) Happy Birthday to my sweet little Clare!  We can’t wait to party it up at her big birthday party tomorrow!!!

Clare showing off her tattoos from camp.  Can’t believe she starts Pre-K next week!

Clare’s favorite thing to do is play with friends!  

Opening an early birthday present from Auntie Shereen.  She was beyond excited to have her very own camera!

Emme turns 1 month!

I can’t believe my little baby Emme is one month old today!  We had her one month checkup yesterday and she’s now 7lbs 8 ounces.  She’s acting more and more alert each day and starting to show a little bit of her personality.  She’s still a good baby, but she definitely let’s you know when she’s not happy.  There are two things that she loves in this world and that’s eating time and bath time.  She loves, loves, loves her bath!!  She could be screaming at the top of her lungs and as soon as she feels the water she is so happy. The past 4 weeks have flown by!  It’s crazy to think that I’m putting clothes away that are too small for her.  Makes her mommy a little sad…

Emme’s one month old picture!

I love how they are looking at each other.

“Love you Emme!!”