Sunday Afternoon in La Jolla

To the Mom's in my life

Happy Mother's Day to the 3 most amazing mom's I know. My first tribute is to my wife. People stare at us all the time in public and I know it's because they wonder how I ever snagged this beautiful woman. If they only knew how long I've been on Propecia to make sure I had enough hair to find a girl to marry me...I knew what an amazing person she was, but I didn't know just how amazing she would be as a mom. She really is the perfect mom-Camryn is the luckiest. I don't know anyone more patient (unless Camryn says, "talk about it Barbie" for the 104th time in a 2 minute period...then we all want to burn Barbie and never speak of her again), fun and engaging than my wife. She amazes me. I have put in some of my favorite pictures to share.

Here's beautiful mom with the little critter that started it all.

My wife danced professionally with the Sacramento Ballet and Utah Regional Ballet. I never saw her dance, and even though I really can't sit through a ballet, (sorry Karen) if I had seen this dancer I would have bought season tickets.

She is going to be extremely embarrassed that I put this picture in here because she would NEVER do anything like this on her own. Our good friend Mike made her do this with my encouragement. Every guy (and girl) has their top 5 list of celebrity crushes. Mine include the likes of Carrie Underwood, Kristin Calavarie (sp)...the list goes on with hot blondes. However I am always serious when I say that I don't think anyone is as beautiful as my wife.

Next tribute is to my mom. I know everyone loves their own mom-but on multiple occasions my friends always told me they wished they had a mom like mine-and I don't blame them. If there was a book on mom's it should have been written by this one. All mine and my brothers' guy friends wanted to date my mom (even had one ask us if they could ask her to prom) and all the girls wanted to be her when they grew up. She's one of the most spiritual, humble, smart and talented women I know. She played sports with us, laughed and cried with us, stood up for us (you should hear those stories-she could go extremely crazy if someone messed with her kids). I know she set the bar very high for myself and my brothers. Love you mom.

Check out this small town beauty. Who would have guessed she was a cheerleader, rode motorcycles and one time shoved a pencil down a boys throat in elementary school (all true stories)

She was an amazing mom-but she may actually be an even better Grandma. Camryn loves every minute with her and I know she will always love and confide in her all growing up.

Co-Author of the amazing mom book is right here. Erica decided to send her Mother's Day card while I was out of town, but I am more than happy to write this for everyone to see. You'll be hard pressed to find a woman more caring and thoughtful than Karen. I think half the reason she doesn't sleep well at night is because she's always trying to figure out a way to save the world. She would sacrifice anything not only for her family, but anyone. More important than that however is how well she cooks. I love visiting because I know there will be a constant factory of delicious food being produced in that kitchen. I realized how lucky I was at our wedding when it was so hot coming out of the temple and my mother-in-law stood armed with a cooler of Pepsi and snacks so I never went hungry or thirsty. I might have actually died with out that first aid kit.

Five amazing kids-this woman deserves a trophy.

You can tell by the smile on Camryn's face how much she loves her Grandma Motley.

I am a lucky man. Happy Mother's Day.

It is Official...

It is another GIRL!!! I am 24 weeks now, that is right 6 months! And we couldn't be any happier. I have to admit I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a boy but that lasted about 2 seconds and then I realized how great this really will be! Since we live in a smaller place it will be great that we don't have to buy anything new or change up the decor since the girls will be sharing a room. It will be great because Camryn will have a sister and I know she will be such a great big sister to this new little one. And thirdly because we know how to raise a girl so this seems very natural and fun this time rather then being so nerved up about every little thing!

This pregnancy really has gone by so quickly. Keeping busy and watching another child makes the time fly by! My one complaint is my BACK. It kills majority of the time. Not my sciatic, my lower back on my left side and carrying Camryn only makes it worse. But other then that I am feeling great and love this stage of the kicking and moving the baby does. Just enough to know she is there but not enough to do everything you can to get her out. This time I was able to feel her at 15 weeks and then could feel her outside my tummy at 16 weeks. Crazy how different each pregnancy can be!

So we are now on the count-down now that I have made it past the halfway mark and we couldn't be more excited to meet this little baby girl!

Babymoon #2 Punta Cana-Dominican Republic

Leaving from LAX at midnight-should have seen what we looked liked when we finally arrived-not like this that is for sure.

1st day on the beach-notice how white we are and no sunburns

Our lunch almost everyday(everything else was awful!!!). Club sandwiches and pina coladas that just kept coming!

Our beach

Our hotel

Just looking at the palm trees relaxes me.

Snorkeling cruise-very fun although it was somewhat of a booze cruise and explaining to everyone you don't drink takes a lot time and effort. I had an excuse but they couldn't figure out why Ryan wouldn't drink. It wasn't really the time for the Work of Wisdom talk...

Just pay attention to the stingray and not my odd tanline...

Ryan would like to point out that these were taken on the iphone in his waterproof box. He was very proud that he could take it underwater. However we both pooped a little when he first tested it out.

Trying to be photographers

The fish Ryan would like you to believe he caught if I would not have been pregnant and we could have survived the crazy boat rides.

Love birds

The hotel was new and pretty minimal so though our room was larger than our town house it was pretty minimalistic-but we liked it.

Last day-had we known what the flight home would have consisted of I would have been crying here.

Tan face

All in all it was an amazing time. If we were to do it again we would probably do a Caribbean cruise so we could see a lot of islands and have a little better food, but with 84 degree weather, a constant breeze and turquoise water there really isn't much to complain about. And a HUGE thanks to my mom & dad and my sister Amy & Mike for watching Camryn! We couldn't have been more comfortable leaving for such a long time! We'll refer to this post in a few months when the baby comes and relish the time we had doing nothing but sleeping and sipping pina coladas.

Pre-Easter Celebration

With Ryan and I's vacation over Easter weekend we decided to celebrate a little bit early (Palm Sunday). While I was gone doing a photo shoot for Twigg with my very talented friend Alia (more on that later), Ryan headed to the park for the Ladera Ranch Spring Celebration aka Easter Activity.

Ryan told her that she could get her face painted and she wouldn't stop talking about it. She got to pick what she wanted from a book and what do you know, she picked Hello Kitty. Such a girl. Ryan then told her she was to sit very still and couldn't touch her face and her reply was, "Ok, I'll put my hands behind my back like this." No idea where she got that idea but it was perfect and she sat still and loved every minute of it!

This is her trying to show us her new piece of art and maintain eye contact-she still said, "Cheese".

Then Grandma Brenda came up for the rest of the day to celebrate with us. Just relaxing playing on Grandma's iphone on our new patio set (more on that later).

Then after hearing about coloring eggs all day from Camryn, we finally made her dreams a reality. Holidays are so much more fun with kids. It was like this was the coolest thing she had ever seen!

And of course the pink and blue ones were her favorite!

Then after dinner at The Habit we walked around shops and had cupcakes. Camryn picked this one out since it was pink and had sprinkles. She would have stuffed the whole thing in her mouth if we let her. This girl won't eat much, but she can pound her sweets. Like father like daughter!

Sunday the Easter Bunny came early and hid eggs for her to find. She just kept saying, "Why the Easter Bunny hiding eggs from me? Don't hide eggs from me Easter Bunny!"

She loved it and could have done this all day long. Note:this is the same Easter dress she wore last year-still so cute, so why not!

More surprises inside from the Easter Bunny-spoiled girl!

Don't know if it is because I am missing her already but I think this age is so fun and is definitely my favorite so far! Love this girl.

And my handsome hubs. Doesn't get better than this-such a fun warm spring weekend! Happy Easter!

Love Hate

Ever since Camryn was little she has LOVED horses. Always talking about them, playing with horse toys the whole bit. But much like most things with her- you take her to actually see them or ride one and she freaks out! You would think that by age 2 1/2 she would be over this. Well we tried again and, nope! However, she loves to watch their every move from a distance.

She can't take her eyes off them and asks all kinds of questions about what they are doing at all times.

But as soon as we get close to one, game over. We will continue to try because she loves them so much at least she thinks she does. She will say to herself "I not be scared of horses-horses are nice!" But then she forgets real fast and screams-"don't bite me horse!" I am just glad we found a place close to us in San Juan to take her to see the horses and ponies anytime she wants even if she really does hate them!