Catching Up

Well, let's see, it's been 5 months since my last post so there's a lot to catch up on. So to start, I'll just post some pics of some of the things that have been going on in our lives the last 5 months. You'll see below our newest addition, Lucy Jane Tyndall who arrived 3 days after Jack's bday on February 22. She's now 3 and a half months old and yes that's Scott's red hair he passed down. We love having a little girl, Jack does to, well the truth is he's loving it a bit less and less each day but still a great big brother.

Marine World

Jack's cousin Avery who is newly potty trained was given the reward of going to Marine World for being done with diapers. And, lucky for Jack(still in diapers):), we were invited to come along, Jack's highlight was going to Thomas town and riding Harold the Helicopter and Thomas the Train. He was in heaven. We spent the rest of our time seeing the animals - Jack's favorite were the penguins. We also saw a sea lion show and a dolphin show.

Celebrating Christmas...

This Christmas we had a lot of fun and activity. One of the most exciting things that happened was the birth of Jack's cousin, Owen David Ahlem. We're sad we can't meet him because he's in Texas but very excited to have a new cousin.
As for Christmas, we headed into Turlock Christmas Eve and spent the evening with my cousins and brother at the Annual Ahlem Christmas Eve. Surprisingly Jack wasn't scared and walked right up to to sit on Santa's lap with cousin Avery (who was a bit less enthusiastic).


We spent Christmas morning with my twin brother Mark, his wife Lindsay, Avery and my grandparents. Here's Jack and Avery in their matching pajamas. That night we had Christmas dinner with my parents who just came in from visiting their new grandson nephew in Texas.

And, although we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas day, we still felt like we had a somewhat "at home" Christmas the next day opening stockings and Jack opening gifts from Grandpa John and Grandma Christy

Tree Time

We decided because we won't be traveling a long distance this year, it was definitely time to get a tree. So, we headed down to Santa's Tree Farm in Half Moon Bay and cut down our own. It was a lot of fun, although it did take us longer than expected to find the right tree. Jack mostly enjoyed running around the trees, falling in the dirt and directing dad as he sawed down the tree.

A Holiday Week of Travel

We had a full week of travel this past week, and a great time seeing family. We started off visiting Scott's dad, Grandpa John, in Borrego Springs at his house in the desert. It was beautiful and relaxing and Jack had the time of his life digging in the sand and playing in Grandpa's fish pond.

Next we headed to Scott's mom's house and spent Thanksgiving with the whole family. We did a 5K Turkey Trot which has become a tradition over the past 3 years. Jack enjoyed playing with his cousin Noah and all of his aunts and uncles, going to the beach and being spoiled by Grandma;) Thanksgiving was delicious as always when Grandma Christy cooks.

On the way home we visited friends from college, Jason, Amber and Hayden in San Clemente and headed back up north making a stop at my parents to shorten up our drive. Jack spent the morning with Grandpa Chuck having breakfast at the coffee shop and riding around in a dump truck.

We laughed when at one point in the trip Jack said, "We're going to a lot of houses". We're back at home now and Scott's looking forward to starting a new job. Not sure if I mentioned it earlier but Jack has given up his naps now so I'm hoping this week we survive:)

Fire Engine Tour

This weekend we took a tour of the fire department around the corner from our house with a bunch of Jack's other fire-crazed buddies. The firefighters showed the kids the inside of the fire department including what was in their fridge - which Jack was pretty interested in. But, the highlights of tour were spraying water out of the fire hose and sitting in the fire truck.