California Christmas & MJ's 1st Birthday

Wow! That went fast...almost too fast. Molly is now 1 year old (+ 5 days). WE SURVIVED THE 1ST YEAR - now, that's an accomplishment! And in celebration, her and Byron's (they were born 8 days apart) first birthday party was "Survivor" themed. I can't take credit for the theme idea (it was Amy's grand idea), but it was great and fun was had by all!

Since my last post, a lot of awesome things have happened in our lives - Molly's first Christmas, the entire family meeting up in San Diego for Christmas break, me and James' 2nd wedding anniversary, and Molly's first birthday. That is a lot to be grateful for! See some of our pictures below.

Molly's 1st Christmas

Byron & Molly

10 Months

All bundled up for school!

Future crafter in the making

Obligatory Santa pic

Molly & Byron

December in Riyadh

Happy OB Holidays!

OB Christmas tree

Christmas morning with Ruca!

Pop-Pop & Molly at Bernardo Winery

Family :)

Cousins - Molly & Keely

The girls ;)

Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop with Molly

New Year's Eve with matching dresses

New Year's Eve!

New Year's Eve!!

1st sunset of the new year - Sunset Cliffs

The Big Day!

Tribe Molly

Tribe Byron

1st Birthday Party Day

Cake!

Happy Birthday to Byron & Molly!!

Some fun on the slide to end the party :)

The Rampley family has their tickets booked from Riyadh to Philadelphia on June 12, and we will be in Philadelphia/New Jersey and Michigan for the summer. We can't wait to see our family and friends again. We miss you. We love you. And until we see you again, stay stoked.

When in Rome...

This is my first blog post in over 3 months after consecutively writing a blog post every month for the past year. Needless to say, life has been busy! In short, since my last blog post, we came back to Saudi Arabia, started back to work, vacationed in Egypt and then in Italy, and now we are ever so excited for Molly Joan's first Christmas. We will be in San Diego this year for Christmas <3

I am going to keep the text short for this blog post, but check out some of our pictures that show what we have been stoked about over the past few months!

MJ's first school photo - thanks Aunt Ellie for the cute outfit!

8-month photo

9-month photo - thanks Sue Woods for the cute outfit!

Started eating solid foods and mostly likes it :)

Our first Italian dinner when we got to Italy

8-month photo with Mama

8-month photo with Daddy

Learning to walk in my walker - I'm finally crawling but not walking yet ;)

My first Halloween!

Trick-or-Treating in the back of our tricycle!

On our block

The Red Sea in Egypt at sunrise because we don't EVER get to sleep in!

Mama trying to keep MJ entertained during our Vatican Museums tour ;)

Playing in the Red Sea, Egypt

Camel rides on the beach!

Egyptian landscape

Playing in my stroller in Egypt

Getting ready for dinner in Egypt

Kiddie pool water slide in Egypt

Colosseum in Rome, Italy with Daddy

Colosseum in Rome, Italy with Mama

Saint Peter's Square inside Vatican City

Right outside Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Inside Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Florence, Italy - I LOVE this quote, it reads:
every step I have taken in my life has led me here, now

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

The Little Piglet in Florence, Italy - rubbing the nose guarantees a return trip!

Outside our villa in Tuscany

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

At the Pisa Cafe with the tower in the background

Decorating for Christmas

I put EVERYTHING in my mouth

Jumping for joy in Siena, Italy

Chianti, Italy

Tour bus in Rome with Mama

Tour bus in Rome with Daddy

We have had some AMAZING (and amazingly busy!) times during these past few months. But we miss all of our family and friends dearly, and we love you guys so much. For those of you that we will see over the holidays, we CANNOT wait! And for those of you who we won't see this holiday season, you will most definitely be with us in our thoughts. So much love for all of you <3

Stay stoked.