Daddy-Daughter Duet

I Love My Feet!

Evelyn loves her feet so much we made up a little song (to the tune of "I'm a little teapot")...

I'm a little baby, cute and sweet
I love to play with my little feet
When I get all happy hear me tweet
I'm so cute I can't be beat


or I'm such a wonderful treat
or Maybe someday I'll move to Crete

Visit with Amma & Papa

Happy Birthday, Papa!

Today Papa flew in from California and Amma and Papa took us out to dinner. We had a nice little visit.



Also today, Evelyn found her feet! She had both of them at one point, but I could only catch her in the act with the camera while she was holding one. So cute :)


And, according to Wii Fit, Evelyn weighs 10.8 lbs. :)

PT update: Day three (today) has gone fairly well. We had little accidents throughout the day, but Adeline catches herself going, stops and waits to get to the potty to finish. She even did this right when waking up from her nap. Her accident wasn't even big enough to get the sheet wet and right when I got her up she went quite a bit on the potty. I think this shows remarkable progress! Amma picked up a little pink potty from Ikea on her way to the airport to pick up Papa today and that's going to be our travel potty. We learned this evening at Outback that public big girl toilets are just a little too intimidating right now ;-). So we had one little accident at Outback - she kept telling us she needed to go so we took her 3 times... but then she had an accident back at her seat at the table. Hopefully the little pink potty will help with this ;-). She already likes to sit on it at home.

Potty Training

Adeline is officially, 100% potty training. We "threw away" all the diapers (and by "threw away" I mean put them into a box at the top of her closet... no way I'm throwing all of those away when #2 will be in them eventually!! :) and put her in underwear 100% of the time. She wore underwear for her nap yesterday - woke up dry! She wore underwear to bed for the first time last night, at the end of our first official day of training and only had one accident around 2am. After a day and a half she's already getting much better at telling me when she needs to go, and she knows that we always need to try before going to bed or taking a walk. She's doing really well. I am very proud of her.

Today we've been married 6 years.
Happy Anniversary to us :).

Songs

Sometimes Adeline will start singing and forget what song she started with. This morning she sang,

"Sweet Adeline, my flower, half an hour, VeggieTales!"

Heading Home

Today we flew home. This time we brought the car seat on the plane hoping Adeline would be able to sleep since she would have the comfort and familiarity of her seat. She didn't sleep, but it was better to have her contained :). Evelyn was good too. She slept most of the time, just as she did on the way out.

Adeline did manage to get some shut eye on the ride home from the airport. Since we didn't want to disturb her we simply unhooked the seat and brought it in with her in it. So sleepy...


Tomorrow it's back to normal life.

Vacation

Today was our one day of real vacation this week. We set it aside and didn't plan a single thing so we could do whatever we fancied when the day came. So while Alan spent some time lounging by the pool, Adeline, Grandmother and I took a walk overlooking the back bay. Gosh it's beautiful here.





In the afternoon, Adeline spent some time out by the pool with Daddy.



Later on, while Adeline napped, Grandmother, Evelyn and I went to the photographer's so I could choose the family portrait I wanted printed from Saturday's photo shoot.

Time for a good night's sleep. Long day again tomorrow.

My sleeping beauties...

Play Time & In-n-Out

Adeline and Nayeli had a fun time playing together this morning.

First they danced...

And then they played some Ring Around the Rosey



And the babies did their own thing... :)

Alan spent the morning back at his grandparents' house to spend some more time with Grandpa. When he returned we tried to get a picture of the 4 girls together. There were some pretty humorous shots. This was the best I got... Did you get a better one, Jay??

Eliora, Nayeli, Evelyn, Adeline

We enjoyed In-n-Out for the last time during our trip with Jay, Rhiannon and the girls before heading back down to Grandmother & Pa's in Newport Beach where we'll spend our last two nights. Adeline slept a good deal of the way and watched a movie for the rest. She's really been so good at putting up with so much over the course of the week! Grandmother made my favorite for us for dinner - tacos!!

Adeline's first In-n-Out!

Rest, Friends & Family

This morning we had a nice slow start and some much needed rest from a crazy weekend. We're staying with our friends in Nipomo - Jay & Rhiannon and their two girls, Nayeli (3) and Eliora (10 months). Jay made us all whole grain pancakes this morning (yum!) and then the dads took the girls to the park. After a nice lunch and some visiting, Adeline FINALLY took a nap, after 4 whole days without one. Our original plan for the day was to meet some family at a nearby park so Adeline could run around and folks could see her in all her glory :), but she didn't wake up till 5 in the evening. We decided we needed to maximize our time with Alan's grandparents, so we scrapped the park idea and headed straight there to spend some time.

Evelyn and Great Grandpa

Alan, the girls and the great grands!

Adeline playing with Great Grandpa

Alan's Aunt Beckie and Uncle John as well as Adeline's Granddad (Alan's dad) were able to make it over for a little bit too. We spent a few hours together and then headed back down to Nipomo for the night (where I kicked butt in Scrabble that night - hehehe :). Tomorrow it's back down to SoCal!

DRAFT

This morning my entire family - Mom, Dad, Rob, Megan, Peter, Amy, Sophie, Abby, Alan, Adeline, Evelyn and I - all attended our old home church, Irvine Presbyterian. It was fun to see old friends again and attend all together. What an immense blessing it is to have everyone together. It just doesn't happen that often, but we've been blessed to be together several times this year, and to be all together at IPC means a lot to me and my sentimental nature :).

After church, party #3 for the weekend! The Fantasy Football Draft! My Uncle Randy logged on from Amsterdam (after already being up for 36 hours straight!!), other members of the league logged in from Texas and the rest of us gathered at my Grandma Jo's.

My Aunt Julia with Evelyn.
Julia, Steve and 3 of the 4 kids came over for a visit.

Uncle Patrick and Aunt Laura made an appearance, too.
Evelyn loves her Uncle Patrick!

Megan and Auntie Anne
- one of my mom's childhood friends.
She's one of us! :)

The Cousins
Taking a break from the pool for some Wii!

My guacamole girl!!

Out at the pool, wearing Abby's goggles

Drafting

The Commish (my dad)
at his "HQ" (the kitchen table)

Tonight we make the drive up to the Central Coast to stay with some friends in Nipomo. Hopefully the girls will sleep!!

Happy 60th John & Katherine!

Today was the big day! And once again, I don't have any pictures of it... but again I know they exist and they will appear here as soon as I can get my hands on them!

Today was the whole reason our little family traveled to Southern California this summer - to celebrate my grandparents and their life together - 60 wonderful years. The room was beautiful, the food delicious, the friends and family joyful. My mom, sister, brother, cousin and I all sang together and my Great Uncle Jimmy made us all laugh and played a little on his trumpet. Grandmother recalled the crazy events surrounding their wedding (including but not limited to the minister dying shortly before the wedding was to take place and two of the groomsmen getting into a pretty bad car accident the day before...). Pa recalled his memories of the wedding (he actually skipped right to the honeymoon! :) And the lemon bars were spectacular, if I do say so myself :).

We had the opportunity to take some beautiful family portraits. I can't wait to share them with you all when we receive them. In the meantime here's a proof of our favorite of just our family.


After all of the festivities were done I was able to take some time out to spend with my sister and a friend, Chrissy, and her new baby boy Jack. I took Evelyn with me too. It was a short time over chili fries and tacos at Islands in Irvine (the old stomping grounds!), but we very much enjoyed hanging out for some time, and Megan and I even ran into two families from our home church :).

Party Prep, Jake the Dog, & Festivities

Today Evelyn and I went to the church where my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary celebration will be tomorrow. My sister and I were in charge of making 9 batches of lemon bars and helping to set up the room. Unfortunately, due to the busyness of the day, I neglected to take any pictures. I do know, however, that some pictures from the day do exist, so I'll post some when they appear elsewhere :).

While I was party prepping and rehearsing for tomorrow, Adeline and Alan met Aunt Laura, Uncle Patrick and Jake the Dog at a park over near where they live. They had a fun day running around and hanging out with one another. We just don't get to see each other often enough!

This evening my grandparents hosted a party at their home for the extended family and any out of town guests in town for tomorrow's celebration. It was very fun to reconnect with family and family friends, as well as meet some of my grandparents' oldest friends that I had not yet had the privilege of getting to know.

We turned in fairly early. Big day tomorrow!!

California here we come! Right back where we started from...

Today we left for sunny SoCal! Looking forward to a good time, lots of family and some friends. Hopefully a little rest in there somewhere, too :).

Adeline is a very good traveler.
If the plane goes down,
we'll look to her to know what to do ;-)

We didn't bring the car seat on the plane, figuring that Adeline would have a better time if she was a little more free to move around. All things considered, the flight went pretty well. Evelyn was sound asleep the whole time. Tonight we're crashing at Grandma Jo's and tomorrow begins the craziness of a very busy weekend!!

Bumbo!

Trying out the Bumbo for the first time!!
Look at that head control :).

Today is our last day with Aunt Beckie. We head for California tomorrow morning and Aunt Beckie heads for Toledo before heading out for Philly. It's been so nice to have her close by for a time while she had a little stint in Indiana. Hope to see you again soon, Aunt Beckie!!

Another day at the park

3 Months!

Today Evelyn is three months old! Yep, 3 months have gone by already.


This morning Aunt Beckie and Adeline made some cookies, pizza, frogs, letters and lots of other things with Play-doh!

Aunt Beckie's Visit

Aunt Beckie arrived today to spend a few days with us while she's in between homes, moving from Indiana to Pennsylvania. This afternoon we went to the park. Evelyn hung out in the stroller...



...and Adeline ran around.


We always have fun at the park. And you can tell from the sky in the picture that it was a beautiful day!

Camping

Today we planned to spend the day at the church campout in Chelsea, but when my back went out as we were hoping to walk out the door in the morning things didn't go as planned! I was laying on the floor, out of commission, when my friend Nan called. I related the state I was in and she offered to bring me to the chiropractor. A few adjustments (and many hours and a nap later...) we finally headed out! We made it just in time for the big potluck, some playtime for Adeline and Hannah, and of course s'mores!

Playing in the dirt

A glow-in-the-dark necklace
and a marshmallow - what could be better?

Sorry Kara... had to post this one
because it's the only one I got of Evelyn! :)
I think you guys are cute