August 2016

What a busy month August was!  We started out the month with a trip down to Oceanside with the trailer.  We stayed at a place called Paradise By the Sea, which had great pictures and reviews so we were so excited to go there for the weekend.

We had a great time as a family but overall the place that we stayed, and the city of Oceanside in general, were very trashy.  We were sorta counting down the days until it was time to leave.  I guess all the trips can't be the best and at least we know never to go back!

By far the worst thing about the place (besides the local bums and the fact that people were actually living there for 3-6 months), was the train that ran behind the campsite at all hours of the day.

Mila is so excited to turn four and has been counting down since the first of August.  She's been to a couple of birthday parties and is so sad that she's not four yet.  I keep telling her it will be her turn soon but she just can't wait.

Look how much of a big kid she looks in this video. She's still very reserved but it also coming out of her shell and loves to try new things, even if they're a little bit scary.  Afterwards she's always so proud of herself.

She loves helping out in the kitchen and is actually very good with the stove, understanding it's hot and not trying to do too much.  Even though every thing takes longer when she's helping it's so nice to be doing it together.

Nellie has started to become more independent, if that's even possible.  The second she learned how to say "no" she wants to do everything herself and her first instinct is to say "no" even if she means yes!

Do you want to eat dinner? No.
Time for a bath. No.
Let's change your diaper. No.
Do you want me to move so you can play with that? No.

She is definitely an attention seeker and loves to be the center of attention.  It's not hard to do, though, because she is cute as a button.

She loves Teletubbies and talking to you in jibberish as if you know what she's saying.  This month she has started saying "hot," "ow," "down," "done" and many more.

She is still getting into anything and everything and climbing places where she doesn't belong (or even fit).

She definitely keeps me on my toes and drives me absolutely insane at times but then she will snuggles up to me and gives me kisses and then I forget why I was irritated in the first place. She is a definite daddy's girls and gets SO excited whenever he walks into the room, even if he only left two minutes ago.

We ended the month with another RV trip, this time to Santa Paula, CA, where we stayed at the Ventura KOA. This place was AMAZING.  It's nestled in the Los Padres National Forest above Ventura, CA and it was SO green and lush and absolutely quiet.

After we settled in to our spot we drove down into downtown Santa Paula (population: 30k) for dinner at a local pizza place.

The campsite was pretty large but it was fairly empty for the week that we were there.  One of the craziest things was the flock of peacocks that roamed wild through the area.  They were obviously not scared of people but they probably weren't used to little firecrackers like Nellie chasing them around, calling them doggies, so we had to keep an eye on her.

The first day we drove about 35min up into the mountains to Ojai and stopped at Friend's Ranch for some oranges.  I was really hoping that we would be able to tour the ranch but they said they only do that in the Spring. Instead we picked up some oranges and then drove back into downtown Ojai.

We went to the most amazing park there; if it weren't so far away I would literally drive there (I would even drive an hour!) to go there again. It had so much fun stuff for the girls and was very shaded (a must because it was 90 degrees while we were there).

After the park we had lunch before heading back to camp.

After nap time we spent the afternoon at the pool and then at this large jumping pillow, it was so fun!

The next day we drove about 30min into Ventura and visted the harbor, the pier and their downtown.

There was an arcade in the harbor that both Mila and Robert loved and Mila was so excited with all of the tickets she won so she could "buy" all kinds of junk prizes.

Glow stick movie night in the trailer:

We were actually supposed to leave on Thursday but ended up loving the place so much we stayed an extra day. The final day we mixed it up and went swimming in the morning.  Mila swam about half the length of the pool by herself and is getting so confident in the water.  It's so fun watching her swim.

Even Nellie loved the pool and would jump off the edge (from sitting) to Robert or I on her own.

After naptime we drove 45min into Santa Barbara for happy hour at Enterprise Fish Co.  The seafood was so yummy and we made it out of there before Nellie had a complete meltdown (but not before she climbed on the table 82 times).

That night we did smores in the campfire. The girls had an amazing, and very messy, time.

Such a great trip and I can't wait to go back!

July 2016

We've been making the best of this summer so far!  We took the girls on a couple of bike rides at the beach. They do pretty good but then lose their minds if we don't let them out to play in the sand.

We stayed in HB for the 4th of July and took the girls down to the parade as we have been doing the past couple of years.  My parents met us there and then came over in the afternoon for a bbq.

Mila went to Vacation Bible School at church and the Friday night prior they had a kick off carnival.  The girls had a blast getting their faces arms painted, playing all of the games (prizes for everyone!) and enjoying some shaved ice.

Robert and I had a staycation at the HB Hyatt one night while my parents watched the girls.  It was SO much fun; we definitely need to do it more often.

We closed out the weekend by taking the girls to Mother's Beach for the afternoon.

Nellie is on the verge of a word explosion, I can just feel it.  Just in the past week she has started saying stinky (while waving her hand in front of her nose), ow, weeeeeee! (when going down a big hill), trash truck (I swear I heard her say this) and Roscoe (she tells him bye every morning).  Her claim to fame lately, though, is saying No while wagging her finger at you.  While cute at first, it's just obnoxious now :)

Nellie and I had our first "mommy and Nellie" date, which is hard to believe it took this long. It was fun having her out and about all by herself, although I did have to eat my dinner in a record 15min before she kicked over the table.

She is so determined to do everything that Mila does and gets SO frustrated when she can't.  This usually leads to her screaming, kicking, yelling and throwing a fit.  We're working on that.....

She definitely marches to the beat of her own drum and is SO independent.  She does whatever she wants. I know that we will eventually love and embrace that trait...like she she's 25.

Near the end of the month she developed a rash on her butt and on the front of her legs. After a couple trips to the doctor it was determined that it was shingles.

Because she had the chicken pox vaccination in January a small amount of the chicken pox virus was injected into her body; theoretically this would mean that she could contract to the shingles virus.  Although this is very rare (it only happens to 5% of children), Nellie is one of the lucky few!

There's really nothing we can really do to treat it but after a couple days it started looking better (see below).  I put tea tree oil on it twice a day and after two days the spots were almost all gone.

She was a trooper throughout most of it and acted normal, although a little more clingy.  The worst part of it, though, was that she through up three times, twice on Robert!

Every night before bed we say our prayers and when Nellie was sick Mila said, "I love my mom and I love my dad.  I love Nellie, please help her feel better...with almond milk.  Thank you for Kira and all my friends at school.  Thank you for Lexi and Sophia.  Amen."  Afterwards I asked her, "almond milk?!" She said "nothing mom!" and rolled over and went to sleep.

Mila has been really enjoying preschool, even making the preschool Instagram page during a bubble assembly.

They do all kinds of fun things every week at preschool, including an on site activity (bubbles, soccer), a weekly field trip (she has gone to the movies and bowling), bounce house/water play and a dress up day every week (hat day, dots/stripes, costume - Doc Stuffins below)

She spent the whole month in swim lessons and she did SO great.  She is now a little fish and asks to go swimming all of the time.  She would bob on the side of the pool the whole class and can now float on her back and jump in and swim to an instructor or to the side of the pool.

She was exhausted every evening when she got home, though, and would pass out every night.

Mila is saying THE funniest things.  I told her that daddy was just going to run into a store really fast and she said, "Daddy can't run because him has older legs."

When she grows up she wants to be supergirl, a doctor or a policeman like daddy <3

At dinner one night no one was talking and she said, "guys, it's too quiet in here."

One time when she was in the car with my parents my dad told my mom that she was the navigator.  A couple of minutes later Mila said, "I want to be the alligator!"

The girls got their haircut for the first time in like 8 months (oops) and both did SO good.  Mila was going to cut her hair up to her shoulders but once I told her that meant no more Elsa braid she decided to keep it long.  Definitely merited the sucker at the end.

I have been working on my french braiding skills and still have a way to go but at least I have a good student to practice on.

Robert, Garret, Nora and I went to see Darius Rucker at Irvine Meadows; it was THE BEST concert ever.  I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did but he played so many great songs and we had so much fun.

Robert met up with Dusty and Jay for a Angels game.

And Roscoe celebrated his 6th birthday!!

Looking forward to a couple of RV trips coming up next month!

Nellie's 18 Month Update & Dr. Appointment

Our happy little goose is now 18(.5) months old. Some days I look at her and wonder when she got so big and other days I can't believe she is so tiny and I still have a little baby to snuggle.

Favorite Foods:  Nellie loves to eat.  There's nothing she won't try and she wants to eat all the time.  Just tonight, while I was making dinner, I gone to swap out the laundry and when I came back she was standing at the kitchen counter and had eaten half a container of cherry tomatoes.  She's the fastest eater,  almost like she's afraid someone is going to steal her food.  She prefers to take her food apart to eat it (quesadillas, taquitos, sandwiches) and likes to dip everything in ketchup.

Signature Moves: climbing on anything and everything (stools, chairs, tables, the play kitchen stove), doing something that she knows she shouldn't be doing but then giving you a crinkly nose smile that you just can't possible get mad at. She LOVES dancing and has this little hop move that is too cute.  She has started walking around the house on her tippy toes and wants to do EVERYTHING her big sister is doing.  She throws the best fits, flopping on the ground on her stomach, laying on her hands and kicking her feet.  She wants to cuddle on her own terms and loves sucking on her fingers.; she has starting putting her clothes in the dirty clothes and loves to help by bringing Mila her milk in the morning.  We have to put her hair back everyday because it's STILL not trained to go behind her ears; if we forget she's a dead ringer for Cousin Itt and can't see a thing.

Current Words:  she only says a handful of words that you can actually understand (mama, dada, bye, hi, woof, doggie, moo, quack, oooo) but she is all about communicating and will tell all kinds of stories, asking questions and getting frustrated when you can't understand what she is saying.  Half the time I think she says something (what's that? that? yes please) but then I have to do a double take because surely she can't already be speaking like that, right?  RIGHT?! Today after her doctor's appointment I SWEAR she was saying "shots" when she was looking at her bandaids.

Favorite Activities: She is OBSESSED with balls and doggies so anything involving these two take the cake.  She loves to go down the slide, swing on the swing and ride in her pink car.  Music makes her happy and she has started to sit down and "read" books to herself.  She gives kisses and hugs, saving the best for her sister.  She knows where a few of her body parts are and loves to point them out when you ask her.  She loves to play dress up, wear hats and dress like her sister.

18 Month Doctor's Appointment
After forgetting to schedule her 15 month doctor's appointment (sorry Nellie!!! I promise I will work on not treating you like the second child!), Nellie had her 18mo doctor's appointment today.  This is the first appointment I haven't been at but I knew Robert was more than capable.  Nellie weighed in at 25lbs and is 32in tall, our long and lean little lady (for comparison, Mila was 24lbs and 30.5in).  She had three shots today since we missed the last appointment (so sorry!) but Robert said she only screamed out for a second and didn't really, which is exactly what i would've expected from our tiny tornado.

We love you so much little goose.