July 2018

This might have been our busiest month yet!  In hindsight I think we packed too much in but you're (kids are) only young once, right??  We started off the month with an amazing birthday party that Mila was invited to. It was a super small party but it was so well done and I would love to take Nellie there for one of her birthdays...she would be in heaven!

From there we rolled right into 4th of July week (which was basically a wasted week at work!).  We are so lucky we have one of the biggest, best parades in the country right here in Huntington Beach.  We are ALSO very lucky because my parents go down the day before and mark off a spot for us and then they get down there around 8am on the parade day so we can arrive around 11am, basically when the parade is just starting.  So much easier to do it this way.

A couple days later Shantelle and Jet (and Elia!) came to visit. It was a very short visit but it was so nice to see them.  They have been out to visit a number of times and it's always so fun (fun fact, I found out I was pregnant with Mila when they left here six years ago); it's so nice to have friends that you can go so long without seeing or really talking to and just pick up where you left the last time and catch up.

We went to an amazing summer kick off BBQ at Charlie's house complete with an inflatable waterslide in their backyard!  Mila was feeling extremely shy and emotional that day but once she went down the slide once she was hooked and we couldn't get her off.  Even Nellie joined in for the fun!

My sister and my little William came out the following weekend and my dad surprised my mom with a vow renewal.  My mom was super surprised and was so fun to "witness" their marriage the second time around.

William is SO grown up now and is such a little boy. He is THE sweetest and so smart and talkative.  The girls absolutely adore him and he and Nellie are two little peas in a pod.  They hadn't really seen each other since William was a little baby but by the way they interacted you would think they had grown up every day together.  Guess that's the thing about cousins!

Just a day of rest work and then we were off to Palm Springs with the Charlands for a family vacation.  When we went to Vegas last year we had an absolute blast but really missed the girls and said we should plan a trip with them this year (although about two hours into Palm Springs we all were like what were we thinking!)

The girls were beside themselves excited to have sleepovers with their best friends and everyone had a great time and there was almost zero fighting.  The high was around 115 degrees the whole time we were there so we spent almost the whole time at the pool...which no one was complaining about.

Nellie is doing great at preschool and has started talking about other kids at school other than Ariah so I think she's finally settling into the school without having Mila to interact with every day.

When we were in Palm Springs Aimee gave us a paid of Ugg-type boots for Nellie that were too small for her girls.  Nellie found them and insisted on wearing them to preschool even though we told her that her feet would be hot.   I should've known better and put an extra pair of shoes in her basket because I got a call from preschool a couple hours into the day asking if anyone could bring an extra pair of shoes up for Nellie because she decided her feet were hot so she took her boots off and filled them with water so now she's sloshing around the school.  Ha! This child!

She's super into construction equipment and her favorite book is Old MacDonald Had A Truck;  I was shocked when we were driving down the street one day and she said "Mom! Look! An excavator!" Sure enough, when we got home we looked it up in her book and she was right!

Mila loves to draw us pictures....so much that we're running out of space for them and have to throw them away.   Although we don't tell her that; hopefully she never comes to visit us at work because she will wonder why her artwork isn't covering the wall floor to ceiling since we tell her "I didn't throw it away! I took it to work!"

Mila had VBS again this year (so sad they raised the age this year to 4 so Nellie couldn't attend!) and loved it. They did a great job of teaching the stories to the kids.  Mila said to me at dinner one night, "Mom (serious as can be).  Jesus is real even if you can't see him."

I posted this photo on Instagram and Charlie's mom texted me that she showed it to Charlie and he said "that's my Mila" <3 The sweetest!

Lexi's family made a quick trip to Southern California and they squeezed some time in to see us. Mila was SO excited to see her.  Just like grown up friendships, they picked up right where they left off and were super sad to leave each other.  Guess we need to find a reason to head out to Philadelphia!

Mila is LOVING the Rec Club side of summer camp with the big kids.  She loves being able to bring her scooter to school and the option to wear flip flops. She has learned to jumprope "from the big kids" and is doing all kinds of cool things like Ninja Warrior Challenge, Capture the Flag, Freeze Hockey and Street Hockey.

My parents celebrated Mila's birthday with her early before they headed back to Kansas.  She was spoiled with a new backpack, lunch bag and lunch container for Kindergarten.  Can believe that's going to be happening so soon!

We celebrated the 8th birthday for this perro of the house.  He's gotten really sassy in his old age (bumping at the slider when he needs water, slamming his food bowl against the wall when he's hungry, growing and barking at you if he thinks he deserves a treat); maybe that's his only way to hold his own in this almost whole house of girls!

He's still just as sweet as can be, though, and the girls adore him.

Now that the girls aren't around each other all the time like they were at preschool, I think they're starting to get along better, or at least playing more together.  Love seeing their little friendship/sister-ship develop and I am trying to do everything I can to make them obsessed with each other (sew them into all of their clothes together?)

Swim lessons are coming to a close this week which is sad because they are both doing so well and I feel like Nellie is finally taking to it and just needs another month or so to really start to swim. But it will be so nice to not have to be somewhere every afternoon as we have for the past six weeks; I feel like we have been rushing all over the place to get where we need to be.

What we're looking forward to next month:  last field trips of the summer, Miss Tori is back on Fridays!, lots of concerts and an end of summer camping trip to Campland on the Bay.

June 2018

Mila is blossoming into such a young lady, complete with eye rolls, sighs and "ohhhh daaaaads;" however, there are still much more sweeter moments than sassy.  She is really looking forward to Kindergarten and is super excited to go.

She loves having her picture taken and is such a help around the house.  She's morphed into what Robert calls "mom #2," which can be a little frustrating, but also very helpful!  She's starting to spell more and loves coloring, drawing and making pictures of and for her family.

Nellie is still a little nut but is learning that it frustrates us and she has started caring what we think which is both cute and exhausting!  If she does something wrong she will give us a hug and tell us how sorry she is, which is such a lesson in knowing what she can and can't do.  However, when she's come out of her room at bedtime for the 15th time and we tell her to get back to bed she will look at us, drop her head and say "you don't love me anymore" until we then get up and follow her to the room; it's too dark to see her face I am pretty sure she's smiling smugly every time!

She's very into sports now and I am hoping that she will want to try something besides soccer this fall, perhaps T-ball or basketball?

While we have always had issues with her sleeping in late, I started noticing that when she came in our bed at night she would sleep later in the morning and I couldn't figure out if she likes snuggling (which she does) or just loves our cozy bed (silly me bought the girls IKEA mattresses because they are FIVE and THREE!).  One day I asked her why she liked our bed and she said because it was cozy and hers wasn't.  I asked if she wanted me to make it softer and she said yes; I bought her a memory foam mattress topper and since then she has been sleeping much better, sleeping in and rarely makes it into our room.  She is seriously too much, our little princess and the pea!

She and Ariah are still the dynamic duo and it's so cute to see the two of the remain such good friends, even though there are many others in their class, these two always find their way to each other.

Robert and I met Erin and Bret in Nashville for some old fashioned and had a great time.  I loved all of the live music, cheap drinks and country music...I wish I could swap out Vegas for Nashville!

Our girls stayed with Nana and Papa while we were gone and the trip coincided with the last day of preschool, where they had an end of the year picnic.

While we enjoyed 95 degree weather, the girls enjoyed the ocean breeze and beach playground.

By far my favorite part of the trip was going to the Grand Ole Opry; it was so amazing to be in such a historical place, learn about the store and hear all of the great music.  There was no one too famous while we were there but it didn't really matter, the talent was still off the chart!

We went to the cutest little spot, Pinewood Social, one evening and I loved it; I highly recommend going if you're every in town.

Some things don't change whether we're home or not...

Both girls are spending all summer enrolled in swim lessons and they are both having a great time!  We had done a couple months last fall and this past May with a swim instructor and the girls seemed to be over it.  However, once they got to the real lessons, they are both doing so great and learning so much.

In two weeks Nellie went from not going underwater or putting her face in and screaming every time she got wet, to jumping off the side of the pool and bobbing in the water by herself.  For session 2 she has already moved up to the 2nd level, we are so proud!

Mila is doing amazing, really swimming like a little fish.  She can swim across the entire pool on her own, has water safety and is working on her side breathing;  when we went swimming later in the month she swam the whole day without her floaties on.

I think the girls also love it because all of their friends are in it; Mila has 3 girls from school in hers and Nellie's class was all daughters in our mom's group.

Up until this summer Mila and Nellie have both spent from age 2 on over on the preschool side.  However, this year, since Mila is going into Kindergarten she is eligible to move over to the "rec club" side with the 5-12 year olds.  She's super excited about it because it comes with a huge new playground, she gets to bring her scooter to camp and doesn't have to wear only closed toed shoes.  I absolutely didn't expect it but on the first day of drop off over on the rec club side I got a little choked up telling her goodbye...the first day of Kindergarten is going to be a doozy!

I think this is great for both of them, though; Mila being more independent and Nellie learning how to deal on her own...I guess that's a little of the same, isn't it?  Mila is a little social butterfly at school, while Nellie prefers to play by herself or with Ariah, but spent a lot of times with Mila and her friends.  The first couple of days were hard on Nellie when we dropped her off (and walked across the campus to Mila's area) but by the end of the first week she was playing with new friends every time I picked her up, which is great.  She says she still misses Mila but I can tell she's becoming more confident every day.

What we're looking forward to next month:  friends/family in town, Palm Springs with the Charlands, Roscoe's birthday and savoring the last few week of having Nana and Papa in town!