evening at the beach

I love this shot, but I hate how much older she looks in it . . stop growing baby girl! 

Oh, how I love this teeny little face! 

                    Mr. Handsome carrying little man <3

Seriously hard to get a shot of us with my Nikon (since we       hardly ever have a smartphone with us)

Marc thinks it's weird that I like going to the beach at night and just walking along the shore, listening to the waves and staring at the moon. But we use to go at night all the time growing up. I have so many memories of my brother and I singing "In the jungle the lion sleeps tonight" and giggling non-stop as our car would throw us side to side in the back seat as it traveled down windy Topanga Canyon to get to the beach. On this particular Saturday I talked him into it ;) It wasn't hard really, as long as we stopped to get some hot drinks from our favorite coffee shop on main street. Such a coffee lover that guy! 

Lately it seems like the days are running into each other. Especially since I started tutoring in the evenings. So when I look back at short family outings like this it make me want to go back and savor them just a little bit longer. 

ventura county fair and princess the horse

When the county fair rolled in this summer we could not wait to go with the littles. Marc found out that there was free transportation to the fair and that there was a pick-up spot right in the Riverpark Collections area which is walking distance for us. You better believe we were going to take that opportunity to avoid traffic drama and it was . . . free! Sign us up! Ha! It was Maci's first time on a school bus and it didn't take long for her to try getting up in her seat to look out the window. 

In fair tradition, we hit up the animal farm for Maci and as you can tell from the picture, she wasn't really into the cows. 
We made it to the fair just in time to watch the pig races which was pretty entertaining I must admit. I mean who doesn't want to see tiny little porkers (named after Harry Potter characters)run around a track and then jump over miniature size fences! 
We planned on only one ride for Maci and lunch for us so that we don't spend too much (which can easily happen when you're having fun). As soon as we passed the pony ride, we knew it was the ride for Maci. Whenever I think that Maci might get scared or hesitate to try something, she surprises me. She loved the horses and actually didn't want me to help her hold the reign from the moment she got on the horse! We also thought it was very fitting that the horse they put her on was named Princess. Marc had just taught her the word "princess" that week. 

Maci loved the horses she saw that day so much that every time we see one she points and says, "Maci wan hoose". Marc is a little worried we have to start saving for the pony fund. After the ride, we had a chance to walk through the agricultural booths and there they had a kids activity where Maci planted a seed and decorated her mini-pot to take home (it didn't last long by the way). 

It was a fun day. Tiring but in a good way. At the end it was great that we didn't have to drive, but who wants to walk a few blocks! Ay! 

Chalkboard Calendar Wall

I have been wanting to share our chalkboard wall on here for a while!!! But a couple of munchkins have been keeping me quite busy these last few weeks, along with work (yep, started tutoring again). 


When we moved in this summer, Marc and I were struggling to keep up with all events that make summer special like spending extra time with friends and family. Around the same time the lovely JenLovesKev shared her chalkboard wall tutorial. So of course the first thing I did was bug the husband about it! He actually liked the idea and wanted to get it done right away. We decided not to title the board since there wasn't much room up top anyways. Oh, and don't look too closely or you'll see pen markings! I love my hubs, but he isn't the crafter so he missed the memo about using pencil instead of pen on the wall! Ha! Oh, and if you do decide to try this in your home, make sure you use the quality painter's tape (at least the bleeding is consistent all around and most of our friends thought it was supposed to be that way ;)). 

I also ordered some amazing pencil style chalk that doesn't break and can be sharpened! It works great if you want to write smaller details and want your chalk to last. 

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seth the stud: 3 months

I don't know why I never imagined myself having a boy. But now that Seth has entered our world we can't imagine life without him. I think that everyone feels that way about their children. Once they are a part of the family, everything just feels right.

In honor of Seth turning 3 months and exiting the newborn stage, I want to write a letter to him. I can't even believe he isn't a newborn anymore! 


To my sweet little man, 


As I write this, my eyes fight back tears because I feel so blessed to have you in my life. These past 3 months have been so amazing. You made me a mommy for the second time and I thank you for that. From the moment you were even a thought in our minds, you brought happiness and joy into our hearts. Even your sister has loved babies for so long and has always taken a special liking to boys! I like to think that you were an answer to her little hearts desire. Thinking about the last 3 months, I think of all the little things that make you unique already.

You latched on immediately and loved to sleep for 4 hour increments.

You still love your sleep, sometimes I think you would rather sleep than eat! 

Mommy most often has to wake you for your feeding.

You rolled over before you were 2 months (tummy to back). I heard a little baby giggle and turned to find you looking up at me and smiling.

Crying isn't your specialty. When you cry for more than a few minutes, you do this little baby cough as if to show you are "straining your voice". It's pretty funny and so cute.

You found your fingers at 6 weeks and love to suck on them until you fall asleep. 
Every morning you let mommy know you are hungry when the sucking becomes louder. I'll take that over crying any day! 

Just when mommy thought you wouldn't sleep longer than 5 hours at night, you showed me by sleeping from 9 to 6 at nine weeks! 

You haven't peed on mommy once(well, at least not yet)!

Even though you seem to be the shy baby, you didn't take long to start smiling at us.

You have out grown your clothes like crazy! In these pictures, you are wearing a 6 month outfit! 

I love that you have just enough hair so that mommy can have fun brushing it to the side. 

You learned to say "a goo" at 6 weeks and haven't stopped to look for our eyes to have the longest conversations with us. I hope you never get tired of talking to us. 

And most importantly,
I hope that one day you will realize that God has been looking for your heart and that you won't hesitate to look back at Him and spend the rest of your days talking to the One who made you. 

crazy about kale and kiddos

                                      
                                     
                                     

                                      


Lately, we've been taking longer walks around the Collection (the shopping area a few blocks from our house)not only to tire out the toddler, but also to keep an eye on any new stores opening up. I thought it would be fun to get some shots of miss Maci in front of the blank walls and of course, it didn't take long for her to warm up to the camera! Seriously, where does she get these poses from?! This kid cracks me up! She always enjoys stopping to look at every detail around her and I love that because it makes me slow down and reminds me to take a look also. 

With two kiddos, I am always looking for a quick dinner idea. The last time the husband and I had a date we had an amazing frittata at a very popular cafe in Ventura, Cafe Nouveau. Ever since hearing that kale is so healthy, we've been trying to add it to our meals, smoothies and salads. The frittata turned out pretty good, although I tasted more sausage than anything else. The hubs wasn't too impressed! 

I can't say yet that it's been tough with two little ones at home. It's been hard to get things done, but when I remember that they need ME more than anything else I really feel blessed and thankful that I have this time with them. Seth has been an easy baby and he has really spoiled this mommy already! So I can't complain ha! I love his little face! I caught him one night being so curious and talkative. He melts my heart over and over again. <3 <3

cookie lessons

                                                 wouldn't trade anything for this face!

After a few days of stressing about not being able to keep up the cleaning, a sermon at church really hit me and made me realize somethings about the root of my frustrations. The root of my frustrations came from certain desires not being met. Basically, I wasn't getting what I wanted and so of course, it was taking up much of my thoughts and my focus away from the more important things. My pastor reminded me that our desires have to change first for that frustration to go away. When we "fight" or "lust" for things and that desire isn't fulfilled we act out in different negative ways to try to get what we want. I definitely don't want to be a mommy that is stressed and unhappy about the wrong things in life. 

Those truths helped loosen me up and the next day at Target I saw a sugar cookie mix on sale. How fun would it be to bake with Maci! After a toddler meltdown (Maci didn't understand that we had to "make" the cookies first ha!), we had fun getting our hands dirty as evidenced by the pictures above. I wish I had taken a picture of her putting a handful of cookie mix into her mouth! Clearly, she still didn't get the idea. I mean why would they put a picture of cookies on the box if there aren't cookies int here?! Maci would like to know ;)

I am seriously looking forward to more baking memories with my girl. 

strollin through Ojai

This weekend we were invited by some friends to a water park out in Ojai. I was excited to get out of the house and for Maci to get out too since I kept her cooped up indoors all week (it's getting a little harder to get out just to the park with the two littles lately). Well, although the water park plan fell through, Maci and daddy were able to get a boat ride out on Lake Casitas and Seth and I ran off to do a little sight-seeing in downtown Ojai. Maci loved the boat ride so much she actually fell asleep (and if you know Maci she never just "falls" asleep anywhere)! Of course, I hit up a few stores do some thrifting and vintage shopping ha! After I grabbed a bottle of my favorite Lavender Lemonade (made locally in Ojai!) and walked down the main street to do some window shopping. 

This little town (and I do mean little) really captured my heart. I love the building structures and the small town feel. Hopefully next time we can stay longer and have dinner at one of the restaurants. 

growing up so fast

I can't believe how much my munchkin has grown in the past two years! They warned me that it goes by fast, but I really didn't understand until it happened to me. She has taught me so much about myself and I am so thankful that God would choose us to raise her. 

changes are scary

So much has changed in just the last month. We had decided to let go of some of our big goals and focus on our growing family. Then an opportunity that pretty much came out of nowhere opened up for us to move to a bigger place. Honestly, I didn't even want to entertain the idea because I had settled on the fact that we would stay put for another year right where we were. This was the easier thing to do because everything we needed was already in place and our life had become familiar here in Sun Valley (annoying street potholes and all). Well, looks like things are moving along towards Ventura County and the new place. I am excited of course, but also nervous about leaving the valley where I have spent so much of my life. Nervous about being in a new neighborhood, and starting over in a place I don't know much about. Being uprooted can be deadly, just like it can be for plants, but I also know that if the process is done right, it can also be beneficial to helping the plant grow bigger, stronger, and even help the plant life all around it too. So, I am trying to let go of this familiarity that I am leaning on and instead lean on God's character, which is never-changing.