June (phone photo review)

 The last month has included some of the following:
Boating
Visits with Grandmas
Gardening - first crops!
Beach trips
Disneyland
Park visits
Pool time
Visits from friends
Visit from uncle Peter
Farmers markets
Library time
Dinner with friends
Date nights (yay!)
Wine tasting
Tide pool discovering
Time with friends. Time with family. Time together, loud and peaceful.
It's been a good month.

Our friends Angie and Ryan invited us to join them on a boat cruise around Balboa Island - and since Uncle Peter was in town he got to come too!

Our first trip to our local library was great fun - for Stella especially! She found the baby dolls and went ahead and started feeding them!

Disneyland was a hit! As you can tell by the exhausted Hudson in the picture below! H is favorite was Mickey Mouse's house. For a week after we went, he would put his socks on his hands and walk around saying he was Mickey! 

One of our new fave spots - Corona Del Mar tide pools!

We had a great date night at the Beachcomber down in Newport one night - right on the water! 

In a house with an energetic 3 year old boy, Stella takes a few minutes here and there to steal away and play with Hudson's toys when he's not looking. Smart cookie. 

The Jones' visited from DC! On their way to Hawaii they stayed with us for their layover, and we loved it!

Farmers market berry tasting!

Six weeks ago i planted these veggies…and now! looking forward to enjoying it all summer!

Andy and I had the opportunity to go wine tasting in the Santa Barbara hills (Solvang, etc) and it was so fun! I was lucky to be with some of my very dear friends Sandra and Melissa, and we both really enjoyed the day away to be adults!! :) Lucky we have a great babysitter here already!! Now if we could only figure out how to grow our babysitting fund so we can do this more often...

Summertime!

 June has been a busy month for us, with visitors and adventures galore! We had visits from both grandmas, as well as a short visit from some of our favorite people - the Jones'! Of course there were many beach days (and more to come of course), lots of time outside, and some great memories made!

 Hudson's imagination is amazing right now - and Grandma Rosdil is helping foster the creativity with some costumes!! hudson's been putting out some major fires in our yard - thank goodness he's here! 

 Friends for life - Quentin is definitely one of Hudson's favorite people. 

 Try to get five kids together for a picture…and this is what you get!

 Apparently i don't have any kids in this picture.

words

Stella has been saying more and more words lately - and is excellent at communicating what she wants or feels. Some of the words she says now (16 months old):
Daddy
Hi
Brother/Hudson (they sound similar)
Turtle
Shoe
ChooChoo
No (not too thrilled about that, but i guess since it's hudson's favorite word it was inevitable)
Nana (banana)
Doggie
All done
Book

She loves going outside, and checking on the veggies and fruits we have growing in the yard. She will walk up to the lemon tree and smell one of the lemons, look at me and say "mmmm". She loves to clean up, bring toys to brother, follow Hudson everywhere, play in the dogs food and water (taste it now and then too), go for walks and bike rides, take baths, sit and read, color, and so much more. Her sweet demeanor is such a delight, and kind of a breath of fresh air on the days when Hudson is being a raging three year old. :) I can see a bit of attitude coming through her behaviors now and then, but I think most of it is mocking everything she sees Hudson doing. Oh, and she hates when i'm at the computer! Right now she is pulling on my leg crying, because she wants to sit up here with me.

SO I end this post for now - more pictures coming up!

my heaven on earth

 It's no secret that I love the beach. I love the beach. Simple and 1000% honest. SO you can imagine how happy I am to live in a place now where I can go to the beach with my family every weekend. And that's what we're doing. Every weekend. And i love it. Apparently the rest of my family does as well, so it's a total win. This was at south Newport beach, at some time pools I read about online. There were no starfish, apparently there is something killing them all along the coast and they don't know what yet (so sad!), but we saw plenty of crabs, etc.!! This trip Stella was loving the water, and had no fear about walking straight into it! But the beach is just a peaceful, fun, happy place for us (always has been for me) and i'm SO SO thankful we can do this together. Making memories to cherish a lifetime. 

 OK i'm putting this picture on here not because i think Stella looks adorable in this picture. Of course she is adorable, but this picture is more to show the MOLARS this kid is getting. She has at least 6 teeth coming in right now, poor thing!!! Considering she had TWO teeth on her first birthday, her mouth seems to be making up for lost time. It explains the crying out during the night, excessive drooling, and random moodiness (maybe). :) My poor little girl - she continues to smile most of the time though, and thankfully trips to the beach like this tire her out so she sleeps much better!! 

By the way - this picture is her saying "CHEESE" to the camera. One of the few words she says very clearly, and intentionally when you point a camera at her now. SO funny.