Mommy Daughter Date

Adelaide and I went on a little date together earlier this year and had the best time shopping at the mall, eating frozen yogurt and picking out candy.  Adelaide's just about the cutest girl ever and I feel lucky to be her mom.

Happy Thanksgiving

As I reflect on my blessings I am especially grateful for my beautiful family and feel a little sad that I have not been better about documenting our adventures here on the blog for safe keeping.  I just unloaded a couple thousand pictures from my iphone and my goal is to transfer some of them to this blog before the new year, and be better about blogging our adventures in 2014.

Grateful for these three and frozen yogurt of course

Zoorific Day

People close to me know that I'm not a fan of zoos for a variety of reasons, but I sucked it up and took my kids this week with our friend Emily and her three cute kids.  It actually turned out to be really fun (for us at least... I'm not so sure the captive animals living in small spaces while squishy faces observed them all day would agree).

Maverick really liked the tortoises and bears.  Maverick would take a while to visually locate the animals but you could always tell once he did because he would start pointing or waving at the animal... it was precious.  Maverick was pretty hurt when he was barred due to his height from riding all the rides outside the park besides the carousel and train- he wants to do everything his big sister does.

When I asked Adelaide what animals she liked the best she said "the birds, the snakes and the monkeys... all of them!"  Adelaide also loved playing in the little animal statue fixtures throughout the zoo and the train and rides right outside. She did NOT like visiting the goat barn! She put on her diva face the whole time we were hanging out with them and kept yelling "Let's go... these stink.  It smells so bad, it hurts my nose!" Of course there was a little bit of stomping her feet to go with it.  

Emily is a great photographer and she sent me some cute pictures from the day:

Happy Birthday to Me!

Now I am 27, Happy Birthday to me! Today was a great day... I woke up to my sweet little family singing me happy birthday in bed, during Adelaide's preschool Maverick and I did some damage at Anthropologie, after preschool the kids and I met up with Rick downtown and we went for a walk and had a picnic, after work Rick brought home some ice cream sandwiches for dessert and the night is still young!

Adelaide learned how to take pictures on my new phone today

Ice Cream Sandwiches are the best!

Can this sexy man fit 27 candles on this mini dessert?

Success!

Nothing better than having little helpers to blow out your candles.

This past year has been pretty awesome. Here are some things I have {re}learned while 26:

Listening is almost always better than talking

Tea parties are lovely

Organizing saves time in the long run

Eating on patios with twinkle lights is the best

Fear of judgment is powerful yet pointless

Judging others is a waste of time

Having phone reception is important 

Doubt can be a gift

Faith is a choice

Natural deodorant doesn't work

Forgiveness is powerful

I can make it a whole year without seeing my sister

Good friends love you unconditionally

I want to go back to school

It is near impossible to control children; teaching, encouragement and positive reinforcement is the way to go with my kids.

Community is important

I am privileged in many ways and want to give back to the world

I'd rather be filled with wonder than anger

Homemade ice cream is so much better than store bought (even Ben & Jerry's!)

Coconut oil is like magic... so many uses

I can do hard things

I'm married to a seriously wonderful person

My children are capable of learning and teaching amazing things

Here's to another great year of life. 

Dust if you Must

I came across this poem today and I love it! 

Dust if you must.

But wouldn't it be better,

To paint a picture, or write a letter,

Bake a cake, or plant a seed?

Ponder the difference between want and need.

Dust if you must.

But there is not much time

With rivers to swim and mountains to climb!

Music to hear, and books to read,

Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must.

But the world's out there

With the sun in your eyes, 

the wind in your hair,

A flutter of snow, a shower of rain.

This day will not come round again.

Dust if you must.

But bear in mind,

Old age will come and it's not kind.

And when you go, and go you must,

You, yourself, will make more dust.

-Rose Milligan

Sometimes it is easy for me to get caught up in making sure my house is tidy, the laundry is all clean, the dishes are all done, and any number of important but not-so-important things.  This poem is a great reminder for me to find a better balance in my life of both chores and enjoyment.  The house will never be completely clean, the laundry will never be totally done and there will always be more dishes... but my kids will only be kids for so long and the sun will only be shining for so many hours. 

Mav's Words at 18 months

Maverick is mostly a grunter but he does treat us with some words every once in a while now that he is 18 months old.

Here is most of Mav's current vocabulary:

Ball (one of his very favorites!)

Ta-Da (after something impressive)

Bird (usually accompanied by his pointing towards the birds on our patio) 

Adelaide (more like Ah-duh)

Mama 

Dada

Uh-Oh (After he drops something or spills)

Wow (he is full of wonder, so we hear this often)

More (Usually for milk or food)

Belly Button (sounds more like boo-ah-bah)

Ear (sounds like eeeh)

I'm sure there are more, but these are the words I can remember right now.  I feel like he doesn't have as much motivation as Adelaide did to learn to talk because he has an older sibling to take care of him and his grunting and pointing usually work pretty effectively.

Oversized Orange Swing

I have really been slacking on posting family pictures and events on this blog... and the longer I go the more discouraged I get that I won't be able to catch up.  I consider this blog my family journal & scrapbook all rolled into one since I'm not good at either of those things typically.  Inistead of worrying about catching up (which I may or may not end up doing in the future) I'm starting fresh and hope to document more of our family adventures and thoughts here regularly.

Starting now.  Thanks Louie for inspiring me :)

Today we headed to San Ramon Central Park to meet up with some friends.  Adelaide and Maverick got pretty wet and had fun playing in the water but mostly they just wanted to be pushed in this oversized swing.  I'm not sure what the deal is with this swing... is it for obese children? or handicapped kids? or adults? It is pretty big.  Anyways, the kids absolutely loved it and would have stayed all day if I let them.  I got too hot though...

I love these kids.

Chalking

I love that Adelaide and Maverick have started playing together; it is so cute to watch them interact. The other day they were coloring with chalk so nicely together on their patio that I was able to take a few photos.  These moments are precious to me ♥

Adelaide is a Child of God

Last night Adelaide was singing her favorite song, "I am a Child of God" and here it is.

I love this girl.

For Lent

"If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all"
-Thumper

For Lent this year I am giving up negativity.  I will redirect any thoughts or statements that lack positive or constructive features and could be described as unpleasant, disagreeable, gloomy, pessimistic, unfavorable, detrimental, hostile, disparaging or malicious (thank you online dictionary).  I'm excited to take the next forty days to focus on positivity and to devote more time to spiritual study and prayer.  In my religion we fast one day each month from food or drink but since I have been either pregnant or nursing for literally the last four years I have not really been able to participate fully and am excited to have Lent as an opportunity to show my devotion to God and renew my spirit.  I attended a Lent service last night at an Episcopalian church and it was really quite beautiful. I realize I'm not an overly negative person but I can be very critical at times (usually to the people  I love and the societal institutions I belong to) and am excited to give those thoughts away. As I practice mindfulness and positivity I will especially remember the great examples of goodness and optimism I've had in my life- my great grandpa Dahlin and my grandpa Walton, among others.

My grandpa was too busy doing good things in his life, like riding his bicycle, to invite any negativity into it.  

Grandpa & Dad

Here is a totally unrelated picture of Adelaide eating olives the classy way.  I was too slow to snap a picture of an olive on each finger, but 3 out of 5 is pretty good in my book.

Berkeley & Santa Cruz Weekend Adventures

Life has been busy lately and I have not been good at documenting our adventures.  We have been having the best weekends lately, making it a priority to get out of the house and do something fun.  

Last weekend we went to Berkeley and checked out their farmer's market, the flea market (it was a little scary but I bought an awesome basket from Ghana so it was worth it), downtown, and Tilden Park (we hoped to take the kids on the carousel but sadly it is closed until February).  

This weekend we headed over to Santa Cruz where it was a beautiful 70 degrees. Rick surfed and the waves were pretty big.  He had some close calls but thankfully made it out alive.  I had the best time hanging with Mav and Adelaide while Rick surfed... we built a sand castle (more like I built many sand castles while they enjoyed destroying them), Maverick ate a ridiculous amount of sand, and we sang lots of happy songs.  Maverick didn't really take notice of the ocean for the first half hour, but once he did he went crazy for it. He kept running as fast as he could straight for the ocean.  I held his hands while the huge waves broke on shore and he got soaked.  It was cold but he LOVED it.  Whenever I tried to bring him back towards our towels he cried with the saddest little face.  I think he will be a surfer like his Daddy.  It's a good thing Adelaide is currently afraid of the waves because if they both loved the water like Maverick I could never stand a chance watching them on my own!