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!

Cable Car in SF & Other Traditions

I love Christmas traditions! Some of my favorites are definitely chopping down a tree the day after Christmas, making sugar cookies and delivering them to neighbors, chocolate advent calendars, driving around to look at lit-up homes, sneaking through Christmas-in-the-park in LG and going up to San Francisco to ride the trolly with friends and family.  Those are the classics that I grew up doing.  I am also trying to think of new traditions for my own family, the only two new ones I've thought of are an advent calendar with toys inside for my kids and I'm going to attempt to sew our pajamas this year for the Christmas eve pajama box.... if it goes well it might become a permanent thing :)

Last night we enjoyed a night in SF with friends and family.  We rode the trolly, lost and retrieved Maverick's shoe (Way to go Rick! Glad you weren't decapitated by that ambulance), sang Christmas carols, and ate too much ice cream at Ghirardeli's.  Thanks Mom and Dad for watching our kids pretty much the whole time... it almost felt like Rick and I were on a date :)

I made a 25 square boxes out of scrapbook paper (Thanks Mom for teaching me this skill when I was like five years old) and filled them with goodies for my kids to open each day until Christmas.  Adelaide and Maverick love it.

My mom, Adelaide and I made Christmas cookies over the weekend.  They were delicious and so fun decorate, even if we did go a little overboard on the amount of frosting :) Adelaide was napping (a small Christmas miracle) when we finally broke out the camera, but she is represented by the handprint on my mom's shirt.  Adelaide noticed some leftover sprinkles when she woke up from her nap and kept asking if she could have some of the "cupcake salt." She also refers to coconut milk lately as "polka-dot" milk.  Kids are too funny.

  Do you have any awesome Christmas traditions that I should be aware of while I'm brainstorming our family's? Please share!

Sibling Love!

I love watching these two little ones build their relationship.  They laugh, cry, eat, play, read, explore and even sleep near each other and they are just the cutest.