Solvang "camping" trip 2013

Highlights of our camping trip to Solvang:

Staying in an awesomely nice house at the end of fun-filled (and dirty) days.  That means hot showers for us and girls and warm milk for Malia girl.  Noise makers and soft beds= the best:)

Hiking through some questionable vegetation (poison oak) to get to some pretty neat (and semi sulfur stinky) hot springs

Exploring Ventura Beach and the harbor on the way up

Kirk getting to surf

A fun beach day and cruising around different places

Blueberry picking!!  (all time highlight for me) nothing yummier

Campvibes:) campfires, dinners together (10 families to start with) love them all!

smores and homemade cobbler

Solvang and yummy breakfasts of diabetes inducing danishes

The best and funnest times with an awesome crew:)  We love all of our friends here and are so blessed to have so many of them!

15 Month Keely Bear

I am the luckiest mom in the world!!  I get not one, but TWO perfect little munchkins!  I love being a mom more than anything in the world!  So Keely is 15 months now (?!) and let me share some of the cute and fun things about this age:

You might notice our Kiki showing off her 4 (yes, only 4) little teeth in most of the pictures.  That is because as soon as I bust out my phone (cameras are just too much work sometimes) she exuberantly says, "CHEEEEEESE!!" which gives us not only a good laugh, but a good look at this cute little chompers. 

You might also notice her standing up/appearing to walk in a few of these pictures because.... SHE CAN WALK!!!  Finally!  I'll say this much, this girl is not extremely motivated to walk though.  While able, she still prefers to crawl or hold our hands to get to where she wants to be.  She is semi lazy;)  I'll have to post a video of our "drunken sailor" in action.

You also might notice Keely in her bathing suit quite a bit because this girl LOVES water!!  I mean, wants to be in it all the time!  When I am holding her in a body of water, she will try and fling herself out of my arms to swim UNDER the water!  I mean, she's basically a fish.  She loves going under and under again.  Her eyes will be open, her mouth in a big open smile and yet she doesn't ever swallow water or get upset!  It's great!  We can even "launch" her in the water (with floaties on people) and she'll go under and come up beaming with happiness.  I love it.  I am so glad she likes the water especially since summer is upon us:)

Other exciting things about our 15 month old:

• She is learning to talk!  She still has the cute babble and will make up words for things all the time (baba la ba da!!!) But she is also learning to say some of her favorite things.  She can say "bubble!" "babeee (baby)" "mama" "dada" "nana" "le-a (malia)" "boo (bird)" "bur (bird)" "ju (juice)" "Mmmm (more or yummy)" "bye-bye (and she'll wave on this one! So cute!) "nigh-nigh"  "boooon (balloon)" "wow!!!" Hearing Keely's cute little voice chat away all day makes me so happy. Oh! And the other day we are driving by a semi truck and Keely in the back seat points and exclaims: "wow! F@*!" Seriously clear as day my 1 year old cussed!  I couldn't help but laugh.  Come on, that's funny stuff:)
• Keely walks:)  I think I already said that.  She doesn't do it all the time, but she does know how:)
• Keely is still taking 2 naps a day (usually 9:30-11:30 and then again in the late afternoon sometime)
• She is a good sleeper (9ish to 7 or 8ish in the morning)
• She LOVES to eat!!  This is something that has stayed consistent:)  She always wants to eat!  Loves her meals and then wants snacks in between them.  And yet people say she's thinning out.  :(  I love my chubby baby!  Her favorite foods are still broccoli, peas, beans, all fruit, chip-like foods and whatever else people around her are eating.  She still does not like milk.  Trying to figure out how to get her to like it is challenging, but she will eat cheese and yogurt so that's good.
• She is still nursing.  I am trying to get her down to once a day but sometimes it's twice a day still.  I like nursing her, but realize that now is probably a good time to start weaning.  I justify it with the fact that she's never taken a bottle still to this day and doesn't like milk, so my milk it is!
• Keely LOVES her sister and playing with others.  She gets so sad when we drop Malia off at school and she doesn't get to stay and play with all the kids and all the toys:( 
• Keely LOVES being outside or on the go.  Loves walks, play dates, the park, beach, pool, grocery store, etc.  She is at a kinda hard age though because she wants to be active and walk everywhere which makes it a little hard on me when watching another kid at the same time.
• Keely is a cuddle love bug:)  She loves to snuggle and kiss and will come bring me a book and sit on my lap throughout the day.  My favorite time is Tuesdays and Thursday mornings after I drop Malia off and I come home and play with Keely.  We snuggle and tickle and kiss each other before she goes down for her first nap.  My oxitocin levels get topped off on those mornings:)

Yup. Keely is awesome and developing nicely!  Although I wouldn't mind it if she stayed my little baby forever.

Malia and Rhys

Malia tells the best stories.  After laughing at one of Malia's "great tales" the other day, my girlfriend told me, "you HAVE to write these stories down!" I don't keep a journal other than this, so I guess I will have to write some of these great stories here.

Here Malia is with Rhys.  We went camping with his family and about 8 other families like last month (blog to follow) Rhys is the cute boy of some friends that moved into town a year or so ago. We love the Aidas!  Their boys are 1/4 Japanese like our girls- funny huh?! 

Well, Malia (being the very opinionated, confident child that she is) got it into her head one day that she was going to marry Rhys.  She is OBSESSED with marriage, husbands, temples, flowers, veils,  or anything wedding-ish.

Her story never wavers.  She will tell you:

Malia: "Mom, I am going to marry Rhys when I am in college. I have to get older first."

Me: "Oh really?!"

Malia: "Yes. We will get married in the pink temple (Newport Beach's temple is a pinkish tone and we've visited it together as a family).  I like pink temples and we will get married there."

Me: "Well, ok honey.  But remember, you can marry someone different if you both decide you want to."

Malia: "No, I'll marry Rhys.  He'll be my husband and we will have 3 children.  We will live in a pink castle too."

We all laugh about this now, but figured I better document it if in the unlikely chance it actually does come true one day:)