bike rides

For Mason's first birthday my parents gave him (and me) the ibert bike seat. We love it. Its always been our thing, bike rides. just me and him. what could be better?

this was taken on our mother's day ride to the rose garden

a german shepard

I'm not sure if it is true of toddlers in general or just ours but Tom and I decided that Mason is kind of like a German Shepard. For you dog people, he's a working dog. He functions better if he has a job to do.
For example... yesterday-

"Hey Mason, lets go outside and play"
"No thanks mom"
"Hey Mason, I have a job for you"
"What's that mom?"
"I need you to go outside and move some dirt so we can plant our tomatoes"
"OK, mom, no problem. I can do that job!"

Just like that.

meal time at our house

is crazy
but fun

its never a dull moment around here.

My boys

M+C

I've been trying to do a better job of capturing these two on film... I'm not going to lie its hard!

family in spring

My sister's family came down for a spring weekend in Santa Barbara.

It was so nice to see the cousins together and to have some nice quality time with my sister.We just watched the kids-  ran after the kids. It was beautiful week. We had a many nice beach and pool days all together and to top it off we saw my cousin Nate get married in Arroyo Grande. My only complaint, like a broken record, is that I wish we ALL lived closer...

Harrison (almost 5) & Miss Harper (1)

How sweet are they?

outside bath

We are constantly finding any way to get outside.. so why not take our bath outside?
I love this time of year, warm days, cool nights, stays lighter later... An important thing to a working mom because that means later bedtime and more play time.

pasta boy

My mom sent this to me today and I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud in my office. The funny thing is I've been working with M teaching him how to slurp his pasta and he still can't really do it. Tom says its because "he's all Dutch". So maybe Carter got a few of my Italian genes after all. Thank goodness someone did.

Carter Ellis is 8 months!

Carter is 8 months

He is growing up so fast. 8 months is scary, that means a year old is just around the corner. He is getting so big. He is 20lbs and 28 inches long and trying to move that little body of his. He has no interest in crawling. In desperate times he'll scootch but really that's only to get into position to pull himself to standing. I'm fearful that walking is around the corner. And really I can't blame him, crawling will not help him keep up with his brother any faster, he's going straight to running, I'm sure of it. He is still all smiles. No teeth yet, which is a blessing. He's doing just fine eating everything in front of him and often protests "baby food" because he wants what we're eating. His current favorites are swinging and water play. I can't even wash my hands without him leaping out of my arms. He's definitely a baby that you have to hold with two hands, he will often try to make a leap to something that he sees or wants. Seeing things through his eyes has been so much fun. With two life has gotten more crazy and more fun exponentially! That paired with Carter starting physical, occupational and speech therapy has encouraged Tom and I to not work so hard outside the home. A carpe diem sort of thing. So starting this month we'll each be home one extra day a week and we both couldn't be happier about it. Life is too short! And I mean look at these two....

Mason took this picture, he is quite the master of the iPhone and I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing..this blondie keeps us on our toes. The look on Carter's face is like  "oh ok, that's how its done, thanks Mason".

JOY

family portrait

My dad used to take us to the breakwater after a good storm in Santa Barbara to watch the high surf crash against the wall. So I'm trying to keep up the family tradition. I'm happy to report that I'm the only one that got hit by a wave.

Carter my boy

It doesn't get much sweeter then this...
CEB 6 1/2 months
Sits by himself, smiles, laughs, laughs hysterically at his brother, eats anything he can get his hands on, he prefers what we're eating over any 'baby food', loves the bath, wants to play at the playground just like his brother, loves other babies, sings himself to sleep, he coos, says baabaa, daadaa and I think I've heard him say maamaa but it might be wishful thinking, has the biggest, warmest smile as seen above. He spoils his parents, that's for sure.

Thursday mornings...

Tom works a late shift on Thursdays, so he has Thursday mornings with the boys.

This morning I got this video with this caption....

"Yummm...

C eats all of M's pear.

M eats all of daddy's oatmeal.

Now mommy is out of cookies.

M is eating the skin off of pear, then feeds it to C.

Isn't life grand."

Brotherly love

every morning when mason wakes up he wants to have carter in his bed.
carter loves it.
its like he knows he's in his BIG brother's bed.
tom and i are watching a friendship being made, a bond and it is sweet.