Time of Transition

This week we are completely off our schedule, so it is making life interesting. Our nanny, Kelly, has been with us since I went back to work full time and she left us on Sunday :( We currently have not found a replacement for her. Kelly became so ingrained in our lives that I didn't realize how weird it would be without her here.

Here is a picture of them on St. Patricks Day when Kelly dressed them in green :)

So currently we are using the nursery at camp half days and Jarrell is doing Daddy Daycare for half days :) It is so much fun to hear Moses' stories when I come home from work about his time with Daddy and Mimi. He usually tells me the same things everyday but every once in awhile he adds something new. He loves going to the beach, the pool, the park, and to "see his peoples." Emery is really starting to add more words to her vocabulary too. She calls Moses, "Bubba" which is super cute and now that she is walking she is constantly following him around and wanting to do whatever he is doing.

today.

Even though today wasn't extraordinary I had an amazing day. Some highlights of the day included: Iced White Chocolate Mocha, In-N-Out for lunch, grocery date with Moses, my husband cleaning the house (he even did the dishes!), and cooking one of our favorite dinners.

Emery started walking recently so we decided we needed to get her some walking shoes. We lined up several selections for her and let her pick which ones she wanted. Here is the result:

I had to get these too because they looked

so cute on her l little feet:

She was so excited about them and even fell asleep in the car holding them. When we were transferring her to her crib, she wouldn't let go so we let her sleep with them. Even though she wasn't wearing anything other then a diaper she insisted that she have her shoes on. She must love shoes as much as her mama!

Later in the day, Moses and I went on our grocery shopping date. It is a special time where it is just him and I and he loves to scan all of our groceries in the self checkout line which adds about twenty minutes to our trip, but I love it. Everyone at our neighborhood market know

s him by name and is always giving him treats. On our way to the store we had such a funny conversation...

Me: Moses how old are you?

Moses: Two

Me: How old is Mimi?

Moses: One

Me: How old is Mommy?

Moses: He stops and thinks about it for awhile with a puzzled look on his face and says, "Old!"

He makes me laugh so hard and brings so much joy into my life. I am truly blessed by both of my babies.

When we came home from the grocery store the house was clean and all the dishes were done. I was so excited and it gave me even more motivation to cook dinner. I cooked Pollo Asado with black bean, corn, avocado salsa.

How was your day? What things do you have to be thankful for?

Lions, Tigers and Bears Oh My!

When you live in a forest you tend to have some interesting encounters with the creatures that live here as well. The best part though, is listening to Moses' version of the events that occur.

WILDLIFE ENCOUNTER #1

So about a month ago we were sitting in the living room and heard a bunch of rustling on the porch. I opened the door and much to my surprise this little guy decided to pay us a friendly visit [if you consider eating poopy diapers off someone's porch visiting]...

Moses was actually sleeping but due the the commotion of us screaming and throwing shoes at the bear, he woke up. We shut the door and let him take a peek through the door window and he got super excited and said, "LOOK, baby lion!" I tried to explain to him that it was a bear however he was convinced he was right.

WILDLIFE ENCOUNTER #2

So one of my least favorite things about living in Southern California is...wait for it...the lizards. [I do know to most people that this probably doesn't count as a legitimate complaint]. So they are not big or scary, but they are sneaky, little creatures that scare me constantly. Apparently this has rubbed off on Moses. Today Kelly was taking the kids to the playground at camp and Moses screamed and started crying. Kelly looked down and saw that he was pointing at a lizard. He said, "Zizard scared me! Go away zizards!"

Do you have any fun or scary wildlife encounters?

Girls Are Made of Sugar Spice and Everything Nice

One of my favorite things about having two children is to see how they are similar and how they are different. This is a lot easier now that Emery is getting older. It truly is amazing how unique God created each one of them.

Emery is a mild mannered, content baby who loves her mama {even though she calls me dada}. She has the sweetest little smile, but don't let it fool you, she has a hot temper too-->just like her mama :) She loves to play whether she engages you in peek-a-boo, hide and seek, chase, or making funny faces/sounds. Emery absolutely adores Moses and wants to be just like him. She is a cuddle bug and loves to give hugs and wet kisses. One of my favorite things about having alittle girl is the fact that she LOVES girly things. She is constantly digging through

my jewelry, my makeup, and shoes.

Here are some recent pictures:

Mimi wearing mama headband

Sticking a lot of crackers in her mouth to make brother laugh

Imitating brother using the potty

Showing off her pretty shoes

So happy to be wearing mama's scarf

Fighting with Moses because he is trying to take her scarf

It's Been Awhile

Wow! I haven't posted in forever, since Emery was 10 months old to be exact. She is now 13 (almost 14 months)! I decided that the name of my blog should actually be My Beautiful, CRAZY Life. To be completely honest with everyone, I have lost perspective about life and what it is all about and this is why I am blogging again. I want to take time each day to focus and reflect on the things that mean the most to me {My Jesus, My Family, and My Friends}.

The past week has been full of work but also full of fun. I will give a top five rundown of my favorite memories of this week:

#1- Emery has taken a little bit longer to develop physically than

Moses but she is officially a walker. May I add, the cutest walker ever. She looks like a little zombie because she sticks her arms out in front of her. SO CUTE!

#2- Moses and I went and saw Cars 2 together. It took a little bit of popcorn and candy but he sat through the entire thing (which is a miracle) As we walked out of the movie theater he screamed, "That was fun!"

#3- I ran into an old friend. This doesn't happen much because we live far from most people from the past. It was so fun for her to see how grown up Moses is because she knew me when I was pregnant with him.

#4- Chipotle.Games.Good Company. I had all of my summer residential team over for dinner. I really am blessed by them and it was fun to be able to spend time with them outside of work.

#5- Moses and I went kayaking today and it was so fun.

He looked so cute in his mini lifejacket and oversized paddle. I rarely get to spend one on one time with him and this is an experience that will be burned in my mind forever. As we were walking off the dock he said, "Mama, we just went on an adventure!" I seriously have no idea where he comes up with these things.

Beautiful Baby Girl

My baby girl is 10 months old today! She must have realized that she was growing up because she started crawling earlier this week :) The crazy thing is that at ten months old Moses was walking. I love how different they are though and am thankful for how each one of them was created. I love watching how they interact and enjoy seeing them be affectionate towards each other. I pray that it will continue to grow and develop as they get older and that they remain close.

Here is a picture of Moses and Emery playing

together:

Before I was pregnant with Emery I said that I wanted boys and only boys. I am so glad that I have Emery though and absolutely LOVE my baby girl. She is the sweetest little girl and boy does she have some sass in her. She tells Moses about it he takes something from her. One of the things that I have been looking forward to his her hair being long enough that I could do something with it. This week I was able to put a ponytail in her hair and pigtails. I didn't think she could be any cuter but I was wrong.

My Front Porch Looking In

So often I get caught up in the small, insignificant things of this life and lose sight of what is really important to me. I am really working hard at taking in moments and looking at the blessings in my life and cultivating a thankful heart. Some of those moments the past couple of weeks include the following:

#1- Moses said his first full sentence. Jarrell was eating some M&M's and Moses said, "May I please have this?" I seriously couldn't believe it. We have been working on complete sentences with him for a long time and I couldn't be more proud! He also called his "Gamma" and counted to ten for her (with a little coaching).

#2-We took a hike Friday morning as a family and it was absolutely beautiful!

#3-We were able to see how a struggle of our own resulted in a formative, transformational experience in the life of a family that we met during that time of struggle.

#4-Jarrell and I attended the wedding of our friends and it was absolutely gorgeous! The whole wedding was in Spanish, so we didn't really understand much, but we were so happy to be a part of their special day.

#5-We went to Disneyland and Moses was super excited on the tram ride. He kept saying, "Mickey, YAY!" and would start clapping. Soon he had the whole cart of people saying "Yay" and clapping everytime he said Mickey! Emery had such a fun time especially on the Flying Dumbo ride.

#6-Emery's personality is starting to come through more and

more. She is such a happy little person and loves to laugh. She is scooting right along and is so close to crawling. It is amazing to watch her development compared to Moses'. They are two very different individuals.