awful beautiful life :)

 this picture has nothing to do with this post, it just makes me smile.

Memorial Day is the first holiday Matt gets every year. We've never really made a big deal out of it but this year Stephanie is 3 and Josh is almost 2 and I'm 17 weeks pregnant. We are done with projects around the house for a while (I will post an update soon). We were ready to get back to the "us" that we used to be before kids.

So we went camping. For the first time in 3 YEARS! We found one available site at Morro Strand. Which I think is a great campsite. we really enjoyed it and will probably use it again in the future. We had made "hobo" dinners that we cooked in the fire, they were SOOO good!! we had cherrie cobbler and roasted marshmallows. Matt and Steph slept in sleeping bags and Joshua and I shared the air mattress with a TON of blankets. Everything was great until about 4 am when Josh woke up and wanted a bottle(we just weaned) and it was bright from street lights and he couldn't go back to sleep. did i mention that matt and i didn't go to sleep it at least midnight? It really was a great camping trip, if you don't count the lack of sleep or the running around trying to keep our son out of the fire. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the evening. but i was able to remember once we were about to leave so i snapped one of matt and the kids real quick.

 this is our saturday:

 We went to Frankie and Lola's for breakfast right next to the "smoke stacker ronket launchers"

stephanie had a HUGE hot chocolate that she thoroughly enjoyed

 Josh had orange juice.

 Coke really isn't my thing at 7 am but Matt enjoyed it.

The Kids wanted to see all the boats at the bay so we walked the embarcadero but nothing was even open that early for shopping.

 after a quick trip to see Aunt robin and Grandma and Grandpa we headed home for nap time :)

after nap we went to the strawberry festival held in the Arroyo Grande Village.

we told Stephanie that she could choose one carnival ride to do. She chose to ride a camel. and she was SOOOO Thrilled by that short ride. can you tell by that look on her face?

 Josh enjoyed eating strawberries. LOTS AND LOTS OF STRAWBERRIES

 Sunday was a beautiful restful day. Then there was Monday:

I woke up with the brilliant idea that we should drive up the PCH with the kids and go hiking and to Carmel, just like we used to do. 

This is my girlie saying hi to the Zebra's by Hearst Castle.

 This was our first "hike" of the day.  Just past the elephant seals view point there is another turn out that has a little known bluff trail head. on this trail you can see the elephant seals much closer than you can at the other spot. 

 everyone's an airplane :)

 this was our second hike, also the biggest. we hiked up to Salmon Creek falls and then spent the majority of our time climbing up and around rocks trying to avoid poison oak but ultimately get to the upper/main fall. that was unsuccessful. but we had a great time hiking around and getting dirty :)

 our third and last "hike" before we got to Carmel was to the Julia pfiefer burns state beach. with this amazing waterfall right onto the beach. it was so very pretty.

 it was stephanie's turn to ride in the backpack.

 then we took the final leg of our journey north to carmel. after spending nearly an hour looking for somewhere to park we finally got to the beach. the kids played in the sand and Grover enjoyed playing with the other dogs in the water. josh got pretty brave and played a bit in the water also, but smart mommy forgot to pack extra clothes so by the end of the night he was just in a big T-Shirt.

it had also been 3 years since we were in carmel last. 

we got some fancy cheese from the cheese shop just in the nick of time and enjoyed some very nice dinner at a local restaurant. didn't get home until nearly 11:30 that night but it was so worth it. we had such an amazing time sharing so many of our favorite places with our kids.  I seriously cannot believe how fast time is going by. I LOVE THIS TIME IN MY LIFE. I love the sound of my children's voices, their giggles, their sass, the way they are so eager to learn and to DO everything they can possibly think of. I wouldn't change a single thing about my life. 

My life is BEAUTIFUL!

The Fruit of our Labors

so since it had almost been two months since my last post it was bound to be a long one. so here we go!

 here are Josh's 6 month old pictures. I cant believe how much he's grown up. 

and just like his sister before him,

 He is quite the chunker outweighing her 6 month appointment by 2lbs, He weighs a whopping 19.5lbs. 

And he is such a happy kid. he is ALWAYS smiling and is very entertained by his big sister.

He can roll over and sit up as seen in this picture :) he is also starting to scoot toward things.  He cut is first tooth last week and just tonight he started imitating our clapping motions.

 Most of all I think he loves to be standing. he has learned to squirm out of our hands and get to a standing position. (holding our hands of course)

then there is my sweet Stephanie in her wonderful I'm 2 years old pictures.

she is potty training, running and jumping and talking, man is she talking! she is VERY articulate and will repeat herself many times until she feels she's pronounced something to the best of her ability. she loves tinkerbell, all things tractor, and reading. she insists on saying prayers by herself at bedtime and does a very good job of it. 

Here she is wearing her friends skates for the first time and she LOVES them. She is great with her baby brother and gets very protective when anyone else is holding him. but she can also be very jealous of the time he spends with me. so much so that she will tell daddy to hold baby brother so that mommy can hold stephanie. she has also asked to nurse, be swaddled and have a binkie. silly girl.

this is Burton, Josh was born on his due date, then he was born 4 days later. they are besties.

then there is his big sister Andilynn she is almost exactly 6 months older than stephanie. they are besties too.

In the back yard Matt removed all the old sprinkler system. 

There was PVC everywhere.

 Stephanie was drawing with chalk.

 Now for the "Grand Tour"

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The front driveway/entrance to the house, with the  "vancar" just hanging out.

The back yard, you will notice that Matt has also cut down the bush even further on the far left side of the picture. He cut it to about a foot tall.

 This picture will stand as the "before" for the deck removal. which has been done since this was taken.

And the wonderful before and after of the "New Bedroom" as Stephanie calls it. Curtains are up, pictures are hung. Yay!!! 

The Kitchen 

Before

After

The Guest room/ Bay window room.

not finished painting it yet. :)

Before

During

Living room and formal dining room

Before

After

 The rooms I forgot to take pictures of were the bathroom and Stephanie's room. I'll do that next time.

 This picture gives us hope for the future. All our neighbors told us that our very large Avocado tree did not produce any fruit for over 10 years. BUT we found this. this lone Avocado on our tree, we are THRILLED. We had FAITH and HOPE that if we care for this tree properly it will bear fruit. and here is our proof!! 

Here is to many more avocados to come from our GREAT tree!!