Saying goodbye to baby things

This is our crib 5 years ago in San Jose. Before Sam was born. Before we had any real notion of what it was like to be parents. Before we knew what being tired really meant. When I still had days where I had time to be bored.

This is the crib with the bedding in it we used for Elise.

It is exactly the same bedding that Regan used too. Kerry found it and I loved it. Since we live on opposite ends of the state, I felt no guilt whatsoever about totally copying her. No one would know. Um...until now.

There is even a drawer beneath the crib to keep blankets. Great idea...but the drawer is pretty cheap. Can't count the number of times I have had to put it back together.

I took some of these pictures just before moving the crib to the garage. I was trying to call Keith's bluff. See if he was really ready to sell it or donate it. Are we really done with the baby stage? It makes me a little sad. I change my mind hourly on if I think we are done or not. I keep giving myself deadlines and then pushing them back. Right now my deadline is July. Before that it was November. Before that it was last August. Hmmmm....this is a toughy.

This is one of the only pictures I can find with Elise in her crib. I MUST have more, right? Maybe it was before I bought my Nikon... How could I not have a million photos of her in her crib?

Here is one of Sam in the crib.And here we have both of them. I remember this day...they were being so funny together.

Jen - Since you are, I think, my only blog reader, I posted this for you so that you could see the crib and make sure you still want it. Here is a photo of the changer too. I'll send you the measurements if you like how they look.

Tidepools

This last Sunday we went to Swami's in Cardiff to explore tidepools. Thanks to my little Surf Report application on my iphone we knew the best time to go for lowtide. And it was perfect!

At first, we were a little nervous.
Daddy showed us what to look for.
Daddies are good like that.
Elise loved it too. Sam and Elise were both super excited to find big shellfish. They promptly moved them to new homes in different, far away tidepools.

I even made it into a picture!

Back up tons of stairs to the top of the bluffs.

I don't know what these are but these bright green plants are covering the bluffs right now. Ok...I made them just a little bit brighter than they actually are...but I still thought they looked cool.

Off to Starbucks for some "baby cocoas!"

"I'm a bagel"

"I'm a bagel!"

"what?"

"I'm a bagel mama. And I'm going to use the poddy."

"You're a bagel and you are going to use the potty?"

"Yes, I'm a bagel."

"Oh, you are a big girl?"

"Yes, a bagel with whipped cheme."

Ayla

In early February, I packed our bags and the kids in the minivan and drove them 10 hours up north to meet my new niece, their new cousin, Ayla Reese Joiner. Ayla is pronounced Ayla, not eyela and she is beautiful. We all just wanted to stare at her. She is alert. I know a lot of people say that about newborns but this girl really was. She was looking at me. At 6 days old, she was really looking at me. Really looking in my eyes. Not a glazed and dazed baby stare into the air...but a serious, we are connecting kind of look. At least I like to think we connected.



Look at her eyes, she is looking right into my camera at barely a week old.



And she has perfect little feet.

And perfect little hands.

And doesn't it look like she is really enjoying this sweet kiss on her belly from her mommy? Barely a week old I tell you. She just knows what's going on.

And here is Regan. Already loving her little sister. She will probably never remember life without her.

This post is too big.

Just posting some of the pictures from December and January. I never want to get this behind again. Too much trouble to catch up.


Anyway, here we are riding bikes in early December.










Our Christmas Trip


We drove up north this year to celebrate Christmas with family. Keith's brother Darren stayed with Papa and Curly and we stayed with Aunt Lene and Uncle Jack.


Jen, Kalie and Ethan came to visit us at Aunt Lene's house. It was storming outside so we all stayed inside and Aunt Lene made the kids Hot chocolate. This was the afternoon that Sam slammed his head into the coffee table and gave himself a huge black eye. Look for it in pictures below...





We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Uncle Lam has most of these pictures. I'll have to get them from him. But he is in Vietnam right now.


We played with cousin Mila.


Christmas Eve we went to Uncle John Joe and Annie's for an amazing party.


The boys in the window are Annie's grandsons...waiting for Santa.

Santa Claus came!!

A lovely Christmas morning at Aunt Lene and Uncle Jack's house.

Next, we drove over to Martinez for dinner with the Ranahan's. Aunt Pam made a delicious Christmas dinner and we had fun seeing some more cousins.

David, Kerry and Regan Joiner

Kevin and Meredith (They got engaged in January! Yay!! I am so happy about this!)

Kevin is a chef and he helped with dinner and made this beautiful salad.

The day after Christmas, we had breakfast with the Bowman's in their beautiful home that they recently moved back into. 4.5 years after the fire.

Soon after coming home from our Christmas trip, the Mace's arrived to celebrate New Year's with us. One of the nights, we, the adults went to see Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker at the Belly Up. So fun!

These pics are from hiking in Rancho Santa Fe.

Partied out on New Year's. Jim and Sharon also came by on New Year's Eve to help celebrate. We had a really good time. :-)

January

We went to a few birthday parties.

Walked around downtown Carlsbad.

Then the kids got sick and I had my new iphone, so January went by without many photos.

Oh, and we saw some ducks.