We went blueberry picking yesterday and have been enjoying lots of yummy blueberries.
They should have weighed Amelia before and after and charged us for the ones she ate while we picked.
Although she ate some dirt and twigs along with her blueberries, so that would have skewed things.
I also made this coconut granola this week and it pretty much makes my mornings rock.
I also got extra ambitious and made foccacia bread for a picnic the other night. Um, delicious! And the best part is they are both easy recipes.
You can just call me Martha. Or Betty. Or Molly. Or whatever, but just know that if you had visited me this weekend, your taste buds would have been happy. Sorry Dan and Lisa, you will just have to come back.
My awesome brother came to visit this past weekend and it was so much fun having him! Thank you so much for coming. We love you.
So, while he was here, of course, we went to the beach...
Uncle Dan watching Amelia dance on the beach
This girl loves to sing and dance...and she's got some sweet moves as you can see!
He also taught her to bury her feet in the sand
Here Andrew is teaching Amelia how to sneak up on seagulls. This is how they walk right before they sprint after the unsuspecting bird. They have yet to catch one, but that hasn't stopped Amelia from yelling, "Touch it!" every time she sees one. Also, if you tell her to "sneak" she crouches down and walks around the house like this. Pretty cute.
I love Uncle Dan!
From watching other people, Amelia learned to shade her eyes with her hand when looking up at the sky (like when she's looking for airplanes), but the funny thing is that she does it even when the sun has gone down...or we are in the house...or it is night time...:)
We also went to the Museum of Natural History Butterfly garden. There were literally hundreds of butterflies flying around in this greenhouse. They even had people stationed at the exit to give you a look over before you left to make sure you didn't have any stuck to your clothes. One landed on my foot!
You can't see them in this picture, but they are looking at butterflies
Hard to see, but I am standing next to the blue butterfly in the next picture
Dan is such a fun uncle and my kids loved him and I loved having him here. Can't wait until you live close to us!! (hint, hint)
In other news, Amelia is thrilled that our neighbor's cat like to come into our backyard for belly rubs. So far the cat has been very patient with Amelia's attention...even when it involves her sitting on him...I am just hoping he has been declawed!
I know I say it every time, but I seriously can't get enough of this boy! I am constantly in awe at what an awesome baby he is and I LOVE it! He is so sweet. If I could guarantee that all my future babies would be like this, I would adopt hundreds :)
He is so smiley and I often look over to find him just waking up with a huge grin on his face! I tried to get a video of it, but of course he did not perform like he was seconds before. Just imagine this video with bigger, more exuberant smiles and loud squeals of delight. Or just come visit and see the joy that is William.
I just tried posting my video to youtube and embedding it here (like Trina does) and I am so excited that you can now see our videos better! Wish I'd followed Trina's lead a while ago...just another lesson to do whatever Trina does...
We are finally settling into our life here in Santa Barbara and let's just say we are very happy. While walking along a secluded beach cliff close to my house watching dolphins swim and pelicans dive, I have been known to exclaim, "This is amazing and I'm not even on vacation! This is my real life!" Come visit. You'll see what I mean.
Speaking of visitors, we had a very special visitor, Aunt Seesa (as Amelia calls her), for the past 2 weeks. It was awesome. And since Lisa is the photo-journalist queen of the world, I have about 500 pictures to prove just how awesome it was! Unfortunately my blogging time is limited these days...so you are getting an overload of pictures with less dialog and you'll have to check Lisa's blog for more.
Beach Life
Okay, so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures of us on beaches from the past couple of weeks. They are all within 15 minutes of my house.
Family picture
Struggling to hold Amelia still for the family picture
Sisters are the best.
I am so lucky to have such an amazing, sweet, sensitive, kind, loving, full of common sense and non-dramatic (very valuable in my life :)) sister. We shared a bed all growing up - even when we didn't have to - and we used to get ourselves in trouble laughing too loud after we were supposed to be sleeping. During this trip we almost got ourselves in trouble laughing too loud in church! I love you Lisa. If Matt didn't miss you so much, I'd try to convince you to move in with me again.
El Capitan State Park
Refugio State Park
Lisa and I explored this beach one morning and this was one of those "This is my real life?!" moments. We saw 7 dolphins, scores of pelicans, an otter, a sea lion, a sand crab and only 4 other humans! It was so beautiful, exciting, and peaceful.
Sandspit Beach
This is one of the beaches right by UCSB campus
Um, so those buildings you see in the corner of this picture. Yeah, that's campus. Go Gauchos!
Walking along the cliff above the beach ON campus.
This is also at Sandspit beach park. It's foggy in the background, but that is actually the ocean right behind us (that metal thing is a pier). So Amelia can swing and bang things to her hearts content, and afterwards I can take a walk along the beach boardwalk.
Aunt Seesa
Santa Barbara Zoo
Amelia fit right in with the monkeys :)
Birthday
We celebrated Lisa's birthday on the 9th with In N Out burgers and birthday cake
But of course, being the nerdy nutritionist, I didn't just make her any old cake...I had to stick a vegetable in it! Last year Amelia had zucchinis in her cake, Andrew had pumpkin in his and now Lisa got BEETS. It turned out delicious and I will definitely be adding beets to my cakes more often, but don't be scared because you'll never know! You'll just think it is a perfectly moist chocolate cake. Yum!
Kids
And finally we have some great pictures of the kids. Thanks Lisa for documenting my life for me!
Okay, for the record, William is still the sweetest baby ever. In his baby blessing, he was blessed that he would be a joy to his mother...and that has proved so true already! He is such a little sweetheart and I love every minute of being his mom.
Amelia loves him too and she is always very sweet to him. When he fusses or cries she pats his head (fairly gently, usually just missing poking his eyes out, but with zero malice) and says, "It's okay baby!"
Here she is singing Patty Cake to him. I love this picture because you can see how big William is! He is in the 90th percentile for his age and Amelia has always been around the 10th! I think he is going to catch up to her soon - he is such a big baby!
Running, running, running, running!
When I was pregnant and Amelia was climbing all over me, wanting to be held, sitting on my lap, snuggling, kissing and being on top of me all the time, I remember thinking, "How and where is this new baby going to fit around here?" Well, here's the answer!
Amelia hasn't moved over one bit for the little newcomer. We're just a trio instead of a duo now!
The Santa Barbara Festival was going on the first week we got here so we went downtown and enjoyed some good Mexican food, traditional dancers and bands.
We got ice cream afterwards and Amelia ate her whole ice cream cone, of course.
And this video is the aftermath of staying out until bedtime plus a whole ice cream cone.
