Lately

So here is just a little choppy snapshot of what we've been up to lately.

Andrew had a birthday.  

Looking very cute and very young :)

                                        

The Phelps came to visit.

We had our wonderful friends, the Phelps, visit us and it was 

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 

awesome.

Amelia and Drew reunited after a year apart and it was just like old times:

- lots of nudity

 - complete disregard of personal space

- Lots of hugs

- Some crazy outfits

 - Cute smiles

 - Screaming

 - Laughter

 - And so much happiness!

 Come back soon Phelps!!

And then we had Halloween.  

Amelia told me she wanted to be a ghost this year.  I don't know where she got that idea, but she decided it weeks beforehand and stuck with it, so a ghost she was.  I love that she is starting to understand the holidays.

                                 

 I made her costume out of a pillow case and my awesome friend, Holly, cut the face out with her silhouette machine.  I thought she was the prettiest little ghost you ever did see.

                                         

                       

         

William got to be Superman because 1) someone gave him the costume 2) he isn't old enough to tell me he would rather be a ghost and 3) he looked so cute flying around the house in spandex and a cape

                              

                                               

And then we moved.

After months and months of house hunting drama, we finally bought a home in Santa Barbara.  We love it and feel so blessed and happy.

                               

 The kids were all out of sorts during all the packing and moving, but they did find time to giggle together in their homemade laundry basket bed

 Some quality daddy-daughter dress-up time, helped with the transition as well

Our first night in our new home we found this guy hanging out on our (very clean) living room window.  We love hearing the frog chorus at night.

 

 You know Amelia was really cranky and tired when she fell asleep in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Yeah, loved the tantrum that preceded that.

The kids love playing tag with dad in the back yard

And mowing the lawn might even be more fun than tag...

                              

Speaking of chores, our kids think vacuuming and washing the dishes are fun too.  We just put our feet up after dinner and let them go to work.

                                      

And then Mom and Dad came to visit.

And life was grand.

It is so hard having my family live so far away and it was heavenly having them here.

 They took even took out our toilet and washed it so our bathroom doesn't smell like pee anymore. 

We went to the zoo.

 We made Swiss Chard Gratin

 We went to the beach.

We had dance parties

 Dad taught William how to blow-dry his belly while saying, "Niiiiice."  Very helpful, dad, thanks.  He also taught him how to say, "Knock it off!"  Also super awesome.

 Mom got lots of help getting ready in the morning.  The make-up sessions usually ended with Amelia wearing mom's jewelry for the day and breaking it and mom having lotion applied to her arms and hair.

Dad helped me set up my Christmas decorations.  Happy Leon everybody.

I had a birthday.  I turned old.  But not as old as Andrew.

  Andrew picked me this rose from our backyard.

Well, and that in its choppy sort of way, is it for now folks.