She's 6 Months (sniff sniff)

I love babies.

They are time consuming, 

but oh, how I love to hold, smell, rock (or in her case bounce) them. 

But one thing I don't like (other than blow outs and spit ups on my carpet)

is how ridiculously fast they grow. 

Our girl is now 6 months. 

She is sweet and pleasant. 

And a pretty laid back girl all together.

I think her name fits her quite well.

She had her check up.

 Her big sis was more than happy to walk into the doctor's office and announce to everyone, 

she will not be getting shots this time but her sister will be. 

However,  when the time came to get the shots, 

Sweet B, still cried when she saw it. 

Warmed my heart, on this cold wintery day.

 

After I put Lil' C to bed, I caught her big sister sneak into her room.

She kissed her good night and said "Night Night." 

Just like I do to her. 

I love this. 

I know their relationship won't always be rainbows and unicorns and full of kisses and hugs, 

but right now I will relish in it. 

Little Califlower's Stats:

~ Weight: 14 # 15 oz.  (23%)

~ Height: 26.2 Inches (55%)

~ Head: 40.8 cm (10 %) 

~ Clothes size: 3-6 months

~ Sleep: 8 pm - 7:30 am 

~ Naps: 2 a day 

~ Favorites: Food (seriously, she isn't picky she eats everything), her sister, being bounced or walked (not rocked), tickling her feet, blowing bubbles, bell sounds, singing, sitting up (it's a new thing and she is so proud), tummy time. 

~ Milestones: sitting up, rolls over, scoots on her tummy 

~ She is starting to realize the dogs and she thinks they are hilarious.

Pinterest Success

I love pinterest.  

But sometimes I hate it. 

Particularly when something doesn't turn out and the description swore, 

"This is is the best thing EVER!!!!!!!" 

(Because one or two exclamation points will simply not do).

And it's not.

It's in the fact, the lamest thing ever. 

But this was a success so it's blog worth.

Pinterest Pin

 

Mine

Yeah, I'll toot my own horn. 

I nailed it.

The Elf Who Sits on a Shelf

 

The Elf on the Shelf, is a big craze right now. 

And when I was pregnant with B, my dear friend bought me one for my birthday to start the tradition with my family. 

Since then I have seen ideas explode on pinterest. 

I would see these cute little elaborate scenes parents would do for their kids.

I think it is as much fun for parents as it is their children, and I couldn't wait to do it!

I got from pinterest that the Elf is in different places every morning and the kids have to find him/her.

But it wasn't until last Christmas that I actually got my Elf (still in it's box) down from the shelf 

and read how it works.

I read the book. 

I am not going to lie.

 It creeped me out. 

So back in the box on the shelf it went.

Until while watching "The Elf" I got an idea.

Our Elf, will not be an observer.

He is just a plain doll, who is here to remind us how to spread Christmas cheer.

Every morning he will be in a different spot and B has to find him. 

And she can take turns with mom or dad on hiding him from the other. 

When she spots him, we sing a Christmas song, because you know,

"The best way to spread Christmas Cheer

is singing loud for all to hear". 

That seemed like a decent compromise.

B thinks it's hilarious. 

I can't wait for her to giggle with her sister about it.

Jingle Bugs

While listening to a parenting podcast on the topic of Christmas, I came up with some new traditions.

The family counselor was discussing how to keep Christmas fun,

 without just focusing on the gifts part.

He mentioned to start traditions for the whole season.

This is particularly helpful if money is very tight  due to job loss. 

The children won't be let down because mom or dad lost their job,

 but they will still be excited for the whole season.

I loved this. 

And it was something I decided to incorporate into our parenting. 

Our neighbor, who absolutely loves Christmas has a tradition I have since started. 

She has Christmas books (the same Christmas books every year). 

The books only come out at Christmas and get packed away with the decorations after Christmas.

She wraps them and numbers them. 

Every night they unwrap a book. 

Some of the books have an activity that goes along with it, 

and not a major activity something pretty easy.

So this year I started ordering Christmas books to begin our Christmas Library.

The first book, "Jingle Bugs". 

B loves this book, and I highly recommend it.

 

Our activity after was making jingle bells. 

I already had the pipe cleaners, 

and I bought the bells at Hobby Lobby with a coupon for $1. 

Cheap and easy entertainment for a 2 year old. 

Now she marches around the house with her bells singing "Jingle Bells".

California Part IV: Carmel and Monterey

I am digressing just a little.  

But long before we had kids I visited San Francisco with Brad for the first time.

I was so excited for San Fran. I heard amazing things about the city. 

Most people I knew seemed to love it, and I thought I would love it. 

I knew it was the leading city in recycling, so I thought it would be clean. 

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

 It was filthy. It smelled horrible. There were dirty homeless people, EVERYWHERE.

I enjoy exploring and visiting new places, and we still had a wonderful time, and I have been back since. 

But if I never see San Fran again I wouldn't cry.

However, Monterey is what I thought San Fran would be. And I loved it. And Carmel, oh stunning! 

This is where our trip came to an end, but what a high note it ended on. 

Broccoli loved the seals. 

She would bark (that is what you call the sound they make, right?)

and she would clap her arms like they do their flippers. 

B also tried some new foods, and she ate it all.

Here she eating calamari.

 And her first try with sushi, chop sticks and all.

(No, Mom she didn't eat raw fish. She had the fully cooked California Rolls).

It was a wonderful, yet exhausting trip. 

Our girls were fabulous. 

We set up movies on the ipad for B to watch during the drive. 

We watched Tangled, over and over and over again. 

Then it was home and on to our Christmas traditions!

California Part III: Big Sur

 

(I just love this photo so, naturally, I had to share)

Big Sur, has to be the home of the most incredible, breathtaking, natural beauty I have ever seen.  This is a place I want to return to for a longer stay.

The next morning we started with breakfast on our back porch, amongst wild turkeys and the cutest little deer.

 

Then we headed to some beautiful beaches.

 

And of course, some amazing red woods. see what I mean? it went from beaches to these amazing trees. Beautiful.

California Part II: Santa Barbara and Hearst Castle

Before we left LA, Brad took me on a surprise detour.

I may have been just a little excited when we pulled up to this house. Then the one right below it. 

 

Do you recognize these houses????

Then it was off to Santa Barbara. We did two hour legs in the car, with many stops along beautiful beaches. 

 

We ended in Santa Maria. 

And the next morning we drove to Hearst Castle.

 Which was unbelievable.

Oh, this is just the 2,000 sq foot guest house. 

Outside at the Neptune Pool. 

The gardens were immaculate. 

 

Very important to stop and smell all the flowers.

I loved all the citrus fruit trees.

And this is the indoor pool. 

Then we drove up to Big Sur, and stayed in a little cabin-like hotel right smack in the heart of Big Sur.

California Part I: Disneyland

 

(Finally meeting her idol, whom she waited patiently in line for for 65 minutes! 

AND all she can do is stare at the ground). 

 Brad had a conference in Anaheim, and because we like crazy we thought, "Hey! let's pack up and the kids and go with you!" 

And because we I really like crazy I took the girls by myself one day.

The day I took the girls by myself we just did casual things. We met all the princesses, but Merida was definitely the cutest! Ariel was pretty darling too (okay okay they were all darling) however, because I was alone the only camera I had was my cell phone and some of the pictures with the princesses didn't turn out :( 

 

We watched the Christmas parade.

 

And I couldn't help myself, I had to snap this pic. Because anyone who knows Brad knows, he was not okay with this.

 

Some parade shots.

After Disneyland, we began our journey up the Pacific Coast Highway.