hip hip hooray!

hip hip hooray its "mama" day! today i very much enjoyed the sweet sound of my baby girl saying "mama." this time it was an all day occurrence and very clearly directed at getting MY attention. yes, i'll admit, most of the time it was whining for a bottle or to be held, but still - she knew who to call :) i decided to document with a quick video for solid proof!

pool time

friday night we packed up and headed over to our best friend's pool to finally CHILL after a long week of work and heat! (sad and embarassed to say, this was our first pool outing of the season). And Remae's first time in the pool! She did amazing - just hung out in her little floaty and drifted around the warm pool. Ellia did pretty good too, but didn't want to leave the safe arms of our friend "nini." they were totally cute in their little swimmy suits! perfect weather, pool, friends, food, etc! can't wait for another pool day. check out my little beach babes:

the orange one

ellia and i took some rainy-day time to watch wimbleton today (of course!). as we were watching them play and talking about it... very matter-of-factly she says "no mommy, not this tennis! i wanna watch the orange one!!" it took me a minute to figure out what she meant... looks like shes partial to the french-open!

startin her early! im glad shes got an eye for the game ;)

daddy's day

today, as i reflect on all i have not only in an amazing dad, but in an amazing husband and father for my kids, i just feel enormously blessed.
i am so thankful for such a diligent husband. he works so hard everyday, very often under an abundance of stress. he soaks things in, learns so much, goes above and beyond, never compromises integrity, doesn't seek out credit or promotion, is fair, honest and diligent. i know im biased... but the ideal employee. and why??? why does he get up monday-friday, sick or well to head to an all-day jungle of experiences? all just to make sure his family is taken care of and needs are met - he's not looking to win some nobel prize or invent something out of this world (although i think he could)... just do the best he can at the job God has provided, in his best effort to love me and our family.
further, although it is a big sacrifice, both financially and otherwise, i am blessed to be able to be home doing exactly what ive always wanted to do... be a wife, make and keep a home, be a mom, and be available for whatever the Spirit has for me to do. we have been so blessed to be able to run our family like we've both dreamed... never knowing how long it will be like this, but being thankful and feeling blessed each day it is.
and thats just work... what about life at home with the kids and with me? hes just purely amazing. hes the perfect other half in this journey called parenting. when im at my wits end, hes calm and patient - when he can't take it anymore, i do my best to be the same. he loves his girls and cherishes them as treasures. he is engaged in this family - part of the every-day... here. hes the dad you always knew would be perfect with boys... then he had girls and hasn't ceased amazing me. i already knew long ago that i was overwhelmingly blessed to have him in my life. but being able to have him as my husband AND as the father to our kids is beyond anything i could ever ask for or deserve. i may be biased... but i think between my jesus, my dad, my father-in-law, and my peter, i know the four best dads of all time.

thank you jesus.

enjoyed spoiling daddy for fathers day... lunch with my parents at Cap City, two naps, complete care of the girls, requested dinner, dulce de leche white chocolate cheesecake, etc, etc. :)

papa and (two of) his girls...

daddy and his littlest girlie...

dulce de leche white chocolate cheesecake... YUM!

nite-nite story time with daddy to end a great day...

wanna sleep like a baby?

i think one of the most amazing joys of being a parent is watching your little one sleep. theres just something about those moments that i will always cherish and can never get enough of. little can compare to watching someone you love more than words can say, so peaceful, so relaxed, resting before you without a care or worry.

i must say...even better though is the crazy positions you can find them in sometimes! im sure every parent has their fair share of these funny moments but today's find with ellia was just too cute not to share:
so very very unfortunately, i think nap-time is quickly becoming an idea of the past. although i still put ellia up in her room for "nap-time" shes gone almost 2 weeks straight now without falling asleep... ends up just spending the whole time playing, reading, making a mess, etc. so naturally we were a little curious today when things were so quiet... usually that just means major destruction is occuring or at least something ornery. when we went in to check on her, this is what we found:

totally out cold on the toy box in her room! couldnt be more cute.


this spurred up some past memories so i thought id reach into the archive and pull out some oldie-but-goodies:

and one of my personal favorites...

car-noisseur

i gotta document this because... well, i think its pretty impressive. and what better place to brag on your kid?

so i secretly pride myself on being fairly good at recognizing cars and their model. by absolutely no means knowledgeable or even at an "excellent" or "great" level... but pretty good - for a girl. from my experience, most females are fairly clueless about cars, which is totally understandable. its not exactly the most interesting thing and lets face it: there are just so many other much more exciting things to fill up those brain cells with than useless car info. all that being said i have been beyond impressed with ellia lately. almost every time we've been in the car over the last couple weeks, we will inevitably drive past another CRV. when we do, ellie will yell out "mommy! that matches our car, only ours is white!" i mean, come on right?? she has consistently spotted the same model of CRV as ours and she never gets it confused with a similar vehicle. whats even funnier is she also seems to be able to tell the difference between the higher-level model and ours ;) i think i could safely say that there are many grown women who couldn't do this.

i like to think she gets this skill straight-up genetically from me :) Gotta love the useless knowledge starting at a mere 2 1/2.

lovely

my little lovelies...