Well, we are jumping right into the holiday season around here. Starting with getting our Christmas tree from none other than our favorite Christmas Tree Farm – Crest Ranch! We wore our layers because when the wind blew, the chill would freeze you to your core! But gosh, what a beautiful day to cut down a Christmas tree and drink hot chocolate. Carting around 2 kids this time around was pretty tricky. Also, random site note, why do I even try to wear the Ergo? Walker just can’t be restrained. He’s a beast that can’t be reckoned with and rather sit in the dirt and touch each speck or twig (or chew on Jace’s trash) >D Anyway, we quickly eyed a tree that was full enough to fill up a corner of our house and after some strong sawing (on Rob’s end) we cut threw a wicked knot and had our tree! It’s a smelly one, too. Jace was more involved with his hot chocolate than finding a tree, but managed to help Rob with some of the action at the end. He’d been looking forward to getting a Christmas tree all week, so of course it was all worth it. Hope you all are getting excited for the holidays and getting your trees decked out. Our living room is very much a-glow right now and so wonderfully fragrant. This time of year is truly the most magical, with so much to celebrate. More Christmas fun to come (if I can ever get around to documenting it!)
This photo here was right before Jace threw Rob’s coffee on the ground, with no regret and with a smile on his face. Funny how toddlers just do those kinds of things, right? oh-well. We’ve learned to just say “whatever” and move on to the next thing. No use crying over spilled coffee. And Mr. Jace wanted to wear Walker’s little hat and swiftly stole it from him. Go figure. Reminds me of when he wore it as a baby way back. Now my 2nd born is wearing all his hand-me-downs, and it’s so sweet. I just love re-purposing the little sweaters and booties and hats. Brings all kinds of great memories back. Plus, Walker is just delicious right now. I mean, come on! Look at that little drooly face and snotty nose! Ha.
And instead of Rob riding the Christmas tree this year, I decided to make him put it over his head. I’m so thankful he’s game for my crazy photo ideas ;) Also, I totally look 7 months preggo in this pic. Not sure what it is this time, but I’m eating even more food than usual while pregnant. Haha. Oh-well. Growing a human an’t easy!
Just realized that this was still in my post queue, and crazy delayed at this point, but I’m still going to post it because I don’t want to lose the memories!!! With summer comes Father’s Day, birthdays, pool days and 120 weather. Yup. 120 degrees. No joke. As soon as June hit we started stalking out the best pools to go to (like at the Buttes!) and wearing as little clothing as possible when not in the A/C.
Well, it’s been 3 months now since we’ve moved back to California. For some reason it feels like longer than that, but still 3 months, all the same. Although this gorgeous weather has been making it easy to remember the good things about living the coastal life, I think we’ve had a hard time adjusting. I’m working from home now and Rob is home with the kids all day. Temporary I know, but still hard when I have to be “on” at work to get projects done and sit in on conference calls, etc. and the kids are crying or screaming or the TV is blaring. It’s been hard for me to turn Mom off and work on. But, bless Rob’s heart, he’s doing the best he can to keep the kiddos occupied and engaged, and every morning we have our morning meeting upstairs in the office to talk about the day’s schedule so he knows when to get the boys out of the house. At the same time, Jace is very clingy to Rob and desperate for friends again, so we’re anxious for him to start preschool around here to get back into some kind of routine where he can build up his independence again. And Mr. Walker is in that delicious baby stage where he’s more alert and awake and wants to be active with Jace, so even more to think about, on both Rob and I’s part (especially with all the bite-size toys and legos around here!). This work home life is truly a blessing, we just need to get better at it. And I know Rob will eventually go back to work once he finds something that suites him, but for now, we’ll just have to juggle the every day and support each other in getting balance and some alone time, where we can turn the attention back to ourselves and hit the gym, or the mani salon, or just wind down together on a Friday night after the long work week with a sunset walk on the beach. Nothing is more enjoyable than skipping rocks into calm waves, smelling that ocean air and seeing Jace run up and down the beach with the sunset in back view. That little one has so much energy, which is part of the reason we’re so spent by the end of every day! We do thank God for this chance right now to keep the boys home and not in daycare, and need to remember to simply enjoy it before schedules kick in again and late night movie loft nights aren’t an every day thing. For now, I’m going to enjoy the craziness because it lets me have lunch with my family every day and snuggle Walker when he wakes up from his naps. I also think these sunsets walks need to officially become a weekly ritual, to help us reflect on the week and the gift of each day we’re given.
We found Jace’s new favorite place last week – the BOARDWALK! Tuesday night was Retro night, with old school prices for rides (only $1.50!). I couldn’t remember if there were enough rides for Jace’s size, but to my surprise there were a lot! And many we could accompany him on, like the log ride – which we rode twice. Such a blast!!!! We found Jace didn’t want to ride any rides by himself .. so we ended up searching for the ones we could do together. My favorite might have been the ferris wheel as I went a little crazy with the photos, haha. I also like my alone time with my little boy ;) Walker did pretty good, too. We splurged on corn dogs, sweet potato fries and fried oreos for me! As you can see, the weather was great. I see us getting season tickets next summer for sure, and might even take my parents next week over Labor Day. This place really gives you all the feels. The beach, the screams .. the smell of fried food. It’s just like a movie. Brings back lots of great memories and I can’t wait for Jace to make his own memories here with his friends.