Last pic with Daddy...

For a month that is. Daddy left yesterday morning to go to the Coast
Guard academy and to visit grandma and grandpa Robinson. We were all
sad, but I'm sure the month will fly by because Mommy is making all
kind of plans to keep us busy and entertained. Thank goodness for
the moms club and the fellow coastie wives on base. Eat a whoopie
pie for me daddy!!! Mommy says bring he some Maine lobster and
blueberry pie!

Tue, 20 Jul #2

Ella shakes her head no whenever she hears the word no from anyone
even if it does not apply to here or if she doesnt like something.
Here she is eating bueberries and bananas! Yes...I said bueberries
that was not a typo.

Downtown Napa.

On Saturday we decided to get out of town for the day. Napa, AKA wine capitol of the US, and culinary heaven(in my opinion), is only an hour north of us. So we left early in the morning which we thought would help our drive time but in CA there is no telling what that traffic will be so our hour drive took close to an hour and a half. And poor Ella is still working on those two front teeth and was screaming the whole time. Hence the puffy red face she has in the picture below.

Once we got to Napa everyone calmed down a bit and we were able to enjoy a nice walk around the shops and resturants. The weather was beautiful. Warm with a cool breeze coming off the bay. We ate, drank a couple of glasses of wine, shopped, and walked till our feet hurt. As you can see Ella was exhuasted and found a comfortable place to take a nap as been and I sat in the shade of a church in a historic neighborhood. It was a great day. We love going out on our little day trips in CA. There is so much to do and see. We can't wait till the next one!

End of the day.

Look at me surrounded by babies! Never in my life have I thought I would ever be comfortable surpurvising 3 infants. After pool time was over we gave the babies a bath and put them in their PJs. We let them play a little bit more before heading to bed. Ahhh...... finally I could enjoy the hot tub.

Pool time with Daddy! 4th of July.

Love the new hairdo Ella! Thanks to Daddy.

4th of July !

Here are some of the 4th of July pics that I promised to upload. We had a great 4th of July with our friends the Roebers, and Tiffany and Charles with their daughter Riley. We spent most of the day in the pool and grilling out. For the most part the babies did really well in the pool. Ella was just starting the teething process for her two front teeth so her mood was up and down through out the day, but the pool kept her distracted from her pain. We were exhuasted the next day from all the fun.

Wed, 07 Jul #2

Ella laughing at her favorite show, Yo Gabba Gabba.

Infant Playgroup.

Last week I hosted the first infant playgroup through the moms club. It was so fun to see all of the girls interact with one another. And yes I said girls, there is not one boy in the group yet. Left to right the babies are Kate, Samantha, Emma, Ella(ofcourse) and Amelie. The playgroup is going to meet weekly. Although Ella and I did not attend today since I've been feeling under the weather, and Ella has been super fussy since her two front teeth are coming through.

Not only is Ella getting her two front teeth but she is learning new tasks everyday. The day of the playgroup stood up all by herself. She hasn't done it since but she has been practicing. Another thing that she has picked up is shaking her head No. So all the work I have put into teaching her sign language feels useless now. But I still use try hoping she will catch on. And she continues to shake her head No to everything. It's actually quite funny and cute when she does it but there are moments when it's not as entertaining. For instance when she needs a diaper change. She will shake her head then violently thrust her legs back and forth to try and avoid me from taking her diaper off. Maybe she doesn't like a cold butt? But no one likes a stinky butt. It's bath time now so I have to cut it short but more pictures to come soon of our 4th of July.

Infant playgroup.

Showing off.

Every month on base someone is awarded "Yard of the Month" and this
month we won. This picture was taken by one of the gals who works in
the clubhouse to put in our community newsletter. Unfortunatly that
lawn care service cut some of our greenery right before the pic was
taken. Just two weeks ago they were blooming with big yellow lilies so
it looks a little sparce now. But thanks to Ben our flower boxes have
huge flowers in them that make up for it.

Ouchy!

Mommy wanted me to share the news with everyone that my two front
teeth are coming in! I've been real fussy all weekend and tonight
because of it. Mom tried to get a picture of it but I'm too busy
shoving random objects into my mouth.

After the beach.

I'm just hangin with my friend Amelie after going to the beach. I had
so much fun!!!

Mavericks Beach

Last weekend was very warm, and we decided to take the opportunity to enjoy the beach with our friends, the Roeber family. And I think this picture says it all! The babies had a good time. Especially our friend Amelie. She loved playing in the sand. Ella, not so much. Ella does not care to be out in the elements. Much like her mother. We tried to sit Ella in the the soft sand of Seista Key Beach and that did not go over so well, so we knew she was not going to have any part of the coarse sand on Mavericks Beach.

The beach was beautiful though. In all my life of admiring surfers, befriending a few, and watching countless surf movies I never thought I would end up on one of the best surf spots in the world. I know there are some people back in FL green with envy right now. The worst part is I don't even surf. But I got over that quick because it is just awesome to look at. Although, it wasn't an easy walk to get down to the beach carrying the babies and all our gear. But it was worth the work.

Well that's all for now. We are excited for Fathers day, and next week we have some fun events planned with the Moms Club that I recently joined. Hopefully we will get some pictures of those trips. See you soon!

Amelie and Ella. Best of friends!

Uh oh.....

Someone is getting strong,and learning new tricks! Looks like it's
time to drop that mattress down!!!

Another summer day !

Summertime!

It's finally consistantly warm here and we love it! Now Ella can wear
all the hats I bought her to shade her face from the sun. Well.....
Most of the time she wears them as long as there is a strap under her
so she can't pull it off.

Memorial Day Weekend.

Hello everyone! We hope you enjoyed the long weekend. We sure did. It was beautiful here. Sunny, and warm enough to put on some shorts, but just cool enough to enjoy it. We had a pretty low key weekend. We mostly ran errands, cleaned house, worked out, grilled(of course), and Sunday we went to our favorite park and took some pictures dressed up in our red, white and blue. Afterwards we just layed out on the blanket and enjoyed the weather.

Of course I have to say it wasn't the happiest Memorial Day weekend I have ever had. Now that we are a military family you can't help but think of those that are unable to do spend time together as a family. I think it has been more of an eye opener since we live on base and since Ella has arrived, how precious our time together is. We are lucky that Ben doesn't go out to sea anymore but that doesn't make him immune from getting called up at a moments notice to fulfill a position needed elsewhere. And we have to say thank you to all the service members that have done it before, and those who have done it and never returned home. So I hope you truly enjoyed your weekend but I also hope you took a few moments to think about those who were unable to enjoy it with their loved ones.

FYI... Did you know Memorial Day was actually called Decoration Day. It was titled this so people would decorate the graves of Veterans with spring flowers. This was started in 1868 (after the civil war end) by a Union Veteran.

I will post some more pictures of Ella in the park tommorrow, as they came out great! She was in a great mood that day as well. Hope all is well on your end! We will write soon because we have some big events comming up!

We sat Ella in the grass at the park and she was less then thrilled. She didn't mind being on the ground on top of the blanket. Maybe she is more like her mom. She hates getting dirty.

This is a chair that we have outside our front porch, mostly for decoration, but I thought Ella would like to have her own seat to relax in and watch the neighborhood. She loved it. She felt like a big girl sitting in her own chair!

Ella was really excited to get a new outfit from Grandma Robinson! The 80's are BACK!

Ella is starting to crawl

Staying busy!

Sorry. No new pictures of Ella on this post. But I did find this cute picture of Ben with his brother and sister and it's just as entertaining! Incase you don't know Ben is the youngest of the three kids.

The reason I don't have any new pictures of Ella is because Ben has the camera in his truck, which is at his work right now. But guess what.... Ben's not at work. Him and 10 other Coasties are in Burbank at the moment taping The Price is Right! Keep your fingers crossed that Ben will get called up, and win us a new car, boat, or heck even a couple grand would be nice! I will keep you guys informed when the show will actually air.

Ella has had an exciting couple of days as well. For the past week she has been trying hard to crawl. But yesterday was the first time she actually got some distance under her belt. My keys were her inspiration to move. She does a variation of a comando crawl. She hasn't figured out that she can push through her arms and legs at the same time so she lurches and scoots. We got it on video so maybe tommorrow Ben will post it online. She did at least 2 or 3 laps in the living room.

And today was a big step for me. I got out of my comfort zone and joined a mothers play group. I took Ella out of the house during her usually nap time, to meet a bunch of strangers! So that is two scary scenarios right there,1) Ella not taking a nap, and 2) meeting over a dozen strangers and their kids all at once. But Ella did surprisingly well. We didn't have one break down. And I'm excited to get more involved with the mothers club, not just for the social interaction but to get me out of my typical routine. Routine is good most days because thats how you make time to get things done, but too much routine leads to boredom. And I don't want my time with Ella to ever get boring. So this is our chance to meet new friends and experince things that we wouldn't normally experience if it was just her and I.

Well that's all for now. We will post some pictures and videos soon Im sure since Ella is getting big and doing somthing new everyday!

Mmm...pizza.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Food drove Ella to hop
her little butt over to dad while we were eating dinner. She started
at the other end of the blanket and once she saw dad was eating pizza
she got the urge to move!! FYI ... She already ate!

Tue, 11 May

Daddy is fun!!!

Ellas first taste of Italian

I made Ben and I some minestrone in the crockpot tonight and I figured
Ella might like some too! So I pureed it with some left over
chicken , and I think it was a hit!! And she ate a babymum instead of
garlic bread.

I'm ready for my close up!

Swim lessons

Daddy got into the pool with me last Saturday ! It wasn't a very
productive lesson though because it was a bit too chilly outside.

Sippin

Ella is starting to get the hang of her sippy cup! Although she has
difficulty holding it for any length of time, so we constantly play
the baby drop , and mommy picks it up game. Ugh.

Four years ago today we were married... Four years ago today we started on the best journey two people could take together. There is nothing better in this world than knowing someone so completely, nothing better than the comfort that comes with complete honesty, trust and openness. We started as husband and wife and are now Mommy and Daddy; how fortunate can two people be?

Ella's first swim lesson

I took my first swim lesson today with my best friend Amalie. Mom took me into the pool and Daddy took lots pictures. I flapped my arms and legs, was dunked under the water, and got sprayed by a pool toy. I had so much fun and was not at all afraid of the water. Mommy and Daddy are going to take me each Saturday for the next few weeks, I'm so excited!

Sarasota Vacation.

Hey everyone! We had a great time in Sarasota. Although it wasn't as restfull as we thought it would be. We had lots of fun, and we got to see a lot of people. This picture was taken at Seista beach which was my second trip to the beach that week. I adapted to the time change in Florida well but Mommy and Daddy would not make nap time easy for me because we were out of the house most of the time. I sleep best in my crib and just as I would fall asleep it was time to get into the car again.

But I got to see a lot of Sarasota. We walked around St. Armads Circle, ate lunch at O'learys on City island, visited Jungle gardens, saw seista and longboat beach,ate dinner at Pop's in Nokomis, and meet a lot of new friends. It was sad to leave because I got so spoiled in FL with attention. Mom and Dad were sad to leave as well because they enjoyed spending time together while I hung out with my Grandma Mac.

Overall the trip went well. I didn't even fuss on the plane. Everyone kept saying what a good baby I was, but those people weren't home with Mom and I today. I've had a difficult time getting used to our old schedule. Plus I miss all the attention I got from Grandma. Well that's all for now. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Four generations.

It's was really exciting to have four generations of women together in the same house.

Great Grandma !

I got to meet my great grandma Allen which is pretty neat because there are not too many people that get to meet their great grandmas! Her and I really hit it off. She thought I was just the best thing since sliced bread.

Too CUTE!

Old friends, and new friends!

We visited some friends of mommy's from highschool while in Sarasota. They too had a baby just a month younger then me. Him and I got along just fine. I like having friends my age!

Im not so sure about these flamingos!

Enjoying the sceanery at Jungle Gardens with daddy.

Mommy holding a baby gator. YIKES !

I love my Aunt Culla and Uncle Dave!

Beach

I was so tired at the beach I fell asleep in daddy's arms. The sun and the sand were just too much for me that day.

My First trip to the beach with Grandma Mac

Getting a bath in Grandmas kitchen sink!

Hmmm.... Who is this I wonder?

Meeting my Aunt Susan !!!

Ella with Grandpa Mac!