Monday Funday!

Since we all had Monday off for the MLK holiday, we met up with our friends, the Furlows, and hiked over to the butterfly preserve for a bit. Since it has been so warm here, the Monarchs were all fluttering about in the warm sun. Though the butterfly numbers have been declining over the years, they sure looked like they were in full force today. There were thousands of them silently flying around. It was fun to see the kids watching them. Owen tried to feed them a piece of Marley's orange, but they weren't interested...

First stop: Rope swing Trevah (who is expecting #2 this summer), Adam and Marley. Checking out the butterflies above. Friends. Afterwards, we hiked over to the bluffs to check out the beach before heading home for lunch.

While the East Coast is completely frozen over right now, this is what our January looks like. Shorts and T shirts! Yay! (I am sure it won't last, but I can brag and enjoy it while I can ; )

We couldn't pass up the beach on a day like this, so we headed to The Beachside for lunch with our friends, Mike and Kim. We sat outside with mai tais and enjoyed lunch before playing in the waves at Goleta Beach. It was an absolutely perfect fun family day. Wish every day was like that!

Emily loves to hang out in "happy baby pose" (for those of you who know your yoga ; )Adam is going to be Mike's best man in his wedding next year : ) love the sand on his nose!

Emily putting her toes in the ocean for the first time : ) Goleta pier, close to sunset. The water was much warmer than it was the day before thankfully.

Cute n' Funny

I love this bottom lip!

Big Sqeeze!

Six Months Old!

Adam is trying to turn her into a NY Giants fan early.

I can not believe my baby is half a year already! In some ways I feel like she just arrived, yet at the same time, I feel like she has been a part of our family forever. It's hard to remember life without her around. These days Emily is keeping us busy, but not as busy as it is about to get when she starts crawling...and inevitably taking off all our books off the book shelf and destroying my Tupperware shelves....etc, etc. She has very sticky fingers and likes to grab anything and everything she can get her little hands on. She is very interested in people and will stare them down without a smile until they give in and blink. Once she warms up, she is very smiley and has a pretty funny laugh/ squeal that will capture anyones attention.

She is a family girl and LOVES her Momma, Daddy and Owen. She loves to be entertained by Owen...unless he gets too close and wants to use her head as his "pillow" (pronounced "piddow" because he can't pronounce his "L's" very well :). That's when she looks to Adam or I for safety! Lately Owen likes to sit in front of her and play his "pinanio" (or "piano" as most would call it) for her. She loves the attention.
She used to be an amazing sleeper from 5 weeks old till around 3 months. Now she sleeps great during the day, but not so much at night. She is like Adam in the fact that she wants to stay up all night and sleep in in the morning. Not a fun combination for us since Owen is up around 7:30. When she does finally go to bed at night she falls asleep the easiest when I lay down with her and we are literally nose to nose.She loves baths, dancing to music, car rides, being outside, cooking with me, sleeping late, massages, sucking her toes, having her hair brushed and blowing bubbles. This is our happy baby girl. Happy Half Birthday Emily, we love you! XO