Emily Update

I know it's been a while in between all of my posts. I have lots to catch up on, but little time to do it. It's a little overwhelming when I think about all the cute pictures I have to along with some great summer memories to write about (let alone, all the spring holidays that I have yet to go back to and post!). It will get done one of these days... I promise.
Emily is now walking VERY fast and loves to say "hi" over and over and over AND over again. I think she likes that word because she gets a response every time : )

She knows where her nose, toes, hair, tongue, and mouth are. She will show you her baby doll or paci if you ask her where it is. She can put things away just as easy as she gets them out. She loves to put thing away or in a container of some sort. Owen can make her laugh the hardest.

She loves clothes and jewelry, cars/ trucks and balls. She still screams for everything...sigh, I can't wait for that one to be over! My poor ears!

She still has a hard time sleeping through the night :( She loves the beach and being in water. She marches to the beat of her own drum. She is our little bean that we love so much!

Granny Anna's Visit

Adam's Mom, Anna came to visit us last week. She arrived just in time for Fiesta and all the festivities. I am not sure of the origin of Fiesta, but it is a huge 5 day festival in Santa Barbara that celebrates our rich Mexican heritage. On Granny Anna's first day here, we went to Mackenzie Park. We started with lunch of fish tacos, and quesadillas. Next we were ready to ride the Ferris Wheel and go down the Super Slide. Owen rode his first little roller coaster and then got to jump in the dinosaur bounce house for a while. It was a nice start to Granny Anna's visit. The Ferris Wheel was fun, yet the sign out front that read "ride at your own risk" was a little unnerving.After the rides, Adam headed off to work and Anna and I took the kids to the shade to cool off and watch the stage of young dancers doing traditional Mexican/ Spanish dancing. It was darling, all the girls looked beautiful. It kept Owen and Emily's attention the whole time!

Emily even warmed up and put her little hand on Anna's knee while we sat in the shade and watched the dancing on stage. It was so sweet. Emily is starting to come out of her little turtle shell with new people, but is still extremely attached to me (which is very exhausting for this Momma!) The next day we headed downtown to see the children's parade. It was MUCH longer than we had expected. Lots of cute kids, and lots of confetti that Owen poured over our heads the whole time!The following afternoon we went up north to go blueberry picking and have a picnic. Sadly, it's getting towards the end of the blueberry season and they didn't taste that great, and it was hard to find a bush with lots of ripe berries. We had fun anyway : )

After the heat of picking berries, we decided to cool off at the end of a short hike to Nojoqui falls. It was nice to put our feet in the cool water and relax before heading home.Of course Owen has to strip down to the buff when he's around water!Next fun day....wine tasting! We left the kids with Nana and two baby sitters to help her out and Adam, Anna and I headed to the wine country. First stop: Demetria. Beautiful winery, wonderful people and and great wines. We were there for close to two hours just talking, laughing and enjoying the scenery.The last day, we had lunch at Padaro Beach Grill. Great place to let the kids play in sand, and run around outside while we ate and enjoyed adult conversations. : ) Well, we enjoyed it until Owen "accidentally" tossed sand all over our table and in my lunch. Then it was time to go. We hung out at the beach for a short while before going to the concert in the park in Goleta.



This picture is totally random, but I have add that Emily LOVES this pirate hat. In fact, when ever she puts it on, she always says "Argh!" So funny!! Actually, when she puts on ANY hat, she does this now ; ) She walks around like a drunk sailor with a huge smile on her face saying "Arrrr" love it : ) One of Anna's last nights, we decided to walk to the Boat House for dinner. Emily refused to sleep during dinner in anything except my arms! At least it was a quiet dinner.We had so much fun! Looking forward to Granny Anna's visit again next year hopefuuly! Anna, I hope the next time you come, the "screaming business is over!" ; )

Yard Sale

Since we moved in April, we have realized that we have TOO much stuff! We got rid of a lot on Craigslist, and gave a lot away to the SMA sale and Goodwill, yet, we still found more that needed to go. Since Emily is quickly leaving her babyhood behind, we are trying to eliminate all the extra stuff that we no longer need (because, yes, we are DONE with having kids : ). Hence, our decision to have a yard sale.

From 8-1 we had all our goodies laid out to be sold. Strangers meandered through our front yard looking through our forgotten belongings and threw out low bids. We accepted just about every offer and waved goodbye to our clutter. It was a little work, we made some money and had fun watching Owen enjoy the experience.
Now, for the good part.... Owen set up a lemonade and cookie stand at the front of our driveway. My awesome nephew Matt was here to help him with his first little business venture. Let me tell you, my son is a natural salesman! One guy said "he could sell ice to an Eskimo." The lemonade was .25 cents and the cookies were .50. He made $16!! He followed people around and asked each and every person if they were thirsty or hungry. He said things like "thank you for your business!" and "eat your cookies!" (instead of "enjoy your cookies"), and "that will be $50 dollars please." (which was responded with, "these better be some AMAZING cookies for that price!"). He had a lot of fun and got some money lessons along the way. Part of what made it so fun for him was getting full access to pouring his own lemonade and having lots of cookies in his reach!

Though he was a good salesman, he is still learning tact. He actually asked a woman if she was a "lady or a man?" I was mortified. To his credit, she was a little rough around the edges. She was wearing a hat with painters overalls that were covered in paint. She took it well and said she is "woman in men's clothes", and he was happy with the answer. So innocent. He also thinks that he is looking at brains when he sees bald men. He always asks "why does that man have no hair? Is that his brain?" I don't think I will be teaching him the word "fat" anytime soon!

At one point, someone wanted to buy 2 packages of cookies, but Owen said "No, you can only have one, because we need to save some for us" Love it!
Needless to say, we saved plenty for us by the end, and someone else got to enjoy her first chocolate chip cookie today. It was a good day...though I am beat and ready for bed!