reminiscing...

I miss this age.

look at those eyes!!! they are so mesmerising, you want to jump into them.

Awwwhhhh...

Anaya at 9 months.

A Birthday Care Package from Holland

feeln' the love

With my parents (Anaya's nana & papi) living on the other side of the world majority of the year. You have to get a lil' creative with keeping in touch. My mom calls Anaya about once every 2 weeks just to hear her sing! Since they both share the love for music they take turns singing to each other. It's quite cute!

For those who know my mother... it's quite fascinating how Anaya moves her body while singing!! it resembles my mom to a T! It's one thing if Anaya grew up watching her nana sing but with them visiting once, maybe twice a year it's all genetics, baby!! hahaha...


my child the entertainer. My mom is grinning from ear-to-ear right now!!

Happy Halloween

I always had this vision in my head (even before havin' a kid), how wonderful it would be to create my child's Halloween costume, every year.

then reality set in.

3 Halloween's later, I faced the challenge head on...

Anaya wanted to be a BUTTERFLY!

Can you believe?? I did it!! I really did it!! I MADE Anaya's Halloween costume!!

As soon as she was set on what she wanted to be. Her and I went down to the library to research all the possibilities. We came across a beautiful picture book of every kind of butterfly and moth imaginable. Anaya scanned through and chose to be a 'peacock' butterfly.

I took metal hangers and shaped them into wings. Black tights stretched over the skeleton. Hand painted and glittered them up.

I learned how to make a no-sew tutu.


black pipe cleaners for the antennas.

what a great Halloween this was!

~ trick-or-treat ~

Camping 2008

what buddies!
fort building

girl time

Aiden:: look!! look!! I caught a REAL fish!!!

scootn' together

tree time

I love this pic. look at Anaya's hand.

1st field trip ~ Tanaka Farms

I got to pick my very own pumpkin off the vine!

corn maze

wagon ride

happy as can be!

a weekend in carp.

Yes, We Can!

Yes! We Did!

boho chic

Anaya is all about dressing herself these days.

It's always in a dress or skirt.

She was feeling rather 'boho chic' today.

even check out the earrings she put on (by placing the hooks up over the top of her ear).

the many faces of Anaya

As most of you know, Anaya has always had a lot of expression in her face. I thought it would be fun to really show you how much.

These were NOT prompted in any way.

Anaya, can you show me what you look like when you are...

MAD

SCARED

HAPPY

SHY

SURPRISED

Plus these were photographed right after one another.

Truly gifted.

My lil' Charlie Chaplin.

signing with Omi

OK Omi, I'm going to show you how to sign, 'I love you'!

thumb and pointer finger up. Oh! and make sure your pinky is too.

see check it out... 'I love you'! now you try...

YIKES! what's that!?

well at least you tried! YEAH for Omi!!!

~

Omi is Anaya's great-grandma. They crack each other up all the time! This was such a special moment.

Jencie & Anaya

Happy Father's Day, Papa!

On Father's Day, I wanted to surprise Morgan with something he use to love to do with his dad and hasn't done in a while.

So, we spent the morning sailing!

Ahoy Matey!

it's all coming back...

In training

We love you.

In the afternoon I packed up the car, the cooler, Morgan's new surfboard and we headed to the beach. Luckily, the sun finally came out. It was quite nice just sittin' and relaxin', watching Anaya build sandcastles and Papa enjoying his new board.

Aquarium of the Pacific

I finally decided to get a membership to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Wow! what a great thing this has been. Anaya and I have gone at least 3x's this summer and every time has been amazing.

I'm developing a love for family membership/passes!

Ths particular trip was extra special. Anaya had both her BFF's there. Annabelle had just arrived the other day from her new home base, Oregon. She was going to be here all summer. They hadn't seen each other in over 5 months. Chloe even played rookie to come join the crew!

checking it out from a distance

peek-a-boo

look at those cheeks!!

sooo cool...

My little Amelie

The Queen Mary ~ Tony-Lynn & Rob's Wedding

Look Tevin... Look!

Precious Moments

the 4 amigos!

i love this pic.

watch out Ceaser Milan...

And so it starts...

WHY??

but WHY???

Anaya's new favorite word

a different perspective.

exactly what we wanted to do...

just didn't quite know it.

You know those Saturday mornings were your antsy to get out but don't quite know what you want to do. The ideas thrown out either sound fun to one but not the other. Your on two totally different wave lengths... I want breakfast, I want lunch, I want to be outside. I don't want to be around crowds and where can we go where parking isn't going to be a hassle?

Well, we had one of these mornings last Saturday.

Morgan just told me to get ready, we'll figure something out.

We hopped in the truck with Anaya and headed toward the beach. Morgan remembered that he still had a gift certificate to The Beachcombers in Crystal Cove. We've heard such great things about this restaurant. Which is right on a (some what) secluded beach. We wanted to have lunch here on our Anniversary but was shocked to hear the "usual expected wait" was an hour and a half (minimum) and they do not take reservations.

Today, we decided to go with the adventure!

The restaurant is nestled in stunning Crystal Cove. You park across Highway 1 and a red trolley/bus drops you off at the mouth of the old community

(riding the bus was already a treat for Anaya).

The weather was beautifully P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!

Gosh, we are so spoiled.

The wait to be seated was about an hour and fifteen minutes. We were given a pager.

So, off we went exploring...

We saw dolphins!

there was barely anyone on the beach.

treasure hunting at the tide pools

next thing you know it's time for lunch...

Anaya was so pleased she got her own meal.

She ate it ALL.. grilled cheese with apple slices.

And a frozen banana!

Everything tasted so good and the view was breath-taking!

We decided to walk back to the car which lead us to one last adventure, through a long tunnel covered in kids graffiti. It immediately brought back memories of a similar tunnel in Cinque Terre, Italy. Morgan and I held each other.

Anaya was all smiles.