Leah's First Day of Preschool

Yesterday was a big day for us! Leah had her first day of school! She really enjoyed her day!

Her program is just 2 hours, 2 days a week this year. So it's not that much time away from me, but it is the first time I have dropped her off and left her anywhere other than with her grandparents. I was pretty emotional all week leading up to her first day, but I knew I couldn't let Leah see my nerves! She was really excited!

 When did she get so big!??

Leah and Emma after school with drawings they did!

I still can't believe my first born baby is in school. It is bittersweet to see her grow and go through all of these exciting milestones. After I dropped her off, there were no tears from either one of us (I got all mine out the night before, ha!). I wanted to stay close by just in case so me and Carter went and walked around Fred Meyer for an hour and a half where I bought Leah a bunch of presents while wondering what she was doing at school. :-) It will be a fun year for her, and the silver lining is the extra one on one time I will get with Carter!

Carter - 11 Months

First of all, I wanted to say I have missed all of you! I literally have not even logged into my blog (or read any of yours, sorry!) in about a month! Those of you that follow me on Instagram know I have been busy this summer and doing a ton of fun activities! I just never have time to actually sit down at my computer.   

11 months old! Getting so big!!

Oh my gosh, Carter will only be a baby for one more month!!!

He loves chasing Leah through the tunnel!

So much has happened this last month with him. First of all - he is mobile! That is probably the main reason for my lack of posts lately!!  I am constantly chasing after him!  Two days after my last post about Carter turning 10 months, he started full on crawling!!!  He is also pulling up to standing and cruising around on the furniture. He is all over the place - opening drawers & cabinets, pulling books off of bookshelves, wanting to play with everything that ISN'T a toy, etc. He is starting to try to balance while standing up too!

Woah......balance! Such concentration!

He is talking a lot. He can say - Leah, Yeah, Mama, Dada, Night-night, Hi, More, Kitty, Uh-oh. I can ask him if he wants more of something and he will say "Yeah, mo mo" :-)

Silly kids!

He can wave, give high-fives, blow kisses, clap and say "Yay!" He will point to something he sees or wants.

He is starting to push this around, and also will push around his activity table and little chairs.

He is eating a lot more foods now and likes black beans, pasta, rice, all fruits & veggies, graham crackers, bread, little pieces of turkey or chicken, cheerios. He is already rejecting purees and puffs! I am still breastfeeding and can't believe I have made it this long!

These two......

 Best friends forever. :-)

Now I need to get started on Carter's birthday party planning!!! 

Carter - 10 Months

Carter is 10 months old!

No, we don't sit him in this chair anymore! It is just for the monthly picture :)

We have once again had a month with lots of new exciting things!

Carter is starting to talk! He clearly says "Hi" and he will wave! When something drops he says "Uh-oh!"  He will also try to copy other words and sounds we make.
He knows how to give high fives and has started winking at us. He scrunches his face and nose and blinks. It is SO cute!

He started sleeping in his crib this month. It is in our room for now until he is done nursing and then we will move him into his own room. 

He can crawl backwards and in a circle but not forward yet. He is so close to figuring it out. He can go from laying on his tummy to sitting up. He is pulling up on things but only to his knees.

Carter has tried lots more foods. He isn't really a fan of "baby food", like purees. He likes feeding himself little pieces of real food. So far we are sticking mostly to fruits and veggies, puffs, little pieces of bread, cheerios, and he LOVES graham crackers. He also tried yogurt for the first time yesterday and loved it. He still has only had breastmilk.

I can't believe there are only a few more months of his first year!!!!

San Diego Part 3

Our last full day in San Diego was our beach day! There are so many awesome beaches down there and it was hard to choose which one to go to! But we decided on the beach on Coronado Island. It was beautiful! Warm, sunny weather, soft sand, nice breeze, ahhhhhh. It was nice. If only Dustin and I wouldn't have underestimated the strong southern Cali sun and burned, oops! Luckily the kids were sufficiently lathered up with sunscreen!

Carter hung out in his carseat most of the time

Leah LOVED it!

They had the best time running from the waves

Carter was not a fan. After this pic he lifted his feet up and wouldn't put them back down!

Both kids were passed out within minutes of getting in the car!

The next day we were leaving but had a few hours to check out Balboa Park which was amazing and beautiful and you could spend a whole week just checking out all the museums, gardens, shops, etc.

I love all the palm trees!

And finally, a few more pics of us hanging around our hotel on the last evening...

 Then it was time to go home!

We were surprised when Leah put her head down and slept most of the flight home!

Bye bye San Diego!

I definitely would have liked to stay longer and explore more of Southern California! We will be back for sure! Really fun and really memorable first family vacation!!!  Now I have the travel bug though and keep thinking of places I want to go!

San Diego Part 2

After our exciting Disneyland adventure, the next few days were much more mellow, as we explored some more of San Diego!  We realized after the fact that we probably should have saved Disney until the end of the trip since nothing else we did was as exciting for Leah :-) 

The next day we went to Old Town San Diego. It is a really neat area that used to be Mexico so there are lots of great restaurants, museums and shops. It was fun just walking around and we went to eat at a yummy Mexican restaurant.

Watching a blacksmith demonstration

Yummy margarita

After that we drove down to an area called Seaport Village. Another cute place with shops, restaurants, etc. right on the water.

Lil' chubby red cheeks :)

First little taste of ice cream! He kept grabbing at the cone for more, ha!

Loungin' :) The four of us sat in this swing for quite awhile. It looked out on the water and was the most relaxing part of the trip!

I guess I didn't get any pics on my camera, but Carter rode on a carousel for the first time! After a minute of looking pretty scared, he turned toward me and hugged onto me. Not a fan I guess :-)