Cheri, Brian, Jocelyn & Val come for a visit

Cheri demonstrates her baby whispering skills:


Jocleyn teaches Julia to do a cartwheel:


Brian teaches Julia to juggle!


And here we all are having brunch on the back deck.
 

Way to go Jocelyn!

Jocelyn made this adorable top for Julia. It looks fantastic!
 

Mom sleeps in

Jeff let me sleep in this morning but I woke up in time to see this adorable scene. What a big help Julia is!
 

Jeff's trip to Sabrina Basin, Eastern Sierra

Last weekend Jeff went on a backpacking trip with his brother Brad to the Eastern Sierras. Here are a few of pictures from his trip. This picture on top is my absolute favorite. More pictures from this trip can be seen on Jeff's photography website.

Andrew at 10 weeks

Andrew is smiling so much now, and starting to laugh in the last couple of days. He is absolutely delicious and I just want to eat him up. I realize took a set of very similar pictures just 2 weeks ago (see below, in the red shirt, at 2 months old), and these really aren't that different except for the different shirt and background blanket. But he is so adorable I really can't resist taking more shots and showing them off. These pictures were taken this morning, and he is 10 weeks old as of today.

Wearing Mommy's Shoes

Lately Julia has been loving wearing Mommy's shoes. Here she's got my socks and tennies. Wants to put them on herself, of course ("Myself!!") Quite proud of herself, as she should be. What a cutie.

 

Andrew's Baby Book in progress

I loved the photos I took today so much, I was immediately inspired to do a page of Andrew's baby book, which I have been working on a little at a time. I am pleased with how the page turned out, so I'm posting it proudly. I'm using a digital album kit to create these pages. To see the other pages (in progress), click here.

Happy 2nd Month Birthday, Andrew!

Boy, is it hard to get a picture of Andrew smiling without motion blur, when the flash is off. The second he starts smiling he also starts wriggling with happiness, making it almost impossible! But this one is pretty darn cute! Andrew is 2 months old today. 

Getting away with it: Grapes

I set all of the grocery bags down on the kitchen floor and went to take Andrew out of his carseat. When I returned, there was Julia, eating grapes right out of the bag. So much for washing them and cutting them in half. She loves grapes, and so it must have been just too tempting when she saw them peeking out of the grocery bag. I caught her in the act:
 

Andrew with his Grandpa

Jeff took a series of pictures of Andrew with his Grandpa that came out so well. Here are two of my favorites:

 

Julia's Birthday Party

We had such a good time! It was held in the backyard.

We invited lots of family and friends:


We had a slip'n slide:


And of course, cupcakes:


And here is the birthday girl after the party, nearly hidden by the pile of generous gifts brought by her family and friends:


I've posted more party pics on shutterfly. Click here to view.

Maybe I can help

I was reading the San Jose Mercury News the other day, and I saw the article about Ethiopian women suffering from Fitsula. I'd never heard of this, have you? (see below for a description of what it is, and a link to the article.)

Anyway, I'm not usually someone who does a lot of volunteering or fundraising, or even chartitable giving. I want to, but somehow I never seem to know exactly what to do, or what cause to support, etc. But when I read this article, I thought, boy this is something I could get behind, especially having so recently had two healthy children, and benefited from our great medical care, which I totally take for granted. So I started thinking of ways I could help, and wondered if maybe some of my mom's group friends (with whom I have a monthly Girls Night Out at a local restaurant) might interested too. So, next month, instead of going out to a nice restaurant the way we usually do, I suggested and everyone has agreed that we will go for pizza instead, have just as good a time, but spend a quarter of what we usually would. Then we'll put the difference between the cost of the pizza and what we would have spent into a kitty and donate it to the Fitsula Foundation. Apparently it takes only $450 to fund a surgery to heal one woman, so we have made that our goal. Seems pretty achievable between the 6 of us, especially if we use the dinner money we would have spent anyway.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article which describe the condition and it's effects:

Obstetric fistula is an injury caused by long, drawn-out labor, especially in very young women. When blood supply to the vagina and bladder is cut off, tissues die and a hole forms, allowing urine and sometimes feces to leak out uncontrollably. Adding to their misery, their babies usually die..... Many patients had been divorced by their husbands and shunned by their communities. Some had lingered that way for months or years....... A thing of the past in the United States and the rest of the developed world, where caesarean sections are available to end difficult labors, obstetric fistula affects an estimated 2 million women in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Full article: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/15011861.htm

Link to the Fitsula Foundation site: http://www.fistulafoundation.org/

Further, we've decided to aim for two projects per year, one like this one where we choose a cause -- likely benefiting mothers or children -- and make a joint donation, and a second project where we do a group volunteering event. I think it's a great way to balance giving ourselves a treat with benefiting other moms less fortunate. Wish us luck!

The tale of the leaf-diaper

While we were out in the backyard one evening, Julia decided she wanted to give her doll a new diaper. But we didn't have any diapers handy, so we suggested to Julia that she pretend. I handed her a small leaf and told her to pretend it was a diaper. She said, "It's a leaf!" I said "I know, but lets pretend it's a diaper." She gave me a quizzical look, and then gamely tried to diaper her doll with the leaf. After a little trying she said, "It's tricky! ... It's a leaf!" A cute moment for sure.




Giving up on that, she decided to practic climbing the furniture...






Meanwhile here's Andrew doing Tummy Time.

Julia and Andrew enjoying each other in the backyard

 

Test video post

I don't know what I'm doing yet... so bear with me. Lets see if this works. First I'm going to try to embed the video in the post (click on the play button in the center middle of the screen.) If it doesn't work for you this way, I'm also including a link to the video on YouTube (click here).

Sunset at Joshua Tree

While we were in Big Bear Jeff took a side trip for a night to Joshusa Tree. He captured a great picture of the sunset. See it here.

Introducing our new minivan

Well, okay, i'ts actually a Ford Expedition. But I think I will affectionately refer to it as our minivan. Jeff loves that! Here he is with his brand new vehicle:


Pedestrians, watch out!


Julia is only as tall as it's tires!


While I'm not thrilled by the large size and terrible gas mileage (who in their right mind would buy something like this now, while the world is at war with oil producing countries and the everyone else in CA is converting to hybrids??) I must admit the 3rd row backseat will be handy, and having 4 doors will be awfully nice when it comes to getting the kids in and out of their carseats. Plenty of room in this vehicle for Jeff and I and our 6 kids! Plus camping gear!

We will be selling the Ford Bronco which Jeff had been driving. While it may be a great utility truck for hauling lumber and 4 wheel driving in the Sierras, it's definitely not family friendly. Anyone interested? We're taking offers...

Starting a new blog for my quilting

I decided I wanted to see all my quilts together in one place, and tell the story of my quilting (inspired by Aunt Cheri's quilting blog). So I got on a roll and culled through all my pictures from the past several years to find pictures of my quilts. I threw them up on a blog, which you can see here. I'm also adding a link to this blog on the right. Hopefully I'll have time to continue quilting and add more posts over time!

If you check out the new blog, it might make most sense to start from the bottom (first post) and work up.

Andrew Smiles

 

4th of July Fireworks at Big Bear

Click here to see a slideshow of Jeff's images of the Big Bear fireworks display.

Enjoying Big Bear Lake

Nana took Julia down to the lakeshore and they dipped their feet in the water:

And then we went out on the Holman Party Boat where Julia helped Grumps drive!


Both Julia and Andrew wore life jackets. Julia wasn't a huge fan of hers, but Andrew didn't seem to mind despite the fact that it squished his face. He fell asleep, believe it or not, and slept almost the whole trip.P.S. What a great picture to get me motivated to shed my baby weight! I'm going to print it out and tape it to the refrigerator... : ) Aren't you proud of me for being brave enough to post it?

Meeting Kira

We are in Big Bear visiting Jeff's parents for the 4th of July week, and Brad, Kim and new baby Kira came as well. We were so excited to meet Kira. Here are Andrew and Kira playing together for the first time. Kira is about 3 months old, and 6 weeks older than Andrew.