for the last week it has been miserably hot here! thankfully we have AC but that means we sit inside all day, watch movies and take lots of naps. 🙂 so for the holiday, we decided to have one more special family day before school starts… we trekked north to santa barbara where instead of 105 it was a nice 78 🙂 ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

ok, so it wasn’t initially our idea… we can’t get enough of grammies and grampies. they said they were going and we followed. LOL little did they know their romantic getaway would be bombarded by the Waters!!! 🙂 caleb noticed them walking by and ran after them!

haha- we left them in peace and wandered around. had lunch. did some window shopping– she realllllly wanted these. 🙂

then we hit the beach and rented one of these. we haven’t done this in YEARS and it is such a great family memory.. our first time with els. 🙂

yeah you need to see a closeup with her in her helmet. 🙂

then we stopped by chris’ old school. UCSB. kira is in college mode after we visited Uncle Tuds at college on sunday. she loved walking around campus. they even got to see chris’ old dorm room! ha!

of course, the campus is walking distance to the beach.

i can’t help but be sentimental whenever we go back to santa barbara. this is the place where we began.. where our family started..  we visited our first home… we let the kids play in the playground where we used to hang out… we walked the neighborhood where i used to push my baby cameron in a stroller MANY hours a day. sigh. when there were just four of us. crazy. such a wonderful place. 🙂

(popping in really quick to say look to the right- new class info added!)————>

Eighteen years ago a small oddity entered my life.  He had big blue eyes and porcelain skin punctuated by a little dimpled chin.  He was my new brother.  I regarded him with only partial interest, at thirteen I was too old to play with him but not old enough to appreciate what a significant part of my life he would become.

Eighteen years later, there’s no mistaking what he means to me.  He is my best mate.  I suppose Tudor Robb became a real person to me about 7 years ago, the first time I saw him perform on stage.  He burst onto the scene and I was blown away.  The kid had presense and plenty of talent.  My chest burst with pride, and that pride has never wavered.  He gets it.  He’s classy, respectful, honest and loyal.  He’ll make a hell of a husband one day, and a fine father to boot.  But that is then and this is now.  Now, I’m happy to call him my brother and friend.

Tomorrow he leaves for college, and his life, and ours will never be the same.  I’ll miss the cheerful greetings he gives from the balcony when I visit home, or the ten o’clock knock on my door for a brotherly chat.  My parents will no doubt miss his daily acoustic concerts, the way he serenades them with song and laughter, the afternoon water polo games, and the constant bustle of energy that hovers about their baby boy.  For thirty-three years my mom has had a child in the house, I imagine the last is the hardest to let go.

But the boy must become a man.  So we bid you farewell, Tudor and pray that God will keep you in all his ways.  We send a person of great character and charity out into a world that is often lacking both.  God bless you little brother, no matter where you go, I’m right there with you!

SO happy that it’s wednesday. wednesday means that kira has made it home to us..(yay!!!).. that we went to dots for a treat… and what i am extremely giddy about is that after a long 2 weeks…tomorrow, he comes home.

i know that 2 weeks to some is nothing.. that there are couples separated by war for much, much longer… i don’t know how they do it. this was the longest we’ve been apart since we got married and barely talked. it was pretty tough for me.. that’s why i ran to mom’s house.. that’s why i have been updating the blog daily.. that’s why i have watched movies every night past midnight because i can’t sleep when he’s not here. what can i say? i love the guy! i know the kids are going to be excited to see him. especially this one..

a few days ago, while sitting in a shopping cart.. out of nowhere she starts saying, "sisay (kira-sissy)… dada…sisay…dada…sisay…dada" it was so sweet. either she is getting really bored of me and the boys or she just realized, it’s been quite awhile since our home was as full as it normally is. and now that kira is home.. everytime kira walks to the front door, elsie is fearful of another departure! aww!

lately, this is how she spends a good part of her days: (lol look at caleb’s head upside down behind hers!)

cook, cook, cooking! lots of pretending with the food, her babies, the backyardigans, lots of writing on paper scraps or notebooks. love this stage where they begin to busy themselves… when they begin to lose themselves in their little make believe world. so sweet! cannot believe she is nearly 18 months. so much closer to 2 now! 😦

oh and update on the potty thing— she only asks to go on a few times a day.. i don’t ask her unless i am about to put her in the bath… we are still in diapers. i went to target to buy the thick, padded undies.. they didn’t have her size.. so i walked out…happily, knowing she doesn’t have a choice but to stick with the diapers for now. 🙂

but this bit of lovliness taken from last month at pinkberry where we got in trouble for taking a picture.

little by little, the people we love are starting to return home from various summer adventures. we like to find reasons to celebrate so i see lots of cupcakes and frozen yogurt in the near future. 🙂 mmmm!

and the return of my battery charger- so i wont have to dig up older photos– which is actually kinda neat too.. i forget what i have!

she looks soooo small in his arms here.. a great thing for me to see. 🙂

and caleb is doing muuuuch better. i, on the other hand have been staying up way too late for the  past 2 weeks.. am not feeling 100%. but as long as they are all happy and well.. i’ll be just fine.

SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!
GUESS WHO TINKLED IN THE POTTY, NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
please don’t misread my caps as excitement. i mean, i am happy for her.. but I AM NOT READY. i haven’t even been thinking of potty training her. something just clicked today– she brought me to the toilet (we don’t even have a kid potty yet) and pointed to it. i asked her if she wanted to get on and she said, ‘ye-ah’. (that’s her new word, yeah. not yes. yeah. with a little southern drawl.) i have been through this 3 times already, people. the potty training thing.. not fun! the worse is when you are at target or some big store like that.. and you have to trek from the back of the store to the front to get to their dirty bathrooms only to have the tinkling start 10 steps into the trek. i love the convenience of diapers!! i’m not gonna lie! i am lazy! 🙂 and it’s all about me, right?? LOL! besides all that.. i am just not ready for my baby to be such a big girl yet. 😦

anyways. kira trained early (before 2).. the boys did not. i know girls tend to train earlier than boys. i remember saying to caleb (3 at the time) , if you start peeing in the potty, i will buy you a lightsaber. and he said okay! and that was that. 🙂 i don’t think i am going to be all gung ho about this… if she wants to pee on the pot, go for it.. if not, then fine. that’s one thing i know about parenting… it’s all a phase.. these things don’t last forever. (she says as she currently has her 2 boys and baby sleeping in her bed tonight.) …………… 🙂
(camera battery died.. no idea where the charger is….. older photo from a few weeks ago)

as mellllllow.
hung out with my SIL for awhile before she left CA..always so sad to see her go 😦 she is such an amazing friend…and not just because she hand delivers me a nice vanilla latte first thing in the morning!! she’s just a good person. 🙂
glad she had her camera handy since mine is needing it’s battery charged. me with els. she’s holding one of my favorite treats. chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

and ‘pretty’. elsie’s new word of the day. she even put ‘pretty’ and ‘please’ together. she is understanding and communicating so much more.. always neat to see your kids grow like that.

and just another pretty. a new pot at grammies house with pretty pretty colors in it. good thing she’s got a green thumb.. i don’t even bother planting things, i can just go over to her house and appreciate hers. 🙂

chris’ sister is in town for a few days… and i was able to have a girl’s evening with her and my sweet MIL!

we went and saw nanny diaries.. which was sweet and silly.. not life altering, but a good ol chick flick! and then we went out to dinner and i was feeling adventurous and i ordered ratatouille!  it was very interesting! 🙂 i told the boys later and they thought i was rather cool- LOL.<br

how can i not include the elf elf? one from our trip to utah 🙂 man i loved those little shoes.. she outgrew them quick!

we miss our big girl so much! 😦
sorry– an evening out with adults.. i don’t have any kid stories to tell! 🙂 🙂 🙂 tomorrow will be here soon enough, though!

we did more hanging around the house today. did lots of scrapping that i can’t wait to share soon. 🙂

els thinks that anything you put up to your eye to look through (cell phone, binoculars, video camera) is a camera. a stranger can be holding up a video camera.. not even pointing it at her direction, she will say cheeeeese. 🙂 photographed much? here is her total fake cheesy smile. 🙂

here is her solemn, ‘you-got-one-second-to-snap-that-picture, woman’ look:
–she woke up with a scratch by her eye, and there is spaghetti sauce or lipstick near her other eye.. i guess i could have photoshopped it.. but heck.. this is her… grubby but still so cute. 🙂

i was talking to a few people yesterday who said they couldn’t imagine elsie having a tantrum. i managed to get a ‘mini’ tantrum picture. i wish i was standing in front of her but this one came out of nowhere. i don’t even know if she knew why she was mad. lol

grammies new porch swing. how do i know we’ll be spending lots of time here?

my SIL is in town for a few days, yay! my camera was about to die so i left her to take the rest of the day’s photos. i need to find my charger if i am gonna  keep up with this daily posting stuff! hoping to go see nanny diaries with her… mama needs a breather from the kids! haha- hope it’s as good as the book is! … but are they ever?! 🙂 hope hope hope elsie is a good girl for grampies!!!!! 🙂

nothing terribly exciting today 🙂 lots of resting for caleb so that means lots of tv watched, then mom feels guilty and makes them do workbooks. 🙂

look at elsie jumping in there like she’s just one of the guys! love that! and it appears she is going to be a righty.. sorry chris.. (he’s a lefty) and since she sucks her right fingers, and sometimes works with her left hand, we thought she might end up being a lefty! ah, but who knows!
oh and it was a good mail day. new magazines for chris and i…els got the cutest new book (love the simple illustrations and pictures she can relate too… totally getting the series now!)  and some new clips from this etsy store.

i could not resist them— they’ve got one of my favorite scrapbooking supplies on there!! AMY BUTLER BRADS! (ha- if you look at the garden projects associated with this product.. 4 of the 10 layouts are mine!) i wuv them. 🙂 anyways,i am sure i could have made these myself.. but then that would mean.. i would have had to give them up! uh, nope.
so that’s it. that’s all i got for today. els had another tantrum in public. whoa nelly. i am so in for it. those toddler tantrums were so long forgotten.. sigh. let me just put up a cute set of her so that i can be at peace before i go to bed thinking about the tantrums. 🙂

i got a total run for my money today with this one here!

we started bright and early at the doc’s office for caleb– she was not being the most patient little girl. (which i will NEVER understand… first appt of the day and i am waiting over 40 minutes. i was sooo close to losing it!) so i read her the very hungry caterpillar which determined the fate of the next 2 hours. who would have thought that when i got to the page where it shows all the food the caterpillar ate.. she would go completely beserk over the lollipop picture. I KID YOU NOT… for the next couple of hours it was, ‘aw-pop… aw-pop…aw-pop’. she would not accept that i did not have one in my bag (she’s had one lollipop and that was like FOUR weeks ago!!!) she had a total fit! and would not stop. needless to say, we came home after all the excitement and she got her book, crawled into my bed and fell asleep for a few hours. phew! i’m so throwing that book away! LOL

anyways, that was the one photo i took the whole day. but as i was going through my pics from this month, i came across these 2. she’s such the little toddler already… grubby.. just a little rascal.. look at that face in the bw one!

and one of my boy from a few weeks ago. he’s not doing so hot, so if you can say a little prayer for him it would be much appreciated. gracias. 🙂