i think this is my very first post without a picture. 😦
we are on a little vacation and i am camera-less. 😦
chris meets us for the rest of the vacation tonight. 🙂
we get free internet in our hotel room. 🙂
i had a latte AND a dr. pepper tonight. 🙂
i love jenni and her kits.
it’s almost midmonth at 2p’s.
elsie is beginning to recognize her name. 🙂
i have been waking up in the morning to elsie scratching the mesh on the playpen. 🙂
kira is teaching cameron how to swim. 🙂
it is gorgeous where we are. 🙂
but i think i am allregic to the sun. is that possible? 😦
i had some good times with my mom while we were here. 🙂

have a good week, people. 🙂

and i just don’t know how i feel about it. none of our other kids were thumbsuckers. she still prefers her 2 fingers but is slowly liking that thumb now too. i like that she knows how to soothe herself.  but..but…but.. i don’t know. she’s been a big sleepy head lately.. i think she’s having a growth spurt!
for jen, a bigger profile pic:

taken by my sweet SIL. i think this is our 2nd pic of us where we are all together! we always have one person missing. (look how wittle elsie is there!)

and proof that after 11 hours of sleep, you can wake up beautiful!

summer’s coming to an end and i find myself relishing in the long days with nothing on our plates. 🙂

THIS TV SHOW has us hooked!!! it started with one dvd, then another… and then lots of episodes bought on itunes. the kids whipped through the first ones and then they started watching on my computer. and as i scrapped with them right next to me, i found myself looking up from what i was doing and then just watching along…and now we all look forward to them. 

elsie’s new thing. this is the chin face she makes when she wants to eat something… like the blue hanging toy… 🙂 or any type of food or drink we put to our mouths.

gorgeous weather here in so cal lately. loving the mid 70’s – 80’s. but i know that another heat wave is on it’s way so i’m not getting too cozy. but so nice to go to the beach without having to haul all the beach gear.. but to just hang. look at that little soon-to-be-kindergarten stud… learned how to pump his legs on the swing AND do the monkey bars within days… it just came out of nowhere. SO stinkin proud. 🙂

and the cam bam. so strong… so into his video games…specifically the whole thing of trading them for used ones…. it’s like a whole system… never buy new games again! haha… everyday it’s "what can i do to earn me a trip to blockbuster?" 🙂

ok, last one…since who knows when i will update again. we’re going on a few mini vacations soon. 🙂

we have always noticed similarities in elsie and cam when he was a baby. we knew that they looked alike, and every now and then we would come across pictures that totally supported it. we found this one last night. it was hard to find one of elsie with that same sort of face, sorry for the poor pic of her.

they are both almost 5 months here. she has bigger eyes, he has bigger cheeks. she has longer hair. he sat up unassisted. they both drool/drooled alot.
and here’s another:

ignore handsome caleb- we are looking at elsie laughing and cameron laughing on the right. i think cam was older than 5 months here (if i had been scrapbooking at that time, i would have known that right?!) again, longer hair on els but same gummy smile with the same lips, same skin color and same eyes and eyebrows.
besides physical features, they have sorta the same personality too. both introverts, quiet, content. that’s one of the great things about having so many kids… 🙂 …. you can see where they are similar and different… and i just find that fascinating.

are always tough on me. i don’t like them. i miss him on mondays. i know he has to go to work but i don’t want him to. 🙂 if i had my say- i’d make the weekends saturday- tuesday. 🙂 we had a super relaxing weekend with nothing on our plate… just the way we like it. but now it’s monday, elsie has a little cold and is a bit fussy.  it’s also the end of the month, which means i have 1,000 pictures to go through and put my order in for the month, scrap my garden stuff which is due tonight, and say goodbye to our last full month of summer. tomorrow elsie is 5 months old. that’s almost half of a year. sigh.

to wear a bathing suit all day when it is 100 degrees and you are teething/drooling! no?! 🙂

(click photo to enlarge)

when you take your teething 4.5 month old who just got 4 shots on a 3 hour road trip. well she did really well on the way down.. i think the shots knocked her out- she went to the doc for her 4 month check up where she weighed in at 14 lbs. (it was car ride home where she was a grump)
as soon as the visit was over, we headed south to my mom’s. chris had gone down with cameron the day before to comic-con and we were meeting up with them. so we spent some time at the beach and with the hose in the backyard. we left els with mom and went to comic-con on saturday– and that was insane! so many people. while CHA  was going on… i was at comic-con. who would have thought?! i was thinking — here i am in chris’ world… among all the writers and artists of his trade— and was trying to imagine him at a scrapbooking show. that would be funny. 🙂 maybe the winter show- since it is going to be in CA!

i can’t believe august is around the corner— and that school will start before i know it. why is it going by SO fast?!

going to the zoo when it’s about 100 degrees out??!!! that’s what we kept asking each other. look how fresh we look in the beginning… almost like we really believe we are going to have FUN! 🙂

in the end: a delirious baby who was carried around like a princess for 3 hours by daddy finally fell asleep. 🙂

now did we show our bay area cousins a good time or what!?! 🙂 haha- i’m laughing that i didn’t post one pic of an animal. clearly – i had my photo priorities!

this one went up at 2peas today so i thought i would add it after yesterday’s digital post. i LOVE this picture that tara took of us. we went for a visit and as we were leaving she got a couple of quick yummy shots. always love getting new tara shots. 🙂 this is one of my faves because you can see some grey in elsie’s eyes. they are quickly turning brown so i especially love this one. i could stare at that face all day. oh, i do actually. 🙂
anyways, wanted to tell you non digital people that you can do it! i thought i would never do anything digital.. (and i still love my paper- i will always do paper stuff).. but sometimes it’s fun to go in there and get a few images and just put them here and there. i love that. it’s really easy once you get the hang of it. i think the idea for me is to stay simple… don’t have too many choices… know the basics… that’s good enough for me right now. 🙂

so i am totally procrastinating cooking dinner right now because standing in front of a hot stove does not sound the least bit appealing. our AC decided to go out the other night and we are whiny/grumpy/hot/uncomfortable.  so i thought i would post a little image i sent to chris a bit ago that inspired me to make a new banner. all of the digi stuff i use is from 2peas digital section. i love those kits. so easy to use. i send chris little pics with stuff on it randomly throughout the day because i can’t wait till he gets home to show him. 🙂

i have lots of pictures to go through from the weekend.. we went to the zoo and went to another bday party.. but this was the first one i opened. and it made me sigh. she looks like SUCH a big girl there. i don’t know if it’s the direction she’s looking (she’s looking adoringly at her sister) or if it’s because she is sporting her little Gap Popsicle clip or if it’s because she’s wearing that cute pink tank. but it made me sigh and squeeze her. that cute little smile was not there much today.. i think she is in the middle of primetime teething, she was biting her tongue like it was one of those cold teether toys… awwww. i am gonna miss those gummy smiles. must take a hundred more pics before teeth come in.
ok. must. cook. and. feed. family.
bye!