New House and Summer Fun

We are finally homeowners!!!! After an almost 2 year house search and 6 offers, we finally purchased a house with the help of my parents. I haven't posted in awhile because we spent all of July packing, then moving, then unpacking in the past few weeks. We are so thankful for God's provision in timing, location, and details of our new home. We definitely agree that it's by far the best house we offered on and the first house we absolutely loved! Here is a photo of the outside of the house...

We have come a long way but still have plenty of organizing and decorating to do (nothing is on the walls yet), so I'll post inside pictures at a later date.

While moving has consumed most of our summer, we have managed to sneak in some fun. Here are 10 snapshots of summer...
1. Abby at Stevie's princess birthday party... She has finally gotten over her fear of frosting and getting messy!

 2. Swimming: Abby has made huge strides in her "swimming" this summer. She is finally willing to let go of us and swim on her own in her floaty bathing suit.

 3. Hannah's first time in the pool... (and family pool pic)

 4. Trip to Los Angeles Zoo: Abby loved brushing the goats and seeing the "crocodile" (really Reggie the alligator, but Abigail insisted that he was a crocodile, so no use arguing with her ;)

 5. Hannah is 5 months old!  Hannah is rolling over like crazy! Whenever we lay her on the ground she barrel rolls across the room... it's so funny! All this rolling over means no more swaddle and no more Rock-n-play, which means no more sleeping through the night for now :( Our good sleeper is waking up every 2 hours for the first time since she was two weeks old! We're hoping once she gets settled into her crib and the new house, she'll start sleeping better again. I'm one tired Mama right now! Hannah is also very mouthy right now and it seems like her first teeth are in the not too distant future, but she's still our happy, easy-going baby girl! 

6. Sister Playtime: Since Hannah has become more interactive, Abigail has taken more interest in her and tries to incorporate Hannah into her play throughout the day. It's quite cute. Here, Abby wanted to eat her snack on the floor and talk to her sister. Hannah loves her big sister and beams or squeals with delight when Abby interacts with her.

 (7-10) Campus By the Sea on Catalina Island: We made our annual trek to Family Camp sandwiched between moving out of our apartment and moving into our house... it was crazy getting there, but as always, we had a blast there. We didn't get a ton of sleep, but we were emotionally and spiritually rejuvenated. Great biblical teaching and lots of family fun time :)

7. Dancing the Hokey Pokey and doing Art with Mommy  (painting rocks and making the annual family banner).

 8. Abby's first time in the ocean (past her feet).  Abigail got past her fear of the ocean in Catalina and swam out a float with David and Grandma and Grandpa. Then she took on kayaking with Daddy too. It was a big step for her!

 9. Hannah's first time in the swing. She loved it!!!

10. Family at Campus by the Sea (CBS):  We had so much fun at camp (despite the girls' tired faces in this pic on banquet night). Abby keeps saying, "I miss Campus by the Sea." It is truly a little slice of heaven. We can't wait until next year!!!

Hannah is 4 Months + July Fun

Hannah is now 4 months old and growing way too fast in my opinion! She is easy-going, very smiley, and all-around adorable.  She is rolling over both directions, has found her feet, and is very mouthy. Sophie the Giraffe is one of her new best buds :)  She weighed in at 14 lbs. 9 oz. and is about 24 inches long.

 

 Abby's favorite game at the moment is playing doctor. Last week, she tried to prep Hannah for her 4 month appointment by giving her a full examination, including a shot. She says, "Be brave, Hannah!"

 July Fun:

My friend had her interior design work featured in Dwell magazine and we got to see the space she designed at 1600 Vine in Hollywood. She did an incredible job and it was fun to see her work!

This is Abby doing a little dance on the red carpet...

 Checking out the Stars

Fourth of July Fun: 

Our friends the McGees came over in the morning to explore the festivities at the park and we managed to wrestle the kids down for a few pictures. Abby loves her friend Declan! We also actually let both girls stay up to see the fireworks this year and they both loved them! Abby was a little apprehensive about the noise (of course we live right next to the park where they launch the fireworks), so we viewed them out our living room window. I was surprised Hannah wasn't bothered by the noise, but she just stared wide-eyed at the lights. 

 Buddies, Declan and Abby

 Rocking their cute Red, White, and Blue attire from Grammy :)

Another major development this month has been Abby's move to the big girl bed. We tried in June but she got so upset the first night that she threw up everywhere, so we waited a few weeks before trying again. This time Abigail initiated it, so we ran with it and haven't used the crib since. Not that the transition has been easy... quite the opposite actually. (No surprise to us, really, considering Abigail's track record with anything sleep-related). Most nights it's taken her 2 hours to go to sleep (usually with David in the room with her). The last two nights we've tried to move to the doorway to keep her from trying to play with us, but that has led to her popping out of bed over and over again. After returning her to her bed 32 times, she tripped and hit her head on the wall, resulting in a huge egg. Poor thing! Hopefully it will get better soon! I think the count was about 20 times tonight. Moving in the right direction, at least. David has taken the brunt of this effort, so I have to give him major credit for fighting this major battle! Abby adores him... she's definitely a Daddy's girl and I'm so pleased that they have such a good relationship.

Lastly, a recent sewing project... I intended to make this before Hannah was born, but never got around to it. Now that she's in the mouthy stage, I finally got motivated to make this taggy blanket. I'm pleased with the way it turned out and Hannah seems to love it already!

Hannah is 3 months!

I'm a little tardy on this post because poor Hannah came down with her first cold last week and wasn't feeling well (and neither was Mommy!). Thankfully, she is coughing far less now and seems to be feeling almost back to normal. We are so glad the smiles have returned to our happy baby girl!

Here are a few shots from her 3 month photo op...( she wasn't feeling well at all and we had to work hard to coax these smiles out of her, but she gave us a few good ones, bless her heart!)

(Couldn't get these rotated... sorry!)

A few Hannah facts at 3 months:
-She's weighing in a little under 14 pounds on our scale and feels "solid" now.
-She's been trying to sit up a lot and loves to "stand" on our legs while we hold her.
-She loves to smile and will even stop several times while nursing to flash me a big grin. Her big sister also loves to make her smile.
- She's still sleeping very well (sometimes through the night after a dream feed), THANK YOU LORD for answering our prayers with a "yes" in this area!!!!
- She's a joy to our family and we're starting to feel more adjusted to being a family of four. I am finally at a point where it's hard to remember my daily life without her!

Here are some comparison shots of the girls at 3 months just for fun :

Abby                                                                                Hannah


                                Abby                                                               Hannah

 

Alisal 2013

A couple weeks ago, we trekked up to the Solvang area to The Alisal Ranch for our annual family reunion. It is always such a special family time and it was fun to introduce Hannah to some new family members, as well as to this place that we love.

Abigail had a blast, rocking her new pink cowgirl boots and spending her days looking at animals in the petting zoo, riding her special horse "Cactus" around the corral, swimming, visiting the arts and crafts room, and getting in some quality time with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Matthew, and Aunt Tara.

Some shots from our traditional Pancake Breakfast out at the Old Adobe...

Yummy Pancakes and Hot Chocolate!

Watching Daddy, Grandpa, and Uncle Matthew play golf

Hannah lounging by the pool and hanging with Aunt Tara

All dressed up for dinner with the family...

We had a fabulous time and both girls slept great, all things considered! It was a great first vacation as a family of four.

2 Months old

I apologize for being sparse on the blog posts... I've had my hands full!  It's hard to believe Hannah is 2 months old already! We went to the doctor today and she is weighing in at 12 lbs 1 oz (75th percentile), is 22 5/8 in. long (50th percentile), and has a head circumference of  39 3/4cm (90th percentile). The head measurement was a shocker to me because Abby has always had a smaller head in proportion to her body. (This is the only measurement that was larger than Abby's at 2 months). Poor little thing had a rough time with her checkup and shots... the doctor accidentally cut the top of her ear canal while checking her since she was moving so much and she cried harder than I've ever seen her cry :( (And that was before the shots even happened). She's still in the post-shots fussiness phase and we're looking forward to the return of our happy baby girl (hopefully tomorrow!)

Here are a few pictures of Hannah at 2 months, along with some things we've been doing around the house lately...

 Our Happy Girl

 "Karate Chop"

 This is Abby caring her baby in her "Baby Bjorn"

Abby is teaching Hannah how to cook... a fork and a toy masher

 Love this smiley girl!

 Abigail loves her new Cinderella nightgown and Snow White Jewelry and accessories from her Great Aunt Vicki and 2nd cousin Jessica. Jessica and my grandmother even teamed up to make her this gorgeous Snow White Dress. She loves it!

 Hannah's first visit to Church on Mother's Day :)

 

Not a great picture, but I love it anyway... my first mother's day as a mommy of 2.

Abby trying on her new Cowgirl boots in preparation for our annual trip to Alisal Ranch in Solvang next weekend. We are so excited!