Vacation

We got to go on a last minute vacation to La Jolla this past weekend! The Cove is truly one of the best places on Earth. Greg's family was all in town for a cousin's graduation so we figured we'd hit the road and make it a family reunion. The girls did amazingly well in the car (thank you Steve Jobs for the iPod) and the whole weekend was jam packed with goodness. We ate, drank coffee, visited with all the cousins, Aunt Lizzy, Uncle Roger, Granny, Grandpa, Gillian and Great-Grandmama, played at the beach, swam in the cove, explored the tide pools, watched the seals, people watched, had a barbeque and a picnic...and I'm sure some other fun things I'm forgetting right now. We also got to visit with Aria and all 3 Freises, added bonus! Now that we're home, it is all business~Only four weeks until our big move!

More photos are HERE

Growing Gills

5 Week Update

Quinn had her 1 month (5 week) check up at the doctor today. She weighed in at 12 lb 13 oz!!! Off the charts, which didn't surprise us...she's quite the sausage baby. 22 inches long (80th percentile). She is getting better at focusing her eyes and loves to gaze up at a face or the couch cushions (lots to see there!). She can hold her head up for about 20 seconds, looking around over a shoulder. Other than that, she's just a baby, doing normal baby things. She's definitely gotten her share of love, with her sister, both sets of grandparents, two-out-of-three aunts, one uncle, and two cousins fighting to hold her over the past 1 1/2 weeks!

Oh, and Ella got to eat a carrot from the garden the other day. First time she's eaten a whole vegetable other than a sweet potato!

Randoms

A forced nap in the Moby

"I want to hold Quinn on the couch..."

"She needs her pink paci now. Here Quinny..."

"I don't want to hold Quinn anymore."

Garden Update

Ella's tomato plant had its first ripe fruit two days ago! She was thrilled to pick it, eager to try it, and lightning fast to spit it back out.

Here she is looking for ripe strawberries to pick. (Kind of hard to see past the parsley that bolted!)

While thinning out the carrots, she got a glimpse of how those green leafy plants could be called carrots. I think we have several more weeks before we'll be eating any of these.

Strawberries! Every morning before breakfast, we water the garden and check for ripe strawberries. We usually have 5 or so that are ready to be eaten. Ella picks them, then brings them inside, pushes her chair up to the sink, turns on the water and washes them off until the are "all dry" and then eats them! Now that it is going to be in the 100's I think our days of strawberry picking are limited. But, this has been the most rewarding crop I've ever grown.

Morning Snuggler

After Quinn's final feeding of the early morning, usually around 3 or 4 am, she is pretty restless, and seems to have some belly-type of discomfort (lots of grunting and leg lifting and squirming). The only way she will sleep comfortably (for her) is in our bed, in our arms. Then, when Ella wakes up we can usually roll away, and sneak out of the room for her to sleep in a bit longer. It is so nice to be able to give her kisses on her sweet little face, or smell the fresh baby scent on her hair with no other distractions. We pretty much never had Ella in our bed with us, so this is a whole new experience for us. Definitely less sleep for Mom and Dad, but we know this newborn phase is so short, and are trying to make every moment count.

Just look at the tiny, tiny, little baby in our big bed:

Have you ever seen anything sweeter?

And then when Quinn wakes up, the girls spend some time like this while I make breakfast and chug a cu of coffee:

Sisters

March 2, 2007 (9 days)

April 24, 2009 (2 weeks)

Photo Session

Quinn had an official photo shoot on Friday by our friend/landlord/neighbor. Quinn allowed Ella and I to join in for a few shots as well. To see our beautiful little girls, go to:

This link

Thank you Kristyn for giving us such a special gift!


Two quick anecdotes from Ella today:

"Mommy, what's this song called?...We're rockin' out!"

(After dropping her yogurt on the floor) "What the heck!?"

I think it is pretty clear she spent some time with her (older) cousins this weekend!

Still Sleeping

Zoo Day

The girl takes her sun protection seriously

The new-cool splash park

I think she had more fun here than looking at the animals. But the face-plant at the bottom of a slide was probably the low point.

Quinn came too! But, slept the whole time...