When Nonnie Babysits...

Lots of great pictures get taken!

Nonnie and Payton got to hang out

while Charley and Nola got their 6-month and 4-year check-ups.

 Dr. D'Andrea has given the green-light on solid foods,

 Charley thinks that's a great idea,

but decided to leave us guessing on her preference.

Nola, at 4, is very brave -- 

and very deserving of any and all stickers earned for her shots.

Nola is a Happy Camper

 For Nola's Fourth Birthday, we had a "Campout Theme"

We tie-dyed, ate hot dogs,

knocked out a pinata,

(Alright, so Nola didn't hit the pinata with the death blow,

but it was her birthday, so let me just give this one to her for now)

hung out with our sweet family,

 and finally got our screen up

 for a little Summer night outside movie watching

which was optional for some...

Ruby Came Back for a Visit

Ruby is Nola's first friend to move away.

She and her little brother, Austin, moved to Texas, but thankfully

they still have ties to Camarillo, so we get to see them when

they come back to town.

A major bonus is their mommy is a

professional photographer, so we score some pretty cute pics

 to remember their visit!

Thank you, Marissa, for taking such sweet pictures 

of our sweet and silly girls!

Happy Fourth & A Gause-family Reunion!

Well, Happy Fourth of July!

We celebrated the Lockwood families visit to California

with lots of cousin time in Santa Barbara.

And then headed over to Bakersfield for a wonderful visit

with all of our Gause cousins (mom's mom's side of the family)

My second cousin, Vicki, is a photographer,

and took some great pictures of the girls:

She even edited out Nola's 4th of July tattoo!

 But left me with my post-baby belly-pouch.

It's okay... it took a lot of late night bowls of ice cream to earn it.

Wood Transfers - Another Craft left half done

OK.

How could you not love this picture?

Kim's babysitter took this of Charley, and as soon as I saw it,

I knew I had to do more than simply print it out,

so I transferred it to wood.

Here's the end result:

It's flipped, but I love it!

It greets everyone as they come into our house.

For the record, I have about five other wood transfer projects half completed,

but since I finished one, I thought I'd take this quick victory lap around my blog.

June 2013 - A retrospective

I have stepped away from the business of blogging,

as I have done so many times before, but there is such a chasm

of time between now and then

that I am racking my brain and trolling my old e-mails to see

if I can gain some insight on where we were, collectively, 2 summers ago...

It was our very last month at the Co-op!

We were there for two formative, fulfilling, nurturing and draining years.

For the unfamiliar, a co-op is a preschool run by parents.  There are teachers, but a great deal of work is done by the parents.  The school "welcomes" tagalongs, but by the end of our time there, we had two tagalongs.  Nola was the one enrolled in school (along with her giant bow), 

Payton was attached to my ankle (often in her own state of 2-year old turmoil), 

and Charley was on my chest (often nursing & weighing a lot), 

while I washed dishes at school & neglected the pile of dirty dishes in my own sink.

It was time to go.  

I loved it for all that I learned about parenting.

I loved the other families, but I also love being able to drop my girls off at school

and wash my own dishes each morning.

Charley has a healthy heart!

It was about this time (I honestly can't remember the exact month), but our sweet baby girl got the all clear from Dr. Leong!  To refresh: She was born with a condition known as Premature Atrial Contraction (PAC), which our doctor projected would clear up by early adolescence, 

and in classic Akl lady fashion, Charley decided she didn't want to wait that long,

and it cleared up by her fifth month!

Payton has clothes on!

And then she doesn't...

Honestly, I had two pictures of her for this whole month with clothes on,

and this cute one with her felt snake was the only one in focus.

Love these girls.

Love all that they've taught me.

But I also love where we are today and tomorrow.

Summer, Summer, Summerland

We had a mini-reunion with some sweet friends from college

and their even sweeter progeny.

Kama's girls are in purple, the other two blondies are Erin's,

and you might recognize Nola (in yellow).

Two-thirds of the kids missing in this picture were our youngest.

Sadly, I didn't get any great pics of them, but I'm sure we'll be back there soon

(thanks, Aunt Jaimee, for letting us crash your pad!)