A Day by the Pool!

Thank you to Sahar for these ADORABLE photos of the girls. 

Working for the Weekend

These last few weeks we have been enjoying summer as much as possible. Now that the girls are toddlers, and not babies, we are enjoying doing things as a family. Its hard to explain what that really means, but like now we are going swimming and all enjoying it, and going to the park and having fun. Rather than, say, carting a baby along to things and hoping the baby doesn't have a melt down. The girls are a lot more flexible, too. They don't need to eat at the exact same time every day. They don't need to go to bed at the exact same time every night. Needless to say, I find myself really looking forward to spending the weekend together as a family. 

Photo Credit - Kenchy

Photo Credit - Kenchy

Photo Credit - Kenchy

Photo Credit - Kenchy

Photo Credit - Kenchy
Cupcake Aftermath

Saturday we went to a birthday party in the morning, and afternoon naps went longer than usual. So after dinner, since it was such a nice day, we went for a long walk to the "big park" and played for a while. Enjoying the nice evening, we walked and ran some errands, and the girls ended up going to bed later than usual.  

Modeling her new swimsuit
Somehow she has the Milan catwalk attitude down!

Getting dirty in pretty dresses

Swinging at the park!

Sunday we skipped afternoon naps entirely. The girls were having way too much fun playing at our friends' pool, so we just stayed. They slept a bit in the car on the way home, but we just made sure to keep our evening very relaxed and they went to bed early. 

Its nice to keep things flexible and know that it isn't affecting their night time sleep at all. They are both sleeping through the night like champions.  

New swimsuit, guy, and favorite fingers

Lounging with some pita bread

Playing dress up!

This Saturday is our last swim class. Those three months of classes sure went by quickly! The girls have improved so much over the course of the class. The first day, they were unhappy, shivering, crying and barely tolerating the 30 minutes in the water (which was a surprise to me since last year they were doing so well). This past weekend, they were both laughing, enjoying every moment, blowing bubbles in the water, kicking their legs and moving their arms, and even letting us float them on their backs a little. Hopefully by next summer they will be ready for the actual swim lessons! 

Pretty dresses. She smelled the flowers when I put this dress on her!

Red popsicle = zombie baby

At the park!

They are both talking up a storm. The latest trend is to point at ***everything*** and say what it is in the form of a question so you have to say "yes, that is a ___." We were watching Curious George and Alex pointed and said "Moose" and sure enough there was a moose in the show. Hot damn Alex, that is some awesome vocabulary. Josie is still going for 3 point words, like Strawberry, Watermelon, Helicopter, etc. She doesn't speak as often as Alex but when she does she is spot on. My favorite of hers though is "Mingos!!!!" which is when we put anything with flamingos on her. <3 a="" nbsp="" p="" such="" sweetie="">

James and I are in a nice rhythm - it has been a couple of relaxed weeks and I am working out more and taking time on weekends to go for hikes. James is enjoying doing some of his hobbies more, too. And, thanks to Netflix, we are also spending Friday nights catching up on some of the movies that came out in 2014. And one night, we even went out to see a movie together. This was the first time we had gone to see a movie together, on a date, just the two of us, since before the girls arrived. It was so nice.

Yogurt by the pool!

Well then!

Couldn't agree more...

July in Photos!

I owe you guys some pictures and an update. 

How about some captions?

Josie looking like she's 12 years old and ready to listen to your troubles.
Josie is saying all sorts of words, and testing her communicating. She says Mama and Dada and Alex, but hasn't said her own name yet. She also likes to say the big words (Strawberry, Helicopter) and doesn't bother with short words - I haven't heard her say "dog" in forever. She is letting me put hair ties in her hair to keep it out of her eyes, its very cute. 

Josie very much reminding us that she is still a toddler.
Wearing some dresses a friend handed down to us!

Alex saying "cheese"
Alex is also saying "Alex" and "Brittany" and "Mama" and "Dada" all very clearly now.

Grandma Barbara and the girls her first night in town. 

It only took a little time but they warmed up and really enjoyed the attention!

We went to a bunch of museums when Grandma Barbara was visiting. This one above was taken at the Getty Villa, which is just an awesome place to be and have lunch. We were there during torrential downpours, which was kind of fun in its own way. Their kids play-room is a blast and Alex liked making shadow puppets with daddy. 

The Kids room also has a coloring station - Josie and Daddy coloring <3 p="">

We also made our way to the Natural History Museum. I had never been so it was really fun for all of us, though we spent a lot of our time chasing toddlers, rather than enjoying the exhibits. 

Hands down, the cafe at the Getty Villa is way better to the one at the NHM in terms of flow and order. My goodness if you ever need a reason to not want kids, just hit up the NHM cafe!

I was trying to get the girls to "Roar" with me - no dice

  

Alex was more interested in the polar bear on the phone than turning around and seeing it.

Roar for tiger? No? ok...

Daddy herding cats...

Here is a fun video of Alexandra at the NHM

We went on a nice date to our favorite restaurant - Firefly!

Here's a candid and a posed photo. We lucked out and it happened to be

Restaurant Week, so we got to try a ton of fun stuff!

  

Alex and Josie "reading" together :) This was after our day at the zoo, though for some reason (1000 degrees?) I don't have any photos of that outing. Seriously we were dying from the excessive heat and unusual humidity that happened on Los Angeles that weekend!