Good old Sacramento

Well folks, I can accomplish anything now. Last week I packed up my 2 1/2 year old and my 3 month old and drove the 6 hours (correction....8 hours) to Sacramento to visit my sister and her new born son, baby Eli.......and attend sister-in-law Lina's bridal shower. Yes, it was the longest journey of my life, but we got there safely and in one piece and with minimal crying - relatively speaking. How do single mothers do it?! I'll tell you how.....with a ton of patience, a Doodle-Pro, podcasts of kid stories, several kids songs and a 40 minute stop at McDonalds complete with a Happy Meal toy (Lucky Finn got a bobble-head wind-up toy of Chubaca's head on a robot's body. So stupid, but he loved it.) I don't even remember the last time I've been to McDonalds, but it was lookin' pretty good from the I-5. The week in Sacramento was a blast though, and Nate took the train up North at the end of the week and drove back with us....thank God.


Welcome to the world Baby Eli!

Joanne and I had fun just being homebodies with our babies and letting the toddlers run around, but we did manage a couple of field trips. We met mom and dad Summy (happy birthday Dad!) at the Bishops Pumpkin Patch in Wheatland. This is the one I went to as a kid, and it is so vamped up now!


Wyatt feeding a goat. Finn wouldn't get near them, but this kid has 2 huge dogs at home so nothing scares him!

Little Eli and Selah just worked on what they do best....laying there like blobs.


Right after we took that picture, Wyatt kicked a bunch of straw into the babies' faces. I had to take a photo before I cleaned her off. It was sort of funny. Gotta love 2 year olds!


Finn loved this old broken down tractor.


Finn and Mama on the horsies.


Grandpa Summy and the babe.


Grandpa Summy and the boys on the train.



We headed to Fairlytale Town the next day. It's such a cool little place for kids.



Walkin' the Crooked Mile.



Taking a rest on a candle stick.

It was such a surprise gift to be able to visit with one of my best friends, maid of honor and rowing buddie, Carrie who lives in Hawaii but just happened to be in town. Our babies are only 12 hours apart, so it was fun to meet little Riley, and let our toddlers toddle around together.






Next was a quick weekend visit with the Monley side of the family.

Tia Lina had some quality time with Finnermagoo.


More reading with Granny Peg.



Papa Tom broke out the scissors for a quick trim.


Granny Peg and Selah


Nate and uncle Josh serenading Selah


Lead singer, Finnegan Jack.

Just another week at the homestead.

Gearing up for our typical morning walk downtown or to the park in the soccer-mom stroller.


Finn got in trouble for pushing Selah too hard in the swing. Here he's showing me how gentle he can be. Selah's......not convinced.


A little shout out to our friend Jill in Chicago. Thanks for the adorable onesie!!


Finn was my biggest fan after last weekend's triathlon in Carpinteria. (It wasn't fast, but I'm getting back into it.)




We were just enjoying a nice morning of painting the other day when Finn pointed to something a few feet above our heads and said, "Look Mama! A spider!" This not so little beauty was suspended in a perfect web that stretched about 12 feet across. She was enormous. We had a good time checking her out. And then Nate came home and ......took care of it.


Raccoons, spiders...stay tuned for more creepy creatures.

Safety First!

We had our first softball game tonight, and we were so fierce!! Our hodge-podge team, "Safety First" is made up of 15 friends who just want to have a good time, and who think joining the city slow pitch league is just the place to do it. Most of us don't have much experience, but we're full of heart and guts. Double win tonight.... we scored more runs than the other team and had NO injuries!

Me and Anna after the game sporting our team t-shirts.




We've started a weekly play date with Vanessa, one of Finn's closest friends. Here's our little picnic in the the front yard earlier this week.



Finn would eat peanut butter and jelly everyday if it was up to him. But every once in a while he surprises me. Atta boy! Eat those brussell sprouts.


Neighbor and good friend Joyce with Selah.



While the kids ate brussell sprouts, we ate these! For our little picnic Joyce bought this delectable little Raspberry Charlottes from a local French bakery. Her language of love is feeding people. I'm happy to oblige. It was a little piece of heaven. They were so cute I almost couldn't eat it. Almost.


Just a few minutes ago, as I was posting this blog....I heard a scratching noise outside the window behind me. Literally inches from my face and only a thin single pane glass window between us, this is what I saw.....

Eeeeew. Raccoons give me the heeby-jeebies.


I can't end a post with that pic. So here's a cute one of my little princess.

Stayin' at Home

I've really been enjoying Finnegan and Selah lately, as I'm getting used to my new role as a stay-at-home mom. We've been visiting Nate for lunch a lot at his school, something I couldn't really do before when I was working part time.


Finn has been so quirky lately. He is definitely trying to boycott his nap these days. (I'm not ready to let it go!!!!)I thought this was cute, falling asleep like he's just chillin - with his legs crossed.


On Sunday I said, "Finn, grab your shoes and let's go." He came around the corner wearing his rain boots and Fireman's hat. I wanted so badly to be a cool mom and let him wear them to church. But alas, I was a lame boring mom and didn't.



After church, Finn wanted to try on his new elephant costume. Then he looked in the mirror and got scared (of himself) and then just wanted to cuddle with Mom and Dad. He promptly fell asleep and took a 3 hour nap. I just can't figure this boy out sometimes. I guess the nap protesting just caught up to him, and it took a scary elephant costume to push him over the edge.


Our cute little cottage. This has been the perfect home for us...for now. With just under 700 sq ft we (our friend Doug lives in the studio upstairs) occupy every little corner of this house. But since the weather in Santa Barbara is so great, we basically live in the front yard.


Finn loves it when we play guitar for him (mostly when Nate does, but he'll tolerate my playing too.) He can now do the strumming while I change chords. I hope he's musical when he grows up!


I took this video a few weeks ago. Selah can do the one-eyebrow lift just like me!

Just chillin with the kiddos.

Selah is 2 1/2 months old now and in the 95th percentile in height and weight. She's 13.7 lbs and 24 inches long. She's full of smiles now and so fun to have around.




Nate took this photo early one morning to find the three of us all bunched together in the bed. Finn always gets all turned around. When he climbs into bed with us, I'll sometimes wake up to his feet in my face.



Today our church had a huge BBQ with a fun little kids play area. Here Kirsten just finished painting a SpiderMan on Finn's face. SpiderMan is now smeared on Finn's pillow after he took his nap.


Selah hanging out in the Maya Wrap baby sling. I love this thing.


One of our local parks has a carousel. Always a good time.


Last weekend we participated in the 4th annual Ultimate Race with our friends (much like the Amazing Race on tv, but smaller) organized by our good buddy Brian (Bdog). Nate and I won! So that means we plan next year's race. It's almost as fun to plan it as it is to race. This picture was taken right after the cooking challenge, much like Top Chef or Iron Chef. We all had to create a dish using a breakfast cereal. (The Captain Crunch coated abalone was the winning dish.) The rest of the day was spent rushing around all over town doing crazy things. It was pretty awesome.


Happy kid.

More cute photos!

We are fortunate to have a whole bunch of baby girl clothes from a friend of my sisters. I was organizing the next size yesterday, trying some things on Selah...and she zonked out right in the middle of it all. (yes, at 2 months she's already in some 3-6 month clothes!)



We tried the new swimsuit out at the beach today. She got a lot of whistles from infant boys.


My happy girl.


This sand box used to be crammed with 3 kids at once, sometimes more. Now, theres no one for Finn to fight with over the sand sifter or the coveted sand funnel-waterwheel thing. We miss you Thomas and Ramona!


I've been having fun playing dress-up with my baby girl.