Beach Angels

The other day as we were walking to the beach park Charley suddenly exclaimed to me, "You look like a beach angel Mom!"  I laughed and said "Thanks Char I think you look like a beach angel too," to which he replied, "No, I'm Charley James."  I was a little shocked and wondered where he got that from, but hey, I'll take the compliments when I can :)  Later in the evening, I put on one of his favorite shows for him that we have recorded, and this commercial was on it:



Soooo thats where he got it from!  I guess someone's been watching a little too much TV.  .  .

Visit to the fire station!

Our morning started out a little rough with Charley starting the dishwasher that had already clean dishes in it and then Miles drawing on the couch and restarting the washing machine 3 times while it was already going.  But our day got so much better with a surprise trip to the fire station!  The boys' friend Emerson's grandpa is a fireman at the Seal Beach station, and she was nice enough to let us tag along on a visit.  Charley and Miles were in Heaven!  Not only did they get to sit inside the fire truck and check out all the cool fire equipment, but the firemen also shared their licorice and cookies :)  As we were walking home Charley said, "Mom the fire station has really good snacks!"  

Captain Charley  

 Driving the old fire truck

 Good thing Charley is driving because I'm pretty sure Miles can't see... :)

We escaped up to Cayucos for Memorial Day weekend, and we're loving it so far.  I wouldn't say it's a relaxing vacation :) but the boys are having a great time getting all their energy out.  I feel like I should start getting scared since every other person we come across tells me how brave I am or that I'm going to really have my hands full when number 3 comes along... :) But we made it through a morning at the beach with only minor injuries and no one getting swept out to sea, so I'll consider that a success!

Miles man and his "cheeeeese!" pose

 Charley scored a cool pirate sword at the Peddler's Fair this morning.

 The boys checking out the tide pools.  The water was freezing, but Charley insisted on stripping down as soon as he put his toes in the water.  I had to force him to keep his shorts on at least.

 Charley and Dad digging a huge sand tunnel

Super Miles

Rough Life

All this because I made them wait until after lunch to have a mini ice cream cone from Grandpa John.  They both collapsed next to the freezer like their lives were over and this was the most devastating thing they'd ever experienced.  I know, I know, I am a horrible and cruel person.

Spring Break

The boys and I escaped up to Cayucos for a little spring break trip with Grammie and Auntie Robyn.   We're all loving relaxing and enjoying the great weather.

The Seal Beach 5k Run!

Even though Jennie is no longer a resident of Seal Beach with us, she was nice enough to come down and take Charley on the 5k with her this morning. Charley was talking about it all last night and since the moment he woke up, so here's a couple video clips so you can see just how much he was loving it. Enjoy!

Jess & Drew tie the knot! 12-18-2010

In December, one of our favorite people in the world, Jessica, got married, and Charley had the important job of being the ring bearer.  We were taking bets as to whether or not he would make it down the aisle, and with the help of the two cute flower girls he did!  He took his duties very seriously, but then he let loose at the reception and became a dancing machine.  He literally danced for hours.  We all had a great time at the wedding and are so happy for Jess and Drew.

awwwww :)

letting loose after all that hard ring bearer work

Dancin it up with Pops

silly photo booth pic

Thanks for letting me be your ring bearer Jess!!

November 2010 catch up

Okay, still getting caught up...So in November we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle Dino and Aunt Renee's house.  The boys loved playing with all the cousins and were annoyed that they had to come in for dinner.  One funny part was when Charley, who is a seriously picky eater, took a giant bite of mashed potatoes thinking they were ice cream.  The look on his face afterward was hilarious.  

Miles with John on Thanksgiving.  Miles always wants John to hold him :)

 Then, right after Thanksgiving dinner we hit the road with the boys and headed up to Grammie and Pop's house in Cayucos.  I can't say that that I was thankful for the drive up with two crying and tired boys, but once we got there we had a great time :)  Grammie and Pops have done so much work on the house and it really looks awesome.

Having some relaxing time with Pops

"Hunkle Matt" being a human chair 

Charley putting on a little puppet show for Miles. 

Catching Up

I know, I know.  We've been very bad bloggers.  John-Paul got me a new camera for Christmas though, so I have no excuses.  I'll try to get caught up and give the short version of what we've been up to.  Here it goes:

OCTOBER

 Miles turned 1!!!

 We picked out some pumpkins at the pumpkin patch

And had a very fun and spooky Halloween :)  Charley was a cowboy and Miles was a zebra, but I can't find any costume pics right now.

Charley the dancing machine

This is a little video of Charley jamming to one of his new favorite songs, "What I Am" by Will.i.am and the Sesame Street monsters.  JP and I are actually really excited that Charley is into this song, considering that the only other music he ever requests to dance to is the chipmunk versions of songs.  We stumbled across the chipmunk version of "Single Ladies" on Youtube one day, and Charley has been obsessed ever since.  He states, "I want to dance a little bit" multiple times a day, but if you try to put on a regular song he quickly corrects you with, "No!  I want the munks!"  And who knew that there are people out there that spend their time making chipmunk versions of every song you can think of and post them on Youtube for Charley's enjoyment.  Hopefully this chipmunk phase will pass soon before I go insane.

Mmmmm!

Miles using his new chompers to enjoy some watermelon.  This kid looooves eating.  Oh, and he did that stylish hair-do all on his own by running sticky watermelon hands through it.

Our Cayucos Vacation

We're back from spending a wonderful week on the central coast in Cayucos.  We got to hang out with the fam, take long walks, play at the park and in the pool, run on the beach, have some yummy dinners, and JP and I even got to  escape and go wine tasting :)  Here's a little glimpse of some beach time.  More pics to come!

Slow and Steady

We met these two tortoises while we were out taking a walk the other day.  Charley thought they were really cool and he liked getting on the ground and crawling around with them realllly slllowly.

Little Tan Man

I'm seriously jealous of Charley's tan skin! It looks like he took after his dad on that one. Sorry Miles, so far it looks like you got my fair complexion :)

brotherly love: Charley giving Miles a big smooch

Green Thumb

Great-Grandpa John was nice enough to plant tomato plants and gave us a strawberry plant for Charley's watering and picking pleasure. It's been a little tough for Charley to wait until the tomatoes and strawberries are red to pick them, but now they are finally turning red and we love to check for new berries and tomatoes every morning.

The first Tomato!

Mmmm! If Char could, he would only eat berries for every meal.

And Charley also adores helping Grammie water her garden. One of the only veggies Charley will eat willingly are the snap peas Grammie grows, because he thinks the peas are candy :)

It's My Party! (and I'll cry if I want to)

For Charley's birthday we walked over to Ruby's at the end of the pier for dinner. We all had a great time, except for the part where Charley decided he hated his birthday hat.

Ice cream sundae!! sweet!!

Jonathan giving us his best Blue Steel look while Miles is trying to eat his party hat in the background. Jonathan spent a good part of dinner trying to stop Miles from eating the table.

Charley liked his Ruby's hat much better than his party hat. He wanted to keep looking at it even while it was on his head.

Happy Birthday Charley!!

It's hard to believe that Charley has been charming us, cracking us up, melting our hearts, and always keeping things exciting for two whole years now. It's crazy! It wasn't that long ago that we brought a tiny little tan baby Charley home from the hospital was it? Now he's basically a little boy! Things Charley is into these days: his brother who he refers to as "My-My", doing anything dangerous, eating berries, yelling, saying "Mommeeeee" over and over and then resorting to "Kisten!" if he really needs my attention, sidewalk chalk, going on walks, playing with every dog and cat we see, going over to "Nennie's house", wind chimes and pinwheels, watching "The Fresh Beat Band" and Sesame Street on TV, wrestling with his dad, putting sprinkles on all food, playing with basketballs,footballs, baseballs, etc., playing with water, and using his big boy potty so he can get treats. I'm excited to see all the new adventures Charley will have as a two-year-old, and I hope he doesn't get a very bad case of the Terrible Two's. He already loves saying "No!" and more recently, "No! Stop it Mommy!", so I might be in trouble... :)

Charley and I made a pretty awesome birthday cake today. He was really good at pouring in ingredients, and he even helped me wash the dishes afterwards!

Time to use "the mixers" as Charley would say.

The best part!!

and here's the finished product! Of course we added almost a whole container of sprinkles as a finishing touch.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLEY! WE LOVE YOU TONS!

Playing Catch Up

Here's a little recap of Easter 2010:
We spent Easter up at Grammie and Pops house and had a blast as usual. Some highlights were getting to visit with Betsy and Auntie Robyn who came down from San Fran, Char and Miles handsome matching Easter outfits from Grammie, us getting to the totally packed church late and sneaking up to the balcony and having the whole place to ourselves, and having John and G.G. treat us to a delish Easter dinner at the Oakmont.

Savant Family pic

Three generations

Easter Cutie

Nelson Family pic

We're Still Here!

So we took a blogging break for a few weeks...or months :( Our camera took a fateful trip to Chuck E Cheese where it broke beyond repair, but we finally got a new one. We've all been doing well and Charley and Miles are growing by the second and doing their best to keep me super busy.

How cute are these two? Miles is seven months old and has his two bottom front teeth now and loves to bite everything. To our dismay he can almost yell louder than his brother. Yikes! But as long as he's being held, he's usually a happy camper :)

Cooling off by dipping our feet in the pool

I got this cute pic in a frame for Mother's Day from my boys :)

Charley LOVES helping Grammie water her garden and especially feeding the chickens!

Slam Dunk

If you come into our house these days, you better be ready to shoot some hoops with Charley. He is officially obsessed with basketball and can often be heard yelling things like, "HOOP! SHOOT! BALL! DUNK!" He's even woken up in the middle of the night a few times and started crying out basketball words, thinking that maybe we'll let him get up for a quick 2 AM basketball sesh. Charley had a tiny baby basketball hoop that he was kinda growing out of, so we got him a "big boy" basketball hoop this week, and he's in love with it.

When C. makes baskets he says "In the hooooop" or "Yeah baby!" and when he misses he says "Darn!" or "Almost!"

C. posing with Uncle Matt "How much will you give me if I make this shot?" Savant

Slam Dunk!

Miles is pretty content watching all the action and mostly just tries to not get hit by stray shots. Charley is a good big brother and tries to teach Miles how to hold the mini basketballs, but he gets very grossed out and offended if Miles drools on them at all.