Because I love blue

And because I love this picture. And because I love swings and my most favorite swing in the world is this one that overlooks the ocean. And of course, because I love Emmels. :)

Pumpkins a Plenty

Happy Halloween!!! We had a great one and hope you did too. Here are some pics from the season.....

The kids and Grumpy. This year we had a ladybug princess (half ladybug/half princess) and cute little clown respectively. The clown suit is the same one my mom made for me and I wore when I was 3. I thought the Beagle looked pretty cute in it.
Halloween party at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Misty's with all the cousins.

There she is...our big one year old. Pics of her b-day to come soon.

Trick or treating in the Bob...it worked out great. This was our first time trick or treating with our kids and we had a great time.

Emmeline.

Our little ladybug princess trick or treating with Daddy.

Carving the pumpkin...and very serious about success.

Los dos ninos juntos.

In her pre trick or treating Halloween attire. A girl's gotta have something appropriate for all occasions right?

And last but not least, Our cute Emmies in a pumpkin patch in Del Mar, CA. I'll post the rest of our San Diego trip pictures soon....

I love fall. :)

Pre-Memorial Day Miracle...Two Posts, One Day

Call it what you will but I'm pretty sure this is some sort of record for myself...two posts in one day. But this, my friends, is another long pictoral post. Sorry if those bore you...just catching up. Maybe someday I'll tap into my vast wisdom and wit and post something with more words than pictures. :) We'll see I guess.

Well, here is Eli being a goofball and Emmeline looking confused. The norm. Poor Emme. If she can survive Eli, she's sure to be a strong woman.
The great balloon chasers. The Beagle's (Eli) favorite pastime is to look at hot air balloons. Grandpa Larry took us to see one being blown up in San Diego. The other cute kid on the left is Matt's little cousin Zack. We went to San Diego to celebrate April 15.

The buddies.

Eli at minature golf in San Diego.

Grandpa Larry and Uncle Andrew were really excited to get a picture of Emme's first pizza at Matt's favorite restaurant, Fillipi's. Funny.

Eli with his newfound love for collecting shells. He lines them up all over our house.

You know how you have those favorite pictures of your kids? This is one of mine.

My babies. :)

Sweets, Eli, and Daddy at the beach in San Diego.

Cute as a bug. :)

Easter suits. I'm sure glad I got this picture because about one hour after that was taken, Eli threw up all over his suit and had a bad case of the flu for the next week.

Easter party and Grammy and Grumpy's house. It was COLD and RAINY. So weird for April. Kind of fun though.

Emmeline in her Easter dress.

Easter basket time!

Another one of my favorite pictures. I feel like I captured Eli's face at the perfect moment. He loves the tramp.

Say "cheese." That's his say cheese face.

MMMM. In n Out. And Grandma Bear taught Eli how to stick stickers all over his forehead. He thought that was great. Grandma and Andrew came for about a week to Arizona to visit for spring break.

Coloring Easter eggs.

Grandma and Emme.

The buddies again. Eli's favorite pose with Emmeline. "By Emme" he always says.

Matt and I have a hobby of taking pictures of our favorite truck arrangements by Eli. This was one. They are all over the house everyday.

Emme's first swim outing of the season. We went to a heated pool in April.

Grabbing toes. One of my favorite phases.

I fired up and bought a giant bucket of wheat at Costco and made homemade bread. I've made it once before and it didn't turn out very good. But this batch was quite tasty if I do say so myself. Matt thought so too.

There's fluffy.

Our sweets.

Fresh from the bath. Love that clean baby smell. Nothing like it in the world.

Sucking her thumb...that phase didn't last long though.

The buddies, again.

And again.

Eli being naughty by getting in Emme's jumper.

Well, I guess that's it for this post. The pictures were in a random order but I'm still figuring out how to best post pictures on here. Anyway, hope you enjoyed. :)

Looking Back...

I was just looking through these pictures and thought I'd post some of them.

Tired out cookie baker. Of course this is pre 2009...note the passy.
Emmeline on her blessing day....I can't believe she is almost 7 mo. already! My Grandmother Cardon made those booties and blanket before she passed away.

Looking awefully cute in some Christmas attire.

I think this was Emmels first day of church at the end of November...I'm not gonna lie, I rather enjoy fluffing her up. :)

Just cute.

Eli getting ready to board Grumpy's Polar Express Choo Choo Bus. A very fun Thanksgiving night tradition.

Daddy and the children on Thanksgiving. Sporting "the browns" in honor of Turkey Day and fall of course.

At Long Last.....

Finally, I've gotten around to posting pictures....it's a much needed update to our recently updated family. Our sweet Emmeline is now 4 months and we love having this little girl in our family. These pics go way back to Christmastime. Maybe I'll do a throw back to Thanksgiving in the near future, but don't hold your breath. :) Enjoy!

Our Sweet Emmels.

Daddy and his loyal buddy doing a little fertilizing.

Eli went from hating pictures in December to wanting to pose for everything...as long as Emme was in it with him.

One of my favorites of Emmies...love that cute girl! I just want to squeeze her.

Just before church a couple of weeks ago...I love matching my kids for church...I'm such a nerd.

Another cute one.

This is Eli fulfilling a lifelong dream of being on a construction grader. We found this one in our church parking lot...they are building softball fields next to it.

A five generation picture (minus Grandpa Larry). It's Matt's Great Grandma Aprato, Matt's Grandma Faas, and the two kids.

Our little cupcake girl. (There's cupcakes all over her little dress and tights... courtesy of Grandma Patti. ) :)

Barry's half birthday celebration on Jan. 13. Growing up I always celebrated my half birthday because my real one was on Christmas Eve. June 24 was a much better date to celebrate with friends. So in keeping with the half birthday tradition, of course we had to have a little celebration for Eli on his half day as well. I got the idea of making a half of a cake from my friend Allison. Eli's cake was made to order...a green cake (food coloring in a white cake mix) with green polka dots. He loved it and still talks about it.

Just looking around...

Sadly, this picture more accurately depicts the norm at our house better than all of these other cute ones I have posted. Eli's nickname "Beagle" couldn't be more fitting this that diaper rag in his mouth.

Eli on his first "alligator" ride in the mall. Gotta love the cheap thrills.

Dad always has the best ideas...putting Emme in Eli's dumper. Of course Eli was all over that idea and wants to do it often.

Christmas morning...typical Eli fashion...stashing any and all loot in his dump trucks.

Reluctant Christmas morning picture in matching jammies.

How could we not get a picture of Emme's cute ruffle bum?

Emme and her nearly twin cousin Baby Paul. Well, we can certainly tell who the good baby is in this picture.

All the kids posing with their matching Christmas jammies from Grammy and Grumpy. A very fun tradition and the kids always look so cute in them.

Emme made a very good Baby Jesus. Here she is with cute cousing Megan.

Matt and the kids.

Making Christmas Coo Coos. Love the cigar pose with the pacifier. Happily, that thing had it's last run on Dec. 31, 2008. Eli conveniently lost it at Souplantation (his favorite restaurant) and he hasn't used it since.

Our little reindeer.

Eli's first pony ride at the Cardon family Christmas party.

Just taking a little snooze in Emme's bouncy seat...a no no but I couldn't resist the picture. He's just so relaxed.