San Francisco I love you...

Trip and I celebrated our 4th anniversary in San Francisco 2 weekends ago, with a short day trip to Napa.  We left our sweet kiddos in good hands, 4 1/2 sets actually; my mom, Trip's mom, my 2 aunts and my sister B (for a portion) + the nanny.  They all stayed at the house and camped out for the weekend while we snuck a way for a little "us" time.  We had such a great time, and the kiddos both survived!  The weather was unbelievable, 70s and sunny, not a cloud in the sky; in fact, we had to strip down both days because it was so hot, it felt more like mid 80s.

Miner Vineyard

On Thursday we spent the day in Napa, we made it to 2 wineries (Miner & Duckhorn) and this amazing hotel bar at the Auberge du Soleil overlooking Napa.  Amazing wine and a great view at the bar, by the way, the rooms range from $1000 - $2000 a night if you are looking for an inexpensive B&B in Napa, ha.  www.aubergedusoleil.com.  But the view was spectacular!

Duckhorn

Patio at Duckhorn

The view from Auberge du Soleil

Friday we headed into San Francisco and spent the day at Union Square, the Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Ghiradelly's Square and then a great little wine Bar in Union Square.  We ate dinner at Kuletos and enjoyed a fantastic bottle of wine from Joseph Phelps!

Saturday we did the Alcatraz tour, something I have never done in all my trips to San Fran... well worth it for anyone who hasn't done it.  The tour is via audio headphones and told from the prison guards and inmates... pretty amazing.  After that we went to the Golden Gate Bridge, had lunch in Sausalito and then went up to Muir Woods.  We ate dinner on our last night at this amazing little Peruvian restaurant near the Ferry Terminal called La Mar, it was amazing.  Probably my favorite restaurant on our trip!

On Sunday, we enjoyed brunch at Mama's, the 45 minute wait was well worth it.  I had a dungeness crab and Brie omelette... AWESOME and Trip had eggs benedict topped with dungeness crab.  We spent the rest of our time on Sunday walking around the bay near the Fisherman's Wharf and ended up enjoying an hour at the park in front of Ghiradelly's square watching the sail boats.

All in all it was a fantastic trip, we had a great time.  Next trip out there will include several days in Napa!

New front door!

Our new front door is finally in!!!  We have been wanting a new front door for 4 years... such a great anniversary surprise.  I have a couple things more to do, the trim is going to be finished out today and I still need to paint the new frame but it already looks so much better than before.  In fact, every time I walk by I think someone left the front door open, there is SOOO much light now in the entryway and the living room.

Heather's Birthday weekend...

We headed over to Heather and Joey's house on Saturday to visit the family, everyone was in town for Heather's birthday.  No, I won't tell you how old she is!  We had a great time, it is the first time we have seen everyone since Christmas.  The girls LOVED the babies, especially Caden since he decided to postpone his nap and play with the girls.  They were great babysitters, I am going to have to have Jama come over one afternoon when I am working in the yard and watch the kiddos.

cousins

cousin bo playing with Caden

We found Caden napping like this the other day, one
foot propped on the bumper and arms sprawled.

Look how talented at sitting up I am
now...

Home improvement projects...

We started on a few Spring projects this past weekend, my husband has be come so handy over the last couple of years.  Not sure what to think about that.  A couple weekends ago he fixed my bathroom outlet, yes, that is right "electrical work", several doors in the house that the latch wasn't catching as well as the garage door which came off the track.

This past weekend he finally put the electrical cover over the outlet under the oven and bracketed the metal hose to the wall.  We both worked on the first clean up of the patio (I did the labor, he did the shopping) although we still have a lot of work to do before it is spring/summer ready.

And last but not least, we started on our front door project!  Yeah!  Trip bought us a front door last week, he has been eyeing it for a couple of months and finally picked it up.  Today, we stained the door, tomorrow we will seal it and then Friday Mario is coming to install it.  Sorry, not taking any chances on trying to install the door on our own, it is kind of important and I am pretty sure we don't have all the tools we would need to do it.  It would end up costing us more to do it ourselves than paying our dear Mario to do it.

Step 1, stain.

pruned, swept, washed, and raked...

Look so organized now.

Dallas Arboretum... so ready for spring!

On Sunday, we ventured out with Emme & Poppy for a fun filled day that included a trip to Matt's Ranchero and the Dallas Arboretum.  This is only the 3rd time we have taken them to a restaurant with us since our El Fenix disaster before Christmas and right on cue Linley started to cry as soon as the food arrived.  Was Caden upset, no, he just sat contently in his car seat and played with his toys.  Linley is only content if her mommy is working while eating.  So I stood up and rocked her in her car seat while I picked at my food with the other hand.  All I have to say is "Linley Grace, really?"

We had a great time and even though it was cloudy the weather ended up being perfect!  If I had done a little research I would have discovered that Dallas Blooms was going on this weekend and a lot of people had the same idea we did.  The kiddos actually did really well even with a few breakdowns from Linley Grace who doesn't nap well when we are not at home.  They both fell asleep on the drive and took a second nap when we got home.

Poor baby boy has a boo boo on his forehead, mommy
accidentally let him jump out of her arms on Saturday night
and hit the coffee table.

Linley Grace loved walking in the grass, she was all about the soft, cushiness.  Caden on the other hand was very concerned about this "stuff" we put him down in, I could just imagine him thinking "what the heck is this green stuff you put me on?  I don't like it, pick me up, pick me up!"

"Ummm... pick me up?"

"I definitely don't like this cold, squishy, green stuff!"

Happy Baby.

Quick weight up date... Miss Linley Grace is 14 lbs and 10 oz and Caden is 16 lbs 14 oz.  Growing like weeds.  They had their last RSV shots on Thursday, thank goodness.  Now, only their check up shots left!

February

Not a whole lot going on here... We are inching closer and closer to being completely out of RSV, cold and flu season.  Linley Grace and Caden get their last RSV shots tomorrow, so yeah for them!  They turned 8 months last Sunday, they are getting so big!

Cute, cute

They both can sit up unassisted (for a few minutes anyway) and Caden rolls back and forth from his stomach to his back all day long!  Especially when he sees a toy he wants.  He scoots on his back by bridging up on his head/butt and feet and pulls himself forward on his stomach by grabbing the carpet and wiggling his feet.  He hasn't worked the whole crawling thing out just yet, but it is coming soon, I can feel it.

Miss Linley Grace on the other hand could care less, she hates being on her stomach, hates rolling over and couldn't be less concerned about crawling.  She is definitely an observer, she is going to let her brother do all the work to figure it out and then she is going to just do it one day because she has been watching his struggles over the weeks.  Either that or she is going to just skip crawling all together and walk first, she LOVES to stand up.

They have made it through all the fruits and veggies, love everything but green beans and are now on their way to 2nd step foods.  Oatmeal and fruit, yogurt, meats etc... let you know how that all goes.  We even tried puffs the other day.... that was a site.  I have a video so I will have to post it for you once I get it uploaded.  Very funny!

Multitasking - eating breakfast and watching TV

Trip and I celebrated our "official, marriage certificate" anniversary this past month!  4 years!  Whoo hoo.  We are heading to San Francisco in March to celebrate our wedding anniversary, 4 days without the kiddos... not sure how we will survive!

Anniversary Dinner

I love the puppy!

Let me see your foot!

How cute is my outfit!

I love remotes!