Swimming Maniac!

We went to the pool again today, without Rachael's huge swimsuit/floatation device. She just used water wings, and let me tell you, this kid is loving the pool! She normally goes in to panic mode major if we let go of her in the pool, but today I had her kick her reach for one of my fingers, took the finger away, and told her to kick her feet. She. Did. AWESOME. Only bad thing is now I have to be extra, EXTRA careful with her because she thinks she's a fish. Oh well, I'm glad she's not as scared as she was a few weeks ago. We haven't showered yet because we're going to go swimming with daddy after work to show him what this kid can do!

Enjoy the videos!

Beach Babes and Boy

They're switching floors at Nate's office, so he had yesterday off, aside from a little work to do at home. Nice! So we took advantage and went to the beach. So much fun! But a lot, lot, lot of work. We went to a State Park to avoid the crowds, and we found a nice beach. Rach wasn't too sure of the waves at first, but got used to them and had a lot of fun, just as long as she was holding someone's hand, her hat, her bucket, or once, Whitney's leg. (I was wearing a sling to hold Whitney, but you'll notice that there are no pictures of me. I just had a baby seven weeks ago and I'm not ready to have my legs all over the internet. Or even on my blog.)

Whit got some sand in her mouth at the beginning, not her favorite or mine, but after a while she liked being in the shade. Cutest little beach babe.

Sand Castles!!

Who took that picture?? They have some amazing photography skills, catching that bird and everything!

Here are some things I will do differently next time we hit the beach:

• Get the girls in their suits in the parking lot, not the beach
• Sunscreen before we get to the beach
• Take Whitney's bouncer
• Take a lawn chair and nursing cover
  
• Take a big sheet instead of a bunch of towels to sit on, the sand sticks to the towels
• Get a beach umbrella
• Have a big bottle of water in the car to get the sand off once our adventure is done

Tresses Françaises

If you couldn't tell, the title means "French Braids" in French. (Although I believe more accurately it would be "French Hair," but I'm no Frenchwoman) I thought we'd give these a shot today, and her hair is long enough! One side looked better than the other, plus they were inside out braids and those are harder, but its ok because with all the rolling around on the floor this kid does these braids only lasted about an hour. I did them again before we went to the beach (post on that tomorrow!) and they stayed until we came home for a tub! Awesome. Now if only Whitney would get some hair... oh, and can I just curse the baby bald spot? Ugh. Rachael never got one, and I don't know if that's because she didn't have much hair on the sides anyways, if it was too light to tell, or if I just had the luxury of holding my baby every second of the day. Not so much the case this time around... She'll get hair someday!

3/4

This post will only include 3/4 members of this family :)

Here is Nate on his first day of work! He was heading off to LA for some training, hence the duffel bag. His first week went well, he just had a lot of training videos to watch, but today he is starting on his first real tax job. Its weird... Nate keeps talking about how he wants to retire (hahaha!) and he's got about 35+ years of work still. We're so used to being students and always looking forward to an actual job, now we're there. Weird. Good (once he gets paid), but weird.

Here is my happy, smiley little girl. Whitney is such a sweet, happy baby who rarely fusses. Once difference between her and Rachael though, Whitney will NOT eat if she has a wet/dirty diaper. Rachael never fussed over diaper problems. Kinda interesting...

Here's the stinkbug. She still loves the swings even after being whacked pretty hard by one last week. Her shoulder is doing better, although not 100%. We're trying to take it easy. I sent my sister this picture and she texted back and said, "She looks like a California girl!" Its true, she does. She's been loving sunglasses lately, and always steals mine!

Swim!

We have a swimming pool and spa about 50 feet from our front door, and it has been so fun! When my parents were here we all (minus me and Whit, we just dipped out toes in) went swimming at around 8 p.m. Then Nate took Rachael the next day, and this week I took Rachael three times while Whitney bounced on the side. Its nice having it so close and its so fun, but kind of a hassle with Whitney not being so high maintenance (aka not loving her bouncer for extended periods of time, and needing to eat. SO high maintenance haha) but Rachael is pretty good about leaving when Whitney fusses.

Loving the pool! Check out Whitney's uber cute swim suit. Four bucks at Target, yes please!

My mom gave Rach this robe to wear home from the pool and she loves it! This face she's pulling isn't a real mad/stinkerbelle face, she likes to glare, then smile, then glare, then smile. Its pretty funny.

We're working on Rachael being more brave and possibly jumping into our arms, and I've also asked a friend to send me a link on infant/child CPR. Now we just need to go to the pool more so I can get some color on these pasty white legs, ugh. (I also need to swim my own laps to get rid of this dang baby weight)

Friends

Moving to a new place is always hard, especially when you don't know anyone. Both Rachael and I have been missing friends. I find it hard to make friends when I don't know where any are to be found. (Profound, eh?) But really, I know there must be people around us to be friends with. No one from church lives near, and Nate typically has the car during the day, so that also throw a wrench in my friend search.
Lately Rachael and I have been missing these two little ladies. It was so much fun in Cedar because they were just on the next block.

Here is cute little Brooklyn, Cortney's little girl. Rachael and Brooklyn were what I like to call "frenemies," because they loved to play and jump on couch cushions, or they liked to take toys from each other. Miss you, Brooklyn and Cortney!

And here is little Morgan, Megan's daughter. Rach and Morgan always got along really well, and it was fun because Megan had her new baby boy a month before I had Whitney. Miss you, Morgan and Megan!!

Miss Smiley Pants

Whitney has started smiling recently, but ONLY for daddy. How annoying is that? Every time I hold her, she starts rooting around looking for a meal, but when dad holds her is smiles all around! Its ok though... It gives me a good chance to video. Enjoy, she's growing up so fast!

Irvine, thus far

Well.. we made it! With no hiccups or bumps along the way! Last night was a long night so I'm just going to summarize our first week here in list form.

• We sold our couches, and its a good thing we did because there wouldn't have been room for them
• They didn't take my banana away at the CA agriculture checkpoint, just citrus and cherries
• There are a LOT of Asians here. I don't know why that surprises me so much
• Our apartment in super nice, WITH a washer/dryer, garbage disposal, AND a dishwasher. Can you say heaven?
• I purchased my first amazing Craigslist purchase. A GORGEOUS 150 year old barnwood hutch, painted a lovely shade of red. My first piece of furniture with some character! $40!
• Had my first hand dipped ice cream bar from Costco. GO GET ONE. Even more heavenly than my new appliances
• I love my parents SO dang much for all of their help with this move! And I miss them even more :(
• The California DMV is the worst place on earth, and I truly believe that.
• I really love having my husband come home from work NOT smelling like sweat. When he worked at the nursery, he would be filthy and stinky. Now he's clean and looks good in his fancy office clothes :)
• Our new ward is AWESOME, although I'm sad to say I don't know anyone's names because there were so so SO many people introducing themselves to us. I'm bad with names anyways, but when they're thrown at me by the dozen I'm even worse...
• Rachael got taken out by a girl on a swing last night at our ward FHE. Her shoulder/neck hurts pretty bad, which made for my long night. We may be making our first trip to the Doctor tonight when Nate gets home.

Pictures later, I need to take care of my princess's shoulder :(