Brother and Sister Moments

Yes, I've been totally MIA in regardess to my blog but just take a look at the pictures and I think that kind of explains it all. These two keep me pretty busy, in a very fun way.

The kids have just now started to become the best of friends. They are so happy together and have truly started to play together.


Nolan and Gabby's very first visit to Santa Clause. How we got the kids to smile so big and Santa not to is a bit of a mystery. Gabby adored Santa with his hat and beard. She kept making lovey eyes at him. Nolan couldn't believe that Santa was actually out of the North Pole and visiting San Luis Obispo. He felt very lucky.


I'm sure this falls under the category of "Irresponsible Parenting 101" but they were so cute. Nolan drug the stepstool into Gabby's room, crawled into her crib after her nap and played with her in there for at least 20 minutes.


It is impossible to give Gabby a bath without Nolan jumping in.

Big brother is all this girl sees. He is the ultimate in coolness as far as she's concerned. Their favorite games to play together are the busy ball popper and crawling through tunnels after (and sometimes over) eachother.

I realized how much I loved my blog when I couldn't think of anything to write in our Christmas Newsletter this year and I scanned my blog and suddenly found myself with too much to write about. It really has been a neat reflection on the simple moments in life, the ones that make it ... well, LIFE.

To Tri or not to Tri .....

The 1st leg of the race: a 1/4 mile swim in Lake Lopez



So earlier this month I competed in my 2nd Triathlon since labor, Scott Tinley's Triathlon at Lake Lopez. I was highly debating if I should continue doing these races. I have less and less time to devote to training and when push comes to shove all I really want to do is mountain bike. I only compete in races that have mountain biking courses (which are few and far between) so why don't I just start mountain bike racing and ditch this tri crap? I was debating this question as I started my early morning drive to my race. Martin and the kids didn't make this one because well ... frankly ... it's a lot of work just so I can hear "Go Mommy" at 3 different points in the race.


I competed in the sprint distance: 1/4mi swim, 12mi bike & 3mi run. I was sure I had stumbled in enough places during the swim and transition to write the race off. After passing a good chunk of people during the bike I started to feel pretty good about myself until I was re-passed during the run. I wasn't even going to bother to get my official results until a girl I had been leapfrogging with during the race convinced me that I had done well enough to check it out.

Well, surprise surprise .... I got 2nd place in my class (Females 30-34) and 10th place overall (Female competitors). It was a totally small race (8 in my class and 32 females) but it was enough to make me totally ditch the idea of not racing anymore. I stayed for the awards ceremony because realistically, when am I ever going to get to stand on a podium again?!?!

Now I'm busy trying to convince Martin to sign up for Wildflower with me in December. Now if I can just place at that one .....

Auntie Natasha

I love the Fall around here! The weather finally gets warm, the tourist go home and friends come to visit. My best friend Natasha came to visit and the poor girl was launched into Mommy-hood the whole time she was here. Her and her hubby are thinking about heading down that baby path so I guess it's not the worst thing I could have subjected her to.

We started our day out by going out for THE BEST pancakes EVER at Seaside Cafe in Shell Beach. Yummy! With full tummies we went to toddler music and watching kids dance to totally hokey songs with a women who either really digs kids and music or has an espresso machine tapped into her viens ... quite possibly both. That was enough to send us back to the house for naps .... Natasha included.

It was great beach weather so we headed out for a walk on the beach with the kids. It was low tide and tons of tiny harmless jellyfish had washed up. Nolan and I had a great time poking at them.

Since I didn't have to have a hawk eye on a 2 year old I actually snapped a ton of pictures of Gabby. I got so many good ones but I really liked this one. She is such a bubbly happy girl it was neat to capture a picture of her looking thoughtful. She was really taking in the sand and sounds.

That night was probably our worst night EVER trying to put the kids to sleep. Neither one of them was going down without the fight of their lives. I explained to Natasha that it's not like this all the time. I hope we didn't single handedly halt their walk down the baby path!

Ode To Gigi

Our dear sweet girl is turning 6 months on Oct. 4th and she has fallen victim to "second child syndrome". We have no baby book for her whatsoever, fewer pictures and no newsletter. The poor thing ... so neglected. So here we are, at the half year mark, and I feel a need to share a little bit about our beautiful mystery child who is always on my hip.

Gabby helping to pick apples at Avila Valley Barn

Her big blue eyes are amazing! She is so alert and awake to the world, especially her big brother. She watches Nolan with an intensity like nothing I have ever seen. Big fat tears rolling down her cheeks seem to stop midstream when he walks into the room. She is so bubbly and cheerful. Her laugh is hilarious. It is a cross between a cough and an old man hacking up something lodged in the back of his throat. Her laughs have caused strangers standing in line around us to utter things like, "Bless You" "Ooh do you have a wittle cough" and "Is she okay? Does she need help?"

As you can see from the above picture, she is a drooler. That could have something to do with the top left molar she decided to make her first tooth. It looks as though her top left molar will be her second tooth. I'm guessing this is the reason she still doesn't sleep through the night, although she is a great napper. She has fully embraced eating solid food and gives a good screech every time the spoon leaves her lips to travel back to the bowl. She has refined her dinosaur growl and frequently has dino "talks" with her big bro.

Gabby all bundled up for an early morning walk with mommy ... just the two of us. A rare moment.

She is my music girl! She loves music so much. Her whole face changes at the sound of anything that even resembles a song... humming, whistling. She lights up like a Christmas tree. She moves with the music and "sings" with the music at any opportunity. She is so frustrated by her little body, she wants to do so much. She rolls over ... over and over again ... to get to where she's going. Gabby loves us to hold her hands as she stands and even tries to move her feet around like she's just itching to walk.

Gabby and Daddy at the park after a train ride into San Luis Obispo

Our dear sweet Gabrielle has brought so much joy to our home. She makes us smile with just one little glance and her little snuggles make any bad day turn into a good one.

Our "Luvable" girl

Wine Sales 101

So last night we were hanging out at our friends house and they are all in the wine/spirits industry that I use to be in. Someone found this awesome video that is so true! This was exactly what my life was like month after month for YEARS, first as the sales rep and then as the boss man. I laughed until I cried! Take a peek at my old life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ3218_SQ-A&feature=related

Dum Dum Da Dum

Over Labor Day Weekend Martin's best friend Bob got married! Yeah Bob!

Martin was the best man and Nolan was the ring bearer. I may be partial but Bob really couldn't have picked two better guys to be in his wedding. Martin took his responsibilities so seriously! He had the death grip on the wedding rings from the moment they went into his hand. He couldn't think about anything else but keeping those rings safe and he was a very cute nervous wreck. The night before the wedding I woke up at 2 a.m. to an odd scratching noise only to see Martin laying on the floor using the bathroom light to edit and re-edit his best man speech. It was beautiful and made me cry when he read it to me in the morning. He even had to go the extra mile and revamp an unapproved Star Wars themed groom's cake just moments before the cerimony.

Nolan walked down the aisle like a pro! It helped that he fell madly in love with the flower girl and followed her like a little puppy dog. He even stood by her after the cerimony and fanned her while she waited for pictures to be taken. When she left to take pictures Nolan's exact words were... "Jayden, no leave me! Come back here to me." I tried to explain to him that begging was never an attractive quality in a man. A bridesmaid laughed at me and said, "I think he's pulling it off".

Grandma and Grandpa Fletcher had their first babysitting gig with Gabby. They walked her around the wedding site (out of ear shot) during the cerimony and the she partied it on up with the rest of us for the reception. She did great being passed around to baby adoring guests and Nolan stayed glued to Jayden dancing with her the whole night. He tore it up on the dance floor! This left Martin and I free to dance it up too. It was such an incredibly fun night for all of us.

Monterey Monday

We had an amazing opportunity to go visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium this week. My dad had a seminar in the area this week so .....

1 Free Night in Papa's Airstream Trailer + 2 Free Child Admissions to Monterey Bay Aquarium + 1 Starbucks Gift Card = ROADTRIP

I was very nervous about the trip because:

A. Martin had to work and couldn't go

B. Gabby can't stand being in a baby carrier (go figure?!)

C. Nolan is recently potty trained

I was really questioning my abiltiy to handle both kids alone in such a public place with dark rooms and public toilets....Yikes!

Papa decided to join us which made a world of difference and the kids had a blast with him.

Nolan and Papa take a picture with "Dory" (from "Finding Nemo")

Gabby was LOVING Papa's "Airplane Ride"

Nolan was so excited to get a picture with "Nemo"

All in all it was a fantastic trip. Nolan was a great listener the whole time, Gabby fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn and Papa was smiling all day long. Who could ask for a better day?! Ohh, and the marine life was pretty cool too! Especially the Daddy Sea Horse we saw giving birth to babies ... they just flew out of his belly! Ohhh, if it could only be that easy!

Just another day...

In case you're wondering what we do around here....

SLO TRI

After the race, showing off the T-Rex tattoo Nolan picked out for me to race with.

In post labor tradition, I participated in the SLO triathlon on Sunday. This time I had 6 less days of training than I had after I gave birth to Nolan. All in all, it was a fantastic tri. I beat my time from 2 years ago by 6 minutes with a final time of 1hour 50 min 21 sec. I had set a goal time of 1hr 45 min to 1hr 50 min so I was pretty happy with the way things went.

The swim was fine, not bad - not great just fine. My transitions were the fastest I had ever done. The bike was awesome. I had every endorphin firing and was trying to tell myself to watch it, there was still a run after this but I couldn't stop myself from pushing full throttle. The run spanked me! I felt ok the first mile, walked most of the 2nd mile and ran through major quad cramps the whole last mile. Nolan had given the announcer at the finish line the heads up that I had Gabby 3 months ago so the guy announced it as I crossed the finish line. It was a nice little boost after feeling so crappy!


Martin had his own mini-triathlon trying to manage 2 kids for the 4+ hours we were at the race.
After 45 minutes of pure Gabby meltdown, Martin finally had both kids asleep just as I crossed the finish line.

Vacation Madness: Part 3

The rest of vacation was spent just doing random stuff. We tried taking Nolan to the La Brea Tarpits but instead sat on the fwy for 3 hours stuck in an accident until after the museum closed. So what else do you do with a Grandma, 3 mo old, 2, 8, 10 and 12 yr old? Take them to Hollywood until late into the night of course!

My niece refused to take a picture of the 6ft + black man in stripper heels wearing no more than a white bikini bottom and larger than life angel wings. Oh, and did I mention the red cat eye contact lenses?

My sister got a picture with the hunky gladiator who attempted to cop a feel while setting up the pose.

Michael Jackson's Star.

The rest of the vacation was just visiting family, eating good food and celebrating the 4th of July in the Malibu Hills. When we got back home Nolan was worked. We still had another week of my sister and kids in A.G. so we were a long way off from recovery. For the first time ever Nolan actually cried, "No go to Grandma's house. Nollie stay here! I so tired!". He got over that pretty quickly after my sister and kids got him all hopped up on S'mores & whipped cream. We are definately in detox now.

Vacation Madness: Part 2 Legoland

Of course this would be the 1st picture Martin would take of Nolan at Lego Land!

We had orginally planned for Disneyland but were talked out of it by my sister since her oldest son had been dying to go to Legoland and her kids are a little whimpy (hey, they admit it themselves) about rides. Now, I don't know if Nolan would have been more into it if he hadn't have spent 12 hours at Sea World the day before, gone to bed at midnight and was up by 7 am to leave for Legoland. He was a little cranky but considering the circumstances I thought he did great.

Brenden, Nolan, Hannah & Riley in front of Dinosaur Land

We met up with the Weaver cousins for Legoland and Nolan was so excited to see his Idaho-ian cousins. The first stop was Dinosaur Dig Site where Nolan got to dig for dinosaur bones. He also went on his very first bonafied roller coaster - fittingly a Dinosaur Rollercoaster. He went on it once with Daddy and was a little unsure, went on it again with Grandma and then very matter of factly decided, "No do that no more".

For those of you who haven't seen Nolan lately.. FYI - Nolan no longer talks he mainly roars like a dinosaur now. Here is a picture of him in mid roar.

Grandma, Gigi & Papa

Grandma and Papa Joyce could think of a million and one places they would rather be than Lego Land! They opted for a nap in the car mid way and didn't come out until closing time. They were troopers though for as long as they could last.

Martin kept pushing to go to the water rides. My sis & I couldn't figure out why he was being so insistent, like it would be the worst thing ever for the kids to miss this section. Then we saw him go to town with the water cannons and we understood....this was HIS section! He returned from round 1 with a wet & crying Nolan and said, "Here, he's freaking out". Plopped him in front of us and then took off in a full sprint for round 2 with Brenden. Jen & I couldn't stop laughing.

Vacation Madness: Part 1 Sea World

For this year's vacation we hung out in Southern California visiting theme parks and hanging with the cousins. It was a long vacation and quite a bit to take on with two little one's but it was really fun and totally worth it.

The first stop was at Sea World. We went with Uncle Russell, Aunt Noelle and cousin Makena. Here we are watching a Sea Lion show.


This was by far Nolan's favorite part of the trip. Once he realized where we were he spent the whole time instructing us on who we needed to see: Stingrays, Nemo, Sharks, Whales. He was very adamate that he wasn't going to miss a thing.

Martin & Nolan visiting Shark Reef


Later in the afternoon my friend Terah met up with us with her hubby Tyler and boys Aiden (4) and Oliver (3 mo. just 10 days younger than Gabby). It was so awesome traveling with people who had little ones like us. We all had to stop to change diapers and feed babies at the same time. Our snail's pace would have driven anyone else bonkers but it was perfect for our groupl


Nolan got to go on the Elmo ride and spinning cups. There was a huge play area that he had a blast running around with his daddy. The next morning we asked Nolan how did he sleep and if he had any good dreams. He said yes, he dreamed about taking Riley Mae on the Elmo ride. Ahhh!

Terah is probably the only friend that is as kickback (read crazy) about doing stuff with kids as I am. After Sea World we went to dinner at 10 pm at IHOP with an overstimulated 4 yr old, 2 yr. old and two 3 month old babies. The kids had the Decorate-Your - Pancake Face meal for dinner because really, the best thing for a sleep deprived, adrenaline filled toddler at 10 pm is whipped cream! Ahhh, vacation...this is what it's all about.

It's Potty Time!

I have so much to post about our most recent vacation but I couldn't resist posting about Nolan's Potty Training first. He has quite a few friends that are ahead of the curve and almost 100% potty trained so he declared at the last play group, "I DO THAT TO!"

Hmm, I wasn't really sure I was ready for this so I watched a little Dr. Phil, read a Parenting Magazine article and followed my friends lead. This is the result:

*Potties everywhere - in the bathroom, in the living room, outside, in the car.

*Naked Nolan - lots & lots of naked Nolan

*Rewards (I'm not admitting to bribes) - 1 jellybean for #1, 2 jellybeans for #2, he gets to call a dinosaur on the phone, a sticker for his potty chart - and when all 16 boxes are full he gets to watch a movie of his choice...usually Dinosaur

All in all it is going really good. We are on day 5 and he went the first 2 days with no accidents. On day 3 he experimented with peeing around the house. He came out of his room one time with both hands in the air and said, "Stop Mommy! Don't go in my room." Sure enough, he had peed on the floor. He does better naked than when he has underwear and better with underwear than with Pull-ups. So I'm not quite sure how long we can or should keep up with the Naked Nolan.

A special THANK YOU to all my friends who have accomidated Nolan with his dinosaur phone call reward. We really appreciate the time you have spend growling "Good job going on the potty, Nolan" and roaring like a T-Rex.

Happy Father's Day

Here's Martin with his two angels that have made him the proud daddy that he is. We spent the day splashing around the pool at the Avila Bay club. All in all it was a pretty mellow day just enjoying the kids.









Gabby stole the show in her cute new bathing suit.

Do They Make A Hallmark Card For THIS?

Martin and I blissfully celebrated our 7 year anniversary....10 days late. We both completely and utterly forgot! Forgot like... not a clue, not on our radar screen... it might as well have been Christmas in June for us.

After a fun day hanging out at the zoo with my March Monkey moms one of them casually mentioned that their 6 year anniversary was coming up. I thought out loud ...how sweet, Martin and I have been married six years too. No, wait, 7 years. Hmm, what's the date today? OH MY GOD WE MISSED OUR ANNIVERSARY. My friends just stared at me dumbfounded. "You BOTH forgot your anniversary?" Yup, loser couple right here.

I rushed out to See's candy and got him an anniversary box of his favorite chocolates and then thought...he'll be so disappointed that he didn't get me a gift so I got myself a box of my favorite chocolates and had them gift wrapped. After the kids had gone to bed and we sat down to have a late dinner I handed him a card. As he read I wondered: Did Martin forget as wholly as I had? Had he remembered it was coming up and then just forgot on the actual day?

He had the sweetest smile on his face as he read the card. I could tell he thought I had just had a moment of sweetness and gave him a card just to say "I Love You" ... until he read "Happy Anniversary". I thought he was going to choke! The card fell to the floor and his hands went up to his head. His eyes bugged out of his head and his cute little mouth formed an O. Ok, so he really had forgotten as completely as I had.

Nolan & Riley: A Love Saga

I should have payed better attention. The signs were all there. It all started with an innocent trip to the beach when they were just five months old. It was a windy day and we let them snuggle under a blanket together to stay warm.

When she cried, he reached for her. I should have seen it then.

Sure they hung out together, but it was always in a group. How did I not see the way he stood a little taller ... acted a little cooler whenever she looked at him?

When he dodged kisses from other girls it just confirmed my thoughts that he was too young for love.

I naively thought he was just trying to get a better look at the starfish in the big container. Instead, it was his opportunity to rest his head on her shoulder.

Another trip to the beach set his feelings for her afire.

He is in LOVE with Riley Mae and it is the real deal!

Baby Story II

Nolan came to the hospital to meet his little sister and he was very excited and a wee bit confused. I had been driving him past French hospital telling him that was the hospital that he would go to when Gabrielle arrived. Well, we decided to go to Sierra Vista at the last minute and didn't fill Nolan in on the change. The whole walk from the car to the hospital he insisted to my mom that there was, "no baby here"! When she assured him that Gabby was at this hospital he asked every person who crossed his path, "Where'd baby go"?

Proud big brother wearing his "Bodygaurd for my little sister" T-shirt.

Proud ... and tired.. Daddy. Martin just barely got the floors finished a little more than a week before she was born. He hadn't quite caught up on his sleep yet. Also, I spent the last week of my pregnancy begging him to do anything and everything with and for Nolan. I was exhausted and huge!

The upside to a shorter labor was that recovery was a breeze in comparison. I was thrilled to be enjoying my baby girl.

Gabrielle on her way home!