Gilroy Gardens

It was bring a friend day at Gilroy Gardens so the club set it up for those without passes to go with those with. We'd never been so we set out on another little adventure. It was fun. It was kinda like a toddler amusement park....but gorgeous flowers and trees inside. I don't think it'd be worth it for us to get passes, but maybe we'll be able to go again when we can get in with a friend for free. We didn't stay more than an hour but it was enough time for a train ride, a carousal ride, and a failed attempt at a the ride picture below....

haha. i'll never forget caleb's face when he realized what was about to happen...he panicked a bit and wanted to ride with lucas. haha. so they ended up not riding...but maybe next time! lol.

 i was so glad he walked around the entire time just holding my hand, no melt downs :)

i just love how lucas grabbed on (he was in the ergo) but he wanted to be next to big brother, right in the action.

 the train ride. it was caleb's favorite. he talked about it the entire way home.

i felt like we were in a forest-inside an amusement park...it was interesting. beautiful though! but then kinda funny how gorgeous the nature was with all the rides...i'm just not an amusement park kinda girl. i much prefer pools of water-such as the beach. or i prefer family hikes and bike rides...and the best part is that you can do all those for free! 

but every now and then it is fun to try something new and how great that we didn't have to pay!

 my favorite. that face! he was astonished i think. just taking everything in...

thanks friends for letting us join in the fun!!! it was a fun morning :) and always an adventure trying something new!!

ya caught me.

they are like night and day. oh yes. that is what my two little boys are. everything is completely different with lucas. from day one. i love it though. their personalities and temperaments are completely their own...but together they fit just perfectly. i couldn't imagine it any different. and i love watching them together. so lately, lucas has his hands...and mouth...on and in everything. he's not even crawling yet, so i know i'm in trouble.

still. and happy. eating one of his fav. snacks. graham crackers and yogurt.

 but then...guess what happens i change his diaper and then throw it in the trash-real quick. i come back....

what can i find here....?

oh hey there mom, you caught me.

i find this. did i mention i like to vacuum? i vacuum at least 2x a week-just cause i like to. but now i kinda have to. cause he finds the littlest crumbs-puts them in his mouth-and smiles up at me. i know just what he's thinking "oops...ya caught me mom :)". little brother wants in on all the action.

crawling's gonna be interesting. the world is a very exciting place for lucas right now. when nap time comes for the boys, mama can finally relax-take some deep breaths-and recover....and sometimes nap too.

i just love each and every stage the boys go through, and i feel so blessed to be there for every single moment.

olallieberry pickin'

we went berry picking today.

 at  gizdich ranch. my mom and sister took caleb last year, apple picking.

so, it happened to be a spontaneous mid-week adventure  for us.  it started with an evening text from a friend. 'hey, want to go berry picking tomorrow?' okay. sure, why not. i figured it wasn't very far and we were going early enough to be back for lunch and naps...

 i thought the farm was in hollister. so we loaded up four boys in the back of my car. and off we went, only turns out it was in watsonville..hahaha....oops....a good 45 minute drive there and a fun 45 minutes back.

i went into panic mode a lil bit. (all right...maybe a lot) but my calm friend reassured me, everything will be fine! and you know what? everything was fine. lucas napped on the way over. three of the four boys plucked and popped berries from the vines, juicy red drip coming out of their mouth.

lil l loved them so much he went digging in the dirt where they dropped and came back with mudfulls!

all four boys chit chatted with each other the entire way over. and my dear friend told me this is what it'll be like in a few years if dave and i have a couple more kids. i stole a glance in the mirror and looked back at four little boys. i laughed and said if the next one is a boy..we'll probably stop there!

my panic started to subside. i took in the beautiful scenery. we got home in time for lunch and naps. and you know what? everything was fine. it's good to have spontaneity in our days. to change it up a  bit during the week. naps don't always have to be aligned 'just so'. messes are made. they can be cleaned up you know. and it was totally worth it the moment i popped one of those sweet sensations into my mouth. everything just melted away. so thank you. to my friend, who helped me step out of my box a bit.

helping up his fallen friend. lol

  so now what do you think i should do with these delish olallieberries? anyone have a good pie recipe? or a crisp? i thought it'd be fun to make them in a special dessert dish for dave for father's day. i think we'll have to go back...and do some more pick'n.

here are a couple random pics from yesterday.

the mirror. oh what a wonderful friend.

 we compromised. naps are a free for all. floor, lights on, fish on, door open. but bedtime. bedtime is different. door is closed and lights are off. and guess what? we're all much happier. naps are happy go downs 2-3plus hrs. bedtime is sometimes tough (at first). sometimes tears are shed but once he's asleep he's quiet all night long and we talk a lot about it. and i know he understands. when caleb takes his pretend naps, which he likes to do quite often, he re-in acts his tears and sounds! pretend cries and all. what makes me feel good about the situation is my lil man has control-but so do we. compromise. it is a good thing!

here's to a lil mid-week spontaneity!

oh yeah...speaking of spontaneity...i had so much (that whole, i'm dying while i'm doing it, but it feels oh so great after) fun! doing my 10k...thought i might sign up for another race. dave wants to do a 5k which i thought would be fun to do together...and my running friend wants to do a half marathon. i've looked up a couple..there is one in slo in october....city of the sea. and you know what? even to my head it sounds a lil crazy. running 6 miles was tough for me. but we trained for it. and we did it. if i train for 13 miles. maybe i can do that too. it feels so good to accomplish something. these days laundry, and dirty diapers, and dishes, and scrubbing toilets, oh and helping little minds grow (the fun part). well-it is the best job in the world, but it is the hardest job too. and having something for me, something that challenges me in a way i've never been challenged before, well it feels pretty good. i have never felt like a runner. i have always watched runners and been amazed by them. running is way harder than swimming for me. so to accomplish running more than a mile. and then actually being able to run 6 miles in under an hour! i still can't wrap my head around it guys. so i kinda want to do this...i'm thinking about it....because after this...who knows? maybe i'll be able to get a gym pass so i can swim again and i'll accomplish something that i've always dreamed of doing...a triatholon....http://www.mermaidseries.com/#!.  who knows? after all...I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13. i recited that in my head through the entire second half of my race. and all through my high school swim meets i would focus on that scripture verse. my bff  laura had me saying this to myself through our swim meets. and it came back to me with my race. so who knows. all i know is i never thought i could run. and it turns out, i can. i can do all things....

so, what inspires you? have you accomplished something you had in your mind you could never do?

i'm feeling spontaneous and inspired this week it seems :)

the finish line has never looked so good.

happy Wednesday friends!

race weekend

it has been a fun fun weekend! my sister has been up visiting since Thursday and i had my race today! my very first ever 'run' race :) pretty exciting! i put together a video (since we all know how much i love making them now!) of our weekend. so the race was fun and painful at the same time. 6 miles. half of it in the sun. but i ended up placing 10th for women, 4th place in my age group, and 33th overall. i think that's pretty good considering this was my first run and i only started running months ago! okay. enough about that. we had a great beach day and a fun time at the aquatic center. overall a pretty good weekend i must say!!

 we got to eat some fresh veggies from our garden.

and we're catching up on some much needed zzzz's! (caleb's door is now closed again at night...quiet nights once again. lucas is only waking up once a night now too! he started naturally stretching his night sleep since i have been stretching out his day time nursing to only 3 or 4x a day).

ahh! i seriously love the weekends!

happy sunday everyone :)

9 month baby well visit

we were a little late this month with  lucas' nine month baby well visit since we were out of town the week he turned nine months :) anyway he did great, as always ;) weighing in at 22.3 lbs and 29.5 in. i looked back at caleb's stats and it is hilarious! everyone comments on how big lucas is...if only they knew...he is actually 10 lbs lighter than caleb at the same age...but the exact same length! lucas is tall and lean and caleb is just stock. i think caleb takes after my dad's build and lucas after the steinkamp build. i love that lucas can actually wear jeans. he has chunky thighs...but they still fit in jeans. anyway, he didn't even cry when they gave him his shot. does anything ever get to this lil guy? not so much! you continue to be such a happy lil guy lucas. when we got home he cuddled up on my chest and passed out for a good morning nap! all tuckered out from our morning at the dr.'s


goodness you are cute lucas!

we love you!

so below (under this post) is a little video of lucas playing on the floor and dancing (at the end). it seems since we got back from our  trip south lucas is just into everything! i know i've mentioned this, but seriously i turn away for a second and he has rolled a few feet over and then i look away again and he's got a toy, or a crumb in his mouth (and i seriously vacuum a couple times a week!) he's trying to climb onto things, he's rolling everywhere now, and he's rocking on his knees on the cusp of crawling. he is determined to reach his or caleb's toys! it is hilarious. i guess i don't remember caleb being into everything! maybe because he wasn't? lucas watches caleb so much that he just wants in on all the fun :) when the boys finally went down for their naps today i collapsed on the couch with a cookie. i was exhausted! these lil guys keep their mama busy that's for sure!
one note about the video. it certainly doesn't do the rolling and the dancing justice! the dancing just started last week. when caleb plays his phonics song on the fridge lucas gets his groove on. he starts bouncing and smiling and well-pretty cute :) and the rolling is happening more and more... oh goodness how i love my boys!

play time

fish in the water

that's what we were today! i needed a 'water' fix this weekend and frankly we just needed to get out of the house and have a fun time. so we went back to one of our favorite 'water' spots. i love the beach, but sometimes i actually want to be able to stay in the water for an extended amount of time (up here in nor cal where the water is a bit colder than so cal)! so the aquatic center it was. here's my lil video. i have to say all my video inspirations really go to laura my dear friend and kelle one of my favorite blogs. laura captures wonderful moments of her lil guy and gal and kelle creates beautiful videos of her two little girls!! i'm trying to take more videos of the boys because videos sure do help capture the moment!!

hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! i must say i am loving the fact that summer is practically here!

and lastly, here are some pics of the boys catching their zzzz's this weekend...4 hour nap for caleb yesterday! wowzerss....and lucas is doing great without his swaddle! he loves holding his little lovey and i love holding his hands wrapped in mine, all warm and cozy. i could bottle our sleeping boys up forever. there's just something about a sleeping child that makes ya feel all warm and cozy.

 all tuckered out from an afternoon at the aquatic center.

 a glorious four hour nap!

 sleeping like an angel as always! swaddle free :)

sigh. it was a good weekend.