san diego zoo...

mother's day

so it's no surprise to any of my readers (all 3 of you) that i'm a little late when it comes to the blog posts. so this one's about mother's day which was 2 months ago! the day before mother's day, i got to have my own special day with just Dylan and Chad, which included me getting a manicure/pedicure (first one in a looooooong time). it was a great day. we then spent the actual holiday with our mothers. the day started at my parents' house where the men, Chad, Josh and Pops shopped, purchased and prepared lunch for all of us. it was a great lunch! they made chicken, shrimp and veggie kabobs, succotash, and mudd pie, well they didn't make the mudd pie, they bought it, but that didn't matter, it was delish! oh and we even had some wonderful appetizers!

Josh and Chad in the kitchen!

Joshie getting his kabob on

we then followed the day up at the mother-in-law's place. Tico, Kelly, Trey, Em and Grandma were there. we had a great time hanging, playing games, looking at old pictures and telling great stories.

aww, sibling love

the cutest cousins

about sums it up!

there we go, that's better

Grandma with her kiddos

me and my girl

we finished the day by taking Chad's mom to dinner at the Yard House and Ray got to serve us. it was a wonderful ending to a great day.

adios casa de los campos

every year for easter, we join Chad's family in fallbrook for an all-out easter celebration! Uncle Phil and Aunt Debbie live in a beautiful home on a hill with an avocado orchard. the easter celebration includes family, friends and an extravagant egg hunt for all ages. the egg hunt is famous for it's "golden egg". the finder of the golden egg gets the pot of money everyone contributes to. however, because the stakes are so high, Uncle Phil gets way too crafty and it's sooo hard to find!! either way, we always have a wonderful time there. unfortunately this was the last easter at casa de los campos. the house has officially sold so we must find a new place to celebrate and egg hunt :( so long casa de los campos, you hold great memories for all of us, especially the manuell family.

the grounds

Pops doing a little bird-watching

Chad enjoying the view

uppy daddy?

the newest egg-hunter, precious Ella Lee English

disneyland

Dylan recently experienced disneyland for the first time! it's a bit early for her to really grasp the concept, especially considering she doesn't watch tv or movies and

therefore doesn't recognize any characters. nonetheless, it was a fun time. our cousins Andy and Whitney came out to california to visit from texas. whitney had never been and so we decided to make a day of it. thank you Andy and Whitney for a great and memorable time!

the ever-so-necessary family photo at the entrance

(complete with asian tourists in the background)

Dylan on main st, usa

this was on the wall at mr. toad's wild ride, i'm not sure what the guy was whispering to the horse's ass. i guess we'll never know!

this was the expression on Dylan's face the entire time we were on any ride. this was the first shot on her first ride ever, mr. toad's wild ride.

can't remember what they call this now, but it used to me the swiss family robinson's treehouse

Dylan LOVED Whitney! it was the first time i've seen her take to someone new so quickly. and, of course, Whitney was so great with her. she practically took care of her the whole time they were here. it was like a mini break for me!

after our long day we met up with Nanny and Pops for a late dinner at ruby's

fail blog

okay, so...i failed. miserably. i couldn't even complete two weeks of my photo-a-day blog experiment. oh well. we have been crazy busy with all kinds of things good, bad and ugly! i'm working on a super-duper, ultra-amazing, gonna blow your mind blog post. it'll take me some time so in the meantime, enjoy this video. Dylan LOVES to dance. the extra fun part of this video is that we were using "back-up" diapers (random store-brand i bought in a pinch while out one time) cause i didn't make it to the target that sells the big box of my fave 7th gen diapers, however, Chad confused Franki's diapers with Dylan's back-ups, which are different sizes. sooo, she's wearing a tiny diaper. she obviously could care less! watch and enjoy!

day 14 - i can skip days right?

we've been enjoying the little tease of summer weather we've been getting...it's been HOT!!

day 12

somebody's glad daddy's home

day 10

so today is more than a photo, it's many photos. Chad returned home from hawaii last night. Dylan was already in bed when he got home, so she didn't know he was here until this morning. she spent the morning following him around. it was adorable!! unfortunately though, we didn't spend much time with him. he has already left for a weekend trip. while he was home he had time to shower, sleep, eat oatmeal, unpack some clothes to wash, go to irvine for a meeting, come home, pack for the weekend, and eat lunch. he then left for a weekend trip. poor guy. no time off. watching Dylan with him this morning was the sweetest thing ever, but it made it harder for him to leave. our day ended better though, since my mom is out of town too, Dylan and i met Pops for dinner at, my favorite, Caffe la Strada on 2nd. we ate, took a little stroll down 2nd and had yogurtland. it was a fun time! thanks for the date Pops!

here's Dylan watching Chad unpack a few things to wash so he could repack them

she even watched out the window while he went out to the garage to put his clothes in the wash

she watched him wash his face

and dry his face

but then it was time to say goodbye...see you sunday!

dinner date with Pops

strolling 2nd st

and finally yogurtland...yum!

day 9

my best friend Josie has a daughter who is 9 months younger than Dylan. Francesca (Franki) Louise is Dylan's bestest girlfriend. it has been so fun to watch them together and we look forward to watching them grow in to the best of friends! here's Dylan and Franki:

(you can click on the photo to see it a little larger)

day 8

to start off, Dylan is a year and a half old today! i can't even believe it. she's such a sweet girl and such a blessing. Dylan has been waking up "dryer" each day, so we are patiently awaiting the dry mornings so we can get started on potty training!! yay!!! we went ahead and bought Dylan a potty so she can familiarize herself and hopefully start to associate it so that when the time comes she is ready to go! my goal has been to have her potty trained by 2, so i'm not concerned with time. it'll happen when she's ready. i am glad though that she has shown interest and curiosity in the whole thing. she has definitely been watching what we've been doing in the bathroom. she even sort of says potty. it's kind of like potty without the t's. anyway, i'm pretty confident that i can be diligent enough to be one of those parents that can make the transition in a day. that way she's fully done with diapers in a week (except at nights), but to you parents out there, i'm totally open for some advice here. what has worked for you? what can you recommend to do/not to do? let's hear it!

day 7

today my friend Holly called and invited us to join her and Ojaio in seal beach for play and a picnic. it was freezing because of the ridiculous wind (i'm such a wuss about wind, i hate it!). nevertheless, we had a very good time playing on the playground, having lunch in the grass and climbing a tree. i think Dylan was trying to say Ojaio too. it was really cute. it is so hard to believe that Ojaio will be 4 in a couple of weeks! wow, time flies!

day 6

lately, Dylan's vocabulary has been growing daily, literally. she is such a sponge and a lot of what she learns is just by example. she's also very quick to pick up on something. my new favorite thing she does is when she puts clothes on or if she puts on something being silly, like sunglasses or a hat, she goes into our bedroom, closes the door and looks in the mirror that hangs on the back of the door. she then turns around in a circle, mimicking what Chad or i would do if we were to put something on and look in the mirror. when we first realized that was what she was doing, i was dying. she's so adorable. in the last few days she has added blow, glasses, miss you, chair, purse, up, down and done to her vocab.