Well, we made it home from our California adventures! We had such a good time spending some quality bonding time with our little family.  No work, no rushing here or there, no errands.. just good ol’ fun in the sun.  It sounds funny, but this was our first real family vacation with just our little family.  (although we did sneak in as much Auntie time as possible) We’ve never stayed by ourselves somewhere away from home and while we had more time together than we knew what to do with, we enjoyed it thoroughly!

Highlights of the trip:
Putting the babies to bed and having some alone time with Mr. Miller’s snuggle and a few good books.
Drinking coffee on the beautiful furnished deck, overlooking the bay.
Being a hop, skip and a jump away from Chipotle (my favorite!!)
Enjoying the beach time, both in Newport with our family and in Oceanside with Auntie
IKEA
Enjoying the uninterrupted company of my love, Mr. Miller

Low points of the trip:
Lack of sleeping of the girls on the car ride both to and from. They fell asleep just as we pulled out of town on the way there.. slept alllll the way to Mesquite (30 minutes into our 7 hour drive) on the way home we left late thinking they would just crash out… NOPE.  Stayed up the entire time til just after Vegas and slept the last hour (at 2am!)
Stella learning to climb out of her pack n’ play!!!! Whatever are we going to do??? (but a high point was being able to rock her in my arms every night before bed = HEAVEN!)

So I was sort of hoping that Stella would forget about the whole climbing out of the p-n-p incident and not even try it in her crib… wrong-o!  The second we put her in bed last night and closed the door, we heard a thud.

I have no idea what to do with the wild child because she is SO not ready for a big girl bed, in my opinion. (but I kept my first baby in her crib til 3 and a half, so maybe I’m crazy…) Again, the high point is that she will FINALLY fall asleep in my arms, something I tried diligently to make her do since the day she was born, but even at days old, as soon as she was falling into slumber she would wiggle uncomfortably in my arms until I’d lay her down.  (Are my children freaks of nature? They wont ever sleep with us!)

So now our routine has changed from laying her in her crib with no problem, to “I-holjew, mama” (I hold you, mama) where I lay her on my shoulder and rock her until she’s completely and blissfully asleep and then I hesitantly lay her down in her crib.

Call me crazy, but I swear I’ll do this until she’s 16 if she lets me.  I love it! It feeds the mama in me like nothing else does.

Here are a few quick snippets from our trip (via iphone camera)

So, what can I say?  The trip was a complete and utter success!  But I must admit, pulling into our little desert haven, lights sparkling in the wee hours of the night with two sleeping babies in the back of our mini van, I felt a warmth wash over me like fresh sheets from the dryer.  We’re home. 

To me, this is happiness.

Just in case you were wondering, YES, Stella is enjoying herself thoroughly on our family vacation.

We watched a lovely sunset and headed back to our place which is fabulous!  Harlo walked into the building and said “wow, this is a nice place.” and when we walked into Jen’s condo she looked around and said “this is amazing!” although she’s confused because on every other vacation we’ve been on we’ve been staying with friends or family and now we’re here alone she keeps asking me if we live here.  Haha, unfortunately, no….

Tomorrow we get to see our beloved Auntie and Willow!

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.”

Happy Mother’s Day to all the women in my life and the women who read this blog.  I hope you know how divine and beautiful you are!

These two little girls sure load our life with fun.

This morning I pulled up the window at Starbucks to pay for my 2 coffees and 2 chocolate milks and as I handed over my card to the kind server, he let me know that the car ahead of me had bought my coffees this morning and that I didn’t have to worry about it.  Shocked and confused, I tried to recall the car in front of me which I didn’t note exactly what type of car it was, but it obviously didn’t look too familiar to me.  I have no idea who this kind stranger was, or what made her decide to purchase my $11 worth of guilty pleasures, but she has been on my mind all day.  Maybe she knew me?  Maybe she won the lottery yesterday?  Maybe she was having a super bad morning and thought by doing something nice would pick up her day?  Maybe she was searching for good karma?  I don’t know for sure, but I’ve been praying for her and sending my best vibes to her all day.  I hope she has a really good day, and a really good life at that.  I can’t wait for my chance to pay it forward.
Moral of the day, even the smallest acts of kindness go such a long way.
God is good!