Charli Adele: 10 month update:

Happy 10 months to our sweet baby girl! 

I cannot believe our little Charli is 10 months old today and I am "Officially" planning her 1st Birthday! What?! That's crazy! (And let's be honest here... I have been planning thinking of ideas and what I wanted for her 1st Birthday since she was about 4 months old!) HAHA! ;) But the official "planning" has begun, and I am so excited... But seriously, why does my baby have to grow up so fast... She is such a joy and I can't imagine our lives without here! She is the funniest little personality and she is such a little person these days... Where did my baby go?

Charli's stats:

*22lbs and 29 1/2inches 

*Clothes: 9 months and 12 months, and even some 12-18 months sizes

*Teeth: Still the 6 (4 tops and 2 bottom), but she is really teething again right now.

*Diapers: still size 3 (Pampers Swaddlers). Although the store didn't have swaddlers a couple of days ago, so Steven got Pampers Cruisers to try out... (Charli has very sensitive skin, and has gotten a rash from other diapers, but so far so good with these)

*Food: She loves it! ;) haha! We are trying more and more stuff every day. She is not a picky eater at all, and loves everything we give her! Squash, Yams, Broccoli  Grapes, Apples, Pears, Avocados, Sweet Potatoes, Corn, Black Beans, Crackers, Goldfish, Puffs, Veggie Sticks, Waffles, Turkey, Chicken. We are still sticking to very plain stuff... No salts, seasonings, and no sugars. She loves water and that is all she gets besides me!

*Sleep: She is still a great little sleeper. She is usually in bed and asleep by 7:15/7:30 but with being back on the East Coast these past couple of days, it has been around 9 PM, but she is sleeping until 8/8:30 AM (so I'll take it!). She still takes 2 naps a day (9 AM and 1 PM). Her naps consist of anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours (but since we have been back in Jax they have been over 2 hours).

*Things she sleeps with: her "lovey" blanket, Teddy (teddy bear), Bettie (bunny thumbie), Magnolia (a cute stuffed mouse), and Lily (her Vera Bradley Bunny)

*She is so social and will let anybody hold her! She loves everyone, and she is such a love and cuddle bug when being held by others! (It is seriously adorable!)

*I can already tell though that she is starting to get a little attitude already with certain things... lol! (Every time I tell her "No", she gets this look on her face and grunts at me and hits her hand down...I wonder where she got that from?! ;)) haha!! (me- if you were wondering) ;)

*She is crawling all over the place, pulling herself up onto everything,  and "cruising" while holding on to furniture. (Not sure if she really has any interest yet in walking, but that is completely fine. I know she will walk when it is the perfect time for her. We do not push her in to doing anything. We go at her own pace!)

*She loves to share! She tries to share everything... Food, Sippy, toys (it's pretty cute, and we make sure we always say "Oh that is nice sharing", and then we say "thank you") Never too early to start teaching them good manners! ;)

*She loves getting into everything, and everything goes straight into the mouth!

*She "talks" all the time and says so many new things (things we have no idea what she is saying... but she is totally having a conversation) ;) haha! She still says "mama" or "mommy" all the time, she started to finally really say "dada" again (we went through a phase where every time we said "dada" she said "papa"), so you can add that to the list too... "papa"! She says "huh", and what sounds like "yeah" and "yep"

*She waves hi and waves bye bye (and sometimes says "bye bye")

*She still gives high fives, claps, blows raspberries, does the thing with her lips and mouth that sounds like "leler leler leler", and she does a couple of other cute little tricks (she copies me when I pretend to eat, and it is hilarious)!

*This girl loves being naked! We have nakey crawl time before bath, and now every time I put her diaper on, her hand goes straight for the straps and pulls it right off... (Obviously this makes getting her ready super easy these days...) ;)

I went ahead and took her "10 month" pictures right before we left so I could get them in her chair for one last time... (I was hoping to get each month in her chair, but with our move, her 11 month will be taken here in Jacksonville, and we should be all settled in to our new home before her 1st Birthday so she will get her last picture in her chair again!) And if you can remember from her 9 month update, I had a time getting her picture taken because all she wanted to do was eat the sticker and crawl off the chair... Well this time, I came prepared ;)! I made sure I had lots of things to distract her as I was putting the sticker and headband on (oh because that is new too... She has finally started pulling her bows out of her hair... dang it!!!! ;) but it doesn't stop momma from still putting them in her hair! haha!) But I was able to get her to sit still for a little bit and was able to capture our little girl and her funny personality! 

I guess the distractions didn't last too long... She realized it was on her head! :)

Mommy and Daddy love you so much sweet girl and we love watching you grow and learn every day! You are absolutely amazing and we couldn't imagine our lives without you! 

Happy 10 months!  

It's a Bittersweet Goodbye Monterey:

It is so hard to believe that our two years here is up... It feels like just yesterday we were driving up Hwy 1, taking in the coast line and beauty that stood before us, thinking, this is our home! Time sure does fly.

It is so very bittersweet leaving this place I called home for the past two years. Monterey was a lot of firsts not only for my family, but for myself as well. This was the very first duty station for me as a Navy wife, and this was also the very first time I ever moved away from home (I went to college in Jacksonville and lived at home), this was the very first place we lived as husband and wife, and Monterey is the place we welcomed our daughter and we became a family of 3!

There are so many things that I could write in this post, and so many things that I know I will forget. We have been so blessed and lucky to have done so many things in these past two years... From day trips, to weekend getaways, to week long vacations, to just spending time in Monterey: BBQing with friends, picnicking in the park, bonfire's on the beach, wine tasting's in the valley, to just sitting in the driveway enjoying time with our friends!

A glimpse into our life while living in California:
*Many trips to Napa Valley (about 8): Thank you Aunt Traci for opening your home to us and the fur babies so much! We will miss you!

*San Francisco: From day trips to show family, day trips to see family, a weekend getaway for Steven to run his first Half Marathon, to just driving through the city and over the Golden Gate while heading home from Napa!

*San Francisco Giants game

*Visited our family in Gig Harbor a few times: From a long weekend for July 4th when we first moved, to a week long getaway when I was 6 months pregnant, and a weekend trip with Charli!

*A mini trip to Paso Robles as we were passing through

*San Diego: Where we went to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World!

*Many drives down Hwy 1 to Big Sur that I can't count!

*Yosemite National Park

*A couple of trips to Tahoe

*Vegas: I love that my very first time to Vegas I was 17 weeks pregnant, and the second time was Charli's very first "vacation" and she was only 2 months, and we got to see my best friend!

*Sacramento

*Many trips to Santa Cruz, San Jose, Capitola, Fresno, Gilroy

*Ano Nuevo State Park to see the Elephant Seals

*Golf, Golf, and more Golf: From Steven playing on a weekly basis, to attending the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, to Steven being invited to play in the Nature Valley First Tee Open

(Just over a week before Charli was born!)

*And so many things that we did just around the Monterey/Carmel area too: From biking, to hiking, to walking down at Fisherman's Warf, going to the farmer's markets, the beach, the festivals, Cannery Row, the Aquarium, wineries, and so much more!

*And we can't forget about all of our wonderful visitors who came and saw us while we lived here! Thank you to everyone who visited, we will forever be grateful!

There is so much that I love about Monterey, but there is so much more that I love about getting back to the East Coast... Like being so much closer to all of my family and friends! 

Some things I will miss about Monterey:

*Having the Pacific Ocean in my backyard

*The beautiful sunsets

*All of the extremely fresh produce/farmers markets

*Having the Ocean on one side of me, and the Mountains right there on the other side

*The WINE (let's be honest)! There is nothing better than good ol' Napa/Sonoma/California Wine

*And while we are on wine... Having all of the wineries and vineyards just minutes away

*The rare beautiful sunny days (when it actually isn't cold out, and you don't need a sweater or a scarf and can enjoy the blue skies, sunshine, and cooler crisp air, and not be sweating the moment you walk outside). I'm sure there will be days that I will miss being in "Mother Nature's air conditioning", but I am looking forward to actually being hot during the summer months, and wearing a bathing suit on the 4th of July!

*All of the wonderful people I have met here and the friendships that we have made (good thing we have Blogging, Facebook, and Instagram)! ;)

*Our absolutely wonderful neighbors!
*My Tuesday Playgroup!
*All of Charli's little friends

So thank you Monterey, for all of the good times we have shared, and for all of the memories I will hold close to my heart. Fair Winds and Following Seas!


Until I see you again!

The last of our Tuesday Playgroups:

I can't believe that today was our very last Tuesday Playgroup with the most amazing group of friends a girl (and little girl) could ask for! But before I get to today, here are pictures from last week's Tuesday Playgroup out at 'The Farm'!

Livi really wanted to "hold" Charli for the group picture! So cute!

But Charlotte really wanted to "hold" baby Charli too! 

And so did Trenton! haha! 

I love how much these kiddos love our little girl! Charli is so blessed to have such amazing little friends! :)

We had big plans today for our last Tuesday Playgroup, and were going to all pack up in the cars and head North to go strawberry picking at Gizdich Ranch, but it happened to be closed today... (Good thing we caught that one before we left). And since it was of course, grey, foggy, and cold today, Plan B was also skipped, so we all ended up at the Monterey Bay Aquarium! And honestly, it didn't matter what we did or where we ended up, because being with this group of ladies and their kids is all that matters! We had a great time though, and I loved seeing Charli's reaction to all the fishy's! My favorite thing is to see her little pointer finger pointing at all of the fish (cutest thing ever)! And it was nice to see the Monterey Bay Aquarium one last time before we move too!

Charlotte absolutely loves 'baby Charli' and I think it is safe to say she may just miss her when we move!

Giving kisses in the mirror! (her newest thing!)

We sure are going to miss this fun/crazy/adorable little group when we move!

The good thing is I didn't have to say 'goodbye' to them today though... We have another fun day planned for tomorrow (National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day)!