*a few more...

...of my favorite moments from our trip:

family boat ride::

i loved seeing the cousins playing together::

vera loves "coloring," doesn't matter if the cap is on or off::

the boys heading across angora lake to jump off cliffs::

enjoying chocolate popsicles and fresh lemonade::

she loves to take a drink and say "AHHH!!!". and then you do it too, and then she does it again::

the family just gets bigger and bigger::

vera loved her raft time with daddy::

... and how cute is this bikini? $3.50 @ Old Navy:

[[one more summer trip left! stay tuned :)]]

*matching

[Gegi and I thought these were cuter than a posed photo anyway]

*the cupcake

*** ***
Vera and Marie's birthdays are a couple days apart so we celebrated them together. Vera was nearing bedtime meltdown though, so she had her cupcake before dinner. She was pretty dainty at first, wiped a little frosting in her hair and then devoured the rest.

***

all the cousins cheering her on - i think they were hoping she'd get messier ... [ok, in this picture they look bored, but they were cheering her on :)]

the birthday girls. last time we were at the lake we celebrated Marie's 1st birthday! I can't believe Vera is going to be a little girl like this before we know it!!

*la arena

I love Tahoe sand : beautiful, clean, coarse tiny grainy bits of perfectly polished rocks that I love to run my hands through, shape into castles and bury my feet in. I had a feeling that Vera would loooooove playing in it too, and she did. She could sit contentedly for a good long while with bucket and shovel in hand or even just picking up handfuls and watching it sift away.

...what a long, full, wonderful trip we had - I'm going to have to share it in incremements...

*happy birthday peanut!

This is one of my favorite pictures.  I took it with my cell phone in the hospital room on Vera's first night.  Ben had gone home to sleep and it was just me and her.  I remember it was [finally] really quiet and still and I just stared at her sweet alert little face.  It was surreal after all that waiting to finally meet her, and looking at the picture fills me with a sweet sense of nostalgia for that moment.

Happy Birthday Vera!  

We love you so much - we can't even believe how much!

*happy 4th

I love to think back on that happiest of days ... an amazingly beautiful setting, [almost] all our friends and family present, beautiful flowers, good food, a delicious/gorgeous cake [rivaled only by julie + jeremy's], a wonderful Christ-centered ceremony - all to crown the joyous happy excitement we felt at the prospect of what our lives together would bring. And here we are 4 years later. Memories of new homes put together, new friends made together, meals shared together, a few character building arguments together [just a couple :)], a precious little family started together - - - Ben, I'm so glad we get to do this together!



*(sorry, i can't figure out pictures on ben's laptop)
** I feel I should thank everyone again for helping make our wedding so amazing. so many beautiful details!

*here we are

::::{a much much anticipated trip to tahoe.  i did find a wireless connection in the cabin [smokeyjoe's - i'm quite disciplined, only online a couple times] but having a hard time uploading photos.  this is my favorite pirated picture off google.  it's really that beautiful here }::::

*three friendies

*fresh herbs

This is my other favorite summer dinner, especially if the goods come from the garden. Just about everything did - even the lettuce! Well the broccolini was from the farmer's market [so good!]. Man, it was delicious - I'm still upset I didn't make more.

{...eaten on the front step b/c we don't have a porch...}

.:Pasta:.

garlic

lots of olive oil

broccolini

basil, oregano, thyme

rosemary, italian parsley

couple drops of balsamic vinegar [which liz brought from italy!]

lots of pinenuts

grated parmesan

salt+pepper

.:Salad:.
lettuce
radishes
carrots
feta
oil+vinegar

*one year ago

Celebrating an early anniversary: watching **the amazing** Pink Martini at Deer Valley. Brie, baguettes, corn/basil salad and a big fat pregnant belly [she was already about 9 lbs in there!!!!].

*la cocinita

I bought this at a garage sale today for twenty bucks! I often drool over these ridiculously expensive ones as well as this one, so I am so excited to have found this! I can't wait to [have Ben sand first - I hate sanding] paint it and stock it with some pots & pans. I remember lusting after a kitchen set when I was little and am happy to live through Vera :)

*these little hands...

[you should have seen the look she gave me: uh mom, i'm trying to read a book here..]

*walking

I've been told I should get a video of Vera while she's in her wobbly-walking stage. She's already transitioning from holding her arms out Frankenstein-style and even though she still mostly crawls, is more confident every day...:



:...and yes I've posted a lot lately...:

*first artwork

I know the day will come when she'll be in trouble for defacing a favorite book, but for now I'm so excited to see she's discovered what to do with a colored pencil! I sat back and watched her figure it out all on her own :)

*sparklers

[...at our neighbors' last night...]

*

...lately Vera is really into getting into things...

*first word [maybe]

Vera is making a new sound that I think is her attempt at a first word (besides Dada). She started saying it every time she saw my parents' dogs and now says it sometimes when she sees Boone or any other dog/animal. Or she doesn't say it at all - maybe it's just a new sound.

*buen viaje!

Jessie and Ben stayed with us last night on their way through to New York. Jessie got into Columbia's journalism program and Ben got a sweet [my Ben would say] job nearby. We are so proud of them!!! We really enjoy these two so much, and there were a couple tears on this end as they drove away.

*ok.

She does look a lot like me. However, those pictures were the closest I found! Vera is far cuter than I was with that hint of her chinese/filipino roots that I see developing more and more. I guess that's what I keep looking for. And it's there :)

*little annie

Vera and I have been in Nevada all week. Whenever I'm home I love looking and relooking at old photos. I keep searching for Vera's face in mine. It's there, but she is definitely her own little person. Here I am at 10 mos./18 mos:

*11 months!

Vera is almost 1! I can't believe it. She is seriously the most precious, amazing thing that we could have imagined. I love peeking in on her as she plays by herself. Like pulling her books off the shelf, flipping through them one by one and pointing things out to herself - I just love to watch her little determined expressions, so purposeful. Every day it seems something new clicks in her little developing brain. The other day she crawled right over to the rocking chair stool, flipped it over and climbed in. Later she flipped it over again and put a stuffed animal in and gave it a ride around the carpet. Learning to put objects in another is apparently some sort of milestone and the other day she sat for 10 minutes putting a plastic bag in a jar, taking it out and doing it over again. These might not seem all that exciting, but it's fascinating when you see your own little one learning all these little skills for the first time. Oh we love it and we love our little snap-pea more and more and more.