“a single photo (in this case two- I couldn’t help myself) – no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.”  – {this moment} is a ritual adopted by Soulemama. If you like to share your own moment, please link below in my comment section!

Happy Friday Friends!

We’ll be in Boston this year for Christmas, spending the holidays with Jeff’s family. So we decided to go small this year with the Christmas tree.

We went to our local Christmas tree lot and very quickly found the perfect little tree. Ellie seemed to enjoy the outing. She was checking everything out and smiling at passersby.

Earlier that day we went to visit Santa for the first time with Gramma and Grandpa. It was a successful first Santa visit except for Santa scolded me for not keeping socks on the baby. I reminded him it was 75 degrees out and we live in California. And anyway, later on, no socks lent itself to getting to feel the prickly Christmas tree branches on bare feet. An experience no baby should miss.

We took our little tree and our sockless babe home and I got to bring out and reminisce with the ornaments Jeff and I had collected before baby was born. I strung the tree up with lights while The Carpenters Holiday Portrait played in the background and baby Ellie got her first homemade tree lighting.

Our little tree and our little babe… perfect. If I do say so myself.

I have a new appreciation for California. The beauty that surrounds me here in this part of Southern California is so much more appealing than my previous surroundings. I wake up with a lovely view, the early morning glow shining in on me.

This little town has a quaintness about it. There is an east coast feel with the chill in the air but you know its on the west coast by the smell of the ocean so close and those palm trees always close by. Our daily walks with the dogs and baby have lent itself to lovely sunrises and sunsets. Last night’s sunset was pink hued with oranges and baby blues swirled about. My camera and photography skill did not do it justice, but the pictures still remind me of the way I’m feeling in this town and the way I’m feeling about this stage in my life… happy, excited and hopeful for what lies ahead…

This was a first Thanksgiving of sorts. It was Eloise’s first Thanksgiving, our first Thanksgiving in our new town and our first time hosting Thanksgiving. I think for this Thanksgiving of firsts, it turned out rather lovely.

Just my husband, baby, parents and siblings joined us this year and it was perfect. Jeff and I cooked. I used Martha Stewart and Sweet Amandine as my guides and created a Thanksgiving map to get us through. It worked like a charm.

I made a sweet potato pie from Martha’s recipe and Jeff was up the night before till midnight baking away his beautiful apple and pumpkin pie all from scratch and all sourced from our local farmers market.

My mom made the beautiful runner that really gave the table a festive glow. Plus lent itself to a great back drop for pie pictures. Thank you Mom! The day was a wonderful one, with good food, good company and a wonderful and chilly beach walk to end the evening.

Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving as well!

People tell you, you will never know true love until you stare into the eyes of your baby. Or course I always believed I would fall in love with my baby the moment she was born and I truly feel like I did, but no one quite explains that you keep falling in love more and more every day.

I just can’t believe how much I love this little baby girl. I love holding her in my arms and watching her explore this fascinating world around her, I love singing to her and watching her light up when I sing a particular song she likes (right now it’s the theme song from Hook and One Less Bell to Answer).

I love how she’s wanting to hold my hand when I sit with her in the back of the car and falls asleep still grasping it. I love nursing her and seeing her tired eyes flutter open and closed while she rests her hand on my breast. I love when she pulls off and smiles a great big smile at me and then goes right back to nursing again.

I love reading to her and thinking about all the books I will someday get to read to her, all the stories and novels I have been wanting to read aloud like the Madeline L’Engle books and Pippi Longstocking and Where The Red Fern Grows.

I love that she’s starting to want me now. She’ll hear my voice and turn toward me giving me the look to pick her up or take her from Daddy. I love that she needs me next to her to fall asleep at night.

I love dreaming up what she may be like as a toddler, a teenager, an adult. I love watching her grow so quickly already. She’s no longer just falling asleep on my chest, she actually has to be put down for naps now. She’s starting to roll over a bit and is paying more attention to toys now.

She is my darling little girl and my heart swells with joy each morning when I get to see that smiling face. It’s an incredible feeling of over powering love that just seems to get stronger and stronger each day I spend with her. Yes, I am anxious all the time with this new role of mother and sometimes there are incredibly tough days with little sleep and lots of tears (by baby and mama), but I have also found that I’m singing more and smiling more and laughing more. And the love that I feel for this baby girl is so intense and strong. It is nothing I have ever felt before. Life is good. I’m in love.

“A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.”

This moment is a ritual adopted from Soulemama. If you would like to share your own, please link in the comment section below!

Happy Weekending!

Jeff and I loved our old farmers market in Orange County. It’s one of the things I will miss most about our life there. We had formed friendships with many of the vendors, learned a lot from them about locally grown food and how to cook and serve unique produce. We looked forward to sundays and spending those couple hours connecting with the community and enjoying each others interest in good food. We even had a photographer take photos of us one last time at our beloved sunday market. So of course finding a suitable farmers market in our new area to replace our old one seemed like a daunting task. And I’m not sure any market will quite hold up to the one in Orange County. It wasn’t like the produce was even that special or extraordinary, it had just become a special routine to go every sunday, to fill our baskets with good fruits and vegetables and enjoy good music and good hardworking people. A friend who lives in our new neighborhood told us about a great market about 25 minutes away. We welcomed the idea of hopefully finding our new farmers market routine and if not, at least to get some local produce and check out our new surroundings.

The market was a lovely one. Tucked into a valley up in the hills, it seemed to be a hidden gem of a market. Beautiful locally grown apples, persimmons, leeks and onions, honey, candles, bread, grass fed meat and artisan cheeses. They even had a lady selling dairy free chocolates. It was a very nice outing and we were both impressed with what our new home’s surroundings had to offer us.

After a pretty chaotic last three weeks of flying across the country for Jeff’s sister’s wedding, packing and moving the following saturday with a twelve week old baby and two dogs in tow, I think we are finally starting to get settled in our new home.

I’m not one to let boxes lie around. So as soon as they were unloaded, I went to work and had them unpacked in less than a week. Often with Miss Ellie strapped on to me in the Ergo or the Moby. The house has instantly felt like home. It’s the perfect size for where we are in our lives right now. Jeff set up his home office right away and started to work away at his new job. The transition of having him home all day has been a bit difficult. I have to keep reminding myself that he’s working and can’t be bothered by every little thing, but I’m doing better. It’s nice having him home for lunches and I’m excited to be able to share special baby moments with him so easily. The dogs ran through the house when we first moved in and have been completely at home and at ease ever since. They have both whispered to us that they want to stay here forever.

The community here seems quite eclectic. We are enjoying taking morning and evening walks through the neighborhood and are looking forward to exploring more on the weekends. It’s amazing I grew up only a half an hour away from this town and know nothing about it and now here I am making Ventura my new home.