5 Generations

 Grandpa Freitas and his great-grand kids..

My grandpa was a cotton farmer in the valley, as was his father before him. Grandpa went to high school, then went to college for 2 weeks before a neighbor offered to let him farm 20 acres. Grandpa quit school and took on farming. I remember getting up at the break of dawn and riding in his old Toyota that smelled of pure farm dirt. We would speed along the rutted dirt roads that lined the edges of the crops. listening to old-time country and talk radio as he did the rounds to his different plots of land, checking the water, turning pumps on and off, shoveling canals...He did this day in and day out during the growing season.

This trip I got the opportunity to ask grandpa about some old photographs. Here are a few...

 My grandpa in High School is the one on the right, and the girl under his arm was a girlfriend at the time. (He seemed to have a lot of pictures of him and different ladies...he was quite good looking, and still is ; )

 

 This is my grandpa on the first cotton picker he ever bought.
If you look closely, you can see that this cotton picker has two prongs in the front. It picks one row at a time. Later my grandpa purchased a two-row picker...

 This is my great Grandpa, George Freitas, on the right. They are showing off elk horns. Hunting lives on in our family to this day. My grandpa hunted and my Uncle and cousins still do. There are 5 Generations between George Freitas, and my kids.

 This is a (partial) picture of the very first twenty acres that my grandpa farmed after High School. The small pink house in the distance, where the furrow ends, is one of the houses that my grandpa grew up in ( his childhood house was on this property as well, just about 100 feet away. It was in poor condition and had to be torn down a long time ago). My great Grandma Maime Freitas continued to live here after George Freitas passed away and I have memories of picking and canning apricots, peaches and making pies in her kitchen.

Fresno

 We took our van to Fresno, got a pop-top put on...and now we're ready to go! There's standing room when the bed is attached to the roof...

 ..and a cozy little space for Ryan and I to sleep with windows all around. The kids are already trying to claim it. No way! :  )

 The real highlight of the trip was seeing my grandpa. He hasn't seen much of the kiddos. We got to go through his old pictures and he told me who people were, and he absolutely LOVED playing with and spending time with the kiddos.

My grandpa was a cotton farmer in the valley, and his father also farmed cotton in the valley. We got some awesome old pictures I hope to frame...

Valentines Day, Gettin Cozy

As an official family of 5, I thought it would be fun to celebrate our love together with a little family escape to a beautiful place.  My mom and dad had given us a gift certificate to the Big Sur River Inn for Christmas last year and Terra coordinated and invited us all to go at the same time.

I didn't expect it to be romantic, just beautiful and cozy. 

However, one member of our family had big expectations for a cozy, loving, Valentines Day that I was not aware of.

It started off just fine...

 

We stopped by the Elephant seals on the way up, and got quite the show! They were fighting, nursing,  flopping up and down the beach, breeding, and yelling. They were more active than I have ever seen them! (There was so much..."match making" it seemed quite fitting for Valentines Day.)

 

We Enjoyed the Big Sur River at our cabin with my sisters,

 Then we went out to dinner on the river. Not to be left out, Big D. decided that he wanted to eat the whole time we were eating. Thankfully he is my third baby, so it didn't phase me too much. I enjoyed my seared salmon and wasabi potatoes while nursing the entire time. They were delicious.

 After dinner we went back to our cabins, had dessert together and played a game or two. Then we headed off to bed.

 This is when things got interesting.  I know what you're thinking, Valentines Day night, beautiful scenery, cozy cabin...

Well, you're right. Someone was hopin' to get cozy on Valentines Day.

It wasn't me. It wasn't Ryan. Nope, it was Big D. 

Hopin to get cozy ALL. NIGHT. LONG. 

 Normally, he sleeps pretty well but this night he was uncomfortable and woke up the moment we put him down. He just wanted some sweet lovin'.

(Additionally, we didn't want to let him fuss at all for fear of waking the other two kids.)

 So our little man got his Valentines Day love and was held, cuddled, (I) nursed,  coddled and rocked  non-stop from 10pm till 7 am.

We were captive and he knew it. 

His little 4 month old brain knew he could bask in cuddle-glory to his heart's content, and so he did.

I should have seen it comin. He's a lover through and through.

(In his defense, he also had a cold, it could have been because of that ;)

 The funny part was when we woke up after sleeping somewhat soundly from 7am to 8am, Ryan and I looked at each other and admitted that we really didn't feel much different than every other morning.

Yep. Tis the season. Baby season.

So off we went, and enjoyed a great breakfast at the Big Sur Bakery,

 Hiking to Julia Pfieffer Waterfalls

...and on back down the coast Sunday afternoon. 

Valentines Day, it was about how I expected it to be. Not really romantic at all, beautiful, with just an extra dash of unexpected cozy thrown in.

Donovan's First Camping Trip

 Donovan's first Camping Trip, Refugio Beach with our homegroup!

 The kids officially outnumbered the adults, and we had a blast! 

Valentines Daddy Daughter Dance

Our little town hosts a Daddy-Daughter Dance...I love how old-fashioned it is, and how Kaila talks about it almost every day ;)

Josiah dressed up all by himself and came running out, wanting to go on a date with me. He chose sushi an I didn't argue : )It was so sweet to get a little one on one time with him.

Sass

This was an actual conversation at our dinner the other night.

Kaila: (whiney voice) I want moooorrreee breeeeaaaddd!!

Parents: Kaila, you need to finish your chicken soup before you have more bread.

K: NO. I will NOT eat more soup.

Parents: Thats fine sweety. You don't have to. (smile sweetly at her and look away)

K: I want mooooorrree breeeeaaddd!!!

Parents: Sure sweetie, as soon as you eat more soup. (continue our adult conversation, we're such giving parents)

Kaila:(looks at us in our eyes and bodly states) I WILL GET SOME BREAD!

Parents:(We hide our shock behind a permissive voice that refuses to be dragged into a fight and give her the reaction she wants). Ok. There's none out, but you can look.  We smile sweetly and look away again, continueing our adult conversation)

Kaila: (stomps to the counter with a black scowl on her face, sees that there's just a few odds and ends and a glass jar on the counter, no bread and says) I Will throw things!

Parents: (barely holding in laughter and continueing to pretend that we are engaged in our own conversation, talking to her as as side note) That's fine sweety you can throw things, you will just have to pick up everything you throw. (Kaila looks at us, and throws a rag on the ground and a piece of string, then looks to see our reaction. We smile sweetly at her.)  Go ahead (in a very kind voice) throw something else if you want,  you will just have to clean up everything you throw when you're done. (Kaila pauses, looks as though she's questioning whether or not she wants to continue, her motivation is wavering, but she picks up the glass jar)

Parents: You can throw that, but it it might break and get powder and glass all over the place and that would be alot of work for you to clean up (insert "sad-for-you" face here). You would be there cleaning for a long time.(look away and hold our breath to see what she decides)

 Kaila: (Puts the glass jar back and throws another rag to the ground instead, then eventually begins to roll around aimlessly and sadly on the ground).

Parents: (cracking up but hiding it, wait a few minutes to let her get bored of  wallowing in her own self-pity)  Kaila, You can go clean up the things you threw on the ground right now, or you can sit on the time-out chair until your're ready to clean up. Bath and Dessert are next when you're done with all those things!

Kaila: (in a super cheery voice with a big smile, she jumps up and says )  I will clean up!!! (smiles happily, all previous angst forgotten. She hops over to clean up her mess on the ground, busses her plate to the sink,  and moves on with life, skipping to the bathroom and excited for dessert)

NOTE: Yes, we do tell our children "NO" firmly. We just didn't think that this was the time for it, and yes, we assessed the situation for real danger and determined that there was none. 

 

Wed. Afternoon

So often we get in the same habit of doing our evening routine, dinner, bath, bed...Ryan has been working in Morro Bay and sending me tantalizing photos of the beach, so one Wed. afternoon we decided to meet him at the beach, surf, romp and grab a bite of Mexican food to finish the afternoon off.

Here's to breaking out of the routine!!

Donovan 3 months

I can't even begin to write the words to describe this cuteness. That smile...those eyes...

Donovan Thomas is such a happy baby. He brings smiles to our faces, literally, all-day-long.

We love you Lil' D.!

Aunty Lovin'

 Aunty T and Aunty Andrea have been spoiling the kiddos lately!

Terra and Garrett snagged the littles first...they built the anticipation with a letter in the mail, announcing a treasure hunt with specific items to pack in their backpacks for the adventure. We built it up all week...The kids were so excited! Then, Terra and Garrett took them out for a day of treasure hunting, silly string, the park...they had a blast (not to mention Ryan and I got an afternoon to hang out at a Young Life fundraiser with our homegroup!!) Then they hosted us all for dinner that night!

About a week later, Andrea and Joey decided they needed to one-up Terra and Garrett and took the kids for a full weekend of fun! ; )  We met in Gilroy and did the pass off.

 Andrea and Joey filled the weekend with so many fun, kid-activities I was tired just listening to them list them off! They made whipped cream and had hot chocolate in the morning, they visitied and petted a friend's puppy, they rode a steam engine, they went on a walk to a park....

Ryan and I reveled in our quiet, constantly clean house, finished our sentences all weekend, ate meals whenever we wanted, finished projects, and best of all, we dreamed together...It was so peacefull!

Thank you for being such an involved part of our kid's lives and for actively and purposely seeking out opportunities to spend time with them! These memories are precious and they will be with our little ones for their whole lives.

 Love you guys!