Girlies of Girls

    

So our little Dell Dutz (we couldn't figure out why she called herself this for the longest time until one day it clicked - Dell is for Adele, since she can't say the whole thing, and Dutz is for "I do-s it!", as in "I'll do it by myself!". Now it all makes sense!) is the girliest of girls.

She has always been my little petite thing, weighing in as my smallest baby with fine little features in her shape and bone structure. I remember asking for reassurance after she was born, wanting to make sure she wasn't a premie since she seemed so small to me at 7lbs! 

She has a bit of a diva complex and can get away with many things with a sweet smile, a little cock of her head, and a sugary voiced "P-wease, I doed it, Mama?"  And if that doesn't work, there's always the resort of just flat out throwing a two year old fit and screaming and that usually works just right for her too.

  I find myself giving in to her more often than some of the others because the big kids are old enough to reason with and there's no 4 yr old right above her to deal with. There's a reason we've nicknamed her, "Fidel" instead of "Adele"! 

But for all her temper, whining, and naughtiness, she makes up for in sweetness too. Today after we got home from church, she insisted on going outside to pick a flower. John said, "If that isn't the girliest girl we've had, going outside to pick a flower, with her purse in on arm and her baby in another, all while wearing her fancy church dress and shoes, I don't know who is!" 

She is obsessed with shoes and often insists on wearing a pair to bed, the more sparkly the better. She loves to "d-wess" up like a "p-wetty, p-wetty, p-wincess" and I'm constantly trying to talk her into keeping the outfit she's wearing on or pulling it off in frustration to put on a dress up princess gown for her. She keeps things lively around here for sure! 

Girls in Bloom -Spring 2015

And one of all even though the boys weren't cooperative.... 

Preview Family Pictures 2014

Pictures by Blue Lily - excited to see more soon! 

Nanny smiles

Soccer field selfies. 

To Remember this Moment

She's so adorable. Really, they all are. But since she's my baby right now and she's laying next to me so fat and squishy and delicious and baby-smelling, she's especially adorable and yummy. 

Her hair is wispy and thick in all the right places and makes her look a little like her dada- filled in on the sides and thinning on the top and always sticking up in the back. And that's adorable on her. 

Her hands have dimpled out into squeezable tubes of chub, and it'd be hard not to when you've put on 6 lbs in 7 weeks (up to 14.4lb from 8.6). 

And those cheeks. Yum. They're just a tad yummier than her double chins, but probably only because I found a mosquito squished between the folds of that lushious neck while bathing her tonight. She may not be able to move her mass much, but she can still defend herself! 

But it's her little lips I really love. The puckered up ones that break out into a huge grin when she see me smiling at her. The lips that let out that content baby sigh in her sleep and make me so happy. Those same lips that if I get close enough I can smell the sweet, milky softness of her little breath, moving in and out so smoothly.

And all this deliciousness is mine. But only for a little while since time will keep moving and marching and taking my baby along with it. So here is snapshot of tonight....so I remember. 

Under the Big Top

Halloween 2013 

Featuring: 

Clowns

and the

 Infamous Ninja Troupe 

Orchestrated by the 

Incredible Ringmaster

ENJOY THE SHOW!!!!!

 

Tree Huggers and Beach Combers

 After leaving Nick and Abby's house, we headed on up the coast to see these big trees we'd come all the way across the country to admire. We decided to push through and drive almost all the way so we could stay in one place for a few days. Along the way, we started to notice the landscape changing and finally we caught site of a tiny grove of trees… in the middle of a town park. Hey, it still counts and we needed a good pitstop for bathrooms and a place to run off some energy!! We were pretty impressed and Adele assured us they tasted as good as they looked.  

Even though we pulled into our bungalow late, Farmer John was still up at the crack of dawn and found a cool place right across the road to visit. Unluckily for me, the skylight in our room made it seem like noon as soon as the sun came up, which meant that Adele (who was NOT a nice sleeper on this trip!) was up, which meant that everyone was up! So off we went on a little hike to see these magnificent trees. 

On the bright side of things, the morning light was awesome for pictures! Ava's about 12 ft up here and it took some maneuvering to get her there but I'm glad we did. 

Hurry! Take a picture of the rare banana slug that lives on the Redwoods! Except as we came to realize over the course of our visit, they are not rare at all. Adele wasn't that impressed with them anyway. 

Elias was excited that he could reach the branches of this little one. After spending a few days around these trees, we now know that this really is a tiny tree and Eli was lucky to be able to grab a branch at all since most of them didn't start for at least 40 ft! 

After our hike, we jumped in the car and tried to get down to the ocean. After one failed attempt to climb down a very deceiving slope that was way too wild, we found a town with a civilized set of stairs down to the water. The kids quickly took off to explore. 

Out of all the things on the shore to collect, Nathan chose dead crab body parts. He was quite upset when we refused to let him bring them all home. Yuck. 

John loved the boats anchored out in the water and kept letting me know that someday he will live near the ocean. Hum… 

While everyone else was off exploring, I watched Adele make sand tracks with her bum scooting. 

And eat sand and use driftwood as a teether. She loved the freedom and feeling of the sand on her legs. I did draw the line when she started eating handfuls of it though. 

Finally, I strapped Adele on and joined everybody climbing and exploring. This was a highlight of the entire trip for the kids and they still talk about jumping around on the big rocks. 

 Thank goodness none of the wild artifacts made it home with us, but the kids loved them while they were there. We saw starfish, lots of sand fleas, a sea cucumber, tons of hermit crabs, a few California sea lions and lots of birds. 

But, eventually all good things must come to an end. And then we had to face the hundreds of stairs going up from the shore that were so easy going down. If we lived near the California coast, I'm pretty sure we'd all have killer calf muscles. And Adele would probably have a very upset belly from eating all that sand!