lovely baby humps

hi there..with summer less than a month away Vale got an early dose of pool action at the beautiful Aviara in Carlsbad a few months back and ever since one of her favorite words is "berca" her way of saying "alberca" which is the Mexican word for swimming pool, I say Mexican because other spanish speaking countries call it piscina. I guess we sometimes call is that too, when we want to sound fancy and stuff. Vale had a blast splashing in the 1 foot pool which was fun even for the adults. Kevin and I took turns playing with Vale in the pool while the other parent lounged and sipped cold beverages. It was super relaxing and a lovely time spent with the family it was also a little preview in to what our summer is gonna look like, Vale is currently signed up for daily swim lessons that start in a couple weeks. I'm a little terrified that they'll make us dunk her. yikes, poor V. but alas, she's gotta learn since my parents pool has always been a source of worry. I'll be sure to share some of the many pictures we'll be taking of Vale as she begins her swimming career :)

p.s. thanks to tita J for letting us crash her relaxing vacation a bunch of times, and a shout out to tita Kalani for the awesome mommy and baby swimsuits! gracias!

Bate's

It's been too long dear friends, so sorry. But before I can put up the uber cute snow pictures from the other day I must, MUST share the pictures we took at Bate's nut farm way back in mid November :) We had a blast, mobbing the perfectly selected and neatly arranged pumpkins with a less than eager baby trying to get the shot. We even walked the entire field looking for the biggest and brightest pumpkin and totally found one, which Vale showed her approval off by planting a big wet one on it. Last year she was two months old and barely awake, Next year she'll probably want to ride the ponies and run through the corn maze, but this year she was soo happy just running through the pumpkin field, kissing pumpkins, bird watching, and staring in awe at the animals in the mini zoo.

Last year at Bate's, she was so little!

mariquita Vale

Our very first repeat holiday!(Is halloween a holiday?) Last year Vale was a sleeping M&M, this year a ravenous ladybug. Vale strongly dislikes beanies, hats or anything covering her head so we weren't too sure she'd let us pull the hood over her head...but once the ooo's and ahhh's started she couldn't be more excited about wearing the super cute antennae.

The first set of pics are from tita Kristin's soul session partaay, (which was a total blast btw) and the last two pics are from the 31st. We got together with our apartment buddies to watch the Chargers game and pass out candy. Vale munched on a delicious apple cinnamon rice cake throughout the evening completely unaware of the delicious chocolate she was carrying around the whole time.. sneaky parents, mwahaha!


It doesn't look like we dressed up, but we did...I was a leaf and Kevin a gardener-the perfect accessories to our little bug.

Vale celebrates the 4th of July

I uploaded these pictures on July 6th but didn't publish the post because I hadn't written anything, I thought to myself--when Vale goes to sleep I'll do it--. Then Vale went to sleep and to be honest I can't remember what I did, I either made her food for the week, took a long shower, did my nails, vacuumed, read, made quesadillas, or a handful of other useless but oh so fun and baby free shenanigans. The point is, I didn't complete the blog post. Then the next day went by, than the next week and I kept on thinking--well, I already did the hardest part, upload all the pictures, so I'll just do it soon--. wrong again. Ya see, I feel like I owe it to you guys to have something clever to say or at least something entertaining, and most days I don't, so I keep my virtual mouth shut, but I know all ya'll really want are Vale pics, so I have nothing funny or witty or clever to write but since all you really want is the cuteness, here it is--sorry to keep you waiting!



This is my favorite picture of the three of us ever! there's a story to it too- it's long but I'll make it short. My dad ran the coronado 4th of JUly 15K, we dropped him off at the start line at 6:30, found a spot on the beach an hour or so later. At this point it was still just the three of us. While walking back from one of many trips to the water I said to Kevin, "I wish we had a private photographer if only to catch a picture of us right now." And then Vale's angel jabbed our beach neighbor in the ribs and forced her to yell out.." Do you guys have a camera so I can take a picture of you, cause that is just too dang cute?" and we did, so she took our picture. I want it printed on a canvas, wait, I want wallpaper made, no no, a mural on our ceiling, ugh, I loooooove it!


She couldn't wait, COULDN'T wait to get in!






And then she did, and must have wondered what her big rush was..that water was COLD






I like to shoot in the no flash mode, it's easy, pictures turn out great, and I rarely miss the shot, but sometimes I venture into the manual mode and I always regret it, the pictures are overexposed, blurry, too dark, or I miss the shot entirely cause I'm trying to figure out my ISO...bah, rarely do I overexpose and still love the results. The beach may be completely missing but my two favorite girls are still there :)



It was a perfect 4th of July on the beach! The only bummer was that we woke up so early and spent so much time in the sun that by 8pm we were asleep and missed the fireworks. Oh well, next year!