Backyard fun...

Summer in Santa Barbara really starts in September when the weather is truly AMAZING! We have been taking full advantage of the warm weather days with our little backyard pool (thanks Grandma C!). The other day we finished picking the last of our green beans (you can see Olivia chewing on a green bean in the pics below) so we thought we would cool off a little in her kiddie pool. Well, Olivia thought she would cool off. FUN, fun FUN!

More birthday wishes!

Our little lady is so blessed! So many birthday wishes and they keep coming. Our first week back at Yellow Bird Music (see previous post on Yellow Bird) was a couple days after Olivia's real birthday... so of course we had to celebrate! :)

Olivia's first dress up party!

Our friends Chris, Cameron and Malachi had a fun party recemently. A "Dream Jobs" Party to be exact.

The premise was simple. Here was their invite premise: To commemorate the .1% drop in unemployment last month, we're throwing a "Dream Jobs" party. Come as what you wanted to be when you grew up.

So.... Olivia dressed up in her ballerina outfit but found a tennis racket at the party. Perhaps we have a ballerina/tennis player on our hands?? Or just a curious little lady!

ta da.....

Olivia's godparents who also happen to be Aunt Christina and Uncle Don recently gave Olivia this dress. Thanks so much! We feel so blessed to have you in our lives!

We love you!

Labor Day Weekend in Cayucos

Labor Day Weekend we took the family (ok, it was just Olivia, Kevin and myself, no Astro) to Cayucos. We had a fun time exploring playgrounds, eating at our favorite spots (TACO TEMPLE = yum!), hiking, running, surfing, playing on the beach and just relaxing! Below are some of our highlights.



Olivia gets ready for a run with mama: Morro Bay Rock to the bird estuary and back.... oh what fun!


At the playground....


More playground!


Olivia gets ready for a car ride

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Can you believe our little lady is ONE YEAR OLD TODAY? We sure can't! For Kevin and myself it was a time for reflection. Did we parent the way we wanted to? Were we there for Olivia? Is she thriving? Did we enjoy ourselves along the way? Does Olivia feel nurtured and loved by us? The questions can go on and on. For us, the answer is yes, yes, YES!

We feel so blessed to have Olivia in our lives and although we cannot believe how fast the time has gone this past year, we have truly enjoyed every second of our little lady. Yes, we love everything about Olivia, even those sleep deprived nights, gooey fingers, snotty kisses and cries of emotion. We also know that for every wail of frustration we have received countless smiles, kisses and hugs from Olivia and this makes all the difference.

All in all, as a family, we feel we have grown so much this past year. For Kevin and myself, we have learned more about ourselves and our relationship than we ever could imagine. In fact, we both remember a while back listening to a lecture by a local psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Brill and one aspect of the lecture on family and relationship stages was discussing how married couples' happiness goes down exponentially when they have a child - yes, we did the research before we had Olivia ;) Still, guess what, yes, we had our ups and downs this past year, but together, as a team, we did! We became parents and actually feel even more happy now than before Olivia's birth! Now, we are still learning to balance "our time" with "Olivia time," but all in all, this has been an incredible year!

Lastly, thank you to all of you who are reading this blog, it is all of you, our family and friends who have supported us and helped us nuture and grow as a family!

Until next blog post....

We are truly blessed,

The Moores