Writing for myself

Does anyone ever read these things I post? Probably not and probably because I'm so random and don't post very often. I just went back and read a few of my latest posts and loved remembering those fun moments. It makes me want to post about my life more. You know, so I can go back and remember that it's really great. Especially when I end the day feeling like I've failed as a mom. My one job. Why is it so hard sometimes?

Wes has been so hard the past few weeks. I feel horrible. It's 99% my fault, I swear. First off, I think he knows baby brother is about to steal the show soon. Not kidding, he feels it coming. Second, he's teething. He's an awful teether. These babies better grow in fast. Let's get this over with already! Also, life has just been so busy lately. We're moving to a new place, Mike has been super busy studying to take the GMAT and summer is just busy with all the extra things we try to cram in. Oh Wes. Sorry little buddy.

I was just writing in his little journal that I keep for him and feeling super guilty about things. I really shouldn't. I promise I'm a good mom. He just requires so much attention right now and some days all I want to do is sleep. I think I could sleep 18 hours a day lately. This baby (the one in my belly) is taking all my energy. All I've got to say is, he better be a good baby and sleep tons when he gets here or else...

Anyway, I love my baby Wes and am constantly reminded of his sweetness. He loves to play out on our little porch area. I fill up his tiny, plastic wagon with water and he could play out there for hours. It's so funny, I have to keep refilling the wagon with water because he likes to 1. Sit in it and take half the water out with him when he gets out 2. Take a cup, fill it up with water and dump it either on his belly or drink it 3. Dunk his head in the water and look up and laugh really hard. So, with all these exciting activities the water doesn't last long in the baby wagon. Maybe it's time to upgrade. Anyway, between drenching himself with water and laughing hysterically at all the funny things he thinks he does out there, he'll look up at me in the kitchen, run over and give me the snottiest kiss ever. I absolutely love it. His little nose is running almost 400% of the time, especially when he's playing in water. But I would do anything, any day to have him stop what he's doing and remember he needs to kiss his mom that very second. He is so happy running over to me and just laying one on me. And I am equally as happy about the whole thing. Please tell me this will never end?

I took some fun pictures of him playing today with my camera but I'll just post what I have on my phone since that's what I'm using to write this rambly message.

I love this boy more than any words I could ever imagine writing. I hope he's able to realize someday just how important and special he is to me. 

And then we snuggled and watched Despicable Me because he refused to nap. Even though all I wanted to do was nap (or pack the million boxes just waiting for me) I wouldn't trade anything for snuggles with this squishy boy!

Dad and Britt Visit

I love having visitors and I loved having my dad and sister here a couple weeks ago. We did a lot of exploring and hanging out. The Bay Area is so beautiful. We really have loved living here! Plus, it's nice because it's so easy to convince people to come visit us.

Anyway here are some fun pictures from their visit.

At the Palace of Fine Arts. Wes kept running over to the statues and waving and saying "hiiiiii people". I love that he's starting to talk. It's been so fun!

I love this place!

Of course Wes ate sand the entire time. Not just fist fulls, he went directly for the sand face first. Very efficient.

I kept looking through my pictures and thinking Britt was me. Partly because we're sister and we look alike but also because she didn't want to pay for a carry on so she wore all of my clothes. That's what sisters are for.

Love this snuggly boy. It's getting harder and harder to hold him like this because my belly is getting so big. 

This kiss was full of sand and boogers but it was so worth it.

The sunset was unreal.

At the cable car museum.

Wes loved everything about this place.

I'm not ready for this stage of cheesy smiles but looks like this is just the start. 

Had to add this one. Sums up my life lately. Chasing and wrestling Wes all day, every day. 

These two...

He never stops moving.

We go on this drive often after our Sunday naps. I'm still mostly in my PJs and my eyes are half closed but that view is hard to beat.

I love weekends

There are too many reasons to list why I love weekends but one of my top 2 reasons is having Mike around more. It's so nice to spend time together AND to have a little, no, a lot more help with Wes! He's amazing, seriously. Putting him to bed, changing poopy diapers, chasing after him, feeding him, playing with him in the back seat when we randomly decide to take a mini road trip for the day. What a catch! I'm pretty dang lucky!

Anyways......

Back to weekend talk. We really have been trying to maximize weekend time around here lately. It's so easy to let the time slip and look back at the weekend on Sunday night and feel "blah". I love having some sort of goals or things we want to accomplish or do. It helps us to enjoy our time together more and we actually get out and do things! I like getting out and doing things.

This weekend the waves here were ridiculous! On Saturday the waves at Mavericks were 25 feet+! When we were looking at the surf report it said "good to epic". Not even kidding. So they had a huge competition there Friday, which we missed, unfortunately. But we drove down Saturday and just hung out at the beach and watched some people try to surf the massive waves there. It kind of scares me even thinking about being out there when it's that big. It was fun to watch though. We've been wanting to come down and see this happen since we moved here so we HAD to go!

I took pictures with my nice camera but I am SO lazy and don't feel like plugging it all in, looking through and finding the good ones then uploading them. So you get iphone pictures which still capture the weekend, just not as pretty.

The truth behind this picture was that I took him away from playing with all our neighborhood dogs to get him dressed and ready for church. He would do anything to play with those dogs! I've never seen a kid get more excited about anything else, probably ever! 

Every Sunday, without fail, this kid falls asleep on the way home from church. I take a picture every week.

We went on a walk this afternoon and let Wes run wild at the field on our way home. This kid was in heaven. 

These two are from Instagram. Follow me (Wes really) @ashclark. I probably post too many pictures but people get over it and still want to be my friend.

How cute are these two together? I'm one lucky girl! I love these boys!

Christmas in San Francisco

We were so smart and convinced my side of the family to come visit us for Christmas. Why haven't we thought of doing that before? Well when you live in one of the most amazing cities (and the third most expensive in the world!) it's not hard to convince your family to come visit you!

We actually live about 10 minutes north of the Golden Gate in Corte Madera (Marin). We love everything about it here except for two things: the cost of living and the lack of family. 

My dad, twin brother, Jason and his wife, Laura came to visit. It was a small group and we missed everyone who didn't make it out but it was a nice, slow Christmas. There were 6 of us all together and we squeezed into our Subaru Legacy all weekend and drove all around Marin and the city. Jas and Laura were here for 4 days and Dad stayed for a whole week. It was so fun to have everyone here and show them all of our favorite places. 

While my dad was just here we checked out the Hyde Street Pier and walked through all the historic ships. We also toured the USS Palpantino Submarine. It was so fun and I love doing things my dad loves to do. It's so fun to see him so happy!

Don't judge Wes. These are the only shoes he can walk in right now. I also bought a guard for the buzzer that was waaayb too short and chopped Mike's hair. He's not that bald (yet!) At least I know he'll be super hot when he is that bald!

The Golden Gate in the background

One of my favorite parts was watching Wes roam around the submarine. 

My dad MADE me do this!

China Town

How we made it up the hills.

Oh this was so fun. I love seeing my dad as a grandpa. He's only 50 and it's so funny to know he's a grandpa already. He's great at it!

We had too much fun in China Town.

Loved this day so much!

I love this sister!

Wes just relaxing, checking out all his Christmas presents. 

At the Palace of Fine Arts.

Aw that grandpa is too cute and makes Wes so happy!

The redwoods in Muir Woods

We were kind of over pictures at this point.

We hiked Mt. Talmalpais on Christmas day. The hike was too long for most of us. I wish I could have traded Wes places! He was OUT!

And he woke up to enjoy the view from the summit.

All of us on our Hike up Mt. Tam on Christmas. I wish everyone could have come. Maybe next year we'll all be together!