Malia's 1st story

Before I forget (which I am notorious for doing since my brain doesn't work as good anymore it seems) I have to share this quick story that our little 27 month old Malia shared with me this morning.  We had just finished reading (which we do quite a bit each morning) and were in our special "tent" (bunk beds with blankets hanging down around us).  She hadn't told me a complete story until this point, and I was just laying there listening intently to what she had to share:)

"Once upon a time there was a pretty princess. And she was so nice. Her name was Tiana.  And she climbed a hill and fell down.  She started crying cuz she had an owie. Then she was sad.  And then Sleeping Beauty went into a castle and had a Ball.  And then she got out of the tent.  The end!"

It was a short story which proved to me that she does in fact LOVE her princesses and that perhaps she jumbles them all together to create her own.  I love her more than any words could express and cherish these times I get to spend with her.  Anyway, have a great weekend!

Keely Yukiko at 7 months old!!

A few weeks ago, my baby girl turned 7 months old!  How did that happen?! I love her more and more everyday and am SO lucky to be this happy baby's mama.  She is honestly the world's easiest, mellowest and happiest baby.  I know Heavenly Father must have a wild child in store for me next time around!

So here's what's been going on this month:

• Keely sits up on her own for however long she wants now then will roll around to get where and what she wants
• No crawling, no scooting, no pulling herself up, no teeth and not much in the way of hair.  She's perfect this way.  Stay a baby as looooong as possible! You won't see me trying to make her learn this stuff faster than she needs to;)
• She is a good eater!  She has graduated to all varieties of baby food and likes nearly all of them.  Her favorites are things mixed with spinach, peas or green beans.  She actually prefers them to the super sweet stuff like bananas and peaches.  She is still only nursing (no formula, no bottles) and nurses around 5-6 times a day as needed.
• She is a good sleeper!  Goes to bed between 9 and 10 then wakes us between 7 and 8.  Takes 2-3 good naps a day and is excellent about being cheerful with unpredictable outings and being woken up by her sister.
• She LOVES Malia.  They are best friends.  No one can make her laugh and smile the way her sister does.  Even when Malia gets bossy (and that happens allll the time) Keely just takes it and seems to be happy about it. I love that they are starting to play together now, makes my heart melt
• Keely LOVES Hobbs and animals and well, just about everything.  She loves when people hold her or tickle her or play with her.  Her laugh makes her whole body jiggle like a bowl full of jelly:)
• Keely is still big and still heavy and is ready to outgrow her infant seat, but I haven't gotten her the next size up, so she'll be good in there for awhile I hope.
• Keely sings.  She never cries when she wakes up, only sings and plays until someone comes to get her.  Again, I am truly blessed to be her mom and I love her to pieces.

Our Summer (in no particular or grand order)

 Would I be a broken record to say "I am a lazy picture taking mom?"  Now that our phones have cameras and I am lugging around 2 babies worth of stuff in my diaper bags, cameras don't really seem to make the cut in the bag-o-necessities.  So, my apologies as you have to see mediocre quality, phone app collages of mostly my babes.  

But I will say this:  SUMMER IS THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR!!! This summer has been a particularly hot one for us pansy southern California folk, but I would still take the heat over the cold ANY day! We had some 90-100 degree weeks where I wished we had A/C (no one along the beach in SC has A/C, crazy huh?) but the worst was the nights were even sweltering.  Add some little babies to the mix and it makes for some cranky nights!

But, the fall weather seems to be upon us and I am getting that tinge of regret for cursing the heat while we had it.  

Onto the pictures.  Have you seen many of these before?  I can't keep track anymore.  We sure have had some good time with beach days, pool days, family and visitors, day trips and mini vacations and lots time working on what us Schillings try to do best: having fun:)

 Have I mentioned how big our Keely girl is getting??  Geez.  I am in LOVE with this age of hers and wish more than anything I could freeze time.  She is the biggest (well more like chubbiest) love.  And did you know that Travis is getting married?!  To that beautiful girl up there in the top left pic.  Ginny! We LOVE her!!  I am so excited for them to get hitched Thanksgiving weekend and for her to join our family!

 Malia's favorite hobby she's been working on is painting.  She wants to pain every day.  I think that would make her grandma Kathy and Auntie Brookie very proud.  

And we love our friends and play dates.  We have started FHE again (Family Home Evening) with our friends in the ward and love how the crowd has changed.  It used to be mostly adults and now we are being taken over by kids everywhere!  Love the gospel, the church folks!

Malia's been doing great with swimming!  Her favorite things to do are diving for rings on the pool floor and swimming to mommy.  I decided Keely needed to get some swim time and wouldn't you know it- Keely loves the water too.  But then again, Keely likes everything so I guess I'm not too surprised.

And for those of you that didn't get the memo: we have a princess living with us.  She is a beautiful princess that loves to dance and sing and dress up in one of her many princess-y dresses.  Usually we have Belle, but then often times we get Cinderella and Ariel the Mermaid too.

And have a mentioned lately how hot my husband is?  I sure love him.  We don't get to go out all the time without the kids, but when we do it sure is a nice break!  Big thanks to Nana Freda who is the best babysitter I could ever hope for!

Okay! That's it for my lazy-multiple-posts-made-into-one blogging for the day.  Hope you all are smiling and get to do something fun today!  Peace out!

We heart Disneyland!

Living in Southern California you almost NEED to have a season pass to the happiest place on earth.  In hopes to create the best childhood for our kids (and not spoil them to death in the process) we got the cheapest season passes so we could enjoy this magical place.  We like to go with our awesome cousins that make the trek down quite a bit.  We love them.  We love Disneyland.  We love making memories with all these highly energetic kids everywhere:)