Last few weeks of summer

Morning coffee/chocolate milk date date with my girl
after opening the Jones job

The newest addition to the Cobb Interiors team

Brought the little guy on a job last week.
He wasn't much help ;)

Off to brunch with friends

Trying on Mommy's hat during bedtime routine

Getting ready for takeoff

Big girl on the airplane

Barrett was so excited to see Gray Papa!

Sweater weather for the first time in months!

Papa and Landry doodling around

Play date with Catherine.  They love to hug!

Love this little guy, but a little tired of his
5 a.m. wakeup calls.  He's still on darn Texas time!

Breakfast date with my happy boy

Playing on Mimi and Papa's back patio

Her new ride

Loving on Gray Papa

Barrett with his grandpa and great grandpas

Discovering his shadow at 5:30 a.m.

We're here!  Landry, Barrett and I arrived in California Saturday.

Landry has fallen right into her SoCal schedule (late nights, lots of treats, playing with her California toys) but Barrett has had a little harder time adjusting to Pacific time and not having his go-to gear.

We've been enjoying quality family time and fun in the sun.  We've already hit several parks, Lookout Point, and even had a play date with Landry's favorite friend here Catherine.

Last week I wrapped up a few small installs and fit in lots of time with Landry since she was out of summer school and home all week.  We had a fun play date with Ariana and Leila and she even came to the office with me one afternoon, which she loved!  She's at the age now where she really needs to be entertained or busy.  After I took her to work we went for ice cream and afterwards she told me she wanted to go to work everyday.

Michael arrives tomorrow and then we're off to Hawaii for a week.  I'm counting down the hours until  I can kick up my feet (and not see 5 a.m. again)!

Fun in the sun

Space planning meeting at the flea's new building 

Landry is so in love with the song Happy still.
She wants to watch the video daily. 

I retired all of her old jammies this weekend.
Here, she's sporting a new strawberry and ladybug onesie  

Playing peek-a-boo with Barrett and my BVR hat 

Painting in the playroom this weekend

Our kids love to stick their tongues out!
I love this shirt, passed down by Paula's son Charlie

He's really into touching his toes right now

Me too, Barrett!   

Celebrating sweet Ari and baby Zara 

Her favorite frozen yogurt toppings: rainbow sprinkles and M&M's 

Pointing out the fishes at Whole Foods

"No Mommy, I hold it," she said while walking up to the door with dinner 

Sporting her I heart NY shirt from Lauren post-bath tonight

So much for last weekend's cool front.  We're back in the thick of the dog days of summer here!

We had a lovely, lazy weekend keeping cool though.  Friday we had dinner at our neighbor' house.  They have a daughter Landry's age and are expecting another girl in three weeks.   The girls stayed up late, played games, watched Mary Poppins and just had a ball while we caught up with Allie and Brucker and enjoyed some quality adult time.

Saturday I had Ariana's baby shower.  She's also expecting a girl in three weeks!  I have so many friends pregnant right now.  Morgan is ALSO due with a girl in three weeks, my friend Jenny is due with a boy in October and Courtney is due with a little guy Dec. 1st!  So many babies; it's so exciting!

Last night Bradley babysat and Michael and I grabbed dinner at R&D.  After another whirlwind week that had Michael out of town a night, we finally got to catch up and relax over our favorite martinis.

Today we had brunch with our friends Vance and Kym and swam in the pool to stay cool.  Later in the day I took Landry for frozen yogurt and then to visit Uncle Jon.  She had a ball browsing his chic bungalow.  Of course she didn't get to walk much, he can hardly stand not holding her and she loves being in his arms.  The two of them together is the sweetest thing.  When we left, she kept saying, "bye bye Uncle Jon" in the car ride home.

Some Landry updates:  We're growing out her bangs, so she's definitely in an awkward hair phase.  I signed her up for ballet starting at the end of this month.  I cannot wait to put her in a tutu!  She's starting to taper out of her tantrum phase thank goodness.  She's obsessed with painting.  That's all she wants to do if we're home and indoors (unless she's watching Caillou).

Her new favorite foods include popcorn, chocolate milk and hummus.  She'll eat hummus by the spoonful if you let her.  She's making a little progress with potty training, but far from big girl panties.  Her last week of summer school ended Thursday, so she's a free bird for the next three weeks.

Barrett is same, usual, sweet Barrett.  I had to officially retire all six month outfits this weekend because the big boy simply can't squeeze into them any longer.  He's rolling over more often and kinda sort of trying to army crawl if you encourage him on his belly.

He's starting to make these loud cooing noises.  He likes to hear himself and will really get going if you coo back at him.  He's still sleeping like a champ thank goodness.  Although, he's been waking up much earlier than usual and of course the timing coincides with opening the Jones job for my general contractor while they're away at training camp so my days are starting with the roosters.

No sweat though!  Less than a week until the kiddos and I leave for California.  I'm so excited to relax, drink my dad's delicious cocktails, visit with friends and family, and put my toes in the sand.  Fingers crossed the flight is smooth sailing!

Beach houses and lake houses

I had loads of latte dates with my uber cool client Katy

Nothing like guests to inspire a decorating project!  I'm just about finished
with my upstairs guest room (aka Mimi's home away from home)

Just one of hundreds of hip finds for Katy's new beach house

I die for this door, which is going to become a pocket door in her master bathroom

This rug is one of my all time faves!  Headed to Katy's living room soon.

It took everything in my core to not scoop up this rug -- now headed to Katy's killer master closet

Snuggle time with Auntie Lauren who paid us a fun surprise visit

Caught this sweet moment Friday morning while visiting with my new flea coordinator

Friday funday with the kiddos.  This was Landry's first stab at the big girl swing!

Barrett tried out the baby swing and loved it!  He couldn't stop giggling.

Friday date night 

Packing up from a fun afternoon at the Canton flea market.

Landry's first fresh lemonade and loads of treasures in, on and under our ride

Happy to be at the lake house!

Landry playing with her flea market finds -- a vintage rocker and wood blocks

Relaxing with Barrett in the backyard while Michael and Landry checked out the boat house

So in love with this sweet little guy

Sunday morning play time

Barrett breaking in the new rocking chair

Landry not so happy about the situation

At our favorite little local greasy spoon at the lake,
 she scored a kiddie grill (aka gold rapper-style teeth, great grandparents).
I about fell over laughing.

Checking out the motorcycle show.  We watched about 40 leave the parking lot

Last week was jam-packed.  My Newport Beach client Katy came to town to shop for several days and stayed with us as well.  We had an absolute ball shopping from dusk til dawn and room planning over wine and cocktails.  We tackled so many items that it was worth every single tiring second.

Thursday night my childhood buddy/college freshman year roommate Lauren was in town and popped in for dinner and to meet Barrett.  We had such a lovely evening catching up over champagne cocktails.

Friday I took off the entire day to chill out with the kiddos.  It was a little overcast so we just cuddled up at home, strolled to the park for a bit and ate a bag of popcorn while watching our 1000th episode of Caillou.

That night Michael and I took off for a night on the town that ended up with drinks at the Ritz.  It was just what we both needed after a long work week that allowed for little downtime together.

We decided to head out east Saturday and Sunday for some serious family time.  We hit the Canton flea on the way to find some fun things for the house as well as for my clients.

It was Landry's first time to Canton and she was in hog heaven!  She was running around the aisles picking up fun things.  She discovered some vintage wood blocks at one booth so we bought them for her and she clenched the bag the rest of the day.

My favorite find was a vintage wood rocking chair.  Landry loves to rock so it was the perfect find for the lake house porch (she lived in it this weekend).

At the lake, we just chilled.  It was unseasonable cool around 75 degrees so we spent lots of time on the back porch while Landry piddled around.  We also ran through the grass, kicked around a ball, hula hooped, watched a couple of old school movies, and ate too much white cheddar popcorn (all rules go out the window at the lake -- i.e. Landry wore her jammies out there upon insisting and had ice cream with her eggs for breakfast today).

It was a perfect little getaway (minus Barrett's 5 a.m. wake up call and diaper blowout that took four hands and a sink faucet sprayer).

When we left town we had a late lunch at our favorite greasy spoon.  As usual, Landry hit up the vending machine first thing and won a gold teeth grill.  Only in East Texas (or Compton, perhaps) would that be in a kids' vending machine.

On the way out, Landry got to see her first motorcycle gang.  About 40 bikes were in the restaurant's parking lot and she was so intrigued by their funny looking drivers, loud noises and pretty colors (her favorite was a sparkly red one). We sat on the outdoor picnic tables and watched as they all drove off.  She loved every second of the show.

This week is going to be another busy one but nothing like last.  I'm looking forward to the days starting to simmer a bit and then taking off for California and Hawaii for some serious R&R with family and friends!