Elijah William Degner 8lbs 8oz & 22" long

A beautiful healthy baby boy named Elijah William came into the world yesterday. Parents to Jess & Joel and little brother to Wyatt. I had the greatest pleasure in being apart of Jess & Elijah's birth. I stood by her side through most of her labor and delivery, Jess did a marvelous job birthing her baby boy and Elijah responded great to the entire processes. It was long and arduous but at 4:20pm yesterday (July 8th 2011) he made his entrance, tears streamed down my cheeks watching as he rested on his mommy in silence, he basically emerged and went right to sleep after his long journey.

Thank you Degners for having me apart of this experience. It is a memory that I will cherish for ever and ever.

Cheers to the growing Degner family. Love to all of you.
Dion

4th of July

A fabulous pool party with fabulous friends.

Happy Independence Day

Happy Summer Solstice

I am so happy that I made this time to acknowledge this fabulous day. We ended the day at the fabulous Hammonds Beach. I love the retro/vintage feel to these photos.

Happy Summer to all and lets hope for a summer filled with sunshine and great adventures.

Thai Massage

This weekend is going to be a working weekend for me. I am thrilled to say that I will be working at the Laural Springs property for Genevieve Fisher & Jo Tastula's yoga retreat. I have 5 sessions on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.......I can't wait, I will let you know how I am feeling on Monday, probably a little tired but I always get so motivated and amped after doing so many sessions. Thank you ladies for having me part of your weekend. On a side note, Laurel Springs Property is located in Santa Barbara in the Painted Cave community, the same community that I lived in from 2004-2006. This is their last retreat to the public, the property finally sold after being on the market for years and years and the new owners are closing it to the public and having it as a family compound. I have a feeling that this is going to be one spectacular weekend.

Happy Mothers Day

To our very treasured mothers. We love you guys so much.

Crafty

Today was a day filled with great endeavors. I started off at an early open sew class. I was the only one there so I got great treatment. I have been inspired by my friend and fellow crafter Kelsey. She is the one who has gotten me re-interested in sewing, she has so many awesome easy/simple sewing books that she has kindly loaned me. I will hopefully be making some new Ruby digs, tote bags, baby blankets, quilts, maybe a skirt for me and some pants for Milo. I am so thrilled that I have a partner who knows how to sew since I am pretty much a beginner.

After sewing class I came home to a house with kids who were eager to get out. I took Eric, the kids and bodhi to my new favorite nature spot. It's near the trailhead of Rattle Snake trail where there is a nice creek still flowing. The kids love to throw rocks into the creek, forge the creek, and feel the cold water on their feet. Their faces are full of smiles, they love the ability to explore and move over the rocks and in the water. I love watching them in this element, probably one of my favorites.

Came home, put kids down for naps and then I started on my homemade granola. I attempted a new recipe from a new blog site. Soulemama.com
It turned out nice, may need a little more sweetener (maple syrup). The house smelled delicious, a hint of cinnamon and maple syrup on a cold and overcast day, a great combination. After the granola was finished I figured since the oven was on why not bake some bread. I finished my crafty day with 2 superb loaves of bread. I used my old trusty recipe (thanks Ade)
http://www.remedialeating.com/2011/03/a-walk-in-the-park.html.
I added a fun twist to the final rise. I did this fold over technique that I saw from another bread blog. Eric called it the toupee bread. Not as enticing as it tasted. To accompany our bread at the dinner table was a yummy fresh orzo salad with fresh basil & marjoram, tomatoes, kalamata olives and feta cheese.

Today was a wonderful day full of great food, great kids, a great husband and a loving pooch. I am grateful.

Adorable

Holy Tornado

A tornado has touched down in my house. I brought this beast on all by myself, I have no body to blame but ME:(

I decided that it was time and in all of our best interest if Milo & Ruby shared a room. That doesn't sound all that bad but just wait I will continue........Milo is still too young to sleep on the top bunk and it's just too much to deal with if he wets the bed and remake the bed while it's on the top. Since all of our bedrooms are more or less a shoebox we had only a couple of options. Remove all the furniture in the kids room so that both beds will fit. This means that both the dresser and the armoire had to go, downside, that is where all the diapers, clothes blankets and many miscellaneous kid items were housed. Both pieces of furniture were moved into our room, and the dresser that was in our room with our clothes moved into my closet. I guess one big plus to all of this is that we didn't loose any valuable clothing storage space, the negative is that for the past 2 sunny and hot, ideally beach days, our house has been in a complete tornado disaster. Kids clothes everywhere, kids toys everywhere, our clothes all over the place. Seriously this place looks and feels like a disaster.

Fast forward. I have been cleaning and reorganizing all morning, there are a few piles I am working with. The sentimental KEEP pile, the never been used or interested in aka GOODWILL pile, and the TRASH pile. For those of you who know me I love purging, cleaning and having things organized but for some reason when it is dealing with my darling children and these itty bitty pieces of clothes or stuffed animals or toys just makes my heart ache. My babies are growing up fast and it's a double edged sword.

Anyway, the kids slept pretty well last night in their room together. Milo had a couple of issues (shocking) but Rubes slept through it (shocking). Right this very moment they are both napping, they went down at the same time and haven't made a peep. Why in the world did I wait so long to put them in the same room????? I have no idea. But I can't believe Ruby is in a full twin size bed, she's growing up right before my very eyes. I will have to post pics later on the new room.

Big Apple

I had the fabulous opportunity to go to New York City with Eric and no kids. I tagged along with Eric on his business trip. Poor guy really was on business, he worked his tail off while I played. I was able to spend wonderful quality time with Cathi and her little girl Annabelle. We had 2 full days together. We hit up a great yoga class at Laughing Lotus with founder Dana Flynn .
Ate great food in small restaurants around the village, went to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden to view the cherry blossoms. I believe we were about 2 weeks early for the full show but we did see a few trees in great display. The Magnolia trees were actually in full effect. We then had a double date dinner night with the Ellis's, that was fun to hang out with the boys. We also had a great bike ride along the Hudson river. The last full day was spent in my own company, no kids to feed or clean, no whining to address, nobody to answer to but me. So what did I do????? I did some yoga, ate some lunch, walked all around the West Village, Soho, and Nolita. I had a wonderful time in the city. If I could have changed anything I would have had Eric by my side but he was doing what he went there to do.

We have Jan and Reggie to thank for making this trip possible. It has been over 3 years since Eric and I both went away together without the kids. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you watching the kids while we went away. I hope you aren't too burned out. The kids certainly miss you both and so does Bodhi.

Happy Birthday BODHI!!!!! 7 yrs old

You were a fabulous puppy and now you are a loving grown dog and we all love you very much. Happy Birthday Bodhi.

Love the Cuz's

We couldn't wait for their arrival.

Constant adventure, constant fun, constent LOVE





We LOVE & MISS you, come back soon. It's quiet around here without you!!!!!!!!!!

Don't stop believe in........

Just because you have young kids doesn't mean you can't do the things you still enjoy doing. Believe me I had a great amount of fear surrounding camping with friends with Milo and his unfortunate sleep habits. Most of you know that Milo has had sleeping difficulties since he was a little baby. He is now a little over 3 years old and yes he still has his moments. He passionately refuses to go to bed, he passionately wakes up through the night and he happily looks at you in the morning as if nothing ever took place. And then.........it happens all over again.

With that said doing things in group settings has always been a challenge for me, as a mom it's hard to let go and just accept his night time behaviors. It took me almost 2 years to get comfortable with camping with other people. Fortunately I can say that I am over it. We have camped plenty of times with ourselves and larger groups including other kids and I have learned that most kids wake up, cry and then settle back down. When it's not yours you simply roll over and get back to sleep.

This is the perfect time of year to go backpacking in Santa Barbara, the creeks are raging, the wildflowers are starting their show and the bugs are still pretty calm. We decided to take the kids on their first backpacking trip last weekend. It was an overnight trip. Short and sweet. 1 mile hike in, 5 creek crossings, some as deep as our waist. Both kids wanted to collect and throw rocks the whole time. The did great, Eric and I had a blast and I do believe that Milo & Ruby will totally enjoy their next backpacking trip. If we can get a warmer sleeping bag and better equip ourselves for cold (freezing nights) then we would have all slept a little better.

Enjoy the photos. Lesson here is to continue doing the things you always enjoyed doing before the kids, they adapt much more easily than you would think. What's one night of "rocky" sleep.

Creek, Stones, Work & Happy Faces!

Ragging Mission Creek and it's stone throwing enthusiasts.





Petite Room at White Lotus, my weekend working as an assistant for Thai Massage.

View from my room window!

Self Portrait @ White Lotus

Today's adventure. Wyatt's buzz, Jess's Belly & Kids at Ship Wreck Park.




Jess & Elijah (6.5 months preggers)