Sebastian Arie Leeflang

On July 16th, the girls and I were at Costco picking up some orange juice at 6 pm when we got the call that will have changed our lives forever!

"We have a baby born situation, and need to know if you are interested by tomorrow morning at 7 am."

Even though we have been anticipating this moment for a long time, we were completely in shock. (When signing up for adoption, we thought a birth mother was going to choose us, we were going to meet her, we were going to wait anxiously for a couple of months, and then go to the hospital when she goes into labor. We never thought that a baby would already be born?!)

That evening, the adoption agency called again, read through a slew of information about a little boy that was born earlier that day (how tall his parents were, what nationality was, what his parents liked doing as hobbies, if he had siblings... ) and we were still in shock. It was completely insane, exciting, scary... all of those emotions at the same time and more.

Later that  night at 10:30, Steve and I just stared at each other- after a lot of prayer to make the right decision, we felt that this was our little guy!

The next morning, we packed ourselves into the van and drove 2 1/2 hours to Madera, walked into the maternity ward, and saw this little baby for the first time. It was surreal. Words cannot describe these 24 hours.

Luckily for us, they allowed him to be discharged that evening, and we drove home with him that night! Ah!!

For the past two weeks, we have cacooned ourselves away spending time our little miracle... and survived while Steve was in Germany for five days...

The adoption won't be final until 26 days and 4 hours... but we are trying to focus on this time that we have with him, hoping that he will be ours forever!!

Here's a couple of pics of this handsome little man:

Santa Barbara- The American Riviera

I guess we were the last to know that Santa Barbara is the "American Riviera." And- it is. It is a beautiful place, and we asked ourselves a couple of times if we should move there! But- alas, no jobs there for us :)

Last week, we drove down to Santa Barbara for the week and stayed at the Ramada because everything is so darn expensive there! Holy cow- but, it was the nicest Ramada we have ever seen- and we loved that pool.

We hit the zoo and feed Michael and Audrey the Giraffes... but you have to pay of course!

 Man, I love giraffes. They are so cool.

 Saw a couple of monkeys...

 Not sure why this one was sticking it's tongue out?

 Look at that arm span... yikes.

 Hung out in some awesome parks...

 Bad pic- but this place is gorgeous. It has a "state street," where everything is located, and we shopped, ate, shopped, ate, watched Brave, shopped... This mall definitely competes with Stanford shopping mall.

 Can I say that for a gluten free person- Santa Barbara rocks? They are so health concious, there was gluten free this, gluten free that everywhere- even the gluten free noodle? Who knew?? http://www.nooodle.com/- no calorie, no gluten, no fat noodle? Could it possibly be good? Yes- it was !!!

 They have a farmers market in Santa Barbara each day of the week. Crazy good food here.

 And very yummy seafood.

 These pool folk averaged a 2-3 swim stop per day- and that is vacation. 

 We went on a "hike" at the Botanical Gardens...

 Collected tadpoles.

 And rolly pollies... is that how you spell it?

 Hugged the wildlife.

 Climbed boulders.

 No stop is complete without a stop at Yogurtland- especially when they have Hello Kitty spoons. These are being collected at our house like they were going for 1 million a piece!

 They have these super touristy bikes that we just had to try.

 But then we had to try the real bikes- and Maddie was awesome! We biked up and down the coast with dad in the front, Maddie in the middle and Mom/Emilie trailing behind. This was one of my favorite memories.

 We visited the Natural History Museum and loved the dinosaur and butterfly exhibits the best.

 And, of course couldn't leave until we toured the Santa Barbara mission which had these in the front... not sure if this is sacrilegious, but they put it out! I just love these!!

Beautiful, right? Definitely love Santa Barbara, and am looking forward to coming back when we have tons of money to spend!!

Family is the best!

Steve's mom, sister and brother in law came to visit a couple of weeks ago and we had tons of fun just relaxing around the house and visiting some of our favorite spots. Our little nephew is adorable, and it was so great to spend time with him! And, of course nothing beats aunts, uncles and most importantly grandmas.

 One of my favorite places on earth: Stanford. LOVE LOVE this place, and want to live here again someday...

 It is really strange for me to step foot on campus with my kids now... crazy how time goes so fast.

 Can't skip the beach- perfect temp, perfect company. Could have spent the day here if it weren't for those crazy red heads!

 Maddie was super psyched to go on the "new grown up rides" that she couldn't before- the swings, the banana ride... 

 I loved watching Steve's mom with Maddie on this ride!

 The two sis's.

 Maddie's first ride on the banana and she loved it! We went on it 6 more times :)

 Look at that expression!!

 Love these faces.

 A super silly face from a super silly girl.

 We also hit up Sausolito on July 4th. Always a great day up there... except for when you forget that the children's museum closes on July 4th. duh.

 The cute 3 girls.

Happy summer memories! Thanks for coming everyone! We loved it all :)

Our sweet little spot on the beach

We have a sweet little spot on the beach in Half Moon bay that we like to think only we know about! of course it's not true, but when we go, there is no one there, and it's a slice of heaven.

 Rules: There are no rules. Just sand, shovels, a towel and pure relaxation.

 Just for record keeping, we have had an invasion of spiders in our house! And, poor Maddie must have the sweetest blood, or something, because she got bit 6 times on her poor little face, and made the right side of her cheek look like she had a walnut in her mouth.

A little trek is always better with a sister.

My cool shadow :)

These slave drivers made me make all of these castles. Oh.... it took a while.

A pic took by Maddie !!