Anthro and the Cavalier

I love seeing fellow Cavaliers in the media. Anthropologie has a cute ruby in their latest denim photos.

Way to go sister!

xo,

Dolly

Oscar Envy

RAF and I are sitting here watching the Oscars thinking--dang those folks look dapper.

Then, Seth MacFarlane did a musical number. This inspired us to join in the fun.

Boom. Bowtie added.

Now we feel like part of the fun.

8 Months

Bebe boy is 8 months old today! I am so thankful for my wonderful little man. Here are some of my favorite things he is doing right now:

blowing bubbles
screaming
smacking his lips
biting my chin
smiling when at his Papa when he comes home at night
eating his crackers (he gets them EVERYWHERE) but I still think it is the cutest
jumping in his jumper
dancing in the mirror before baths every night
the occasional "mama"
scooting all over the house--my personal baby swiffer
admiring his hands
falling asleep while nursing (and smiling)

Here is RAF today:

 

 

And a flash back of the past 7 months, until now:

 

His monthly ties were a sweet gift from my girlfriend in California. They are stickers that you cut out and place on a onesie each month when you take a photo. I looked up the name of the Etsy shop from the packaging and it looks like she may have renamed her shop. From the looks of it, you can find RAF's monthly ties here. I haven't actually been "sticking" them to his clothes because I enjoy seeing how he interacts with it every month. You can see in month 7 that he was super intrigued. That little tie definitely ended up in his mouth most of the time. I just love watching the progression of his growth. Isn't it amazing how big his tie seemed when he was "just born"? It spanned his whole tummy! How the tie can fit in his mouth.

 

hugs,

 

Marta

Do you vine?

A favorite new app in our home is The Vine. It is a fun little tool that creates short, 6 second loop videos. Some people are really artistic and fabulous with the execution of their videos. We, on the other hand, are still novice, but loving the app. I mean without opposable thumbs how creative can you really be with an iPhone!?

Right now, RAF is in the phase of making lots of cute sounds. My mom sent these Vine created videos to us. Enjoy!

 xo,

Dolly

We succ-ulent

Last Valentine's Day my present to Tim was this little succulent garden.

Since then, it has grown (much to our surprise) immensely! Even through months of forgetting to water, basically sucking at taking care of this little life form, this little garden has managed to grow! Out of control!

Tim and I are at a loss of how to proceed with this overgrowth. You see, we don't exactly have a green thumb. We moved into our current home with high hopes of landscaping a beautiful yard. I was going to have lovely little flowers in a bed I tilled by hand. Tim was going to overhaul the backyard into a makeshift soccer field. Guess how long that dream lasted? About as long as my pregnant self, circa 9 months ago, lasted on my knees, weeding the front yard. Can you say out of breath!? Any physical activity at that time was silly, let alone gardening. Needless to say, my verve for gardening stopped there. I think Tim lost his yard revamp motivation out of sympathy.

Truthfully, I am pretty sure we are the eyesore of the block. Overgrowth and moss line the steps of our front walk, crab grass galore, and don't even get me started on the weeds that have literally taken root and become the foliage that we call our "garden". What can we say? I claim baby laziness (and by lazy I mean too busy with a baby to do yard work) and will continue to claim that excuse until I actually plant something that I am proud of.

In the meantime, we've pledged to attempt to tame our beastly display of succulents. A simple google search came up with this, how to prune succulents. Seemed simple enough. We'll start with the plant on the left. According to the instructions, we should trim off the rosette top--or in our case, small tree. Tim says this succulent "sucks" at being a tree, so its time for him to get beheaded. He he, that definitely tickled my funny bone.

So, Tim took a clean knife to the plant and chopped off the top. Totally not how I anticipated trimming a succulent, but YouTube said so!

And voila, we were left with our "beheaded" succulent.

Timber!

Behold our newly pruned succulent window garden. OK, its a work in progress, but we wanted to start small. You know, only trim one plant to begin with, just to make sure we know what we are doing.

Lefty got a haircut

The trimmings in the front are supposed to dry out a little so that we can attempt to propagate them. At this point, I just hope that the little guy survives his haircut, but hey, dream big!

And now, I'll zoom out and so you can see our entire windowsill garden. Yup, the entire garden includes our boon counter top drying grass. We adore this bottle drying accessory. My favorite is the flower. It not only does a great job with drying but is just plain cute (and the only plant I can keep alive).

Hugs,

Marta

Meet Paul

I'd like to take this time to introduce you to one of my mom's favorite possessions, Paul.

 

Paul was a gift. He was given to her by the family that my mom used to work for when she lived in San Francisco. He is pretty handsome, no? She has always had an affinity for taxidermy. She often expressed her love for antlers and embalmed animals, so, of course her former employer, now fabulous friends, thought of her when they were exploring a taxidermy shop in Portland, OR. They immediately purchased him, placed him in the back of their Mustang convertible, and drove him from Portland to Tacoma.

 

It was love at first sight (or picture message). These are the pictures that sealed the deal.

 

Paul mounted in a shop in Portland

 

 

Paul and Sara in the Mustang



After Paul made the trek to Tacoma, we learned his story. Apparently he came from an estate in Canada. The shop owner attained him, along with two other bucks, after Paul's original owner passed away. By the time Paul was found by our friends, his other two acquaintances had already been purchased. By whom, you ask? Tori Spelling! My mom likes that part of the story. We were told that Paul is an Impala. The only appropriate name for him going forward was Paul, obviously! (We've since learned that he is a Common Reed Buck, but we don't talk about that).

 

My mom displays him in all his regal glory over our fireplace. He has truly become a part of the family. I've even found her venting her to him about her frustrations from the day. He is a great listener with those big ears. He even gets dressed up for special occasions. The most recent occasion? Upcoming Valentine's day.

 

Mom found a fun little antler accessory in the gift wrap section at Target and some faux pearls in her jewelry box. Put them together and what have you got?! Voila--Paul becomes Paula, the Valentine's themed Impala. Paulette (the little wooden woodland figurine to the right of Paula) got a little red bow so she didn't feel left out. And there you have it, I've just revealed my mom's secret  obsession with taxidermy.

Paula's accessories

 

 

Paula and Paulette

 

xo,

 

Dolly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This baby is ready for Beyoncé

Happy Super Bowl (Beyoncé) Sunday.

love,

RAF

Guess Who's Back!?

Me! (Duh). Thats rights, its been quite some time, but alas, I'm back on the blog-o-sphere. Why the absense, you ask? Let's get caught up.

The last year was full of changes! Last time we checked-in was March 2012. Right after my mom and I made it big with our modeling career. And by made it, I mean we had a reoccurring spot on the PetSafe weekly emails for a couple months. Soon after, we were offered another job modeling a bike basket. Unfortuantely, we had to decline this offer as my mom was starting to show! Somehow we didn't think "baby bump" screamed bike basket model. Segway into the biggest change of the past year... Yup, the addition of Raphael to the family.

My new-ish baby brother (he is almost 8 months, now)

Wait, family? Huh? I thought this blog was about Dolly and Marta? Yup, another change. We moved in with Adele (the German Shepherd) and Tim! We moved to a sweet little craftsman in North Tacoma.

 

 

Me and Adele
Our Cute Craftsman House

Ok, the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together now. So, how did I like family life you ask? To answer it nicely, I didn't love it. Ergo, the next change. After my mom realized that I wasn't happy with the new living situation jealous of the baby (can you say starvation diet, anyone?), she decided it would be best to have me go stay with the grandparents in California.

Now you're caught up. In 2012, I broke into the modeling world, got four-legged sister, two-legged brother, new dad, new house, and eventually moved back to California to live with my grandparents. Whew. Just thinking about all those changes makes me want to take a puppy nap.

The baby is growing on me. In September 2012, the grandparents threw a Sip 'n See for Baby Raphael. What's that, you ask? Basically just an excuse for people to come over and gush at the little guy and sip some champs. I was on my best behavior and even kept an eye on him while he napped.

See what a good girl I am!?

So, where do we go from here? My mom wants me to keep posting, but she plans to take over and make it more of a family blog. So, you'll see posts from me and from my mom in the future, and with a little luck, maybe we can get Adele and Tim to start posting, too! Check back soon to see what's new.

xo,

Dolly