The truth comes out

(Kudos to The Bud for being the most well-informed/sympathetic single man on pregnancy that I've ever met.)

The days are long but the years fly by!

A very happy birthday to my baby girl! My little sweetheart entered the world 3 years ago today at 4:19 p.m.


Age 1...

Age 2 (and a bit)...
Age almost 3!
She is such an incredible joy to our family! She's a funny kid, smart and curious. She's slow to trust people, but intensely loyal to the people she comes to love. She loves "math," books, Little Einsteins, stuffed animals, letters, Christmas and birthday (all year long), hamburgers, fries and shakes. She is tall for her age, but also pretty clutzy like her mom. =) She doesn't ever ask why, but she's interested in lots of things. She's generally a homebody, but once she gets out tends to love wherever we've taken her, especially the beach. She's a challenging kid to discipline, very strong willed and quick to fall to pieces over things she can't have. She doesn't like to stand in front of people and perform... or do anything especially conventional. She's interested in instruments and music (Mom says hooray!). She is an introvert that is doing an amazing job learning to be polite and kind to people. She's a fantastic eater. She's not the best sleeper. She has two small little dimples that show up when she smiles. And she's my best girl. I love you, Lucy Elizabeth!

The Golden State

I love my state. I love, love, love California. Go on "Soarin' Over California," and see why I get all teared up. The stark, craggy northern coasts, the grand redwoods, the striking deserts, the rolling valleys, the alluring Sierras. I always worry about the seminary students who come to Talbot and think that California is just the land of unending strip malls. I plead with them not to judge California by the suburbs of L.A.! Please, I beg, if you do nothing else you must get to Yosemite (in the Fall or Spring, of course).

So to those of you far away, through the madness of the crazy publicity that you always hear about, never forget that's not all it's made of.

(These are all my own shots, and I'm no photographer, so it's really the beauty of California shining through!)

Central Coast
San Pedro
Hill country near the Sierras
The Central Valley
San Jacinta
Tioga PassSanta Barbara
Central Coast
Santa Barbara

Joshua Tree

And of course, the crown jewel, Yosemite (this photo does NOT do it justice!)

Good Choices

The other day, I realized that about 8-9 years ago, among the myriad of small, lame decisions, I made some lasting choices, and I'm still really happy with all of them.

Right before Steve and I got engaged, I bought these great blue couches. When I was looking, a salesman at the J.C. Penny Home Store was so completely snotty to me and said, "Um, I really can't understand what you're looking for." Obviously I found them elsewhere. Now the blue couches I was looking for are all over the stores and magazines (see this month's Real Simple!). Go figure. I re-covered them a year ago with the same color because I still loved them--they just needed sturdier fabric (and needed the stuffing not to be popping out). I love that I'm still happy with them.

(Sorry, best picture I could find with my couches... but isn't my dad cute with Lucy?)

My china! We chose a pattern called Beresford 2000, and I still love, love, love my china (the actual receiving of the china is a whole other story for another day!). I pulled out my tea cups to serve coffee and tea to the moms of our playgroup this week--because why not use them!
(Wish you could see the subtle pattern around the outside.)


My wedding ring. I still would choose this ring if I could pick out any ring in the world. It seems to fit me perfectly.

And my husband... would still choose him any day. He's vintage--he keeps getting better.

Comfort Food

When I was 8 or 10, we drove up to Oregon for Thanksgiving to be with my dad's cousins. The matron cousin who was hosting is such a dear... had she lived closer, I would have adopted her as a grandmother. I remember waking up before everyone else and wandering out to the kitchen, and there she was, buzzing about the kitchen before anyone was up. She sat me down and offered me the most incredible bran muffin, hot from the oven (really the only way to eat these, though the microwave works exceptionally well, too), and asked if I wanted tea. I'd never had tea before, and I felt so grown up being given a steaming mug of Earl Grey. It was cold outside, but I was snuggled up and cozy with my muffin and my tea, and this lovely grandmotherly soul. It's one of my favorite memories. I try to recreate it once in awhile by making my own.

I made this last night... it's a "Boppy" cover for a shower on Saturday. The problem at the moment is that I don't have a boppy to fit it to. I'm borrowing a neighbor's this afternoon to see how it goes. I have a feeling it's too big. Better too big than too small, though, right? I'll let you know what I think. The pattern is here.

Have a lovely day, all!

Blink

Is it just me, or does Christmas really just fly sometimes? It was so odd to go to Target today and see all the Christmas stuff off the shelves. So strange that the season should feel short, because it seems like they start putting it up in July these days.

The in-laws have been here this week to help out with some home projects, and then go to the Rose Parade. They did it right--got the La Mirada package where you ride a bus up to Pasadena and the tickets are all included. Sounded like a really sweet deal.

Mimi and I went out on an errand one night and saw this over at the Biola track... seems they were rehearsing for the Rose Parade just yards from my house!


Now on and forward into January. No resolutions this year, other than my perpetual resolution, which is to do better with birthday cards. I'm mostly feeling a maddening desire to clean out every single closet in the entire house and toss every other thing I touch. Not going super great, as I already started with cleaning out the toy box and threw out only a handful of things. Can't cure a pack-rate, can you.

Pre-school Playgroup starts back up next week, and will be held at my house this Spring, so I've been trying to figure out what to do with myself from 9-1 every Tues/Friday. This means I'm very open for lunches! =) The plan at the moment is to only do my grocery shopping on those days, and to have little projects I can do camped out at Starbucks or the Eagle's Nest. I need to work on Lucy's baby book (yes, I'm a bad parent), and a few other things like that. So onward we go!