lily reads!

lily has some favorite books that she has us read over and over and over.  and over again.  she loves pretty much anything by sandra boyton, but is pretty non-discriminatory over books; she loves them all (yay!).  she also has a pretty good memory for what we read to her and has memorized her favorite books completely.  she will randomly start reciting her books (usually it's the same one over and over in an evening) and i managed to (finally!) capture a little bit of her recitation one night.  it does my little heart good to see her loving books, and i hope that continues with her as she gets older.  

 

lily lately

i am continually amazed by how much lily changes and grows seemingly overnight.  it seems like each day brings some new facet to her personality.  i love it.  some of her newest quirks are below...

• lily will randomly exclaim, "are you serious?" (arms lifted up in a questioning manner as you'd expect)
• "look at my crazy hair!" (when her hair is wild and flying all over the place)
• "do it by myself." everything.  no matter what it is or how long it takes. she's suuuuper independent, which is so fun for us. sigh. 
• "i hear the firetruck.  it's going to work to help somebody!"
• "i hear with my ears, see with my eyes." (generally in response to the fact that she hears a firetruck, and says that she sees it.  we're trying to emphasize what seeing and hearing are.)
• "maggie come here!  woo hoo" (the sound she "says" to approximate our whistling)
• lily will fall asleep at night wanting something in particular and wake up the next morning asking for it.
• "look at my dress!" lily is going through a dress phase.  she will only wear dresses.  the fluffier, the fancier, the better.  
• "look! it's the moon!  right there!  see it!?" lily is obsessed with the moon.  she points it out and looks for it every chance she gets.  during the day, the moon is "sleeping."

• 

  she put this lovely combo together by herself.
  a dress with an extremely fluffy skirt underneath.
  because anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

  
  

  

  wearing mama's shoes.  

  
  
  
  
  

  

  "mama, take a picture of my crazy hair.  let me see!"

  
  
  
  
  
  

we bought a house!

we signed a bunch of paperwork on wednesday (seriously, it was a major arm workout), picked up the keys yesterday, and have been busy packing up all our stuff with simultaneous grins of joy and amazement and thoughts of what-the-heck-did-we-just-get-ourselves-into fear.  it was mostly the grins, though.  we are very excited and plan to move into the new digs sometime in april.  the house was built in 1956 and very little has been changed.  the bones of the house are amazing, the yards are extremely well-kept and nicely landscaped, and all that needs to be done is some cosmetic work (i put in some pictures of the current state of everything below).  the kitchen is original (we bought a dishwasher yesterday because we're grownups now and made a grownup purchase...and the kitchen lacks a dishwasher).  we need to paint everything and are going to lift up the carpets (there is original oak hardwood underneath), and put in some ceiling fans.  and some other stuff.  it will be lots of projects, not as much money for fun things (like travel and adventures, dang it!), and best of all, it's ours.  i'm grateful we were able to stay in livermore, and grateful we found the little home meant for our little tribe.  i'm sad to leave our current ward, but am excited to meet the cast and crew that makes up livermore 4th ward.  andiamo and on to new adventures! 

the master bedroom.  it's kind of a cave.

lily's room (the photo does not do justice to how
 bright a yellow this room is).

our vintage kitchen

why move furniture when you can
just paint around it?

the end!

i received a call the other day from the assistant district attorney for the county of santa clara that was prosecuting the case for the armed robbery that i witnessed three years ago.  he let me know that the jury had come back with a verdict of guilty, and that the bad guys (my term) would be going to jail for a "good, long time" and that it would be "many, many years before they were eligible for parole."  i am so glad this is done and over, that i don't have to have it in the back of my mind anymore, that i don't have to worry about rearranging my schedule to respond to a subpoena whenever they decide to send one in case they do go to trial on the day that they are preparing to.  it's nice to know that justice has been served, that right prevailed, and that my duty as a citizen (in this instance) is completed.