sweet reminders

when i went into lily's room this morning to see if she was awake, i found her laying in bed, looking at the ceiling, and kind of talking to herself.  i said "good morning" and she pointed to her ceiling and said "it's Jesus! and Heavenly Father! they're talking!"

i love being reminded how close to the veil little children are, and how much the Lord loves them.  i hope that we can always make our home a place of prayer, and a place where the spirit dwells.  i hope that lily can always have the faith to know that Heavenly Father and Jesus are there, watching over her, speaking to her, and protecting her.  and that she knows she can always speak to them.

surprise! {selfies}

i love going into my phone's camera roll and finding some surprise snapshots of miss lily bean.  she's getting pretty good at her selfies.

a day date

the past couple years have been pretty "blah" for kevin and i as far as dating each other is concerned.  we kind of lost the drive to make time for ourselves a priority when lily came along, and i miss it.  so, i decided 2015 would be the year of the date.  each month, we (i) would have a plan.  it doesn't have to be big or grand, but it needs to have some more thought put into it than our usual do-you-want-to-get-dinner-tonight mentality that has been our hallmark the last couple years.  and ideally, it would be something other than just going out to dinner; something a little more activity-ish.  

in that spirit, our january date was a little day adventure to stanford university and their art museum--the cantor center for the arts (the best part?  it's free!).  the museum has a rodin sculpture garden outside, with a couple rooms of his work inside, as well.  i love rodin.  love him!  i love the realism and emotion he projects with his work.  sculpture is really one of my favorite art mediums; the emotion and story that someone can tell from a hunk of marble or bronze or other material is really incredible.  and honestly, the rodin museum in paris is one of my all-time favorites in the world.  the cantor center is a fantastic little museum, and if you can spend some time at stanford/palo alto, i urge you to check it out.  such a fun afternoon with my favorite date.     

"the gates of hell"

this made me feel such joy.
it reminded me of playing with my brothers when we were little.

"the kiss"
one of my favorite pieces, ever.

"the thinker"

one of degas' dancing works.  i was such a happy girl in this place.
my geeky heart was fluttering with joy.

a study of yosemite national park from the 1800s.
it is amazing what kind of light an artist can achieve with paint.

someone had a portrait of me done without my knowledge?!

the melt.  seriously amazing hamburger.  it was so good.

sprinkles cupcakes for dessert.
i highly recommend the german chocolate cake.

a mini-cupcake for our mini-human.

lily lately

lily loves riding her glide bike.  

a fire truck pulled up to the neighbor's house one evening.
lily was in heaven watching it.
i'm pretty sure she thought it was there for her entertainment.

we introduced her to martinelli's one night.
she loved it.

daddy has a beard. grandpa has a beard.  the uncles have beards. ryan has a beard.
so obviously, lily must have a beard.

look out, world!

"i want the pink one, mama."

she got her nails painted!

"i drew the temple!"

la zoo

while in la for christmas, the whole family went to the la zoo to revisit a favorite childhood place.  it's changed a great deal in 25 years, but it was still fun.  everyone saw the animals they wanted too, a a few more, besides, plus, the bonus: a baby hippo was born this year, and we had some great views of the little guy!  he was playing in the water, frolicking around, and was just too cute.  i love the zoo, and lily loved seeing all the different animals.  she's a little obsessed.  unfortunately, our visit was cut short due to a nursemaid's elbow situation that we had to take care of.  

flamingos!

this monitor was incredibly active and lily was fascinated.

i love my people.

we saw koalas!
this is why i needed to go to the zoo.  koalas and pandas are my favorite things.

giraffes!
lily loved that there was a "daddy, mama, and baby!"

monkeys

aunt kerry love!

we saw daniel tiger!

the baby hippo and his mama

christmas {2014}

we headed south to la for the holiday.  all three of my brothers and sister-in-law flew in from various ports, so my parents, kevin, lily, & i caravanned down to meet them at my uncle's house.  it was so wonderful to have the holiday with everyone around, to see lily moving around to her various aunts, uncles, and cousins, and having so much fun being spoiled.  the only downside was that lily had a reoccurrence with nursemaid's elbow, so we spent a couple hours in urgent care getting that taken care of.  woohoo.  afterwards, we went to my aunt donna and uncle george's house for a klima/mcleary christmas afternoon, so it worked out pretty well.  all in all, it was gorgeous weather and a good time was had by all.  and santa managed to find us, even in la!

road tripping in style

lounging with uncle chris

playing catch with uncle chris & uncle ben.
lily kept yelling, "again. again."  i'm pretty sure she's a daredevil.

mornings with grandma

spinning with grandpa

uncle ben gave lily "the night before christmas"
and read it to her on christmas eve.  they were so cute together.

uncle george believes in being festively attired.

an actual spinning toy, courtesy of grandma and grandpa.
this was her favorite thing to find on christmas morning.

this is how my uncle's family does breakfast on christmas morning.
it was a little overwhelming.

uncle jeff and aunt kerry gave her a cabbage patch kid.
i have the same one! (my grandma gave it to me when i was four or five)

chris has a dog named dizzy.  my uncle's wife, stephanie, loves her and
was heartbroken when chris moved dizzy to ohio with him.  so for christmas,
stephanie received a blanket with a very large dizzy on it.  it was a hit.

lily loves a kazoo

some serious side-eye.

arguing with uncle jeff about who the "silly goose" is.
i'm pretty sure it's a tie.