My First California Earthquake

Today I felt my first SoCal earthquake. There were a couple little ones when we first moved here, but I had slept through them, however, this one definitely woke me up. Lillie and I were napping in her room this morning when everything started shaking. It felt like I was five years old again and Heath, Wendy and Charee were shaking the bunk beds as hard as they could while I was on the top bunk. It took a split second for me to realize what was going on, but then I ran over to Lil's crib and laid my body across her so that nothing would fall on her. I didn't pick her up because I didn't want to wake her up and there wasn't really too much that could have fallen on her. She slept right through it, it only last 30 seconds or so. The earthquake was a 5.4 on the Richter scale and was only 7 miles down into the earth so people as far away as San Diego and Las Vegas felt it. As long as there aren't any more for a while and as long as they are never stronger than that, then I will be fine. It was an eye opener, though, to see that I couldn't get a hold of Eric because no calls would go through and it made me wonder about what we would do in case of a real emergency. I've been working on our 72 hr kits, but I now will have a renewed effort.

Family Photo Shoot

I decided that I couldn't put off taking family photos any longer, those last pregnancy pounds aren't just going to melt off by themselves any time soon, and Lillie is not getting any younger so we headed down to the mall to get a few pictures taken. This was our favorite family photo, but there were lots of good ones to choose from, because Lillie did such a good job smiling at the camera. I know that every photo shoot won't go as smoothly, especially once she can crawl, walk, etc. But I was so proud of her, she was great!

A Very Merry Unbirthday to Lillie

Lillie has officially turned .5 yesterday and we had to celebrate with some tasty cupcakes. Lillie wasn't as excited about it as we were but it was fun. Check out the video:

Trouble with a Capital L

Today I came to the conclusion that I am in big trouble. The first event that led me to this conclusion was when Lillie had wrapped herself up really tight inside our blue IKEA bag. She loves the sound of plastic bags, LOVES to kick them, and this was the only one I thought was somewhat safe, but not anymore. She had gotten one arm stuck in the handle and had rolled multiple times until she was completely encased in the huge blue bag. Then, later on I found her pulling all the cords out from the Xbox and sticking them in her mouth. Bad, bad. And just now, I came in just in time to pull her hand out from getting smashed by the drawer of our TV cabinet. She was hanging there on the handle with one hand, pulling the drawer open and close while her other hand's fingers were holding onto the bottom of the drawer. This is all from a baby that cannot crawl, cannot even sit up, but is still managing to cause all this trouble. I am now living in fear of that day when she will be able to do those things, because I am going to have to keep a constant eye on her.

Malibu Menagerie

Some friends invited us to go with them to the tide pools at low tide today in Malibu. After a steep little hike, we laid out a blanket where the girls sat and chatted as the boys climbed over rocks and out into the ocean to find sea creatures. They brought us back a sand dollar, a couple good sized crabs and they found some sea urchins. We didn't get to see any starfish, but I'm not even sad about that because it means that I have something to look forward to next time we go. There will definitely be a next time because as far as I'm concerned, this place is the best kept secret (beach) in SoCal. I'm not even going to tell you exactly where we went because I liked it that much and don't want it to become crowded like everywhere else. It was so beautiful!

She Finally Did It!

It took five and a half months but Lillie finally slept through the night! I am so proud of her, I knew she could do it. I have finally gotten her to the point where she will go to sleep in her crib as long as I sit next to her, usually without her crying, which is light years ahead of where we used to be. She is waking up in the night, usually just needing her pacifier put back in, at least once or twice. So this was a big surprise. I guess it had something to do with her staying up two hours later than usual for the fireworks. I am not holding my breath tonight, I don't know if it'll happen again for a long time, but at least I know it is possible. Yay for sleep!

4th of July Weekend

Eric had midterms this week, so after Wednesday, he was done with school. Back home, my family was attending an extended family reunion on the 4th and I was really sad to miss it. We were a little bummed about not having any super exciting plans, but it actually was a great weekend. We spent our time at the beach, shopping, bbqing, and just rocking out with Rockband.

On Thursday we went to the ocean, it was a little overcast and cold at first, that's why Lillie is wearing my shirt in the pictures, but the sun came out strong in the end and Eric and I both managed minor sunburns. This video is of Lillie's first time being in the ocean, she had already been to the beach a couple times, but I felt that she was too young to feel the cold water. Sorry about the annoying high pitched voice narrating the event...



Here are a couple more pics from the day:


On Friday, Independence Day, we went to our ward's pancake breakfast in the morning, went shopping in the middle of the day (a very successful trip) and went to the firework show at night. The fireworks were great, we went with the Porters and the Bates down to the school's soccer field two blocks from our house and had a good view. The show wasn't hardly advertised at all, so it wasn't crowded, and we had lots of room for the kids and husbands to play with the football before the show. Lillie did so well too, she was interested in the fireworks but then would get a little scared and hide her face in our shoulders, over and over. No crying, even though it was about two hrs after her bedtime.

Pictures taken while waiting for the fireworks:

Today was spent doing some things around the house that had been put off, beating Eric at Wii bowling and watching movies. I will no longer be bummed about times when we have nothing planned to do because it's all about what you make it to be. We had a great weekend, hope you did too.