My Family Comes to Visit

This last weekend my family came down to visit for a couple days. Unfortunately, it was some of the wettest weather we have had since moving here. So that kind of put a damper on our plans, but we made the most of it by going to the beach (it was super windy), the Natural History Museum, to Disneyland (on the only day it didn't rain) and to the local mall. It was fun to have them here, I have been hungry for company with Eric spending long hours at school lately and Lillie loves the extra attention. So it was nice for us and hopefully it was nice for them too, considering the weather and the fact that it was their fourth trip in a month. I'm sure they're loving sleeping in their own beds again. Here are a couple pictures from the weekend, our camera's battery is dead, so I didn't take too many, these are from my mom.

Lillie Loves to Push My Buttons :)

So tonight was a little interesting. Lillie and I were having a low key evening, we were waiting for Eric to get done at school. Lillie had been walking around all over the house, making her usual round through the living room, kitchen, and the dining room, etc, etc. I was busy in the living room when all of the sudden, the two fire alarms go off, screaming their assault while I try to figure out what the heck's going on. The apartment is full of smoke and I round the corner into the kitchen where I see flames reaching a foot off of our stove. I find a lid and smother the flames. Lillie is freaked out and crying so I take her to my neighbor's apt, and because I opened our apt door, it set off the fire alarm in the hall of the apt complex. It took a little time to get out enough smoke to quiet the alarms. There was little harm done, my hot pad was the only casualty.
Lillie LOVES PUSHING BUTTONS. Unfortunately, some idiot back in the 70's, thought it would be a great idea to put the controls to the stove and oven on the front, within the reach of a 1 year old. Seriously, a stupid design, Mr. Engineer Man. We've tried covering up the buttons with cardboard and tape, but she either pushes underneath it or pushes on top of it, successfully turning on the stove. SHE HAS DONE IT PROBABLY 20 TIMES, it's getting old. I'm usually really good about not putting stuff on the stove top, but I forgot today and it's not exactly easy when you don't have any counter top space. Of course, the stove won't be replaced til it dies...or UNTIL THE APT BURNS DOWN WITH US INSIDE IT!!!!

Mirror, Mirror....

This was a gift that Lillie received from our friends, the Smiths, for her birthday.  She loves baths and the only thing better is a bath with a crown, wand, and a mirror with which to admire herself.  

She's a Troublemaker Never was a Faker

As you can see we have our hands full......

100th Post and Christmas Photos

Woohoo! 100 posts! I feel like I should be getting showered with confetti. I guess I'll just give myself a pat on the back instead.

So if you have been wondering why I didn't ever blog about Christmas, it was because I had tried multiple times to upload my photos but they just didn't work. So I had temporarily given up, but it kept bugging me and then a friend convinced to blog about it anyway. I post-dated them for Jan. 9th, so you can find them below Eric's birthday blog. Caution: there are a lot of photos.

I can finally post new blogs without feeling guilty. Aaaahhh.

Phantom of the Opera

This past Wednesday we went to the opening night showing of Phantom at Pantages Theatre. We were sad that Wicked left before we were able to see it again, but that has quickly changed because we loved the show. So dang amazing, words cannot describe. John Cudia, the man who played the Phantom, was such an awesome singer. The best I have ever heard. Anyway, he totally eclipsed the other actors/singers, but they were all great. HIGHLY recommend it. Very fun night.

Our pictures are so lame because they were taken on a cell phone. Oh well.

Venice Cruisin

We spent Monday at Venice Beach riding our bikes a long the water with some friends. It was a gorgeous day, the waves were huge and Lillie was so happy to be outside. Fun times. Lillie didn't even mind being in the frigid ocean water. We're gonna have to do that again.

Primer Cumpleanos

The two little party girls are the ones crying in this photo, I wish I would have gotten a better one. But ya know.

This is the before cupcake picture.

And this is the after, this is the happiest she was the whole party. Lame.

Our family photo. I didn't get a single good picture. Oh well.

Lillie celebrated her first birthday back on the 16th. It was a fun filled week, having her birthday on the 16th, then a party on the 17th and Eric's parents were here on the 18th. We threw a little party at the park with BBQing and cupcakes. It was a beautiful day with great friends and good food. The only problem was that we had one grumpy and tired little girl, who ended up crying most of the time. It was her party....

She is growing up way too fast. She is walking a lot now, she can go from sitting to standing by herself too. I don't know if I'm ready for this new challenge, but, what can you do. Another major challenge is that she has made the transition from two naps to one. It was a hairy couple of weeks, but now I'm the one who's trying to make the transition.

She is still jabbering away like always. But now she says some real words like baba, uhoh, wow, mama, dada, and thank you. I've got such a polite little girl.

She loves to climb on things, like our tv stand or onto chairs, ottomans, etc. No major accidents yet, but I'm sure they'll come. She likes going to the park and swinging on the swings, going on bike rides, taking walks, etc.

Sunday Eric's parents had a layover in LA and stayed the night with us before heading to Korea the next day.... and will be staying there for the next couple years! Anyway, it was fun to see them, but was way too short of a visit.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Without a doubt, people have said that Lillie looks a lot like me, but I still wasn't sure how much... until I saw this. Yikes, I apparently have some very dominant DNA.

Birthday Baldness

You know Eric had a wild birthday when he and two of his friends ended up bald by the end of the night...I guess turning 28 causes an early mid-life crisis.

Swing Fun

So this are pictures from Eric's birthday, while he still had hair, I'll post another one to explain that later. We went to the park for a picnic lunch because it was SO DANG NICE outside. 80 degrees in January is quite nice. Eric was even complaining of getting a sunburn, ha ha. Lillie loves the swings and loves being outside, so I guess we're living in the right place to be able to do that virtually all year round.

Happy 28th Birthday, Eric!

So I guess my title explains it all, but Eric turns twenty eight in about twenty eight minutes, and I wanted to get on to let him know how glad I am to be his wife. He's such a wonderful guy, he's so laid back and fun, we have great times together. I hope this turns out to be a fabulous day and that this year will hold great things for him. Love you, Eric. You're the best, Happy Birthday!

Feel free to leave one or some of your favorite memories of Eric or birthday wishes as comments.

Christmas Visit

So I know that it's a month past Christmas and that I've had multiple posts since then, but I had tried multiple times to get these pictures to upload to no avail. I had given up on a Christmas post until I was talking to a friend at church who reminded me that this was our journal and that it would be a shame to not have Christmas remembered, so here they are. It snowed a ton while we were there, which was nice on one hand, because it felt very Christmas-y. But was also difficult because Julee couldn't make it in the snow and we couldn't go anywhere because of the road conditions. We still had a blast hanging out with my siblings and Lillie's cousins. It was really hard for us to come home from this trip especially because I saw how much fun she had playing with them and getting to know them. I wish we lived closer. It was fun to see my grandparents also, this was the first time that I'd gotten pictures of Lillie with them, I know, I'm lame. Oh well. During the whole trip, I was annoyed by the snow because I kept thinking about getting delayed on our way home and we were wanting to take a trip to OR to visit some friends and the roads were bad, but we were able to make it down for a wonderful visit. Lillie was teething majorly on our vacay and she was up quite a bit on Christmas Eve, so I was less than cheerful on Christmas day. It's a good things that we had our little Christmas here before we left or else I would have felt like I had totally missed the holiday. It was a great trip, we loved seeing everyone and wished we could have spent more time with everyone.

Visit to the Madsons

We were able to visit our friends for just one day during our trip, due to snowy roads that shortened our trip. It was still really fun to see them, their children have grown up so fast, it was the first time Lillie and their little girl had met, but they loved each other and played together so well. And their son is so smart and so big, I remember him as a little 3 month old! He speaks english and chinese perfectly, I'm so impressed. They are our dear friends and we cannot wait until we can see them again.