Favorite Five: December

December was a big beautiful month, that went by way too quickly.

Thank goodness for the iPhone, or I might not have any pictures to show for this month.

December sunrise from bedroom window.

We love our Christmas house.

It's still Christmas at the beach.

Sledding with cousins in Illinois.

 

December 27th: Remembering and celebrating a life very well lived. We miss our Grandpa.

Santa Barbara Thanksgiving Top 10

We had a lovely visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving.

Food, family, and so much to be grateful for.

Here is my Top Ten list...in pictures.

Grandparent time.

Turkey time.

Glad to have Steph with us from France. Say "fromage"!

 Time at East Beach

 

A visit to the Westmont campus to play.

 

Favorite Five: November

This one is on my refrigerator…so I can look at it everyday and be reminded of why I do what I do. 

Oh Abby.

Daddy took all three to the Children's Museum. What a guy!

My 93 year old Grandpa has been facing some major health issues. But he keeps asking for that fiddle.

Love you Grandpa.

Wow Santa Barbara.

17 days of family…as told by the iPhone

I had my family here visiting for 17 days straight in October and November. It was wonderful!

My sister Katie and her boys came first, followed by my parents. It was fun, full, memorable, and busy. My mom and sister questioned if it was too much for two sets of visitors to be back to back and I said…NO WAY! I was thrilled for 17 straight days.

Now that life is getting back to normal I sat down to look through pictures only to find I barely took any. It was a challenge to simply keep track of everyone on a daily basis, grabbing the good camera was apparently beyond my capacity. Thank goodness for the iPhone. Here is a little glimpse...

Fun outings to see the USS Midway (from a distance) and walk around Seaport Village.

Great time with Aunt Katie.

Our favorite pumpkin patch. Only decent shot of all 5 cousins.

Cool grey weather didn't stop these kiddos from enjoying the beach.

I think they were at the beach 3 times in 4 days.

Then the day after Katie and the boys left, these two arrived…

Seaworld! It was very nice of that seal to pose for me.

 Our most memorable day was when my mom's lifelong dream to paraglide finally came true.

The conditions were perfect for a tandem ride at Torrey Pines.

A fun trip to a little shell shop in La Jolla with a secret tunnel leading to a cave.

 It was great to have Papa and MorMor with us for all the Halloween festivities!

It was a lovely visit and now it is only 4 weeks until Christmas. YAY!

I have a niece in China!

Back in July 2012 I wrote about my sister Katie's adoption journey. Here.

Well, drum roll please... a few weeks ago that journey brought her to Wu Dan Qing. Her daughter. Wu Dan Qing, who will be named Lydia Danqing, is still in China and my sister and her husband are hoping to travel there to get her in January.

Here she is. She is 19 months old. My darling niece!

And here is my sister's story of the day she got THE phone call about Lydia.

I am in love with this little girl already and can't wait to experience the miracle of adoption by being her aunt.

But mostly I can't wait to see my sister and her husband with THEIR DAUGHTER. And I can't wait to see this precious girl in the loving arms of her family. Her mom and dad. Her brothers. Her family forever. And add to that grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She has no idea how loved she is by SO many.

Come home soon little Lydia! We are all waiting for you.

Favorite Five: October...first ever family photo shoot!

There are way more than 5 pictures I loved this month. And we most definitely didn't take any of them.

Here is a link to a blog post by my wonderful and extremely talented friend Stacy who captured some magical moments of my little family at our first ever family photo shoot. Stacy asked me to write a little something about why we wanted to do a shoot and she posted my words to go with her photography on this post. The whole thing is, in her words, "beyond special."

Whenever I am having a tough day as a mom I just scroll through these photos and watch the 3 minute video at the end and I regain my perspective and joy. What a gift!

Thank you Stacy...for your friendship...and for sharing your gifts through your photography.

to capture us.

i didn’t want to do a big professional photo-shoot until i knew our family was complete. getting to that point has been a journey full of ups and downs, but when our third daughter was born i felt we had arrived at “complete” and were ready for some pictures. there was only one person i wanted to capture our crew, my dear friend stacy, but for a while i hesitated to book a shoot because, well, we aren’t particularly fancy or stylish and i didn’t think our little ragamuffin family was worthy of her talent.

but as i looked through stacy’s family photo shoots i realized something…it’s not that stacy photographs only amazingly beautiful people…what makes her photography so lovely, so captivating, is that she somehow captures the natural beauty that is inside each person, each family. that is what i wanted – our family’s signature beauty to be captured.

Click here for the rest.

Colorado reunion: Viva Game Group

We recently took a trip back to Colorado for a reunion with friends.

When we lived in CO four of us families got together once a month for "Game Group." I think we carried on this tradition for about 5 years. We used to have elaborate themed dinners complete with costumes such as Greek Night, Disco Murder Mystery Party, Mafia, Wild West, Academy Awards parties, and more. The theme nights started decreasing when the children started increasing. When our families started this monthly tradition there were 5 kids, now there are 14.

In late September we all met up and spent a wonderful reunion weekend in the mountains outside of Breckenridge...with 13 children in one great big house. THIRTEEN kids, from ages 1 to 12. Whoa-nelly.

We hadn't all been together since we moved to CA four years ago so the goal of the weekend was simply to hang out. No big plans, no agendas. Just catching up and being together. It was delightful.

Homework "party"

Celebrating a birthday

Dad and kid hike while the moms enjoyed lunch in town

And this seasons-deprived girl got an extra amazing GIFT of experiencing all four seasons in one weekend. It was 70+ degrees in Denver, the fall color was lovely in the mountains, it SNOWED overnight while we were in the mountains, and then the strong Colorado sun melted it away the next day. I LOVE Colorado weather - you never know what you are going to get and we got it all in four days.

What a treat it was to be with these friends. These friends who became like family during our years in Colorado. Friends who visited us in the hospital when our first baby girl was born, and were all there when we said goodbye to a baby we never got the chance to know. Friends we went to school with and celebrated new jobs and new babies and new homes with. Friends who sent us off to California with love and support (and a few tears).

All of these friends blazed the parenting trail way ahead of us and they were our first parenting-mentors. They are incredible couples, parents, and individuals who we are blessed to have in our lives and I am so glad we had four days to connect with each other in person again. Viva Game Group!