Christmas Dinner with the Girls

This year we gave up our $5 gifts or gift exchange for an incredible dinner at Savannah. We had such a lovely evening!


After our delicious meal, we went to the stunning California Scenario garden that is tucked behind the restaurant in between a couple high rise office buildings and a parking structure. I have always loved this space and I just found out it was designed by Isamu Noguchi, a modern designer whose work I love! This is an incredible place for a photo shoot and I almost asked Kurt to come down and take some cool photos of us girls. He was taking care of Liv so we made do with our little point and shoot cameras... I don't think we did too badly!



Meghan got this shot of me & Heidi taking the next pic.



You may have noticed it was a party of 6 instead of our usual 7. Alissa couldn't be with us because she is due in just a couple weeks and couldn't travel down from Concord this year. We missed her but can't wait to meet baby Amelia Paige!

Those kinds of friends...

I consider myself to be incredibly blessed in the friend department. I know it is uncommon to maintain close relationships as you move through the various stages of life but I somehow still have a number of wonderful friends from each stage of life... from infancy, elementary school, high school, college, work, church and some random places in between. What an incredible gift! Last night I had the privilege of being with two of my friends from Westmont. I say this over and over, but I can't believe that I only spent one year there. The depth and quality of the relationships formed that year is so amazing to me and here we are 10 years later, at a completely different stage in life, still enjoying each other's company and connecting with each other's souls.

Kurt was going to a photography party up in Santa Barbara and I asked if Cassi, Liv and I could join him for the trip. We sat in horrible LA traffic, and then horrible "overturned big rig" traffic for 3 hours to get there. We dropped Kurt off at the party and then headed over to Liza's house. Liza's husband Dave offered to take care of Liv (in addition to their two kids) so Cassi, Liza and I could have a girls night out. What a guy! We hit up a local Indian restaurant and spent the next few hours enjoying some great food and even better company. I love that there isn't any awkwardness or warming up period with these girls. We laugh as hard and share as deeply as we ever have... maybe even more so because these past 10 years have been full of life - incredible, wonderful things and hard, heartbreaking things - and there is an intimate connection that comes when you honestly share life with others.

We got home at 2 this morning... Liv woke up and was cranky and tired and probably wondered why the heck we had bothered her sleep so much. I hoped she would sleep in this morning but she was up at 7:15. Now I'm tired (and maybe a little cranky) but I would repeat our evening again because when you have those kinds of friends who know you and love you and who you can be completely real with, you don't think twice about traffic and cranky babies. Our time together was worth it.

Monday Night Girls Christmas Party

We have been meeting together for almost 7 years - sometimes more frequently than others and last night we had our annual Christmas gift exchange complete with lots of laughing, a little crying (something about an ambiguous duo...) and plenty of fun. I love you girls! (and don't mock my shirt... I know it looks weird!)

Joe & Lara's Christmas Party

Last night Kurt & I headed up to LA for Joe & Lara's annual Christmas party. Their downtown loft was absolutely beautiful... all decked out with black and white for Christmas! It was fun to get dressed up and be with our good friends.

Sunsets

We have had some incredible sunsets lately. Yesterday was so clear thanks to the rain on Friday & Saturday. We could see Catalina Island all day and the sun was beautiful shining off the water. I'm going to miss this view when we move.

Lunch at Alta

We had a late lunch at Alta in Newport today. The light coming through the window was so perfect!


While we were there it started raining. We love the rain and hope that Liv will too! We saw a beautiful rainbow on the way home.

Laguna Beach Swings

Liv and I hung out with Meg & Wallace in Laguna Beach the other day. There's a little playground at the end of Main Beach and we stuck Liv & Wallace in one of the swings. They were so cute in there!

Liv's bucket of toys

The other day I needed to put some laundry away in Liv's dresser. She was a little grumpy and I knew if I set her down on the ground she wouldn't be too happy. So, I made a space for her in her collection of stuffed animals. She was so cute snuggled in there and happily hung out with her little friends while I put the laundry away!

Long overdue...

We had a very relaxed, chill Thanksgiving. My parents came over and Kurt's aunt Helen was also able to join us from Hawaii. Of course Liv was the center of attention. We are thankful for this beautiful little girl who has stolen our hearts! We can't imagine our life without her!

iPod baby!

While at South Coast Plaza this weekend, we stopped by the Apple store and took a pic of Liv checking out the new iPod nano. The Apple employees were eyeing us closely as we set up the shot. Liv was happy to smile for the picture and show off her new hat! She is getting so big!

December Top Picks

I can't believe it's December already! Here are my top picks for this first week of my favorite month!

1. A new planner - Yes, it's back to orange this year, although I did contemplate pink for a minute. For some reason I just love orange and while I do I might as well go all orange! I love these pocket planners by GLC. You can find them at most Borders bookstores.

2. Christmas music - Kurt will be the first to tell you that I have a slight obsession here. I just LOVE Christmas music and each year I try to find some new, hopefully interesting, if not good, music to add to our collection. This year I bought Sufjan Stevens collection of Christmas EPs. He has some cool takes on the traditional carols and whatnot, along with some fun originals. This is definitely not your typical Christmas album, but if you like to mix it up, I recommend this. My second purchase was an impulse buy. I've always enjoyed Ottmar Liebert and his nouveau flamenco style. He and his band, Luna Negra, mix elements of flamenco with jazz and bossa nova. When I was at Borders this weekend I saw that he has a Christmas cd out. christmas + santa fe is a cool, chill album. Great for background music!

3. Online Christmas shopping - I love getting a box from Amazon with such a random assortment of gifts inside that I would never be able to buy at just one retail store! I am doing so well on my Christmas shopping this year. I guess it does help to not be at a real job all day. My new little "job" can go shopping with me!

3 months old!

Hooray! Liv loves the wind! She was squealing with delight as we crossed the bridge from South Coast Plaza to Crystal Court on her 3 month birthday!

Liv & Elliott

A couple weekends ago we got together with Josh & Cassi to shoot some pictures for their Christmas card. They brought their little dog Elliott. We thought it would be fun to introduce him to Liv. I think he was a little more excited than she was. Check out that tongue! Don't worry, we didn't let him lick her! Yuck!

Real Clothes...

I've had to get Liv some warmer clothes as the weather's gotten cooler (although today it's going to be 90 - yuck). I think Liv looks so much older in these than in the little onesies she spent the first 2 months of her life in. I love these little jeans, even if they are still a little big!

Balboa Island

Kurt got off work a bit early yesterday (a rare treat!) so we went down to walk around Balboa island. Liv got a little sick of being in the stroller and it was pretty chilly so Kurt made an impromptu baby carrier with his jacket. Liv loves looking around so she was content to be snuggled up with her daddy and checking out the beautiful bay!

Two months!!

Liv is two months old! I can't believe it and I already find myself realizing why parents always say that they grow up so fast! She is now 11 lbs 10 oz (almost 3 lbs heavier than when she was born) and she's grown 3 inches too. Kurt and I keep asking her how she got so big. She did so well at her check up. We are going to the pediatrician both Kurt and I went to when we were little. We didn't know each other then but we could have been sitting in the waiting room together - crazy!

Halloween

Meghan and I decided to try to find a pumpkin patch to take some pictures of Liv & Wallace. We couldn't find one anywhere but we did find these gourds at Roger's Gardens! It must have been a little uncomfortable but neither one made a peep!


That night we joined some other friends at Meg & Rian's house to hang out, bbq and watch some old (embarrassing and hilarious) videos. Liv didn't have a costume but her Little Pumpkin onesie did the trick. Wallace was adorable in his little cow outift - check out those dimples! Liv doesn't smile on demand quite yet... we're working on it!



The three of us... seems like one of us is always the one taking the picture so it's nice to have one of us all together!

Fridays with Grandma

My mom gets every other Friday off from work so she's been coming over to get in a little quality time with her favorite granddaughter (ok, her only granddaughter!) I think they both enjoy it!

9:00 naps

Liv has settled into a fairly predictable schedule which is so nice! The past week or so she has been ready for her morning nap at 9:00 on the dot. Chances are if she's been fed, changed, played a little bit, smiled at me for awhile and then suddenly gets cranky, I will look at the clock and it will be 9:00. This has been a great little break for me to eat breakfast if I haven't already, take a shower (imagine that!), watch Regis & Kelly :), and get some things done! I hope this lasts for awhile!

Smiley girl

Liv started to smile a couple weeks ago and it is the sweetest thing! She always smiled in her sleep but it has been so fun to see her smile at us while she's awake! Sometimes she opens her mouth so much when she smiles! Here she is laying on the beautiful quilt that her Auntie Heidi made for her. We can't wait for Liv to get to meet all of her aunts and uncles... we wish they were closer!

Faux hawks

Liv was born with the cutest patch of long hair right on top of her head. Her hair has started falling out so a couple weekends ago we finally put some product in it and she had a little faux hawk to match her daddy. I hope she eventually gets hair every where else but for now this is pretty cute.

Day away in Valley Center

One fun thing about not working right now is the ability to see friends more regularly! One of my Westmont room mates, Bretta, lives down in Valley Center and Cassi (another Westmont friend), Liv and I drove down to visit her and her two kids. It was so fun to be with these girls and have no special event going on. It was just Thursday and we were just hanging out. Jackson and Hannah are just adorable and they were so sweet with Liv. They are excited about their new little sister coming early next year.

8 years

Yesterday we celebrated our 8th anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been that long! This year's celebration was very low key... take out sushi, trader joe's chocolate chip cookies, snuggling with an adorable little girl and a great night's sleep... Liv slept from 9 last night til 6 this morning! Here's a little time capsule... :)

Pray for Dahlia Faire

Dahlia is having major heart surgery tomorrow up at Stanford. We stopped by to see her and the rest of the Reids on Monday night. She is such a sweet girl and we are praying for wisdom for the doctors and peace for Mike & Heidi. Here's Dahlia checking out Liv. (I promise, we do let her out of her car seat once in awhile!)

Naomie & Justin's Wedding Weekend

This past weekend we were up in the Bay area for one of my Westmont girls' wedding. Liv was such a good girl! She slept almost all the way there and all the way back... I think she knows she has to like road trips to be part of this family! We had such a fun time being with all the girls and their husbands. Liv got passed around and loved on by everyone! She also got to meet Liza's kids, Thomas & Ramona. Ramona loved touching & looking at Liv and even wanted to share her baby doll with her!



Naomie & Justin's wedding was beautiful. Naomie was stunning and Kurt shot it so you can see more pictures from the day on his blog. As usual, his images are just gorgeous.


I did the bouquets and other personal flowers and realized that it is hard to get much done with a 5 week old! Fortunately there were many friends who were willing to take Liv so I could finish my job! It was a wonderful weekend!

blogging...

So, everyone else has a blog... why shouldn't we? :) We'll see how well I do updating this!