Independence Day 2012

July fourth was our first day back and without food in the house, we headed out for donut holes at the shop down the street. It was Lily's first time with donuts and she gobbled that sugar covered fried dough up with glee.

After donuts we got some real food for the week at a couple of stores.
Then we went by Toy'R'Us to pick up a wading pool but arrived a little early so we played out in the grass next to the store until the opened.


That evening our friends and their two sons came over for dinner, a little water play, and some fireworks.

We walked down the the park for a nice cool evening and fireworks off of Mt. Rubidoux. This may have been the first time I have seen the show without stopage of the show to put a fire out.

We enjoyed our time with our new friends.

Easter 2012

These pictures are late, but I promised them to the Grandparents and Great-Grandparents.

Our little family went to Easter service on Saturday night and came home to have family dinner. While I cooked, Bug and Kevin played out back with her new ball. We ran into Target that day to replace my missing sunglasses and found this ball misplaced in the sunglasses section and she just fell in love with it.

On Easter morning we had a yummy brunch and our very first egg hunt. Lily had a blast excitedly showing off every egg she found.

She got new clips, some bunny graham crackers, and cheese crackers in her eggs.

She got a new bedtime story in her Easter basket.

That evening we went over to Aunt Rachel and Uncle Scott's house for dinner and another egg hunt.

But these weeks following Easter all Lily wants to do is hunt eggs. She found an empty egg carton in the recycle can and went around trying to find eggs. She was quite disappointed when she couldn't find any in the house.

Easter Sunday - 2011

We celebrated Easter Sunday with my sisters family this year. My sister lives a couple streets away (literally less than a mile) and while I love it for babysitting, swapping clothes, and borrowing numerous items, it has been great for holidays. I can cook things at my house and still serve them at her house while the dish is still warm. In fact, while my kitchen was being repaired, my mom took dirty dishes over to Rachel's house and brought them home washed.

Rachel hosted dinner and our friends came over (my best friend and hers.) The weather was cool in the morning, but by meal time (2 pm to fit around church services and nap times) the sun was out and it was beautiful. We moved tables outside and had a wonderful meal.

One of my favorite things about holiday gatherings, or a dinner party in general, is all the kids. It is sheer madness! There are seven kiddos between the four families, with all four of us having babies in 2010. There is crying, screaming, giggling, yelling, whining, jabbering, drooling, and I just love it! The kids play together and sat at the little picnic table (for a while, at least) for the meal. I'm excited for (and slightly dread) when the four babies will be running around together. It is a boy dominated circle, though, the only girls being Delaney, the oldest, and Lily.

After dinner we had a little egg hunt with dozens and dozens of plastic eggs. The kiddos loved it. Caleb and I watched the organized chaos. I promise he is started to get more hair, but it is really, really, blond.

Lily slept through most of the festivities, but awoke in time to play with some eggs. Her Easter bib was bought before she was born, but because Aunt Rachel just knew she was going to be a girl (even though the rest of us didn't have a clue,) she felt it okay to purchase the pink bib. She also adores the Ticklish Ducky Mimi sent her. It sings, flaps it's wings, and Lily just laughs and laughs.

We were able to grab a couple of shots of the cousins in their Easter best. I have chosen to share the picture where Lily looks the best. I have another one where the boys are looking at the camera, but all of Lily's chins are showing in that one.
We are excited for Easters to come where we get to explain to Lily why we celebrate. We are excited to share that because of God's love for us, He sent his son to die, death had no hold on Him and he rose from the dead three days later. We pray she accepts this gift God has presented and that she one day chooses to live her life for Him. Thank you, Jesus, for giving your life for us.

Christmas Festivities

We have been to a handful of parties and events this season, many of which I don't have pictures from. But because my blogs have turned into merely posting pictures for family to see, here are a few from December.

Us at Kevin's work Christmas Party.
Lily was the hit of the party; people Kevin didn't even know came up to talk to her.
After the Christmas Eve service at our new church building, we observed a Reed tradition of Mexican food for Christmas Eve. Grandma Peggy and Papa Rick came as well as Uncle David, Aunt Bethany and crew and four of the DeLeon bunch.

The day after Christmas we headed over to Kevin's sisters house to meet up with Kevin's parents and two sisters. Below are all three families.

Lily loves her new phone from her cousins. Anything that blinks and plays music usually has her attention.

On the 29th we celebrated Chritmas with the Reed family. We tried to get a picture with the three little ones . . . This is one of my favorites. Caleb was in awe of Lily's red dress and hair bow. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Unka Jon is one of Brendan's favorite people.

Daddy and Bug

We were so blessed once again by so many friends and family who continue to spoil our little girl. Thank you all for loving on us.

Turkey Day

We started our trip to Sacramento, as we started every road trip, with Sausage McMuffins with Egg. We loaded up all three of our children for the trek. Yes, we took our tiny puppies! They actually loved the car ride.
The trip which usually takes about 8 hours took closer to 10. The weather was bad and drivers weren't safe so there were tons of accidents. Close to Magic Mountain we were stopped for half an hour. We had no choice but to turn of the car and wait. Lily got a little restless but overall did wonderfully.

We had a great relaxing week but Thanksgiving was so much fun to have everyone around. Here I am with Bud. We went to his show on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. And even though it's not typically my scene, we had a nice time and it was a lot of fun to see Dogfood play. They put on a pretty good show.

My Grandma (Lily's G.G.)

Grammie got Lily a turkey book for Thanksgiving. She already likes books.

Her Thanksgiving jammies.

Lily and her Daddy

We had a really nice time. It was pretty cool and Pepa made a fire every night. We watched Toy Story 3 and I cried. We made Chex Mix and all kinds of goodies all week. Lily had a wonderful first Thanksgiving.

Rockin' Out

We don't get to see the Upland Gang as much as we would like to but we try to get together 2 or 3 times a year. (It's funny that we refer to them as the Upland Gang since none of them live in Upland anymore.) We met up at the Mitchums for dinner and games. But the games turned into Rockband on the Wii. It was very funny to watch the boys really get into it.

Cooper and Ashley hanging out.

Kevin on vocals and Dan on guitar.

Me and my blue eyed lover.

Rikki and Cooper.

Dan tried to get some studying in. I don't think he was very successful.

Here is the look when I ask the guys to smile.

I eventually got a good picture of the four.

Let It Snow

We got snow our last night at the condo in Tahoe. It started around noon and came down most of the evening. It was pretty dry, swirled in the wind, and was beautiful. Kevin and I took some pictures from the balcony outside our room. So cold. Lots of fun.