real food for mother and baby

This book looks good. I read her other book Real Food What to Eat and Why and liked it. Emeri is just starting solids now so Britt would probably enjoy this book too.

Matt

So happy we got to celebrate with you on your Birthday last Wed. My favorite thing about you

"your kindness." So grateful to have had you in my life for the last 25 years. 

Love you!

a poem

I have been meaning to post this poem Danielle wrote when she was about 18. I couldn't believe she wrote this when she was so young. She is a really good writer but now she has to do most of her writing for work. When she was going to school she was able to do a lot of writing in her classes and this is one of my favorite pieces. A tragic poem, with beautiful descriptive images.

a most visible warning comes

in the glare of headlights approaching

I squeeze my eyelids shut

place one hand on window glass

imagine the accident happening

I do not think the blood would scare me

in fact I might like the rush

of steel crashing all around us

car consumed by the awesome light

of flames, blooming against a midnight sky

I would sit like a pincone in a fireplace blaze

watching our own personal fourth of july

we could have a summer holiday

in spring. death, a courtly host for our party

I imagine him dressed nicely in black

serving lemonade and asking for a dance

looking just like you the night we met

I remember your cologned approach

anthracite eyes, and knowledgeable hands.

all these less visible warning signs

I should have known you but I ignored.

with you, all collisions are carefully planned

and there is no such thing as an accident

you chose me for firewood, pinecone lady

wrapped up in your sheets,

or sitting in your front seat.

where now I open my eyes to find

your swerve to the right was successful 

you celebrate your save with a sigh, and thank god.

but I am quiet, the other party sounded fine to me

a glorious party in hell. we could make the deal final

a wedding of sorts. remove and eye

set it on a band of gold

a fitting ring for a devil bride

christmas wrapping

I love Christmas wrapping and seeing how everyone wraps their presents. This probably stems from when I was little and my grandmother would bring her beautifully wrapped presents to our house on Christmas morning. To her it was an art form and she never failed to impress me. Here is a round up of some pretty packages this year.

via: ohsobeautifulpaper

Miu Miu inspired via: 100layercake

via: apartmenttherapy 

Fifth and Hazel via: houseofsmith's

via: The City Cradle from theageoftheaquarius 

Couldn't resist putting up these Pom's via Babble which my mom used back in the 60's. We were on a really tight budget and all she could afford to wrap with was yarn. I will never forget her sitting down and showing me how to make these little puff balls out of yarn. When I was in Anthropologie recently they were also selling a lot of yarn like items to wrap with.

 Lastly these vintage stamps also from Anthropologie would be pretty on packages too.

paper-stitch love

This is sweet.

via: 100layercake

thanksgiving day fun

We had the happiest time together this year because Danielle was with us after 9 long years of being in DC on Thanksgiving. So excited she lives in Santa Barbara now and we will be able to spend all the holidays together! We went to my brother's house and Terri cooked a delicious turkey with the rest of us bringing side dishes. With the five of us, spouses, our kids and spouses and their children we are getting to be quite the big group. To add to the fun we have 3 more babies on the way. Laci, Aubrey and Emileah due in May, June and July. Some highlights of our day.

my girls and their guys

Noah hanging out with Liam who was a little under the weather.

Noah soon finds another partner in crime Liam's little sister Kenna. 

They were having quite the time together.

Kenna making it clear that the women in our family can hold their own with the guys!

As you can see from here Emeri loves being in a sling. Brittany didn't bring hers that night but thankfully Aubrey loaned her one she had. We had been trying to get her to sleep for quite some time but she was resisting. In about 2 minutes after this picture was taken she was fast asleep. Since she was a newborn her favorite thing is to ride around on mommy and fall asleep in her baby carrier. 

Lastly I am so thankful for these two sweet little ones!

Happy Birthday Brittany!

What a difference a year makes. This was last years Birthday with Britt. She had a date with her IV pole to help her sustain her pregnancy because of her Hyperemesis. No fun at all, but the result of her hanging tough and making it through her difficult pregnancy.

This beautiful sight, her holding her sweet little baby girl in her arms. Sometimes life can be so painful as it was last year but other times like this year it can literally take your breath away with JOY!!

Halloween 2011

A look back at some of my favorite photos from Halloween week.

Emeri looking up to her big brother before heading out to Trick or Treat.

Noah loves everything about flying since his dad has his pilot license and he has been around planes since he was very little. So it was fitting he dressed up as a vintage pilot for Halloween.

Emeri having fun on her very first visit to the pumpkin patch.

Noah and Emeri with their very own pumpkins. The pumpkin masterpiece 

on the white cake plate was painted by Noah :)

Lastly, love this pic I got of the whole family!

party hat

Adorable party hat from Oh Happy Day!

my buddy

I spent Halloween week at Britt’s and I got a ton of cute pics but this one of Noah is one of my favorites. He found a fun backdrop for his stickers and had me take his picture. Noah and I hung out together a lot because Emeri is nursing and likes to be in a baby carrier on mommy. One thing I love about Noah is how he connects so well with people. Every morning when he woke up he would call out grandma, grandma and then come downstairs to find me. He would come and lay down with me and give me a few minutes to wake up. Noah’s an early riser, as in sometimes it’s still dark outside! Then he would say to me do you want to watch TV or eat.....your choice! Noah entertains Emeri too as a lot of times she will start giggling and I look down and Noah is doing a funny little dance or something for her. It is just the sweetest thing. I had just a perfect week with the whole family. Going to the pumpkin patch, painting pumpkins with Noah, trick or treating, seeing Noah play baseball, cooking some yummy meals, shopping at the new Hobby Lobby with Britt, photo shoots at the Lake and loving on Noah and Emeri all week long. Today when Britt called me Noah said he wanted to talk to me. He got on the phone and asked me when was I coming back. I told him I would always be coming back to see him forever and ever! Then he said I’m sad that you are not here now.....awww that just broke my heart but the truth of it is I feel just the same way. It’s hard to say goodbye even for short times to people you love so much!

Danielle & Tom....Engaged!

So happy that Danielle and Tom are officially engaged! The weekend after Danielle arrived in Santa Barbara Tom popped the question. Such a lovely surprise, as we didn't have any idea this was coming. I do have to brag just a smidge since I was the one that set them up and thought they would be perfect for each other. At the time everyone was laughing at me {about it working out between them} including Danielle. I met Tom before Danielle and it was like meeting the male version of her they have so much in common. In spite of people saying opposites attract I think the more you are alike the better the relationship goes. They are definitely proof of that. We are already good friends with Tom's parents and hang out with them often so no awkward in-law meeting has to happen. I love this picture above of the two of them. Kendra, Tom's sister took it at a wedding they all attended together. Now on to one of my favorite activities becoming immersed in all things wedding. Danielle and I have already started exchanging pictures of wedding dresses we find that we love. Can't wait!

hazards of confidence

Do you know how often confident professionals advising you are correct about their judgments? I often wonder about this especially with the ones that are overconfident. I also think about this with people that are so positive they know the truth about everything. Interesting article about this in the New York Times by Daniel Kahneman. It's entirety here and his summary below....


"We often interact with professionals who exercise their judgment with evident confidence, sometimes priding themselves on the power of their intuition. In a world rife with illusions of validity and skill, can we trust them? How do we distinguish the justified confidence of experts from the sincere overconfidence of professionals who do not know they are out of their depth? We can believe an expert who admits uncertainty but cannot take expressions of high confidence at face value. As I first learned on the obstacle field, people come up with coherent stories and confident predictions even when they know little or nothing. Overconfidence arises because people are often blind to their own blindness.

True intuitive expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes. You are probably an expert in guessing your spouse’s mood from one word on the telephone; chess players find a strong move in a single glance at a complex position; and true legends of instant diagnoses are common among physicians. To know whether you can trust a particular intuitive judgment, there are two questions you should ask: Is the environment in which the judgment is made sufficiently regular to enable predictions from the available evidence? The answer is yes for diagnosticians, no for stock pickers. Do the professionals have an adequate opportunity to learn the cues and the regularities? The answer here depends on the professionals’ experience and on the quality and speed with which they discover their mistakes. Anesthesiologists have a better chance to develop intuitions than radiologists do. Many of the professionals we encounter easily pass both tests, and their off-the-cuff judgments deserve to be taken seriously. In general, however, you should not take assertive and confident people at their own evaluation unless you have independent reason to believe that they know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, this advice is difficult to follow: overconfident professionals sincerely believe they have expertise, act as experts and look like experts. You will have to struggle to remind yourself that they may be in the grip of an illusion." Daniel Kahneman

illustration : via new york times

october desktop calendar

I love my October desktop calendar from Mexican artist Geninne Zlatkis. I can't believe there is only a little over a week left to enjoy it until November is here and the holidays are upon us. So excited for this time of the year especially now since my whole family is living close by!
via: poppytalk

knott's berry farm

We have been talking about going to Knott's Berry Farm for sometime now and last weekend we got it together with Britt and the kids to go. The last time we went was when my kids were teenagers so we were curious to check it out again. We love Disneyland but wanted to see how Camp Snoopy was for the little ones. Well it turned out Camp Snoopy had tons of rides for kids Noah's age and unlike Disneyland there were no long lines. I hate waiting in those long lines at Disneyland with small children. Noah has no fear and even went on a couple of big kid rides like the Log Cabin. We all had a wonderfully fun day especially Noah, as you can see from the highlights below.

baby announcement

So in love with this baby announcement. One of the cutest I have seen.
via: sweetestoccasion 

Steve Jobs....1955-2011

Wow so hard to believe he is gone. One of my husbands favorite visionaries ever. If you lived in my house you heard about Steve Jobs often. I was slow coming to Apple products but one of my very favorite materialistic things I own now is my iPhone. It is hard to believe I can do so many things with one little phone. It is like my right hand and I would have a very hard time living without it. He was much more then his products though and an inspiration to so many.
This is one of my favorite quotes from him. Excerpt from his Stanford University commencement address, 2005. His entire moving speech here.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." -Steve Jobs


photos: New York Times

pre-school photo book

I love this idea of making a photo book when your child starts pre-school. This mom went to her son's pre-school and took photos of everything there, printed them and then labeled them in Picnik. Then she put them all together to make a little book. She said it is her son's favorite book to read with her and she finds him looking through it all the time too.
from modernparentsmessykids via sayyestohoboken

home sweet home

Danielle moved this last week to Santa Barbara and as you can see from this photo she is already enjoying being back in California and close to the beach. We are so happy she is here to stay! We had a fun reunion with Britt and the kids at her house in Temecula. We got a lot of quality time with Emeri and Noah. Britt made us a delicious taco dinner a favorite of all of ours. One night we spent hilariously going over photos of my brothers and sister when I was young. My brother Bill who is really involved in family history took all of our old slides from the 50's and 60's and put them on DVD and gave us all a copy. We are so grateful to him as these pictures are priceless! Let it just be said that the styles we wore as kids back then kept us laughing for a long time. After we left Britt's Danielle and I spent an entire day and night at South Coast Plaza {something we have not done in a while}. Danielle was shopping for a couch and we fell in love with this one at Crate and Barrel that I think she will be getting. She also found some things in Zara and Madewell and I got my favorite lunch the Turkey Cranberry Sandwich at Nordstroms cafe, yum! On Tuesday my Mom took Danielle and I to Park Avenue one of my favorite new restaurants that I found in Sunset magazine. They have their own garden so you can get a delicious fresh and local salad. The decor is Mad Men like from the 60's so it  is obliviously my fave. I am so excited that with Danielle close like this we will be able to have weekends like this a lot more often.

Hello Kitty entirely made out of Tuna cans on display at South Coast Plaza

Garden at Park Avenue

Beautiful fresh salad straight from the Garden