Favorite photos of 2009 (click to see it bigger)

Life held still

A Year in Review

It feels too simplified to write a short summary of our year when there's so many adventures and so much to celebrate. So, take a few moments and enjoy our year in review!!

Of course, our big news this year is that we added a new member to our family, Sophia Justice!! She is now 8 1/2 months old & growing quickly. She rolls from one side of the room to the other, but no crawling yet. She loves to spray with her tongue, but it makes quite a mess when she's eating. She & her sister have a special bond... and no one can make her laugh quite like her sister!!

Zoe will turn 5 next month-- where has time gone? This last year was a big one for her. She learned to write, started preschool, chopped off 8 inches of her hair and many more leaps and bounds. Spending a lot of time with her, we've tackled a lot of fun things together like learning to make oragami paper boats and tongue twisters. Love it!! Zoe is sweet and giving... and she's a really good friend.

Matt has had lots of adventures this year. He had a blast when he went to Comic-con for the first time in July. He continues to enjoy his radio work... especially when he can be creative & fun. He also celebrated one year of Level 6 radio in August. (I can brag on that. He really is brilliant in his creative ventures! I'm constantly amazed.) Matt started training in martial arts when we first moved here, and is now an assistant instructor. By the end of this month (December), he will have finished teaching his first class in Yakzir Maka.

I am extremely thankful for all the blessings in my life as well. I am really loving my job at Life Journey Christian Church. I love building creativity, community & communications at our church, but I'm also happy that it's flexible within our life. One of my favorite things I do is a bi-monthly coffee & music night where we encourage people to decompress by art, journaling & conversation. It's been a blast advocating for artists & helping people connect. This year I also started my own etsy store selling record clocks and I also worked awhile with Solorzano Photography doing promotions work (that's where my great photos come from!). I've become more and more of a committed scrapbooker. I love telling my family's story & knowing that we can look back on it in future years is very meaningful.

This has been a year to remember in many ways. We did some traveling-- to Michigan for my brother Andrew's wedding (on which we were able to go also to WI & MN), I traveled with the girls to ND, we made several trips to the coast & to the mountains near us, had the opportunity to see some of the cool stuff in L.A. We also loved that many of our family members made it out here to visit this year! We continue to grow closer and laugh as a family. We love seeing Zoe develop her humor and creativity (however, imagination also works for creative cover ups-- not as fun). It's so fun to see Sophia grow & learn. We are often singing or sparring at home or we snuggle up with our tv blanets watching a favorite family movie. We love taking walks around home or finding some way to discover together and adventure. And every year we grow more and more in love with tacos... and Jesus.

Happy new year everyone! Hope it is full of fresh eyes, hope & growth. Love you!!

Zoe's first Christmas program

Can you find her? Isn't she adorable?!

Of course we loved it, all those kids singing those songs... we couldn't get enough & could've watched all day. Our friends & fellow Zoe-fans, Dan & Erin, joined us to watch. It made Zoe feel very special to have an entourage.

It was so sweet & Zoe was so proud of herself. See her excited face after her program?!

Santa & a surprise horse drawn carriage ride

A few weeks ago, our friends Rhiannon & Alex Solorzano (Solorzano Photography) were doing some photos with Santa in downtown. We were excited to bring the girls to get their picture & to also have Zoe bring a letter to santa (see a few posts back).

It added a cherry to top of the night, when we found out there would be free horse-draw carriage rides in downtown!! We waited for the carriage for 45 minutes and finally got on with some friends that joined us. I have always wanted to ride on a carriage with Matt. It was a magical night!!

Popcorn Garland

In order to relax and enjoy the simple things of this season, I made a list a few weeks ago of some things i wanted to make sure to do including making popcorn garland.

Zoe and I spent the evening the other day making one!! It was fun & pretty!! Here are a few pictures of our experience.

We also took a peaceful family walk earlier this week to scope out the lights in the neighborhood. It was really neat to relax and explore. It's fun that so many people decorate for christmas. It makes you wonder how much the beauty is appreciated for all that effort of getting it ready. Fun times this season!

Christmas bonus time!

And so I spend my money here

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Do I get a free shirt now?

Eating Soup with a Fork, one of many reasons to laugh

I'm sitting here eating my lunch- left-overs from last nights dinner. It was my attempt to make chicken noodle soup. I didn't use a recipe and think I did fairly well ... save for my most serious mistake of using the most inappropriate noodles: way too many, thick and long. . I call it noodles with water slop... and I have to eat it with a fork.

So many of these things happen in my daily life. For instance, the other day I was making jam thumbprint cookies. The recipe called for parchment paper beneath the cookies. Thinking it was the same as wax paper, I continued and the cookies we're looking beautiful... until I tried to remove them. I was only able to save 6 of the 2 dozen cookies.

I choose to laugh at these moments... or at least try. If I didn't, I would be losing time, energy, money & the joy of that moment.

Here are some of the things I plan to attack over the next few weeks will document as many as I can:

1. String popcorn garland for the birds
2. Cut paper snowflakes for the windows
3. Drive around and look at the lights.
4. Make colorful paper chains to hang
5. Watch as many Christmas movies as we can-- already watched ELF & The Very 1st Noel
6. Have the girls decorate the backs of our Christmas cards
7. Make a dough ornament together to symbolize this year for your family.
8. Celebrate the meaning behind the traditions
9. Make sugar plums.
10. Play holiday music nonSTOP
11. Wear jingle bells while hanging around the house
12. Play games together (board, WII, kids).
13. Read the original Christmas story.
14. Go outside and find the North Star and talk with the kids about what it must have been like way back then
15. Take the kids to see Santa (we did last Friday. See Zoe's Santa letter in previous post. She was so adorable!!)

Zoe's letter to Santa

Our sweet Zoe seems to be so naturally giving. For Christmas this year, everything she was asking Santa for are things for others. She is asking for kitties so that Chart has other kitties to be with. She also is asking for a doll house to then give to her dear friend Sarah. I don't think she asked for one thing just for her!! Sweetheart. We took her to meet Santa and she was so sweet with him (she did want to show Santa her dance moves, that was humorous). She has heard some songs about Santa and is really concerned about being nice. We are not trying to promote the idea of Santa, but she is convinced so I'm not wanting to heartily pop her bubble either. It is cute to see her tender heart translate the season.

Dear Santa,

I'll want some kittens for Christmas. I really do! But I don't want Chart to be mad. But guess WHAT Santa. I want like FIFTY kittens or 12 even or whatever number you want! And when I see that sack I'll know there will be kittens in there-- if it's moving. And also, guess WHAT! I'm also giving YOU a present. And it's for some kids to bring home and it's carebears that are ornaments and it's for my friend Sarah.

Zoe

Thanksgiving with friends

I was grateful for the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with friends this year. Being far away from family & most of our friends, we were happy to join some local friends for our Thanksgiving. We were given the task of cooking the turkey. Though we had never made a turkey for a large group, we'd found an incredible recipe which we kindly nicknamed BACON BIRD. The turkey was one of the highlights for sure... but even more so was enjoy a great meal & games with friends.

sister love

On the trail:)

We spent a beautiful veterans day exploring tehachapi and the surrounding area. it was... PERFECT!!! YAY!!

Mom and Zoe at skate night

Yip Yip Uh-huh, Uh-huh

I cannot believe I didn't wrote about our most wonderful Halloween adventure to date. This year for Halloween, we went nostalgic... at least nostalgic for Matt & I. We were the yip-yips. Need to be schooled on who the yip yips are?? Our dear friend Jeny helped us sew the costumes. Matt & I glued the eyes & cut strips at the bottoms. We had a fabulous time on Halloween showing off our costumes and even won a costume contest with the local newspaper. Of course, many of hte kids didn't know who we were and even guessed we were cookie monster & elmo. No no no no. Even though we weren't necessarily recognized, it was GOOD TIMES!!

Tambourine Amazement

I had the idea this morning to see if Sophia would like to play with Zoe's instruments. She was in love-- amazed and bright eyed. This video was later in the day.

I Pledge Allegience

To our surprise, Zoe looked at the flag & recited the pledge of allegiance.

Sophia's Sweet Giggles

Cloud Shapes

My work day was today. It is always refreshing to focus on the one thing in front of me. When I picked Zoe up, we saw some fun clouds. I remember being a little girl, lying in the grass and imagining what all those cloud shapes could be. Here in Bakersfield, we don't see many fun cloud shapes... mostly just smoggy air. To my delight and without prompt, Zoe started imagining what the cloud shapes looked like- grass, no popcorn, no a woman with a flower in her hair.

A little while later as we were driving, I thought to ask her if there was anyone we could pray for. Right away, she remembered her friend Jeremy's dad was sick. We each took a turn praying for him.

Treasured moments.

He's at work

Yesterday Zoe was pretending to be Ariel from the Little Mermaid. We have the costume, so she slipped it on and was walking around pretending to be this princess. I asked her if she swam. "Not anymore!" "Oh, do you have a prince?" "Yes, but he's at work."

It made me smile because I thought she meant her prince would have to work just like her daddy had to. Later when I was telling Matt this story, it dawned on me what she meant . After I was done telling her daddy how Zoe's prince was at work, Zoe proudly said... "And that's you!!" It wasn't that she recognized that often "princes" have to work, but that daddy was her prince!!

Cute, right?

Zoe's depiction of Micky Mouse

I know every parents is impressed with their kids' artistic capabilities, but I'm telling you, Zoe's got something special!!! Here's her depiction of Mickey Mouse. (Some of it got cut off in the scanner, fyi) A masterpiece!!

Elements organizing a morning

My Current Status

Thanks for the idea, Candra!


I am thinking... is it okay to be selfish? I don't want this me-time to end!



I am grateful for... this life. I have been overwelmed lately at all that God has given us. I have two amazing jobs, matt's job is amazing, bakersfield is amazing is so many ways. I am very grateful!


I am wearing... cas' mommy clothes. Had to change a few times today!


I am creating... a new blog header & deep thoughts

I am reading... blogs, email, facebook




I am hearing... my own thoughts. (very unusual indeed!)



Around the house... lots of projects and a mess. But I don't care.

One of my favorite things... cherry sours. I am eating right now, a gift from my mom.

A picture to share... This was a joyfilled day:

Appreciation

I am quick to downgrade our life in my mind, always wanting perfection... or wanting things to go back to the way they once were in my idealistic mind. I've been realizing the last few days, that no my life is not what I dreamed up. It is WAY better than I ever could've imagined. I am such a blessed lady!!!

I am blessed by my wonderful husband. He works hard to give me everything I could ever want or need. I am overwelmed at how completely awesome he is! For my birthday he gave me the best gifts I could ever have-- community & tools for expression. He gave me a new printer for my creative projects, my favorite book & a party (see below). He also bought me a cake and took incredible care of me. What a guy!!

Speaking of which, I am blessed by community. We had taco night on Sunday with some of our good friends down here. It was the one thing I asked for for my birthday. It made me realize how we have many wonderful people here who love us and we are really really blessed by them!!! YAY for community!!

My girls are so awesome. When Zoe was born & was such a super chill baby, people kept warning us that our 2nd one would be a hellion. Well, two for two cuz Sophia rocks too!!! I am so grateful for my chill & giving little girls. Zoe constantly amazes me with her nurturng she is and she is so full of good ideas. When Sophia smiles, it pierces my heart with joy. I love those girls.

I feel really blessed by Bakersfield. Though the climate isn't ideal, the people we've met, the church we are plugged into, the slower pace of life is such a blessing. The whole culture and geography and weather and people are so different, but we really full blessed by the people we are in our life now and the church we've found (so down to earth & practical) & our home & everything.

I am so so so so grateful for my jobs. I have the two most flexible incredible jobs in the world. I couldn't have asked for better jobs if I had tried. I get to be the director of creativity & community AND the director of public relations and marketing. I get to both of these within my life, so I don't miss a beat.

I am grateful!! I feel so blessed. I am thankful for the love, the community and the life I get. WHOO HOO!!

Sophia Tries Food

The first try!


She did pretty well! Ate most of it despite many odd looks on her face! :)

Happy Birthday Grampy

two

We are having a great time on our trip. I knew it would be a problem, but I'm already not wanting to go home! If life were meant to be a vacation, no one would eat, so it'll be okay.

We just spend a few days with Matt's family in Rice Lake, WI. Well, first we drove for two days to get there. Matt's mom, Jo, picked us up in Glen Arbor and on day one, we trekked to Green Bay. That night we stayed in a super sweet hotel with a water park in it. It was a blast to play. I loved that Jo watched the girls a bit and I was able to play with Matt & Erika. That was Monday. Tuesday we arrived in Rice Lake mid afternoon. We spent time all Tuesday & Wednesday in Rice Lake. We visited a fun coffee shop, walked over a scary but rad railroad bridge, matt enjoyed movies and snacks at karls new house, erika and i took photos of the girls... oooh and we ate kabobs.

We spent our first day in the twin cities today. Our first stop, of course, was CARIBOU!! Man how we miss that place!! I would live anywhere as long as it had a Caribou! We had fun visited our Alma Matter, Northwestern, and seeing some former professors as well as a friend that works there. We visited Como Zoo. Zoe liked the zebras. We spent a short time at Borders, then went to see our friends new teeny tiny baby. To end our day, we picked up some mojos pizza. It rocks. What a great day!!

A quick note from our Midwest Tour

As I'm waiting for photos to upload, I thought I would give a quick trip update. Presently, I am sitting in Cherry Republic, this amazing store with samples and everything cherry you could ever imagine. Matt is here as is my sister Jenn who is reading as write. Sophia is sleeping in her carseat. Everyone thinks she is just an angel. I agree that she very much is. My babies are perfect and chill. My brother Andrew got married yesterday. As weddings often are, they are very surreal. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL-- simple, classy, perfect. It was very fitting of Andrew & Laura. Zoe was a flower girl with her cousin Miah. They were such hams and did SO good!! Zoe is so precious, she seems to know when things are very important. I'm proud of that girl. We've been enjoying some time perusing Glen Arbor but mostly just Cherry Republic. Have I mentioned MMMMMMMMM! Tomorrow a.m. we head to Green Bay, WI to visit some family and eventually we'll end up in Rice Lake, WI... then Minneapolis, MN home of Caribou Coffee & Substance Church. We're having a pree' good time exploring and viewing a part of the country we've never seen before and trying to enjoy time with the extended family with the help of a lot of caffeine and a little bit of wine. :) More later!

Seven Years Later

Becky and I just finished watching the 'ol wedding tape. It has probably been 2 or 3 years since I saw it last, and in watching it now, I made a number of thoughts, memories, and observations, that for some stupid reason, I decided to post here.

-We realized tradition is dumb. We did a few things our own way, non-traditionally ( like exiting the sanctuary through lightsabers), but there were a number of things that were done for the sake of tradition alone, things we really don't care about (like walking on flower petals and the wedding party acting so dang somber).

-I could TOTALLY take the me of 7 years ago in a fight. I mean, I'd seriously mess myself up without even breaking a sweat.-I think I only recognized about 64% of the people who attended our wedding. Who were the other 36%? No idea.

-Our wedding procession was slow. Not like procession slow, but like a shift-in-the-earths-polarity- tripled-earths-gravity slow. For a moment I thought the tape was not playing right. Nope, they really did move that slowly.

-Let's face it, since it's been 7 years I think it's ok - chances are we returned your gift for store credit. It's ok though, we used the money to dye our hair. Mine was blue. Thanks!

-Our plan had never been to have a DJ for our reception, we had intended to have live music, and went so far as to contact a few rock bands. Including Rebecca St. James. I don't mind telling you I'm glad she didn't work out. Although, we may have subbed her in for some of the song performances.

-At our reception, despite clear instructions that we would not kiss for the traditional tapping of glasses but only for songs that included the word love, that was still too much for some drunken relatives to understand as the tapping never did cease.

-A bingo game was going on on the other side of the reception building. The announcing was airing through both sides, so the opening prayers etc were interupted by the ocassional "B-9...THATS B-9"

-Pastor Bob rules. Hell ceases to exist any time he speaks.

-Many people felt the need to tell us that the raging hail storm during our reception wasn't a bad sign. It was the worst we had in years. What they failed to realize is that we couldn't have been more happy about it.

On a side note, it was also interesting to see not only who showed up for the wedding (still no idea on the 36%- why were people we didn't know invited?) but also those who were involved in the wedding party. Some have stayed true friends throughout, some not so much. Ever since that day 7 years ago, we have talked about doing a 10 year anniversary the way our wedding would have been with no outside influence. That said, go ahead and plan on meeting us in 3 years at Eagle Castle in Paso Robles for a decidedly non-traditional combination of wine & cheese, hip hop, and cage fighting.

Breakfast. Reeses puffs in a waffle bowl

Remembering the Good

It's been a trying few weeks (one of those season of one thing after another, but hopefully just a short season!), so I thought I'd take a moment to remember all the wonderful things that haven happening.

I feel really old now that I'm a parent because I cannot get over how fast time flies. This summer has gone by so fast! But with summers like Bakersfield's, that's not such a bad thing!

Matt's sister Erika is presently visiting. Okay that's a lie she is presently in LA-- but come Saturday she will be back for two more weeks. I have very much been enjoying her company as we've been visiting & co-creating and she has been extremely helpful. What an awesome lady Erika is! She is now a high school graduate & it's very exciting to see all the possibilities that lies before her. I'm totally excited to see how her future unravels!

Matt has been teaching a beginners class for Yakzir Maka. Teaching is a natural skill to Matt. He has about 6 beginner students in his class including Erika & I. Zoe usually hangs out during class & watches a movie and we try to gear Sophia up to relax. Most weeks it works very well. The class is personally kicking my butt, but I could be in better shape. :)

I started a new job! Doing marketing for our friends at Solorzano Photography. HOLY CRAP, I'm doing marketing for the brilliantly creative friends Alex & Rhiannon Solorzano! I've seen their work first hand at our maternity & baby shoots, as well as seen many examples of their versatility & creativity. I have been getting the ball rolling the last few weeks & I'm excited for what we're doing.

We've been here in Bakersfield almost two years- unreal. It's hard to believe it's already been that long. At the same time, it feels like it's been forever! Moving far away from everything we've ever known has been such an adventure, and we've just recently been feeling familiarity. I've been smiling a lot lately to see us engaged more deeply in community, in adventures, and just feeling more at home. Next month my brother, Andrew, is getting married in MI. We are roadtripping to MN after the wedding to spend some time in our old stomping ground. It will be the first time we've all been back since 2007. How will it make us feel? Good? bad? Which place will feel more like home? We shall see. Just a few weeks until we can consume Caribou!!

Matt is in the other room enjoy his birthday present, a new BluRay player that plays Netflix & Pandora. I'm really never all that impressed when it comes to technology (oh look, they made another thing) but that player is really cool!! We've both been really enjoying it. YAY!

Signing off now. NIGHT

Zoe's turn. Best idea ever. Zoe loves it!

We made paper boats!

First experience with ice cream truck

Record Time Clocks on Etsy!

Today, I am proud to be launching my Etsy store!! I've been making record clocks for over 5 years & have a blast doing them. I also love to make personalized clocks. Check out Record Time Clocks on Etsy!!

Zoe's prayer

Daddy's magic book

Art with Zoe

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!

Zoe- 4 1/2
Sophia- 3 mo.

We are celebrating with burgers & snaps this afternoon. Tonight, we will listen to Sanctus Real & watch fireworks.

HOME OF THE BRAVE, LAND OF THE FREE!!

Happy birthday usa!

going coastal

So, Bakersfield is hot. I mean, I still prefer the triple digit heat over the 90s with the midwest humidity, but come on, there is no reason for 108 degrees. Thats just nature being unreasonable. So this last weekend, Bakersfield was like 'hey, I'm 106 today' so we were all like 'later, B.'

With that we made an impulsive decision to hit the central coast. Our favorite central coast town is Cambria, which is also the closest. That fact may or may not be the reason it is our favorite. They have one main street full of shops run by old people who have retired to the coastal town. You find shops with odd inventory, like window signs advertising fudge, pirate flags, and greek fishman hats all in the same store.

We've taken Zoe a few times to the ocean, but this was Sophias first time. Mostly she slept on a blanket on the sand. I imagine she got worn out from tying her to the top of a local surfers board for a while, which she seemed to enjoy.

After soaking in some rays (sun, not sting) we strolled down the boardwalk. We stopped to watch a lone surfer for a little while, not because of his sweet moves on the board, but because he was just sitting there in the ocean, occasionally slapping the water. I would have been happy assuming he was nuts, but then we noticed fins. Lots of them. He was watching dolphins. It was our first time seeing dolphins, outside of sea world anyways. They were swimming around in front of the surfer. Even the occasional seal popped his head up. We were excited to see them, and stood for a long time watching. We've seen the elephant seals before, but they have their own viewing area where they all hang out and generally be fat. This felt different, it was more...natural, I guess. The temperature was perfect too, it is normally pretty cold and very windy, but this day, it was like someone had the AC gently running.

We finished off the day with pizza from a local shop outfitted with 'old west' decor and mediocre customer service; but really good pizza.

All in all a fun trip. I hope I never have to settle for lakes again.

FW: Hungry

Hungry baby... Got this message from matt while i was on other side of house:)

Airplane

Fans are just so interesting.

Zoe says when you put your thumb up, you like mac and cheese... Or anything!

ODE TO MATT

I couldn't be more proud of the dad Matt has grown into. It was easy to see that Matt would be a fun dad. I didn't foresee his strong desire to protect & provide for his family.



I am so thankful he is always looking for extra little ways he can provide. Not only looking for ways to often earn a little extra income but he also looks for fun things for us to experience. Matt really has a strong desire to take care of all the members of his family and do it wholly. If there's something he knows we want or need, he works real hard to try to provide in that way- even if that means to do it creatively!


And Matt has always had an interest in martial arts. But after becoming a dad, he wants to keep training his mind and body to be able to better protect his family. Matt has been very blessed to find a wonderful martial arts program that challenges him physically, provides community & keeps him on his toes. Not only does Matt want this training to be able to help him better protect his family, but he wants to be available for justice wherever the need pops up. I'm so proud of him!


What I think is fun is seeing the girls grow in their trust in him. Of course more so with Zoe-- she knows there are certain things she can only get from daddy. Daddy is strong, daddy is fun, daddy takes her on special adventures. The joy on her face when daddy comes home is so perfect and priceless. Daddy is something special. It's my favorite when Matt takes the girls on very special dates and helps them to understand they are lovely. This is so important & valuable!


Matt, you are a great dad!!! Thanks for being my partner in parenting, life and love!!! You are the best!

Gotta go ta North Dakota!

Zoe, Sophia & I just returned from our somewhat spontaneous trip to North Dakota. We had a really nice time! Highlights include:

Swimming

Great Aunt Brenda's Farm

Hanging out with cousins

Dakota's Birthday

North Dakota Sunsets

Also, I was really excited to find this fun little tea shop in Bismarck. It's called Steep Me A Cup of Tea. I found a fabulous tea there called Blue Clouds over Dakota. They had several other ND themed teas including Dakota Sunrise & Dakota Sunset (with chocolate hues). If you're in Bismarck & love tea, check it out.

sophia's first captured smiles

Afternoon well spent

FW: ZOE

ZOE did this all on her own!

@ 4 weeks, 1 day

Cooking with Grampy

Grampy's visiting and loves to cook! Zoe LOVES to help!! Good memories!