Tuesday, January 25, 2011

One Year Older and Wiser, Too

Steven hit the big 3-0 this weekend and we thought it would be a great opportunity to party.

Our party started off with a local 5k (for me, not Steve). I placed 3rd in my division with a PR of 21:08 and got my picture taken with former Kansas City Chiefs running back, Christian Okoye (the man behind the race).3rd Place with Christian Okoye

When I got home, Steven left to go skiing. Lucky for us, Mt. Baldy lets you go for free on your birthday.  And despite the fantastic 75* weather we’ve been having this January, there was still plenty of snow.

Mt Baldy

Most of our favorite UCLA friends were even able to attend the party that evening. It was great to get together again, especially since some we hadn’t seen in over a year.Steven's 30th Birthday partySteven's 30th Birthday boys

Celia Titera came to celebrate as well, even though it was her birthday, too.

Celia Birthday

It was a good excuse for Texas Sheet Cake.Steven Texas Sheet CakeBut then again, what isn’t? Cake

Friday, January 21, 2011

January Beach Day

We couldn't help but take advantage of the perfect 80 degree weather on Saturday

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We met up with Mac and Julie and headed over to their house for some awesome homemade sushi.

The boys had an unbelievable amount of fun together.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Catch-Up from Christmas

Between Rita, the accident, buying a new car, a wedding, birthdays (Liam's, mine, my dad's, and Mary Jane's and Steven's within the next few weeks), our 4th anniversary, a trip to Utah, and Christmas, we’ve had a busy month.

As promised, here’s a bit of our Christmas catch-up.

Our complex had a “Dinner with Santa”. Basically free OSF dinner and Santa happened to be there. We went for the free dinner. If you know me well at all, you’ll know I’m not a huge Santa fan. Then again, neither was little Liam:

SantaScared of Santa

Once he got a candy cane, things were MUCH better.

candy cane Candy Cane Face

Rita, the rat we bought when we lost our first baby, passed away on December 15th after a possible stroke. We knew she was getting older, and it was a blessing to have her passing before our trip, instead of during. We will miss her.

Steve’s youngest brother, Kevin got married on December 18th in SLC. Since Steven couldn’t really take much time off work, and finding a dog-sitter over the holidays is practically impossible, we drove to St. George on the 17th after a half day of work/errands. Luckily, Kevin and Mary Jane picked a 1:00 sealing time, so we didn’t even have to wake up particularly early before heading up, stopping at my parents’ house to drop off the dogs and get a quick haircut, and meet Kristi and the temple at 12:30 so she could watch the baby.

It was really nice to go to the temple again, and the reception was tons of fun. Liam especially liked the lights:

William at the Reception

All dressed up

And of course, his favorite person in the whole world (after Mom), Daniel.

Silly Garff cousinsGarff Cousins

He also spent about 20 minutes pushing chairs around and eating dinner (he ate a large adult portion of food and lemonade), but we were having too much fun watching that we couldn’t get any pictures.

And we all really like our new sister/aunt, Mary Jane.

New SIL

Steven had to fly back to work the day after the wedding and wouldn’t be back until Christmas Eve, so Liam and I spent some fun times meeting our new friend Jared Horrocks.

Baby Jared

And spending lots of time with his Kemp cousins.

Lucy and Liam

We mustn’t forget the Man Basket Society Annual Christmas Party. As always, a big hit. The theme this year was Fondue, and inadvertently “Domestic Goddess” as evidenced by the apron, soaps, Christmas towels, fancy dish gloves, and cookbook I received.

Man Basket Christmas 001


Not pictured, but we also went to Cafe Rio with Mike, Catherine, and Daniel. Liam ate his own meal (a quesadilla). Luckily for us, a Cafe Rio opens about 30 minutes away next week.

Christmas Eve morning, after a late night flight for Steven, we went out to breakfast with Mike Cook, and Cortney, Donovan, and Stella Wright. Unfortunately, we went too late for Eggs in the City, so settled for our old haunt, Blue Plate. Liam loved it (it was a toss up between the eggs and the tricycle).

Trike at Blue Plate

Christmas Eve night was spent at the Annual Kemp Family Christmas Party at my brother Philip’s house. As always, a big hit.

Liam especially loved spending time with his “big-boy” cousins:

Will and Liam Boy Cousins

And playing Christmas carols with Abby.

Abby and Liam Christmas Songs

My brothers Dan and Arthur put on a Christmas puppet show. It was pretty funny. Wish I videotaped it.

Puppet Show

Liam thought it was pretty interesting, too.

Behind the scenes

And so did all the grandkids, who then set out to do their own puppet show.

Grandkids puppet show

But they didn’t quite get the idea of hiding behind the stage.

Nate and the puppets

Baby’s 2nd Christmas was a hit. And contrary to popular belief, he did enjoy his presents more than the wrapping paper. But that's only because we are really good gift givers.

2nd Christmas Baby Stocking

But he enjoyed the candy quite a bit more.

Christmas Candy

After presents, we dropped the baby off at my parents’ house while they kindly watched him while we went skiing with the Garffs.

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My parents gave Liam some toys, but his favorite that day were the dinosaurs (seen here featured with his dinosaur suit from Angie, my friend from middle school).

Dinosaur


The Garff Family party was on Boxing day, since Kevin and Mary Jane didn’t get back from their honeymoon in time to celebrate earlier. This too, was lots of fun.


It also included lots of sugar. Liam liked to chase the cookies.


Crawling for cookies

After the party, we watched Kevin and Mary Jane open their wedding gifts. Liam couldn’t get enough of the tissue paper.


Liam also decided it was funny to smell my feet. I promise I had recently showered and have on clean socks. Not sure where this came from, but it was pretty funny.

Unfortunately, Steven had to get back to work. After a few hours of work and play, and quick stop at the Ryberg Family Christmas party on the 27th, we drove to St. George. We then spent the first half of my birthday driving home. Better than spending it with Steven at work all day, I guess. Luckily, we made it home without incident (unless you count leaving my wallet at my parents’ house).

Steven got me a pair of Nike Frees for my birthday. I am super excited to use them.

After work that day, my cute boys took me out for a steak dinner at Flemings.

birthday boys

Liam probably ate $10 of my $45 steak and quite a bit of Steve’s mac and cheese and his own truffle (and a good chunk of mine).. This kid has expensive taste.

All in all, it was a good holiday season. I’ll be glad to see it go to have life slow down a bit though. Until next year.

Monday, January 3, 2011

New Year’s Resolution #11, Keep up the blog

I often end up a few days late, but when I write down my resolutions, and make them public, I tend to do a better job of keeping them.  I have picked 11 to work on this year.

1. PR in race (preferably my half marathon on Saturday)

2. Teach Liam to walk

3. Wean baby from nursing and pacifier

4. Lose 9 lbs.

5. Pay off car (ideally by June in case we decide to move when our lease is up)

6. Pay back our emergency fund (after our crazy December, it needs some padding).

7. Go biking/hiking/insert other exercise-related activity at least once a month as a family.

8. Try 100 new recipes---tested #1 yesterday (baked chocolate pudding) from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook that Catherine and Michael gave me for my birthday. Yummy.

9. Do a better job of staying within the budget

10. Finally make/buy stockings I love (a project I’ve been intending to do for years).

11. Keep up with the blog (i.e. once per week or more as needed)