Photo Tour--For All of You Who Wish You Were Here Visiting Sunny So. Cal.

Steven's mother, Karen Garff came to visit this week.  In preparation for her coming, we used this opportunity as a goal to get the house (mostly) put together.  At least as put together as possible while trying to care for a 3 month old at the same time.

Per popular request, I have taken pictures of our new home.  I LOVE LIVING IN A HOME!  We used to live in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment with a small patio.  We have filled up the entire 3-bedroom house with our stuff (garage and closets, too!); only purchasing a few small items such as shower curtains, photo frames, and a bookshelf for the baby's room. How did we fit it at the old place?  Let's just say that Steven and I are good at Tetris...

When we first got married.  We had no furniture for a few days, save a folding table/chair set that we borrowed from Steve's uncle, Dave. I had the forethought to take pictures of our humble beginnings to remind us of our many blessings (yes, we slept on the floor in the University Village hard carpet.  I would NOT recommend it).  This was before we moved into the 1-bedroom in Palms and moved the dogs down to CA.

Are you ready for the grand tour?  Follow me into the living room...

Thanks Mike and Bri for the couch! Glad it couldn't fit into your place.  It has a good home now.

Need to use the restroom but don't want to go up the stairs?  That's okay, we have 2.5!

Need somewhere to stash your stuff (or a small teenage boy with magical powers)?  Plenty of storage in the cupboard under the stairs.

Our dining room is small, but you're more than welcome to stay for dinner. Maybe I'll even make you my famous cheesecake.

And you don't even have to do the dishes.

Tired after a long day? Kick back and relax in the den and watch TV.

And on those cold winter mornings, we can start a fire and drink hot cocoa.

Need some sun or a place to run around?  Check out the back yard and patio.

Complete with cactus garden, compliments of my dad and grandpa.

And if you need some good exercise, try running up the stairs.

The master suite...

And in case you were interested, I made the blanket chest and dresser back in high school. My sister Rosie made the nightstand.

Our master bath has a sweet tub to relax in after a long run.

If you'd like to stay the night, you can stay on our inflatable mattress in the office/guestroom.

Hope you don't mind the mess, moving is hard work when Liam doesn't take long naps very often.

And my pride and joy for my pride and joy:  the baby room...

I spent two days on this.  It was worth it. I love every minute I spend here.

The only new piece of furniture we bought was the bookcase.  Everything else (except the rocker) was in our bedroom.  How, I have no idea...

I found the most adorable shower curtain/shower hooks yesterday at Target. Matches the baby/guest bathroom perfectly with the aquarium tub and fish towels.

Hope you enjoyed your time at the Garff house.  Please come back soon!!!

The Ladies' Man

Mom had to visit her hematologist so we went to Los Angeles on Friday for a day trip. Mom and I had fun at lunch with my friends Rushton, Macy, Celia, (and their moms).  Too bad it took 4 hours (including a dinner break) to get home.

Since Rushton and I are practically twins (born at the exact same height, weight, and with similar LONG labors, just 3 weeks apart), we have already grown close and had a great time playing together (now that we actually "play"). Rushton and I are plotting all sorts of trouble once we get older and figure out how to make our hands and feet do what we want. There is also a small dispute over which one of us gets to date Celia (the older woman...) and which one gets Macy.  Luckily, Macy thinks there is enough of her to go around.

And then there is the matter of Nora.  She sent me my first real Valentine's Day card this week and so I put on my best flirty outfit to show her how cute I was and to encourage a little V-day action

and flashed her my cutest smile to show off my dimple.  Hopefully Nora doesn't think I'm too young for her.

But then I decided to wait a few years before I worry about girls. Besides, I hear Nora sent the same card to all of her other boyfriends as well...I don't know if I can compete with those other boys.  I have enough trouble just trying to figure out what to do with my hands.

Love,

    Liam

Look-alike Contest

People keep asking us whether Liam looks more like me or Steve so we used technology to prove once and for all that our cute little boy is a perfect combination of of our good qualities:

In other news, William is 2 months old today.  We're going to the pediatrician next week, but according to Wii Fit (thanks Honey, it was a great birthday present!), Liam weighs 10.6 lbs, which keeps him in the 25th percentile. We also made profiles of Kiki and Nike (as usual, they're asleep).



Here's a side-by-side shot so you can compare his growth for yourself. He's about a week old in the first picture, and the second was taken yesterday.    
 


I love that now he actually fits his clothes. I pulled out the 3-6 month clothing just to see if it would fit.  It doesn't.  It looks like it would drown him.

William's current skills/hobbies include (but are not limited to):

hanging out with Dad,






smiling/laughing,


sucking on his pacifier and/or his/Mom's hands,

kicking his feet,

   

holding his head up,

working out (just like Mom),

"talking" to his monkey (his Christmas present, along with the pacifiers) or mobile (and sometimes to Dad on the phone),

and basically just being the cutest baby in the entire world. I know I'm biased, but show me a cuter baby and then maybe I'll change my mind.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa(s) Kemp and Baby Blessings

My parents came into town this week to get away (and because my mom was finally able to get off a few days in a row).

We spent Saturday with the my parents, which also included a first meeting of William's Great-Grandpa Kemp who lives in West Covina.

 Now that things are starting to settle down here, we were able to enjoy a nice barbeque (Steve's birthday present was a grill) and have a nice afternoon together.

Life with Liam has become very entertaining. I love spending time with him at home (even if he doesn't always nap) and we have great times laughing at each other and learning new things about life. He has taken to obsessing over his hands.  He will stare at them for hours and has recently gotten into licking them when he can't figure out how to suck his thumb. We have a baby book, (DadLabs), that compares life with a newborn to hanging out with a friend on a mushroom trip: "Wow, look at all the colors.  Have you ever just looked at your hand, Man?"

Sorry these pictures are so late, but back when we were in Utah over the holidays, William Gary Garff was blessed in my parents' ward and we had an open house at the Garff's to celebrate his blessing and for extended family/friends to meet this little guy.  Both sets of grandparents were very excited for the new arrival (baby #1 for the Garffs, #9 for Kemps)

My dad doesn't smile often in pictures, but I think he was pretty excited to have his name as the middle name.

And of course, his life would not be complete if we didn't get a picture of William Gary Garff with his namesakes: William (Bill) Garff and Gary Kemp.

Here Comes The Sun

I took this photo from our bedroom window yesterday morning. After nearly a week straight of the hardest rain I've ever seen, outside of the Philippines, it feels so good to go outside again and feel the sun. The end of that miserable storm was good timing because I got the chance to cook up some steaks last night on the grill that April gave me for my birthday.

I know, I know, Southern Californians should never complain about the weather.

You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile

I was on the phone with my health insurance company and this little guy kept smiling at me to get my attention.  I had to call 3 times to get through the automated system because I couldn't resist taking pictures of his smiling face!

Exodus

It's been a hectic couple of weeks. We moved out to Rancho Cucamonga to be closer to my work. I stared working at the beginning of the new year for Wood, Smith, Hening, & Berman in their RC office. One of the major advantages to living in the suburbs is that we can afford to rent a house for only a little more than what we paid for our one bedroom apartment in West L.A.

An now, more pictures of William.

William started smiling about a week ago. It's been hard trying to get a good picture, but this is the best we've gotten so far: