Daddy Moments

The ultimate Daddy's girl wants to do everything with daddy!

She loves her daddy's slippers!

Bath time with Daddy is so much fun! Nice sensoring, Brad! :)

A Rainy Day with Friends

On MLK, Jr Day I had the day off of work, so Libby and I got to spend some time with friends. It was a rainy day, so we ended up heading to the mall play area with the kiddos.

Libby and her buddy, Ian
Libby with two men - Ian and Zeke, yet look who's still at the helm here! What a woman! :)

Libby and Ian's new favorite pasttime - holding hands! Are they cute, or what?!

Random Assortment of Photos

It's been awhile since I uploaded any pictures from my phone, so here are a few from the past few months. Sorry the quality is so bad, but hopefully she's cute enough to make up for it! ;)

She loves her car!
And her cell-phone. Falls asleep talking on it even!

The park is another favorite! Slides and swings are the BEST!

Libby's buddy Ty who loves to play "hookie" with her during Sunday School at church.

Helping Mommy do some Christmas shopping. She's quite the little shopper. I place all blame solely on the shoulders of my mother for that one! She certainly didn't get it from me!

This was while we were watching the Disneyland Christmas parade. She was in complete awe the entire time and waved to EVERYTHING (including floats with no people or characters on them!). Honestly, it was so fun to watch her soaking it all in. Move over Sea World, Disneyland is taking over for 2012!

A great Friday afternoon in January! She loves the beach no matter what time of year it is!

Sand, a stick, and water - that's all it takes to make this girl happy! (Though a few minutes later she got toppled by a wave and was completely soaked. The fun came to an abrupt end. Good thing I had a change of clothes with me!)

Post-ponytail hair! Wow! That's quite the look, Lib!

New Year's Eve

We were super excited that the Stewarts were in town to join us for New Year's Eve (for a second year in a row - woo-hoo!). We played games, drank Martinellis, chowed down on lots of yummy food, and wreaked havoc on our neighboorhood at midnight. It was great!

The festive gang minutes before the big moment.
Gotta love the party hats! Recylced from last year - perfect!

Wow! Do we look like the party animals we feel like, or what?! Uh, definitely not! Libby slept through the whole event (firecrackers and pot-banging and all), and from the looks of this picture, we should have, too! Cheers to a WONDERFUL 2012 to come!

More Christmas-Break Fun

Over the break we had 3 separate waves of family visitors, and each one brought their own special flare to the Holidays. My mom's house was a revolving door, and we just got to play along and join in the fun!

Wave #1: With the Mitchell gang we hit up the Ritz Carlton and the beach. Their Christmas tree outside the main entrance was pretty incredible!
Libby was so excited to show everyone the gingerbread display on her second trip to taste, I mean SEE it. (She got a third trip a few days later when the Openshaws and Stewarts joined us!)

Does this girl love her Grammy, or what?!

While we were there we had the most beautiful view of the ocean and got to see whales right off the shore! It was amazing how close they were and we had a great time watching them.

Wave #2 of visitors brought the Openshaws the day after Christmas. We headed to the "World Famous" San Diego Zoo with them. Here's Libby and me enjoying a picnic lunch before checking out all the animals.

Libby and Max were both HUGE fans of the elephants!

The whole group at the end of the day. We love the zoo!

Wave #3 brought the Stewarts for a one day overlap with the Openshaws. We spent that day at the beach (sorry, no pics) and just enjoying one another's company. The next day was my mom's b-day and we headed to Disneyland as the Openshaws hit the road. Brad and I decided to splurge and get an annual pass this year. We opted for the cheapest version but know that Libby will love it! And we will, too!

One of the few rides that Libby and I could both ride - Monsters, Inc. It's amazing how different it is to go to Disneyland without really thinking about rides. Turns out you don't even need rides to have a GREAT time there - it is, as they say, the happiest place on earth! The Christmas lights for "Small World" were awesome!

But nothing compares to the Castle at night! Wow! It's always impressive, but when they add snow and Christmas lighting - it was incredible! What a great day - we can't wait to go back for more!

Christmas 2011

A few great Christmas moments to share...

Libby all decked out in her Christmas best for a big Christmas Eve dinner at Grammy's house. Isn't my mom's tree fantastic?! (We did get one of the whole family, too, however I had been home sick in bed all day with the stomach flu and, as you might imagine, it wasn't exactly the best picture. She sure looked cute, though!)
Here are most of the Christmas Eve gang - all the Mitchell clan, the Warrs, the Fosters, and the Macbeths. I heard everything was delicious (I didn't do much eating myself) and it looked amazing! Thanks for hosting a great night, Mom!

Christmas morning! Libby's first time seeing her loot.

Opening all her presents was a blast! She's quite the neat little unwrapper - Brad says she gets it from me.

She loved her new Libby towel from Grandma and Grandpa.

Brad showing off our AMAZING quilt from Diann. A full king-size quilt that is gorgeous and an overwhelming amount of work - and to think she made one for everyone!?! Wow!

Showing off some of our favorites.

After church we had to get a few more pictures of our cutie - she looked so adorable!

I love our Christmas decorations - it was sad to see them go this year.

We hosted another quaint holiday - just the 5 of us for Christmas dinner. I don't know how we keep getting the lucky end of the deal, but no complaints on my part. My mom does the huge event and we sneak in for the little ones - not a bad deal. (Oh, and fortunately I felt MUCH better that day so cooking and eating were both no big deal.) We had a wonderful Christmas and were so fortunate to spend it with loved ones.

Ornament Exchange

At the last minute, Brad and I decided to throw a little Ornament Exchange Christmas party for a few friends at our house. We did it the Thursday before Christmas and had a wonderful time enjoying food, friends, and lots of kids!

I spent all day in the kitchen (a rather fun change from my normal life) and we had quite the spread of goodies - homemade apple cider, blackbottom cupcakes, Cripix mix, ginger cookies, green holly cookies, and Pecan Pumpkin Crumble. Yum, yum!
Me with my hard day's work!

A few of the girls - Jen, Sarah, and Natalie

A few of the boys - Ben, Brad, Wayne, and Clint

Aleisha and Patrick showing off their goods.

The little hostess and her daddy - those 2 are party animals, for sure!

It was a fun last minute get together and we're sure glad we did it! We love spending time with our great friends!