Tea Party

On Saturday I hosted a lovely tea party for myself, Lilia, and 4 of our dearest girlfriends. It was fabulous. The M's even got a special NEW tea set for the occasion from their mother! After we had sipped tea and eaten delicate sandwiches and baked goods we adjourned to the parlor to watch "The Princess Diaries." A fancy time was had by all.

Beautiful Bow!

There is a lot of heavy stuff going on in my life right now that I'm not at liberty to talk about, which always stinks.

So I'm going to talk about this ridiculous, gorgeous blue bow I made for my little pumpkin on Friday. Don't you love it??? It's so classic Hollywood, right? I am not a remotely craft-inclined person, so I was pretty proud. I made an equally ridiculous yellow one. I look forward to making more. I will of course post photos

Sheeeeee's BACK!

Hello faithful reader(s)! ;)

It has been a crazy 2 months. I won't bore you with the details, but I'll give you the bullet dots and dazzle you with photos!

First, Mom and Dad Brooks came out to help us close on the house (Dad is our realtor) and finish packing. They had a lovely hotel room which provided respite from our crazy, packed up apartment while we waited for the closing... which was delayed by weeks! That made life pretty crazy, but we had fun in the meantime. Here are some pictures from the hotel room and from the lovely lunch Mom and Dad took us all to at a gorgeous Mexican restaurant in Cave Creek.




Here's a pic of my mom with Lilia at the Children's Museum, around the same time. She loved the feeling of the fake flower on her cheek!




We did, in fact, finally get into the house. Our house. Our house. It has been insane and busy, but also really fun. More on that next time.

New Haircut

So I got very tired of wiping spit-up out of my hair and getting it pulled when it was used as leverage for standing. So I went to our girl at the Toni and Guy Academy and had it chopped!

I love it. The only thing is that now I have to get my ears pierced to go with it, because that will be perfect. It's fun, it's light, it's easy and it's a LOT cooler than the other way. You still can't see it super well in these pictures, but I was on my own and it's night time.

I feel like a new woman. Isn't it amazing what a great haircut can do for you?

Bonus Post! Pictures....

These are two more pictures from Grandma Dowty's visit, which she e-mailed. I just LOVE them! The top one because it's just a great shot of Lilia in the Kozy and the bottom one because it shows one of her favorite activities at the moment, which is playing the keyboard. She's very serious about it.

3 Wishes

1. I wish I had taken these pictures, but I have to give credit on that to the amazing Miss Jaime, who has heard my plea for better pictures of my beautiful baby! These are from our short afternoon at her house last Sunday. It was lovely. THANK YOU, JAIME! We will treasure these forever. And they will close out the "month 4" album, as Miss Lilia started her fifth month today. It's so hard to believe.

2. I wish I were related to C.S. Lewis. No, seriously. I'm reading a book of his essays and I'm totally astounded. He has a way of pinpointing ideas and the thoughts behind them that is so... piercing. It's actually not his clarity of thought that I admire so much as his clarity of heart, though. Here was a man who lived in an ivory tower but showered money and time and other blessings on the rest of us. He gave and gave and gave although his poor bookkeeping skills led him to believe he was nearly impoverished most of the time. He prayed that God would take his wife's pain and give it to him instead. He wrote back to everyone. He paid for a single mother's boys to go to private school. The examples of his kindness and generosity are endless, but you won't find a single one in his own work -- others tell the stories.

Most of you know that Lilia's middle name (Joy) is a tribute to Lewis. Jeff and I have read, discussed and traded C.S. Lewis books for more than a decade and they still challenge us to examine ourselves more closely and love others more deeply. So, here's to Jack. Wish I could've shaken his hand.

3. I wish I had some sort of personal central air conditioning system so I was immune to this heat. That's right kids, it's getting hot. 100-105 hot, which in Phoenix is a temperature accompanied by a certain sense of internal dread. Summer is coming. Summer. Is coming. Cue slow drum beat.

I was going to use my final wish to wish for October due to the weather, but I would never wish away those months with my beautiful baby girl (see wish #1 for evidence). So I guess it's not all that bad, is it? ;)

Grandparents Everywhere!

Updates and pictures all around....

First, Grandma and Grandpa Brooks finally did what they've been longing to do for a year -- high tailed it out of the desert. They have loved being near us (and a certain little person who they are very much in love with), but they really miss their trees and water and generally beautiful scenery. But they still want to be able to spend time here as well, so they bought a trailer which they're going to try out living in. Now they're here:

and happy as clams, as near as I can tell. Although they do miss that little person....

While they were leaving, Grandma Dowty was visiting! We had a lovely time. We got Culture Passes from the library and went to the Heard Museum. We also drove by our new house and went to the wonderful Liberty Market Restaurant in Gilbert.

Finally, she bought a membership to the Desert Botanical Garden and she and Jeff went while Lilia and I stayed home and got some shut-eye. They had a great time.

Now we are missing all of the grandparents, but we hope to see them again soon!

Mother's Day Weekend Pictures

We had an absolutely lovely Mother's Day weekend. Jeff gave me potted flowers and he and Lilia each gave me a card. My mom is right -- she is advanced, writing me a card at the age of 3 1/2 months! :)

These first few are in church.


This is our friend Tracy, beaming through Mother's Day and very patiently awaiting her son who will be arriving this summer! She's far more patient than I was....

I don't know what this look is, but it cracks me up.


The trailer!
Here's our little date in Prescott, with our banana split! It was wonderful.

Pictures!

Brian and Fujiko and the girls with Lilia and Grandma Dowty.
Lilia and Sana in conversation.
Jeff and Sana cooking.
Me and the girls, with my girl sort of starting to fall off the end.
Bridgett and Lilia in the church nursery!

Good times. :)