WARNING!

We haven't blogged all month so what you are about to experience is Photo Overload. Please feel free to stop at anytime!

Thank you,

The Southwicks

Ironic...

Welcome to Berkeley, CA (Not UT!!)

Sweet Update While Updating our Blog

As many of you know, our daughter is an anti-sleeper. She goes and goes and goes and doesn't stop until we cuddle her down. She'll fight us until she's too tired to fight anymore and finally goes to sleep.

Well, this morning she was tired but as usual didn't want to go to sleep. She was very calm however and so I decided not to make her go to sleep. Instead, she sat by me in the chair until she fell asleep (almost 2 hours--another small miracle). This was the first time she has ever done this and probably the last time so it is definitely blog-worthy!

Lily of Course!

Lily in all her cuteness!

The Girls

We went to the Langstraat's house for dinner and then the Parkers came over for games.

The girls (left to right: Milalea, Lily, Brianna) were hilarious! Lily & Milalea kept trading sippy cups much to the chagrin of their moms. None of the girls had had very good naps so by the end of the night they were all pretty whiney. Lily sure enjoyed having some friends to play with!

As we were leaving we saw some people over at the now empty druggie house across the street from the Langstraat's (they do live in a very nice neighborhood except for the druggie house--more on that later) so we decided to go talk to them and get the scoop on the bench (another story to be told by the end of the week). Lily was very tired so Dan decided to let her play by the water that was coming down the side of the road.

Before we knew it Lily was playing IN the water. She was very wet by the time she was finished playing but she sure was happy!!

Seriously

If you have to be a sign holder it looks like La-Z-Boy is the company to work for!!

A Special Post to Our Friend Chris

Chris and I became friends at USU. We were very excited when we heard that he was going to be moving to Davis which is only 45 minutes from our home. He has been to our home quite a few times in the last couple of years to: help us remodel our house, play games, and eat food. He has also been my gluten free buddy as of late. About a month ago he got a job in the Baltimiore area working for the government. He is leave the beginning of August so he stopped by our house on Saturday one more time to say goodbye.

We will miss you Chris! Thanks for being such a fun friend. Keep in touch!

At dinner Dan gave Lily a piece of lemon. She may like it, right?

Some Fun Things We Have Done...

Visiting with Billy Kok

A family in our ward had an adopted son in Iraq. We have sent him some packages and overall been in contact with him through Facebook. He got home in June so a couple of weeks ago we went to his family's home and saw pictures and video of events over in Iraq. Some of it was pretty gruesome and made the war even more real to us. Some of it was pretty neat as he told us about the people and helping them. It was definitely good to hear the good things about what is going on over there.

Billy was supposed to send me some better pictures but never did so the one above is from his Facebook profile. He is the one on the left. Big gun, eh?

Poetry Reading For FHE one Monday the Stephens invited us to go to a poetry reading with them. It took place in a warehouse on the outskirts of Sacramento. Brooke has been helping a guy put together a book of poetry about when his mom died of cancer. He was the first one to read his poems. It was very sad. It made me want to send the missionaries over to his house. The second poetry reader was African. Much of his poetry was in his language. As much as I enjoy Elmo an Veggie Tales, it was very nice to be culturally edified again.

The above picture is of Brooke and Lilly on our way into the poetry reading. lily was very excited and sat very still most of the time.

Bishop's Get Together

We LOVE the Bishop's house. Look at their green grass! Our goal is to have grass like that next year. We went to the Bishop's house for a little get together with some people in the ward. Good food, good people, good conversation. What more do you need?

4th of July Take 2

For the second half of our 4th of July we went to the home of Bill (and Georgia), Dan's boss. It was a rockin' good time!

Lily enjoyed her second swimming excursion very much. The taste of the water especially intrigued her.

Wouldn't you love to have their backyard? We would!

Bobbing for apples is NOT as easy as it looks. But don't you worry Bill & Georgia I'm winning it all next year!

In the evening we all gathered to watch the fireworks that Bill put ignited for us.

This is my favoritie fireworks picture of the night. Bill was a killer for the sparklers. Here he is waving them around. It's cool because you can see his Flag shirt in the blur.

Thank you Bill & Georgia for putting together a stellar party!!

Lily Waves

Lily has learned how to wave but doesn't do it very often. The other day we actually got her to wave on video!

A friend told me that it is easier to download video onto YouTube & then put on my website. I was very excited how quickly it went. We will have a lot more video on our website now!

4th of July

For the 4th of July we had a pretty relaxed day. A lot of it was unplanned relaxation but we decided it was Heavenly Father's way of of telling us to slow down and smell the roses!

First we went to our Stake 4th of July breakfast. There were a lot of people there!

Next we had to go visit my work so I could pick up some more things to do from home. Dan and Lily slept in the car while I got things together. When we went to leave the car wouldn't start! We had to wait 45 minutes for the USAA roadside service to come give us a jump. In the meantime we decided to do a little photo shoot with Lily. We are so glad we took the time to take pix of Lily in her 4th of July outfit!

Shoo fly, don't bother me!

Contemplating...

So fun!

What do flowers taste like?

Lily's pixie smile

Mommy & Lily (no I am not pregnant!)

Daddy & Lily

Cattle Run

Here in our neck of the woods we don't see a lot of cows so when I found out that Folsom was having a rodeo & a pre cattle run I knew that Lily and I had to be there.  We took the Light Rail into Folsom where Lily helped me make a lot of new friends (she is waaay friendly & eventually we will have to teach her about not talking to strangers.  For now though she is just way cute).  Once we got to Old Town Folsom we had to wait in 90 degree heat for the cows to come moseying down the street.  Lily doesn't like heat so before long we were dousing her with water. Here are some fun pix of the day (There was a huge smudge on my camera that I didn't see until today so it may seem like you are looking through a haze, but you're not!).

Haircut!

So my hair has gotten really long and it has been really easy to pull into a pony tail but I have felt so DRAB.  Time for a haircut!  I was a little nervous but completely ready to shave it all off. Fortunately I had a good hairstylist who talked me out of shaving it.  So here are the before pix:

Whoa scary pix!

I got my mom's thick, curly & straight hair.  In my past life I could blow it dry and it looked absolutely gorgeous.  Unfortunately blowing it dry here in N. CA makes me look like a big poof ball.  So sad!

The "after" pix can be seen in the 4th of July pictures.  

Sleeping Lily

We didn't put bumper pads on Lily's bed until she was 6 months old because of the whole SIDS problem.  When we did put them on her bed, here is what happened:

So the next day, the bumper pads came off.  Our girl has always been the kind who likes a lot of open space.  This was definitely no exception!

The other night Lily had FINALLY fallen asleep so I laid her down in her bed.  She grabbed onto her foot and stayed that way for a good 5 minutes!  I guess it was comfortable?

Hey all! Just a few random pics that we couldn't ignore!

We went to dinner with our friends, The Stephens.  After dinner we went to a park and played until we were all very tired--except for Lily!  She still wanted to play!

As soon as Lily could sit up she immediately wanted to start walking.  She is happiest when on her feet!

Surprisingly, Lily loved to be in this little basket!

Future Utah State-r!  Go Aggies!