Beanie Baby

I love seeing this babe in a beanie.
She rocked the socks off of them this winter too.. except this one time.

 

We went to Costco one day and Lila thought it was the perfect opportunity to practice her splits.

 

She sure gives us a lot of joy.

Say Cheese

We haven't had our family pictures on my side done since I was like 12.
For Christmas we got my parents a family photo session.
We got one whole family session, and a session for each of our families.
We were already planning on being there for 4 hours, but Russ and I got stuck on the freeway with a bad accident and ended up being late- which threw off our whole day and all our sessions.
We waited an hour or so in the lobby- which is hard to do with 8 kids.

We are missing one babe in this pic.

 

 

 

 

It was finally our turn!

The whole Kemp Fam:

Grand Boys- Handsome little guys:

 

Granddaughters:

 

My AMAZING parents:

 

I couldn't ask for better parents, or grandparents for my baby.

They are so kind, and fun!

 

My family- We literally haven't had a formal family picture with just the 5 of us since I was 12- that I can remember anyway.

 

At this point, the kids were DONE. And I think most of the parents too :)

 From our little fam- Sorry for the pic overload. I truly couldn't chose my favs.

 

Right about the time for lunch and a nap.

 

Lilas bow HERE.

 

I love this little nugget!!

 

So glad for modern technology and not having to sit still for hours like in the olden days.

That 6 hours was long enough with a quick digital camera and turn around time!

Croup

Despite our best efforts of keeping Lila away from crowds and other sick kids, she still go Croup.
It was so sad and so scary.
She acted totally fine the day leading up. Russ and I put her to bed as normal and in the monitor I could hear her whimpering.
Lila is truly the easiest baby in the world. She likes to put herself to sleep- she doesn't like to be held or rocked, when its bed time she likes her own space and doesn't EVER cry when we put her down.
So to hear her whimper was weird and it didn't sound like her.
I told Russ that I thought she sounded weird but he couldn't hear it.
She cried about 10 min later and it was for sure different.
Long story short, her breathing got worse, her cough was barky and hoarse and it was just scary.
Russ slept on the floor and I brought her into bed with me (with pillows in between us) until morning when we took her in. We tried the whole sitting on the cold front porch and everything.
Sure enough, went to the Dr and croup.
We got home after being up all night and Drs all morning and besides my baby being sick, I was in heaven because she actually cuddled with me and only wanted to sleep in my arms!
I always say how lucky we are that she doesn't like to be held to sleep but boy I could get used to that!
The only reason I am smiling, is because it was such a miracle she was cuddling and sleeping in my arms I think Russ took about 50 of the same picture.

 

My Dad and Lila have always had a really sweet bond. They both light up when they see each other. I have loved seeing their relationship over the last couple months. He was so worried about her and had to come see her the next day. She of course lit up and had all the energy in the world when he was around.

 

 

And this next picture has nothing to do with croup and everything to do with how adorable she is.

My love for her is unexplainable.

So grateful for good Dr and modern medicine to be able to make her feel better, and breathe better just hours after.

Ice Castles

We also went as family to the Midway Ice Castles.
Its so fun that these ice castles are just 40 min from our house!
Before we went, we spent the day shopping for some new clothes for Russ. He had casual dress for his old job so he needed a few more business clothes for his new position.
I was obsessed with Lilas hair that day since she was only 6 months old and wearing pigtails :)
She was SO good! She was in her car seat ALL day and never did anything but smile.
I truly don't know how we got so lucky.

 

Later that night we met up with our good friends to drive up to Midway to meet my family for dinner.

 

Its nice having friends that have been around for so long that they can come along to family activities.

The ice castles were so cool, so cold and SO crowded.

 

The boys and their babes.

Russ & Lila and our friend Dave and their son.

 

These 2 little babes have been on a few dates now :)

 

It was cool to go at night because they had really neat lighting that changed colors.

 

Im pretty sure Lila is wearing 165 layers.

 

My awesome parents.

 

Poor little babe had so many layers she couldn't even put her arms down haha!

 

They even had a slide in the middle made of ice!

All of the cousins..minus my brothers kids.

After we left, we went and got hot chocolate to warm up!

Chocolate Exhibit

My parents took us to the Museum of Natural History for a family night! It was so cool and so much to see! I would totally recommend it.
We met up for brunch at Corner Bakery before heading over to the museum.

 

There was really so much to see there. I am not normally a museum kind of gal, I get bored. But this really was such a great collection of amazing things and hands on activities. I never got bored and thought it was super interesting.

 

Im such a terrible aunt. My niece was hanging out in the kids room for a minute and I sat down and told her how she was the most amazing back scratcher ever.

She scratched and scratched and I just kept telling her amazing she was. It was genius and totally a good half time break from the museum.

 

The Chocolate Exhibit was there and also so fun to go through and learn more about.

My family did chocolate tasting while I stepped out to feed Lila- Perfect timing for me since I don't eat chocolate.

 

She did great on her first time to a museum!

 

I started making all of Lilas bows. I had so much fun I opened a little shop.

You can find this flower she is wearing HERE

 

Thanks Mom and Dad for such a fun time!

Be Mine

I loved having a little Valentine this year.
I don't think a year has ever gone by where I haven't sent out some kind of Valentine to my close friends and family. This year was no different, I just had an excuse to make a cool Valentine instead of buying a box of Valentines at the store.
I of course saw a cute idea online- it ended up being a somewhat fail, but it was fun all the same.

Lila and I cut out paper hearts in preparation- well she sat there and looked pretty while I cut.

 

I put my wire wrap on her and thought it was hilarious/the cutest thing ever.

 

 

I got the rest of our supplies and realized I was going to have a heck of a time capturing it from above.

 

After a few more nights of prep, we were ready for our photo shoot.

Lila go all Valentined up..

She was supposed to be holding on to the strings to make it look like she was flying away, but she just kept getting a hold of them and ripping the strings away from the balloons :) So just pretend..

 

We sent them out to be printed and cut out more hearts for our name tags.

She sent out her cute little Valentine card, with the flat yummy fruit leathers from Costco.

 

Since Russ and I now work together, I went to visit him on Valentines Day since I went part time and wasn't working that day.

I always get Russ a heart shaped pizza for lunch- this year I just got to share it with him instead of having it delivered!

I also went because our work was having their annual cookie contest.

I am happy I made the trip in because I won!

The cookies are amazing, and super simple.

Check out the recipe from Sis Sisters HERE.

 

I was almost embarrassed when people asked me for the recipe because they were that easy!

I won a sweet gift basket at $50! Plus I ate like 12 cookies.

 

Russ and I always go out for our Valentines dinner on the day before or the day after. This year was no different and on Valentines, we had yummy homemade fondue!