my little obsession

My poor husband....I have a serious thing for flowers. Whether bouquets, potted, or ready to put in the ground; it seems I can never leave a store without some sort of flowers in my basket. In my defense, Bremen knew this when he married me. Since I was a little girl my mom would call me her 'flower girl'. And Bremen quickly learned when we were dating, that flowers were always a sure bet for me.

These are my all time favorite~ stargazer lilies. I may have even named one of my daughters after this flower. Bremen wasn't sold on her name till we entered the hospital room where she would be born and every wall had huge pictures of lilies. It was a sign. For me anyway ;) I love them because you don't need to pair them with anything to make a stunning bouquet. (although in this picture I did add some blossoming branches to add height) They're very fragrant, and if you change the water, trim the ends, and take off the older blooms every few days they last 2 weeks.

These are one of my new favorites~ Ranunculus. They aren't fragrant. But they're cheap (only $4 at Trader Joe's) and they lasted a good week. I love the color variation in the petals.

I've been trying to add some color to our yard so I planted some bulbs.....lilies (above, but not blossoming yet) and tulips, dahlias, paperwhites (not pictured cause they're not in season)

I also planted a rose garden. Always a classic.

And we planted these baskets with various flowers that I'm not as familiar with on the balcony. The carnations in them are really fragrant and smell awesome when the breeze comes in! Our balcony door is open often during the day since we don't have a/c. (old house)

Well, now you all know about one of my passions, or oddities, however you see it ;)
Don't you love Spring??

This is what a bookworm looks like.

This girl has been thoroughly enjoying Harry Potter books. I can't believe she's on the 4th book! We've had some fun discussions and she's even reminded us of some things we forgot about the books. Such fun reads.

She wants to be a published author someday like her Aunt Shannen!

One of the (few) perks of moving all over the country has been discovering the uniqueness of our new area. And although we're from California, we didn't make it down to San Diego very often growing up. So we've been busy exploring!

This is the Point Loma lighthouse a couple miles from our house. Google Maps calls it "the haunted lighthouse". Who knows? haha. But it's been fun to venture to the top and see all the different rooms the lighthouse keeper's family lived in.

Josh and Shannen came to 'ghost hunt' with us. ;)


We also went to a super fun beach on Coronado with Jake & Rachs' family. Our kids are thrilled to live near family again!

When our parents come down to visit we have a good excuse to explore some more! This is one of the many museums in Balboa Park.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to San Diego!

It's been cool to see all the different skies to San Diego. There are amazing sunrises.....

...and sunsets.....

....wild parrots that flock to our trees (we have a theory they escaped from SeaWorld ;) .....

...and rainbows.....

...and even random fireworks now & then!

New house....ONCE AGAIN!!

Hopefully this will be the last time we move for a while! We loved being on the east coast for the last 4 years and we miss all the wonderful friends we made in Charleston, SC and D.C. area...but we are happy to be back home in California. This time we live right by Bremen's base near downtown San Diego and we love it!
This is one of the few really settled rooms....

This is our house, built in 1923.

Our 39 steps leading up to the house.

It's a hike, but we love the view ;)

Our trip up the California coast

I've missed these places for years!!! Now that we're back in California, we decided to take our kids up the coast to the places we've always loved visiting.~ The Ventura Harbor~ we love eating at Andria's....fish & chips and clam chowder...yum!

~ Solvang~ one of my favorite places ever! This place is full of memories for me...going with my family or with Sue & Brittany or Norma & Rach and all with Oma (my mom) too ofcourse!!

~ The Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo~ such a fun place....super eccentric! We had to get a couple of their one of a kind goblets to add to our collection :)

~Cannery Row, Monterey~

~Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey~

hello again Disneyland....we missed you ;)

Yay! Our first trip back to Disneyland!! I even got the girls new princess Tiana dresses so they could dress up for our fun day the way Lexi always used to. Lily loved it, no surprise since she lives in a princess dress most days anyway. But Lexi wasn't too into it anymore~ halfway through the day she wanted to be comfortable rather than all princessed out.


Van's first trip to Disneyland! Look how excited this kid is....he doesn't even realize how fun it is once you get past the entrance!! ;D

Gotta get pictures with characters! Van looks a bit disturbed....

~my little mouseketeer~

American Girl Place

One of our favorite places to bring our girls in California and New York is the American Girl store. So when we found ourselves in California finally for their birthdays we decided we HAD to go! The girls loved celebrating with Oma and their dolls too ;)

random but current ;)

Lily and Van, my daytime buddies

Van at 5 months with his favorite toy ducky

making cookies with the girls

such a big kid~ definitely growing up too fast!

the boys watching cartoons together

Dang I love my kids!!!

California here we come!!!

It's official! Bremen got his orders today...we'll be moving to San Diego in June! We thought we had another year here in Charleston but we were wrong!

We can't wait to get back to our family, our friends, low humidity weather without many mosquitoes, Utah only a day drive away, a cabin in the mountains only 2 hours away, In n out burgers, meeting Oma and Rach at Nordstrom and Disneyland ;)

We're seriously gonna miss our ward here and the incredible friends we've made...I try not to think about that part :( we'll also miss the rich history in Charleston, the plantations, the spanish moss in the live oaks, the warm, shallow beach water only 5 minutes from home, good Low Country cuisine, and the polite manners that only the South has these days.

And so begins a new chapter in our lives...bittersweet. But mostly sweet ;)