Levi And His Love For Art!

Levi continues to construct art projects and has been inspired lately by his most recent trip to MOCA.  I'm in love with all 3 of these pictures for very clear reasons....

  Levi received a digital camera from a friend of John's and has been taking it everywhere (school, outings, play dates). He even put together a slide show for his class at school of pictures he'd taken of his friends. I love this image of him capturing a painting that he felt worthy enough to remember. I wonder what it is he loved about it?

My father is a HUGE Jackson Pollack fan, so this image makes me smile to see Levi standing in front of Pollock's amazing work!

When I first saw this picture I almost started to cry. It sounds silly, but it really hit me that he's growing up. He hardly looks like a little boy here. Granted our children are tall, but there's something about this picture...maybe his awkward smile, his stance.. I got a flash of what he might look like when he's a teenager...I don't know....but time is flying by. I'm so curious what he will be when he grows up. 

PS

I'm especially appreciative of John making time to take our boys on adventures and show them amazing wonders like Art!

PPS:
Levi and John came home and made this chicken out of paper and clothes hanger. Levi had a vision after being inspired by Robert Rauschenberg.

Gus and Great PaPa!

My dad just sent me these pics of Great PaPa Lyons and baby Gus. They were taken the weekend of my Nana's memorial. Every moment Gus was free, Papa wanted him on his lap. Albeit a pediatrician, lover of babies or just wanting to get to know his great grandson, GUS loved him. He would just sit patiently on his lap with a not a worry in the world. Amazing to think there is 90 year old age gap.

I couldn't decided which ones I liked the best, so I just posted all of my favorites.

Road Trip To San Diego!

We did it! We took our 1st road trip w/ all three boys and stayed with our dear friend Chris and Dani and their new baby Zachary.  The boys had the most amazing time and it really was just an old fashion overnight. The boys highlights included:
* Sleeping in the same bed as John and I (they never get to do that)
* The boys stayed up until 10pm (again never happens)
* We hit the San Diego Zoo (they love that zoo, especially the Gondola)
* Meeting Chris and Dani's new baby....they both have a love for babies like their Mama

All the boys slept on the way down....it was heavenly

Hanging out with Chris 

Baby Gus 6 months old and Baby Zachary 4 1/2 months old

I can't wait to watch these two grow up. I have no doubt they will be dear friends like their Mama's! 

 Holding Baby Z for the 1st time and he is gorgeous. In fact, one of the most handsome babies I've ever seen. He has Dani's almond eye shape and Chris' amazing eyelashes.

 

Waiting for the gondola. The highlight of the zoo

 This peacock was showing off, while the white bird just confidently strutted his stuff. Bold!

Felix The Bookworm

There are so many times through out the day I find my myself thinking, "quick grab the camera." Most of the time I'm to late, but I captured the one below. Felix has really found a love for books.  When all is quite, I start to wonder where he is, and a good part of the time he's squirreled away with a few books.  'Fred and Ted Go Camping' is one of his favorite ones. I wasn't a huge reader growing up, so I'm thrilled to see my boys taking after John's love for reading. 

Baby Gus Gus is 6 Months Old!

Baby Gus 6 months old and still incredibly happy and easy (knock on wood). Maybe it is the whole #3 thing, but I believe babies come out with their dispositions from the moment they are born. Gus seems like an even cross between Levi an Felix.  He's curious and active like Levi and easy going life Felix.  He grabs for anything and everything. Eager to sit up (working on it) and starting to get up on his knees. Levi crawled at 7 months. Maybe Gus will too. He's incredibly patient, doesn't cry much and sleeps soundly. Just like Felix when he was a baby. He's incredibly cuddly and babbles all day long. He's going to be a chatty one like his dad. Life is busy w/ 3, but I can't imagine him not a part of our family. It's like he's always been here.

  

Morning snuggles

Weighing in at nearly 20 pounds at 6 months!

He now sits at the table with the big boys and is just happy being a part of the gang.

A Glimpse into our life with Levi, Felix, Gus and Hank!

Della who is an amazing photographer from Seattle and has shot our family several times now was in town and popped by the house to grab some snapshots of the boys, John and I.  Mind you these were taken on a Friday at 4pm during 1 hour and she still managed to capture everyone's personalities.

Levi 4 years old, Felix 2 years old and Baby Gus 5 months old

 

 

Goodbye Nana and Grandma B...We love you!

Sadly I lost both of my amazing grandmothers this year. Grandma B (GGMA) passed away on Jan 13th at 95 years old and she still looked  as if she wasn't a day older then 75. Beautiful. Her obituary reminded me that her purpose in life was to be in service to others. Incredibly selfless human being.

On May 4th my beloved Nana passed away. It was quite sudden. She was 91 years old and still funny and wonderful as ever. I love that she wrote her own obituary. :)

Me (8 years old), Grandma B and Nana looking as proud as ever

We called her 'Queen Mary' or GGMA. Here she is on her 93rd birthday 

An exert from the speech I gave at my Grandma B's memorial service:

We all know that Grandma B was a rule follower and a rule maker and sometimes being the only granddaughter didn’t have its perks. I can remember when we would all go out to lunch and my cousins would order soda and she would immediately order me milk. I like to think she was looking out for my health. J   Now that I’m a mother of three boys, I’ve learned to appreciate some of her other rules and I’ve realized that it was her way of teaching us to be civilized human beings capable of gracefully maneuvering the world… I can just hear here saying…

1.      Take small bites when eating

2.      Always say please and thank you

3.      Over dress vs. under dress

4.      Always cook your husband dinner (I think that was personalized towards me) I can hear her saying a well feed husband is a happy man)

5.      Always, always send a thank you letter!

6.      Stand up tall, shoulders back

I admire that even towards the end she enjoyed life and always kept her word. Five years ago, My husband and I moved to London 3 weeks after getting married. At our reception she told me ‘See you in London.’ Wouldn’t you know with a little nudge from my mom, Grandma B and her hopped a flight over the pond and we celebrated her 91^st birthday English style. Since she had already done all of the touristy things, we just lounged in our flat watching the summer Olympics and enjoying each other’s company. It was perfect. This was the beginning of a new phase of our friendship where we didn’t have to be “busy.” We could just visit. Listen. Laugh.  

When I was thinking about what I wanted to share today I was curious how the word ‘grandma’ was universally defined. So I looked up the definition of ‘Grandma.’ It said, “See Grandmother.”  With the definition saying: “The mother of one’s father or mother; a female ancestor.” 

I think I will rewrite the definition of grandmother as we experienced it… “Matriarch, eternal care-giver, writer of rules, full of grace and beauty with an incredible zest for life.”

Nana and my Great-Grandmother

My last picture with Nana when I surprised her and showed at her house on Jan 14th and surprised her and Papa with baby Gus. She kept saying, "Put that baby on my lap." Below is a video that captured her holding baby Gus for the first time. She LOVED babies.

A small exert from the speech I gave at her service:

Over the years our conversations matured. We still would always catch up on the latest Hollywood Gossip, Vanity Fair cover shoot, fashion trend or News scandal, but as I got older we began to have very real conversations.  My last visit w/ her was end of Jan when I surprised her and showed up at their house with my newest baby who was 8 weeks. She had met my other boys, and desperately wanted to meet the new addition. We had the opportunity to be by ourselves and just talk for over 2 hours.  You name it we talked about it. It happened to be the day after I lost my other grandmother, so we talked a lot about death. We talked about all of their worldly travels and her most favorite trips. We talked about my ambitions and trying do it all…career, mom of 3 boys and role as a wife. She listened intently with her big brown eyes and when appropriate she slid in some French wit to lighten the conversation and remind me that everything always works out the way it should. I don’t know how she did it, but she always managed through every conversation to make me feel at ease.  I’ve always said she’s the funniest person I know. 

I think about these women through out my days. I have no doubt they're enjoying cocktail hour and have their feet kicked up and are smiling ear to ear thinking about the amazing lives they both lead.