Christmas

Lilly got to spend lots of time with family over Christmas. On Saturday we got to visit with cousins. Lilly and Abby got all dressed up! (Mommy and Daddy got a new camera for Christmas, so most of the pictures are from after when we were "playing")

Today mommy and Lilly got to visit with some of Mommy's friends from high school. 2 of us are expecting within a month of each other..and both are having boys!

Lilly got a sled for Christmas. She had a blast riding in the driveway, but would CRY if we tried to take her on the actual snow!

At least the driveway was fun! The goal is for someone to sit with her and go down a hill...but I think that is far off since now she won't go near any snow!

Little Things

When you are 21 months old, it is the little things in life that excite you. This weekend we bought Lilly a booster seat so that she could sit at the table with us (she was getting very frustrated with her high chair). We were amazed at how much better she sat and ate!!!

So far so good today too, she is loving her new seat at the "big" table! Mommy really likes it because it is much less mess to clean up!

Friday when we got all of the snow we bundled Lilly up and took her outside. She wanted NOTHING to do with the snow (we think it was too high for her and she felt like she was going to fall every time she tried to walk). Now she won't even walk over the snow without a lot of convincing!

She would much rather stay inside and put on mommy and daddy's hat and gloves. That is WAY more fun than playing in the snow. Go figure!

Singing

Ok, so for all that have been bugging me...here is a belly shot from my Christmas party Friday night. I feel HUGE but have gained almost exactly the same amount of weight that I had at this point with Lilly. I had my last 4 week appointment last Friday. Believe it or not..I am already at two week appointments (wow time flies!)

I was getting ready the other day and noticed Lilly had her hands in front of her like a book and was singing one of her favorite songs on her own (B-I-B-L-E). Singing songs is her MOST favorite thing to do right now wherever we are! Here she is singing the only two lines she can remember by herself (that's book me, stand alone word of God). I just love this!

New Fun and advice

George had his Army Christmas party this weekend and Lilly had a BLAST! They had a blow up jumper for the little kids as well as a separate one for the big kids. Lilly was hesitant if any other kids older than her were in it, but if there were kids her own age, she was having a blast!

If older kids came in she would either tell them to get out (that was fun) or would just stand on the side until they got out.

Falling down was really fun in here too!!!

Daddy and his Grandpa made this fireplace surround a few weeks ago and George just finished staining and varnishing it this weekend. Doesn't it look great just in time for Christmas! Of course we had to have a fire Saturday night to celebrate:)

On another note...Lilly used to be the type that we could read stories, and lay her in bed and she would go right to sleep. Just starting Saturday she SCREAMS when we put her in bed, either for naps or bedtime..to the point of throwing up. I took her to the dr. this morning thinking maybe we were missing something and she is fine! Today for her nap as long as I was sitting next to her bed she was fine and eventually fell asleep this way (we're trying to not give in and hold her).We're not sure if she is sensing baby coming or something else, but we are VERY sleep deprived. Any suggestions?!?!?!?!?!?

Thanksgiving

Lilly thought decorating the tree was ok. She had fun helping daddy put the ornaments on the tree..especially her Kermit ornament. This girl is a muppet freak! We also got out the other Christmas decorations this weekend and Lilly really enjoys the snowman. Today she has had to blow his nose quite a few times (every time mommy tries to blow her nose).

She really likes to give the snowman hugs and kisses. She even had to give him hugs and kisses before bed last night.

Our little chef. She usually enjoys "cooking" with the pans, but appartently at grandma and grandpa's house it is better to use them as drums.

4 years later...

4 1/2 years later and they are still not friends. Pheobe (bird) joined our family in 2002 when George and I got married. Beaker joined us in 2004 when George was deployed for the second time. You would think after all this time they could learn to get along!

Ok..so they share some sentimental moments, but mostly fight when Phoebe comes out of her cage (which is rarely). Today she was out only because I MADE her come out to clean her cage.

And the news is.....

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday and found out that Lilly is going to have a baby BROTHER!!! The baby looked great and was measuring right where he should be for 20 weeks.


Lilly has also discovered that sunglasses are super cool now (we couldn't keep them on her for even a nano-second this summer). Now she enjoys putting them in her purse and wearing them around the house.

Halloween

Lillian had such a great time on Halloween! Thanks to cousin Abby for such an AWESOME costume!

By the end of the night she had the hang of walking up to the porch and saying her version of trick or treat. Unfortunately she also learned that everyone thought it was cute if she said "more" and would give her more!!! We'll have to work on that next year because she came home with LOTS of candy that neither she or mommy and daddy need.

She wanted NOTHING to do with carving the pumpkin this year. However, she wanted lots of pictures with the jack-o-lantern once it was done. She learned a few weeks ago for picture day to say "cheese". So now we get this really "cheesy" grin for all of our pictures!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Lilly helped Mommy make a cake this weekend for Daddy's birthday. She really loves helping to stir things!
She wasn't too sure about the mixer though, she felt the spoon did a better job!

Zoo

We all went to the zoo last Friday and it was a GREAT day! It was a beautiful day and not many people were there so it wasn't too crowded! The Polar bear was swimming right on the tunnel so we got to sit there for about 15 minutes and watch him swim above us!

Lilly really enjoyed touching the ice wall in the polar bear exhibit. She can't stop talking about the animals that she saw!

If you have ever been to the Detroit Zoo, you know that the peacocks run around all over! Apparently this one has been fed before because my popcorn looked scrumptious! I thought a couple of times that he was going to attack me for some popcorn.

They had the zoo all decorated for "Zoo Boo" and they had really cute pumpkin animals all over the zoo.

Lilly's favorite thing when she is walking right now is to crouch down (you must do it too) and say ready, set, go...and run! She did this over...and over..and over... at the zoo.

Pumpkin faces

Since it has been so warm out we decided to wait a few weeks to carve a pumpkin. In the meantime we decided to put some faces on some pumpkins to put outside.

Lilly "helped" daddy push the pieces into the pumpkins. Then it was much more fun to take them out again. I think it's time for a Mr. Potato Head.

She didn't really want to sit still for a good picture with her pumpkins so this is the best I got.

Big Girl

Since Mommy can no longer lean over the crib to put Lilly to bed, it was time to transition to a "big girl" bed. Her crib converts to a toddler bed so all we had to do was take the one side off and put up a rail, but it is SO much easier now because she can get in AND OUT of bed herself.


As you can see she was SUPER excited to sleep in her new bed last night for the first time! She did AMAZING and slept no differently than she was in her crib. The only difference is that when she woke up she crawled out of bed and made it to her door before she realized it was too dark to know where to go so she just stood in her doorway and cried.

YEAH! I'm a big girl now!!!

Weekend Fun

Lilly got to attend her first college football game this weekend. We went to the EMU game (where they got beat miserably). We were lucky enough to be able to sit in a place where she could run around as much as she wanted..sorry no pictures camera was left at home.


We also went to an apple orchard on Sunday. Lilly got to ride on a fire truck and go on a hayride. Her favorite part..swinging on the playset (could've done that at home for free!). But the straw on the hayride was fun to play with too...thankfully for us she didn't realize this until near the end of the ride.

Mommy's Greatest Purchase

Mommy was in Orlando for a work conference last week. We were fortunate enough to have some time to stop by downtown Disney for some souvenir shopping. As Lilly LOVES the "Muppeys", I just had to get this Beaker when I saw him (our cat is also named after the Beaker muppet). Lilly has not let him out of her sight since I got home Saturday night.

Her latest favorite thing to do with "Beakey" is to play ring around the rosies. I finally got her to do it by herself with him so I could snap a shot, but usually mommy or daddy has to hold one of Beakey's hands and Lilly holds the other.

Lilly also loves to put her babies to sleep. She has to have one on either side of her and she lays them on their bellies and pats their backs ever so gently!

Lilly's Big News

As I realized it is getting more and more obvious in pictures, we realized it was time to share our news...Lilly is going to be a big sister!!
I am 12 weeks along today and have really "popped" this week. The baby is due March 27th which will make Lilly 2 years and one month old. This baby has really thrown us for a loop as I have been EXTREMELY sick. Things are starting to get better now and I am very thankful for that. Lilly doesn't understand anything is different yet, and I'm not sure that she will until the time finally comes:) Right now it is fun to give her toys and things to the "baby" basket as we are trying to sort through some things in her closet.

Our Little Chef

Lilly has become quite the little helper in the kitchen. Lately she is VERY impatient while food is cooking so to keep her occupied we give her little "tasks" to help out. Usually it is just stirring something together, but last night she got to help mommy make some graham cracker cookies!

Once she realized that she could dip and spread she was really excited as you can see from this face!
Thankfully she wanted to try her cookie before there was much frosting on it..she didn't realize at all that she could lick the spreader either!

I guess the sign of a good cookie is a chocolatey smile:) They taste even better when you help make them!

Labor Day Weekend

Lilly had such an amazing weekend of firsts for Labor Day. On Sunday she had her first boat ride ever. We rode the ferry from Mackinaw City to the Island. She LOVED the boat, especially since water has been one of her words that she likes to say over and over again these past few weeks.

Once we got to the Island we decided to take the 8 mile bike ride around the outside of the island. We rode on Tandem bikes and had a cart behind ours for Lilly. The guy at the bike shop assured us that she would be asleep when we brought her back. Here she is SUPER excited before we started.

And yes..he was right. About a mile and a half into the ride she was asleep. She only slept for about 3 miles of it because we made some stops along the way that woke her up.

On Monday Lilly participated in the bridge walk. She didn't walk much of it, but did walk some. She was super slow when she was walking as she had to look around of course, so we ended up helping her most of the way. Of course she rode in the stroller NONE of the walk as she thought it was better to be carried!

Busy Weeks

Lillian has had a busy few weeks. She has been to Meijer Gardens and the zoo all in one week!!

Her favorite thing about Meijer Gardens is the "kids" entrance to the children's garden. They have a really cool gate that is just Lilly's size. She must've went in and out of this gate 20 times (and of course you have to close the door each time)

Lilly's favorite exhibit this time to the zoo was the new Meerkat exhibit. They run right up to the glass and Lilly loved watching them run around.

We got to get really close to the giraffes because the feeding section was closed that day. We had a blast at the zoo with mommy's friend Angie and her children! We hope to get together again soon!