Christmas Program

Lily had her Christmas Program the other day and the kids were so adorable.  All dressed in their finest they sang their little hearts out!  The video is mostly for Mike, you can't hear them very well.  I have to admit that the only song they sang that I was familiar with was the Little Drummer Boy.  I have never heard so many different Christmas songs before.  Lily's song was "Christmas in my Heart."

Thanksgiving

So we had a very relaxed and happy Thanksgiving. Grandma came to visit, and we ate lots of good food, accompanied by McDonald's beverages.  We kept things simple, and I really did enjoy it.  It was probably one of my favorite Thanksgiving feasts.  A few days earlier Lily had a feast at school. Lily's class dressed like Pilgrims, while Rylan's class were Indians.  She always loves the jell-o best.

So many things to post about....

Wow, I am so behind.  So lets begin.
Halloween has come and gone, and everyone with their very cool smartphones has already posted their kids pictures all over the place.  I, however, am slower and not as technologically advanced, so here is the show of Lily in her spiderman costume!

Of course, when I was a kid Halloween was just one mere day, but today kids celebrate for more than a week.  There was the festival at our community, the festival at the school, trunk or treating at church, trick or treating at Georgetown Square and of course, the grand finale of trick or treating around the neighborhood until you are just too tired to go on.  And let me tell you, we were tired.  The kids started the trick or treating by running from house to house.  Of course in typical Lily fashion, she was one of the last ones still running.  Lily's little quirk this year was to inspect every individual piece of candy as it was put in her bucket and then yell out what it was and how awesome it was.  At EVERY SINGLE HOUSE.  At least the neighbors knew how grateful she was for the candy.  Yaya was here for a good chunk of the Halloween festivities, which made them all the more fun.  

Of course, prior to Halloween we had to make a trip to the pumpkin patch.  Her school went on a field trip to a pretty cool one.  The kids each got a pumpkin, and they got to paint them.  They got to go on a hay ride and run through a corn maze.  They also got to feed goats.  They had a lot of fun.  Lily really loved painting her pumpkin.  Lily really loves to paint.  Lots of paint...

And finally, Lily had a test done a few weeks ago.  Basic thing, not much fun, but she had to go to the hospital, and I had to share a pic of her in the bed all hospital-ed up.  The staff at Dell Children's was amazing.  The nurse, Stella, even gave her a little nurse bear to cuddle with.

Lily's 1st day of PreK

Well, I am only 2 weeks late posting this!  Lily had a great first day (and first 2 weeks) of PreK.  She goes to school 3 days a week, which is leaving her pretty tired all week long.  I can't wait until I adjust to her school schedule so I can start getting lots done!  At least that is the plan.  Lily loves her new teacher already, and she has friends from her previous classes in with her this year, so she's excited.

What a morning...

While I have no pictures of this one...
I woke up this morning and realized Lily had gotten up before me and was attempting to bathe the cat.  Unfortunately he wouldn't stay in the bathroom, so she was filling a big plastic cup with kitty shampoo and water and dumping it on him in the gameroom.  Our carpet was drenched, the cat was covered in soap, and had subsequently run and climbed INTO my bed to hide, so now my bed is soaking, and the bathroom is covered in water and soap.  I guess there are worse things...

A New Haircut

 

Lily got a new haircut!  Yay!  No more fighting over tangles and ponytails and braids!  So fair the haircut really is super cute and has made my life easier.  I am now encouraging her to brush her own hair, which is a little more reasonable without the tangle issue.
We got the haircut after meet the teacher day which was this last Thursday.  She starts PreK on Tuesday, and I am sure I will post more pictures.  She walked into the classroom to meet her teacher, looked at her cubby with her name on it "Lily", and turned to the teacher and said "um, you spelled my name wrong.  It's L-i-l-l-y."  The poor teacher felt so bad and apologized and then I informed her that she didn't spell Lil's name wrong, Lily has taken it upon herself to change the spelling of her name. What can you do?

Corpus Christi!

So I just wanted to post (belatedly, I know) some pictures from our Corpus Christi trip.  Two very good friends and I went on a road trip with the kids at the beginning of August.  We got to see the aquarium, lots of beach(our hotel was RIGHT on the beach), a splash pad (at the aquarium), we even got to drive our car down the beach (something that you do not get to do in San Diego- so quite an adventure!) It was so much fun and the kids had a blast.  Lily refused to nap and got way overtired after a day and a half, but we still managed to have fun.  Our only incident on the trip was when Lily ran in front of the Sonic waitress and she fell over (she was on skates, poor thing).  Unfortunately she was carrying a tray of food at the time, luckily it wasn't ours. :)

Donut Day

Saturday is usually donut day for Lily and Daddy.  Mike has been gone for a little over a month now, so in honor of him we headed out for donuts this morning.  Lily and Mike have a little routine that we had to follow exactly.  I do think Lily might have exaggerated about how many donut holes she is allowed to eat in the car on the way home!

Candy Balls!

 Alright, so it is hot here.  Have I said that yet?  Maybe you didn't hear me... it is HOT!  So, we are swimming a lot.  (Haha--I'm rhyming-it was unintentional!)  I was a little worried about Lily because in the past she refused to put her face in the water.  If any water got near her eyes she would freak out.  Apparently these things pass with time.  She loves to put her face in the water and tell me how many times she has put her face in the water!  The above picture is of Lily jumping into the water screaming "candy ball!"  The term was picked up in San Diego.  Apparently when Mike yelled "cannon ball" while jumping into the water, Lily and Isabel heard "candy ball" and the phrase has stuck.
The picture below is the closest I could get to a picture of her with her face in the water.  My photography skills are sadly lacking. Maybe one day!

Auntie's Post

This is a special post for Auntie Kelly.  Look at this adorable dress.  I can't remember where Lily got it from, but isn't she cute???

Lily's 4th Birthday Party-the retake

So we finally got to have Lily's party after everyone recovered from a stomach bug (lucky us!).  We had lots of fun with lots of friends.  Lily had a blast and loved all of her ladybug stuff.  We played in the water, which was nice because Texas is HOT, I mean seriously, no kidding, HOT.  Unfortunately, the lady bug cake got a little melty this time, but noone seemed to notice.  Lily had so much fun, she is already talking about her birthday party next year!

Happy Birthday Lily!

So, yesterday was Lily's 4th Birthday.  We planned a big water party in the backyard.  We were making a ladybug cake, and Mike filled over 100 water balloons.  When Lily woke up it was very apparent that she had a stomach bug.  Poor Lily.  No party.  No friends.  Still, we managed to have fun anyway, and I am planning the party for sometime next week.  Lily still had plenty of energy, so she just played with mommy and daddy, and we kept our germs to ourselves.  All Lily wanted for her birthday was a kitchen and a skateboard.  Amazingly she got both!  Yaya and Papa sent her a very cool kitchen (which has a market with it and cash register that takes credit cards!!).  Mike and I gave her the skateboard and pads.  She was a happy girl!

CA Trip 2011

It has been awhile since we've been to visit in California (18 months!), so we had to make sure to take a trip before Mike deploys this summer.  We had to get all of the "good stuff" in.  We took a 3 day trip to Disneyland with Yaya, Papa, and Isabel.  We played at Sea World with Grandma.  We even made it to the beach with Papa and Isabel.  It was cloudy, and barely 70 degrees, but Lily has never been to the beach before, so it was a must.
Lily and Isabel became good friends, but were very competitive when it came to elevator buttons!  Lily also got along great with her Beers and Phillipson cousins, especially Peyton.

Very Belated Easter

We had so much fun this last Easter, and since it was under a month ago (just barely, I know) I feel I can still post about it.  Auntie Kelly, Hollis and Everett were here with us.  We had several egg hunts, lots of candy, and tons of fun!  We got to pet bunnies and hold baby chicks, and play all the time!  We even got to help feed baby Everett, which Lily and Hollis both loved to do.  They had to take turns, which was the hardest thing sometimes.

Cold Stuff!!!

So, there are two things to share, both happened at different times, but they were both cold so here goes...

First, we had snow again here in TX!  Who knew?  I never would have figured we'd have snow 2 years in a row here!  This year, there was not enough snow for a snowman at all, but we still had fun playing in it. 
Lily also got to go ice skating for the very first time.  Her daddy took her and showed her around the rink.  Unfortunately, I have not been iceskating in forever, and I completely underestimated just how cold it would be inside the rink.  Poor Lil was a popsicle, and didn't even last a half hour.  (I don't blame her at all, I was outside in the warmth after just a few minutes!)  Next time, I will put her in more clothes and gloves!!

Yeah for Yaya!

There is nothing we love more than when family comes to visit!  Yaya came to visit in January and we were all so happy to have her here!  We had some girl beauty time, every got their nails painted, and we did some shopping.  All the good stuff!

It's been awhile...

So, for my Christmas post...

Grandma and Uncle Mark came to visit and we all had a blast!  We went to San Antonio, and had a nice Christmas at home!  Santa brought Lily lots of cool toys, and everyone had a lot of fun.  The one small hiccup was the fact that everything I touched seemed to go wrong.  Picture smoke pouring out of oven and dough that wouldn't rise.  Making 4 batches of toffee to get 1 that was right, forgetting to put butter in my fudge, you name it, I messed it up!  Still I think everyone ate plenty over the holiday anyway! 

A visit with Santa!

We are very excited that we got to go see Santa this year.  Last year Lily wouldn't go anywhere near him.  But that was not the case this year.  The tantalizing bribe of the candy cane was enough to get her to sit on Santa's lap!  She even talked to him for awhile too, but I couldn't hear what she said.  When I asked her what she said, she got a little upset and told me she forgot to ask for the gifts she wanted for Christmas-- which include a Buzz Lightyear Skateboard, a Toy Story Scooter, a Handy Manny construction set, and Toy Story Play dough.  My little princess.  What a girlie girl!  Luckily, I think Santa knows what she wants anyway...

Christmas Cookies in NC

For the second year in a row we have had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with my Aunt and Uncle in North Carolina.  We have so much fun when we get to see them!  This year it was Mike, me, Lily, Kelly, Jason, Hollis, Everett, Tim, Linda, and Josh.  It has become a tradition for my Aunt Linda to make Christmas Cookies with the kids the day after Thanksgiving.  Everyone loves it!  There is a lot of sugar and a lot of mess and a ton of fun!  Lily loved to gob frosting ALL over her cookies while Hollis spent more time on sprinkles for the cookies.  This year, the guys made homemade donuts, and we decorated those too.  It is so nice to spend the Holidays with family.

A Thanksgiving Trip

For Thanksgiving we decided to make the trek out to Auntie's house again.  We were just there 3 months ago, but Auntie was 8 months pregnant then, which means we had a new cousin to meet!  Until this trip Mike had not travelled with Lily long distance in the car, and I think he was pleasantly surprised.  Lily, for all of her boundless energy, is very good in the car on road trips.  There are not many potty stops, and with a good selection of movies, she is kept quite entertained.  Lily and Hollis had a lot of fun together.  When they played dress up, they tried to stump Auntie by both asking to be train conductors, but Auntie surprised them with 2 dress up outfits.  Always prepared.  Below Lily is giving baby Everett kisses.  She loves the babies.