THAT'S NOT ALL!!!

...I'm just tired, and there are dozens more pics. I'll add more later I promise. Goodnight for now :)

Christmas at Gigi & Papa Joe's

Again, here are some pics in a crazy reverse order that my Mom made up. This is my new Elmo from Aunty Candie, he giggles and dances and here I am rocking him in my chair. By the way, my favorite word is E-L-M-O and my favorite video is Elmo's Christmas and my favorite book is Elmo at the zoo.

Here is when I realized that this Elmo was for me!

At first, I just carried Elmo in his suitcase before opening it up to meet him. That kept me busy for awhile because I am a busy girl and I like to work!

Here I am sitting on my present. That was fun too. I had to test each one out for safety before opening it. My Uncle Dave & Aunt Heidi gave me my first cabbage patch baby, adoption papers and all. That's a lot of responsibility for my little 19 month old self! Do I have to wake up at night with her like Mom does with me? Uh oh! I did share some of my cookies with her though.

Christmas Morning at Home

This is me and Mom and Nana and Granny opening gifts. Everyone came over for brunch (waffle bar :) and playtime.

Nana gave me this cool farm with animals.

Here I am enjoying my waffle with blueberries.

This was my Christmas morning surprise! (Not the cat :) I have my very own playhouse and slide!!! So far the slide makes me a little nervous, but I love the playhouse, as does my cat, and my Dad (see below). Don't ask how my Dad got in there (??) or how he got back out.

When I got up CHristmas morning we were in Mom and Dad's bed hanging out and then Mom reminded me that Santa had come the night before and probably brought me a surprise. Dad ran to get the video camera and I started getting very excited (patting the top of my head??) This slide/play house is what I found when I came out. I was speechless!

Christmas Eve

So, my parents were kind of bad about taking pics on Christmas Eve. These were before the party pics. We had a good time at my Mom's Aunt Cherie & Uncle Dennis' house eating lasagne, playing with poppers and catching up with family. I was a little disturbed by some family members that arrived wearing reindeer antlers, but as soon as I got over that, I was running around the house (mostly following Papa). Their dog was as tall as I was! She was cool. I also got to have some conversations with my Great Grandma Mary. We got home late (by my standards) and so I had to get right to bed because Mom said Santa would not come if I wasn't asleep!

Christmas celebration #1: Papa Tom & Granny's

I'm a lucky girl. Yesterday was my 1st of 4 Christmas celebrations. Papa Tom and Granny Lori served us up a YUMMY taco bar with all the trimmings and homemade blue corn tortillas that I loved :)

I got some really cool books that I've already read through and a soft gingerbread blanket. We went on a walk through candy cane lane in the rain where I was not shy about getting up close and personal with the Christmas light displays, especially the reindeer. I also sat by Santa and saw Elmo (!) I was so excited I just hit the top of my head over and over (??) I was pretty tired from opening all the presents and running up and down the hall at Papa & Granny's and slept the whole way home.

Good thing I have a few days of rest before the next Christmas...more excitement to follow!

Merry Christmas! A note from my mommy

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. We wish you happiness, love, and abundance in 2009!

Our little girl is growing up so fast. What an amazing year! She hits the 19-month-old mark in a few days, and is a ball of energy. This year she is really into Christmas. She can say and recognize "santa," her christmas "tree," and loves Christmas music (and dance time with Dad in her room with her boombox in the evening.) We're doing lots of crafty projects to help her learn all about Christmas too...which she mostly likes to eat, rather than create. She does have something popping up from her mom's side of the family...very curly hair. It's so fun to see your traits come out in your very own child. Other mom traits: STUBBORN, sensitive, runs like a girl. Luckily, it looks like she got some of her dad's coordination and energy :) I'm not sure when we'll be adding a sibling to the mix, but Lily will be a fabulous big sister. She has her own little baby that goes with her EVERYWHERE. Lily pushes baby in the stroller, feeds baby her food, lets baby nurse a little now and then, and even tries to bathe her. She's also really helpful around the house. She helps mom mop and sweep every day (even if it's only her doing the cleaning, not mom!) What delight she brings to every day (providing she decides to nap well that day.) Seeing the world through her eyes is a joyful experience (again, as long as we've all got a good night's sleep!) Smarty pants understands and repeats EVERYTHING we say...so watch out! Looking forward to another year of watching our baby grow :)

-Jen, Joe & Lily

Hi there, it's me, Lily.

My Mom just figured out how to make the font on this blog big enough that people can actually read it! Maybe we will get some cool comments now??

My 1st Trip to the Zoo!!

On "Fieldtrip Friday" mom and dad took me to the zoo. We got lucky because Dad got the day off so he came along too. We met our friends Aubrey and Summer there. We saw kangaroos in the outback...

Getting a little tired :) Sometimes mom and dad were more excited than me, but I still had fun.

We saw monkeys (my favorite!!!) I did a lot of "oo-oo-ah-ah" (that's my monkey sound).

We saw giraffs so tall...

and fish too!

What an awesome, FUN Fall day with family and friends!

:) Next I am going to post some pics of all the fun artsy projects I've been doing this Fall.

Halloween Day

Halloween was a special day. Mom and I did our 1st baking project together. We made pumpkin chip cookies!! The dough was YUMMY.



Earlier in the day we made "spiders" out of crackers, peanut butter and pretzel sticks. My friend Aubrey came over to make them too. It was fun. Really Mom and Summer made the spiders while Aubrey and I sampled them. Pictures of those to come...

Lily is a trick-or-treating MACHINE!!!

I love trick-or-treating!! After we went to the first house I had it all figured out. I go to people's doors and they give me cool stuff. What could be better?? Yes, that's me dragging Grandma to the next house. Behind us is Elizabeth and Violet (the dinosoar) and some of my favorite neighbors (I kind of wanted to go home with them.)
The neighbor at the end of our block had a BIG Halloween display. Here I am waving bye-bye to him. I held my pumpkin bag the entire time and kept my ears on. My Mom was shocked at how well I behaved. She kept calling me her "big girl."

This is right before we left the house to hit the streets. As you can tell, I'm ready and waiting for everyone else.

Mom and I were both black cats.

Trying to sneak a cookie off of the table.

Done for the night. Except that I wanted to keep going. Mom said I should save some candy for the rest of the little kids. We got home and Dad and I went through my loot. My next door neighbor Helen even made me a special cookie :)

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

Mom and I rode a big tractor. I was kind of tired because I decided to torture mom and skip my nap today. And my smart mom dressed me in my kitty outfit (head to toe black) and it was about 90 degrees out...I'm guessing she didn't think that one through. So if my cheeks appear red in these pics, I'm not bashful, I'm hot!

Violet and I climbed a hay bale. Well that's a little far fetched. Actually our moms placed us up here together. I would have climbed it myself but I was a little pooped.

But...I liked climbing/riding the pumpkins a lot!

Guess what breed of cat I am! (One that's sensitive to the sun I guess.) It took me only about 2 minutes to figure out how to untie mom's double knot and take this stupid hat off.

Fall is officially here! I am 17 months old and one sassy number!

Lots of new things in my world...

I love to play outdoors and spy on the neighbors...

I have my own cell phone...

I go "pee pee" on the potty...

This is my favorite baby. I call her "baby" and like to carry her around with me everywhere. I also like to carry my fancy red purse (actually mom's from her and Dad's wedding day).

Oh,

and I'm a climbing machine...


Mom just gave me my 1st haircut too. I'm not sure there will be a 2nd one though...