Heart-felt ornaments

I doubt there are many that love the Christmas season more that my mom.  She anxiously awaits each year to decorate the house and the tree, to shop for gifts, and to listen to Christmas music.  I hate to tell on her, but I borrowed her car one afternoon before Thanksgiving, and she already had a Christmas mix in the CD player!

Years ago, she made a set of felt ornaments for her Christmas tree and another set for Granny (which I am fortunate enough to have).  Now, when I say she made them, I mean she lovingly sewed each and every one by hand.  And, there are dozens of them.  In all of my memories of decorating the tree, I always remember hanging these ornaments.  When we were younger, there might have been a squabble or two over who got to hang a particular ornament or how high one sibling was able to reach versus another.  And, as we got older, I remember protecting these ornaments.  That's because Maggie, my parents beloved cocker spaniel turns into an ornament eater at Christmas-time.  And, her favorite ornaments to eat just happen to be my mom's felt ornaments.  I remember all too well the night my dad and I fell asleep while we were supposed to be guarding the tree.  Maggie ate two ornaments that night and my mom was not too happy to see her hand made treasures torn to shreds.

Fortunately, Jackson is not an ornament eater (and neither is Lily).  She has done really well with the Christmas tree and likes looking at all the ornaments and lights.  We hung a lot of the felt ones low enough that she can reach them.  Here are just a few of my favorites.

And, Lily's favorite is this bunny.

This is the only one that she removes from the tree regularly.  She will walk around the house with it, and tonight I saw her giving the bunny ornament a little hug.

And, our tree this year. 

I am glad that these ornaments are making memories in our house this year, and I know they will for many years to come! 

Fifteen months

We went for Lily's 15 month checkup last week and she got an excellent report.  She is growing long and lean right now, just over twenty pounds (20 lb. 3.5 oz) and 31 inches long.  She got two shots this time, but hardly even noticed because she was too busy trying to free herself from Tim's hold.      

Some of her favorite things to do right now are play outside, play outside, and play outside.  She could spend hours just walking around in the yard, throwing balls, and picking up rocks.  Besides playing outside, she loves going to preschool, stealing away our electronics, playing with her Little People and Weeble toys, and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She seems to understand most things you tell her (listening is another story) and is picking up new sounds and words all the time.  She has a couple of animal noises that she likes to make...lion, tiger (same as lion), owl, and dog.  Many of her words start with a "d" sound, like "doh".  That's her "no" and she uses this one quite frequently.  She occasionally surprises us with something more difficult, like the other morning she said "belly button" clear enough for us to understand.  She is very interested in body parts right now and can point out many of them to us.  She likes making friends wherever we go, waving hello and goodbye to people.  Just yesterday the pharmacist saw her and said, "Hey, it's our little friend!".  Last week, she played peek-a-boo with him and had everyone laughing.  She has us laughing most everyday, sometimes several times a day.  Not to say that she doesn't throw in some frustration every now and then, but she is SUCH a joy.  Here is our little girl...15 months old!

I couldn't pick a favorite, so I just shared them all.  I love that you can see all four of her little teeth when she smiles.

Lately...

We have been playing a lot of dress-up... 





 And perfecting our "C-H-E-E-S-E"...



Game time

Lily went to her first football game over the weekend.  The Pack beat Wake Forest (38-3).  Lily just stared at the field and watched the entire game.

Ha!  Yeah right.  We had wondered if we would even make it through the first quarter.  I was able to contain her until halftime when she was "all done" with being in the carrier. 

Although she doesn't look too happy in the family picture, she did have a good time.  She loved the clapping, cheering, music, soft pretzels, and lemonade.  Tim tried to teach her the noise the wolf makes.  It came out as sort of an "Ah-oo".

 

Wonder who Lily is going to pull for this weekend?

Our little china doll

Last spring, Uncle Rob went to Beijing.

He brought Lily back this beautiful little outfit complete with tiny red slippers.  It was a little too big at the time, and we weren't sure what occasion was going to be appropriate for its' wear.  But, this fall it was a perfect fit and we decided it would be perfect for Lily's Halloween costume.  I found the headpiece online to add to it and, well, here she is!

She has got to be the cutest little china doll you have ever seen!

I think her favorite part of the ensemble were the shoes.  They originally had little jingle bells on the toes, but those were quickly removed after a few practice walks around the house in them.  We did our trick-or-treating around the cul-de-sac, and Lily enjoyed visits from Sush & Aunt E, Grammy & Grandpa, and Uncle Rob & Lindsay.  Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Oh, and check out our pumpkins this year! 

State Fair

Where else can you find a cheeseburger sandwiched between doughnuts, prize-winning steers, and ride on The Himalayan all in one place?  None other than our very own State Fair.  Lily got to experience it this year for the first time and had so much fun.  Tim and I did, too :). 

We saw the animals.  Lily just stared at them in amazement.  She waved at a lot of them.  She "mmmed" at the cows.  After we checked out all the prize winners, we went into the livestock exhibit filled with goats.  After pointing out a goat to her for the 100th time, she finally gave us the "all done" sign she usually reserves for mealtime to signal she is through.  Ha! 

We took her on a few rides.  I think her favorite was the carousel.  We sat on a horse together.  She smiled and clapped as we went around and around. 

We tried more fair food than we ever have.  I am slightly embarrassed at what Lil had for dinner so I won't share the whole menu.  She did start out with roasted corn on the cob (one of the few veggies she eats), but she ended with a few bites of deep fried oreo cookie.  And, she would have had more than just a few bites if she'd had her way!  This was another one of the fried concoctions that we taste tested (just Tim and I this time).

The camera battery was low so I didn't take many pictures, but I did manage to get Lily at the end of the night.  She decided to take off one shoe and sock on the way back to the car.

Post- oreos and WAY past her normal bedtime.

I think she had a good time.  Wouldn't you agree?

A trip to the farm

We went to Hill Ridge Farms over the weekend to pick out a pumpkin.  While we were there, Lil got to see some animals, ride on a train, go down a huge slide, amongst other fun things.  Here a a few of the highlights...

A stop to check out the chickens and goats.

I was a bit skeptical of the huge pit filled with corn, but this was probably one of her favorite things.  And, I have to admit, that it was actually quite comfortable!  Lily thought so as well.

Family photo on the hay ride.

Lastly, we made it to the pumpkin patch.  Lily had no interest in posing for pictures at this point and was much more interested in picking out a pumpkin.

This is my favorite one, because as you can see from the picture, Lil is WALKING!  Up until last week, her attempts at walking were sporadic.  Last Wednesday, she started cruising all around the house.  Every day since, she is crawling less and less and walking more and more.  So fun!

Fall is here

We have been waking up to some crisp, cool mornings and I have to say that I am loving it after the hot summer that we had.  Over the weekend, we went to the Fall Festival at St. Marks.  Lily had her first pony ride.

 It was a short one.  She lasted for about one loop around before deciding she preferred watching from a distance.

 We had more success at the duck pond.

Lily also got her hand painted, checked out the fire truck, and danced along with the person playing the guitar.  Grammy and Grandpa were there also, so of course, Lily had some fun with them.

She now has a word for Grammy.  It sort of sounds like Gaaaahgee.  She has been pointing and saying lots of sounds the past couple of weeks, some of which are more decipherable than others.  She is getting good at Daddy, Jackson, and doggie (and she said cat last week for Sush!).  Well, I'm outta time to write...Lily just woke up from her nap!   

Drumsticks & corn on the cob

Sometimes, this is the only way she will take a bite.

Herbie

The newest addition to the swingset...Lil's own little love bug.  I picked this swing up at a yard sale over the weekend for $3.50!  I also got an umbrella stroller for the same price to bring my grand total up to $7.  Score!

 (Not pictured...Tim.  He's pushing Lil in the swing.)

Baby steps

After several months of crawling, Lily has taken an interest in walking!  It began about two weeks ago, with one step here and one step there.  She would take a couple days off completely and then take the occasional step again.  Last Wednesday, after we got home from Little Gym she randomly took 18 steps.  It was the first time I had seen her actually try to get from one place to another by walking (she went from the kitchen table to the back door).  For the next week, I didn't see her take more than a couple of steps at a time.  Then yesterday, she took 26 steps (who's counting?)!  She was again, heading to the back door, this time to see Jackson who was waiting on the other side to be let in.  She seems to be building her confidence up and trying her walking feet out more and more.  It is so cute to watch her move and I have to admit I am very excited about this new accomplishment.  Do you know what this means?  She can start wearing dresses!  Haha!  They got in the way too much when she was crawling, so I didn't even bother unless it was a special occasion.  What great timing because I just sewed my first dress this week!

Well, I know all this walking is going to fun, but we will definitely need to get ready for some bumps and bruises along the way.  She nearly face planted on the hardwoods this evening after taking off towards me at full speed.  It was a super save on my part though, and Lily came away unharmed. 

That's all for now!

First day of preschool

I packed her backpack the night before...

I posed her for her "first day of preschool" picture...

One more as we head to the car...

The drop off went much better than anticipated.  I nervously walked away from her room.  I said a prayer that everything went alright and reminded myself that if ANYTHING were to happen, my mom (aka Grammy) was right down the hall.  I kept myself busy...ran errands, made muffins for her teachers, and vacuumed the house.  I CONSTANTLY checked the clock.  And, when it came time to pick her up, I walked down the hall, again, nervously.  I peeked into her classroom door and I found her like this...

She had worn herself out.  Completely.

Sweet Lily

My sister-in-law, Christi, has quite a natural talent when it comes to taking pictures.  She was wonderful enough to take photos for me at Lil's birthday party.  Here are a few that she snapped at the beginning of the party.  My sweet little Lily...

And one more picture of Lily after she was done with her cake.

I've been saying we needed a photographer in the family...I think we've got one!