Merry Christmas!

Here is a sneak of our Christmas card, since I cannot mail everyone a card.
It's been a hectic Christmas season. I am trying to slow down and enjoy it, but time just passes so quickly. I hope all of you are having a wonderful Holiday season and remembering that Christmas is really about celebrating the birth of Jesus and not just presents, lights, and Santa. I have tried my best to teach my girls to enjoy every aspect of it and Lily can tell you exactly whose birthday we celebrate on Christmas morning, so I feel like my efforts are working.

With All Things, Give Thanks!

This year, I am very thankful for another year of life, for another wonderful daughter that was given to us this year. We have so much to be thankful for this year. Our lives, health, family's health, our home, just every little thing we have, I am so thankful to God for truly blessing us.

There are two little sweethearts that will forever own my heart. Here are some recent fall pics. Enjoy! and Happy Thanksgiving!

No excuses...

Yep, it's been eternity since i posted..but I'm making no excuses this time, I'm just going to go right to blogging.

First up, is a Lily update. She thinks she's grown! She is such fun! We have had a great summer!

Most of this is for my own records, so just ignore some of it, but we went to her first movie in a theater - Toy Story 3 back in June and she loved it! She's all about Toy Story these days!

Jessie is her favorite!

She's also all about pageants. I finally gave up and ordered her a dress, and we are planning her "big girl" pageant debut, maybe in September.

She loves to play pageant and I have to "Present" her to the group. When asking her, her favorites, she reported the following:

Favorite Food: Tacos

TV Show: Toddlers and Tiaras

Movie: Shrek

Animal: Elephant

What she wants to be when she grows up: A woman so she can shop, Haha!

Her new favorite "pretend" game is to shop in her room. She gets her cash register and we have to shop and she "rings" her up. Too fun!

I love the whole pretend stage and never stop her from pretending. It's so hard to think she's going to be 4 in November, but time is something I can't stop so I just enjoy every day.

Here are a few pics from our beach trip in early July.

I'm excited about my next post. - I went to my 10 year High School reunion last week and I can't wait to post pics!

I'm back..

I am alive! Things are finally starting to slow down for us. I realized that it will be one month tomorrow that I last posted so I better catch up quickly.

We have been staying busy, but not a whole lot of excitement. April really went by so quick. I looked up yesterday and thought to myself, "Wow! When did May get here?"

We have been mostly enjoying Springtime with Lily. She is so grown-up these days. I have blocked the thought of her turning four in November out of my head. She continues to amaze us with her "smarts" and she really says the funniest things.

I got a new pocket camcorder as a complete surprise from BJ, so I am hoping to start posting videos for you to watch!

We went to "Disney on Ice" on April 24 in Pensacola and it was wonderful. I was almost as excited as Lily and we had a great time. Lily absolutely loved seeing the characters and see we leave for Disney World in about 18 days (wow!) so it got us really excited about our upcoming trip!

While in Pensacola, we stopped by the beach even though it was overcast, rainy, and kind of cool, we couldn't pass up the chance to walk on the beach. Lily didn't want to leave :( bad weather and all...

Here are a few pics from our 30 minute trip by the beach. Enjoy :) and hopefully I can get back on track blogging..

"Kits"

We have had Lily's kittens since November...one a bit longer than the other (we had to do a quick replacement with the black one after a fatal accident.)

Until a couple of weeks ago, Lily's "kits" as she calls them, they ran from her and did not like her at all...but now, her "kits" have turned over a new leaf.

"Gray-baby" and "Blacky" have fell in love with their "mama," especially "Gray-baby."

Lily would always chase them and they would run and hide from her. She would get so upset because she couldn't catch them, but now, things have changed and she is loving it.

They let her carry them around now and she doesn't have to chase them. She has even loaded "Gray" in her baby stroller and rolled her around. Gray also loves to snuggle with her on the couch and her bean bag. Neither kitten stays inside but we let them inside for a little while every evening when we get home so Lily can play with them since its usually dark and chilly outside.






I am so not a cat person, but I am loving that they love Lily because she is completely in love with them. I just pray that they stay safe and healthy so she can have a long friendship with her "kits."

Seems I am always apologizing for not posting on here, but wow! what a February, it was and March has started out busy too. Between being short at work (Shannon had a beautiful baby girl and will be back in a couple of months), Relay for Life, 10 year class reunion, Junior Auxiliary and not too mention a busy 3 year old with a dance recital coming up, and all of her activities, and wanting to just have family time at night... unfortunately my blog has been suffering..but maybe not for long.
I promise to do better..

Our Forever Princess!

My boss' son always picks with me about Lily and says, "what will she do when she finds out she's not a real princess?"

We always laugh about this question because Lily is treated like a Princess and probably does think she is a Princess. She loves to dress up like one, and the funniest thing is she calls headbands - "Crowns."

I saw these books in our local Christian bookstore and I got to thinking about this one day, and you know what, Lily will never find out she's not a Princess because she is a REAL princess. She is the daughter of the greatest King of all.

Isn't that the greatest gift ever? I can't wait to buy Lily some of these books and teach Lily more about being a child of Christ.



Speaking of our Princess, this is how her daddy dressed her after her bath for supper the other night. "A true Princess must wear her crown at all times"



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Jump! for your love!

Lily got her much requested "jump" from Santa this past year, and she is loving it. It was finally warmer weather so we were able to get outside this past week, and do some jumping!

Mommy is definitely feeling her age and Lily is so full of energy. She could jump for hours and never get tired. I am excited to finally her a "jump." I never had one as a child mostly because I was so clumsy and they didn't come with huge nets back, but we are really enjoying it if the weather will cooperate with us.

Here are some pics from our jumping adventure.

What? No Pictures?

My last couple of posts have been missing something very important! Pictures of Lily!

I have been taking pics, but forgetting to upload them, so here are some to catch you up on our growing girl!

Our girl of many questions

Since turning three, Lily has became more mature and very inquisitive lately. She wants to know "why" about everything, and we better have a good explanation because she has questions about our explanation. Here are couple of examples of the good questions we have been asked by our smart girl:

While she and I were watching TLC one night, she asks..

"Mommy, what's wrong with that lady?"

"She's going to have a baby."

"Mommy, how does that baby come out?"

Mommy thinks for what seemed like forever, because mommy didn't realize it was time for this question and hadn't prepared a proper answer and responds,

"at the hospital, the doctors help the mommy get the baby out and a stork bring the baby to the mommy" - HA! Definitely not the best answer, but I've been thinking about what to say next time she asks and hoping we can revise this. (What have you told your kids about this?)


Next question...while eating at a local restaurant..

"Daddy, why is that man in that chair with wheels?" (loudly)

"Shhh, Lily! Don't talk to loud." "He hurt his legs."

"What's wrong with his legs, daddy?"

"He hurt them and can't walk so he has to be pushed around in that chair like we push you in your stroller"

She thinks for a while and seems to accept this answer...

While at church during the sermon one day a couple of weeks ago, Lily decided not to go to children's church..referring to the preacher, Lily asks me,

"Mommy, is he mad at us? " (loudly)

"Shh, Lily, whisper.."

"He's yellings at us, mommy"

"No, he's not mad, he's just talking loud so we all can hear."

a few minutes later..

"mommy, why does he keep talking about Jesus?"

"because he's supposed to tell us about Jesus, Lily"


There's many more where that came from, and I'm loving every minute but also learning I need to be much more prepared for these questions because they aren't getting easier and I know my answers are going to stick in her head so I don't want them to sound crazy.

Lily's 50's Elvis Birthday Party

This past Saturday, Lily had her 3rd birthday party (she turns 3 November 28.) I always start planning in July every year and this year when we asked her what she wanted, she always said an Elvis party. (My mom got her to loving Elvis and she loves Jailhouse Rock.) An Elvis party with a 50's theme was our plan and it turned out wonderfully.

We couldn't have asked for a prettier day and it was so easy to have a fifties party, so many ideas out there to help me out.

Here is Lily all dressed up in her poodle skirt from Ebay. She was so pretty and so grown up.


Here is some of the decorations and Lily's cake. The lady that made her first bday cake made this one and it turned out perfect. Very yummy too!


Here is Lily with her cousins, Erin and Jayla before the party.


Lily posing with her cake.


Closeup of the cake


We had a hula hoop contest and the kids were so funny! Lily loved it!


BJ and I in our 50's attire

The birthday tent before everyone arrived.


We had a very special guest at the party - Elvis himself dropped by! I found his outfit at a local discount store (Dirt Cheap) for $7!!

Elvis and his mom



Our family pic with Elvis


Elvis and his favorite little girl. Elvis was a hit and everyone thought he was so funny. We had a fun time watching him dance and entertain everyone.

Time to open presents. She got so much and was so sweet and thanked everyone individually.



Excited over her iron crowns that she got from Aunt Sue and Uncle Jackie. She thought they went on her head.


Posing with some of her friends


Some of her best friends - Lily, Jancie, Aimree, and Allie Jewel


Everyone posed behind this car stand-up that my handy dad built.


It was a great party. Everything turned out perfect and it was a beautiful day.

Friends

Lily's sweet friend from daycare, Aimree just celebrated her 3rd birthday. She had a Strawberry Shortcake party, and it was so cute. Lily had the best time!

Lily and Aimree have been to daycare with each other since they were around 3 months old so they have grown up together.

Even though the weather was cool, Lily had the best time with Aimree. She's still talking about going to Aimree's party.

Wasn't the cake so cute?


I love this pic!


About to cut into the cake. They kept sneaking icing off the cake.


I just loved this pic. I am going to get it framed for Lily's room.

Meow!

Lily is now the proud owner of two new baby kittens. They are both precious and constantly tormented by a sweet almost three year old little girl. She loves them to death though. She is such a good little mommy to them.

We got them from BJ's uncle - Lily's great Uncle and Lily's request was to get a pink kitten and a purple kitten. He didn't exactly have those colors, but these worked out fine.

After going through all kinds of names, including "pink" and "purple" Right now, their names seem to be "Tootsie" and "Reesie" after Lily's two favorite chocolate candies.

Warning! Their names are prone to change at any time, lol..

Here is Lily with Reesie.


Tootsie up close.


Reesie again!


Tootsie


I am so careful so far with these kittens because Lily is in love and I don't want to have to tell her that another pet has gone to heaven. We are going to try our best to keep Tootsie and Reesie far far from the road.

Living in Color..

I'm back with lots of pics and hopefully a new layout to be added next week.

Lily has been keeping us entertained as always. She is such a mess. She has started taking dance (the first year it's been offered here in years) in our hometown with some of her very best friends so she is really liking spending time with them and mommy and daddy are enjoying not having a 45 minute drive to dance. She's been doing great.

I took these pics in a dance outfit she helped me to create. It definitely has an 80's look but that seems to be coming back these days. Hope you enjoy and have a great weekend!

Isn't she the sweetest thing?
She loves to put her hands on her hips.

I like this one with the black and white effects. What do you think?
Lily doing her flips, lol


Her new favorite thing - Rolling her eyes, she thinks its so funny. SHe says Amber taught her...oh Amber? lol and finally doing her split, she learned this in dance/tumbling