Lillian's birthday party

We finally had Lillie's birthday party on November 19th. She had a great party surrounded by family and friends.   The weather was great (at least for November!) and we deep fried a turkey outside! After some good food, we brought out the cake.

I got the idea for her cake from pinterest (love pinterest.com!) My wonderful brother Matthew took the idea and created this.  I get to take some credit this time, I cut out the little girl and the balloons.

She was so excited for the cake!

She didn't know what to make of everyone singing happy birthday. Ethan had no problem jumping in to help her blow out the cancel.

Lillie loved eating her cake, I was surprised because she hadn't been interested in much food lately. I think with all the commotion of the previous weeks with the loss of power and staying at others people's houses, she had turned to nursing more often for comfort. She ended up making a big mess and was covered in frosting.

After the cake, we opened presents and she got so many cute clothes.  She is such a girl, she carried a few outfits around the house with her afterward :)

This isn't her birthday, but the end of November. She is so determined to walk into the road.  Whenever we are outside, she makes a beeline up the driveway. Here, I had just caught her almost at the top!  I just love this pink pea coat, I'm going to be so sad when she outgrows it!

Lillian is One!

Last week our little baby turned one! We had an eventful week with the loss of power so we quietly celebrated with just the four of us at Red Robin.  We had to cancel her party and reschedule.  I also didn't take any pictures of her since the camera was at the house.  I'm sure I will get plenty at her party though!

 Lillian went for her one year check-up today and weighs 17lb 3oz and is 29.5 inches tall(compared to Ethan who was 21lb 4oz and 30in tall at his 1 year check up). That's 75% for height and 3% for weight. Our new pediatrician declared she is just petite and not concerned with her weight at this point.  Poor girl got 4 shots and a finger prick.  She had fallen asleep in the car so when I brought her in to the doctors office, all she wanted to do was nurse.  I held her off until the end after the finger prick.  She is stubborn refused to nurse until I took off the bandaid on her finger. She actually tried to bite it off first. The nurse had to do a second finger prick and again Lillie wouldn't do anything until the second bandaid was off her finger.

Here are some things we love about Lillie:
*She can say dada, mama and baba (bye-bye) while waving.
*She loves to give kisses with a loud "mwah"
*She loves to clap to show us how proud she is when she has accomplished something
*She is very independent, she doesn't like the high chair, she wants to sit in her own big person chair and not in someone's lap
*She is finally getting to be a good sleeper. Often we can hear her talking to her dolls after we put her down in the crib.
*She loves Sophie, her doll.  She carries it around the house and we think even tries to say "sss" while pointing to it.
*She has 4 teeth with a 5th one poking out. She chipped a bottom one while we were at Granny's house.  I was laying down with her one night trying to get to to sleep without waking Ethan or the cousins and she threw herself off the bed! I caught her but not before she hit her head on the sofa bed frame.
*She is a great snuggler.  When you pick her up she likes to shimmy up so she high enough to rest on your shoulder and put her arms around you.
*She is great at walking since she's been doing it for almost 2 months now.  She loves to be chased.
*She knows what she wants when it comes to food.  You can not convince her to eat something she doesn't want,or take a one more bite when she decides she is done.
*She is a little monkey when it comes to climbing.  She can climb up onto chairs, the couch and into the toy box! She has mastered going up the stairs, but can't go down them.
*She loves bath time and climbs into the tub or shower whenever she gets the chance.
 *She has a very cheesy smile that just makes us laugh
*She is our perfect petite princess and we love her!

A fall day

Before the storm hit, we had some fun hanging out in the yard.

Lillie loved playing in the leave pile Ryan made.

She hates things on her head and wouldn't keep the hat on.  She also pulls out all the cute clips I have for her.

She loves her Daddy!

She ate the last of the cherry tomatoes

Here is the first of our carrot crop

I couldn't help snapping a picture of Ethan actually being nice to his sister!

Halloween

Halloween wasn't quite we expected this year due to the snowstorm. With no power in town, Halloween was canceled. We did get to go to our playgroup Halloween party as well as the ward trunk or treat before the storm hit. Ethan did get to go trick or treating to a few houses with his cousins at my grandparent's house.  It was cold so Lillie and I stayed back, she didn't know what she was missing.  We still had plenty of candy-2 bags of kitkats I had planned on handing out. I'm glad the kids still don't completely understand that Halloween is all about candy, I got to eat those two bags myself :)

Here are a few pictures, I had planned on getting better pictures before going trick or treating.

 Here we are at the trunk or treat.  Ethan was a bumble bee, Lillie a ladybug and Ryan and I were supposed to be bug catchers.  Who knew it would be impossible to find butterfly nets in the fall?

They had several games for the kids to play.  Ethan didn't quite understand that he couldn't use his hands to get his donut.

 2nd time he got the idea, good thing we didn't have to try a third donut!

Lillie loved kicking around the balloons. 

 Lillie's costume was easy to make and since she has so much hair, I didn't have to bother with antennae.

Ethan's costume took a much longer-I really need to learn how to use my sewing machine!

October Nor'Easter

What a crazy storm we had! On October 29th storm Albert came and left about 18 inches of wet, heavy snow.  The trees still had leaves on them, so branches were weighed down and snapped.  We lost several trees in the back. Including a beautiful red japanese maple.  My dogwood I got for Mother's day in 2010 also lost a main branch and we are hoping it will survive. The power went off around 4pm on Saturday the 29th and we didn't get it back until Sunday November 6th!

We were fortunate enough to be able to sleep at my grandma's house along with the McDermotts, Rebecca and Matthew. It made for cramped quarters!  My parents stayed with my mom's brother as they were without power too.  My other grandparents fed us dinner several nights in a row. Ryan had school canceled for a week.  The kids had fun hanging out with their cousins each day, but we were very glad to get back in our home a week later.
We tried to find places to go each day and give my grandma a break from the kids. One day we went to the mall and pierced Lillie's and Cindy's ears. Lillie didn't cry for the first ear and cried for about 10 seconds with the second. As soon as I stood up with her, she was fine. It was funny to see people huddling around power outlets at the mall trying to charge up cell phones and laptops.  There were even people in charging devices in restrooms!

 Here they are with their new earrings!

Ryan spent most days clearing the debris from our yard. Here are some pictures he took:

 This is a line of Rose of Sharon bushes

 A tree branch fell on Ryan's car! No damage though.  We were not so secretly hoping one would fall on a shed so we could replace one.

 There is the Japanese maple on the ground

You should be able to see the brown shed behind this tree.
 

 There what is left of the garden.

My poor dogwood tree

 Ryan dug up some carrots under the snow.  While waiting in a looooong line for gas (45 minutes!) Ethan ate the whole thing.

He needed a nap after he was done!

Lillie also liked the carrots Ryan brought back. She also loves giving her cheesy smile now.

Our basement flooded due to the fact the sump pump had no power.  It wasn't too bad, most of our things were already off the floor.  I did lose a bunch of teaching materials I had stored down there. Most of our food survived because we took it to my parents house and they had a extension cord from a neighbor's generator powering their refrigerators and freezer. Ryan lost about a dozen fish before he moved a tank over to my grandparents house.  At one point Ryan said it was 45 degrees inside the house! 

Let's hope this is the worst storm we get this season!

September

September is long over but here are some pictures from then.

Silly kids love this beanbag.  They are always jostling each other for the best spot on it.  Ethan has taken to picking up Lillie and body slaming her onto the beanbag.  Its hard to get him not to do it because she laughs.

 The cousins were over for a bit when we were getting our new cell phones (we love our samsung galaxy s2s!!) and Cindy wanted to ride with Lillie.  Lillie loves this wagon. Its the first thing she goes for when we go outside.

 Ethan's favorite place is the dirt pile.  This was the spot Ryan put down mulch and had plans to use it around the yard.  Ethan has completely taken it over with his fleet of diggers and trucks.

She is so proud of herself when she can climb on things without assistance

Ethan

I've realized that I haven't posted as much about Ethan has I have about Lillie. Its been awhile so here are some new things about Ethan.
He does love his little sister. Once while Lillie and I were relaxing in bed still and Ryan had already left for work, Ethan managed to get into the kitchen and up onto the counter to grab a package of teddy grahams.  He brought back two bags and told me one was for him and one was for Lillie.  When I asked him where mine was, he went back downstairs and got 2 bags for me! There are still times when he needs to show his love in a different way, like when he sits on her or runs into her full speed knocking her down.
He is a whiz when it comes to the computer.  We had to put a password on it to keep him off.  If he had it his way, he would be on there all day.  He knows how to open the browser and go to his favorites to play various games on different sites.  He has even found a way to get to youtube to watch videos.  One day he wanted to watch Wild Kratts on PBS.  It wasn't on and I was trying to make dinner so I logged him into the computer.  5 minutes later he was watching Wild Kratts on the PBS website. I think he knows how to use my smartphone better than me.  He knows how to navigate the phone to get to different apps.  He loves to take pictures though he still hasn't figured out to keep his finger out of the way.  He loves angry birds and would probably do anything to play it.  If he manages to get one of our phones without us noticing, he will hide under the table to play it.  The good thing is that it makes shopping much easier with him, my phone keeps him occupied the whole time!
In the car he is always telling us to go left or right. He usually wants to go left, its definitely his favorite and will get mad if I tell him we are going right. Maybe he'll be a lefty like me ;) He points out the red, green and orange(cannot convince him that it is yellow) lights and knows we have to stop at red and go at green.  He knows the way to many places and quickly recognizes if we are headed to work, Jack and Cindy's house, his friend Ollie's house, the library and many other places.
Red is his favorite color.  He will only eat yogurt with his red spoon.  The red crayon is the only one he wants to use. When given a choice, he wants the red object. I didn't expect to see a preference so early on. He is starting to want to pick out his clothes.  Still no interest in actually dressing himself, but he will tell me he wants a certain shirt.
Ethan is talking more, but we still have to prompt him to use the words he knows.  One of his favorite phrases right now are "so cute". Everything is "so cute", Ryan's fish, the water banana plant, the neighbors dogs, the dragonfly outside etc.  So when I asked him if he thought Lillie was so cute, I thought he would say yes.  Nope, he responded "Ehan so cute!"
We certainly do think he is a cutie!

Lillie is 11 months

Lillie is now 11 months.  She has been walking for about 2 weeks now.  She has amazing balance.  When standing she can crouch down without her bum touching the ground, pick up a small object like a cheerio and stand back up and continue on her way.  She loves to climb up things and even though she is a peanut she has managed to climb up onto couch.  She is starting to show her wild side. When she is on a bed or couch, she loves to fall backwards. She laughs and laughs each times she does it.  Good thing we watch her carefully, she almost threw herself off the bed the other day!  She is looking the part of a wild child too, her hair has gotten long in front and will often pull out any clip I put in to keep it out of her eyes.   She has 2 teeth, one on the top and one on the bottom, it looks silly so we hope more come in quickly!
She is eating more.  On a good day, she will eat 4-5 bites of yogurt, a few pieces of chicken, a few grapes and a cracker or two.  Other days she will refuse almost everything other than some cheerios or crackers.  She is babbling, walking and smiling so we know she is fine, just destined to be petite!
Speaking of babbling, she says Dada a lot.  Ryan is convinced she says it when she sees him and so its her first word.  I don't think I'll be convinced shes spoken her first word until I hear her say Mama to me :)
We both love that Lillie will grab a book and walk over to one of us and climb up on our lap.  She doesn't actually let us read more than a page, but its always great to get some cuddle time in before she off to walk somewhere else.
She is already showing her preferences.  When I hold her, it has to be on my left hip.  If I hold her in front or on my right side, she will grab my shoulders and pull herself to my left.  She is also determined to walk everywhere.  She will let you know when she wants to be on her own and she will go where she wants to no matter how many times you try to guide her in another direction. 
We can't believe she will be one in a few short weeks! How time flies!

She barely sits still, so it was almost impossible to get a picture of her.  Plus she is sporting a black eye courtesy of Ethan.  So here she is, like we usually see her, wild hair with a mischievous look on her face!

Little Photoshoot

I saw an adorable picture of a little girl sitting in a chair in a hay field and wanted to recreate it.  It didn't come out quite as I pictured but I still think they are cute!

Ethan wanted to pull the wagon that the rocking chair was in...

but he kept taking the chair out before going anywhere!

She wasn't so sure about this at first...

now she likes it!

Our little cutie!

I think I would be worried if I was riding with Ethan too!

Bushnell Park

Playgroup last week was to Bushnell Park where the kids got to ride the carousel. We had fun and I always enjoy getting together with a great group of ladies.

Ethan was not a fan of getting on the horse, he really wanted to sit in the wagon (one of the benches) but I was determined to have him on a horse so he could get the full experience.  He did like it once it got started.

Its always nice to eat lunch with a friend!

Lillie was all over the place, she loves to move around!

Lillie's walking!

Shes been taking a few steps here and there for the last couple of weeks.  This weekend though she finally seemed to get the hang of it and started walking across the room and to things she wanted, not just into our arms.  She's growing up too fast!!!

Touch-a-Truck

 Today we went to the Touch-a-Truck at Brodie Park.  Last night we told Ethan we were going to see real fire trucks the next day.  He was so excited and all morning long asked to see the real fire trucks.  Of course when we got there, he wanted nothing to do with the fire trucks and wouldn't even take a fire hat. He was really shy and didn't want to get near anything.

   He warmed up once he saw a digger. He didn't want to get off it!

  He sat in all the different trucks and even got to honk the horn in a few.  I think it surprised him that they were so loud.

 He wanted to run up and down on the school bus, good thing he still has a few years to learn no running on the bus!

 Home Depot had a station to build a small craft.  Ethan loved using a real hammer to bang in the nails.

 Ethan with his finished helicopter. I got a new ergo carrier for Lillie and I love that I can wear her on my hip.  She likes the position the best and was happy to be there the entire time.

 Finally, Ethan wanted to go see the fire trucks.

One more stop at the digger before we headed home.

One tired little boy.  I tried to take the ring pop away, but each time I did, he woke up and said "I eat" and would lick it before falling asleep again. 

Thanks Traci for telling us about this event!