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!