Christmas Morning

Lilly had a blast on Christmas. She usually wakes up around 7 am and Christmas morning she decided to sleep in until 8, so Pete and I were up, just waiting for her to wake up! It was pretty funny. Her favorite present is the rocking chair, but a random fake orange that came with her shopping cart is a close second favorite - she thinks it's a ball. Here are some pictures of her enjoying herself:

This is from last Christmas...just wanted to show how much she's grown!


Looking at her cow flashlight:

Sitting in her new rocking chair:

Christmas photo:

Opening the bitty baby from Gran and Papa Michael:

A fun new tunnel:

Pushing the shopping cart (notice she loaded it with many of her new toys):

Reading in front of the fire (later in the day):

Getting Ready for Christmas

Making applesauce-cinnamon ornaments (these pictures are from before Lilly tried to eat the concoction)

Playing in the packing peanuts from Christmas packages

Helping make cookies (little does she know she's only mixing uncooked pasta, not cookie dough)

Helping clean the house


Taking a break to smile for the camera

Cutting down the Tree

We started a tradition three years ago with our friends, Kim and Tim and their kids - cutting down our Christmas trees together. Last year, only Pete and Tim went since Lilly and Anne were really little, but this year, we all ventured out in the snow. Highlights of this years trip include: Lilly not liking the snow and crying almost every time she was put down unless the dog that was wandering around the fields was in sight, Pete getting hit in the eye with the hook of a bungee cord while trying to secure the tree to Tim and Kim's van, Meg and Kim finding the "perfect tree" only to discover it had two trunks, Anne face planting into the snow, and of course, eating at Barnaby's on the way home.

Abby (almost 4), Anne (13 months), and Lilly


Lilly's first time in the snow:


Before cutting down the tree:


Pete the outdoorsy guy:

Feeding the Ducks

A few weeks ago, we went to the park to feed the ducks and try out Lilly's new winter coat (which she still walks around in like the little brother from the Christmas Story in his snowsuit). Here are a few pictures:

Lilly feeding a duck:



Lilly eating the bread she was supposed to share with the ducks:

Chores...

I really don't enjoy raking the leaves or cleaning (although both get done). Lilly, however, has not inherited this and is now obsessed with using the broom (no matter how many times she hits herself in the head) and as soon as breakfast is done, she goes to get the dustbuster to help vacuum up all the food she's dropped. I think I'll start giving her an allowance of goldfish (since she would eat money or try and stick it on the fridge - she is very upset when she can't get her markers or balls to stick onto the fridge or dishwasher).

Lilly had a great time helping with the yard work. She was very productive and pulled individual leaves off of the rake and placed them in the leaf pile, causing the task to last about 300 times longer than it should have. She also jumped in the pile (okay, fell), but didn't really enjoy that part of the experience.

Halloween

This year, Lilly was a bee for Halloween. I wanted her to be a lion since she can roar pretty well, but the bee costume was only $1.00. We worked on buzzzzing, but she didn't really catch on. Lilly's favorite part of Haloween was walking up and down the street carrying big sticks. She also enjoyed any candy that she could shake (milk duds, etc).

Lilly in our neighborhood:


Lilly on Pete's parents street:


Pete (very original salesman costume), Meg (cat), and Lilly (bee) on Pete's parent's porch:

Lilly playing with the candy after:

Fall Fun

So far this fall, we've tried to stay outside as much as possible which is pretty easy since Lilly loves to be outside. She gets very mad when we have to go in (even today when it was 50 degrees and I was freezing, I still had to bribe her with goldfish to come inside). Other things we're doing or have done include visiting my sister, brother in law, and nephew, Samuel for Samuel's 2nd birthday party (we forgot our camera, but there are some great pictures on Sara's blog) and re-doing our basement to make it into more of a play area. Once it's completely done, we'll post pictures. Here are some other fall pictures we've taken:

football hall of fame:

"hmmm, can I eat this leaf?"





"I'm not trying to strangle myself,
my eyes are just lower than everyone elses"


"I'm so cute, how can mommy tell me NO when I throw all my
food on the floor at every single meal?"

pumpkin art

Lilly and I decided to decorate our pumpkins this week (well, I decided, she just went along with it). Instead of carving pumpkins (Lilly and a knife--probably not a good idea) or painting the pumpkins (Lilly and paint--also not a good idea seeing as she loves to stick everything in her mouth), we glued tissue paper on them. I did most of the glue work and tried to encourage Lilly to stick the tissue paper on the pumpkin. She was more interested in taking the paper off. At least she didn't try to eat the glue (when we were ripping the paper up, she did try to eat that).

ripping up the paper:



decorating:





finished product:

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we took Lilly to a pumpkin patch. The pumpkin patch also had a petting farm, cow train (I'm sure Lilly was hoping it would be a train pulled by a cow, but as you can see from the pictures, it is all fake), and a corn maze (we didn't try this one - Lilly would either have run off through the corn or tried to eat the corn stalks). Here are some pictures:

picking out the perfect pumpkin:

the cow train:

Lilly is a scarecrow:

sitting on a saddle:

Nature Girl

Lilly loves to be outside. Lately we have been walking up and down the driveway and along the sidewalk and Lilly will stop every time she sees something interesting on the ground (stick, leaf, bug) and pick it up (or try to in case of a live bug). Her hands were full and she was getting very frustrated because she couldn't pick up anything else, so I got a bag for her and she filled it with all her fabulous finds. Here are some pictures of the nature girl:

Looking at the flowers:


trying to pull the flowers off of their stems:


picking up the dirt:


Look what I found!