Florida Vacation

Pete, Lilly, and I went to Florida last week. It was fabulous! We stayed in the Orlando area for three nights and then went to the east side of FL for two nights. One of our good friend's parents let us stay in their condo in Melbourne, FL and it was right on the beach...so great! Since my wonderful younger sister, Erin, works at Disney World, we were able to go there for a day. My brother, Timothy, sister-in-law Tanya, their girls (Alex, Sophie, Mabel), my mom, and two of the New York Jackson girls (Mercy and Fiona) also joined us in FL. The best part of the trip, aside from seeing my family, was the weather- sunny and in the 80s almost every day (it rained once, but we were at the luau and we were covered anyway). Here are some pictures of our trip- I went a little crazy and took over 100 pictures for the five days we were there, but I'm only posting a few of those (okay, a little more than a few).

alex, sophie, and lilly hanging out at our hotel

at the luau: lilly, pete, mabel, timothy

the dumbo ride (i didn't want to take lilly on this, thinking that she'd cry the whole time, but the only time she cried was at the end when the ride stopped!)

lilly playing in pooh's playhouse/treehouse play area

mercy and fiona after visiting the bibbity bobbity boutique

feeding mabel cheerios


the cinderella statue


hugging mr. potato head

a hug from gran

did I do that?

giving some goldfish to aunt erin

sharing ice cream with mommy

the Jacksons eating ice cream

i love ice cream

this shell looks interesting

walking on the beach

looking at the ocean

playing in the sand

these waves are so fun

Ponytails!

For those of you who know me well, you know I am awful at fixing other people's hair (mine too which is why it's usually always the same style). I have a terrible time putting ponytails in other girls' hair. Lilly finally has long enough hair (just barely) to have two cute ponytails. I've decided that I will put these in her hair at least 4 times a week so that I can get some practice and hopefully by the time her hair is really long, the ponytails will look decent. Here are some pictures.

The boat show

We took Lilly to a boat show today and she loved it. She wanted to climb in every boat and jet ski that she saw. It was pretty funny to watch. There was a trout pond there where you could try and catch a trout. Pete caught one and Lilly decided that she likes fish only when they are swimming in the water and not flailing about hooked to a fishing pole. She also enjoyed looking at the fake ducks swimming in the pond.

Lilly and her Daddy on a boat


Lilly, Grandma, and Daddy fishing for trout


Pointing at the fake ducks

Visiting friends

Here are some pictures of our weekend in Bolingbrook, IL. We went to visit our friends, Laura, Terry, Allison, and Thomas. I tried to get a picture of all three kids, but Lilly was not having it. Lilly also fingerpainted for the first time and loved it.

Updates

I've been pretty lax with the blog lately and that's mainly because nothing exciting happened in January. Nothing too exciting is happening right now either, but I thought I'd post some pictures anyway. Lilly is 18 months old now and is definitely showing it. She loves the word "no" and likes to throw everything (especially food). She is very cute, too, and is able to fill in words to some songs and books for us now (doe, a deer is one song she really likes, and she loves the book Tumble Bumble). We keep pretty busy during the week with a gym class (imagine a toddler circus), story hour (more people keep coming to this, though and Lilly sometimes gets trampled trying to get to the crayons), and a playgroup on Fridays (Lilly loves this because she gets to play with her friend, Eamon - or "a-a" as she likes to call him). Church on Sundays is always fun with a toddler- Lilly's favorite things are: when the music is playing and whenever it stops she will say very loudly "mo-mo" for more and the baptismal font which she tries unsuccessfully to climb in every week. She also likes saying "peace" and would like to do this to the entire congregation if given the chance. Lilly recently had the stomach flu for the first time and that was a fun time for all involved.


A silly "scrunchy" face


Holding a snowball



drawing on the walls of her "house" (really big empty box)


looking out at the snow

Giving the baby a snack

Taking her puppy for a walk

Going stir-crazy

Lilly's been going stir-crazy, as have I, the past week. Pete was home from work and I think that completely confused her. She also has been home with me for 2 weeks since her school (daycare) is closed. She only goes to school two days a week, but she likes her routine, so this is throwing her off. (Aside: I looked up the origin of stir-crazy and for those of you interested, it was prison slang for an inmate becoming mentally disturbed due to prolonged incarceration...not exactly our case here, but we're all becoming a little bored, if not temporarily mentally disturbed due to being cooped up in the house). We have been able to get out a few times, but this weekend we had way too much snow and the ice covered roads are just now starting to thaw. Here are some things we've done to amuse ourselves this week:

Play in the snow (discovering that the cozy coupe car does not have 4 wheel drive):

going on a sled ride (down our driveway):

reading some books (in the book basket of course...more comfortable than a chair):


why wear just one hat? How about 3?

doing her best impersonation of ET (when he was dressed up for halloween- she looks a lot more like ET when she is walking away from you- a little pink haired ET in a dress that is way too big)- lilly requests to put on this wig daily and then has to put on some dress up clothes too. We have a total of 3 dress up dresses and she wants all of them on at once (this picture only shows the tutu from one outfit):

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):