Winter Wonderland

This evening I went with all of my siblings to the Winter Garden Aglow at the Idaho Botanical Gardens. We took the kids to see Santa Claus. Some were very excited, Lily was not at all interested.Lily loved the lights, when I finally let her out of the stroller she walked along trying to touch them all.

Finishing Touches

This last weekend I finally finished up Lily's stocking. I made one for Charlotte as well because it just made sense and I didn't want to have to make another one next year. I didn't get around to making her one last year and I didn't want another year to go by without one. So finally our last decorations are up.

I love wrapping gifts. I had my supplies out yesterday to finish up and since Lily was napping I decided to go ahead and wrap the hula hoop. I'm not sure that I disguised it very well...

Someone found the candy canes on the tree. She has been playing with them, but until now didn't realize that they were candy.

Random Early December Cuteness

Christmas is near, and one of the great things about Christmas is Christmas candy. This evening I got started and made fudge. The first batch was too runny, but the second was perfect. Lily wanted to help so I let her lick the spoon.

Its a good think that she likes to brush her teeth so much because that was the only way to get her to give back the spoon.

Yesterday I was out running a few errands and Lily was with Tyson and I came home to find this. She never does this for me, ever, but she always crashes after playing with her daddy.
And this was Sunday. She loves her puppy and likes to feed him. I guess that she thought that it would be easier for him to eat if she got it out of the bowl for him.
She is such a sweet girl, and she loves to be helpful. She helps me clean and she "helps" my sisters take care of their babies as much as she can.

On the pregnancy front everything is going along very smoothly so far. I had another doctor appointment today along with my GTT and I am awaiting those results. Mostly I want to know my iron levels because I am feeling overly tired and I was anemic with Lily so I think that might be my problem this time around. Charlotte loves to squirm and kick so I get regular reminders from her that she is there and growing. I have been having a lot of hip, lower back, and sciatic pain (shocking, I know) so this week I visited a chiropractor and I'm going again next week to see if he might be able to help me a bit. But discomfort aside, so far so good. My blood pressure is still good, and with Lily it was getting rather high around this point so that makes me hopeful that this pregnancy will be a little less problematic than my last.

Doing the Dishes

So this morning I was unloading the dishwasher and like she always does, Lily insisted on helping. I got this little clip of her helping me out.

Snow Day!

Today was our first real snow day of the season. Tyson's classes were even cancelled which shocked me. I spent 6 years in college and never had a snow day.

Anyway, this afternoon I decided to take Lily out to play for a little while. She wasn't impressed at first.

But she slowly warmed up to it.

She was very curious about the plants sticking up out of the snow.

And thank you to Grandma Hansen for the very warm and cozy snow suit!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The first day of December certainly hit hard around here. Last night we got about 6" of snow (which is a lot for this area all at once). Also last night I set up the Christmas tree and wrapped gifts so this morning it certainly was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I am so excited for the Christmas season, it is such a wonderful time of year.

Our Christmas tree! Very simple this year. I didn't put our ball ornaments on the tree because Lily liked those too much and was enjoying throwing them around the room while we were setting up the tree.

Tyson put up some of our lights last Friday. We have more, but our ladder was not tall enough to reach so they will have to wait until there isn't snow or ice on the roof .

Last night's snowfall:

The jeep still looks like this because we decided not to venture out today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was my first Thanksgiving away from my parents and siblings. I find this slightly odd given that I'm 28, married, I've been to college, I've lived in other states, AND I have been away over Christmas, but never Thanksgiving. This year however my family all went my my Grandma's house in Blackfoot and since Tyson had to work we decided to stay here. So, that meant that for the first time, I got to make the entire meal. For some reason I felt intimidated by it. I've made big meals before, I've hosted dinner parties, but for some reason this time I felt a lot of pressure to get it right. I'll spare you the boring details, but after some planning, and a few near misses, I managed to get dinner on the table without burning anything.

Me spending the morning in the kitchen was rough on Lily though. I tried to get her to stay in the living room with Tyson, but when I'm in the kitchen that is where she wants to be. The problem, she wanted to help me and her help consisted on trying to open the oven or pull items out of the fridge. So she spent some time sitting in her chair watching me cook. Maybe next year she will really be able to help me cook.All she ate of dinner, seriously. Rolls and milk, she refused to touch anything else.I am so grateful for my family, friends, faith and the many many blessings that we have been given. It was great to spend this holiday with my own little family!

Double Digits!

Just 99 days to go to my due date! (Tyson is counting down to getting 6 weeks off work)

Our Baby Girl Has a Name

We have finally decided on a name for this little girl! Very exciting for me because I love getting to call her by name instead of "the baby". We kinda settled in it a couple of weeks back, but we decided to go ahead and use it for a few weeks before really telling people, just to make sure that we really liked it as much as we thought we did. And well, we love it!

And, because I am feeling a bit impish, this is how I'm going to tell you all, in a scramble! Put the letters in the right order and you'll see what it is.

Hint: The first letter is "C"

An Eventful Week

I kept intending to make posts during the week but I never seemed to find the time to sit down and type them out, so it is all going to be one big post.

This last Wednesday Tyson and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. A lot has happened in the last three years, between buying a house, changing jobs, having a baby, college, expecting another little one, and the list goes on and on. We are grateful for our little life though. We may not be rich or famous, but our simple little life together is a great blessing!

Also, this last Friday Lily Ann turned 18 months old. Our little girl is a year and a half now, how time has flown! She is still growing like a weed, around 27 pounds and 32 inches tall. She has become so independent and loves to test out everything. Last week she managed to climb out of her crib, and then fell to the ground. So, we turned her bed into a toddler bed. Which is fine at bed time, but nap time is another story. We have gone back to the crib, but only because she is under the weather and doesn't try to climb. Once she gets over this cold though, she'll be back to her dare-devil little self and the toddler bed will probably be back to stay.

She insisted on wearing this hat all day!

And in the new baby news, this last Friday I passed the 24 week mark. Might not seem like a big deal, but that means that I am just a few weeks away from entering the 3rd trimester of this pregnancy. I am constantly amazed at how quickly this pregnancy is passing. By the time that the holidays are over I'll just have 9 weeks left.

We had another ultrasound this Friday since our little girl was less than cooperative last time. This time she was even less cooperative, but the tech managed to see what she needed to. Our baby girl (who was clearly still a girl) was looking perfect. She kicked, punched, and somersaulted all through the ultrasound. It was interesting to see it all on the screen as I felt it. I keep telling Tyson that he is missing out. It is a very strange, but exhilarating sensation to feel a baby move inside of you.

Fall Weather

We finally got some real fall weather around here, but it has been raining so much lately that we haven't been able to go out and enjoy it. Today is was bright and sunny and a 42 degrees so we went out to play in the leaves before Tyson rakes them all up this weekend.

So, here are some pictures of Lily, Oscar and my little brother Josh out playing this afternoon.

Oh, and see that awesome little coat that she is wearing? I scored that at a consignment sale for $4! I love deals like that!

I couldn't wait...

I am so ready for the Christmas season, but I have making myself hold off on everything but Christmas shopping so far. However last night I decided that I wanted to do some kind of "decorating" so I resigned the blog. I'll hold off on changing the music to Christmas tunes until after Thanksgiving, or at least I'll try.

First Haircut and Other Happenings

Today was Lily's first haircut. Her hair is still rather short and thin, but it is starting to get thicker and she has some long scraggly bangs in front and the back was starting to look a little too much like a mullet, so I figured that it was time for a trim.

So, We sat her down in the kitchen with a gogurt to distract her while I trimmed her bangs and the back around her neck. She sat still for me and didn't complain at all. Her hair looks much thicker and the ends are much cleaner now.

BEFORE:

AFTER FRONT:

AFTER BACK:

Not great pictures, she didn't want to sit still at all this evening, but you get the idea.

In other news, Lily did the funniest thing yesterday. Tyson was taking a break and watching an episode of "Criminal Minds" on DVD and he paused it to step away for a minute or two. As soon as he got up and left the room Lily walked over to the DVD shelf, picked up a VeggiTales DVD case and opened it to remove the DVD from the case, went to the DVD player, hit the button to open it, removed Tyson's DVD and replaced it with her DVD and pushed the drawer closed. She then placed Tyson's DVD in her case and placed it back on the DVD shelf.

Our girl is getting a little to smart and independent. I think that we might be in trouble...

Boo at the Zoo

Just like last year, Lily and I went to Boo at the Zoo. It is always fun to go see the animals and it is another excuse to dress my little girl up and take her out. I've got a few shots of her in costume. Surprisingly it was a lot easier to get good pictures of her last year when she was just 5 months old. I kinda had to laugh yesterday when we went trick-or-treating in old town Nampa. Almost everyone I overheard commenting on her costume knew what it was right away, however I heard one woman point and her and say to her friend "Look at that cute little devil." I guess that she didn't see beyond the red cape.

We went all round the zoo and visited the different animals. Lily really liked them, she called the wart hogs and zebra Oscar, I think that is just her term for 4 legged mammals. I guess that we had better work on that one a bit. She is so independent and so I let her walk instead of bringing the stroller and she did so well. She held my hand and didn't try to pull away. She didn't even get tired from walking that much.

They have a little farm yard area at the Boise zoo so I took Lily to go see the animals and say hello. She was very excited by them, but a little hesitant. A lady gave her some food for them and she loved feeding them. She knew just what to do since she feeds Oscar all the time at home.

And here's a little video of Lily at the petting zoo area.

Finger Painting

This morning we decided to try finger painting for the first time. I have put off letting her paint because I kinda hate messes, but I figured it was time that we give it a try. So, I made some paints using just sugar, cornstarch, water and food coloring and we gave it a shot.

Lily tried sticking her fingers in, but she tended to pull back before really getting any on there so I tried to help her out a bit.

She ended up being much more interested in eating the paint than putting it on her paper. Good thing I made it from normal things instead of buying the stuff in the store.

Her other favorite thing to do was stack the paint cups.
So, not a great success, but we gave it a shot and the paints are made so we will try again another day. Maybe she will be less interested in eating it then.

Here's a little clip of Lily sitting up to the table with her paints.

Pumpkin Carving

This evening we carved pumpkins. It has been years since I last carved a pumpkin. So, I went and picked up three pumpkins this morning, and then this evening (while a pumpkin pie baked in the oven) we sat down to carve them. Lily enjoyed watching, but was in no hurry to touch the guts. Tyson tried to get her too while he cleaned one out, but she was not interested.

She, she sat and watched.
She did however finally start playing with one after it was carved. She was not at all interested in the pumpkin until it had a face.
So, these are our three very simple pumpkins. I used to do the elaborate carving, and I would still enjoy it, but a toddler takes up a lot of my time and she really seemed to like the silly faces.
Once it got dark we lit them up and Lily's reaction was great. She stared at them and kept taking steps backwards until she got to us (we were standing about three feet behind her). She was fascinated with them, all lit up, but a little scared too.

Picking a Name is Hard!

We are working on a picking a name for this baby girl and I am finding it terribly difficult. It isn't really narrowing down a list, but creating a list in the first place. I don't remember it being this hard last time. We had names picked out pretty early on, and while we changed our minds after finding out that we were having a girl, we still settled on a name very quickly. I loved having a name for her early on. We called her Lily for months before she was born and when she finally came to us I felt like I knew her and I never questioned her name because it was her name, and had been for a while. I didn't worry about whether it fit or not because it was who she was.

This time however, we decided to hold off on thinking of names until the ultrasound. When we were told that this baby is another girl I really felt lost. I started looking through name lists and books and I am about as lost as before. I suppose that we still have a lot of time to select her name, I just hope that this name fog will lift and we will be able to select one soon. I would like to be able to call this baby by her name.

New Family Photos