Another Ghost of Christmas Past...

...or a few Christmas cards from our past!

I don't have electronic copies of 2004-2008, so we'll just go from there!  Once again, love seeing how Lainey has changed but still has that sweet little face!

2009

2010

2011

2012

The Ghost of Christmas Past...

...or the Santa pictures of our past!


Apparently we did not take Lainey to see Santa for her first Christmas, so they start in 2008.  I've loved looking at them all together now and seeing how Lainey has changed from year to year!

2008

2009

2010 (Best. Santa. EVER.)

2011

2012 (seriously do not know what we will do when this guy retires!)

Merry Christmas!

Fun Night

We had a crazy busy and fun weekend!  Both mine and Jovan's holiday parties were scheduled this past weekend.  My sister-in-law graciously agreed to come spend the weekend with us to watch the girls so we could enjoy two nights to ourselves. 

Friday night was my Christmas party.  I am definitely blessed to LOVE the people I teach with.  They are seriously some of the most fun people I know.  We spent the night eating, laughing, and playing Just Dance on the Wii.  Our holiday party is always "Holiday Apparel" themed, and it is always fun to see what people wear.  We can't really call it "ugly sweater" because we're in the teaching profession which I'm pretty sure is where those ugly sweaters originated and still live...don't want to offend anyone!  My holiday apparel this year was yoga pants and a hoodie.  We all decided at Book Club the night before that we would wear yoga pants, and it was one of the best decisions we've made all year. :)  We had a great low-key evening.

Saturday night was Jovan's work party.  His was a little more high maintanance!  The invitation (yes--invitation) that was mailed to us had semi-formal listed as the attire.  Everyone's definition of "semi-formal" is different, so I stressed out a little bit about that.  I finally decided I would just go with something in my closet and call it a day.  We got all gussied up and headed to some place here where a lot of wedding receptions are held.  Jovan's party was a little lot different than my work one, but it was nice to get all dressed up for a night.  We had a lovely catered meal, sat with the flipping CEO of the company, and danced the night away.  Jovan even won a $50 gift card to Home Depot (mind you, this was one of 5 "small" prizes given away compared to the smart tv, place tickets, and iPad that were also given away)!  I had a blast out on the dance floor with his colleagues, and they even managed to get Jovan out there for quite a few songs...something I have not been able to do in the ten years we have been together!  Since we had an overnight sitter, we were even able to go out with his work buddies and bosses afterwards.  Such a fun night!

Getting ready to Christmas Party!

After yet another busy, party-filled weekend, I was overwhelmed with that blessed feeling!

Lilly's First Birthday

So I have a confession to make...my second child is definitely suffering from "second child syndrome".  I really want to try hard and make sure that Lilly has as much attention as her big sister had.  I am failing!  When Lainey turned one, it was a huge to do!  I think I probably started planning her birthday party when she was about two months old...not so much for Lilly.  Sure I had an idea of what Lilly's theme would be, but that was about as far as I got until about three weeks before (and really I only got it together enough then to send out invitations).  Seeing as life these days is jam packed (coupled with the fact that Lainey had such a big birthday party this year), I decided to try out an "open house" theme for Lilly's party.  My idea was that people could come and go as they please, get their picture taken with Santa, have some milk and cookies, and be on their way.  I must admit-it went pretty well!  I think everyone had a great time, and I was a lot less stressed!  So less stressed in fact that I did not get one single picture of the milk and cookies set up :( (See what I mean...second child syndrome!) 

the invite thrown together in like 2.5 seconds--love me some free clipart!

Santa, his elf, and the birthday girl

The best Santa around a.k.a. Crunkle Jake

So nice to have family close for birthdays now!

Lilly's BFF, Hadley--Lilly did not want to smile for ANYTHING this day!

This picture cracks me up!  Lilly's boyfriend, Crosley, was trying to lean in for some lovin', Lilly is looking at him like he's crazy, and Hadley's staring off in to space! :)

He was such a good Santa!

This would be the only picture I got of the decorations.  Pathetic, I know!

Lilly's party was especially fun for me because it was a great gathering of people from all aspects of our life.  I couldn't help but sit back and thank God for all of the awesome people He has put in our lives here and the fact that my parents and brother and sister-in-law are able to be around for so many big things in our lives now.  Feeling very blessed lately!

Big Day!

Lainey lost her first tooth today!  When I picked her up from school, this is what I was met with.  This and a bloody tooth in a bag. :)  She was so excited to put it under her pillow.  The Tooth Fairy was caught completely off guard and was not ready for this monumental event!  Luckily, the Tooth Fairy had some cash and a toothbrush laying around.  Lainey was so excited to wake up the next morning to a present and note under her pillow.  Cannot believe this is happening already!

One Year!

Here's what's going on in Lilly's world these days:

•Lilly weighs 22.5 lbs. and is 29 inches long.  She is in the 75th% for weight and the 50th% for height.  We're used to the weight percentile, but this average height percentile is really throwing us off! :)
  

•Lilly is talking all the time.  She still babbles a lot, but she definitely has some distinct words: "Da Da", "Uh-Oh", "Hi", and "Thank You" which comes out more like "dank oo".  She will repeat "Ma Ma", "Papa", and "Nana", but hasn't started calling anyone by their name except for her Daddy (jerk!)

•Lilly is still sleeping well.  She now sleeps with a blanket and her taggie blanket her Nana made her.  She goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes up sometime around 7 the next morning.  She is down to one bottle before bed, and to be honest, I'm not sure when we will ever get rid of it!

•Lilly is eating everything we eat...and a lot of it (hence the 22 pounds!).  She really likes avacado, peas, and ham. 

•Lilly is wearing 12-18 month clothing and a size 4 shoe. 

We cannot believe it's been a year!  Lilly is still the sweetest, cuddliest, most fun-loving girl around.  She always has a smile on her face, and she LOVES playing with her big sister.  We can't get enough of our Little Boo!

My friend Sarah took some pictures of our girl for her birthday.  You can check them out here!

Christmas Card Shoot

My friend Sarah graciously took some pictures of our family in hopes of a decent one for the Christmas card.  I could not find outfits for pictures for the life of me, so we went with what we had around the house.  Timing was not stellar either--for some dumb reason we took them around 6:00, after dance, after a full day at school, and at dinner time...DUMB!  So really I cannot complain with the outcome since the odds were stacked pretty high against us.  All in all, we did get a few good ones!

And our personal favorite...

This about sums up how we were all feeling at the end!

What's that? I can't hear you!

Baby girl has spent half of her little life with ear infections.  She has had 5 double ear infections in her short little life, and we had gotten pretty good at detecting them.  Our pediatrician referred us to an ENT, and he said this was a clear case of a girl in desperate need of some tubes!  Bless her poor heart...she failed 3 out of 4 hearing tests in BOTH ears!  We're thinking this now explains why she doesn't really say any words at 11 months. 

We got surgery scheduled, and today we went to have it done.  I have been VERY anxious for the past week or so thinking about this surgery.  I know that this is as routine as a c-section these days and these doctors do a million of these a day, but there's still nothing that can quite prepare you for your baby being put under anesthesia.  Ironic thing (or more like God speaking), our small group just watched a lesson on fear.  One of the things talked about in the lesson was how the things you fear the most are the areas in which you trust God the least.  This really hit me hard because I fear losing my children on a way too often basis!  I kept praying for God to take this fear from me and replace it with the peace that only He can give.  We went in, and I could feel all the thoughts and prayers being lifted then.  Lilly did great, and the surgery went off without a hitch.  It's amazing how God gives us those "slap in the face" moments when you realize He really does have control.  Thankful for a successful and uneventful surgery and hoping our Little Boo can finally hear and get some relief!

Homework

Lainey's Pre-K teachers are seriously amazing!  They do SO MUCH for these kids every day, and I am constantly amazed by their dedication, creation, and organization...not to mention their love for our baby girl.  This week, they started giving homework.  Homework in Pre-K?!?!  Absolutely!  From talking with the neighbors, I know she is going to have homework next year in Kindergarten, so I'm glad her teachers are getting all of us used to it now!  They assign it each Monday and it is due Wednesday.  I wanted to document her first night, so here it is!  Coloring, cutting, and sorting the numbers from 1-10.  She did this all completely by herself with me only checking it at the end.  So proud of this sweet girl!



My favorite quote from the night: "I LOVE homework!"

Finished product

Halloween 2012

I've not really ever been a huge fan of Halloween, but it's kind of a big deal up here.  People go all out decorating their houses, and there are seasonal Halloween stores everywhere!  Jovan's starting to buy into the whole Halloween thing too.  Me, I just like to decorate pumpkins and figure out fun Halloween costumes! :)

This year we all painted pumpkins.  Can you tell which one belongs to which family member?!?

This is what the girls wore to school on Halloween.  I was up a little late the night before making these outfits.  One of these days I'll learn my lesson and not put it off until the last minute!  Lainey had a Halloween program in her class.  They sang three songs and had some "witches brew" afterwards with the parents.  Luckily Jovan was able to be there to see it.  Thank God for flexible jobs!

These are the girls' costumes this year.  Lainey had the choice between Batman and Robin and Pinkalicious and her cupcake, so this is what she chose.  I figured this may be my last year to have them coordinate for awhile, so I took full advantage!

Our family costumes
The Riddler, Robin, Batgirl, and Catwoman

All of the kids in our Small Group

There is a tradition in our Circle that all the kids get together for pictures and trick or treating.  After we herd them all for pictures, we let them go get candy from everyone on our Circle first.  We then go in one huge gang through our neighborhood.  I didn't get to go last year because I was huge and pregnant, so I was amazed to watch the whole charade this year.  It was so fun to watch all the kids run from house to house and get to hang out with our neighbors. 

Such an innocent face for a candy theif!

Happy Halloween from our little pumpkins!

Pumpkin Patch

We have a really amazing pumpkin patch about seven minutes from our house.  It's the kind of place that everyone goes on field trips, everyone talks about, and on most days you're parking half a mile away from the entrance! Jovan and Lainey went to Vala's last year on a field trip, but I had never been until this year.  I really wasn't sure what to expect, but this place is insane!  We had an absolute blast the first time we went this season!  We bought a season pass because it's just like a zoo membership...you make it up after like 2 visits.

At Vala's we went on train rides, watched pig races, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, played glow in the dark mini golf, watched shows, jumped on giant pumpkin "pillows", and so much more. 

Can't wait to get a picture of the girls in this chair every year!

Getting so tall!

Not getting so tall, ha!

Vala's has THE BEST kettle corn

Cousins with kettle corn :)

I can't wait to go back next year!!!