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!

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!

4 years ago...

I was laying in a hospital bed holding my new baby girl!  It had been a LONG 37 weeks, but the end result was worth every last minute.  I cannot believe Lainey turned 4 today!  I straight up cried on the way to work this morning...partially because I am a hormonal mess, and partially just because the reality is hard to handle.  I am so blessed and honored that God chose me to be her mom.  It's such an amazing (and challenging) responsibility, and I just sat and thanked God for the priviledge this morning. When did my sweet girl turn into this little lady??  I remember thinking 6 months was my favorite age...how could it get any better than this?!?!  But then she was able to walk and talk, and I thought it couldn't get any better than that.  Then she went through the terrible two's (6 months early), and I couldn't wait for that to end. :)  And then we've had the last year...

I can say this age has definitely been my favorite!  My dad always said this is his favorite age.  They are old enough to have fun conversations with, and still young enough to be so stinkin adorable!  She has had a big personality since birth, and it has only gotten bigger with age.  We love our baby and the sweet, loving, sassy girl she has turned into! 



September 19, 2007




1 year old!




2 years old!



3 years old!

4 years old!

It's amazing to see how much she has grown and changed!  Happy Birthday, sweet girl!  Here's to another amazing year!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lainey Girl!

We celebrated Lainey's 3rd birthday this past weekend with the family.  We threw her another birthday party with her friends back in Memphis in July before we moved, so this one was a little more low key with family only.  It was nice to FINALLY have my parents at one of Lainey's birthday parties...it's also nice that we have seen them 9 out of 10 weekend we have lived here! :) 

Her actual birthday is today (the 19th), but we did all of our celebrating on Saturday.  We started by patiently waiting for Nana and Papa to get here.  Once they arrived we decided watching a little Huskers football would be the logical next thing to do to celebrate her birthday! (Sidenote--we will try our hardest to not have another child during football season.  There's just certain things that should not be planned during football season, and birthday parties is one of them, ha!)  My mom, my future sis-in-law, Megan and I took Lainey to Build a Bear for her birthday fun.  She picked out a lovely little dog which she proceeded to dress like Buzz Light Year and name Buzz.  We then headed back home for the family to come over and have cupcakes. 

This was a different birthday this year because I threw this party together very haphazardly...guess that's what working full time does to you!  Oh well!  Happy Birthday to our sweet girl who is weighing in at 33 lbs. and is 38 in. tall.  We love having "real conversations" with her now!  Cannot believe it's been three years since I was laying in that hospital room.  She was and continues to be a blessing daily.

The sweets spread

water balloon wreath for the front door

pig cupcakes

Sweet cheeser!  Funny story about this outfit...I bought it back in June at Cotton Tails in Memphis thinking it would be great for her mid September birthday.  Well it was 53 degrees in Omaha yesterday...yes, you read that right!  Needless to say we put her in it yesterday and didn't let her go outside! :)

Family Pic!  This is the best we could get...

We had a great weekend!  Now on to planning next year's party...