It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The decorations have been up since the day after Thanksgiving and now EVERYTHING that needs to be wrapped is wrapped and under the tree! We are really looking foward to Lilly's first Christmas this year. She loves balls and keeps walking up to the tree saying ball and reaching for ones hanging on the tree. She also finds the tissue paper in the bags and the bows very interesting, but she knows that she isn't supposed to touch them. It really hasn't been too bad keeping her out of things, but she may be hesitant to open her presents since I have been telling her "no" when she messes with them. Her Grandma and Grandpa will be in town Wednesday through Christmas. It will be nice for her to get to see them again. They probably won't believe how much she has changed since they last saw her. It seems like she changes every day. She literally runs around the house now and has pretty good balance now. She loves trying to take things apart and put them back together. I finally got her to stack the rings instead of just pulling them off tonight. She loves just about any food we let her try. When I am making food for her she will say mmmm mmmm if she is hungry. She also loves animal crackers. My Mom always keeps some at her house and Lilly will walk over to the counter, reach up and say "ki-kie" wanting someone to get her one. (My Mom calls them cookies.) She says even more words now. Her favorites are ball, mama, and duck-duck
Some new words are:
cup
shoe
apple
bottle
dog
bird
duck-duck
bow
poo-poo (when she goes potty on the potty)
cookie (pronounced more like I wrote above)
Thank you (not perfect but pretty good)
baby
hey (while holding a phone to her ear)
eye (while pointing to someone's or baby doll's eye)
nose (while pointing to nose)
no (especially when she is done eating and she shakes her head)
I may be missing one, but it's hard to keep up.

She loves to talk! Her Sunday School teachers talk about how much she talks to them. Maybe she is getting that a little from the Godwin side of the family. Sometimes instead of no I tell her "ah-ah" because that is what my Mom and Grandmama did when I was growing up. The other day I was trying to take something away from her that she shouldn't play with and she told me "ah-ah" while shaking her head no. She also tells the dogs that sometimes when they bark because she is used the me scolding them when they bark. She doesn't miss anything and always tries to copy us so we have to make sure we set a good example.

I also have everything except the balloons for her 1st Birthday party. It is going to be very small and mostly just family. I did go with the Minnie Mouse theme and I found some cute first birthday Minnie Mouse supplies. I am going to make her a cake. I will of course post some pictures after her party January 1st, but for now here are what the decorations look like:


It comes with matching plates, napkins, and cups. The invitations also match:


Well, I guess that's all for now. I will post some Christmas pictures later. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!
"...Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'" Luke 2:11-14
What a wonderful Christmas gift to the World and he wasn't born in a nice home, but in a barn and his only bed was a manger. This helps to remind me that sometimes the best gifts aren't the nice ones wrapped up in fancy paper, but the ones that come from the heart. Today, we get caught up in material things when there are much more important things in life. I think spending time with my family and just sitting back to enjoy the spirit of Christmas is one of the best gifts of the season. As a child you are most interested in the presents under the tree, but as I have gotten older I would much rather just spend the time with the people I love. This year I am going to make myself forget about trying to make everything perfect and focus on the things that really matter and enjoy this next week.