Hello again!

I know I have not posted in forever! My laptop is about to die so I dread getting on it to do everything because I have to restart it several times just to do little tasks... Just a quick summary of everything from the past couple of months. We will welcome another BABY GIRL in September (around September 20th to be exact...)! Lilly is really looking forward to being a big sister and predicted (actually insisted) it was a baby sister before we even found out. The ultrasound tech actually told us that children 3 and under almost always predict correctly. We went to Disney World at the end of April/beginning of May. We visited Downtown Disney, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. To say it was an action packed vacation is an understatement. We had a deluxe meal plan so we tried to take advantage of all the character breakfasts. Lilly enjoyed them all, but of course her favorite was lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table in Cinderella's castle. Cinderella is her favorite princess, followed by Belle, then Sleeping Beauty, then Ariel. If you have a little princess this is a must do for at least one meal. The princess breakfast at Epcot was great, too. Since Lilly's favorite is Cinderella we also did a dinner at one of the Disney resorts where Cinderella, "Prince" -as Lilly calls him, the stepmother, and stepsisters walk around. She would not get to close to the stepmother because "she is mean". She also enjoyed seeing Mickey Mouse and the rest of his gang. At Hollywood studios we did a Disney Jr. character breakfast where she got to meet, Oso, Handy Manny, June (from Little Einsteins), and her favorite of all.... JAKE! She was so amazed to see all of them because she loves watching Disney Jr. and of course to here they were all real. I will eventually upload pictures to Facebook. I hope we are able to go again soon! I have been sewing more and I got a serger machine for Mother's Day! It saves a lot of time on some projects. I even made myself a maxi style maternity dress from a free online tutorial yesterday morning. It did take me about 3 hours, but without my new serger it could have easily taken 4! I think I could cut the time down to an hour and a half if I make another one since I am familiar with the pattern now. I found the knit like fabric on sale a few months ago for only $2.95 a yard and bought 3 yards. I made the dress with 2 yards so it only cost about $6 in materials and I made a yoga style skirt for Lilly and myself with 1 yard. So about $3 for both skirts! You cannot beat that! I will definitely be checking the sale racks again at the fabric store so I can try another one. Only one picture for today, I will try to do better next time! This is us at Magic Kingdom (me 20 weeks pregnant)

Disney and Princesses!

Lilly is obsessed with Princesses! Especially the Disney Princesses. Cinderella being her favorite with Belle as a close second! Brendan got so tired of watching Cinderella that he bought her Beauty and the Beast. We took her to see it in 3D, but she fell asleep JUST before the actual movie started! Brendan and I watched it anyways. One the DVD case there was an offer for a free movie ticket on the front, so I used that to take her back to see the movie last Friday because she is free to get it. I was so proud of my free movie trip, until... the Mom's in front of me brought in some fruit snacks... at first sight of those Lilly was about to have a meltdown in the theather with the movie about to start. I ususally don't do things like this, but I really wanted her to be able to enjoy the movie, so I went to concessions and bought her a bag of fruit snacks for over $3! Really! I can buy almost 2 boxes for that! It was a big bag though... She ate 2 then decided she didn't want them... oh well.

We have just planned our first real family vacation. We have of course been the the beach numerous times, but that is about it. WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD! Lilly is already excited about eating with Cinderella at her castle. Sometimes when we ask her what she wants for lunch she tells us that she wants to eat with Cinderella at her castle. Hopefully her excitement will still be there at the end of April. We are staying for 5 nights and hope to be able to squeeze all the Disney parks in.

Happy New Year!

Okay... so we are well into the new year now, but at least it is still January! I have been trying to get reorganized from the holidays. Lilly had a wonderful Christmas and Birthday. I still can't believe she is already 2! She continues to grow smarted and cuter every day.

I'll start with Christmas Eve. We went to my in-laws house that morning for brunch and to open presents with Brendan's family. Lilly had a good time playing with Cason. She still asks about him all the time. She got a big "box" house to decorate from her Grandma and Grandpa. It isn't made out of cardboard so it can be used indoors or out. She also really like the cash register set from her cousin. That night we went to Riverland Hills Childeren's service. Lilly sat through the whole thing and really liked seeing the live animals outside afterwards. Then, we went home to make some cookies from Santa. I guess I did not make enough the first time around because they were all gone! At bedtime, we went to bed with her and actually fell asleep ourselves and at 10pm I woke Brendan up. He was tired and cranky, but Santa still had to visit! Santa was very good to Lilly this year!

Christmas morning Lilly woke up about 6:30am. So we all came downstairs to see what Santa brought. She was still half asleep, but when she caught a glimpse of her new kitchen she kept raising her hands up in the air and putting them back down. I got a few pictures of this, but I wish I had videoed it! She first washed her hands and it was a while before we could get her to open anything else. She did her stocking next and was excited most about her new headbands and bubble bath. It took her forever to open the rest of her presents because she wanted to stop and play with every toy. Her favorites were: kitchen, kitchen accessories, Baby Cinderella doll and accessories, baby alive, Candy Land, and Disney Princess dress up trunk. She really liked everything. I got an expresso machine, and a nice pair of cowboy boots! Brendan's big gift from Lilly was a Coach wallet.

Next we went to my parent's house for Christmas with my family. Lilly was spoiled again there... She got playdough, puzzles, Wii games (from my sister), and lots of other stuff. Afterwards we went home for Lilly to take a nap, then visited my Granny for a little while and went back to Brendan's parent's house. It was a long, but fun day. I will try to post some pics in the next couple of days.

Lilly turned 2 December 28th! When she woke up I brought some presents up to our room for her to unwrap. She got the "break the ice" game (which is absolutely loves!), a puzzle, and a Disney Princess fleece blanket I make her (All I really had to do was sew the binding on and embroider her name on it). She really liked the blanket. When she opened it she held it really close and said, "OH! I just LOVE it!" It just melted my heart and the blanket was totally worth it! Then we took her outside to see the big gift A NEW CAR! It is a power wheel type car that looks like a BMW Z4 convertible. She can barely reach the pedal, but she hops in it every chance she gets! Then we took her to the zoo. The highlight of the zoo was riding the ponies. Sometimes she gets to and sometimes they say she is too little. It just depends on who is working. We were going to take her out to lunch next, but she fell asleep! When she woke up from her nap we had a little Cinderella cake. She also got the Cinderella movie from my parents for her Birthday. Can you tell that is her favorite princess? Her party was New Years Eve at my Gym. She had a blast with her friends and was again spoiled with lots of nice gifts! I will post pics from her birthday and party later as well.

Post overload!

With Christmas, Lilly's Birthday, and the New year right around the corner I am trying to catch up on my blogging now. We are ready for Christmas! All presents have been bought and wrapped. The only thing left to do is help Santa put together a large give Christmas Eve. We have been to the lights on the river at Saluda Shoals. Lilly really enjoyed this drive through light show and kept asking, "Daddy, How does it work?" We took her to the lights at the zoo which she enjoyed as well. I took her to the mall to see Santa. She sat on his lap for all of 30 seconds before deciding she didn't really like him and started crying. All out crying! Thank you to my wonderful friend Sarah for snapping a picture for me before the crying started! Now anytime she sees Santa in person she starts getting upset and says, "I don't like him!!". She does like to see him in books and on TV. She sat through the entire Polar Express movie and still talks about riding the train to see Santa Claus. I am really excited to see her reaction Christmas morning.

One another note... She regressed ALOT with potty training. If figured out the reason why though. My Mom keeps her 2 half days a week and has been keeping my Sister's baby sometimes, too. She sees that the baby gets lots of attention and gets her diaper changed alot... She wants to be a baby, too and have her diaper changed. She completely understands the concept and will even tell me that "pee pee" or "poo poo" is supposed to go in the potty. I gave her (and me) a break and started working with her again yesterday In the morning she was about 50/50, but from nap time on was perfect. Today, she has had 4 or 5 accidents. I will work on it some more tomorrow and hope she gets better. Wouldn't that be a nice Christmas present?!?

One more thing that has been going on in our lives...

Lilly was to become a big sister July 2012, but it turned out that it was not meant to be. We were excited to find out we were pregnant November 1st and had our first appointment scheduled, then Nov. 9th there was some light spotting, but the nurse wasn't, too concerned and just had me come in for blood work Thursday. I prayed that everything would turn out okay, but if it were not meant to be that it wouldn't be a drawn out process and I would have peace about it. Well, the morning of November 11th I was sure it was not meant to be, but kept my appointment for Sat. to do another round of blood work. I took it easy over the weekend and then finally Monday afternoon I got the call that my hcg levels were low and going down. Of course I was upset, but I had been praying about it and was able to get through it without any physical and minimal emotional pain. I know all is in God's hands and when the time is right he will bless us with another child. We will remain hopefull until then...

Oh BROTHER!

no... not another baby yet. A new Brother embroidery machine! My only one had been giving me trouble and really couldn't do what I wanted so instead of having it repaired I got one like I really wanted. I have had a lot of fun playing with it and i have only had it a couple of weeks! I am obssesed with sewing and crafts! I LOVE to make things. It would be even better if I could get some time together to set up a nice facebook page to sell some of the stuff I make... Here are some of the things I have made lately:

TeePee tent that folds up quick and easy and fits in a corner or closet!






Bows and the Outfit

Thanksgiving... delayed...

We had Brendan's family over for a very nice Thanksgiving lunch at our house this year. Everything was very good and Lilly enjoyed seeing her cousin. After we ate Lilly took a nap on the couch while Brendan's parents helped me set up the trees. when she woke up she was very hot so I took her temperature and of course she has a fever! This was the first time she has been sick and she was absolutely miserable! I took her to the Dr. Monday morning and she was tested for STREP, but it came back negative, but positive for a viral throat infection. We just had to wait it out, but by the next morning she was feeling much better. I was glad because we were both dying to get out of the house.

One positive about being stuck at the house was getting all the Christmas decorations up over Thanksgiving weekend. I did go out for some black Friday/ Thursday night shopping with my neighbor. We had lots of fun together and got some GREAT deals! Including a power wheels type car with the 12v battery that looks like a BMW for only $99 for Lilly's birthday! We went out about 9:30pm Thanksgiving night and did not get home until almost 5am! (Belk did not open until 3am and that was our last stop.) We had so much fun that we plan to do it again next year!

Lilly helping set her table... of course she got dressed before anyone came over.

Trick-or-Treat

Lilly has had fun this month! She was Cinderella for Halloween this year and she can even tell you that she is/was Cinderella. We took her to "Boo at the Zoo", a party for Mom's group at a church, The Saluda Shoals event, and of course trick or treating in our neighborhood. Once she learned what trick or treating was she was hooked! She still talks about trick or treating saying "I had fun trick or treating!" We walked around with our next door neighbors and left candy on the porch. I was suprised that the kids did not take too much candy because there was still some left when we were done. Of course we also carved a pumpkin and took Lilly to the SC State Fair. Once as a family and once with my Mom. When we went with my Mom my Dad met us there and we watched the elephant show (for the 3rd time) Lilly was so amazed by the elephants. My Dad got a picture for us with with elephant. Lilly was excited until right before they snapped the picture then she started getting a little nervous, but the picture still came out pretty good. It's not everyday you get to take a picture with an elephant and pet it...

Some of Lilly's favorite things:
Singing... she can sing about any song she hears a few times and loves to sing. Her favorites are "Jesus Loves Me" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

The Wiggles... We watch Sprout most mornings while she is eating breakfast and I got her a DVD to watch in her play room. She especiall loves the rock a bye your bear song that they do and can sing it and do all the motions.

Babies! Especially her baby dolls. She talks to them just like she is a little Mommy and feeds them, rocks them, and puts them to bed. My Mom was keeping her and her baby cousin Tinsley this week and my Mom was rocking her to get her to sleep and Lilly said she wanted to rock, too. So my Mom was going to attempt to fit her in the chair too, but Lilly said "No!" and went and got her little rocking chair and started rocking her baby doll. She even put her baby to bed when she was done.

blocks... she can entertain herself with her mega bloks for a long time building "castles". This comes in very hand in the evenings if there is a show on we want to watch without her getting into trouble.

ABC's... She sings them all the time and can identify at least half of the letters now. She likes to watch "Super Why" because they do a lot with letters.

Cooking... pretend cooking of course. She doesn't even have to have anything buy her imagination to cook a waffle for someone and take it to them. So Santa Claus has ordered her a kitchen set that came in last week and some food that she can "cut" and put back together. I think she is going to love it!

Here are some pictures from this month:

Boo at the Zoo


Cinderella with "Cinderella's Mommy" (what Lilly said I was)


Lilly and her friend next door before Trick or Treating



Lilly modeling her new outfit I made her.