Visit to the Gowens

Lillie was able to make her big debut to our good friends, Jay and Stephanie. We were able to spend their first night in their new home with them. It is such a beautiful house, we are so excited for them. Stephanie insisted on taking photos of us while we were there, so we ventured out into the cold and down icy paths. But it was fun and some of the photos of Lillie turned out really well, like the one above, my favorite. We miss them and wished that we could see them more often.

Finders Keepers...

And I'm the weeping loser. Yesterday I lost a 100 dollar bill (my prized Christmas money) out of my purse on my way to the bank to deposit it. I had just thrown it loosely into my purse because I was in a hurry and went on my way. I made a stop at Target before going to the bank, which is where I think I lost it. I've looked all over my car and turned my purse inside out, but no luck.
So next time you find money on the street corner, while you think it is your lucky day, take a sec to stop and think about the poor loser that dropped it. I had been dreaming all week of the fun stuff I could spend it on... dang it!

Disneyland Christmas

Before we left for vacation in WA, we spent an evening at Disneyland. It was cold (ok, SoCal cold, not cold cold) but was still a lot of fun. The highlights were the Christmas parade and It's a Small World. We waited about 45 min in line for It's a Small World because it had just opened up after a year long renovation, but it was worth it, I loved the ride! Here's some phone pictures from the trip, I left my real camera in the car. It was one of my favorite trips!

All Lil Wants for Christmas is Her Two Front Teeth

So Lillie has been eating solid foods for six months now. She's all about eating what we're eating, except that she hasn't had any teeth (okay she does have her two front bottom teeth) so she attempts to gum them up and then swallows things whole. But yesterday she was acting abnormally fussy and was trying to chew on my mom's leather ottoman, so I looked in her mouth and saw the bulging gums on top. Hallelujah! It's about time.
So I had been all excited about it, thinking I could handle anything that teething would bring but man, she threw a fit coming home from shopping today like never before. I thought she had been possessed by a devil. In her defense, she had been stuck in her carseat for several hours and hadn't napped nearly enough, but still. I hope these teeth break through soon, I don't know how many more of those fits I can handle.
I'll try and get a picture once they break through, but that might be near impossible. We'll see, if we survive to see that happen.

Gimme an L, Gimme an I...

I am so grateful for my daughter. We were playing with her on our bed this morning and she's such a ham. She was bouncing around on the bed and wrestling with us and having such a good time. She is such a good girl and is really a fun age. You know they say that every age is the best age, and that's true but there is something extra fun about an almost 11 mo old. Lillie's personality has really started to develop recently.

Lillie is still such a chatterbox. She has full conversations in baby jibberish, but has also started to copy words that we say. It's fun to hear her try to say peek-a-boo, coat, shoe, etc.

She loves to dance. We've got video to prove that she has got some moves. It doesn't even matter if there's music or not, she knows what the word 'dance' means.

She loves kids, especially those older than her. I suspect that she gets a little bored with me, because she squeals with delight whenever there are kids around. Part of me really wishes she had older siblings. But then that would also mean that I would have more than 1 kid right now...

She loves adults, she bounces on her knees and holds her arms out to whoever comes close to her. She will crawl over and curl up on laps, too. She's got no stranger danger.

Lillie loves stuffed animals. Especially her lambie, she grabs it and hugs it so tight whenever she sees it. She also snags it really quickly before I pull her out of her crib... and her binky.

She loves to perform for you. You can tell that she is proud of herself when she walks around with her push toy and you cheer her on because she breaks out into a huge smile and will start to dance sometimes.

She is adventurous and fearless, not very much like me. I am so proud of the person she is becoming!

THANKSGIVING

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Eric's family in Utah. We were so excited to go because all of his siblings would be together for the first time in over five years and we hadn't been to Utah in about 4 years, so it was a big trip for us. It was a hectic and fun week, sprinkled with a dash of the common cold. We played with new (Emmett and Madelyn and Ella) and old cousins (Daniel and Isaac), ate good food (well Eric did, I had to watch Lillie while he ate and so my food was cold and there wasn't any left for seconds by the time I ate), and got awesome deals on Black Friday.\


I did a lot of nose wiping this vacation.

Lillie and Ella were so cute together. Ella is 8 mos older, but is the same size as Lil, and so they got along really well. They always wanted to be held by the same person at the same time and they shared a deep love for Grandma's beanie babies. I wish that Iowa wasn't so far away so that they could play together often.
Eric and I went to see the beautiful temple lights one night, too. Which was fun because the last time we saw them was when we had been dating less than a month. It's amazing how much has changed in 6 years, with us, not the lights.
Four generations: Eric and Lillie with his Mom and Grandpa

i really enjoyed the trip. I wish we lived closer to Eric's family, we love them and loved spending time with them. I hope it's not another 5 years before we all get together again.

Yesterday, we drove down to San Diego to go to the Wild Animal Park. It was a great trip, the safari ride into the open range pens was SO COOL! It was neat to see the animals, who usually stayed with their own kind, interact with other species in these wide open spaces. It was terrific weather, cool enough so you didn't overheat with all the hiking. We didn't get to see everything, it's a huge park, so we'll have to go again! My feet were really hurting by the end though. Here are some of the pics. Lil loved the park, she was so good!

Finally, a New Post!

It's been a while since I've posted. It's been crazy and so instead of trying to catch up, I'll just start from here or else I'll never do it. So this past week my brother and his family came down to SoCal for a vacation away from WA. We spent one day with them at Disneyland and then they later came to stay with us and we spent part of a day at our favorite park.
Haylee and Lillie are only a couple weeks apart in age, so I was really excited to see them play together. And it was a blast, Lillie loved hanging out with Haylee and Amy. We hope they had a fun time down here, because we loved having them around. Seriously, they're the only company we've had since February. LA is a happening place, so I'm guessing it's us that's keeping people away. Hmmm..... anyway.

Here are some of the pictures that we took at the park. I can't seem to find the camera that I took to Disneyland.




I'll try to get another post up before another month passes.

Haunted Queen Mary

The past couples weeks have been really difficult with Lillie. She has learned how to pull herself up on things, but didn't know how to get down. This made napping impossible and so she was really grumpy/frustrated for two weeks straight. So I guess I was in crisis mode when I said that I would love to go to the haunted Queen Mary and get scared out of my mind. Yeah, not sure why I agreed to it now. No, actually it was really fun and nice to get out, without having to take a diaper bag with me. It was the first time (here) that we left Lillie under someone else's watch and went out of town.
The Queen Mary is a ship that is permanently docked in Long Beach and every year for Halloween they put together these mazes with scary things and scary people to jump out at you. We met up with people from Eric's class and Troy and Mikelle, it was nice being in a bigger group. And I have to admit it was fun watching this Pig Man chase Mikelle around, he would not stop bugging her. Freaky.
I want to go back and tour the ship, after the Halloween season. I was too distracted by gory scenes and freaky people to really enjoy the Queen Mary.

My Sister, the Princess

I know this is on my sisters' blogs but I wanted to post it also. One of my little sisters, Jody, was the Junior Princess for her high school's Homecoming this year. She's sassy but we love her. Congrats Jody. She's pictured with my handsome nephews. Miss you guys!

Florida? No, THIS is the SUNSHINE STATE

This is madness. I have never been in such hot weather at the end of OCTOBER. It is over 90 degrees pretty much every day. I hate to complain but man, I LONG for chilly days. Jackets, sweaters, hats, mittens, hot chocolate... I love it all. I just want to sleep with a blanket on my bed, is that too much to ask??

The Cat in the Hat

This is the before picture.
And the after picture. This is our little family as pumpkins. The mischevious one is Eric, the happy one is me, of course, and the crying baby one is who else, Lil.
Troublemakers, the lot of them.

Tonight was our ward's annual Trunk or Treat. I was really nervous because I didn't think anyone would show up (I'm the ward activity chairperson). However, there was a good turnout, we ran out of candy and it was a fun time. Lillie went as the Cat in the Hat and Eric and I were Thing 1 and Thing 2. I was really happy about how our costumes turned out since I made it all but the wigs. Lillie was really good about keeping on her hat and bow, too.

Some Pics

9 Month Visit

Yesterday Lillie went in for her nine month appointment. I didn't have the anxiety taking her to the doc that I normally have because I only thought she would be getting one shot this time, but I was wrong. She got two shots and a blood draw. Ouch! From my limited experience as a nurse I do know that it is DANG hard to get an IV in babies. So, let me just say that they did a remarkable job, even though there was a little digging for the vein. Needless to say, it was a traumatic experience for her and me.
Anyway, I just thought I would put up her stats from this visit. She is tall and skinny. 28.5 inches long, 75th percentile and 17 lbs 10 oz, 30th percentile. She's normally been in the 50th percentile for weight but the doc said its normal to lose some at this age because she is so active.
She is still army crawling (fast), loves to pull herself up on things (like our big shoe rack, which she pulled on top of herself today), and loves, even more, to walk around holding onto your fingers. She has said both Mama and Dada purposefully and correctly. She has started to imitate words and voice inflection that you say. Today, she was trying to say "I love you" back to me. Lillie loves to sing when music is playing. She loves spending time with Hallie, stealing her toys, etc. After a bout of not wanting to eat or drink, she now loves food again, especially whatever we're eating. Eric even gave her an M&M the other day. That would not have flied if I'd seen it go down. She has started to throw dramatic fits when we change her diaper, clothes, or put her down. Not good. She even tries to "tell us off" by crying and saying "Na, na, na" over and over. She loves reading books. She loves her dad, always wanting to go to him, wrestle with him, etc. She is a wonderful sleeper, which has made all the difference in the world the past three months.
We love her so much, love having her in our family, and are amazed at how much she is growing and learning each day.

Outting to the Park

climbing like a pro

Lillie took a while but we've finally got her pulling herself up on stuff. Here she is in action: