Birthday Party Part 1

I can not decide if the fact that I have waited until Lilly is almost 15 months old before I posted her First birthday picture was because I am lazy, or if it was just I had not finished post processing the pictures. I am going with the whole I am a pefectionist and needed to work on the pictures some more, not that I just got too busy. But the good news is that I have a lot of pictures of the awesome party.

We went with a Mickey Mouse ClubHouse Theme since, well who are we kidding we are Disney Freaks and Miss Lilly was concieved at Disney World. As you can see we went all out with Mickey Mouse decorations and ordered this awesome cake from Spring Hills Bakery.



We even got Lilly her own smash cake.



And we dressed her up like Minnie Mouse.



We had ears for everyone.





After some yummy hotdogs came the big cake moment. Miss Lilly had a decorated high chair and a princess crown that she was not too sure of. Now these next photos are courtesy of our friend Brent, but I did the post processing.



Then came her very own cake that she could smash all she wanted.



She wasen't sure at first, but soon found the frosting.




Enough for now, the rest of the party pictures coming soon. Oh yeah and pics from Disney World.

Smash Cake

Yes I know that it has been a long time since I posted, but I do have some good excuses. Right after Lilly's birthday party we all spent about a month in various statges of illness. First Lilly got the flu, then Jeff, then me. Then a cold made the rounds and just as we all got better it was off to Florida to meet The Mouse )don't worry I have a lot of pictures). We got back and I went into full on dissertation mode and I am glad to say it is all finally done and I will defend my dissertation Monday April 27th at 11am, yeah me. So we will be playing catch up for awhile, but don't worry it will be worth it.

We will start with the traditional give a baby a cake and laugh at the mess they make pictures. Miss Lilly's birthday actually fell on a Wednesday this year and we had her party on the following Saturday. But Jeff and I felt that we should still mark this celebration so we bought Lilly a "big cupcake" and let her out it after her dinner. She was a bit leery at first, but got the hang of the frosting thing pretty quickly.






And some fancy post processing.






And this as as messy as she got, you could have knocked me down with a feather, I though she would go hog wild, but no she was very dainty. At least she had fun.

Coming soon...First Birthday Pictures!

Happy First Birthday Lillian Grace

My sweet Lilly,
I have no idea where the year has gone. All of a sudden you are a year old and I feel like we just brought you home from the hospital. I cannot put into words how much I love you and how much you have changed my life. I used to get very annoyed with people who told me “you will understand when you have kids”, but they were right. There was no way I could know the kind of love and happiness that comes with being a mother. It is the most rewarding, most fulfilling and most difficult thing I have ever done and I have never regretted it for a second. Every day you remind me to cherish innocence and absolute love. You remind me what it is to be truly blessed by God.
I have a hard time writing you this first birthday letter because the words escape me, I want to write pages and yet I cannot. I feel the need to get this all down for you to know how much I will always love you even when you are 16 and start calling me by my first name. But it’s more than I could ever express.
I love you because of the joy that you bring to me every day, even when you are working my last nerve.
I love that sense of wonderment that you have as a small child that reminds me to take the day slow and enjoy it all.
I love that I can see so much of your daddy in you.
I love the way you smell after a bath and the way that you raise up your arms to sit in my lap and cuddle.
I love your stubbornness that is my legacy to you.
I love how your first words after dada and mama were Spenser and Ella.
I love how you smile at me and that beautiful laugh when something strikes your fancy.
I love how you bring me books and plop on my lap to listen to me read them.
I love that in one short year you have changed me forever.
My sweet buggie, I wish that I could keep you young forever, but I know that the job of the parent is to eventually let go. But since that will not happen for a long time, I promise you that I will cherish you always, that I will try to let you do it yourself and I will forgive you someday for the stretch marks.
My love always,
Mommy
And now, for your enjoyment the first year of Lillian Grace in pictures.

Any excuse for a picture

I have really good excuses for not posting for awhile, which includes: a sick husband, a sick baby with a double ear infection, a sick husband again, the start of school, insane snow and ice, and a power outage. I think those are good reasons, but I do have pictures. These first ones are what happens when the power goes out for 3 hours and it's cold outside. Basically this means mommy dresses you up in several layers with no concern about your fashion sense.

I am especially proud of this one as I was able to photoshop out the runny nose and all you can see is Miss Lilly's pretty baby blues.

Of course we are getting excited around here for our trip to Disney World in March, which prompted another photo shoot with Lilly in her Disney outfits. Now Jeff and I do have one bone to pick with Disney, they do not make many outfits small enough to fit Lilly, but we do have a Minnie Mouse we bought on super sale after Halloween and a Tinkerbell from Auntie Shell.

And of course we watched the Inaguration here, very happy with our new President. Lilly drew up her chair to pay close attention, I am so excited that we now have a White house featuring complete and grammatically correct sentences. Yes We Can!

Christmas Part 3: The Quad Cities

Here we are, the middle of January and I am finally finishing off the Christmas pictures! Oh well, not much else has been going on around here besides getting ready for the semester to start. First a few last pictures from Chicago. Lilly had her first experience with fairy wings and seems to have fun with them, until they got in her way. But I was able to get a great picture of her and Missy in some awesome light.
But all too soon it was time to pack the car, and Lilly was unhappy that she was not allowed to help. But to make it up to her we stopped to meet with some friends from grad school who are back in the Chicago area. It was awesome to see Jen and Brad again and this was the first time that they were able to meet Lilly. Finally we arrived in the Quad Cities and started Christmas take 3! Unfortunately I neglected to take as many pictures as I should have because I had to recharge the battery. But I did get a few of Lilly joining the fun of guitar hero. She wasn't very good, but then again, neither are we (on a side note we are getting better).

We also got to visit Derek and Tina, friends we had not seen in a long time. They also had never met Lilly and I had not yet met their new son Dagen, who they have had the joy of being parents to for the last 6 months. We had too much junk food and watched the kids play and vowed to do it all again really soon

Before we knew it, it was time once again to get in the car and head back to good old WV. In all the Christmas vacation was fun and we enjoyed seeing the family and friends, but we were glad to get back home. This was especially true for Lilly who decided to join some her toys in a large box, which seemed to be one of her favorite Christmas toys.

Christmas Part 2: Chicago

After we had our small family Christmas we were off to Chicago to spend Christmas eve and day. The trip started out fine, although when we stopped about half way through Miss Lilly decided that she did not want to sleep at all that night. It was not fun. Then we hit a snowstorm as we drove into Illinois which slowed us a down a bit. But we finally arrived at the P's and Christmas could begin. Grandma and Grandpa P had the coolest tree. And Lilly really enjoyed her counsins, (except when they got in her way) and this cool wand that she found. She also tried to get very up close and personal with the tree itself, which required us to spend a lot of time playing tree guard. She did like the neat tatoos that daddy found for her and her first candy cane. But she did not like the big guy who gave it to her. We also got a cute family picture. Of course Christmas eve also means one think...peirogies! my favorite and I look forward to it every year, and this was Lilly's first try so I had the camera ready, she was not a fan. I was excited to try out some new photos as I played with light, but it was not always easy as again I can not hold still and as it turns out kids also do not like standing still when they are young and full of sugar! Oh well, lesson learned and next year I will utalize the cool gorilla pod that my hubby got me for Christmas. After a long evening on Christmas eve we finally got the kids in their pj's and got them, somewhat, settled for a picture before one by one they took off.

Lilly slept pretty well that night, of course as she is only 10 months old she really has no clue about Christmas, so I will remember what that was like next year. She once again enjoyed ripping open presents, often more than the presents themselves. She really liked the dog's Christmas presents, not so much for herself, but to let the dog chase her around. The rest of the day was fun, but tiring and so we all went to bed early. Then we took a little break before Christmas Part 3 and had fun relaxing with the P's. But all too soon we were off again to the QCA for the last leg of the journey, which I will discuss in the next update. Until then I will be hanging out and enjoying the remainder of my vacation.