A Ticket to Ride

So a few weeks ago while we were in Illinois my dad convinced us that we should all head over to the County Fair, have some funnel cake, ride the Ferris Wheel and (as it turns out) marvel at some of the home grown fashion. Now as a younger kid I used to love the fair because I loved the rides, now as a grown up and a parent I love watching the kids love the rides. But I will not lie, I also love the funnel cakes.

Dad and Ethan in line for the big slide.


Ethan at the end of his ride.


Lilly coming down the big slide with Uncle Paul, she had a huge smile on her face and demanded more.


Waving bye bye as the Merry go round takes off




Lilly gets a ride from Grandpa


As my brothers family (minus baby Alexis) take a ride on the Ferris Wheel.


Dad and Paul take their lives in their hands as they ride something called a Tomahawk




While the rest of us enjoy the sites




And Lilly passed out


One more spin with my step mother and Ethan had had enough


In the end a fun time was had by all, we all went home with very full bellies and dreams of twinkling lights.

Pool Party

So if you did not notice I redid the blog again, it is not that different, but it will allow me to post bigger pictures, which will be nice. But I did create a cool new header in Photoshop with the help of my husband, isn’t it cool? Anyway, enjoy the new layout.
A lot has been going on lately, namely a trip back to Illinois to visit with the family, and I have lots of awesome pictures from our trip. But first I thought I would first share Lilly’s first time with her new splash pad. Instead of a pool you attach the hose to this thing and it sprays water everywhere, she seemed to have a very good time. Enjoy!

Not Me Monday

This is my first foray into Not Me Monday, but it sounded like fun. I have been reading the blog My Charming Kids for awhile, she is super fun and started this carnival, so head over there and check out what other people are saying.

I did not google information about hair growth in toddlers because I am not, as my husband insists, obsessed with the fact that my daughter has such little hair. Who would be that vain and shallow, definitely not me.
I have not been bribing my daughter with Oreo cookies to get down off of things she has climbed onto because I still am not allowed to lift her after my surgery, which would not be healthy and speak to my inability to ask for help, nope, not me.
I did not stay up too late last night watching the two part reunion of the Real Housewives of New Jersey and googling the “big secret” because I am so not too overly involved in reality shows just because I am on summer break. Those are the sort of things that English professor do not do, so I totally did not do that.
I did not let out a loud string of profanities when I dropped something heavy and pointy on my foot. Nope, not me. I totally did not do thing in front of Lilly and she totally did not find it hysterically funny. And I do not have nightmares in which Lilly yells out her first swear word in the middle of church, which is not one of the reasons we totally sit in the cry room. Nope that never happened.
I don’t love these two people more than anything in this world and I am totally not one lucky girl.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

First that everyone for their thoughts and wishes as I recover from gallbladder surgery. The first few days were not fun, but I am totally on the mend now, only occasionally getting sore. But I am still not allowed to pick up Lilly for another three weeks and I think that more than anything may kill me.

So anyway last week before the whole getting stabbed in the gut four times, Jeff and I decided to take Lilly on her first trip of the summer to Columbus Zoo. Now that may sound far away cause it's in another state and stuff, but it's actually only about 2 hours and totally worth it. Jack Hanna took over the zoo a while ago and has done some amazing stuff with it and it is the closest zoo to us. We took Lilly twice last year when she was 4 and 5 months old. She seemed to enjoy it, but we knew that she would love it this year.

Our first stop was the petting zoo, which was funny because while Lilly loves to pet and love on our animals, she was not so sure about the goats. She liked them behind the fence,



but was not so sure when they were right there.



Jeff and I watched her closely because she tends to get grabby with animals, meaning she will grab a handful of fur and laugh and while our animals will let her, I was not sure how the goats would react, of course we had to get her close enough to the goats for anything to happen and Miss Lilly was not so sure about that.





but soon she decided to venture closer, which is when she dropped her paci in some unidentifable goat liquid, then she picked it up and tried to put it back in her mouth. I swear you have never seen two people move so fast.

Finally after skipping the pony rides (cause well she is only 16 months old and I think a bit young for pony's)we stood in line for about 20 minutes to see the new baby elephant. The line snaked around the outside enclosures of the other elephants and we had a good time looking at the elephants who were not all fancy and inside because they had a baby. Lilly was having fun riding on her daddy's shoulders, but then got a bit cranky.



I figured she was thirsty so set her down for a sec to grab her sippy. She took a long drink and then an elephant meandered over our way. She points and babbled something in baby and held up her sippy like she was offering Mr. Elephant a drink. Everyone thought it was very cute, so thinking she could impress the crowd further Lilly tried to throw the sippy into the enclosure. Fortunately being a small child the thing bounced off of the fence, unfortunately it then rolled under the fence and fell into that big precipice that separates us from the dangerous animals that could go rouge at any time. She was not so cute to the rest of the crowd anymore (well of course she was, but they were all trying very hard not to laugh because you should not encourage that type of behavior). Finally we got to the baby elephant who was very cute.



We then headed to the aquarium because Lilly loves to yell fish whenever she sees one. She was in love with the huge tank filled with all kinds of colorful sea life



and was very cranky when we had to leave, but it was time for lunch. After lunch we killed some time on a very nice playground that actually had a separate areas for the wee ones. Lilly figured out how to slide down and slide and also how much fun those tunnel things could be.



We had a great time and will be heading back as soon as I am healed up and can actually lift her again. Finally I will leave you with one of my favorite shots of the day. technically the thing is so not perfect, but there is something about it that I really like.

Happy Birthday Baby!!

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday. I will admit that this is probably not his best birthday since I am still hobbling around after surgury so besides ordering his iphone and picking up an ice cream cake his birthday has been a little low key. But I promise I will make it up to him when we go on our Vegas vacation! But Lilly and I are happy to have such an awesome dad and husband. We love you baby! Happy Birthday!!



Christmas 2008

Is this a good thing?

So I had my gallbladder taken out yesterday and let me tell you my abs hurt!!! But after sleeping for like 12 hours I feel a bit better, oh that and the drugs** that they gave me. Jeff keeps laughing at me because apparently I can not hide being all hopped up on drugs. I guess it's good to know that if i ever develop a crack addition that someone will notice. But Frank if now gone forever (Frank is my gallbladder, you know from Scrubs when Turk says "““I am going to yank that gallbladder out of you so fast that your spleen is gonna say to your kidney, “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO FRANK!?” That’s right, your kidney named your gallbladder Frank.”) and I am somewhat curious about what they have done with him (and why I have gendered my gallbladder a boy). not that I want him or anything, I'm just curious what is to be done with him. Anyway, I am waiting patiently for a few weeks before I can finally eat like a normal person, oh and pick up Lilly who seems to be a bit miffed at me. I have to admit that my feeling were a bit hurt this afternoon when I cam e downstaors to see her after not seeing her in 24 hours and she gave me a look that said "And where have you been?" Then she took a book to my mom, I guess she will be good at the whole teen silent treatment thing later.

Oh well, I am off to take a nice drug induced nap and will update later will pics of our trip to the Columbus Zoo ealier this week.

*** This post has been brought to you by the drug Percocet

Happy Father's Day!

So Jeff celebrated his second official father's day today. Between Lilly and I we made sure that he had lots of fun and lots of love. Now Lilly is far too young for me to ask her about her daddy but since dada was her first word, I think she's smitten. Obviously we know that since the day she was born,

she has been a daddy's girl.


But as she has grown daddy has become her very favorite playmate.






I do not know if I even have the words to describe the amazing father that my husband is. He is the rock of our little family, the one you can always count on. From charming a baby smile to rocking that same baby to sleep,



he is always there for Lilly and for me. And I know that if Lilly could tell you she would go on and on about how much she loves her daddy,


who is the favorite in her castle and will always be her Prince Charming.



Thank you Jeff for all that you do and for being the most amazing father ever. We love you very much!
Love Jess and Lilly

Some Vintage Lilly

In honor of Lilly turning 16 months yesterday I wanted to give you some vintage Lilly. Here she is playing at the park one year ago. At four months she was rolling over and attempting to sit up, with some help of course.



One year later she is hell on wheels. This is Miss Lilly just the other day after she pulled every last wipe out of the box. Where does all the time go?

The Spenser Chronicles

A Shutter Sisters Assignment:

This, in case you have no idea who I am, is Spenser, our 7 year old boxer.


He looks a little sad in this pictures, but this is, in fact, his tired face. Actually it is his tired and leave me alone face. I took this picture on Mothers Day 2008, the day my husband got me my DSLR camera and I went crazy playing with it. The dog was a prime target as the baby was asleep. At this point he had escaped to the window seat to take a nap and a break from all the snapping, as you can see it did not work.

Spenser, named after Edmund Spenser of the Faire Queen, was the first thing my husband and I co-owned (this was actually before we were married). He really wanted a dog and my suggestions that we go to the pound were met with withering looks as he wanted a specific dog (hey do not judge us for not adopting a dog, both cats were percured from the pound, so I am rescuing some animals, just not dogs it seems). After weeks of seaching we found a litter in Indiana and out of the pile of squirming tongues and feet Jeff picked out Spenser. He is the best dog, always sweet and loving, in seven years I have never heard the dog growl or show his teeth. If a burgler broke into the house Spenser would bring him a toy. He is trying at times as are all Boxers, but we wouldn'trade him for the world, he is after all Lilly's favorite playmate.

Tori Spelling is totally copying me!

I finally got around to watching the season premiere of Tori and Dean tonight (hey I have a small child who really eats into my TV watching time!) (oh and I will defend watching this show in a sec). Anyhow, she called her little girl buggie and I totally shouted at the TV, “Copy Cat!!!” Because of course that is what I call Lilly. Now I have gotten a few strange looks from that one in public, but as they usually do, the nickname just developed. When we first brought bug home from the hospital all crinkly and new Jeff called her bug a boo. It stuck, at least for me, and that got shortened to bug and now buggie. Hey she even answers to it. So from me it is buggie or buggie bear and for some reason Jeff calls her boom-boom. Whatever, I think that we definitely need another kid soon who can take some of our focus off of buggie. I mean the girl is probably blinded from photos and videos and would like a break. Sometimes she will even take her toy and walk away from us to play by herself. Of course it will eventually send me into therapy, but I guess if she is going to be Miss Independent like I was I should get used to it now.

So anyhow, back to Tori and Dean. I started to watch this show like I started a lot of others in the past year and a half, in the middle of the night feeding and rocking a newborn. Or even in the middle of the day when my 2-4 month old would sleep contented in my arms for two hours, but wake right back up when you tried to lay her down. This had me stuck to the couch for hours on end. And at that time lifetime would run marathons of Tori and Dean because they were starting a new season. I was leery at first because all I knew of Tori Spelling was that she was on 90201. And I won’t lie I totally watched that show, to the end, even when they were in college. And she was never my favorite character. But surprisingly she was really funny, and she was real. Look I am not a sentimental touchy feely person, but when you are all sleep deprived and hormonal you tend to connect with other women in the same state. Tori’s little boy, at the time they filmed the show, was about the same age as bug (in reality he is a year older). So I was draw to someone going through the same issues. So what, I like her now. I even read her book, I am even going to go out and get the new one. I like her, even if she is trying to copy me, because who could blame her, I am cool. At least she is not like that J. Lo who got married the same day I did, and then got knocked up the same time, we even had the same due dates. Let’s face it J.Lo was just trying to steal my thunder.

*** I do not actually believe that Tori Spelling is copying me or J. Lo is trying to steal my thunder, these people do not know who I am. I am not crazy, just trying to be funny.

What's New?

So what do you think of my new layout? I really like it, I just decided that I wanted something new and les scrap-booky. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I enjoyed it for awhile but as anyone who knows me would tell you I tend to change styles and hobbies fairly regularly. Since it is my one creative outlet I usually go with whatever I am feeling. Soccer mom today? Preppy? Bohemian? Just go with what works for me that day. I really started wanting to redo this layout when I realized that Lilly is now 15 months old and all the header pics were from last fall when she was 6-8 months old. Now I did not do much for this layout except to download some code from Simply Fabulous blogs. Check this site out seriously because this lady is awesomely talented. THe picture in the header is also not mine, I do plan to replace it with one of my pics, but I have not found anything that I really think will fit, so for now I am keeping it, I do really like it. I am still working on the pics from Disney (I know it has been like 2 months) but I am running into some trouble with photoshop. So instead enjoy these pics that I took of Lilly last week on campus while we waited for Jeff to finish a meeting