The Patrick Family

Zoo trip

2010-04-23T05:53:00.001-07:00

The Nashville Zoo is definitely different than what we were used to at Memphis, but Lilly loves it!!! The playground area is so much fun and huge. She loved being able to pet the goats that were just running around at the petting area. And the birds are great. The first time we went I made the mistake of feeding them the nectar and while I am holding Joy in one arm, about four birds landed on my other arm and I tried to stay as calm as possible...but inside I was freaking out. The carousel is one of our favorites and this time Joy even rode for the first time! What can be better than an afternoon with great weather looking at all the animals.

Josh took Lilly into the tunnel to see the Meerkats up close, they are so cute!

Easter Fun....

2010-04-08T18:56:00.001-07:00

Many celebrations took place this Easter. It all began the week before Easter with the dying of the eggs. Lilly loved watching the eggs turn colors in the glasses of dye and she had even more fun decorating each egg with her favorite princess. We also saw the Easter Bunny three times - the mall, at school, and Gentry Farms. Joy liked the school bunny and even took a picture smiling with him, but not at the farm....we had to get a family shot.

Then there were the many egg hunts we had scheduled this year. About a month ago I feared my child would not be involved in one egg hunt, boy was I wrong. There was the hunt at school, in the neighborhood, at Gentry Farms with church, and Easter day with friends. So after we filled eight dozen eggs with candy and sent them off to the appropriate places we ended up having three hunts (the neighborhood hunt was cancelled due to the rain). But no worries because on Easter Day one of the neighbors had a hunt in their yard with some eggs from the cancelled hunt and to all of our surprise Lilly ended up with about 50 eggs filled with candy. It was a little much I will say. But Lilly had a blast and enjoyed every minute of finding all the eggs. The pink eggs were her favorite. She would even skip over the other colors just to get to a pink egg.

Then there was Easter morning. Both girls were happy to find their Easter baskets filled with fun goodies and even more surprised to see the tree out front decorated with candy filled eggs. Lilly wanted to eat every piece of candy and Joy just had fun shaking each egg wondering what was making that fun sound.

It is fun to celebrate holidays with the girls and do all the "fun" stuff, but we also reminded the girls about what an important time Easter is to remember that Jesus rose that day. This year we started a new tradition of making resurrection rolls. We talked about how when Jesus died they put embalming oil and spices over his body, then wrapped him up in cloth. So we used a marshmallow for Jesus dipped it in butter, rolled it cinnamon and sugar, and wrapped it up with a cresent roll and then placed it in the tomb (the oven.) When the rolls were complete we took them out of the tomb, opened them up and the marshmallow was gone - Jesus had risen!!! It was so much fun to celebrate this special day and focus on the true meaning of Easter.

Spring is here....

2010-03-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

After a long, cold, dreary winter...Spring is finally here. Not quite sure why I haven't updated the blog in so long. I guess time just got away from me. Lots to catch up on so here goes...
Our house in Collierville finally sold in Feb. The church said they would help us with the payments for six months and it took exactly six months to sell. Funny how God works everything out in His time table.
Joy is now 9 months old. She is scooting around rather then crawling. She has learned to say a few words - ball, duck, bye bye, eye (as she points to a baby dolls eye), mama, and dada. She loves to eat. Just tonight she tried chicken nuggets and loved them. She also had pizza for the first time this weekend and kept screaming in her high chair till I gave her some more. She also had some avocados today and really seemed to like them as well. One of her favorite times of the day is taking a bath with Lilly.

Joy is also working on pulling up on everything she can. She was playing in her bed and loved pulling up and falling down over and over. Just look at this smile!!!

We have spent as much time as we could playing outside on the warm, sunny days we have had lately. Joy loves going outside. If the back door is open she is usually scooting over to the door and crying to go out and play. She loves to swing and explore.

Here are the girls wearing their green for St. Patrick's Day.

Lilly was so excited to get Princess and the Frog last week. We just love that movie. It was the first movie she saw in the theater when it came out back in December. She was also so surprised when she woke up this past Thursday to hear that we were having visitors from Collierville. Two dear friends came to visit and we just had the best time catching up and hanging out. As soon as Kara got to our house, they went to play and it was as if they had never been away from each other. They screamed, hugged, laughed and just had a ball for two whole days. Here are the two princesses...

The search has started for our new house here in Franklin. Pray that God will lead us to the spot where He wants us to live and call home for the next few years...hopefully for many years, boy am I tired of moving. This summer we will celebrate 9 years of being married and after we move out of the rent house it will be our 7th place to live during that time. Oh and for all you Rudy fans out there he is still as crazy as ever!

I am back on my blogging streak, so don't worry it will not be another three months before I post again.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-22T19:11:00.001-08:00

Only two days left...thankfully all the shopping is finished, presents are wrapped, the groceries have been bought (some already cooked :) We are ready to celebrate! I love this time of year for so many reasons. The house feels all warm and cozy with all the decorations out, we get to hang out with friends and family all the time, Lilly is so excited this year...she can hardly wait, Christmas just brings out good feelings. However, today was a little different. My aunt passed away this morning and I was reminded how hard Christmas can be and will be for her family this year and years to come. It was a good reminder for me to stop and think about the things that really matter in life and make sure that is where my focus is this year. Taking the time to cherish every moments with the girls, Loving on Josh and being thankful that God has blessed us with such a good marriage, putting God first and making Him a priority in my day instead of just making sure I get to exercise in the morning (which is what I usually do). This Christmas instead of focusing on all the stuff we get and give to each other, I want to focus on the people more and build my memories around the conversations that take place.

I hope you have a rich Christmas this year and enjoy every minute of it! Here are a few shots of the girls:

Joy: all smiles by the tree. She is truly living up to her name. She is the happiest little thing. She did have a rather fussy day this past Saturday, but we quickly discovered her first tooth was coming in and now that it has come through she is back to her smiley self.

Lilly had a preschool Christmas program and Santa made a special appearance. Joy loved him this year to our surprise!

We had to take a trip to Opryland Hotel. It was beautiful of course. Here is Lilly posing by one of the many trees inside.

Update

2009-11-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, I can't believe almost a whole month has gone by since I last updated. I don't feel like I have been that busy...but then again life can get crazy at times. So here is the latest since our fall fun pics.

We had all decided on Lilly being Sleeping Beauty for Halloween, she wears a pink dress which is Lilly's favorite so this all made sense. We had the dress and I bought the crown, wand, and some fun shoes to go with it. Lilly was so excited when it was finally time to dress up she loved her costume. So she wore it one Saturday to a Fall Festival at church. The next Thursday to preschool for their Halloween Party. Halloween morning to a friend's princess birthday party. When it came time for her to dress up to go Trick or Treating that night she had decided that she did not want to be Sleeping Beauty anymore. She thought about being Ariel, then finally decided on Cinderella. Josh took Lilly out around the neighborhood and she came home freezing cold, but very proud of her bucket full of candy. We bought two huge bags of candy from Costco and I thought for sure we would have lots of candy left over to munch on. However, our new neighborhood is huge...so we gave every bit of it away. Joy was our little pumpkin and I even found a pumpkin costume for Rudy.

All the little princesses dancing at the birthday party

Look at all that candy!

Have you ever seen such a happy pumpkin?

Cinderella and her glass slipper pumpkin

Joy is thinking...What is that orange thing on the dog, if only I can touch it...

After Halloween we had a baby dedication at church. This is Joy's second dedication, so she is going to be one blessed baby. She got another little Bible and we were given a prayer partner in the church to pray over our family. We were all given flowers. There was a yellow one to represent the little baby as precious as gold, a red one to represent the mother's blood bond with her child, and a white one to symbolize the father and the purity that would be prayed for in his raising this new baby. And the greenery was to symbolize the church all around our family praying over us and helping hold us all together. I loved looking at the flowers all week to remind me of this special day. We also enjoyed a yummy dinner after church with all the other babies and their families.

Joy is now five months old (soon to be six months next week) and is sitting up on her own. She has started eating rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and she is going to try squash tomorrow. She laughs several times a day and gives the biggest smile when daddy comes home from work. She caught her second cold this month (I think Lilly picked up something from preschool, then passed it on.) So we were home sick for a whole week. Joy is fascinated with Rudy and tries to reach out and touch his ears every chance she gets. She is grabbing anything and everything within her hands reach. Joy loves to suck her thumb and fingers. The new favorite way is her first two fingers turned around backward. Lilly is starting to play with Joy more and they love to scream back and forth at each other in a way that sounds like they are speaking their own language saying the most important things to each other. These are precious moments and I am trying to soak up every minute of them.

And I will finish up this long post with a picture that says it all.....
Yes...the house is fully decorated for Christmas. Two trees, stockings hung, peppermint placemats at the table, and a wreath on the door. I know it is early, but we are going to be out of town the next two weekends and I had to find something to do being home for a week taking care of the girls...and we just love Christmas!

Fun in the Fall...

2009-10-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

Things have slowed down a bit and it seems like we are actually finding time to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. About a month after the move, everyone (except for me :) got sick, then Josh had a few out of town conferences, so me and the girls headed to Atlanta for about a week to visit Nana and Papa. Now we are all back home, everyone is well (I pray we stay that way for a while) and we are feeling much more settled in our new town. This week we took a trip out to Gentry Farms and we all had a blast.

Halloween is such an exciting time around our house. We have out all the fall decor, Lilly and Josh have loved taking walks and checking out all the decorations in the neighborhood - there is some really spooky stuff out there, and I love the smell of the spiced pumpkin candle. I also have to say I love our Saturdays of just hanging around the house and having football on all day. I am not the most avid football watcher (I was a cheerleader in H.S. and I still can't tell you what is going on in the field most of the time), but I was watching with Josh tonight the end of the AL/TN game and all I have to say is "Roll Tide!"
But back to fall and Halloween. We just took some time this weekend to enjoy the leaves changing, the cooler weather, and just hanging out with each other. I also took lots of pictures of Joy - she is just growing so fast....but this first one of Lilly and Rudy is great. They were just hanging out in the front yard and she loved holding his leash and dragging him all over the place

Tonight we had a fall festival at church and all the kids went in costume. Lilly is Sleeping Beauty this year - her favorite princess because she wears a pink dress. Look for the next post of Lilly in full costume....

New things....

2009-10-07T19:07:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that a month has gone by since I last updated the blog. All of my time has gone to unpacking, finding my way around a new city, meeting new people, keeping up with Lilly, and taking care of Joy 24/7. Needless to say there have not been to many spare moments to sit in front of the computer. So here is the latest:

My favorite baby thing right now is the bumbo, just look how many different ways it can be used:

Yes this is our new backyard - This is definitely Lilly's favorite spot to hang out in our new house.

There have been lots of other new things going on as well:

Lilly's first day of preschool

Joy is now four months old

Yes Rudy is still around and as obnoxious as he was before (now he likes to find random things to bark at in the house)

We have managed to do a few fun things as well (these two I actually remembered to bring my camera for)

Play Day out at Monkey's Treehouse with friends (this was the neatest place to play with all sorts of different activities in this huge room, the girls had a blast!)

Family outing to Gentry Farms - Mr. Gentry cutting a pumpkin for Lilly. This is the perfect place to find pumpkins and there is so many fun things to do out on the farm.

The big 3-0

2009-08-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

As of today 3 is the new number at our house. We have an almost 3 month old, Lilly just turned 3 last week, Josh turned 30 in Feb, and as of today I am officially 30. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday such a special day! Our small group from church had a b'day / going away party for us tonight. Lisa made two fabulous cakes and of course everyone sang! My parents came in for the weekend to help me celebrate. Josh bought me the most beautiful flowers. I actually think I might have forgotten that it was my b'day, with all the stuff we have going on at the moment, so thanks to all of you for my cards, phone calls, and thoughtful words to wish me a Happy Day. It was great!

Happy Birthday Lilly!

2009-08-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little girl is now three! It seems like she was only born yesterday, time sure flies.....So for the party we had it at the Sprinkler Park! Lilly woke up that morning so excited and she was bouncing around all day. She kept saying "Am I really 3?" For the moment, her favorite characters are the Disney Princesses. She knows them all by names, the songs they sing, what color each princesses dress is, the names of their princes, and even the names of the mean villain in each movie.....everything there is to know about these magical girls. So of course we had princess plates, napkins, balloons, and a banner. This year I decided to make cupcakes, since we were outdoors it was the easy option. They were not your ordinary cupcakes, they were princess cupcakes of course - with princess papers, princess sprinkles (crowns, slippers, pearls, and the red apples). Each cupcake was topped with a princess ring for the kids. I had pink cupcakes with white icing and white cupcakes with pink icing - it was so girly and just perfect for Lilly! The best part of the party was watching the kids have a blast running through the sprinklers. It all ended with the princess pinata! They now have these cool string pinatas where you give all the kids a string, they pull them and the pinata opens up. They loved collecting candy and filling up the princess bags. Lilly had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it!
We ended our celebration by eating out at Red Robin (one of her favorite spots) This was the first time she had people sing to her at a restaurant. At first she was a little shocked, then she started clapping, and the best part of all was eating the ice cream sundae. So there are all the details of the day.
So now I have a three year old sound asleep, an almost three month old sound asleep, Josh is out running, and we are all in need of some much needed rest from our big weekend. It amazes me how fast Lilly changes and grows. She is full of life, energy, and bursting with emotions - some good and some bad. She loves to read her Bible and is fascinated by the stories of Adam and Eve, Jesus Walking on the Water, and the hurt man (aka: The good Samaritan). She loves to eat turkey and cheese sandwiches, strawberries, yogurt, waffles, wheat thins, and marshmallows. She is quite a daddy's girl and loves to have "Daddy Days" (on his off day.) Their favorite thing to do together is walk down to the lake and go fishing. This is a usual occurrence on most nights. They walk down there with their poles, Lilly has a pink princess pole - Thanks to Papa. The thing to fish with these days are crickets from Wal-mart. Tonight they caught 8 fish. Lilly touches the fish, then Josh throws them back in. She loves to help me in the kitchen, we make banana bread and cookies together. Lilly's love for Joy grows each day as well. She still has her moments of jealousy - I think all of with brothers and sisters still have trouble with this at some time or another. But, Lilly is a great big sister and gives Joy lots of hugs and kisses every day. I thank God for my precious three year old girl, what a blessing it is to have kids. I pray that this year brings Lilly with lots of happy moments, that a strong bond with little sister will start to form, and that her love for God will continue to grow.

Baby blessing

2009-08-10T19:19:00.001-07:00

This Sunday was a big day at Grace Crossing. Our little Joy was blessed in several ways. The morning started with a reception for all the babies. We filled our tummies with some good breakfast and talked to the other parents. We were one of the few without familes in town to celebrate the big day. Both of our families are coming to celebrate Lilly's birthday, and apparently she takes priority over Joy at the moment....Anyways, there was a special time of the service where we were presented with a Bible for Joy and we stood before the church while one of the elders blessed our little girl. He challenged each set of parents to raise their child in a God-centered home and had the congregation agree to take a part in helping us care for these precious little ones. It was a special day. I pray for Joy each night as I put her to bed that she will grow up with a love for Christ and know how much she is loved by her heavenly Father.
All the baby girls

I love this shot!

Guess Who?

2009-07-29T19:39:00.001-07:00

Everyone has been saying how much the two girls look alike, so I found these two pics-both of them are 2 months old. So what do you think? Which is Lilly and which is Joy?

Tummy Time

2009-07-26T11:51:00.001-07:00

Joy has amazed us with how well she is holding her head up. She is not the biggest fan of tummy time yet, but she gets to experience it at least once a day on the floor. She loves to lay on top of both Josh and me for naps, so I guess this would qualify as some type of tummy time. She loves to sit and talk. She just watches us when we are talking to her and gives us lots of smiles and little sounds. It is so neat to watch her do this with Lilly. We are still having some sibling issues - I am sure we always will, but my prayer is that my two girls with be great friends and love to spend time together. Lilly can be very loving to Joy, she helps get a burp cloth to wipe her mouth when needed, she loves to help with diaper changes and patting her back for burps, Lilly's new favorite thing to tell Joy is "I love you." This week Joy will be 2 months old. I cannot believe how fast time goes by. We had her dr. appt on Friday and here are the results:
Weight - 10.9
Height - 22
Joy had fun playing with Dr. Chris and checking out the "other" baby in the mirror while we waited, but then it was shot time. Needless to say, there was a lot of crying and she was quite shocked by that sharp feeling in her legs, poor thing. But we are thankful for a healthy baby and a good dr. to make sure she is doing well.

All Smiles

2009-07-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that July is almost over, school supplies are filling up the stores, and that Joy will be eight weeks old tomorrow night. Where has the time gone?
As you can see she has started smiling(right about the time she turned 6 weeks old) and I love to watch her grin all day long. I was quick enough to catch this on the camera.
I am thankful to be forming somewhat of a new schedule now. Joy usually eats around the same times during the day (about 6 times a day), goes to bed between 8 and 9, wakes up around 7 AM, takes a long afternoon nap the same time as Lilly - so I can get some sleep too, wakes up to eat usually twice during the night (however there have been a few nights it is only once - I am praying this will start to set in soon), and fills my days with lots of happy moments.

Here are some pictures from our month:

Totsie and Pop came to help us celebrate the 4th. This was the first year Lilly saw the fireworks and she did not take her eyes off of them the whole time. Here she is with all her friends. Joy is inside sleeping with Totsie, she will just have to see the fireworks another time...

Joy found her thumb and it provides her lots of comfort.

She loves to take naps with me on the bed. I usually hold her till she is good and asleep, then I have managed to successfully slide her over so I can actually get up. There are times that I just hold her the whole time and sleep with her. I love these precious moments with my baby girl.

Rudy can be quite the handful at times, but he is great with the girls. Joy loves him already.

All of us girls

Joy at her first wedding.

This is Lilly's kindermusik teacher. Lilly kept saying that Miss Lea looked like a princess. This is the first wedding that Lilly has actually been aware of what was going on. She loved listening to Josh perform the ceremony and was even more excited about the cake.

Lilly and I have some time during our day where all we do is play with Joy and her toys. Joy was able to hold a few of her toys and I loved this one where it looks like she is trying to talk on the phone.

Pretty in Pink: This is a dress that my mom saved from when I was a baby.

I love making memories with my girls. The greatest challenge in our days are giving equal attention to both Lilly and Joy. It is hard to play dress up while holding a baby in my arms. However, I thank God for the good days that follow the hard ones and as I look back on all the pictures I have taken I realize how blessed I am to be at home soaking in every minute with Lilly and Joy.

Visit to Dr. Chris

2009-06-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

Joy went in for her 2 week check up to make sure she was doing okay and here is what we found out....
Weight - 7lbs. 12 oz.
Height - 20 inches
He said she looks great and keep on feeding her, she apparently likes to eat as you can see from her increase in weight. What a blessing to have a healthy baby!
I was also very blessed to have Josh take some time off during this second week. He spent the mornings having some Daddy-Lilly time. She again had another fun filled week of outings to Build-a-Bear, Chuck E Cheese, the Bookstore, Rita's Ice Cream Place, and of course back to Wolfchase Mall. It gave me some more time to rest, bond with Joy, and enjoy some quiet time. Our friends from church started bringing us some very yummy meals. I am so thankful for good friends to help during this time. I don't know what I would do if I actually had to think about what we were going to eat for dinner on top of everything else going on. Here are some pictures taken during week 2:

Joy dressed and ready for her first visit to church: 6-14

Playtime with Lilly in my room

Snuggling with my sister on the bed

Hanging out in my bouncy seat (one of my favorite spots)

Playing in the Baby Einstein

Memorable Moments from Week 1

2009-06-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

1. All the good cooking from Nana
2. Lilly and "baby Lisa"
3. Changing those diapers quick, Joy wanted to pee every time it came off
4. Lazy days in PJ's
5. Taking turns with Joy during the "night shift"
6. Joy meeting family and friends
7. Joy's first outing to the Collierville Square for dinner at the Silver Caboose
8. Catching fish with Papa at the lake
9. Lilly's daily outings with Nana and Papa - the zoo, storytime, sprinkler park, Wolfchase Mall, Johnson Park
10. Lilly's favorite phrases: "Can I hold her?" and "Look at her"
11. Holding our precious baby girl

More Pics

2009-06-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

We have had issues with loading the pictures from our camera to the computer over the last two weeks, so I am just now getting some of these pictures loaded. Here are a few from the hospital and going home. Lilly has been great with her. From day one in the hospital, she came in and said "Where is baby Joy?" She has wanted to hold her every chance she gets, kiss her, rub her head, and hug her. She is a very sweet big sister, but also wanting lots of attention from mommy and daddy as well. Joy is a great baby - she eats, poops, sleeps..then starts all over again. We are thankful for the blessing of two beautiful girls to enjoy life with and we are praying for God to equip us as we parent Lilly & Joy.

Joy Elizabeth Patrick is Here!!

2009-06-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

I know this is a week late, and now the only reason I have a minute to update the blog is because my parents are still here - Lilly just went down for a nap and Joy is being held by Nana and Papa at the moment. So our new little princess was born last Wednesday morning, May 27 at 1:15 AM. She weighed 7lbs. and 1 oz.

The labor and delivery went so smooth and she was a healthy baby! I remember laying there after she was born as the nurses were checking her out and reporting on everything, I just thanked God for blessing us with another beautiful baby. I also was thankful that I went into labor this time around and did not have to go the induction route. It just seemed to be quicker and easier that way.....Easier only because of the epidural. I could never be one of those brave moms who go natural.

Anyways, here are some of the pictures....we have taken a ton it was so hard to choose.

Cherish the moments

2009-05-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

I am still here and Joy is still just hanging around in my belly (that is the phrase I keep telling Lilly every time she asks the question "When is baby Joy going to come out?). Lilly thinks this is hilarious, while I just sit and wonder how much longer I will be pregnant....We went to the dr. this past Tuesday and she said I was almost dilated to a three now and she felt pretty sure I would go into labor any day now - but as we can see who knows. I guess only God knows for sure and this is just a reminder of how everything is perfect in His timing. We went ahead and scheduled to be induced next Friday, May 29 if Joy is still hanging around in there.

In the meantime, I am taking advantage of every minute I have to play with Lilly and just have one on one time with her. We have had lots of Mommy-Lilly days filled with playtime in the house, going special places together, and just having fun. It is hard to imagine sharing my day with Lilly and Joy, but I know it will all work out. We took a few fun pictures at the park last week and just enjoyed time together as a family. Instead of wishing this time away, I am trying to cherish all the remaining moments till my little bundle of Joy arrives! Tomorrow night Josh and I plan to get away and eat a quiet, romantic dinner - that will be a change from our usual dinner time routine. And who knows what else this weekend holds - it will be the last time we spend it together as a family of three.

I just had to include these last two pictures. This week the summer weather set in, so it was time to get out the blow-up pool. What can get better than being outside in the pool with a popsicle....Even Rudy needed to cool off.

We love strawberries

2009-05-18T18:48:00.001-07:00

We went to Huntsville, I think it has actually been about a month ago, but anyways we just wanted to spend time with Josh's family before Joy arrived and get away for the weekend. It really hit me while we were gone that our whole trip was planned around Lilly. We took her to Chuck-E-Cheese for the first time. She loved playing all the games and it was really nice because we went on a Friday morning, so it was not crowded at all. Then we went to the outdoor mall for her to ride the carousel and Cho-Cho-Train. Then the next morning we had a girls trip out the strawberry patch to pick fresh strawberries. I have never done this before and I have to say these were the best berries ever. We even ate a few while we were out in the field and Lilly absoutley loved them. Strawberries are her favorite food by far right now! We brought a whole bucket full home and ate on them all week, made strawberry pie, strawberry bread. I was really sad when they ran out and Lilly was too. The grocery store ones just do not compare.

I am thankful for the time we had to get away before our new little one arrives - and it could be any day now. I do have to say I have my moments where I think what are we doing, am I really going to make it with two little ones in the house??? Then I stop and thank God for this new gift on the way and the chaos that will follow in the next couple of months. As I said at small group last night, God is in control and yes life will be crazy for a while, but it will be in those crazy moments that I am reminded how blessed I am to be a mother of two precious little girls.

Update.....

2009-05-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Well, Joy's room is finally finished. We took a few pictures the other day and I have actually gotten them developed and put into my scrapbook - I have to say I am way into this nesting thing and trying to get everything possible done. I think that life with two will leave me little time for much of anything. So this past weekend we had a big "getting ready weekend." The bags are packed, we attempted to get the carseat in - but could not get it tight enough (we might have to call a pro in), cleaned up the guest room and got it ready for the family coming in to keep Lilly....The list could keep going on and on. But anyways we are ready and I can tell Joy is getting ready too. I am already feeling quite a few contractions and have already started dilating.

Look at all of her clothes...And this was before the shower!

Last Sunday some dear friends threw me a shower at church and it was amazing! I opened gifts for over an hour and even got another gift at church today - Joy is one blessed little girl. I still have a few things that need to be put away, but I am having a hard time finding room for all of her loot. A few people were even so thoughtful as to remember Lilly. She got showered with some Big Sis gifts - a sticker book (that was her favorite), a stuffed dog, a new baby doll, some books. She was so excited opening all her goodies when I came home with my car full of things. It is great to be a part of a church family that is so loving and giving.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's out there - I hope you all have a very blessed day!

Joy is growing.....

2009-04-19T19:54:00.001-07:00

For whatever reason I did not start taking pictures of me and my growing belly until February, so here is the progression:

February 7

March 13

April 12

April 17

I keep looking back at these last two pictures and maybe it is just the shirt, but it looks like my belly doubled in size in one week. I know they say you gain more in the last months. All I know to say is Joy is growing....We are down to the last six weeks - I am 34 weeks today!

Easter Events

2009-04-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

The holidays are a pretty big deal in our house. Now that Lilly is into everyone of them, it always makes it more fun. We had a blast celebrating Easter this year. Of course, the teacher in me is used to decorating the classroom for each new season/event, so I have to do the same in the house as well. So we had to get out our eggs, bunnies, baskets.....and all the fun Easter stuff several weeks ago to get ready for the big day.
There were also several events that took place this year. We planned an Egg Hunt for all the kids in our Monday Play Group. Everyone brought 12 eggs with goodies inside and the moms "hid" them out on the lawn in front of the church. The kids loved finding all the eggs, then discovering there was something fun inside was even better! Lilly found a pink egg and held it up proudly saying look mom it is a big one. After the egg excitement, we all ate a picnic out on the lawn. It worked out perfectly that it was a gorgeous spring day with lots of sun.
Then we had the Easter Eggstravaganza at church on Sunday night. They set it up carnival style with several different games and activities for the kids. The Easter bunny made an appearance as well. Lilly loves the bunny. She wanted to sit in the bunnies lap for most of the night, I had to pull her out so the other kids could have a turn. Then she kept wanting to follow the bunny around the entire night and even did some hopping with Mr. Bunny.
We dyed eggs for the first time this year. I actually had to call my mom and ask how to boil eggs - I had never done this. Lilly has a blast watching the eggs change colors. She picked out the princess egg kit to decorate with. She loves anything with a Disney Princess on it!
And of course, there was Easter morning in the Patrick house. Lilly was surprised with a basket full of goodies and the bunny hid several eggs around the room filled with chocolate candy, jelly beans, and coins for her piggy bank. Every time she would find an egg, she would shake it and say "Did you hear that sound?" It was so cute. We even made a stop at the town square for pictures after church.
This year was really special because we started talking about the Easter story with Lilly and explaining that Jesus died for us and rose from the grave. Her two favorite parts were singing "Hosanna" and waving our arms for the palm branches and she would say "Jesus is alive" with all the excitement she had inside. Each year we want to add more to this tradition. Now all the decorations are tucked back away in the attic, but we have tons of pictures to remember it all by....

Egg Hunt

Easter Eggstravaganga Games

Creating the Eggs

31 weeks!

2009-03-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I am really 31 weeks today...only 9 to go! I haven't talked much about the pregnancy on the blog, most of my updates are all about Lilly. I have been blessed with a great pregnancy again. I really don't have any major complaints. There is the usual at this stage - not sleeping the best at night, indigestion,...I am in a major nesting phase. I can think of something every other day for Josh to get out of the attic, which he is not very happy about. However for the most part, the room is pretty put together. I am still hunting letters for the wall and a few pictures. I got down all of Lilly's old clothes and baby things. The clothes are all washed, folded, and hung in the closet. I am a little embarrassed to say that her closet and dresser are pretty much already full. Lilly being the first grandchild on both sides was just blessed with so much. So there is not really much that Joy is in need of, except lots of diapers!
For those of you who haven't heard, we decided on a name - Joy Elizabeth. Joy is Josh's mom's middle name and Elizabeth is my great grandma's middle name. Lillian Mae was a family name, so it was only fitting to choose another one for the next baby girl. When we looked up the meaning of Joy Elizabeth it was "happiness in the fullness of God." After we saw that, the name was perfect!
I will update soon with some pictures of Joy's room and a growing belly shot. It is sad to say, but this time around I have only taken a few pictures of my belly. Keep praying for a safe and healthy remainder of the pregnancy, I am now going to the dr. every 2 weeks and soon it will be once a week.

Learning about letters...

2009-03-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

I always had in my mind that Lilly would start some sort of preschool around age 3. After I got pregnant, I thought this would work out perfectly. Joy would be born in June, we would have the whole summer together, then Lilly could go to preschool and I could have some one on one time with Joy. Well now that it is really a reality, I can't imagine not having Lilly home during the day with us. As most of you know you have to sign up for a spot in most of the really good preschools around January or February. Well at the beginning of the year, Josh and I spent lots of time talking about this and praying about this decision. I always had the feeling we needed to wait. Three just seems so young to start any kind of school. Most of the programs in town are for two days from 9 to about 2.

Right now our schedule looks something like this: Monday - we get together with some friends for play group, Tuesday- we go to Kindermusik, Wednesday - we go to Community Bible Study (Where Lilly is in the 2 year old class - she has story time, crafts, snacks, a music teacher, and play time - this is basically a preschool setting without the nap and with the focus on the Bible, what could get any better than that!) Thursday - we go to the library for Storytime on most days, and Friday - Josh is off and we try to do something fun together as a family. As you can see there are not two days free for her to be in preschool if we keep up this current schedule next year. And you can tell Lilly gets plenty of socialization with other kids her age in the midst of all of our activities.

I cherish the time I have with Lilly right now, especially since we only have about 10 weeks together before Joy is born. There will come a time when she is required to go to school every day from 9 till 4. So for now I am happy to say that we are planning to have some Mommy, Lilly, and Joy days together come this August. For the time being I have decided to start working on some preschool activities at home with Lilly. I found a few websites that I use each week to get new ideas. I also have a filing cabinet full of my kindergarten files (one for each letter) that I pull from each week. Lilly is so excited each week as we learn a new letter and fill our week full of fun activities to go along with the letter. I have realized that I am capable of teaching her preschool concepts at home and the best part is we still get to be together all day. Sure it would be nice to run errands by myself, have lunch with a friend, or just do whatever I wanted to for a few hours....but I know one day I will have all the time in the world for those kind of things and for now I just want to soak up every minute I have with my ever changing 2 year old. We are making precious memories together that will fill my heart forever.

The first week we learned about letter A. Here is Lilly making some apple prints with an apple dipped in red paint, after she discovered the star hidden inside.

This past week we learned about F. We filled up our F outline with Froot Loops to begin.

Then put the Froot Loops on a string to make a necklace.

Lilly's favorite part: eating them all off the necklace.

What a Weekend......

2009-03-16T19:01:00.001-07:00

This past weekend Josh and I had the chance to spend the entire time just hanging out the two of us. My parents came in town on Friday to keep Lilly for two nights. This was the first time we had both been away from Lilly for this long.

We decided not to travel too far, but to see how much fun we could have downtown. We stayed in a condo, on the 15th floor, that overlooked the river and had a great view. It was so nice to have no responsibility for a few days. We just relaxed, ate some really good food, and enjoyed being able to finish all of our conversations without being interrupted by Lilly's sweet voice. We decided to try out some fun spots on Beale St. for dinner. We loved Dyers hamburgers and thought Miss Polly's was incredible - I mean what kind of restaurant can serve waffles and fried chicken together! For lunch on Saturday we wandered back into Midtown and enjoyed one of our favorite spots - PeiWei. Of course we had to stop by the Peabody and watch the march of the famous ducks and we toured the National Civil Rights Museum, which was very interesting.

On Sunday we even got to go to church together and sit beside each other the whole time at Fellowship Memphis. We heard an awesome message and then made our way back to Collierville in time to meet Lilly at Grace Crossing. We loved every minute of our wonderful weekend together. Thanks Nana and Papa for taking such good care of Lilly for two whole nights - She had a blast! Here are some of our favorite pictures....

Josh and I will celebrate our eight year anniversary this July and one thing we have learned is that we have to be intentional about our time together, especially now that we have become parents. Our family times together are priceless, but it is just as important to have our couple time as well. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and soak up every opportunity I have to be one on one with him. I can't wait for our next weekend getaway together.....

The big girl room

2009-03-01T12:10:00.001-08:00

Well, it is finally complete. I brought this dresser back from Atlanta over the weekend and now we can say Lilly's new room is finished. We had her old dresser in there for the time being. This white dresser used to be mine when I was growing up, so it is neat to see Lilly using it now.

This room has truly been a work in progress. I decided last summer to begin fixing up this room for Lilly. So I painted it yellow, picked out and ordered the bedding and re-painted the white bookcase (that I also used in my college years in my apartment.) None of Lilly's pictures or things were in the room, so it never really felt right. We started calling this the "big girl room." We would play with Lilly in here, Josh and her would jump on the bed together - this is one of her favorite things to do with daddy. We really started talking to Lilly about this becoming her room in December. One weekend in January, she decided she wanted to move to her "big girl room." So we got all her "babies" (the pink stuffed animals that are everywhere) and moved them across the hall. We transferred her clothes to the closet and moved her old dresser into the room. She has loved it! She has slept better in her big bed and has lately started sleeping all night long without getting up to go potty in the wee hours of the morning.

I am glad the pictures are all in place, her name is hung above the bed, and all the furniture is in the right place. Now it is on to project #2 - Joy's room. Here are a few more pictures of Lilly's big room....

On the road....

2009-02-26T18:27:00.000-08:00

Lilly and I made it through our first car trip this past weekend, just the two of us. I have always been hesitant about driving long distances with just me and her - I mean who would get all the stuff she dropped, entertain her when she got bored, meet all her needs, and very importantly - work the DVD player. There was no way I could possibly do all this and drive at the same time right. Well my dad was turning 60 and my brother's new baby girl would be three weeks old, so I really wanted to go visit everyone in Atlanta! Lilly and I had always flown down there, I really took advantage of that free flight until two years old. Now I would just have to get brave and drive. The thought of making it all the way to Atlanta, seemed too overwhelming. So we decided to make a long trip of with a stop in Huntsville to see Totsie and Pop along the way. We left last Wednesday, drove to Hunstville and spent the night. Then we got up Thursday drove to Atlanta, stayed till Sunday, drove back to Huntsville. Then made our way back home Monday morning. Five nights away from daddy were really hard, but it was a great trip. Lilly got very spoiled by all the grandparents. We got to meet baby Jayce - who was adorable and Lilly was very interested in this new baby. The first thing she said was "What is she supposed to do Papa?" Lilly would pat Jayce, kiss her, and actually helped Nana hold her bottle to feed her. She was so into the baby thing - I hope this will be true in our house come this June.
Anyways, I do have to admit that driving a minivan helped so much. I now can control the DVD player from the front seat, there are six CD's to choose from, which makes it easier to play DJ for all of Lilly's favorite songs. And this is the smoothest ride we have ever had on the interstate. I never thought I would be saying this, but I love driving a van. And now we have tons of space for our two girls! On the way home, Lilly was more fussy. But the poor thing had to be worn out from our long trip. Josh met us at home Monday for lunch and we have loved hanging out together all week and getting back into our old routine of being home. It is fun to get away, but I have to admit that I am quite a homebody and love our little daily routines. I think it will be quite a while before I venture away by myself again with the kids - we will have to wait till Joy is older and now that I am almost 7 months along with the pregnancy, traveling is just not that fun. But now I know it can be done.......here are some of the pictures.....

Jayce Miles Wiley - Born January 31 - Isn't she precious!
Lilly has her first cousin, Josh and I have a niece and are now officially an Aunt and Uncle!

Will you be mine.......

2009-02-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

Usually Valentine's day just seems to pass by with cards, dinner, flowers.... However this year was a little different. Lilly is very into the holidays, she is still asking where the pumpkins are when we go on walks and every now and then she will stop and say "Why is Christmas over?" So we tried to have a little more fun with Valentine's day this year! Lilly and I made some pink cupcakes and topped them with candy hearts. Every time she would eat a cupcake she would say "These are so good!" Now that I think about it, she really hasn't had that many cupcakes. We have gotten some store bought ones and she had one at a birthday party. But this is the first time we actually had some in the house that we made together.

Lilly is all about the princesses now. Her favorite thing to do is put on her pink dress, high heels, and headband. Then she twirls around the room and dances singing "A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep..." For all you parents of little girls, you know this is from Cinderella, which is by far her favorite movie.

Josh and I decided to surprise her with a new movie, Sleeping Beauty, for Valentine's day. Of course, we did a pre-screening of this movie (we had heard it was a little scary.) We were blown away by the evil queen who curses Sleeping Beauty then turns into a dragon at the end. So we made some mental notes of which parts were okay for Lilly's little eyes. We watched Sleeping Beauty together Saturday morning and she loved it! She kept saying where is Sleeping Beauty and she thought the three fairies were great. Maybe one day she can watch the entire movie, we shall see.

The other part that made Valentine's day special was Josh and I went out to a couples Valentine dinner with some friends on Friday night. The guys were supposed to write a poem for their wife and the girls were supposed to write a top ten list for their husbands. I had so much fun putting this list together the week before and it made it so meaningful to give Josh something handwritten, then just the words on a card. And I have to admit his poem was very impressive and every time I read it I get the biggest smile on my face! Then on Saturday night Josh performed a wedding vow renewal ceremony for some friends at church. This couple re-wrote their own vows and they were very touching. The entire weekend was wonderful and one we will never forget. Valentine's may have come and gone this year, but it will definitely be remembered as one that was meaningful, full of precious moments with the entire family, and one where Josh and I filled up one another's love bank to overflowing!

Surprise Josh!

2009-02-07T12:30:00.001-08:00

Today I am wishing my husband a Happy 30th Birthday! I think birthdays are great and so much fun to celebrate. So when the year for the big 30 hit, I had to do something special for my hubby. As some of you know I am so much of a planner and like to have everything in order way to early, so of course- that means I started planning for this party back in Dec. When Jan hit: I had ordered invites, made a list of people and started calling to see where we could have the party. I thought about church, the house, friend's houses.....but the end result was a restaurant. Josh's favorite spot is the Half Shell and the one closest to us has a party room that will hold about 40. I narrowed the guest list to just a few friends and family and sent the invites out.
As time got closer, I kept thinking how am I going to pull this off without letting him know. Josh is also one who usually is pretty aware of what is going on and it is very hard to pull off a surprise for him. His family is in town for the weekend and I had mentioned earlier "Why don't we go to the Half Shell for your birthday. We can take your parents since they have never been and eat there for an early lunch or something." (The invitation stated for everyone to arrive at 11 and we would be there at 11:20.) Josh's initial reaction was "Why are you smiling?" I quickly had to become distracted by Lilly so I wouldn't give it away. Meanwhile, I had arranged for one of my dear friends to design the ultimate Superman Cake for Josh. And I must admit it looked incredible - she did a great job!
The day arrived and we pulled into the Half Shell right about 11:20. I noticed everyone's car right away and Josh appeared to be scanning the parking lot, but he said later he did not notice one car and was thinking about his sermon. When we walked in I told the lady our name and number and she slipped and said are you with that party of 35 or something? As I was making a face and shaking my head for her not to say that, she led us to the party room where everyone yelled out surprise. I can't wait to see the pictures of Josh's face when he walked in! He said he had no idea till the hostess spilled the number of people in the party....I can't believe we really pulled it off!

Thanks to everyone who helped us make this 30th celebration memorable. Happy Birthday Josh, I look forward to celebrating many many more with you!

Why we love Rudy.........

2009-01-23T18:30:00.000-08:00

I know some of you are really wondering about the title of this blog, I must begin with the fact that Josh and I just returned from seeing Marley and Me tonight on our monthly date night. So I am on this cheesy, love my dog kick at the moment. Rudy can be a very obnoxious dog, but really what dog is not at at times? Rudy does have several other qualities that make up the many reasons why we love him.....

- Every morning he greets us with lots of licking, which equals love.
- No matter how many times he is spanked, he still wants to lick us.
- He has always been loving to Lilly. She will even kick or hit him and he turns back to her with a lick.
- She has gotten into that stage where she actually enjoys playing with Rudy and will laugh and squeal in delight when he plays back with her. Just last night she was chasing him around the room just laughing the entire time.
- At the end of the day he loves to snuggle up beside me on the couch.
- He gives me an excuse to go on walks. Now that we have actually had some warmer weather, we are trying to get back into our walking routine.
- When Josh gets home from work he is the first one to run to the door and greet him.
- He becomes overly protective of me and Lilly when Josh is not around.
- Whenever we drop food on the floor he cleans it up. This is great when lots of kids have been over to the house.
- He loves everyone who comes to the house.
- And just look at his picture, how can you not smile at his face.

I will have to re-read this list again, especially when he has taken one of Lilly's toys and tried to chew it up again. When Jennifer Anniston was running around the house chasing Marley for chewing up the curtain swatch book, I had a moment where I looked at Josh and said that reminds me of myself. But really, Rudy was our first baby. We got him in August 2005. He was my birthday present that year. Josh flew to Birmingham, AL to pick up our precious puppy and brought him home to me in the wee hours of the morning. Those first few weeks he was just like a baby - it was really hard leaving him home all day to go to work. Now almost four years later, there are times I think why did we get this dog. But deep down there is a special love for our black and white fur ball that will always be there.

I had to include a past puppy picture and here is one of the latest Rudy and Lilly pictures. She was taking a bath the other morning while I was getting ready and I glance over and she is holding up her washcloth and Rudy is licking away. She thought this was the funniest thing to drip her bath water for him to lick. I just couldn't pass up this moment - I had to get the camera.

Snow Day

2009-01-21T11:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday seemed like a normal morning. We were awakened by Lilly creeping into our bedroom. We snuggled in the bed, went potty, changed out of the pull-up (which has been dry for weeks. Lilly wakes up in the middle of the night to go potty and is always dry in the morning. I just don't know when to start letting her sleep in panties. But that is the subject for another post.) Anyways, she picked out her big girl panties for the day, put on her robe and house shoes and we headed downstairs for breakfast. As we were opening the windows to our surprise we saw snowflakes everywhere! This was so exciting! We found out that schools were not closed and Josh was still going to work, but we were still going to have fun and play in the snow. So after we ate breakfast watching the snow fill the backyard we raced upstairs to put some "snow clothes" on. Lilly wore a full ski bib over her outfit, her biggest coat, hat, and gloves. I got all ready with the video camera in hand. We were ready to play.
Rudy was so funny. He kept racing around the yard and even slid off the back deck he got going so fast. Him and Lilly both kept eating the snow. We made snowballs and threw them at Rudy, of course. Then Lilly kept throwing the snow all over him and just laughing about it.
I just love the snow. I figure if it is going to be this cold, we might as well get some snow to go along with it. We didn't have enough to make a snowman or create snow angels, but we have a long time before winter is over. There is nothing better than waking up to a white morning, playing in the snow, then coming in and making a good cup of hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows! Hopefully more snow is on it's way!

First Haircut

2009-01-21T11:28:00.001-08:00

Josh kept asking when we were going to get Lilly's hair cut. The reply was after she turned two. When two came, I just couldn't bear the thought of cutting it with all of her little curls on the bottom. But as the time wore on it just kept getting out of control. I finally gave in last week. Josh had an appointment with Eden (Friday Jan. 15), so I decided to make one for Lilly right before his cut. Lilly has seen Eden at church and recognizes her as being somewhat familiar. We were not quite sure how she would do sitting still in a chair with scissors up against her head.....but to our surprise she did great! She just sat there in awe of the entire salon. She was fascinated by looking into the large mirror in front of her and loved wearing the black cape. It was to cute! Eden cut about an inch off, just to trim up the ends and it turned out looking so good! I even saved a few pieces of hair for the scrapbook, of course! Afterwards she was rewarded with a chocolate chip cookie from Eden and we had to stay and check out Dad getting his done. Lilly loved watching him get shampooed. Maybe we will try that for her next time. I can't believe how big she is getting. It really goes by fast.

The new do.....

PINK

2009-01-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

Well the new color in our house will be pink from here on out....as many of you already know - We are having Girl #2!!!! Of course, I love pink and am thrilled to get down all those itty bitty pink baby clothes and start checking out if they will really all work out. Lilly was born August 16, and the new little girl is due June 2. So I really think there will be lots of overlapping with the seasons. And of course the bedding and everything for the nursery is all packed away and ready to be pulled out again. I just keep thinking of all the money we will be saving, since we already have so many baby girl things!

We have not decided on any for sure names yet, we have a few we are trying to narrow down. So we will let you know when we decide. We are not big on keeping secrets, we just have to share our good news with everyone - it is too exciting to keep to ourselves.

Lilly is pretty excited about being a big sister, although she has already told two people that we are having a boy since we found out. She has also started being a little clingy and not wanting to be dropped off anywhere without mom or dad. I am hoping this phase will pass as it did once before. It is just so hard to know what is going on in their heads. She is "growing up" as she proudly informed Josh this morning though. She is officially moved into her Big Girl Room!! We painted and decorated and had her new room ready since this past summer. We would go in there and play talking about how it was the big girl room. Over the holidays she slept in a double bed at the grandparents house and loved it. So when we got home, we put the bed rail up on the big girl bed. All she could talk about was moving into that room and sleeping in there. So this past Saturday we moved all her stuffed animals, clothes, pictures, and stuff into the new room. She has been napping and sleeping in her new room and says she loves it! Praise God that this transition went over so well. We haven't broken the news that her old room will become the baby room - any suggestions from those moms of two out there. We still have to repaint the nursery and it will take us a while to get it all set. This is good, since I still have over 4 months to go. More updates and pics soon to come.....

Josh's new hobby

2008-12-23T12:53:00.001-08:00

Okay, so these may just look like some random photos....but go back and look at them. I was surprised to find these on the camera when I loaded all the pictures on the computer. But then when I went back and looked at them, they are really neat. Josh was taking some practice shots around the house with all the features on our new camera and I have to admit he did a pretty good job. With our old camera, I was always the crazy picture taker - having to get all the right shots for the scrapbook (which yes, I still do...but I am very far behind at the moment). Josh has been all about this new camera and loves to capture just the right shot with it!

Loving the guy in red.....

2008-12-19T18:46:00.001-08:00

This year Santa has been one of Lilly's favorite people. Her first trip to Santa she was 4 months old and just let him hold her, last year she had an absolute fit and the only pictures we got were ones with tears. This year here is what happened:

We visited the Santa at the Avenue and he was great! He is in a store all to himself, since it is an outdoor mall. They have a Christmas village set up and all sorts of spots for pictures. The best thing is they let you take your own photos as long as you purchase some of theirs as well. So when we got there we were the only ones with Santa. Lilly got to talk to him about all sorts of things and he even read a book to her. Lilly was a little nervous, but mostly excited about this trip to see Santa.
I also have to mention that since we celebrated an early Christmas with Josh's family for Thanksgiving we used our Christmas money to splurge on a nice camera. This was the first time we had taken photos outside of the house and for a matures, I think they turned out pretty good. Here are a few....

So Blessed

2008-12-17T18:21:00.000-08:00

This time of year it is so easy to get caught up in the rush of going to all the parties, attending all the events in town, shopping, shopping, and oh I have to go back and get one more thing at that store, finding the best deals, thinking of the perfect present......it can be a little overwhelming to say the least. Today Lilly and I stayed in our p.j.'s most of the morning and never left the house. I could think of a million places to go and things to do, but I decided that we needed to just have a stay home day and it was great! Taking time to watch her laugh, hold her in my lap, read all the books she picked out before bedtime (the stack was pretty big), and just enjoy being together was the best thing we could do together.

During this day I was reminded how thankful that I have a pantry and refrigerator full of food, closet full of clothes (most of which do not fit at the moment due to my growing belly), a warm house, my wonderful husband, Dr's to make sure he doesn't have the flu at the moment, health care that provided $4 antibiotics for him to get better with, Lilly who is growing up right before our eyes - she can practically carry on a whole conversation with you and loves to recite the Night Before Christmas, the little one on the way that I can now feel moving around inside. My prayer is that through the remainder of the Holidays that I will remember these important things that I am so blessed with, instead of getting all caught up in the hustle and bustle and Christmas. This is my prayer for all of you as well....

Christmas happenings

2008-12-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

This update is long overdue, so I apologize. We have been spending lots of time getting ready for Christmas. We got our tree up early this year (two weeks before Thanksgiving). Lilly and I were just so excited and ready to get it all down it happened so fast. And we went to Huntsville to celebrate Thanksgiving with Josh's family. While we were there we went ahead and had our Christmas with them as well. So I feel like we kinda skipped over Thanksgiving all together this year.
We took Lilly down to the Collierville square for a special Polar Express day aboard The Tennessean (that restaurant that is inside the train). Josh and I ate there for our 7th anniversary this year and had their steak. We were blown away - it is better than Ruth Chris!!! But they had a special day where the kids could come for a special reading of The Polar Express, with lunch, a real conductor, and silver bells! It was so much fun and Lilly got to go with her good friend Kara.
We also spent time in the square for the lighting of the the Christmas tree, where Santa made a special appearance and turned all the lights on. Here are a few pictures from some of our Christmas happenings:

The lighting on the Square:

Thanksgiving and Christmas in Huntsville (and yes Rudy went along too)

All aboard for the Polar Express:

Wow

2008-11-22T18:46:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that November is almost over and I am just now posting for this month. It is crazy how fast time flies, especially when you are playing with a two year old all day and sleeping while she is asleep (being pregnant always makes me extra tired). So needless to say I haven't had time for really much of anything from cleaning to cooking and everything in between. So here are some very late pictures of our little princess on Halloween.

We had a special storytime at the library where all the kids got to dress in costume for a reading of Pumpkin Pumpkin. It was so fun to see everyone dressed up for this special day.

Here is our pumpkin we carved together this year. Lilly thought the goo inside was so funny. She tried to touch it once, but that was a close as she would come to helping scoop it all out. She was a very good observer this year.

Here is our little pumpkin. Rudy wore his costume for everyone to see who came to our door that night. Lilly really had fun opening to door for everyone and handing out candy. She couldn't wait to hear the door bell ring again. Rudy just wanted to run out and jump on everyone. I actually had someone who said we have a dog like that too, they should be called Boston Terror instead of Boston Terrier - terror does suit Rudy from time to time.

Our trick or treating began with Kara (Strawberry Shortcake), one of Lilly's buddies! We went down to the Square and all the shops had someone sitting outside handing candy out to all the kids. It was so fun. It was from 3-5, so mostly families with younger kids and all fun costumes. Lilly just wanted to watch all the kids walk by and look at their costume at first, but then she started saying trick or treat and was really excited about all the candy she was getting in her princess bucket. It was completely full by the time we left and all I heard on the way home was "I want Candy please!" over and over and over. The holidays are so much fun.....now I can't wait for Christmas!

Pumpkin picking....

2008-10-30T06:35:00.001-07:00

I just love fall time! We get a chance to venture out to pumpkin patches, watch the leaves change, go on hayrides, have bonfires with s'mores, and spend time with friends and family. That is what we have done over the month of October. It started with a trip to Atlanta where we discovered Berry Patch Farms. This is really one of the better pumpkin patches. We rode a hayride out to the patch where there were tons of pumpkins to choose from and all sizes. Then we were able to pet some farm animals, sip some apple cider, and have lots of spots for pictures. It was lots of fun, but the weather was still a little on the warm side. Then Josh's family came to visit us and we headed out to Priddy Farms where we basically did the same things without the animals and with a little train ride that Lilly loved! This is our first October in this house (we will have lived here for a year in the middle of Nov.) and some of our neighbors really go all out for Halloween. We found this spot with the hay and scarecrows a couple of doors down and I couldn't believe I actually got a picture of Lilly and Rudy looking at the same time.

Happy Halloween to all of you! Check back for pictures of the Princess and her little pumpkin.....

7 weeks and 4 days....

2008-10-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

You guessed it....this is now how far along I am in the pregnancy! We are so excited about baby number two on the way. It has definitely been different this time around though. I am having to stop and remind myself that I am actually pregnant. We have known for a few weeks now, but I actually had my first Dr. appointment yesterday. The official due date is June 2 and we got our first picture of the teeny little baby! It was so fascinating watching the flutter of that small heartbeat. It is times like that I am reminded that God is good.

Lilly took the news really well. We sat her down in the playroom and explained that she would be a big sister and that mommy had a tiny baby in her tummy right now. Her mouth opened wide and she lifted up my shirt to see. We did a lot of explaining about how it was inside and how it would be a long time before she could see the baby. I am not sure how much she really comprehended.

We went to Atlanta last weekend to share the news with my family and she proudly wore her new t-shirt to make the announcement as we got out of the car.....

Of course, everyone was thrilled with the news and it has been tons of fun sharing this with everyone. Please keep our family in your prayers as we begin this new journey of adding to our family.

October already?

2008-10-01T18:14:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that September has come and gone so quickly. So much has happened in this month and I haven't found time to write about it. We have started a small group at our house on Sunday nights. Lilly gets to go to Holy Ground - at the building- which she absolutely loves! Every time we go pick her up she is so full of energy. She has learned to sing all kinds of new songs: Our God is so big, The butterfly song, I'm in right out, right up, right down....., she even sings the prayer God our Father. She picks things up quick! On Monday's we hang out with friends from church. There is nothing better than time to chat with other moms, while the kids play. This group is really an answer to lots of prayer. On Tuesday we sing with Miss Lea at Kindermusik. Lilly absolutely loves this and wants to come home and sing all the songs at home, now that we have the new CD from class. Our Bible Study has started back up on Wednesdays and she loves going to class with the other two year olds. She is learning about Moses and they learn these memory verses and put them to a song and she has memorized Matthew 28:20 - it is pretty fascinating! She gets a packed morning of play, Bible story, music, time on the playground, craft, and snack. It is very similar to a preschool setting. I love that she is growing in God's Word, while I am too. Then on Thursday we try to make it to story time at the library, if we are still not completely worn out. So maybe that is why I have not had much time for blogging. There is always so much to do and so little time. The most important thing is we have fun hanging out and I love all my Lilly time. It is such a blessing to be able to stay at home and soak in all the special moments we have together.

Since it has been a while, I decided to do several pictures from the past month:

Getting all the little pumpkins set up with Mr. Scarecrow. We just had to start off this month by wearing orange and black - I just love the fall!

This past weekend we took a trip to Toy's R Us, The Disney Store, and The Carousel. Lilly was overwhelmed with all the toys, she kept pointing to something saying "We have to buy this mommy." The picture above is from the Disney Store. She loved watching the big screen and even got to see the song "Be Our Guest".

One of Lilly's new favorite things to do is put on her Belle Dress and "spin like Belle." We have played the songs to Lilly from the DVD and she is now into all the princesses and knows all of their names.

Is Alabama having a good season or what? We can't miss a game. Here are the girls cheering on their favorite team. Next time Lilly will have to wear her Alabama shirt too.

Lilly has also learned how to swing in the big swings. She loves being pushed and will tell you she wants to go high. She loves going to her friends houses with "playgrounds" in the backyard.

Her first tricycle! We spend time most afternoons or morning out on the tricycle learning how to make it go. She is doing pretty good, but needs a little push still.

Lilly and Rudy having fun in the beach balls. Today she was out back dumping sand all over him laughing hysterically. She always finds our dog so funny. The new favorite thing to do is stand outside the glass door to ring the "boordell" and listen to Rudy bark. She cracks up every time. I am so thankful they get along most of the time. There are some moments where he is eying her food trying to sneak a bite and she gets really mad saying "go away Rudy" the best line is when she says "go to your bed." Maybe one day he will actually do what she says.

And we had to take a trip to the zoo to enjoy this wonderful weather. Lilly loves the animals and the rides. We always have to ride the train and carousel. After we got home she kept saying "I want to go to the zoo next week and go up and down."

I hope you are all having fun this fall and enjoying your little ones!

The Bear Store

2008-09-02T19:30:00.001-07:00

For fun on labor day, we took Lilly to Build a Bear for the first time. It was so much fun! We let her choose which bear she wanted to make, then we had it stuffed. She was a little unsure of this big stuffing machine and did not want to put her foot on the pedal to fill up the bear, so I helped her out. She was so excited about putting the heart into the bear, she picked out two hearts and kept wanting to chose several different hearts for her new bear.

Daddy helped her fluff the bear and comb the hair. She really got into the brushing of the hair.

Then it was time to pick out some clothes. When I spotted the princess dresses, I knew this would be perfect for Lilly. So we let her choose which princess she wanted her new bear to become. Of course, Cinderella was it! We named her new friend "Cinderella Bear."

On the way home she was very tired. I managed to get a quick shot of the yawn with Cinderella Bear in her lap. She was patting her bear the whole way home and even kissed the little picture of Cinderella several times. I am sure the bear store will be one of her favorite spots in the mall now.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

2008-08-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

This has been one of those weeks where I can't help but feel sorry for myself. I have found myself becoming more frustrated at Lilly, not able to get things done that I want to, finding reasons to be unhappy. Sound familiar? So while I was discussing all of this with Josh and looking for him to give me some words of wisdom he pointed me to the verse above. The line that keeps coming back to me at time is "give thanks in all circumstances." Instead of looking at life negatively, I am looking for reasons to be thankful. I found a few pictures below from the past few days that make me smile and give me reasons to thank God for all he has given me and the wonderful life he continues to bless me with.

I also have to add one little tidbit from today: Lilly was asleep in the car on the way home from her two year old check up (She weighs 22.8 lbs and is 32 in tall and looks perfectly healthy according to Dr. Chris.) I couldn't help but thank God for blessing our lives with such a precious little girl two years ago. I was struck with the thought that right now God has given Josh and I the responsibility to shape her spiritual life by making her aware of Christ's love for her. Yeah the ABC's are important and making sure she eats her fruits and veggies, but above that I have the responsibility as a parent to teach Lilly about love in the same way that Christ showed us. During those moments of frustration when I am reminded that she is two as she has a tantrum or doesn't want to obey, I am praying that God will fill me with love and wisdom in handling the situation before me.

Below is a picture of Lilly in one of her dress up moments reading a book.

This is what I found one day when I went in her room after her and Josh had been playing. She is fascinated with diapers and putting them on her "babies."

The weather has been beautiful, so we took advantage of one more day at the sprinkler park, while it is still on the warm side.

Friends to play with in the sprinklers.

My parents who are always there for me and even though they are far away, their love stretches over the miles.

For my wonderful husband who sees me at my worst and still loves and cherishes me unconditionally. He also loves me enough to tell me what I need to hear at times when I am giving myself a pity party. I am also thankful for the way he is a dad to Lilly, putting her above his job and taking time each day to play with her and show her how much he loves her.

Most importantly I am thankful for Christ and the way he rescued me from a life of sin and how he changed my ways, allowing me to walk with him daily.

She's Two!

2008-08-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe she is already two! The birthday has come and gone. They really do mean it when they say it goes fast. We had a Luau party in the backyard with family and friends. My mom made Lilly's beach cake and it was delicious - a pound cake! Lilly even blew out her own candle this year.
We made a walkway with Tiki torches and then had a welcome sign (made by Miss LouAnne - she is awesome!) Everyone entered into the backyard to find beach balls everywhere, a sand table, fun music, and bubbles. The kids loved it! They went from the sand table to throwing the beach balls through hula hoops, running through the bubbles to pinning the coconut on the tree. Lilly had a blast. She was so excited every time one of her friends arrived. After we played for a while we went inside to cool off and eat. The kids had chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A. The moms and dads had chicken salad and sandwiches. There was also lots of fruit - strawberries, grapes, watermelon, and pineapple (thanks Nana for making that awesome watermelon bowl!) We had spinach dip and chips and goldfish for the kids. We cleared the play room out and set up tables for people to eat on. We also made a spot in the living room for the kiddos to eat picnic style on the floor.
After some more playing, we cut the cake and sang Happy Birthday. Then it was time for presents. The party went so well. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The kids were all so well behaved, they all just played together and had fun. Thanks to Nana, Papa, and Totsie - I couldn't have pulled everything off without their help. Even though Lilly may not remember much about her big party, we always will and we have tons of pictures to show her one day....

Thanks to everyone who made Lilly feel special on her big day!

Toddler Bed

2008-08-12T18:25:00.001-07:00

It is hard to believe that it is only three days away from Lilly's birthday. It just doesn't seem like she should be turning two already. We find ourselves every day saying I can't believe she just....ate that whole thing of yogurt with a spoon, sang the ABC song, is counting, got that thing open that we thought she couldn't...all be herself. It is truly amazing how much she has grown and changed within the last month. The biggest change has been the move from the crib to the toddler bed. She has been sleeping in her new bed for almost a week and has done better than we thought she would. The first few nights were a little difficult. Josh put her down, she would get up, back down, back up, over and over and over. Then she would wake up a few times in the wee hours and pop into our room. Josh, who is not quite as soft on her as I, would take her back to bed. We just really did not want her to start sleeping with us. So by about the third night she did not wake up one time and was doing better at the initial going to bed time. Then last night hit and she was back up five times in the middle of the night. We have learned to just expect the unexpected. You never know what will happen and it is best to not predict anything. Overall, Lilly loves having more freedom - who doesn't? She has really done well with this new transition, it is Josh and I who were not quite ready to say goodbye to the crib. I guess that is just another thing we have to prepare ourselves for is just when we get used to one stage, here comes another one.

Climbing

2008-08-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

Look at that sweet little picture....I needed to look at quite a few of those "sweet pictures" this week. Lilly is ten days from turning two and Josh and I are finding ourselves saying how we can't believe how fast she is growing and changing. The newest episode started over the last few days when Lilly decided to not just fall to sleep like she used to. Instead she would call us, ask for a drink, and just try to delay bed time. Then this moved to nap time. She was tired and wanted to sleep, just not in her bed. If I would hold her and rock in the chair she was happy as could be, but the minute I put her in bed she would scream. After a while of this and getting no where I decided to close the door, say good night and hope for the best. After going downstairs to get my mind on something else, I heard this thud and the continuing crying. I went upstairs to check on the thud only to hear the crying coming from right behind the closed door. As I opened the door this little sweet face appeared and said "I get out of my bed." Shocked and concerned that she may be hurt I was unsure of what to do. I put her in our bed, lay down with her until she fell asleep and then I got up.
Josh and I were both panicked, but we thought well we will finally take out the bumper pad and that will solve it. The nighttime routine went on okay, still a little crying and delaying. Then at 5:30 AM she woke up, we laid her back down, told her it was not time to get up, and got back in our bed. Minutes later our bedroom door swung open, Josh gasped in shock and we heard "I get out of my bed."
So this morning I turned her crib into the toddler bed, to avoid any more falls. Now we are hoping for the best and doing lots of praying. She did go down for her nap today, but she had already fallen asleep in the car. Who wouldn't be worn out from waking up at 5:30?

So to all you moms out there who have been here, we need some words of wisdom. And to all the moms reading this wondering when it might happen to you, just get ready.
I will keep you posted on how the toddler bed is working and post some pictures soon...

Nana and Papa

2008-08-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

The girls took a trip to Atlanta to visit Nana and Papa. We had to take advantage of the fact that Lilly gets to fly for free before age two (her birthday is coming up on the 16th.) So we booked our tickets and yes it was a little crowded with Lilly in my lap and some stranger beside us, but I would take one hour in a plane over six in a car any day. After my mom and dad picked us up at the airport, our first stop was Chick-fil-A. We were all surprised that we had the play area to ourselves after lunch. I even climbed up in it to help Lilly and she loved it! Nana would stand at the slide and say "Come on down." Lilly would slide and laugh in delight, then the process would start all over again. "Come on down" became Lilly's new phrase of the weekend. She would say it when she was coming down the stairs, going in another room, and sometimes just for fun.
We were only there a few days, but we did so many fun things. We went swimming with my Aunt Fonda, Tucker, and Olivia. Jason and Fonda are expecting a baby in January. This will be Lilly's first cousin! We went to the park with Papa and it was not quite as hot there as it is here, so we actually enjoyed ourselves. We went shopping with Nana for new shoes. Lilly has hit a growth spurt and now all of her summer shoes are too small, so we found a buy one get one half off sale at Stride Rite. Then we went to Barnes and Noble - one of Lilly's favorite spots. She loves to play with the train table and find all the stuffed animals around the kids section. It was great to hang out with family and enjoy some rest and relaxation.
Since Lilly's birthday is coming up, Nana and Papa had a few early surprises. She got a new pink and purple tricycle (which they will bring when they come to Lilly's birthday party soon). She loved the "trike" which she called it. I know it will take a while for her to learn how to pedal, but she loved getting all geared up with the helmet, elbow and knee pads, and letting us push her around the house on this new fascinating toy. She also enjoyed playing in the new bubble machine with Winnie the Pooh on top. You can always leave it up to grandparents to buy the best toys out there. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Reading

2008-07-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

This is one of the last pictures I took before Lilly came down with her fever virus, which lasted for about three days. As you all know there is not much you can do with a sick child, so I took up reading again. When I was just laying there holding Lilly as she slept I had to do something....I picked up one of my favorite authors Francine Rivers. I am not really much of a reader, but her writing gets me hooked. She is a Christian Fiction writer and her books are incredible. This time I read "and the Shofar Blew." I actually finished it in five days, I think that is a record. The book focuses on a pastor and his wife who are "building a church." I know that sounds a little too familiar, but the book goes on to emphasize the fact that we are not in control of our lives and we must live each day for God and God alone. This was a very moving book and just what I needed to hear right now.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the book:
"The greatest commandment is that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the prophets of the Old Testament, and both were lived out in Christ's life, death, and resurrection. We are to follow Jesus, not others, no matter how much we love them."

"Let God do the molding and shaping-and the breaking, if necessary. Keep your focus. What we believe about God determines how we serve Him. Often, that means keeping our noses out of God's business."

"The first order of business in the church wasn't to go out and put up a building for meetings. It was to win souls, teach, have fellowship, break bread together, and pray. It's not the building that matters or the programs or the numbers. It's not the music or the ritual. It's about our relationship with Jesus Christ. Believers make up the temple. They are the church. Christ's resurrection power is revealed through our new lives."

"The Lord said to love one another, not just when it was easy, not only when you felt the stirrings of passion, but always, despite circumstances. Hadn't Jesus been thinking of others even as He hung on the cross, wracked with pain and carrying the sins of the whole world upon him?"

I could keep going on and on, it really is a great book. You should read it if you get a chance.

Sprinklers

2008-07-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

We had a play day with Brody and Merissa at the Sprinkler Park. This was both kids first time out in the sprinklers and both of us moms were a little unsure about how they would like the water splashing in their faces. To our surprise they both loved it! It has become our new favorite spot in town. Lilly was getting her hair soaked, as you can see below and both of them were splashing in the water, trying to catch it, and Lilly even tried to drink it a couple of times. We had such a fun time.
We went on a very cloudy day so we both thought we would all be okay with no sunscreen. We learned our lesson the hard way. I was scorched and Lilly was pink all over her arms, shoulders, face, and back - Poor thing, it was her first sunburn! That is one of the worst feelings, knowing you could have prevented her from having the sunburn. From now on we will be putting on plenty of sunscreen rain or shine.

The Beach

2008-07-09T12:15:00.002-07:00

I think this picture says it all! Lilly had a blast at the beach. She was a little unsure of those big waves rolling in and did not want to stand in the ocean all by herself, but she loved the sand and being outside all day. Her phrase of the week was "There it is." Each time when we would get to the view of the ocean as we were walking out to our spot she would say those three little words that just made the long hike to the beach worth it every day. Our usual routine was to start at the beach and end up at the pool. By the end of the week, she was "swimming" in the pool all by herself with only her floaties. It was really amazing. She spent time at the pool watching all the bigger kids and decided she wanted to be like them I guess. We did take her baby pool out to the beach and she loved getting into her little pool to cool off.

We found this fresh seafood place and spent most of the week grilling the best tasting fish ever and Josh and I loaded up on the shrimp - it was our favorite! We loved cooking and staying in for dinner. It was so much easier with Lilly and we could spend most of the day at the beach and pool and not have to worry about getting ready to go out. We did manage to make it into town for some outlet shopping and dinner at Lambert's. Lilly thought this was the funnest place ever. She was amazed at the flying rolls and even managed to catch two or three. The funniest thing was when they put the okra down on our table, she looked at it and said "chicken nuggets" and then she ate so many pieces we lost count.

Nana and Papa loved watching Lilly play and enjoy the outdoors and we loved having extra help with our nearly two year old. There were a few moments Josh and I were both thinking where has our sweet little girl gone. I guess that is normal though, or at least that is what we keep hearing from everyone.
It was a nice change to celebrate the 4th out on the beach soaking in the sun. It was really a treat when my mom and dad volunteered to stay in during nap time so Josh and I could just go out and relax by the ocean.

This picture was taken the night we got there and went out to the beach for the first time. Lilly couldn't believe that there was sand everywhere she looked and her eyes were so big as she stared out watching the waves come rolling in. We made many good memories this week and enjoyed every minute of being away from our busy lives back home. Computers and cell phones were put away and we just spent time hanging out and playing. We definitely need to do this more often!

VBS

2008-06-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

Lilly had her first exposure to VBS this year. I signed up to teach the three and four year old class. There are some days I really miss teaching all my little kindergarten kiddos, but then I look at Lilly and hope I never have to go back into the classroom full time - doing the mommy thing is just too much fun!
Anyways, Lilly got to go with me every day and start out in the auditorium singing with everyone. She loved this and would run up the stage mid song, smile at Miss "all-son" and run back to me. She got to hang out with all her older friends - "Karee, Marcusss, and Brayleen." Then daddy would come and get her for playtime in the office, a trip to the bookstore, or off to the cookie place for a treat. She had a blast and now has made the connection that daddy does some kind of work up at the church building.

Friday was the last day and there was lots of excitement going on. The petting zoo came and Lilly loved being so close to all the animals. She would walk right up to the goats with a hand full of food and let them eat right out of her hand. The girl has no fear! Then there was the pie. Allison had promised the kids they would get to throw a pie in Mr. Josh's face if they brought enough items in to give to the kids at Hope House. Well there was so many items brought in, the box was overflowing. So on pie day, Allison chose some names out of a bag to throw the pies (yes it happened more than once.) The last name called was Linda H. and she happened to be holding Lilly at the time in her lap. So Lilly went up on the stage and helped with the pie throwing. I have to give Josh some credit here, he was a real trooper.....

And Lilly still talks about this day, saying "silly daddy" then pointing to her face and says "pie."

Ready for the Beach

2008-06-22T19:34:00.001-07:00

This Saturday we are leaving for Ft. Morgan (right outside of Gulf Shores) for Lilly's first trip to the beach. Our summer began with splashing around in the baby pool on the back deck with Rudy...

These pictures were taken May 9. As soon as we got some warm weather, we got the pool out and started hanging out in the water. Lilly loves splashing around and really cracks up when she gets Rudy wet and he takes off all over the backyard running in circles! It is so funny!
We have been swimming at a friends pool, several times this summer and she loves that too! I can't wait to see what happens when she gets out on the beach and sees the waves coming in and the never ending supply of water. This will also be the first time Josh and I have stayed at the beach with my parents. We are renting a beach house with them...they couldn't miss out on all the fun with Lilly! We will definitely have some updates and lots of pictures after the trip.

I have to also mention that Lilly's new favorite thing is eating Popsicles. She wants one every time we are out in the pool, when Josh comes home from work, and any time the freezer door is open. Her word for them is "pop-si-si."

"Boat, get in"

2008-06-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

These were the first words out of Lilly's mouth when we woke up at Smith Lake for our Memorial Day get away. Josh's brother graduated from High School - Congrats Matt! - and we were in Huntsville for the big celebration and decided that we would take some time for some much needed rest and relaxation at Uncle Tim's lake house. We had a blast!

Here she is sporting the super cute pink life vest as she rides in the boat. She loved being in the boat feeling the wind on her face, watching the waves around us, listening to Tim's fun music, but then before we knew it she was snuggled up with her eyes closed fast asleep. We thought this to be a little odd, but as soon as the boat slowed down she would pop up and say "I like it." She loved watching as Josh and I rode the Jet Skis, which would go up to 70 mph, across the water. She kept pointing at them saying "daddy boat." And with all the extra attention from family members, especially TuTu and Totsie, Lilly couldn't have been happier at the lake. We are definitely taking another trip to Smith Lake ASAP!

Oh and I do have to mention the morning of fishing, where I proved that fishing is somewhat of a natural thing that comes from my family of origin. I used to go fishing all the time when I was a little girl with my dad and brother. My dad still loves to go and my brother just won first place in a fishing tournament a couple of weekends ago. Well I can't remember the last time I picked up a pole, but while we were at the lake I just couldn't resist. So one morning before most of the family was awake. (Lilly gets up around 6:30, so the days of sleeping in are pretty much over for now.) We headed down to the dock to see what was going on in the water and we could see so many fish swimming around, and yes the lake water here was pretty clear. So we got the chicken liver ready on the line and I dropped it into the water. I immediately caught one, reeled it in for Lilly to see, took the hook out, and threw it back. Then I tried again and a huge fish down there took the whole line this time and broke it before I could reel it in. Josh and Lilly got impatient waiting to see another fish and headed up to play. Well I was determined to get that big old fish, so I waited it out. Before long, I had hooked the fish and was reeling in as fast as I could. It was heavy, so I was screaming for Josh to come back down and help me get it into the net. To our surprise it was a catfish. I had always heard that they have some kind of stingers, so I was not about to attempt to take the hook out of this one by myself. I just had to wait till everyone else got up. This ended my fishing for the weekend, but I was so excited that I still had all of my skills that I grew up with. Lilly kept saying "uh-oh" while looking at the two fish I caught. I think she likes watching them in the water more than looking at them above water with a hook in their mouth.

Choo...Choo.....

2008-05-29T12:29:00.001-07:00

Lilly has a new fascination with trains. Whenever we are outside and she hears the train she stops and says "train, I hear it." She loves to go to the bookstore and play at the train table. And when we went to the Silver Caboose on Mother's day she had to get up close to the trains in the square. I realize that it is a little late to be posting on Mother's day, but time has gotten away from me once again....

The silver caboose is one of my favorite restaurants and it is only open for lunch and on Friday nights. So I love to go eat there Sunday after church. It is the perfect spot for a good home cooked meal. And if we have a little wait, we can just go and hang out in the square or by the trains. So for Mother's day I chose the Silver Caboose for our lunch spot. It was great! This was my second Mother's day and I am so thankful that I am a mom now. I am amazed at how Lilly has grown in the past year and the way her personality and character are being shaped day by day. I am filled with such love for her and thank God for blessing me with such a precious child to share my life with. Motherhood is truly a gift from God. And yes I do have those moments when I stop and wonder what in the world I have gotten myself into, but just about that time Lilly looks at me with one of her smiles and comes over and says in the sweetest little voice "hold me, mommy." That is about as precious as it gets.

Once Upon a Time

2008-05-13T18:41:00.001-07:00

So here you have it: a room full of little girls, the "real" Cinderella, dress up clothes, make-up, nail polish, magic wands, two knights.....Sounds like a real fairy tale, huh? Close...it was a friend's three year old birthday party! As you can see, Lilly had a blast! It was her second birthday party and this one was just right for our "girly" girl.

Everyone got to pick out their own princess dress. Lilly is wearing the blue gown from Alice in Wonderland along with blue fluffy slippers. She happily sat down to for her hot pink nail polish, pink sparkle eye shadow, and a blue glitter star on her cheek. Then she carefully chose her crown and magic wand. It was so much fun! The girls were entertained by Cinderella reading a story, playing games, creating a princess door hanger, and dancing. They all watched as Cinderella helped the birthday girl open presents. Then the time came to change out of the dresses and move on to "Happy Birthday" and some cake. Lilly was the youngest at the party, but she fit right in with all the older girls. This was the perfect spot for a little girl's dream come true.....

The new do.....

2008-04-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

The thing with a little girl, is you have to know how to fix her hair. Most boys have had a haircut by now and it is a nice little cropped do that most moms just have to wet and comb into place. Well it is a different story for a little girl.
Josh and I had the talk about when to cut Lilly's hair for the first time. I really want to wait until after she turns two (August 16.) Josh has already been saying the time is now. But I have heard if we do it now and cut off her curls they will never come back. And we did decide that we were not going to do bangs for now. That just seems like one more thing to fix before we go out.
So here we have it the new look...pigtails! I also heard them called dog ears and two pony tails. I think I will stick with pigtails.

As you can see Lilly is fascinated by the flowers. She loves to pick them and hand them to us with the sweetest little smile. And it is so adorable, you can't tell her not to pick them. And I am sure more flowers will bloom on the bushes anyways.

Her favorite place to be is in the backyard. There is so much to do back there. Today she found my garden gloves, put them on, and started to pick the weeds. I thought all this time she had been playing while I was trying to make our flower beds look good, but now I know she was really does notice everything I do.

Members

2008-04-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

We decided to become Zoo members last weekend. Now that the weather is nice we thought this would be something fun we could do together. And we came across a great coupon where we got $10 off. When we added up how much we spend if we went to the zoo on our own, the membership would have paid for itself in 2 1/2 visits. We thought that was a deal. At Lilly's age you never know what kind of mood she will be in, so this way we can go and stay for an hour or so and not feel like we have wasted our money. If we didn't get to see some of the animals, they will for sure be there when we go back.

We took Lilly to the Zoo once last year and she seemed to like looking at the animals and all. But this time was a completely different story....She was laughing at the monkeys running around, pointing at each animal, and looking with the biggest eyes as if she couldn't believe she was looking at real animals. She was delighted!

Her favorite animal was the panda bear! The pandas were both eating their massive pieces of bamboo (every time we see them they are eating the bamboo or sleeping.) Lilly kept looking at the pandas, then looking back as me as if to say I can't believe this is a real bear and it is actually eating something. Then she spotted the little stone panda you see in the picture and she made a bee line for it and bent over, reached her hand out, and barely touched it. When she realized it wasn't real, she started hugging it, petting it, and of course pulling us over to see what she had discovered. I can tell from this first visit, we will be making many more trips back to the Zoo.

Kindermusik

2008-04-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

For the past 12 weeks Lilly has gotten involved with Kindermusik. She absolutely loves it! Lea Talley teaches it at our church and she is wonderful with the kids. I thought Lilly was to young for something like this when I signed us up, but Lea kept telling me that some kids start even as babies. The first day we went to class, I introduced us saying that it was our first class and Lilly was 17 months at the time we started. Everyone else was saying how their child had been in classes since they were about 9 or 10 months. I was so surprised.

Lilly caught on right away with learning all the new songs and she just had a ball dancing around the room, learning about and playing the instruments, and interacting with other kids. We had a party to celebrate the end of our classes where all the kids came together and had a class time for all the parents. Josh was shocked at how well Lilly did and the whole new side to her personality that he saw that night. She wanted to be the center of attention and kept running to the middle of the circle as if to say "notice me." Kindermusik was a great thing for me and Lilly to do together and it really helped her learn so much! We are most definately going to sign up for classes again soon...

Lilly's Class with Miss Lea

Lilly in action during the party

In Memory

2008-04-03T19:55:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago tonight, my Granny passed away from this earth. She had just turned 95 years old two days before she died. We all went to the funeral in Sheffield, AL (her home town) the following week. It has been hard saying goodbye to my sweet Granny. But I am thankful that she has now gone to her eternal home to be with God. I got a card from some friends at church that said just the right thing.....

"We don't like to say good-bye to those whom we love. It is right for us to weep, but there is no need for us to despair. They had pain here. They have no pain there. They struggled here. They have no struggles there. They are, at this very moment at peace in the presence of God."

Those words brought comfort to me when I read them and they continue to do so each day. Granny will be missed, but she will continue to live on in our memories.

Happy Birthday Josh!!!!!!!!

2008-02-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

Today I would like to wish Josh a very happy birthday! I am thankful for the day he was born and created by God. I continue to thank God for bringing us together and allowing us to share our lives together. Thanks Josh for being such a wonderful husband and a great father to Lilly - she lights up every time you walk in the room!

Lilly and I look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you.....

Playing Outside.....

2008-01-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

Lilly loves to go outside. She will walk over to the door and start saying outside first thing in the morning. These pictures were taken a few weeks ago when we actually had some warmer winter days. The people who we bought this house from left this play house out back and it has become one of Lilly's favorite toys. Every time we looked at the house, before we bought it, she had to go out on the deck and play. We are wanting the weather to warm up so we can go out to play again.

One of the favorite inside toys is the popper! Lilly says "pop" then starts pushing this all over the house....until Rudy comes along and starts barking. He is just not sure about this toy.

Fun Times

2008-01-15T13:13:00.001-08:00

We started some new traditions this year for the holidays. Our Christmas Eve began with a watching of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Which Lilly and Rudy loved! Lilly even began saying Grinch in her own little way. Then we made Christmas cookies. Josh thought this was a ridiculous idea and that Lilly would be of no help, but she loved it and was quite the helper. She helped me pat out the dough, then cut the cookies, and even did the sprinkles. Of course, she had the best time eating them. We had a blast together and Josh took these pictures in shock watching how much our little girl has grown. We will definitely have to do this again before next year!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas.....

2007-12-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite traditions of this season is the sending and receiving of Christmas cards. This year there was a moment when we thought we were not going to get any cards out at all. We wish we could have sent them to everyone we knew, but this year we just didn't have the time. So to all of our dear friends everywhere. We hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas.

"I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord..."

An Early Christmas

2007-12-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

We started a new tradition this year. We decided that it would be best to trade off spending Thanksgiving with one side of the family and Christmas with the other side of the family and then switching it for next year. So we decided this year we would head to Atlanta for Thanksgiving. It was going to be the only time we could all get together with my brother, his new wife, Fonda, and their kids. Because of this we decided to have an early Christmas. So when Lilly awoke to our early Christmas morning she was surprised to find a Princess car waiting for her under the tree from "Santa." She was so excited about a toy she could actually ride on.....

Then we all watched the parade on TV and she got even more excited to see the Sesame Street characters singing. She has a new fascination for Sesame Street, especially Elmo. Then we all got ready, ate an incredible meal, and had our Christmas. She could actually help open her presents this year and she wanted to look carefully at each new toy to discover what she had gotten. It was so neat to think about how she just sat there last year watching and how this year she was able to join in on the fun.

Nana and Papa loved having Lilly at their house. She has so much fun with her grandparents. We were all really sad that Granny had changed so much since our last visit. Last time she was delighted to see Lilly and loved watching her play. She even got out of her chair and acted like she was jumping up and down, which made Lilly smile and laugh with delight. Since was have been away, Granny fell and fractured her left hip. She had surgery to help repair this hip. Granny was transfered to a Nursing home for rehabilitation. Unfortunately, two months later she is still unable to walk and is suffering from Alzheimer's. It is heartbreaking to watch someone who you love dearly suffer in this way. So we remember the good times together with Granny and pray daily for her.

Taj

2007-12-17T13:23:00.001-08:00

Taj is my brother's pit bull. He is about three years old now and is one of the biggest dogs Lilly has ever been around. We went to Atlanta for Thanksgiving and made a trip to Jason's new house. We were a little unsure of how Lilly and Taj would do around each other. Lilly has no fear of dogs. She loves them! She wants to kiss them on the mouth, hug them, pat them, and get as close as she can to them. She even barks like a dog when she sees any dog - her stuffed dogs, real dogs out and about, or dogs on TV.
Not every dog likes all this extra attention from a little one. So Jason kept him outside when we arrived. As you can see from above, Lilly was so excited to find a dog staring at her outside this glass door. So they stood for a while with the glass in between them checking each other out. When it was time to eat (Jason made us some yummy chili) he let Taj inside to see how he would do with Lilly up in her highchair. Like any other dog, he was begging for food from everyone and Lilly couldn't keep her eyes off of him. She was turning all around in her chair so she could watch him at all times. So after lunch, we got Lilly down while Taj was still inside. She immediately made a bee line for Taj. She went right up to him and started patting him. He gave her a few licks and really did great with her in the house. We had to stand close by to make sure he didn't run her over or whack her with his massive tail. But, once he calmed down and found a spot to lay down she went over to him and gave him one of her dog hugs. So here they are: Lilly and Taj - and me right by them making sure she didn't pull his ears or anything like that.

Back to Blogging

2007-12-16T19:05:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it has been a month and a half since I have blogged. I have really missed writing about all of Lilly's latest things going on. Hopefully now that things have settled down from the move, I will have more time to sit and write.

We are all ready for Christmas and Lilly has so many Christmas outfits she hasn't had time to wear them all (thanks to Nana, and all the hand-me-downs we have been given.) We did make a trip to see Santa at the Collierville square and Lilly did not want anything to do with the great big man in red. She took the candy cane and loved getting sticky, but the only way she was getting close to that white beard was with mommy and daddy close by.

She was more excited about Frosty, but she was holding me tighter and tighter the closer we got to this big white snowball. Lilly's favorite spot on the square that day was the petting zoo. She loves animals and was so excited to see all these live animals and actually get to touch them. She was fascinated. On our outing to the square, we discovered now that Lilly is walking, all she wants to do is be out of her stroller walking everywhere and anywhere we will let her. We were so excited that she started walking, but it definitely brings out a whole new side to parenting.

We had such a fun day on the square. Every December, Collierville has a parade on Friday night and then Christmas in Collierville in the square the following Saturday. We skipped out on the parade this year, but we really had a good time at the square. We want to get involved in our new community, and so far we are loving it!

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

Lilly wasn't sure about her pink poodle costume. We had tried it on her a couple of times before the big night to get her ready, but as you can see from the picture above she just didn't like it. We got a few pictures taken on Halloween, and yes she was crying or screaming in all of those. So I thought I would try again today to see if she did any better. Here are the results....

On Halloween night she discovered the taste of chocolate candy - I am not sure which one was her favorite the M&M's or the Snickers. So in order to take the pictures successfully today I had to bribe her with some of the leftover candy from last night. Up until now she has had chocolate chip cookies, but never just straight chocolate candy. She is taking after me - a chocolate lover! Now every time I want some chocolate, she has to have a little bite.

Settling In

2007-10-22T18:40:00.001-07:00

It is hard to believe that in a few weeks we will have been here a year. Moving from Amarillo, Texas with a three month old the week before Thanksgiving was not exactly the funnest thing ever. Josh and I said we will never move before the holidays again. We found a rent house in Cordova through a friend. We had always planned to wait till January to start looking for a house to purchase, but in September I was ready to start looking because we kept hearing that it was a buyer's market and the time to buy was now. So, we contacted another friend who is a Realtor and she agreed that it would be a good idea to at least start the process. So we did.

We honestly expected to not find "the one" until after the first of the year. But we found it during our second outing! We were shocked. The price was right, the floor plan was ideal, the space was more than adequate, the location was right on target. And we got a great deal, let me tell you. Collierville, TN isn't the easiest place to buy a home. Homes were selling for nearly $110 per square foot. Needless to say, we're not paying that much!

Here's the hilarious part: We're set to move on November 10 - exactly when we moved one year ago!

One more thing - When we looked at the house one last time before making an offer, our Realtor found some neighbors for us to meet. We were talking and they were telling us about the neighborhood association and activities they have every year for kids - Halloween parade, Fourth of July picnic, etc. The neighbors asked Josh what he did for a living (which always makes him nervous), and of course he told them that he was a minister. Well, it turns out that the guy we were talking to is also a minister. The neighborhood is primarily made up of young families with small children. We're excited about meeting new friends.

By the way, we do realize that this is just a house . . . bricks, shingles, sheet rock, and wood. There are so many more important things to write about, but we're so thankful for God's provision. He has been so faithful to us. And it feels good to know that we're officially settling in. We love the life God has given here.

Nana and Papa

2007-10-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

Lilly enjoyed a whole day of fun with Nana and Papa last weekend. They took her to the pumpkin patch and helped her pick out a little pumpkin of her own. Lilly got to show off her new walking skills and they loved watching her every minute! They introduced her to french fries and she is now a fan.

Josh and I got to go to Ole Miss to watch the Alabama game. Roll Tide!!!! It was my first college game and I loved it!

Happy Fall!

2007-10-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

Fall is one of our favorite times of the year. The weather starts to cool off (except in Memphis where it is still 90 degrees). Football games are on every Saturday. The leaves start to turn. It is actually enjoyable to be outside again. Lilly loves to go outside all the time. So we have been making the most of our outdoor time.

This past weekend we took a trip to Grand Valley Lakes and spent some time at one of our friends Lake house. We weren't sure Lilly would be up for riding around in the backpack, but she loved it. She actually cried when we took her out of it.

A couple of weekends ago, Lilly experienced her first trip to the Zoo! Her eyes were so big and she was excited to see all the animals. We enjoyed hanging out with Brooke, Josh, and Sophie.

And one of Lilly's favorite spots is the park, where she has all kind of fun stuff to climb on, slide down, and look at. But most of all she loves the swings!

Highlights. . . .

2007-09-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

We went to Huntsville over Labor day weekend. While we were there we celebrated my birthday and I think Lilly was so excited because she thought everyone was singing to her again. The trip was much easier now that Lilly is facing forward in her carseat. Her favorite part of the car ride was eating snacks from a little cup and watching movies on the portable DVD player.

Josh brought home the most beautiful flowers last week. Lilly loved them!

Lilly loved going for a ride on the carousel at the mall. She was holding on very tight, while laughing and trying to figure out where Dad had gone.

Favorite foods: watermelon, blueberries, goldfish, and mini animal crackers

Lilly played with her birthday balloon for a week! And yes she can now say balloon. Now when we go anywhere with balloons she starts saying balloon and points until we go over to see them.

We are still going to the pool on Mondays to play in the water. Maybe we can enjoy swimming for a few more weeks.

Lilly got her first sucker from Mr. Tommy at church. It was pink, of course. She loved it!

Party Pictures

2007-08-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

I had to post a few pictures of the party before September rolled around. My mom and dad came down on Friday, before the party. Mom immediately started making the cake as soon as they came in the door. Lilly even got her own little cake.
Everyone showed up Saturday around 11. Lilly was ready for her big event! We started the party with a prayer over Lilly, thanking God for her first year of life and praying for him to bless her during this next year. Then we ate lunch (watermelon, Lilly's favorite, was included in the menu.) Lilly loved the cake! First she ate off most of the icing. Then she kept digging out the middle of the cake. It was YUMMY!
Time for presents. Lilly sat in my lap and was excited about all the new things she was getting: dolls, clothes, toys, dress-up clothes....... The strawberry shortcake toy box was from my parents. They had given it to me at my first birthday party, 28 years ago. My dad cleaned it up and put a new coat of paint around Strawberry Shortcake (it was Disney pink.) Lilly loves putting the toys in the box, taking them out, and then starting all over again. As you can see in the pictures below, after opening all those new toys, Lilly wanted to play with an empty box. I guess that is just the way it goes.

Happy Birthday Princess Lilly!

2007-08-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

Lilly turned one today! I can't believe this day is finally here. Everyone said that time would fly by, but now I believe them. It is hard to imagine that a year ago we were trying to guess what Lilly would look like. Now we have our hands full with a sweet, precious, adorable (and yes, I could go on) one year old! The party was a blast last weekend, I will post more on that later.

Today we want you to know, Lilly how much we love you. We are so proud of all you have learned in this year and we are thankful for the times we have shared with you laughing, crying, and playing. You are our precious little girl, a gift from God, and we thank him for brining you into our lives on this day. Love, Mommy and Daddy

Playing all day

2007-08-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

As the weekend approaches, I am continuously checking off my list of things to get ready for the big birthday party. I can't believe it is really here. Lilly will officially turn one on August 16, but the family is coming in town this weekend to celebrate this wonderful occasion.

Since Lilly is the only grandchild on both sides and so precious and sweet, she gets royally spoiled by her grandparents. She has already started getting presents in the mail. One of her favorites is the swing set from Nana and Papa. She has actually started crying when we let Rudy out back and don't take her along.

This past year has been such a blessing. I am thankful for this first year we have had together bonding as mother and daughter. Lilly has depended on me for many things during this first year of her life. Now she is independently crawling on her own, picking up her own food to eat, and letting us know loud and clear when she does not like something. I am thankful for the way Lilly has grown, developed and changed. My love continues to grow more and more each day for my little girl.

What Did She Say?

2007-07-25T05:02:00.000-07:00

We've all been wondering for the last several months about what would be Lilly's first word. Well, our speculation and guessing have come to an end. Here are Lilly's first THREE words:

(1) "Bubbles." (Lilly says "buh-buhs") When Lilly turned eleven months old, we were playing with her bubble machine just like we did nearly every other day, when out of nowhere, Lilly starts saying "buh-buhs" over and over again. We were so excited you would've thought that she had belted out an entire sentence. It was a big day in the Patrick house.

(2) "Uh-Oh." This word (Josh questions the legitimacy of this word . . . Isn't uh-oh a word?) came along more gradually with some good ole parental training. One of Lilly's favorite things to do now is throw down whatever we give her. Everything from her bib, a toy, her sippy cup, and even a miniature Noah's Ark has been thrown down or dropped. At first she just said "uh" without the "oh." But now she says it well and very, very often.

(3) "Da-Da." When Josh comes home after work, Lilly looks at him with a huge grin, crawls toward him furiously and says "Da-Da." She's been saying for months now, but just recently she has connected it with her daddy. She now acknowledges Josh as her "Da-Da." He melts like butter when she says it!

Time Flies

2007-07-12T19:02:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that in a few days Lilly will be eleven months old. Then next month she will turn one. Where has the time gone? She is growing and changing so fast. Here are a few favorite pictures from this past month. She is into all kinds of new stuff now.....

She pulls up on everything now and is cruising around on the furniture.

The refrigerator is so fascinating to her. When I open the door she makes a bee line for it and tries to get inside and check everything out.

I couldn't resist, I just had to buy Lilly this little piano. She had played with one at a friends house and loved it. She is so cute when she plays it, she looks at us to see if we heard her new piece.

Diet Coke - yummy!

Yes, even babies have bad hair days...

What is this pointy thing sticking up on Rudy's head? I just can't seem to pull it hard enough.

Rudy has turned Lilly into a dog lover. When we are walking around the neighborhood and she sees a dog she gets so excited. Then when we walk on by she starts crying because she couldn't touch the dog. And when we go to someones house who has a dog, Lilly's mission for the night is to be with the dog the entire time.

She finally figured out how to clap her hands together...it is so cute!

Red, White, and Blue

2007-07-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great 4th! Here is Lilly sporting the Red, White, and Blue. No fireworks for our little girl this year. Just some relaxing time at home with mom and dad. Then off to dinner with our good friends - the O'Conners.

I love my dad!

2007-07-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

So I do realize that father's day has come and gone, but I had to write about it. I told Josh that we could do whatever he wanted to celebrate father's day this year in honor of him being a dad. He decided that he wanted to take Lilly to the Children's Museum of Memphis. And of course she absoultely loved it and Josh did too! Lilly's favorite spot was the play area where she could get down and crawl around.

I have to say that watching Josh as a dad has been a truly amazing experience. He is wonderful with Lilly. I love to watch the smiles on both of their faces when Josh gets home from work. He always greets Lilly with a big hug and then they have lots of playtime while I make dinner for the night. While I am in the kitchen all I can hear is lots of baby laughing. He even knows how to make her laugh during a diaper change, which is a huge accomplishment for Lilly (she hates laying on her back for anything.)

I am so thankful that God has blessed me with such a wonderful husband and given Lilly a great man to call "da da."

Pool Time

2007-06-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

We have been spending some of our hot summer days splashing away at the pool. Lilly seems to love the water! We get together with some of our friends from church, eat lunch,and then swim till nap time. Josh has gotten to go a couple of times with us and Lilly loves to swim with her daddy.

Atlanta Time

2007-06-13T19:28:00.001-07:00

Time has gotten away from me over the last few weeks. I have taken lots of pictures but I just now loaded them all on the computer. There were 67 to be exact. So much has happened since the last post.

Last weekend we took a trip to Atlanta. My brother is getting married in July and we had a wedding shower for him and Fonda (my new sister-in-law to be.) There was also a Cubs vs. Braves game that Josh was very excited about. It was the first time we were rooting for two different teams. I was a Braves fan growing up (when they were really bad and the stands were empty) and I will continue to be forever I guess. Josh just recently decided that he loves the Cubs because he says they're the last remnant of baseball's golden age (whatever that means). He now has a hat, t-shirt, jersey, and is going to three games this summer. For him the first game was great. He got to see three home runs and the Cubs ended up winning 8-1. Josh's dad came with us to the game as well as John Ott, a very close friend of Josh's.

Nana and Papa were excited to keep Lilly for us two nights in a row: One for the ball game and the other for us to go out with Jason and Fonda. Jason took us to a Brazillian steakhouse in Downtown Atlanta where we were served 12 different kinds of meat. As long as we had the green sign up they just kept bringing more meat. We were totally stuffed after we had finally finished. The guys were definitely more excited about this restaurant than the girls were.

As the weekend came to an end we were worn out. We pulled an all-nighter on the drive down to Atlanta on Thursday. Then on Friday, we caught up with our friends, the Otts, and went downtown for the Braves game. On Saturday we had the wedding shower at my parents' house and then returned to downtown to all that meat. Sunday we went to church and then drove back to Memphis thinking Lilly was as worn out as we were and was probably ready for a nap. WRONG! She slept for only an hour and a half, screamed for about two hours, and loved being entertained by mom the rest of the way. We decided that night driving is the way to go - at least if we want to have a quiet car free from baby cries and my singing silly songs over and over and over.

Here are a few pictures:

Nine months old

2007-05-24T19:02:00.001-07:00

Last week Lilly turned nine months! We can't believe how much she is growing and changing every day. We went in for our check-up and here are the results:

weight: 17 lbs. 5 oz
height: 26.5 inches

She has dropped to the 10-25 percentile in height. Dr. Chris said he wasn't too surprised about her height. After all look at Josh and I - we weren't off the charts in that category either.
Lilly's favorite thing to do now is pull up, and she is pulling up on anything and everything. She has just started cruising around the furniture while holding on. She thinks this is really cool.

Mother's Day

2007-05-18T13:43:00.001-07:00

It is amazing how special I felt on this one day just because I am have the new title of being a mom. This first mother's day will always be remembered! We celebrated on Saturday night with a wonderful grilled dinner from Josh. Then he surprised me with some beautiful earrings from him and Lilly and the sweetest two cards ever. On Sunday all the moms were prayed over during church and given a red rose. Then we had to make time for pictures of course, so we headed down to the Collierville square to take these shots. There are so many wonderful things about being a mom. My favorite thing for the moment is when Lilly looks up at me and then gives me a big hug or a sloppy, wet kiss. Even though she can't talk yet, besides the dada's, she makes me feel so loved and appreciated with a simple smile.

Bows, Bows, Bows

2007-05-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

Fact: A baby girl can never have too many bows! They add so much to the outfit. A plain ole dress looks cuter and has way more personality with a little bow clipped in the hair.

Lilly has quite an impressive collection of bows these days. We even went on a surprise bow shopping outing in Amarillo. (Daddy's note: Bow shopping? Are you kidding me?) Now that Lilly has enough hair to keep the bow in place she can wear them all the time!

Back to Amarillo

2007-05-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

We headed back to Amarillo the other weekend for Matt and Heather's wedding. We had a great time catching up with old friends. Kay and Larry Brown let us stay at their house and had a party the first night we arrived just so we could see everyone! Lilly had a great time. She did great on the flight and for the first time she just loved being passed around from person to person. The quote of the weekend was "she knows she has come home." - Mel Brunson
Amarillo will always have a special place in our hearts. The people there just know how to love each other. It doesn't matter where you live, how much money you have, what kind of clothes you are wearing - you just feel loved no matter what.

Lilly hanging out with her friend Genevieve. Aren't they cute holding hands?

Day at the Park

2007-04-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

We have been having gorgeous weather the last few days so we took advantage of it and headed to the park this week. Lilly loved the baby swing! While we were playing on the blanket Lilly's goal was to get to the edge and try to eat whatever she could get in her hands. There were a few close calls, but I managed to stop her each time. We found out that Eli is sensitive to the sun, that night he ended up with a pretty bad sunburn just on his head - poor thing. I was thankful that I remembered Lilly's hat this time. I hope everyone enjoyed the sunny days this week.

8 months old!

2007-04-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Lilly is really eight months old today. Where has the time gone? It seems like just the other day Josh and I were watching Lilly barely lift her head off the ground during tummy time and now she is everywhere. So many changes have taken place during the last few months. Lilly is now crawling everywhere. You can't take your eyes off of her for a second. She is also pulling up and anything and everything. And now instead of just two bottom teeth, she now has four. The top two teeth just started breaking through over the weekend. I am sure in just a few days something else new will be going on as well. Everyone always said that time goes by so quickly with kids, and now I know that really is true. I just want to soak up every minute we have together.

Lilly's first Easter

2007-04-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

We had fun celebrating Easter with Lilly this year. We dressed Lilly up in pink, of course. Then the Easter bunny stopped by and gave Lilly her first bubble blower. She was very interested in these little bubbles that floated around her and then disappeared. One of the best parts of the day was listening to Josh preach about the resurrection of Jesus and knowing that he is really alive today.

Happy Spring

2007-04-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

I love the spring! As the flowers bloom and the sun shines longer, I become a witness of how God brings everything back to life in the Spring. We have been enjoying the outdoors quite a bit already. Lilly is fascinated with the feel of the grass and the colors of the flowers. Her amazement and wonder has helped me appreciate all the small details of nature a little more this year.

Lilly Meets the Easter Bunny

2007-04-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

During the past weekend we had an Easter event at church. We were wondering how Lilly would react to the big bunny. As soon as the bunny came in the door and Lilly spotted the big fur ball, she could not stop smiling. The closer the bunny got, the more Lilly smiled. Lilly loved the Easter bunny. She was laughing, smiling, and couldn't take her eyes off the bunny. It was the cutest thing ever.

Trip to Atlanta

2007-03-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

Lilly and I just returned from a trip to Atlanta to celebrate Granny's 94th birthday. During Granny's party my cousin brought her little girl, Ansley. Lilly and Ansley had the best time playing with each other.
While in Atlanta, we got to congratulate Jason and Fonda on their new engagement - the wedding will be this August! Nana and Papa were so excited we were able to be here with them. Lilly has now been on four planes and she seems to love it. I am always nervous before we take off, but after she has her bottle she is ready for a nap. Both times she woke up before we landed and was happy the whole way down. It didn't even seem to affect her ears at all.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2007-03-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

Lilly's first wedding

2007-03-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

We went to Searcy, AR for the weekend to celebrate with Ryan Porche and Claudia Stockstill. Their wedding was absoutley beautiful. Yet another opportunity to dress Lilly up and take lots of pictures. Lilly manged to keep quiet for about 30 minutes of the cermony and then I took her out to the hallway to play. When we made it to the reception she was ready for a nap.

It was fun to see the Kisers. Lilly and Ryan actually played a little this time. Well I guess I should say that Lilly just sat there watching in awe at how fast Ryan could crawl around and get into everything. They were pretty cute together.

New Happenings

2007-03-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe that it is already March and Lilly will be turning seven months in a week and a half. There is a lot to write about since the last post. Lilly has now moved from eating only oatmeal to trying out veggies. So far she has tasted sweet potatoes, which I am not sure she liked. Look at the picture and see what you think. Then we moved on to squash and she was a little more excited about the yellow stuff.

We have had some fun play days with friends. Here is Lilly with Eli and Nelson. Eli and Lilly were so cute. Eli would scream at Lilly, then she would scream back at him. They were talking in baby language.

There is always time for Baby Einstien moments.

The newest event in Lilly's life is she now has a tooth! We discovered it Monday night. She was chewing on my finger, as usual, and I felt this sharp little hard thing in her mouth. We wanted to take a picture, but she would hardly let us pull her lip back to look at it. So here she is growing more and more every day.

A Major Milestone

2007-02-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

Lilly has now been eating solid foods for a week! We started her on baby oatmeal and she actually seems to be liking it. We had heard several stories from other parents about how difficult it is to introduce solids, but Lilly made it pretty easy. She had been eyeing our table food for a while and was interested in what we were doing. So when we put the spoon to her mouth, she opened up and enjoyed her meal.

What am I doing in this big chair?

Yum! That tastes good..............

Well, I tried to swallow some of it.

6 months old

2007-02-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that Lilly turned six months old last Friday. As we have gone back through pictures from when she was born, the memories surrounding her birth are still fresh on our minds. Although she is bigger and more expressive now than before the wonder and delight of being her mother hasn't diminished at all.

She in now weighing in at 15 pounds and 3 ounces and she is 25 1/2 inches tall. We're astonished at how much she has changed.

Click on the label below to see Lilly's other pictures taken from each month.......

Rudy and Lilly

2007-02-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

From day one we were a little unsure of how Rudy would react to Lilly. We got Rudy in August 2005 then a year later Lilly was born in August 2006. So Rudy had a whole year to get used to being the "baby" of the family. Josh and I did a pretty good job spoiling him as well. Rudy could tell something was up all summer before Lilly arrived. He did not like us keeping him out of the new baby room and he couldn't understand why we wouldn't give him all of the stuffed animals that were suddenly arriving in our house from all the baby showers. He thought life was pretty unfair. When we brought Lilly home from the hospital he was very curious. He wanted to lick her all over and wasn't quite sure why we kept pushing him away. Over the last few months he has surprised us with how well he has taken to being baby #2. He doesn't go after her toys anymore and try to tear them up. He has even tried to give her some of his toys so she could play with him. Lately she has been very excited about Rudy as well. She smiles at him, laughs at him, and even tries to reach out and grab, pet, or lick him. It has been fun to watch them together and we are so thankful that Rudy has turned out to be a baby friendly dog.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

2007-02-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Josh's birthday in Huntsville with his family over the weekend. Then we had our own family celebration at home this week. Lilly made Josh a card with her handprint on it and was all smiles as we sang "Happy Birthday" (I think she thought we were singing to her.) She really loves her Daddy. I think she will probably end up being a daddy's girl.

Playtime!

2007-01-31T11:26:00.000-08:00

Playtime is so much fun now that I can sit up!

Learning to sit

2007-01-29T08:40:00.000-08:00

We started the process by propping her up with pillows.

We also put her in the Bumbo Seat.

Then we put her in the Boppy, just in case she fell over.

Then one day she was just sitting! We really had nothing to do with the process, she just learned how. We couldn't believe how fast she learned to do this huge task. It seems like just the other day we were being so careful supporting her wobbly little neck and now we just plop her down and she sits and smiles. I wonder what she will be doing next?

5 months old!

2007-01-16T18:19:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that five months ago, Lilly was born. Wow, how time flies! It is amazing to see how much she has grown and developed during the past months. Each month I took her picture in her bed with the same stuffed animal to see how much she had really grown. It is amazing to compare all of these pictures.

5 months old

4 months old

3months old

2 months old

1 month old

1 week old