4 months

Lilly just keeps amazing us! She is 4 months old today!! She has recently found her feet and it is SO CUTE to watch her grab them! She can also clasp her hands together. Just today she started making smacking noises with her tongue. We love to listen to her babble!

I call these "Bumbo toes" because she curls them up when she's sitting in the Bumbo.

She is a sweet, sweet girl and we are proud to be her parents.

We got to spend some time with family on Saturday. Always a treat.

I went shopping for the first time since Lillian was born. It was scary at first to try on clothes in my new mom body. I wasn't sure which sizes to grab so I selected several. When the girl at the Target dressing room asked how many items I had I said, "10-12, is that too many?" You could see she was thinking hard about it as she stared at the plastic number cards. Then she finally said, "well the numbers only go up to 6...so I'll give you two numbers!"

I did find some cute things that fit really well. Whew. Shopping is not fun anymore. And poor Matt was walking laps around the store with the stroller so Lil would keep napping!

At the end of the day when there is spit up in my hair and the makeup is gone it is such a huge blessing to have a wonderful husband who tells me I'm beautiful. What a relief to know he adores me even as we get older and I get more "mommified." :)

St. Patty

Isn't it funny that there is such a big fuss about St. Patrick's Day when no one really knows anything about St. Patrick? I googled him and now think that he's a pretty cool dude. Apparently he is famous for bringing Christianity to Ireland. Seems interesting that people celebrate the day of his death by drinking green beer. :)

This weekend we went to Columbia, MO to visit family. The main reason we went was for Matt to run his first 5K! He did awesome! His goal was to run it in 30 minutes and he ran it in 30:35!! I'm so proud of him!

Lilly came along to show her support, of course. It was a bitter 39 degrees that morning so we waited in the car while he ran. We were parked on the corner of the block, not knowing that the race was marked to run right by the car. I was feeding Lilly when all of a sudden I see a herd of runners panting around the car! Ah! No one seemed to notice since they had just bolted up a steep hill before passing us. We gave Matt a big wave and encouraged him to keep going.

Lilly's cousins Madelyn and Bella were there this weekend and it was fun to see them together. Lilly is almost bigger than Madelyn who is a month older!

Overall the trip went well, except for the part where we tried to go out to eat when we knew we shouldn't. How many times do we have to say "we'll never do that again" before it sinks in! She hates going out to eat!! We had to leave right after we ordered our food. Ugh.

It was so cute to see Lilly's great grandparents loving on her. What a special moment!

We missed church and our friends this weekend. We truly are homebodies and wouldn't have it any other way!

Saving daylight

What a fantastic weekend! The weather was beautiful and we had a lot of fun as a family. Our date nights are even still fun with the little one. Now we enjoy carry-out and tv at home just as much as a fancy dinner out.

Lilly has been a little confused by the time change but she's adapting quickly. That extra hour of daylight is going to be so nice in the evenings. I'm looking forward to a lot of back porch sitting and grilling out!

Our little girl has been a busy bee lately. She is having fun sitting with us at dinner in her high chair. It has been hilarious to watch her try to put everything in her mouth. If she can't get something to her mouth she face plants to get her mouth to it. Love it! This past week she started losing some of her hair and staying awake longer.

Well we finally picked up our Valentine's day mugs that we painted! Matt pained mine red and it's so sweet. I painted Matt's mug to say "Daddy needs coffe," and yes, I forgot the last E. Maybe it's because Lilly was screaming and I tried to feed her and rock her to sleep in a pottery shop. Hmm. Oh well. Matt still thinks it's great!

Here's our favorite Big Cedar picture!

Big Cedar

This past weekend we got to relax at Big Cedar! It was really great to rest in a cabin in front of a roaring fire. Lilly loved going for a long walk and seeing new things. The food was awesome, too. There were only a few times where it got rough. Lilly freaked out just as I was falling asleep so I jumped out of bed tangled in the sheet and hit the hardwood floor with a thud. Matt said it was similar to a cartoon that was too fast for her feet. Lilly vomited all over me, her, and the bed at one point. And I almost murdered Matt's phone because the alarm went off when we could have slept in peace for another hour. Other than that we had a really great time!! The best part was waking up and going outside to feel the cool morning air that smelled like campfire and then ordering room service for breakfast and eating in our PJs. That is the perfect vacation.

Our little girl has changed so much in the past two weeks. She has discovered her hands and how tasty they are in her mouth. She also loves to lift her legs in the air and play with her knees. So cute. She gets more fun each day.

I love to go on trips with Matt because we can turn the radio off and just talk for hours. It's so good to drive and reminisce about all the great things God has done for us. We love to look back at our lives and see how God changed us and our plans for the better. Sometimes what we think is our failure or mistake is actually Him redirecting us where He wants us to go.

Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Psalm 66

More pictures coming soon...