Summer Time

Summer is here and it's time to fill up the baby pool and enjoy the sunshine! The season change also accompanies some relief from the nausea I've experienced this pregnancy. We're 16 weeks along today!

Lilly has been learning so much lately and has lots of new words she can say. All day she points to things to tell me what they are and who they belong to. She'll point to my pillow and say "mama's" and then to Matt's and say "dada's". I recently bought her some Babiators sunglasses and she is very proud to tell you that they are "Ninny's goggles". She calls herself Ninny and it makes me smile :)

She's so sweet and affectionate. Every morning after she wakes up I go get her and we get to snuggle in bed for a little while before the day starts. Her hugs and kisses get us through the day!

 She had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease recently and it was not fun at all!! Poor speckled kid!

 I think this goofy face looks just like Matt's baby pictures!!

 Playing at her new water table.

 We have a river rat. The kid loves stones and water.

 Lil and Cooper at the park. She was squealing in excitement.

 Sprinkler time!

 Mother's Day! We enjoyed having my mom at church and celebrating what a blessing she is!

 This picture cracks me up. I had just told her not to touch it. As you can see, she's not touching it ;)

 The new Babiators. She loves them.

Disney

Holy smokes! I found the lost post!!! Yay!! It was posted mistakenly on a neglected recipe blog I started a long time ago. Well, here it is!

Our trip to Disney World was awesome. We had so much fun with family and Lil loved all of it! She even did well on the plane! My highlights of the trip were swimming in the pool with Lilly, eating all the good food, spending time with family, riding It's a Small World, reminiscing with Matt (it's where we honeymooned!), and watching Lil hug and kiss her cousins.

Peanut and egg-free ice cream from Ghirardelli! Somebody liked it!

I have loved being a mommy lately. Lilly is growing so fast and she's so smart! She has all of her favorite songs memorized and can even sing a little bit with me. When I sing a song and get to the part where it says "Hosanna" she says "nanna" and smiles :). She's so cute. She learned to stomp her feet yesterday and now "If you're happy and you know it" has become even more fun!

She is eating a lot better and can chow down on chicken nuggets. Our big girl is even weaned from the bottle and is full-time sippy-with-a-straw! We have a toddler!! After I sing her bedtime songs and say our prayer, I lay her down with her blanket and she says "night-night". What a sweet blessing she is.

Hello Again

I truly did have a blog post last month and I was so proud. I told Matt to check it out and he was like, "Uh, there's nothing there." It had somehow deleted itself. I was so devastated that I haven't blogged since. So hopefully this one will be successfully published!

That's not my only excuse for not blogging. I'm also 12 weeks pregnant and have been feeling miserable for the past 6 weeks. Hopefully relief is on the way. We're so excited and thankful and looking forward to our newest addition around October 30!

We had a wonderful trip to Disney World the beginning of March. That's what my last post was all about, including tons of pictures. For a recap, my sister-in-law did a fantastic job and you can check it out here.

Since then, Matt and I both had birthdays, we went to my cousin's beautiful wedding, loved celebrating Easter, and have just been enjoying life with Lilly. Here are some pictures!

We took Lilly to an Easter egg hunt in the rain. There were tons of poor little babies soaked to their Huggies but they seemed to enjoy it! If only we had brought a better umbrella :(

The sunny Sunday egg hunt went much better!!
Lil glues cotton balls to make a spring lamb. She's so crafty!


Petting fluffy puppies at the Heart Walk.
Lil and Grandpa CD building a picnic table!
It's sturdy and awesome!

Water-painting.
Toddler Time at the library.
We love Saturday mornings. Here's Lil in the doll bed that my grandpa made for me when I was 5.

Inspection

Nothing like a last minute termite inspection to make you want to clean out your closets! I hurried around trying to hide clutter, shoes, dish towels, and everything else Lilly scatters throughout the house into closets and pantries. That was silly because the termite guy looked in every nook and cranny of the house...with a flashlight! I'm sure he gasped in horror when he opened the door to our guest bedroom closet and saw the 6 foot stack of stuff about to avalanche down on his head. *cringe*

It reminds me how we try to show our best side for others, but God sees our hearts and all the clutter and junk we're hiding. I can make myself look pretty good on the outside, but it's what's inside that matters. So it might be messy but I'm earnestly praying Psalm 139:23-24

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Lilly tried to sneak into Matt's bag for his trip to Seattle. Matt had a great time enjoying the rainy weather and beauty of the area.

Hummus. Yummus.

There are just no words...I love this girl!

Puppets with GG.

Vroom, Baby!

Caught her wet-handed!

Airplane!

First snow day of the year.

I love my family!

Gotta give a shout-out to Matt's Dad for making it through one of the toughest weeks ever! Cancer diagnosis, surgery, and recovery makes for a pretty crummy week. Matt kept me updated every time he got a phone call. My favorite thing to hear was when the nurses commented on how he was so relaxed and peaceful, Matt's Dad said something to the effect of, "well, it helps when you know where you're going."

We're so thankful that everything turned out ok!!

Fun times

Jump Zone - A warehouse full of enormous inflatable playgrounds. We discovered it last week and will be going back every chance we can. Kids under 2 get in free and Lilly LOVED it. I set her loose in the Sesame Street jumper which is like a colorful, bouncy town the size of our kitchen and living room. Lilly would run into walls, bounce off, and fall over. It was hilarious. And then she discovered the slide. It didn't matter if she went head first or feet first, she thought it was so much fun. I had to get inside too of course to make sure she was doing ok ;)

If most of my friends weren't pregnant right now I would totally have my birthday party at this place!!!

Lilly enjoying some frozen yogurt. Hey, when it's 62 degrees out in January you gotta live it up!

We've been going to the library for Toddler Time. A very animated lady tells fun stories and we sing songs. Yesterday she blew bubbles! Lilly and her friend Cooper were trying to pop them.

What I find when I leave the room for 45 seconds to make some coffee:

Outside enjoying the day.

Matt has been Mr. Handyman lately. He fixed the bathroom tub faucet that has been infuriating me since we moved here in mere minutes with a screwdriver and some super glue. Then just yesterday he fixed a major leak under our kitchen sink while I was giving Lilly a bath. Incredible! It's great to have a husband who's a hard-working businessman but can also put on a flannel shirt and fix stuff with tools.