Happy New Year!

Our time away was SO wonderful...I married into such an incredible family! First, we celebrated a late Christmas with my in-laws at their home. Lily was on cloud nine to be with her Papa and Booma D again! Then we were off to spend the weekend at a beautiful lodge with the rest of the family. Jay's grandparents rented it so that we could all spend the holiday together...so all 31 of us enjoyed a weekend filled with food, cards, pool, laughter, and so much more. We got about 9 inches of snow, so the grounds looked like something right off of a postcard. The kiddos enjoyed being pulled around on their sleds outside, but had just as much fun inside this spacious lodge. Lily was one of THREE three year old girls there, and they were great entertainers for the rest of us. Lily did VERY well. In the past, she hasn't done extremely well out of her "comfort zone" so I had been explaining to her well in advance how this weekend was going to go down. I told her how many people would be there and her first response was "You'll maybe have to hode me." But, you'll see by the pictures that she warmed up to everyone and didn't need me to "hode" her much at all!
2007 was a wonderful year filled with many blessings and we look forward to what God has in store for us in 2008. Happy New Year, everyone!

Our Christmas (in pictures)

My husband surprised me BIG-TIME with a new camera for Christmas! He is so sweet! So, I took about 100 pictures of our Christmas Eve and Day...I deleted most of them...these remain. Christmas Eve was spent at my parents' house. It was kinda quiet this year. My sister and her family had other plans, so they only stopped by for an hour or two and Jay had to work. But, it was a very nice day. I'm just thankful to have such a wonderful family to spend the holidays with.
Christmas Day was spent at my sister's house. She does a delicious brunch every year. Her kids got Wii this year, so we spent most of the day boxing, bowling, and playing baseball. It was a blast! Even Lily got in on the action! My sister created characters on the game to resemble all of us...Lily got sooo excited to see "herself" on the TV screen. Her character had black hair with a pink bow on the side and big brown eyes - it WAS pretty cute. It was sad to see her get knocked out by her cousin in boxing...just didn't seem right. Today it was back to work, but the festivities pick back up tomorrow. We are traveling to spend Thursday thru Monday with Jay's family and have our Christmas with them. Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and I'll be back on Monday to try and catch up with everyone.
Enjoy the pictures and I'll catch you later! ( I do realize that some of these pictures are less than wonderful - I was, and still am, trying to figure out my new camera)...but I LOVE it!

Gentle reminder

John 3:16


For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.





If he never did another thing - that would still be more than enough.





But, he has done so much more.








I needed this reminder today.

This little light of mine!

Notice how she changes her mind on where her "stage" is located...too cute. Yes, my office is a mess...ignore that. Focus on her.

A Christmas Carol (?)

Lily has been singing Christmas carols NON STOP for the last couple of weeks, but this particular morning she changed the words a bit. I thought it was funny...love how she is just so busy with her gingerbread house/advent calendar!? Can't even glance up at me, just singin' and fixin' the windows. (All while she SHOULD be eating her noodles, mind you. ) That's my girl. Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. Still can't figure out how to transfer my video camera stuff to my computer, so for now all my videos will just be from my digital camera (poo poo quality, sorry).

Weekend Recap (continued)

Sunday morning began with Lily looking out her window squealing "Momma, wook! wook! wook at all da beautiful snowswakes! It's snow...it's my favowite season winta! Do you wike my season??" Now, as you know by now, I am NOT a winter girl, but I have to admit, I am enjoying HER season this year. Today was the day of the Santa Brunch with Santa Daddy and Lily could not wait! We put on her "elf costume" once again - for she had assigned herself Santa's helper and off we went. As soon as we were inside the restaurant, she tore off her coat and went running toward him yelling "Santa Daddy!!!!" She leapt into his lap and there she stayed...only moving to give the other kiddos their turn on his lap. ( I did have a talk with her too, and she called him Santa in front of the other kids, so nobody would be confused). She passed out candy canes like a good, little elf and wished the kids a "Merry Bwissmass!" Her cousins came, of course, nothing is really complete without them there to share it. And, her good friend Hallie came as well. She was a bit scared of the big guy at first (can ya blame her?) but, Lily held her hand and convinced her that everything was going to be alright. Santa (Daddy) Brunch 2007 was a success!

After all that excitement Lily CRASHED at my mom's house...she needed to get rested up for our family Christmas party at my Aunt and Uncle's house.

The party was great. My cousin and his girlfriend were there with their 6 month old daughter, Kayla. Lily decided that Kayla was her new best friend. She couldn't keep her eyes (or her hands) off of her. Luckily, she was extremely sweet and gentle. She told me "Kaywa reeyee yuvs me and I reeyee yuv her too." She kept commenting on how beautiful and soft she was. She was a little disappointed that Kayla couldn't play with her. So, after awhile she gave up and moved on to other things.

And, of course, she found Aunt Val's piano and just had to play a couple of tunes. She is VERY into Christmas carols this year. She will play her version of Jingle Bells and sing her little heart out.

We ended this wonderful day by driving past this extremely festive house and showing it to Lily. This picture only shows a portion of what is going on. There is Santa, his sleigh and reindeer, a choir, numorous snowmen, and about a zillion lights. Now, I am usually a conservative person when it comes to decorations, but to see it thru the eyes of a 3 year old changes everything. It was awesome.

Weekend Recap

Saturday we showed up for Lily's "concert" 45 minutes early for a quick practice and pizza party. Lily ran into the church asking "Where's my stage??" She was READY! Jay taped the kiddos rehearsing and I was laughing so hard through the whole thing that I didn't even get a good picture! Lily was a total ham...standing front and center singing with all her might, doing all of the right hand motions and just making us beam with pride. About half way through, she noticed that her dress had a underlayer of lace and she decided to inspect it (by lifting her dress up just about over her head!) I was glad that I had put on her fancy panties over her tights that day! Then it was time. Papa, grandma, Uncle Brian, Aunt Jody, and Lily's cousins arrived to see the show. Lily was chompin' at the bit to get back on stage again..."is it time yet? can I sing yet? now? now? now? I wanna sing.." I was like "wait a minute Lily, the pastor is still talking. just another minute, this little girl is playing a song on the violin. just another minute Lily and then you may go back on stage and sing." Finally the children's pastor invited all the 3 and 4 year olds back onto the stage. Lily looked at Jay and I and said "I don't want to" and promptly sat down on Jay's lap. The kids began to sing (without Lily) and I just sat there, stunned. My face probably turned 12 shades of red. I wanted to cry. I told myself to get a grip - she is 3. This is to be expected. I had prepared myself for the fact that she might pull something like this, right? (yeah, right!) Jay (with video camera in hand) was trying to make light of the situation saying "Where's Lily? I don't see her on the stage singing with the other kids. Where can she be? Uh oh, there are only 2 more songs left...where is Lily!?" With that, Lily sprang from his lap and ran up front, started (gently) pushing a little boy out of her way so she could be in the same spot she had stood for practice...looked out at the audience and said "Here I am, daddy!" She ended the concert with such enthusiasm and cuteness that my mom insisted that it made up for her absence during the first 2 songs. I have posted some pictures, even though I know that none of them are very good - red-eye, too dark, etc. etc. But I wanted to give you an idea of what we saw that night. Now if anyone could tell me how to transfer our video camera footage to our computer I would have some GREAT material for you! It was a wonderful evening, and it even started to snow - I mean REALLY snow. When we woke up yesterday morning Lily looked out her window to see eight inches of the white stuff and she was beside herself. "Wook momma, wook! Wook at all da snow and da beautiful snowswakes...I so essited!" The whole day was pretty magical. It was our annual trip to see "Santa Daddy"...to be continued. (otherwise this post will be way too long)

Favorite Photo(s) Friday

Just a few of my favorite "Christmas" pictures (so far) this year. Lily insisted on getting this green dress a few weeks back. She calls it her "elf costume"...she will be wearing it this Sunday when we go to the "Santa Brunch" at the restaurant where I work. For those of you (all 4 of you) who have been reading my blog for the whole year it has been in existance you may remember this brunch from last year. It is a good time... kids can come with their families for a delicious brunch and pictures with Santa. The really interesting part: my husband plays Santa. So, Lily has never believed in Santa. She believes in "Santa Daddy". She won't sit on any other Santa's lap. Actually, last year she wouldn't even touch Santa Daddy with a ten foot pole. She claims that this year she is going to be Santa Daddy's helper (thus the elf costume). She is going to hand out candy canes to the kids. She has made sure that we know she will also be keeping some of them for herself. It should be interesting.


Tomorrow evening is also a big event for us. Lily will be singing Christmas carols with the kids on stage at church. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I've seen her practice the songs and it is about the cutest thing ever. She sings so loud and does all of the hand motions with much enthusiasm. There are a couple of songs that she says she doesn't know the words to so she has decided that she will just DANCE during those...lots of spins and twirls. Oh, I hope she does this Saturday night. We will all be in hysterics! I am also prepared for the fact that she may just freeze and do NOTHING on stage. I know that I was a disappointment in that area on more than one occasion when I was younger. (running off stage in the middle of my piano recital is my mom's favorite story to tell). Anyway, that is what our weekend is looking like. Hope you all have good things lined up too.


Now, back to the pictures...the first one I've posted was from a "photo shoot" at my parent's house. This is not the photo they chose for their Christmas card, but it was my personal favorite...as you know, getting the perfect shot is not always easy when you're working with two senior citizens...oops, I mean 4 kids under the age of 8. hehe...kidding mom and dad! You know I love ya.


The second picture was AFTER the photo shoot - Lily lovin' on her papa...so sweet.



The other pictures were taken at our house. Lil was just checkin' out her favorite ornaments on the tree and telling jokes with her friend Mr. Snowman. I love the pic where it looks like he just told her a real zinger.

Stay tuned Monday for the scoop on how everything goes down!