Christmas Week: Day 3

Christmas eve is a tradition in my family, where we go to my Grandma and Grandpa's house and celebrate with my Mom's side of the family. My mom is one of 10 kids, so the place is a wonderful madhouse of Christmas Cheer!!! This year, we were all packed up a ready to go, but then Lilly decided to be up all night crying...weird, we thought, as it's so not like her. Around 4:30am I took her temperature, and found it over 106 degrees. In addition to freaking out, we took her to the ER and spent the morning there. Luckily, she was okay...just really bad ear infections. Needless to say, we didn't make it to my Grandma's for Christmas Eve, but I'd much rather have a healthy baby girl instead!

Christmas Week: Day 2

We began our Christmas celebrations with some close friends of ours...JoAnn and Jessie. We love them and they love our kids, so we are so blessed to have them in our lives! We had din din together and then Jacob and Lilly opened some presents. Jacob got a US Map puzzle that says the states names and the capitals. He totally loves it! Lilly got some princess gear, complete with a princess shirt, princess bag, and princess books. What a great way to start the Christmas season.

A Whirlwind Christmas Week

We had a busy Christmas week, filled with friends family and lots of FOOD!!! Check back each day this week for a play-by-play!

To kick things off, here are some pics of the kiddos by our tree. They were very excited for Christmas...this was the first year that Jacob understood the concept of Santa Claus, so he was pumped to be a good boy so Santa would come to visit. Lilly on the other hand, just really wanted to pull off all of the ornaments!

Watch out world...she's walking!!!

Christmas Photos

Today we got Jacob and Lilly's Christmas Pictures taken. They were troopers and the pics turned out pretty cute! Bring on the holidays!!!

She's Definately Getting "IN" to Everything!

Our darling daughter is such a scream when it comes to this "walking" thing! She can stand herself up in the middle of a room with no assistance (which the doctor laughs at and says "that's not normal"), yet won't walk. Nevertheless, she has made climbing one of her new favorite past times. We can't turn our back or she's litterally in a drawer or in the fridge! Hopefully this doesn't translate into her climbing out of her crib!

It's All in the Bag

It's funny to watch your kids go through phases...Jacob especially! His most recent "thing" is that he is obsessed with putting things into other things. He will spend hours and hours cutting up paper and putting the little pieces into bags, bowls, tupperware, you name it! He took his trick or treat bag and removed all of the candy so he could put his blocks into it....daily he asks for a Meijer plastic shopping bag to put...pretty much anything....into it. So funny!

Toddler Speak

It's so funny to have Lilly talking more. Granted we are deep in the realm of "toddler speak", but to the trained ear, quite adorable!

Halloween Festivities

As many of you know, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year! I love making the kids' costumes and taking part in all of our town's festivities. This year the kids were piles of leaves...which ended up taking WAY to long to make, but turned out really cute! This was a fun year because it was the first year that Jacob could really participate and understand what was going on. We started the day with the annual Buchanan parade, had lunch with a bunch of friends and then proceeded with trick or treating that evening. Lilly stayed with Nana and Papa during the treat or treat portion, but Jacob had a blast. We practiced the actual trick or treat routine (ie: go to the door, say trick or treat and then say thank you) at Nana's house first and then went all through town with Jacob's little girlfriend Lucy. It was so much fun! Here is the video from the trick or treating practice run and some pics of the kiddos in their costumes. Look closely because you almost can't see them in the yard :)

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

I can't believe that you're already one....you're growing into such an amazing little lady and we are so proud to have you in our family.  We love you so much!  Happy Birthday Lilly!

Lilly's 1st Birthday Party

Our little lady will be turning 1 on Tuesday, so this weekend we celebrated with her 1st birthday party!  The theme was lady bugs and Lilly was decked out in her ladybug attire from head to toe (and of course the bow!).  It was so great to see all of our friends and family and to have them there to celebrate with us!  I still can't believe my baby is one!

Our First ER Visit....no fun!

On Sunday, Josh was making hummus and cleaned out a can of chick peas and set it on the counter to go out to the recycling bin.  Before we knew it, Jacob had stuck his hand in the can and pulled it back out.  In doing so, he managed cut off the entire finger print area of his index finger.  I have never seen so much blood before!  We scooped up both kids, dropped Lilly off at Nana and Papa's and we rushed little man to the ER in Niles.  He did such a great job and was such a trooper...so much better than I ever thought he would do.  Since it was basically a circle cut out of his finger, they couldn't stitch it up or anything, we just needed to bandage it up.  Needless to say, Nurse Christy made her clinical debut and learned to tend to his poor little finger.  He's doing really well at this point, proclaiming "Look Mama, I made new skin!"  Here are some pics of the crazy bandaged finger:(

She's just getting so big....

We are counting down the days until Lilly's first birthday.  I can hardly believe she's almost 1!  She has definately turned the corner from being a "baby" to being on the brink of toddler status.  They just get so big so fast....

Window Watcher

We can hardly wait for Lilly to start walking, and she can hardly wait too so she can play outside with big brother! Since we currently don't have much of a yard to speak of, we are dealing with a bunch of mud, so crawling around outside isn't much of an option. Until she is safely navigating on two feet, she'll have to deal with being on the inside looking out. Soon girl....

Pumpkin Carving!!!

This past weekend we had a pumpkin carving party with some of our friends and it was a blast.  There were hay rides for the kiddos, great food and most importantly, PUMPKINS!!!!  We brought a pumpkin that we grew in our garden (which was way huge, but way fun).  Jacob and Lilly had a ton of fun!

Bear Hug

Does anything get better than a great big bear hug?

My Future Chef

Jacob and Lucy had a blast making cookies together!  Gotta love the aprons!

Bath Time

Lilly has gotten big enough that she can fend for herself and survive bathtime with big brother! Jacob was so excited to play in the tub with baby sister and wanted to help wash her hair, etc. He has the gentleness of any other three year ole (which is very little) but it was sweet watching him try. They both had a blast!

Hot Mess....'nuf said

Lilly's new Earrings

This weekend Lilly got her ears pierced! I wanted to do it before she knew enough to pull and tug on them, so the deal was, Josh got chickens....Lilly gets her ears pierced. The contract has now been fulfilled and they are just too cute!!! She did so well, too! I think I was the one that had the hard time. My mother-in-law and Aunt B went along for moral support and I was so glad that they came. You definately need someone else there to help distract while the deed is being done. Lilly cried for all of 2 seconds and then was on to looking at all the pretty jewelry in the store. (I had heart palpitations for most of the day) I have been pleasantly surprised that she doesn't even know they are there! She has yet to even touch them! I think they are just adorable and am so glad I got it done. We got her real diamond earrings for her first birthday, and in around 8 weeks we can take out the fakes and put them in.

We're Egg-static!!!

Eggs for sale....just kidding....but seriously though, this week has been a big week. Our chickens have officially begun laying eggs. We think it's just one of them at this point, but it's very egg-citing non-the-less!

Scarecrows

This weekend was the annual Scarecrow event. Every year the Buchanan Art Center hosts a "create your own scarecrow" event. They provide all the materials and you get to come and have a blast. The whole family joined in the fun, making a whole host of scarecrows! Lilly loved crawling through all of the straw and Jacob was more concerned with cleaning up the mess than actually builidng his scarecrow. It was still a ton of fun, and an event we look forward to every year!

Jacob liked the stuffing ...................Lilly was a fan of the straw

Then he got to cleaning ..........The whole gang and their scarecrows

The final result!!! Too cute!

Big Girl!!!

Lilly has gone from crawling and pulling up once, to spending the majority of her time on her feet. Her current favorite is looking in the baggie drawer or looking out the window to see the dog (another word she has added to her vocabulary!)

High Chair Time

A chair, a bib and a oneway ticket to a great big mess.....we should all be so lucky :)

Twice as nice

My obsession with bows has grown....bring on the pigtails!

YUM!!!

Papa always lets him lick the beaters!

Good Morning Sunshine

Some good 'ole fashion morning fun...hangin' out in Lilly's crib.

Boys Will Be Boys

Daddy is so proud, and Mama's having a heart attack...welcome to the world of raising a boy!

On Your Feet People!

Today, I was lucky enough to not only catch the act, but have my camera within arm's reach to capture the moment....Lilly pulled up and stood for the first time! Apparently there were some really cool things in the bath tub, because she crawled into the bathroom, got on her knees, and before I knew it, she was standing up to see what was in there! I'm a very proud mama today!