Family Photos!

I was lucky enough to have my good friend Hollie offer to take (and I asked her to!) family photos. I was roomates with Hollie (along with 3 other girls!) my freshman year in a little dorm at Western Baptist. We became great friends and she was even in my wedding. She is a fabulous photographer and I love what she did! There were so many I'm not going to put them all on here, but here are a few of my favorites!

I LOVE this picture even though Lily isn't smiling. But that's just a classic Lily face to me!

Christmas card picture?!

I love this look on her face!

She looks like a happy little girl just walking down the street!

I realized I put more than a "few" on here, but I couldn't choose! And there are more too! Anyway, Hollie just started her photography blog so if you want to use her or just look at what she's done go to www.hollietakesphotos.blogspot.com Thanks friend for everything! We LOVE them!

Random Acts of "Lilyness"

I have a few pictures I took recently that don't really go with anything we're doing, so I thought I'd just post them as is!

Lily's hair is getting to be so long I love it! I'm not so creative with doing anything with it, just usually keeping it out of her face with a little clip or something. But once in a while I get the bug to put it up! She's learning now that she doesn't like me to do her hair, when before if I just gave her a toy she'd sit there so nicely and play with it. Now, anytime I come near her with a comb or anything she starts to shake her head back and forth really fast, like she's saying "no", and laughs while doing it! She knows I'm wanting her to hold still but she decides it'd be more fun to make me work and sweat at it! This girl is crazy! :) Anyway, this most recent time I decided to wait until she was eating her morning snack and she just sat there and let me do her hair. A couple of times she tried to pull at her pig tails and pull it out, but she just didn't quite figure it out. I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before she does it! Little girls are quite fun to dress and I sure hope I get more creative with hairdo's!

She rarely sits still long enough for me to snap a photo with her actually looking at me! I was quite thrilled with this!

Lily LOVES pasta and I find that I really don't make it enough for her considering how easy it is and how much she loves it! The other night I decided to just take her shirt off while she ate because I knew she'd be a disaster even with a bib on! Here she is enjoying her food:

Well,I guess she already ate the food, but you can see what she left behind! Not much!

I'm pretty sure she's mimicking me as I was telling her to say "cheese"!

Lily is switching back and forth from being a daddy's girl to a mommy's girl. The other night I was leaving to go to a girl's bunco group and Lily could tell I was getting ready to go and she was clinging to my legs and crying! She didn't want me to put her down and every time I tried she'd just cry even harder! It made me feel so loved! One of the times I picked her up I had the camera out and wanted to take our picture-it made her stop crying!

She's just staring at me! I wish she was looking at the camera! Maybe she was thinking that if she looks at me then I won't leave her! She was still crying in AJ's arms as I backed out of the driveway that night. Sad. But AJ said she was fine after a little bit!

And yesterday after church, Lily was barely eating her lunch. I'm thinking it's because she had a snack in the nursery and she was so tired she just needed to nap. Well, as she's eating lunch she sees her blanket sitting on the floor. She starts whining and saying "bay" (stands for blankie) and when I wouldn't give it to her she starts crying! I was trying to explain that when she's done eating she could have it otherwise she'd get food all over it. Of course she's not understanding what I'm saying and just cries even harder. So what do I do?

Yup. I gave in. This girl has got me wrapped around her little sticky fingers! I was trying to be careful of food and I put the blanket around her neck, like a shawl. She then grabs it and puts it on her head! You can even see the remaining tears in her eyes! And soon after this photo I gave up with lunch and put her down for a nap. She was asleep in 2 minutes!

That's all for now!

Lily...

A friend of mine captured Lily as she made her way down the aisle at Jeff and Andrea's wedding! I just had to add this on here because you could see her dress fully and her little wand that she carried with her! It was a proud mommy moment! :)

Lily's FIRST camping trip!!

We made it and didn't die! I was dreading this camping trip mainly because of Miss Lily. I knew it would be dirty and I wasn't sure how she'd do, but it was a great trip! Lily did SO well, I was amazed. She slept wonderfully through the night and took great long naps during the day-even with it being so hot! We try and take this camping trip once a year, but never made it last year. And the year before I didn't go because I was newly pregnant and didn't like the idea of camping and feeling sick-not a good mixture. Anyway, we all made it this year and went to Big Lake-right by Hoodoo. We went with a group of friends and of course my brother and sister and AJ's sister and her husband. I was really hating the idea of camping in a tent and trying to fit Lily's crib in there and everything else so AJ made a call and we were able to borrow a trailer from some friends from church! It was wonderful...except now I'm spoiled and I really don't think I'll be able to camp again without one! :) We left town Thursday after lunch and didn't get back until last night-with TONS of laundry to do! Here are some fun pictures ( I didn't take as many as I wanted because every time I wanted my camera it was always either in the trailer with a sleeping Lily or no where to be found! Oh well!) The first 5 minutes and she's got dirt everywhere-I'm not kidding! She wanted to eat the gravel-seriously?!

And a not so flattering picture of my FAT ankle! I've got "sweet skin" and always get attacked by mosquitoes. This was also the same day we got there and I ended up having a reaction to 1 bite and my foot was swollen the rest of the time!! Not fun. I also got bit right in the corner of my eye and it swelled over night. I looked like I got punched in the eye. Luckily, that didn't last long and was gone by the time we got home. I counted all of my bites last night after my shower at home and the total was 38. Yay for me.

Lily and Brody playing in her playpen. We needed to get stuff done and I was tired of chasing her around! It lasted for a good 10 minutes :) But it was so nice that there were other kids there for her to play with! Lily and Brody were the youngest (he turned 1 in June) and then there were to older boys who were 4 and 5. They all had fun!

Nice buns! This girl is my water "lily"! She loved playing at the lake and in the sand and everything else. I wasn't sure how she'd be, but she could spend all day there!

Playing so nicely with some fun beach toys (thanks for buying those mom!)

Our crew. We snagged this awesome spot right along the lake and had all our toys there. We had 3 jet skis to ride which made our camping experience even more fun!

Me and Lynn and our babies :)

AJ and his friend Josh (Lynn's husband) taking turns riding the jet ski.

And now it's my turn! Legally to drive one of these you have to have your boaters license. I really wanted to drive one, so 2 days before we left I quickly took the test online 2 times (I failed the first time but it's because I didn't even study! I just memorized what answers I got wrong and took it again and passed! I'm very tricky!

And I'm off

Lily being cute and floating on the water!

Don't worry-this is the start of her excited face!

We also got to take turns going tubing! That's me on the inner tube. I love it and had so much fun! The scary part is that if you aren't the one on the inner tube you have to ride behind the jet ski driver backwards and be the flagger! And by holding on to a tiny handle with a flag in your hand! So scary and fun at the same time!Lily playing with her daddy and loving it!

And here Lily is on our last day-right before we are about to leave she decides it'd be fun to play in the dirt. She is covered from head to toe and I'm pretty sure this is the dirtiest she was the whole camping trip-let alone in her life! We all made the decision to head to the lake for an hour before we had to pack up and head home and play some more. Plus it gave us an opportunity to rinse her off in the water!

One last close up. She was using her dirty hands to rub her eyes-which makes her entire face be covered in dirt! I just had to learn to be OK with it! :) We had such a fun time camping but I'm glad to be home with no more bug bite opportunities and to have a shower! Here's to next years trip! (Well, maybe.)

I'm so BLESSED....

To have this man...

as my husband! He is so sweet, caring, giving, loving, etc.! For our anniversary we said we wouldn't buy gifts because we went to Portland, but does he ever abide by the rules? NO! He surprised me with this beautiful, thoughtful gift:

Isn't it great?! He did this all by himself and thought of it by himself too. One night when I was gone, he bought some finger paints and had Lily do her hand and footprints on this frame! I loved it. As soon as he gave it to me I immediately started to cry! I don't know why, but ever since becoming a mom and having my daughter in my life I cry at everything! So of course this gift triggered those tears! Just a close up of the top halfAnd the bottom half. In the lower left corner, Lily's hand print isn't so recognizable! AJ said she kept wanting to close her hand with the paint on it and try to figure out what it was! I wish someone would've taken pictures of these 2 trying to paint! I'm sure it was a sight to see! I'm sure a lucky girl to have a husband like him! Now how am I going to live up to this gift and give him something extremely creative?! Oh no!

When Lily is away....we will play!!

AJ and I were able to spend a little weekend AWAY from Lily for the first time! I can't believe it took us 1 1/2 years to do it, but we were able to sneak away. Since our anniversary was during Andrea's wedding, we decided to wait until last weekend to do anything. So, Thursday morning we dropped Lily off at AJ's parents' house (thanks again!!!) for a long day I'm sure, then my parents took her the rest of the time (thanks again!!), and we were off to Portland! My dad was kind enough to get us a free, SWEET room at the Marriott hotel in downtown Portland that's right by the waterfront! It was amazing. Anyway, Thursday we went to Bridgeport and walked around, eat, saw the movie Get Smart (super funny) and read at Borders. During our "pre-Lily" days, we would always go to Borders for a date night to grab a coffee, sit in a chair and read a book for free! So we took advantage of this no Lily weekend and went to 3 bookstores! Crazy. All the pictures I have are pretty much the same format, me and AJ-he's holding the camera, etc. Hope they don't bore you out but you'll get the idea! Eating outside at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) it was soo good! And I had the best pineapple smoothie! It was super hot that day too and it was nice to sit outside!Reading in BordersAnd eating out again (you'll see lots of these eating photos!) at Claim Jumper! When we checked into our room, this fun fruit/cheese tray was waiting for us! The hotel did it since they knew it was our anniversary! We had some sparkling cider too. I definitely felt like the rich as I sat in bed drinking my cider in those fancy cups :)This is the view from our room! Isn't it beautiful?! Unfortunately, on Friday we woke up to this drizzly weather which bummed me out because we were going outside to explore Portland. Oh well, we made the most of it!And the other side of the window. That red bull stage you're seeing is for this little shindig they throw each year called the Flug Tag. And crazy teams make these "airplanes" and try to make them fly, but they just end up getting dunked in the water. This festival started the day we checked out which is sad because we had the best view! Here we are waiting for the Streetcar to take us to the Pearl District. The best part was that it's free! And AJ's being goofy -he kept making fun of me because I kept taking our picture. He would always ask "are you just doing this for your blog?" (which he never reads by the way!) and I'd reply "well of course!" He was a good sport though.No explanation needed :)We were embarrassed to take this picture of us riding, because all these people were on there that were clearly going to work and we didn't want to look stupid. Clearly we did though.
When we got to the Pearl District we walked over to Powell's Bookstore...It was quite the experience. This place is ginormous with wings and levels and everything full of books and weird people. I mean come on, we are in Portland :) And it smelled like hemp. We were there for a short time only! But I bought a book for $4.95! Score!
Our next stop was a gourmet cupcake place (thanks for the directions Wendy!)So excited to be at Cupcake Jones!The close up: A mocha chocolate creamy something good cupcake! At another Borders! We actually split up for a while (real romantic huh?!) because I wanted to shop at the Pioneer Place mall and AJ didn't, but I don't blame him! So this is how I found him when we caught up. After walking around some more we were quite tired and headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner. We decided to venture on over to the marina that's just across the street from our hotel. It was a cute atmosphere and I wish we'd discovered it sooner because they had great little restaurants and shops!

The marinaI wanted to take a picture of this sidewalk of shops/restaurants and of course AJ wanted to be a part of the picture. Can you see him?!Fun boats in the background. We decide to eat outside at McCormick and Schmick's and I was a bit chilly!Still at the restaurant...View from our table.

It wasn't the prettiest weather but it was mild enough we still had lots of fun! After dinner we walked around a bit and saw some true Portland people! AJ spotted this guy...

If you look closely, there's a CAT on his backpack just hanging out! We followed them for a bit trying to get a close up picture but we didn't want to be obvious! :) Then we thought, "does this guy know he has a cat on his backpack?" But sure enough, he did. WEIRD.Another room shot...hope it's not boring but it was the best view! This is the sun setting on the hills-beautiful!

After dinner we went back to change into our fancy clothes and headed over to Portland City Grill for dessert. We actually didn't get there until 9 pm! I felt like a young whipper snapper! :) We're usually relaxed in front of the TV at that hour so to be OUT was so fun! This restaurant is probably my favorite because of the view, ambiance, and everything else! It's a bit on the spendy side which is why we only had dessert there. Plus, it's more fun to be there when it's dark outside so you can see the city lights. This restaurant is on the 30th floor!Yes, I'm sportin' the bridesmaid dress again! We had so much fun at this restaurant and it was beautiful outside! Our waitress was so sweet that when she found out we were there for our anniversary, she brought out an extra dessert for free! As if 2 weren't enough! And she sprinkled rose petals on the table! So sweet!My dessert: A chocolate hazelnut cheesecake! I loved the representation-even the hearts in that chocolate sauce! Amazing.AJ's dessert: I don't know what it was called but it was chocolaty goodness!And the free dessert: A pear/cranberry bread pudding with caramel sauce-yum.
(And yes, we were even more embarrassed at this fancy restaurant taking pictures of our food!) And our LAST place of eating out was at Mother's Bistro for breakfast on Sat. morning. The best breakfast food and the place was so cute! I'd love to go there again the next time I'm in Portland.And this is the LAST view of our room for that Red Bull Flug Tag thingy. Look at all those people! I couldn't believe how crowded it got in the amount of time we left and came back from breakfast. I guess the news said there were 65,000 people there!

We had the best weekend away in Portland. It actually felt like we were on vacation yet we were still close enough to home. I would've easily stayed another night or 2! But I was definitely missing my baby girl and couldn't wait to see her. She looked extra tall to me too! They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and I fully agree to that statement! Thanks for your help with Lily Dan and Barb and Mom and Dad!This was taken the day we left for our little trip. I was loving on Lily and it looks like she was enjoying it too :)