Cheerios

Lily's new favorite thing is Cheerios. This girl is so picky with food, whenever she wants some I gladly give them to her! It's pretty much the only thing she'll eat for breakfast-and she likes it dry, just in a little cup. Weird. Her other favorite thing to do with them is pour them into other containers. She loves sorting them out and putting them in her dish, or cup, or even my candle holder!

Here she is focusing hard on pouring them from her cup into the votive holder.

She was so happy that she's holding them up for me to see (I just accidentally cut that part off!)

And then this is what usually happens by the time she's bored eating and sorting them....all over my floor! But she's good about helping me pick them up! The things she finds for entertainment! Who needs toys when you have cups and cheerios?!

Picture Disaster

Yup. Disaster with a capital D! I had this grand idea to take Lily (I guess I wanted it to be a tradition) to get her picture taken in her costume every year for Halloween. The Picture People is always sending me a coupon for a free 8x10 photo. So, of course, I can't pass that offer up! I should've known it'd be a disaster from the moment I made the appointment. I was hoping for an appt. at 10:00 or earlier if they were open, but the earliest they could do was 11:10. So, I reluctantly took it. We get there on time and there are only 2 people working. One was already taking pictures and another was showing pictures to a mom who couldn't decide what to get! We were the only ones waiting (thank the Lord my mom and dad were there to help me!! I couldn't have done it without them!) and Lily was running all around the lobby of this place playing with the props and being a toddler. We waited for 15 minutes and Lily was pretty much done by then. We change her into her costume and the guy shows her how she should sit on the mat. And Lily actually did what he said! Then of course we're standing behind this guy trying to make this girl smile and she is just staring at us. I couldn't for the life of me think of ways to get her to smile! I was thinking back to the days of when she was a baby and when we were taking pictures we'd make silly noises or clap our hands. Lily just stared. Then she starts to get up and says "all d" (her way of saying all done) and is walking towards me. We try props, poses, me standing near her but not with her because I don't want to be in the picture! We tried everything. And we got nothing. The guy took 4 pictures. One of which Lily is completely crying with a tear down her face and everything. My mom got that one-it is quite cute I have to admit. So the picture below is as good as it's gonna get!

But isn't her poodle outfit the cutest?!! Her little behind is padded near the tail and when she is walking it waddles back and forth! It's adorable! You can tell by the look in her face she is in the midst of saying "all d" and is starting to get up. At least the guy snapped it so you can kind of see her costume. SIGH. Oh well. Christmas pictures should be interesting as well. This girl just can't sit still! Hopefully by her 2nd birthday in 4 months she'll be able to sit long enough to capture a cute smile! This was a Halloween picture I will most definitely remember! Thanks mom and dad for your help again and for purchasing her costume :)

Pumpkin Patch

This last weekend we went with our good friends, the Pipers, to the local pumpkin patch. It was so much fun! Lily had a fabulous time playing with the Piper boys and running around looking at the animals, pumpkins, hay rides, etc. The weather was a bit chilly in the beginning but by the time we left it was quiet warm outside. Yay for no rain! Here are some fun photos of the day:

Checking out a baby cow. She wouldn't go close to any of the other animals. But she did cluck like a chicken when she was looking at them!

I love this picture even though her eyes are closed! She just looks so happy!

Cute Tucker

Climbing on hay with the Piper boys

Driving a tractor with daddy's help

Riding on the hay ride. Funny story: We are all packed on this ride and it takes forever for us to even start moving let alone it's a tractor pulling us so we are going SLOW. Well, Lily wants to get off our laps and walk on this ride so bad that when we tell her she can't and force her on us she just cries. She's the ONLY child crying on the ride and everyone is staring at us! Awesome. We couldn't wait till it was over so we could get off!

She loved running through the corn maze. This was where we got off from the tractor ride. Needless to say, we didn't get back on it but went through the whole maze to get to the front of the pumpkin patch!

Lily's way of "hugging" Brody! Too cute. Brody is 4 months younger than Lily.

This is a tunnel slide and it was pretty long and fast-for a 1 1/2 year old that is! Lily LOVED it. It's hard to see her face but she was smiling so big. The first time she went down I was at the bottom to catch her and the look on her face was priceless-she was pretty unsure about it! But as soon as I set her down she said "more" over and over. At one point we had Lily and the Piper boys do a train down the slide; as in Brody was first, Lily was behind him and Tucker behind her! They laughed and laughed! I just wish I would've gotten a picture but I was in charge of catching them all!

Lily waving bye-bye to the hay ride that she hated so much!

This is the hay ride she was waving too

Some fun music that Lily liked dancing too!I love this picture-but too bad AJ's eyes are basically closed! Oh well!Me and my baby girl who doesn't look so happy :)

We had such a fun time and I can't wait to go again next year! Be watching for some photos of Lily in her Halloween costume-it's so cute! :)

Victory!!

Remember back a few months ago I talked about the need for me to get in shape and run and lose 10 pounds and stuff? (See post on June 26th). Well, I'm proud to say I've accomplished my goal!! I finally lost that last pound a few weeks ago and am just now getting around to blogging about it! I've noticed a huge difference in the way I feel, I have more energy (most of the time!) and it's just great! My awesome friend and running partner, Anna, is my motivation. Because without her there's no way I'd be getting up in the morning BEFORE Lily is awake and actually go running! We were quite slow at first but have definitely picked up speed and we are running (some walking) about 2 1/2 miles! We're feeling good! Anyway, before I even got to this point I needed a little carrot at the end to make me want to lost weight. My sweet husband suggested $100! So, yes, of course I took him up on that! Well, one day a few weeks ago I come home from something and laying on the counter was this sweet card:

And inside was $100 cash! In case you can't read the card in the picture it says this:

"You did it! You lost 10 lbs! I'm really proud of you and your self control and dedication. You look great too! Very hot and pretty and beautiful etc. etc. Xooxooxxooxx....x Love, AJ" (Isn't he the cutest?!)

He is so sweet and I honestly wasn't going to care if I got the money or not, I was just glad I reached my goal. But he was insistent on me taking it and said I can only buy stuff for me and not him or Lily. So I did! I bought a few shirts a couple pairs of pants and I got a massage! It was wonderful! Now my goal is to maintain this weight and just keep exercising! It's gonna be hard to do once the rain starts! Guess we'll be wearing hats then huh Anna?!

Cutie Patootie

I just had to post some pictures of Lily in her cute outfit she wore to church on Sunday...

She's striking a pose! This outfit was given to me/her at one of my baby showers from my Aunt Karen. I remember opening this outfit up thinking how ginormous it looked! And now my little girl can wear it! Time flies! And another shower gift that Lily can finally wear. My mom bought this cute coat for her that easily velcros closed so Lily can do it. Not the best picture of her . . . I'm still trying to teach her how to smile on cue!

And later that day . . .

She decides to throw a tantrum of some sort. She was so mad she threw herself on the floor and just lays there crying. I thought it was quite funny so instead of freaking out about it I took the camera and snapped her picture! I'm such a good mom :)

Thief in the Night

I know I've talked about this before, but Lily is obsessed with her little blankie and baby doll. So much so that it goes EVERYWHERE with us. She's pretty good about leaving it in the car when we go to the store or to church-mainly because I don't want her to take it in the nursery with all those germs (I'm a freak, I know!) Anyway, I literally have to wait until she's asleep at night to take these precious gems of hers and wash them! So, a couple nights ago I decided I needed to wash them. I waited for about 30 minutes after she was asleep and I tiptoed in her room like I was a thief! I took a survey of where these items were and found the baby easily. The blankie, on the other hand, was tucked underneath her! I was a little worried of waking her but I needed to do this. I just grabbed it slowly and pulled as gently as I could until it became free! And voila'! I got both of the items! Here is a picture BEFORE they were washed: I know you can't really see how dirty it is in this photo, but trust me, it was bad!

And here is the AFTER picture:

Again, probably looks the same as the before photo, but it's not, I promise! The blankie is a little bit fluffier and the baby looks more happy now that she's cleaned! It's pretty ridiculous that I literally have to steal these things just to wash them! Oh well right? One day I'll look back at this moment in our lives and tell Lily all about the times I had to take her baby and blankie in the night just so I could wash them!

(Taken a while ago)

And here is the cute girl holding her precious items-and while eating!

FREE

I like free things! This website is giving away a handbag! Check it out and choose one to take home if they choose you! Click on this link: http://www.handbagplanet.com

Fall is in the AIR!

I LOVE Fall! I think it has to be my favorite season. There's just something about seeing all the changes in the weather, the trees and the leaves turning different colors. God sure knew what He was doing when He created this world! I love the Fall to wear sweaters and jeans, go to high school football games (well, that was easier before we had Lily!) drink apple cider or hot chocolate, snuggle by our wood stove and decorating for Fall!

This is just the mantle. I've got other decorations around our family room and living room but didn't want to bore you with all those pictures! So you just get one :) Homemade apple crisp that I made with apples from our apple trees out back! It was so fun to go picking which apples I wanted. I definitely felt like a country girl!

Our beautiful little tree in our front yard. I just love the colors of the leaves right now. This was taken a few days ago and today I noticed a ton of leaves already have fallen on our grass! That's the part I don't like-raking the fallen leaves!

I know corn is more of a summer thing, but my mom brought us some fresh corn from the farmers market so we cooked it up that night. Lily wanted to eat it off the cob instead of us shredding it off and letting her feed herself. And of course AJ had this grand idea to eat at the same time with her! It was funny and made for a good picture opportunity :)

Those are a few of my favorite Fall things....what are yours?