Let it SNOW!!

I looove snow! I love how pretty it is and how it's so quiet you don't even hear when it's snowing. I love it when everything is covered in white and the glow of Christmas lights on our house shines through the snow. It's so beautiful! And all those people out there that get snow all the time probably hate it :) But we don't get it often, so it's super fun when we do! Especially right before Christmas! Unfortunately, I'm not able to enjoy it that much with Lily because she is sick! I know she'd have so much fun playing in it, but is not feeling well at all. She's got a high fever, won't eat, and is just a lethargic little girl. It was a very long night last night! I hate it when my baby is sick. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into the stomach flu (because that's going around!) and that we can just get it all over and done with before Christmas! Anyway, just a few pictures of our little house in the snow!This is last night. So pretty!

Even Charlie's dog house is getting snow!And today. Our dog, Charlie, hates getting his feet wet. He's weird. But he actually enjoys the snow! A view of part of our backyard.

The front of our house

More of the front of our house

I was trying to show you all how deep it is in our yard! But, you can't really tell, oh well!

And a picture of Lily wearing my hat! She was insisting on wearing mine, and not hers. She looked pretty cute though. This was taken the night before she got sick. You can kinda tell she wasn't feeling well. I had no idea! Hopefully she'll get to feeling better and we can all enjoy the snow together!

Christmas Pictures

A couple weeks ago we (mom, dad, AJ, me and Lily) went to JCPenney's to get Lily's Christmas pictures done. I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing due to the TERRIBLE experience with her Halloween picture! This time I brought reinforcements-Nana and Papa! Lily did an amazing job too! We got some fantastic photos and she smiled so sweetly. The only thing is the photographer (who is a young gal) would take some pictures and walk away to help another employee with something! And she'd do it right when Lily was smiling up a storm! With an almost 2 year old-you've gotta just snap away because they don't last long! Oh well. The prices are good and we did get some fun shots!

Not the best copy of it-but it's copied from my mom's original. Still cute I think!

I LOVE this one, she looks so old to me! Maybe because she looks so tall-like her daddy!

And I LOVE this one too! She fanned her dress out all by herself. We didn't even tell her to do it! Luckily the photographer caught it just in time!

I can't believe Christmas is in 2 weeks! I haven't even started shopping! Uh oh! :)

O Christmas Tree...

"O Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches."

It's that wonderful time of year where we get to go pick out a Christmas tree! My sister has come with us since we've been married I think! It's fun that it is now a tradition for us. AJ loves it of course because he gets to be a man and cut the tree down. Lily had so much fun this year-since last year she was just a baby! She loved running all around and touching the trees. She liked sticking her nose up to them and smelling them too. It was pretty cute! Anyway, for the past 3 years we found this great tree farm not far from us on this sweet old man's property. He only charges $10 for Douglas Fir! So cheap! I'm glad we can pay little for a nice tree! I hate to think what all those other states like California or Hawaii have to pay! Here are a few pictures of our fun day:

Lily with her auntie Leandra. Yes, they are riding in the back of our truck. Please don't tell on me! It wasn't for very long I promise!

Lily running all her energy out! She took a great nap that day! Smelling the trees... Leandra's pick-which was not a good one considering it fell over in her house twice!! I'm hoping it was her cat that did it and not AJ putting it in her stand wrong! It hasn't fallen in the last 2 days though-phew!And our pick. Yes, I know my rubber boots are a hot fashion item! :)

AJ being a trooper and posing for me before he saws the tree down

And it's going....

And it's gone!

The finished product! I normally hate decorating the tree because AJ never helps me so it's me all by myself! But this time, he took Lily out of the house so I could do it in peace (and by myself again) but it was really nice! And I thought since we don't have our cats this year, our ornaments would actually stay on the tree. But I was wrong! Lily loves pulling all the little balls off and pulling the toppers off of them so they are all over my house. I had to think if I wanted to discipline her for doing this, but decided not to. I want the tree to be a fun thing for her too and I want her to be able to touch it without getting yelled at. So if you come to my house now, you'll just see the bottom half of the tree empty because Lily pulled all the ornaments off! Oh well! The joys of an almost 2 year old!

And all lit up! There's nothing like a dark room with only the lights coming from a Christmas tree!

Beach Weekend

The weekend before last, our little family of 3 took a quick get-away to our beach house! It was a beautiful weekend-just cold! I won't complain though! We got there Friday afternoon and hung out and relaxed. I also enjoyed watching the TLC channel because we don't have cable here at our house! Saturday after breakfast we headed down to the beach because it was so nice! Of course we're wearing our winter coats-but oh well! Here are a few pictures of the weekend:Lily playing with the game Jenga-but she just knows them as blocks!
I wish she'd smile! Notice our pink cheeks and noses! The heat was taking forever to warm up the house! But we managed! :) View from the deck Lily chasing after our dog Charlie

Charlie having the time of his life

This was Lily's first time at the beach! Well, since she can walk that is!

I love this-it's like she's contemplating her life or something!

My favorite! She is such a daddy's girl! And I love how they are my treasured loved ones and how they are both looking out at this massive ocean that God created!

Another sweet picture It was such a beautiful day!

We had a great time, but it was a lot of work for 1 night with 1 child! She also really wanted to go INTO the ocean! She didn't understand that she couldn't and was quite mad at me when I wouldn't let her get wet. But I guess it's like a big swimming pool to her! I was literally chasing her all over the beach just so she wouldn't go in the water. I know you're all thinking that I should have let her go in, but she'd get soaked and it was COLD! We still had fun though! Saturday early afternoon AJ and Lily left and my girlfriends showed up for the next night! My friend Jami is getting married this month and her and the rest of the bridesmaids met me at the house for her bachelorette weekend. It was so much fun and of course I forgot to take pictures! We shopped, ate out, did pedicures and watched girly movies. My kind of weekend! I can't believe it's December already! Here's to the Christmas season!