Weekend at Pop Pop's

This weekend we took a trip down to Richmond to see Grandpa Henshaw (Pop Pop) and Betty Sue. Lilly had a great time helping herself to the candy from the crystal candy bowls every chance she could get. She was even caught a few times stuffing candy into her pockets.

On Sunday, after church, we bundled up and took a walk around the farm. We visited the beagle dogs and chickens, ran wildly through the open fields, found the pond Gus was baptized in, and took lots of pictures.

Later, Aunt Patty and Amy came over for lunch. Then we packed our bags and left for home. It was a fun trip.

Lilly loved giving Pop Pop and Betty Sue hugs
Aunt Patty gave Lilly a cute monkey book

Lilly's amazing smile

Getting her mittens stuck on the thorny branches

Another amazing smile from Lilly

Christmas 2008 Part 2

After our stay in Utah we drove to Idaho to spend time with my family.

We opened MORE presents

Ate suckers at Great Grandma Arnold's house

Jumped on the trampoline for 45 minutes straight at Great Gran's house

Loved on Great-Gran

Loved on "Ga Ga"

Loved on "Granna"

Loved on"Bray"

Loved on "Jay"

Loved on the cats

Played with Cousin Chloe

Played in the massive amount of snow

Got pulled on the sled

Played with cousins

Realized that there isn't much of a height difference between these three. Berkley-almost 4 Brinley- just turned 3 Lilly- just turned 2

Gus loved riding the snowmobiles with the boys.

I also had a great time even though there is not ONE picture of me while we were there.

Christmas 2008

Well I don't even know where to start, so I'll just jump into to. We got back on Sunday from our almost 2 weeks vacation to Utah and Idaho. We had such a fun time, but we were definitely ready to come home. When we walked through our front door Lilly ran inside saying, "Nee Nee's house!" "Nee Nee's couch!" "Nee Nee's toys!" and on-and-on about everything in the house. She really missed being at home.

The airplane ride to Utah was flat out horrible. It will be a long time before I fly with Lilly again. She screamed for almost two hours. She was tired, it was late, and she just couldn't get comfortable in daddy's lap. It was not a fun 5 hours.

We stayed in Utah for the first few days of our vacation. Lilly loved playing with her long lost cousins, getting into the girls makeup, snuggling with "Ga Ga" and "Granna", watching the dog play in the snow out the window, waking up at 4 am every morning, singing karaoke, making food with Granna, playing the piano, singing songs all day long, and playing with her aunts. It was just a great time.

Lilly got into the girls mascara at least once a day

On Christmas Eve, the kids acted out the Nativity. Lilly was pretty tired but she managed to sit down for a minute so we could get some pictures. Then the kids opened their jammies.

Christmas morning Lilly loved opening all of her presents, and a few that weren't hers. Her very favorite gift was the big bag of gum from KA.

Jolly Old Saint Nick

Friday night was our ward Christmas party, and as promised there was a "special visitor" in attendance. Gus and I had been prepping Lilly for days hoping that she would enjoy her experience on Santa's lap this year. I figured she would do okay because she has a special love for old men and grandpas. Fortunately, I was right. She didn't mind sitting on Santa's lap one bit, and she loved the candy cane (kee kane) that he gave her. She talked about Santa (Ta Ta) all weekend long, and on Sunday when we told Lilly it was time to get ready for church she could hardly contain herself. She ran around the house yelling, "Ta Ta! Ta Ta!" She was pretty disappointed when Santa didn't show up at Sacrament Meeting.

Santa giving Lilly a "kee kane" with a card.

Lilly's not sure about Santa touching her arm...

A Day At The Park...Finally!

The weather warmed up just enough yesterday for us to get out and go to the park. It's been so cold lately! Here are a few pictures from our outing.

Lilly's House

Last week Lilly started climbing out of her crib - the end of naps and my alone time as I knew it. I had a good cry and then I had Gus convert the crib into a toddler bed. We moved everything out of Lilly's room except for her bed, rocking chair, lamp, and noise machine.

The next four days involved a lot of yelling and crying from both me and Lilly. I asked friends and family for their advice on how to get Lilly to stay in her bed. Nothing seemed to work. I would leave her in her room for hours and she never cried, she would just talk and play with everything that was left in her room.

She stripped her sheets off her bed and made a bed for her and Kat on the floor. She played in the blinds. She made a fort from the cushions off the rocking chair. You name it, she did it. Everything except sleep. Even though I baby-proofed her room I was afraid she was going to get hurt.

So, on the third day during nap time I started putting her back in her bed every time she got out. Four hours later and 75 times back in bed I knew it was going nowhere and so I gave up. The fifth day was more of the same with multiple trips back to bed and still no nap. As the days went by, she got more and more tired because of the lack of naps.

I finally told Gus that he was going to have to eat $80 and buy Lilly a crib tent. I would have spent $800 on the stupid thing. It was exactly what we needed. We call it "Lilly's house" and she loves it. The first nap time we put her in it she seemed relieved and fell right to sleep. It has been bliss ever since. Now maybe we can keep her in a crib until she is 10.

Oh Christmas Tree

Gus and I have never had our own Christmas tree until this year. I can't decide if it's because Gus is so cheap, or because we've never had room for one. Well, this year we have absolutely NO room and Gus is cheaper than ever. Honestly, I don't know how I suckered him into buying us a 6.5 ft pre-lit Christmas tree for $35 from Walmart, but I did. Come to think of it, it may have been because it was so darn cheap!

Well, Lilly absolutely loves it. She helped us decorate it (until she started throwing the ornaments everywhere). Now that it is decorated the way I want it she continues to redecorate it every day. Every morning she wakes up, plugs in the tree, and claps yelling, "Yay Ni Ni!" I know I shouldn't let her plug it in, but what the heck? She would do it anyway no matter how many times I yell at her. Alas, I give in and hope that she doesn't electrocute herself.