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.

Thanksgiving

I have always celebrated Thanksgiving at either my parent's house or Gus's parent's house. So, I was a little nervous about Thanksgiving this year. I honestly thought I would have a couple nervous breakdowns without my family nearby, but it turned out just fine.

We drove down to Richmond and spent the day with Gus's Aunt Patty, Uncle Glen, and cousin Amy. Also in attendance was KA, MJ, Jake, and their friend Laura. We had a great time with everyone. We talked, chased Lilly around the house, ate delicious food, chased Lilly around the house more, played the player piano, tried to keep Lilly's hands off the gingerbread house, and played cards while Aunt Patty played with Lilly (thank you so much Aunt Patty!). Gus's Grandpa "Pop Pop" and his wife Betty Sue even came over later for a little pie. It was wonderful.

Amy, KA, and MJ

Playing the player piano with Uncle Glen

Making necklaces with Dad'n

Being snugly with Jake

All day MJ tried to make Lilly say her name. When we ask her to say MJ she says, "KA".

Lilly LOVED Pop Pop. When he got there Lilly followed him around the house yelling, "Pop Pop", and wanted to show him everything.

Preschool Time

Lilly is a little too young for me to be sending her off to a preschool but I wanted to start teaching her the alphabet and other school things just to get her excited about learning. So we have been having "Preschool Time" every morning. My preschool and daycare experience have definitely come in handy over the last couple of weeks. We sing songs and do a craft.

Craft time is definitely Lilly's favorite thing. She loves to squeeze glue everywhere and cut paper with her little scissors. She can make a HUGE mess in no time.

She can also sing the ABC song. Well, kind of. She sings, "A B C B E F J" and then stops because she cant remember the rest. Its very cute and amazing to me that she learned it so fast.

So we have been working on our alphabet and hadn't quite made it to numbers when I found out that we may not need to. On our way to the grocery store on Saturday Lilly started counting and made it all the way to 10. She didn't even make any mistakes. I have no clue where she learned it.

Cookie Making

Last weekend Lilly and I made sugar cookies. She loved to help measure the ingredients, roll out the dough, and use the cookie cutters. But her favorite part was frosting her cookie and shaking on the sprinkles. She sat on the kitchen floor for about an hour playing in the frosting, tasting her cookie, and pouring sprinkles EVERYWHERE.