Happy Birthday Lily!!!!!! We love you!!!!!!

Today is Lily's 1st Birthday! I can barely believe that it has been a year already. Yesterday evening Jim and I were thinking back to the day before she was born, when I started having labor pains at the house and we were getting so excited because we couldn't wait to meet our little girl whom we had been talking to for the last 9 months. Then when we went to the hospital and everything that happened afterwards. It was a very exciting and emotional time. We just feel so thankful and blessed to have Lily in our lives. She makes everyday brighter than the last and she brings smiles to everyone she sees!

Saturday, August 22nd is when we had her party. It was a fun day! Lily took her nap that morning and woke up just as people were starting to arrive, it worked out perfectly. She enjoyed everyone being here and loved all the attention. She particularly liked it when we all sang Happy Birthday to her. She enjoyed opening her presents w/ my help and seeing all her new toys and clothes and books! Then she got to have her little cake...it was funny, at first she wasn't so sure what she was supposed to do with it. Then she put her finger in it and got some icing on it and held it up to me like she wanted me to wipe it off. :) It was cute. Afterwards when I was wiping her off I realized that she was all broken out on her face and her arms where the icing had gotten. She was all itchy to....so there was something in the icing that she was allergic to. We went ahead and gave her a bath so we could make sure we got it all off of her and after a couple of hours she looked a lot better. She stills has a couple of red places on her face. We are going to call the bakery tomorrow to see what all the ingredients are.

We took hundreds of pictures on Saturday, I have tried to pick out some of our favorites to post..... Thank you to everyone for helping us make this a special day for Lily!









fun fun!!


Singing Happy Birthday!

Blowing out her candle!

I have something on my hands Mommy! please wipe it off!!

yumm!






Her face is all broken out from the icing in this pic! poor baby

Lily's 1st Birthday Photo Shoot!!!!

Jim took these photos a couple of weeks before the big day. We are so happy with how they turned out. She had alot of fun during this photo shoot....she was laughing alot at silly Mommy dancing all around! :-)

Taking a Few Steps and Mooing! :) (from August 15th)

Lily's New Trick

I have moved her little chair to a safer spot now! :-)

Lily's New Favorite Thing To Do

Lily loves to hold our fingers and walk all around the house. I think if we could hold out she would do it for hours! :) When she gets the urge she will come over to one of us and grab our fingers and start pulling them up in the air....her way of saying "get up and walk w/ me!!!" You will notice in the video she walks very fast it was hard for me to keep up w/ her and Jim w/ the camera.

Lily Feeding Herself w/ a Spoon for the FIRST Time!!!

A few days ago on August 10 I thought I would let Lily try feeding herself for the first using a spoon and a bowl. It went very good, much better than I would have imagined for the very first time. She liked her little spoon and I would help her by putting the sweet potato on there and then she would put it in her mouth. She liked it and knew just what to do. It was alot less messy than her eating w/ her fingers. So each night for dinner since then I have been letting her practice with her bowl and spoon! It is so exciting for me to see her learning all these new things. I can't believe my baby is almost a year old. It has gone by soooo fast. I enjoy each and every day with her and with Jim.

Lily Is Walking!!!!!! (11 1/2 months old)

Today Lily took her first steps!!!!! We are so proud of her! This evening I sat her in her little chair and turned around to get something, when I turned back she was standing up and taking a step. It was so cute to watch. She took 4 or 5 steps before stopping and getting down on her knees. I was so excited for her. When she was done she turned to see if I was looking and we both celebrated! She was very excited at her accomplishment!!! The video camera happened to be a few feet away so I sat her back in her chair and turned it on and she took a couple of steps on camera for me. She tried several more times, and a few of those times she took several steps and then she would get excited and fall down. We'll keep practicing and I'm sure she will be a pro in no time!!!! YAY LILY!!!! We love you sweetheart!!!! <3

In this video is one of the tries where she took a couple of steps.

Sweet, Sweet Lily!!!

I can tell everyday that Lily is growing and learning. She has been blowing us kisses for awhile now, but yesterday was the first day that she put her hands at her mouth and blew us a kiss. It was so adorable. I wish I could have captured it on video! Also lately she has gotten very good at throwing us the ball. She absolutely loves this. We will roll the ball to her and then she will throw it back to us. She is very good w/ her aim and distance. Also last night Jim and I were playing with her upstairs in the loft before her bedtime and she was having the best time. I was laying on the floor and I told her to come over and give Mommy a hug and she crawled over, came right up to my face and laid her head on mine so that I could give her a kiss. It was so sweet! Then she sat up and blew me a kiss. It just melted my heart! Another thing I need to get on video is of us holding her hands and walking her around. The steps she makes is just too cute. I will try and do that soon!


Lily loves to go outside. Below she was standing at the door watching it rain and hoping one of us would take her outside....and of course we did. We sat out on the lanai and watched the rain and talked about the thunder. She has been saying the word "sky" now for a week or so.

Lily pool time! She loves the water!
and then she gets distracted by all the grass! she ended up almost putting a mushroom in her mouth. It was time to go in then! :)

Her links...aka her favorite toys!

Busy, Fun Week....and Another Tooth!!!

Last week was busy but lots of fun! Chelsea and Courtney came to stay with us a few days and we had a great time. Lily loved playing and talking with them! We are so glad they were able to come this summer before school started back! We stayed busy doing a craft project, going to the park, making cookie icecream sandwiches, and playing games! They went back home on Saturday and then Mom and Dad arrived. On Sunday Mom and Jim flew to Milwaukee to see a Braves game. It was just going to be a day trip, but ended up being overnight when their flight got canceled. They had a great time though! Dad stayed here with Lily and I while they were on the trip. We had a great time. Lily loved spending some extra time with Granddad as did I.
Also Miss Lily has another tooth that has come through. It is her 5th (left 3rd on the top)!! Below are some photos from the past week!

Lily climbing into her little toybox!


Courtney, Lily, and Chelsea at the park!


The girls posing in the backyard!


Our yummy French Fry Pizza from a local pizzeria!! yummo!!!

Mom getting ready for takeoff!!!


The sweetest, happiest, little girl in the world!!!!


Both of my sweethearts!!!

Pushing Dolly!!

This is a cute video of Lily pushing Dolly in her stroller. Also you will notice that she is holding a link in each hand. Those are her favorite things right now. She loves them! She likes to hold them in her hands while she crawls. You can always hear her coming....clank, clank, clank against the tile floors. :-) Lily is doing good with her practicing walking and she can balance very good all by herself. I don't think it will be too much longer before she is walking on her own!!!

Lily's First Vacation!!!

July 13-16th we went down to Boca Raton and stayed at the Boca Raton Beach Resort. It was a beautiful place. We stayed in a Bungalow and we had so much space...over 950 square feet. On our way back on Thursday we were able to stop by and visit one of my best friends Leslie who I have not seen in forever and we had such a nice time catching up!


Lily was checking out the new place!

cute baby!!

Right after she woke up...she had on her big girl pj's! :)

We were at our Cabana....Lily was taking it all in from her crib!

Our Cabana view! The cabana was wonderful.....it was fully equipped w/ a tiled bathroom w/ a shower, frig, tv, radio, dining table, ceiling fan, sink, butler service, and a spectacular view! Loved it!!!



Daddy and Lily on the beach!

Lily's first time in a big pool!

She thought the float was interesting!

Mommy and Lily having fun in the pool!


Lily's first time on a shuttle bus....she thought it was neat!

After our day on the beach Lily got some sunscreen in her eyes....I felt so bad for her. The were swollen and it hurt her to open them. She just mostly felt around for things. :(

My Frozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity's!!! Yummmm!!!

Our friend Gary and his family were also staying at the resort!

On our way back we stopped and saw Leslie and her family! This is Hannah w/ Lily!

and here is sweet little Eli!

All the girls!!!

Lily Playtime!!!

This is a cute video of Lily blowing us kisses! At the beginning of the video she gets very excited...which is cute. Later she says "Hey" and recently when she points to the ceiling fan she moves her hand(s) round and round like the fan.