Lily turns 2 !!!

Dinner at Red Robin

Dinner at Red Robin

Look at my new shopping cart and Pop-Onz toys!

I'm a Fairy Princess- Thank you Fiala family!

We celebrated Lily's 2nd birthday today! It all started with Justin and I waking her up to sing Happy Birthday. She came into our bed and was laying on my pillow and I looked at her and said "Happy Birthday Lily!" and she replied "Thank you Mommy!" I just can't believe how much she has grown up since last year. She helped Justin and I make cupcakes to take to her daycare (complete with pink frosting and sprinkles!) and we took her out to dinner at Red Robin. We had a great time celebrating as a family.

We are so excited for the years to come and look forward to sharing many more exciting stories. We love you Lily! Happy Birthday to our Princess!

What a big day! I'm exhausted :)

Polite and Caring

Lily has really taken well to learning manners. She is great with "please", "thank you", "excuse me", and even "bless you". What has just cracked us up lately is when Justin or I will cough or if I hurt myself she will say "You OK Mommy/Daddy?" I just love it. She is our little mother hen :)

It's Potty Time!!

Justin took Lily last night to Babies'R'Us for her first potty! Of course it had to be Elmo! When I got home, Lily wanted to try it out. We took her diaper off, she wanted her magazine, and practiced wiping and flushing…the whole bit. She went through all the motions but no action.

So, this morning she woke up and Justin asked her if she wanted to go potty. I was a bit irritated since I had to get ready for work, and the night before it was a lot of pomp and circumstance with the diaper, etc. and Justin and I are not focused on actually "potty training" her until after the our CA trip. Anyway….she sat down again, with her magazine of course and I told her to stay seated (thinking that if she hangs out a while, nature might take it's course). I went to her room to throw away her wet diaper and I hear "Mommy, I pooped!" Not thinking that she actually did, I went into the bathroom and she DID!!! It was great! One less messy diaper to change!

We had a big cheer and parade around the bathroom and she was so proud of herself.

Of course, now all she wants to do is "potty" :)

Conversation with Lily...

This weekend we went to the lake house. Lily always has the best time there...out on the "mule" riding with Papa, and exploring the surroundings with her Daddy. Erwin and Justin had taken her with them to get some things done outside and when she came back, we had the following conversation....
Mom- Did you go on the tractor?
Lily- Yeah
Mom- Did Daddy take you on the tractor?
Lily- Yeah
Mom- Did you go out in the woods?
Lily- Yeah
Mom- Did you see any animals?
Lily- Yeah
Mom- What did you see?
Lily- Deer!
Mom- Was the deer eating?
Lily- Yeah
Mom- What was it eating?
Lily- CHEESE!

Now...if you know anything about Lily by now, she LOVES cheese! I could not help but crack up that she just assumed that since she loves cheese, that deer must love it too!

P.S. Lily only rode on the tractor with Daddy to move it to another place. They didn't actually ride out in the woods :-) Mommy would have had a FIT!

Jake & Sam time in CA!

We just returned from a trip to California for Phil & Lauren's bridal showers. It was a great trip and Lily had such a good time with cousin Jake ("Dake") and Sam. They went to "Jump 'n' Jammin' " and played in the backyard on the slip'n'slide, among other things. Enjoy some pictures of her time with Jake and Sam. We miss you guys already!!

In Mommy's shoes

Lily loves to get into Mommy's closet and try on shoes. What can I say? The girl loves shoes like her mommy! :-) Check her out in her "high heels" and jammies!

Day at McCoy water park

Last Saturday, Lily and I went to McCoy Park in Independence. They have a great water play area for the kids and Lily had a blast! It was a hot day, so we decided to venture out in the morning and play for a couple of hours before the heat really hit. We will definitely be going back!
Here are some pictures of the fun.

19 months

This month has been so much fun. Lily has really started trying to have a "conversation" with us and we have realized she likes to have 'choices'. Like her daddy, she does not want to be told what to eat/wear/do. She wants to decide for herself! :)
One of her favorite things to do as a part of her bedtime routine is ask me to "pat you?" She loves to be rocked and patted on the back. I love every minute of this and know it will not last forever.
Lily is also learning her ABC's! She can get up to "G" with the exception of "F" which she sings as an "ah" sound :) She is consistently singing them around the house. It's really cute to hear her get so excited to learn.

Daddy's Race Day!!

With the Bolinger men
The pit crew
At 155mph!
Daddy and his cheerleader

Lily and Grandma Losie

On Sunday, Justin was able to "race" 20 laps around the KS Speedway at a top speed of 155 mph! It was his 30th birthday gift from Lily & I and his parents. We had a great time, and we loved having the whole family there- including Grandma & Grandpa Losie, along with our friends.

Grandma Bolinger made Lily a "race day" outfit to cheer on her daddy! She looked adorable- like a true NASCAR cheerleader!

Thanks to everyone who was able to join us. The day could not have been better!

Hanging with the cousins

Last Friday we went up to visit Chris, Carissa, Maryanna, Powell and Lola. It was a perfect summer evening- not humid and relaxing. We all had a great time! Especially Lily...she just loves her cousins. I think she talked about this day all weekend...in one form or another. She loved playing with all of their cool toys and just hanging out. Here are some cool shots of the evening. Thanks guys for having us up!

Return from Paradise...

OK...so now reading back to my previous "prayer
request" blog, I have to laugh. Can you tell I was a little stressed?! Lily was FANTASTIC on the plane. I really don't know why we were even worried. We even received compliments from the other passengers on how well she did, which made us feel great. Justin and I counted and it was a total of 14 hours from the time we woke up, until the time we got there. It was a long trip. BUT...it was SUCH a great time!! Lily loved the beach...although she was not sure about the texture of the sand on her feet at first. She got to see wild donkeys, and geckos. Her two new words of the trip. She loved running around the villa talking to all the little animal statues the Pool's had at the house (giraffe, parrot, elephant, and a little Caribbean man we named "Fred"). She wasn't too sure about Fred at first, but she became his buddy towards the end of our trip. There are so many great memories from our trip to St. John to list. To sum it up, we had a great time spending time together with "Gap-ga" (Grandma Bolinger) and Papa. Until next year.... :-)

Prayer Request?

This weekend, we are embarking on probably the most stressful plane trip we will have been on with Lily thus far...a 12 hour trip to St. John. There will be numerous plane changes, Lily will be in a seat with us (not yet 2 years...free!), and THANK THE LORD we bought a portable DVD player!
If you remember...please say a little prayer for me, Justin, Lily, Justin's parents, and the poor passengers. I am looking forward to the great trip and fun time spent at the beach and in the sun, however I just pray that Elmo comes through for us in the meantime! :)

All in 30 minutes!

The other day, I had just come home from work and was starting to get dinner ready. Justin was milling around keeping busy. And Lily was somewhere in between the two of us getting in the middle of things.
Next thing I know, I hear from the bathroom..."Lily! You do not put something in the toilet and then in your hair!" Justin had caught her with one of my brushes she had grabbed from my drawer in the bathroom. Lovely....I couldn't help but laugh (although secretly).
Then, I went to put my shoes away and Lily followed. I heard this crunching sound. I turned around and noticed she was eating something. What could that be? I hadn't given her a snack and was preparing dinner. Of course, I turned to panic and basically put my finger down her throat thinking it was probably the worst choke hazard there could be. Then, I realized what it was..."Lily! You do not put dog food in your mouth!" Talk about disgusting. The thought just grossed me out. If you know our dog Sadie, she does not miss a bite when it comes to her food. The moment it is in the bowl, it's gone! She obviously missed this one! Thanks Sadie :)
Of course, Justin then decided to say...after laughing of course..."Oh, I ate dog food when I was a kid and it didn't hurt me!" Way to make a mom feel much better!

Lily words

Here are a few words or phrases that Lily is saying now that I don't want to forget.
"blan-kick"= blanket
"peas"= please
"dan-ku" = thank you
"again?"
"Gap-ga"= grandma
"Papa" = grandpa
"how bout dat?"= mommy's phrase, apparently :)
"bubbles"
"sadie"
"baby"
"oh no!"
"hea-bie!" = heavy (she also adds a grunt to it...for effect, of course)
"I got you!"-7/08
"ya-yo"-favorite color, apparently because it is every color
"I coming!" -7/08
"o-dirt"= yogurt 9/08
"o-nange"= orange 9/08
I'm sure there are more that I am missing, but these are the most common.

Fun Times

This past month has been actually quite funny. We have had such a great deal of laughter and I thought I would share some funny pictures & moments. This first picture was one of Lily arriving home from daycare...covered in marker all over her new shirt. Yes, it was washable marker...but still! Why anyone decided to give her a marker, I don't know, but she had fun nonetheless! Check out the face...."what's the big deal Mommy?" :)

What you will see next is Lily's new "fort". She likes to make a fort out of our lazy susan cabinet and pretend she is in there organizing her stuff while I'm in the kitchen cooking. The funny part is when she peaks out of the doors and says "hi" and then goes back to her business! I love it!


Lily has a new expression. It started with a "surprised" look and has just evolved into this hilarious joke between Justin, myself and her. Funny thing is, she makes this face at such appropriate timing!

OK...last one. I love this one. We went to Los Corrales to celebrate Mother's Day, Father's Day and Sarah's birthday (did we cover everything? :), and Lily immediately got excited to see her cousins. I can't remember how it happened but someone must have asked Lily to give Powell a kiss. Here it is. Aren't they cute?

Roaring River

We went to Roaring River camping early this month, but our trip was cut short due to a tornado that unexpectedly went through our city of Independence. It decided to take out a huge tree in our backyard- not fun.
Lily had a great time though. This was our first camping trip out of the three that we have had since her birth that she was able to explore! She loved wandering around and going fishing with Daddy and Papa. She played in the creek near our campsite, which was actually a nice background noise to relax to. She also had her first "fat lip"! (see top picture) She tripped right near the steps of the camper and fell mouth first on the step. Yes Carissa...we had another "accident" this year. It brought back bad memories of Maryanna's skid on the concrete slab last year :( I guess it is bound to happen at this age. But...as always, she bounced right back and was ready for her next adventure! It was a lot of fun seeing her eyes light up with all the new discoveries of camping.

Lily's Tree

We lost a tree in our front yard due to being excessively waterlogged! We had it removed and planted a new birch tree in it's place. We decided to name it "Lily's tree". I took a picture and am hoping that long after we have moved, we can come back and take pictures of her next to her tree. (that is, if the new owners allow us to!) As mentioned before, she loves to "hug" anything. So there's a picture of her hugging the tree too. Classic Lily!

Mother's Day

We had a great day this year spending time just the 3 of us. We went out to Lake Jacomo to look at the "wildlife". Lily loved attempting to hug the elk and the buffalo. It was so cute to watch her. The buffalo's nose was as big as her head, but she still walked toward it with open arms to try to hug it through the fence. (Of course, I was right at her side holding her back!) We also visited the geese which Lily chased around and could not figure why they would not stop to play with her! She kept yelling "top!" (stop!) and then she would stop and look at us puzzled and confused as if to say "why won't they stop to play with me?" It was so cute, yet I couldn't help but feel sorry for her at the same time. Enjoy some pictures of our afternoon!

Apat?

We have discovered that Lily has a new word that she loves..."apat?". It means "open it!". She has figured out that almost anything now that is closed must be opened! That includes mommy's makeup drawer. Yes..she watches me in the morning, so she has figured out where everything is located. On occasion, I have caught her with my blush brushes pretending to put blush on her cheeks. I think I should be worried.....

Beep Beep

Last week Lily's daycare teacher, Ms. Jen, had told me that she had been teaching the kids to say "beep beep" instead of "move". She said "move" was rude (which it is) and the kids are too young to verbalize "excuse me".
So...we were at home a few days later and Lily was trying to walk between the refrigerator and the island in the kitchen. Sadie was also wanting to walk right next to Lily (as she always does), which was irritating Lily. She then said "Beep beep, Sadie!". I cracked up! Had I not just had that conversation with Ms. Jen, I would have had no clue what she was talking about.