Rhyming

This morning on our drive to daycare, Lily asked me about words that rhyme. How she knows about rhyming at this point I have no idea, but I went with it!

So I started with "tree", "truck", "car". By her responses, I could tell that this would be an educational moment for Lily. She was all over the board with her answers!

She then suggested "cloud". Now, this was 7:00am and I still had not had my coffee, so this was a hard one! As I was thinking of a response, she blurted out "frowed!"

I then proceeded to tell her that she did a good job, but I didn't think "frowed" was a word. I finally came up with "proud", but she argued "no Mommy...frowed!"

Since she was so stuck on the word, I felt it my parental duty to make sure she knew "frowed" was not a word. So then she responded, "it's a word in Spanish!"

Uhh...what?! I burst into laughter. What a clever little one we have. Good one Lily! If it's not in the English dictionary, it must be in the Spanish one! Love it.

First time at the movies!

Today, I took Lily to the movie theater for the first time. We saw "Princess and the Frog" with Stacey and Holly.
We talked about it all week as I wanted to prepare her for needing to stay seated for 2 whole hours! I wasn't sure how that was going to pan out, but she did great!
Only one short trip in the movie to the restroom, but overall, she sat quietly (well...relatively) and enjoyed watching the movie.
I got her a "Kid's Pack" which included popcorn, a fruit snack, and a fruit punch (hence, the bathroom trip ;). She loved having her own little treats. In fact, I think the popcorn was about finished by the time the previews were over! She is definitely her momma's daughter!

Enjoy a few pics:

Christmas memory I forgot to mention....

This one goes way back to my childhood....the nightmare side of my childhood.

Above is a picture of Lily with a fabulous "treasure" my mom bought when I was younger- a Christmas Caroler. Let's just say, this caroler caused me to almost jump out of my pants quite a few times during the late-night hours when she would be swinging her arms back and forth with the candle highlighting her doll face. Keep in mind that those were the years when "Child's Play" (the horror movie) came into the theater.

Lily noticed her right away when we arrived to Grandma & Grandpa's house. While I was putting our luggage away, she ran down the hallway and said "Mommy...the witchy-poo is out!" (our joke name for the caroler).

Of course, Lily loved her, so I'm sure I will have to endure many more years of quickly walking by her turning my head away :-)

Thanks Mom for taking such special care of "witchy-poo" over the years!

Christmas '09

This year, we started the Christmas season with a celebration at the Bolinger house and then headed to California for the actual holiday.

As is tradition on the Bolinger side, we had a crab leg & shrimp seafood feast and then opened gifts. We always have a great time together! Here are some pictures of our evening:


When we arrived to California, there was a complete itinerary for our trip already planned. We went to so many places and spent time with many family members and friends. It was such a great trip and I will do my best to summarize it.

Our first night was the "Bradish Christmas party" at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Lily had a great time hanging out with the other kids...especially Brooklynne, singing Christmas carols:

Christmas Eve was spent at Aunt Sarah's house decorating "Happy Birthday Jesus" cupcakes with Jake & Sam, eating a delicious ham dinner, and then off to Chino to view the Christmas lights:
Christmas day was our usual tradition of stockings, Christmas dinner, and then opening gifts:

We then spent the following days skiing/snowboarding in Big Bear, on the Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs, and in Santa Barbara visiting the Knode's! Here are a few pictures:


We really enjoy spending time with both families during the holiday season. We are so thankful for all that God has blessed us with...especially our families!