Father's Day memory

We celebrated Father's Day this past weekend at the lake. Justin and Lily had a great time exploring the woods looking for turtles and other creatures! They took various rides on the new gator that Grandpa bought. On Father's Day, Lily and Daddy were headed out on another ride when Lily turned to Justin and said....
"Happy Father's Day Daddy! I love you! Let me give you kisses."
No prompting...just real, honest, loving emotion. In the words of Justin "it just melted my heart".
I am so thankful for Justin and for the father that he is to Lily.
I am also very thankful for the great examples we have in my own father and in my father-in-law.
Hope you all enjoyed a great day of celebration!

Shoe Obsession

OK...so I am thoroughly convinced that Lily is my daughter. She LOVES SHOES!! I blogged about this last year but that was only the beginning (in mommy's shoes). I don't know if many little ones her age get as excited about putting on shoes and changing them as often as she does. Every morning, without fail, she heads to my closet and puts on a pair of my shoes to wander around the house in. She loves my high heels the most. By the time I have finished getting ready for work, there are at least a minimum of 6 pairs of shoes out in my bedroom that she has tried on for size. Even with her own shoes, she is consistently going into her room and coming out with a new pair on.

We have even had to limit our trips through the shoe aisle in Target (one of my all-time favorite things to do when I am shopping) for fear of a tantrum. It has come to a point where when we even enter the aisle, she has already sat down and started removing her own shoes to try on another pair. At a recent trip to Target she told me "Mommy, let's see if there is something my size". What?! From a 2 1/2 year old?! I am in so much trouble.

Fortunately, I have her Grandmas to thank for always keeping her fashionable and satisfying her neverending thrill of receiving new shoes!

Paci Fairy

So this is the big weekend. Lily is finally going to be giving her paci's to the "Paci Fairy" for all the other babies who may need them. Got this great idea from my friend Lindsey and so far Lily has grabbed onto it. I started prepping her on Monday that this was her last week with her pacifier for bedtime. All was well until tonight, of course.
She helped me put them all in a pink bag and placed them on the porch for the "Paci Fairy" to come (see picture). We then went to brush her teeth and with her chest all puffed up she said "I'm a big girl now, Mommy!" In my mind I am thinking "Great! Piece of cake!" Then came the march of doom to her bedroom. It was then that she finally realized what just occurred. There was about 10 minutes of crying involved- flailing arms, throwing herself on the bed...you know, all the girlie drama. But I am now happy to say that she is sleeping soundly in her bed.
The Paci Fairy did bring her a small thank-you gift, so hopefully that will help ease the pain for tomorrow. I guess I will just have to pray that after a few days the paci will be a distant memory.
You are a big girl now, sweetie! Only babies need paci's!

Omaha Zoo trip

This past weekend we took a trip to the Omaha Zoo with Brady, Ashley, Ava and Hudson. This was our first trip to Omaha and we really had a great time! The weather was perfect and it only took about 3 1/2 hours to get there.

For those of you who know "Dora the Explorer", here's a funny story. We have a portable DVD player for long trips for Lily so we decided to set that up for her. We are driving right along in the country while Lily is happily listening to her show with her headphones. All of a sudden, we hear her yell "MAP!!" (She was answering Dora's question of "Who do we call when we don't know where to go?") We about jumped out of our chair as she would do this periodically throughout the trip and we never knew when to expect it. It was a good laugh.

Lily had a great time hanging out with Ava and Hudson. The three of them got along really well. Lily loved all of the animals and each time we ask her which one was her favorite...it changes. First monkeys, then zebras, then elephants. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it all...even after 5 hours! So...you will most likely be reading "Omaha Zoo trip II" next summer.

Enjoy some pictures of our fun trip.....




Lily's new "zoo" t-shirt

view of downtown Omaha from our hotel room

visiting the aquarium
getting ready to enter the jungle exhibit

family shot

Mother's Day

This year we spent Mother's Day at Deanna Rose Farmstead. I have to say this is one of my new favorite places. First of all..it's free...which after visiting, is very hard to believe. The kids are able to pet all of the animals and they have many activities for the kids including playground equipment to play on and a fishing pond. Needless to say, Lily LOVED it. She is very much an animal-lover and enjoyed having an opportunity to pet the goats and feed the baby goats a bottle. Here are some pictures of our fun day.

The Parrot

Lily is at that age now where everything we say is being heard....and repeated. We have been having a good time with it...well most of the time.

Papa has been the latest culprit of tempting our little parrot. When Lily was over at Grandma & Papa B.'s house last week, Papa had told her to go into the other room where Grandma was and say "What'cha doin' woman?!" Well...of course she did, and it was a big laugh.

I talked to Justin the other day and this was the story he told me:
So, this Tuesday, Papa went and picked up Lily from daycare. He had Maryanna and Powell with him as well and was getting them all strapped in to their carseats. Once Lily was strapped in, he realized the seat itself was not strapped in....so...he was helping her get unbuckled to fix the seat...his face less than a foot away from Lily's....and Lily says straight-faced "What'cha doin' woman?!"

When I heard this, I almost cried with laughter. To imagine my little, sweet, innocent :-) daughter saying something like that to her Papa without being prompted was just too much. Of course, we will have to keep an eye on this parrot to make sure she is not bordering disrespect ...but Papa...you started it! :-)

"Camping" at the Lake

This spring we did not make it down to our bi-annual trip to Roaring River due to bad weather, so we decided to switch locations and head to the lake house! We all had a great time cooking our dutch oven meals, roasting marshmallows, and hanging out around the fire pit. Lily had special bonding time with Rosie and was loving her time with Aunt Sarah and Heather! I think we will need to continue this in addition to our Roaring River trip. It was so much fun!