Diaper Champ

Over the weekend we got a new diaper pail because the last one didn't conceal the stink...Lilly took note and figure out how to use it. While I was making dinner I caught her "practicing". And she would put the diaper in and pull the handle and then lift and repeat.

Fun in the sun

Today was 96 degrees so we had a fun playgroup planned at our friend's Stacey and Lauren's house. Lilly was so excited to see her friend Lauren that she was tugging on her feet to get down and play (she was in her high chair eating when we got there)There Was a great backyard just the right size for the kids to play and a nice tree for shade and inside there was plenty of room for exploring too although the kids were mostly fascinated by the toy on the trampoline. There was a kiddie pool and a sprinkler toy set up and the kids played for 3 hours inside the house and out side the house while the mommas had great conversation. Lilly and Tyler cute as always, although at one point when they were playing separately Lilly stopped what she was doing walked across the room stuck her thumb in Tyler's mouth and of course he bit down...she was not happy. But then they went back to playing again :-)It was a great day full of fun for everyone!!

Under what?

Lilly is such a ham sometimes. Yesterday I was folding laundry and she ran away with Ziff's underpants and wouldn't give them back she even put them on herself. I told her those were daddy's underpants and she said "whaaat" (in her high pitched squeaky voice) She refused to take them off for close to an hour. She just kept running around the house and doing her thing while sporting the boxers draped like a toga.

The big red dog

Lilly loves to read and to help encourage her to read more we try to visit the library once a week, sometimes for story time sometimes just to checkout new fun books. On one of our family walks we ventured to Barnes and noble and discovered they were having a special story time coming up and I thought Lilly would really like it. Clifford was coming to town!!! Lilly used to watch clifford when he came on early in the morning and back in the day when she was up at 7 am so I thought she would get a kick out of it...plus she LOVES dogs! We told our friend Kathleen about it and thankfully they were able to make it as well. Tyler brought his grandma and papa to see Clifford too. It was lots of fun! At first when Clifford walked out she panicked a little and just wanted up...but that's Lilly for ya, she is very cautious about things like this. After the stories were over she warmed up a little a wanted to go touch Clifford. The kids got a cookie for a snack and Lilly kept trying to give Clifford a bite and she would give him kisses. It was so cute. Lilly had picked out an Elmo puppet book to read before Clifford came and Tyler decided he really liked the book So they had quite the tussle over it, but they are always fighting like siblings, cracks me up. We did forget our camera so we didn't get the best pictures or very many for that matter, but thank goodness for Ziff and his camera skills with a blackberry. Overall it was a great time and I am so thankful to have opportunities like this to make memories :-)

Splash!

Today Lilly and I decided to get out of the house and out of our normal of things we do to fill our day, So we went shopping. We ended up only window shopping though because I talked myself out of everything I liked. We texted our friends Kathleen and Tyler but they couldn't come right then, but Lilly and I took full advantage of spending some quality time together. We went to ross and tried on some cute stuff and then we went to an outdoor shopping center called Centera in the next town over (Loveland). When we got to Centera I discovered they had a little water play area for the kids and thought that Lilly would love some water play time on such a warm afternoon so we made our way over there and had about 45 min of fun :-) Lilly was a little hesitant at first but I got out there with her and showed her it was fun. We put our hands in and tried to touch the water and we cooled off our toes with the spray :-) It was a little confusing to her at first that the water came out of nowhere and then just disappeared. Finally Lilly warmed up to the idea of this and she was laughing and giggling, best part of my day. She is such a ham, she would walk over to where the water sprayed and make noises at it and then run away from it. She took her little Sofie giraffe in the water with her and she would drop the Sofie giraffe by where the water comes out, and then run to "save her" when the water started spraying. After playing in the water for a while Kathleen showed up to hang out for a bit, Tyler stayed home because he was napping, but we walked around did a little window shopping and then headed home. All in all it was a great day and we will definitely go back for more fun in the water and shopping.

Lilly running from the water

She is deciding weather or not she wants to touch it

Lilly's 1st birthday

Lilly's first birthday was a great success! On her actual birthday we went to the doctor and as always she was very healthy. She weighed 17 ponds exactly and was 29 1/2 inches long. She is in the 3rd percentile for her weight, meaning she is just a little peanut who will have to stay facing backwards in her carseat for a little while longer. After the doctor we went to target and she got some new sunglasses, some ABC magnets for the fridge and a new mini babydoll (the ones with plastic head arms and legs) as a little birthday treat. Saturday was the day of her birthday party and I spent all day Friday getting ready for it. Making a yummy black bean, mango, and roasted corn salad and baking her cake. She had a pink princess castle cake which turned out pretty good... although I learned some things along the way #1 when it says to put a support in for the top tier...listen don't wait until the party when your friend says "didn't it say to put a support in?" lol and #2 the heat will kill all of your hard work and fast!!! Frosting falls off the sides of cake in 90+ weather I guess...Lessons learned! The park we decided to have the party at is usually empty..I am not sure why but no one is ever there...Except this particular Saturday when there where 100+ people there for a t-ball tournament. It was so hot even at noon that the kids didn't want to play on the toys... hot plastic and hot sand do not make for happy babes, but Lilly kept herself happy but walking around and exploring and mingling with her guests... such a good hostess. She had lots of friends from playgroup there and she especially lit up when her bestie got there... Tyler! I am sure as you have read my blog you have heard about and seen Tyler. The 2 have really bonded to the point that if Lilly doesn't see him at least once a week she is cranky. It was especially cute at the party when he was in his stroller Lilly went over to him and was babbling. I imagine her saying something like "it's okay ty ty I am gonna bust you out of this baby jail" lol those two are just so cute! Lilly was very blessed and received many wonderful gifts...I will mention my favorite part only because it made me so happy, while I was helping her open a gift from Tyler she ran over to the present her daddy and i bought her and started ripping it open and when she saw it was a princess ride on toy she started trying to climb on and ride it. Ziff and I were so happy she loved our gift. So despite the hot weather, the party was wonderful and we were so happy so many of our friends and hers came to share the special day with us! We are blessed on so many levels!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Quickie

Enjoying some lunch on our walk

Bunny ears

Same waterfall from the Coors beer commercials

Even after no shower and a long day in the car...I still have a smile left in me

With the weather being as unpredictable as it has been Ziff and I decided last minute to quickly pack up and go camping. While he was working I gathered everything and prepped all the food and when he got home he loaded everything into the car. There was no time to spare. When everything was loaded we made a quick stop at the store and then we were on our way. It was quickly getting dark but we knew we had just enough time to get there and put up our tent. When we got there and started putting up our tent it started unexpectedly raining. We hurried as fast as we could to put it up but the rain just got heavier and heavier so Lilly and I hid in the tent while Ziff started making some dinner. Lilly was content in the tent crawling over everything and bouncing on and off of the air mattress. We just let her play until she collapsed from being tired which was around 11. I am sure she was very happy with her freedom. Because we put up our tent so quickly the rainfly wasn't on right and rain was getting inside so we huddled in the middle and waited out the rain...it was about and hour or so, but it felt like so much longer. Lilly woke us up bright and early at 6:30 and we were ready to get our day started. Lilly busied herself with collecting rocks. Big ones, little ones, shiny ones, and dirty ones. She didn't care as long as it was a rock. She would show me the rock and then she would walk over to daddy and show him the rock. Finally he told her to make a pile of her rocks on the tailgate...and so that's exactly what she did every rock she found she put in the tailgate...and then moved to making piles in the tent. After cleaning up camp we went for a LONG drive we drove all the way to Steamboat Springs to see fish creek falls. We checked out campsites along the way to decide which ones were future choices. Lilly did fantastic sleeping most of the way, and when she wasn't sleeping she was singing or looking out the window. By the time we got to steamboat springs it would be just our luck that the weather started turning sour again, so after checking out the falls we started heading home. On our way, we got pulled over...darn Ziff and his speeding. We were only going 6 over but for those of you that know about any other summer trips we have taken you would know that getting bad weather and pulled over is all just part of the trips we have accepted. Thankfully the police women was kind enough to let us go with a warning, which with Ziff's record is a miracle, he is very close to loosing his license. We stopped for some dinner in walden at a place that the police women reccomended and Lilly spent her time waiting for her food making friends like her grandpa Reed taught her to. :-) we ate dinner and were on our way again. 30 min from home we were stuck in a bit of traffic due to a horrible accident and while we were waiting sounds from the back seat were arising and Ziff and I spent the rest of the wait laughing about how Lilly and beans do not make for a quiet ride. What's even better is she would laugh after she would...pass the gas lol she is so darn funny. We made it home safely and went right to bed. We were all tired from our quick but very fun trip.

The river by our campsite

"The sleeping elephant" (can you see it?)

When we woke up there were a ton of rafters going by

Our campsite

Lilly making her piles of rocks