A Day with "Day"

Lilah can't say Grace, so she calls her buddy Grace, "Day". She really, really likes her. All the way home she kept saying, "Bye Day, bye Day..." over and over and over. Jackie and I met with the girls at the Kids Quest Museum and they had so much fun. I think both of them enjoy the water area the best, because what could be better than splashing, throwing balls in, and drinking (I know, gross) water that millions of germy kids have had their paws in. :)
Although they don't totally play together, it's still so fun to do things like this with the kids now. And I love hearing Lilah talk all about her "friends" when we're heading home.

The Rivalry

This year we made Apple Cup plans pretty late. We had talked to Mike and Julie and thought about doing it just the four of us, but didn't know if Julie would be having baby M by then or not. So I sent out a late email asking people if they had plans, fully expecting everyone to be a lot cooler than me and to have made plans already. Well, we ended up having about 12 people over (and I think 4 kids) in our small living room with now a huge Christmas tree smack in the middle. :)
We ended up having tons of snacks (even though I said "no snacks provided or required") and topped it all off with a healthy dose of Pizza Bank.
While my husband, Mike, Erik and Kevin were in there watching the game intently, I mainly stood at the table and ate and talked to all the ladies. I think I care even less now if the Huskies win, other than I know Lance is such a sore winner and would be so obnoxious if they won.
While most were watching the game we caught my little cleaner in the corner of the kitchen "scrubbing" the floor. And she kept going back to clean it, probably because she didn't realize that she was just spreading all the crumbs around in that area. She'll learn eventually. I wonder where she got this obsession from? So strange.
Our evening ended with a Husky win and uncle Mike (aka: "Mah") and Lilah eating cupcakes with purple frosting on the floor. It was funny, and thankfully all the purple frosting came out of her clothes. ;)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I don't know how we've gotten so fortunate for many years now when we go and get our tree. It has been sunny (but chilly) every year for at least I think 4 years now. We had another beautiful day on Saturday to get our tree.
The family and the King girls came over for some carbo-loading breakfast (everything was very tastey, we just had tons and tons of carbs). It was fun for all the kids to play and for many of us to be together. After breakfast and a little playing, we rushed out the door to our neighborhood tree farm. It's great because we get to cut down our own tree, but it's 5 minutes away. This makes it even more wonderful, especially this Saturday being Apple Cup Saturday (see the above post for more info).
Lilah loved the trees and the people. Kaden and Natalie came with Erik and Candace and Kaden would inform us how many "holes" each tree had, and of course you look for the one with the least amount! We walked around and Lance again went off to the far side to find the BEST tree. And truly our tree is pretty perfect!
On our way out I got Lilah a candy cane which she loves. However, her white shirt and clean hair were not so big of fans (talk about a sticky girl!!).
We pretty much did a mad dash that afternoon: fed Lilah, put her down for a nap, cleaned up from breakfast, put the tree up and decorated it with wrapped presents underneith (all before our guests arrived later for Apple Cup and before Lilah woke up). Ahhhhhh! Poor Lance - he's married to an organizational freak. I couldn't even imagine having a half decorated tree in our living room when everyone was over for Apple Cup.
After all of that we got some "first shots" of when Lilah saw the tree. It was not as expected because really, she thought it was alright, but nothing too special. She glanced at the sparkly lit tree then at the tv and said, "me, me, mama". I will translate, "more Elmo". She says "me" and does the sign for "more" all the time. It doesn't necessarily mean "more" because she may not have had this certain something earlier. It simply means "I want ________". So, clearly Elmo is much more important than a silly tree.

First Pigtails!!!

For a very girly mama, today was a big day...first day with pigtail day!! I sweat a little and she got super impatient with me as I took out the pigtails probably three times before I was satisfied. I also learned from my mom that a girl's hair should be nice and neat. So even with my almost 19 month old, I had to do a good part for the piggies and most hairs had to be accounted for.
Needless to say, she was the cutest!! I told her that several times already this morning. Now let's see if they make it past nap time. :)

Organized Chaos?

Hmmm...I am not sure if an outsider would describe today as that, but we probably would.
Our PEPS group (well, Liz, Jen and I...and the ladies of course)painted pottery today. Yikes. If you have an 18 month old or ever have, you know that's putting your life at risk. And if you are a neat freak, clean-aholic like myself, this decision to partake in painting is even scarier.
But, you have to live a little, right? Especially with a very curious 18 month old daughter.
We borrowed one of Luke's old tees (so sorry Luke, it's now covered in light green, sunshine yellow, and peach paint)and the ladies went to work. I decided this time around (we painted an ice cream bowl for daddy last Father's day) that Lilah got to do it all: dipping the paint (her favorite, DIPPING!!), and slapping on that paint. And, that's what she did. Slap, slap, slappity, slap. Granny - bet you cannot wait to get your beautiful vase. :)
The other girls did most of the same, although they seemed to eat less than Lilah. She thought it would be good to mix up her slapping with a bit of tasting. She soon found out though that it was quite nasty. She smacked and smacked a few times and just couldn't make the paint taste too good.
I should have gotten a picture of little Rory (2 months). She just sat in her bouncy seat, happy as a clam. I am going to start praying that our 2nd baby (which is not even conceived or close to being conceived yet) is like Rory. She barely makes a peep, just hangs out and watches the chaos...organized and not.
Again, thank you to the St. Clairs for letting us destroy your house for the 100th time and then rush off and leave you to clean the mess. Ugh! Sorry!:( We owe you a day of messing and trashing and dashing out without cleaning.

The King Gals

Many of you know that Emily is one of my closest friends. She has been my friend for years. We both were teaching 1st grade in Bellevue when we met. You might think that we met at a district held class that we took to better our teaching and learn more about classroom management. No. We met in Vegas. Well, we met on a trip to Vegas. One that I actually invited myself to. It's a long story....but we've been friends ever since, with a few little bumps in the road, but we've withstood a lot.
She now lives in Atlanta with her two girls and husband, but is here (another long story) to finish up her phd at UW. So, this is again her home (off and on, since she goes "home" to Georgia for her school breaks) for the next 6 months.
I thought I should put something in here (no pictures yet, sorry) because we are so close and even when she's not here, we talk nearly every day. It's been a special treat for not just us, but our girls, to be all together - playing, jogging, going to Starbucks. Anyhow, not to get too sentimental, but it's really nice to have her back at her real home and I am thankful for this time (although I know her poor hubby sure does miss all his ladies very much).
Pictures will be taken soon - Lilah really, REALLY loves Belle ("Buh"), Luci ("Chi") and Emily ("May").

We Both Agree....

winter boots are the best. I had to get her a Target snowsuit and snow boots for our supposed upcoming snowy winter (our music/dance teacher actually told me that the squirrels have built their nests up high in trees to prepare for a lot of snow). And, she's in love with these boots too. As I type, she has them on (and cried about them as I tried to sneak them into her closet). I think winter boots are pretty wonderful myself though. ;)