Lilah's 1st Christmas

What a busy, but so great Christmas we had with little Lilah! We got to see most of our family and Lilah did really well for being carted around and not getting all her naps in for three days.
On Christmas eve we went to my Uncle Kurt and Aunt Gayle's house with the Buslach crew. We always do a "secret Santa" gift exchange, which is fun because we have to open our gift and then guess who the giver is. We had a delcious meal that Gayle mostly prepared for I think 18 people? :) Lilah liked staring at cousin Bryce and entertaining her cousin Jess, who thought she was the cutest (because she is).
On Christmas we went over to the Wileys. It's so fun with all the kids (9 and under) who look forward to Santa's visit there. Grandpa has the kids go in the back room as we set out all the presents...er...I mean, Santa sets out all the presents. Then "Santa" (aka: Glenn) does a loud "ho, ho, ho!" and shuts the front door to let the kids know that Santa has left the premises and they can come out. Glenn reads the Christmas story and quizzes the kids a little on what Christmas is really all about. Then, the opening madness begins! It's a lot of fun and so fun this year that Great Grandma, my mom, and Mandi were there.
The day after Christmas we went to my mom's with Mandi and Parker to open presents and made it easy on everyone and had pizza. :) It was nice to be there and that Parker could join us. And so great to be all together. It was a great end to our three days of Christmas.
Now...cleaning and taking down all the decorations have begun. I'm so over the clutter of it all, but love it for the month of December.
Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year to you and your family! xoxo

Christmas Time Memories

I was laying in bed this morning thinking about what a great Christmas we had with so much of our family, and being all together. Christmas time also reminds me so much of my dad. I miss him very much, but I don't get sad, but instead I remember all of the wonderful times and how much he loved Christmas. Our good friends Mike and Julie made us a Christmas cd with some traditional Christmas songs on that cd. It made me smile so many times as I listened because all of those songs were the ones my dad just loved. He always wanted to play Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. My mom always liked the soft-sounding women's voices like Amy Grant, Celine Dion and Crystal Gayle. My dad tried every year (and many cds later) to get us all to like the more old-school, traditional music. I appreciate it so much more now that he's not here because it reminds me so much of him. :) I remember too the numerous years he sent Mandi and I out shopping for the perfect gift for my mom. Sometimes we helped a little, but he was a pretty sweet guy and had good ideas most of the time. We were usually his little elves and wrappers, and had to help out even more after he got ALS and couldn't work his hands much. But really that didn't stop him, as he'd do a lot of shopping online and send it to my house. ;) He had a lineup usually on Christmas morning of what my mom could open, saving the best for last of course. The funniest and best was the look on his face because he was ALWAYS very proud of his gifts he picked out for my mom. Most the time he was successful (except for this one thing he got that might have been a thermometer or something for outside...it had birds on it and looked like it belonged at a 80 year old women's home).
I know that I just smile and laugh with my mom and sister about my dad because we know that he's with the Lord in heaven and we know that one day we will be seeing him again. That makes me less sad when I miss him, and instead cherish the blessing that we had him for our dad and the many years he was with us.

Our Life

Lilah is in the most fun stage right now. She makes me laugh every day and I just love her to pieces. She is so, so, SO close to crawling. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth and does "downward dog" like in yoga. I think she's starting to get frustrated because she wants to move around so bad. Although she still gets around quite well...she can roll like nobodys business. I go in the other room for minutes and come back and she's taken down some of my Christmas decorations, in the bag with bows and chewing on the wrapping paper, and the other day she was almost choking on a tag she ate off some shoes. Yikes! Lilah is making the cutest faces too. She scrunches her nose and squints her eyes when something is funny. And when she's eating and has decided she doesn't want anymore or doesn't like it, she scrunches up her nose and locks her lips! Stubborn little thing! She also has started doing this thing where she blows in and out of her nose. We think she has come to love doing it because Lance and I die laughing, so that encourages her. I have tried to ignore the loud, ear-piercing screams as I dread her doing this in public. And even at home it's not too wonderful. Ha! Today she started doing some real "babbling". She is making some sounds like "la la" and "ba ba". Wow! I can't believe how much she is growing and changing every single day. I just spent a few hours the other day cleaning out her drawers and closet and taking out a lot of her 6 month clothes and replacing them with 9-12 month clothes. It's so fantastic, but so sad that she's getting bigger and bigger. I know before we know it she'll be 2 and we will wonder where the time went. ;)

Weekend in Review

Well, we had a very busy (but so very fun) weekend! On Saturday we had our wedding photographer, Jen Finch, over to our house to take family pics. We had to postpone for the last two weekends - first because of our "mexican flu" and then Jen was sick the following weekend. Finally, it happened. Lilah was a good girl, even being very sleepy and way past due for a nap. Afterwards my mom and sister came over to make Christmas cookies. It was a little much to pack into one day (with a baby), but I knew my time was limited and that during the week I wouldn't be able to do it without help with the little missy lou. :) It was nice that we got to do that all together...unfortunately I really like chocolate and fudge, both of which I made. As I type my tummy is rumbling from way too much tonight. Ugh! Saturday night my lovely hubby stayed here with Lilah and I went and met Kristin from my PEPS group for dinner and drinks. It was so much fun to get away and just chat and not be distracted with feeding, changing a diaper, an overtired baby, or what have you. We laughed and got to know each other better....and had a good time while the hubbies stayed behind.
On Sunday we had Lana's retirement party. She is very excited to be retired and be able to travel and be with her family even more...and we look forward to her and Glenn being able to come over and watch little Lilah more often. :) It was nice how the church honored her and nice to celebrate as a family. And, of course we loved to show off Lilah. We KNOW she is the most beautiful little girl, and is in the most fun stage. Lance and I are having so much fun with her. Often times I just crack up at her, and then she laughs even harder too. So great!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

WOW!

Um....sorry to be so disgusting if you're not a mom/dad yet. But, get used to it. It'll happen to you too when you have a baby. This is definitely on the top 5 list of "Lilah's biggest poop blowouts". I couldn't stop saying, "Oh my gosh! Sick! Wow!" Thankfully my lovely husband was there so we could tagteam the cleanup and little missy got a bath early with daddy because she was, as you can see, covered in black bean poop. HA! I'm laughing thinking about my cousin Brooke reading this...I so hope she does!!!

PEPS Holiday Party

Here's just a few pictures from our PEPS holiday get together...Lilah in her pretty coat (Randi gave this to us for a shower) and with her friend Leah. :)

What a fun time with the hubbies, great food and wonderful company with all my new mom friends.

My 7 Month Pics!

My New Favorite Toy

The spatula and measuring cups...they're pretty wonderful. :)

Our Christmas Tree and Little Angel...

I took these a few days ago after we got the tree all decorated. I think it's so beautiful and thought Lilah would be crazy about it, but she really could care less. She's much more interested in the measuring cups and spatula I gave her to play with. I did have to get some of her in front of the tree and in her Christmas jammies! And pictures of her getting into my decorations and making a mess of them...and I'm sure it's only the beginning once she figures out how to crawl instead of just rock on her knees. Yikes!

Lilah is 7 months old today

To celebrate here are 7 things I know about my sweet baby girl:

1. she is a squealer and has been since day 1 (in the hospital the nurses would say, "she has some lungs on her!")
2. she mostly likes orange foods (squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin), but I recently found out she now likes avocado (she used to hate it) and today she even ate asparagus
3. she is getting her 3rd tooth...already!!!
4. she hates being contained (ie: in the stroller or carseat) and loves to be free to roll and move around....I'm sure she'll be crawling in the next few weeks
5. Lilah is very stubborn (wonder where she got that??) and strong willed (and that???)
6. she is very ticklish and when she anticipates she's going to be tickled she laughs and buries her head down into her chest in preparation
7. she has a mommy and daddy that love her so very, VERY much and feel incredibly blessed every day that God has given us her

PV in Stiles!

We just got back from our trip to PV...for our great friends', Rob and Kari's wedding. Lilah did very well on the plane, and did pretty good away from home. We would have liked her to sleep more, but fortunately we had granny's help so that we could both make it to the wedding and go out with some friends in downtown Puerto Vallarta one night. And she helped a lot with naps so that Lance and I could get in a little pool time.

The wedding was amazing - out of a movie scene! It was on a little island and was literally just feet from the water's edge on the beach. It was beautiful and with bright colors - and the best part was that Kari and Rob wrote their own vows, which were so sweet.

They're off on their honeymoon at another Mexico destination south of PV, and we're happily back home in chilly Washington state. :)