Genesis 2:21-24

This was what Vaughn, our brother-in-law, read at our wedding...

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said,
This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called woman,
for she was taken out of man.
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

3 Years with My Love...

On February 17th Lance and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. I think that God is definitely shining down on us because on our wedding day and all our anniversaries thus far, we've had beautiful weather. When does that happen in February..the middle of winter??!! Our wedding day was gorgeous - about 60 degrees and sunny.
The past 2 anniversaries we have done the traditional gift along with a little trip together (the first year we went to a bed and breakfast in Victoria and last year to this great little modern hotel in Friday Harbor). This year, since money is a lot tighter without my income, we decided to skip the traditional gift and instead just take a night away together....without Lilah. Although I was a little worried how she would do and if she would miss us SO terribly and not sleep, we got away to our getaway to the east of the mountains in Leavenworth. We stayed at the same resort we took Lilah at the beginning of January, which was not very successful with our little girl who thrives on being at home and on her normal schedule. Lilah stayed with her granny (my mom) and grandma and grandpa Wiley..and come to find out, I don't think she hardly missed us not being here. She got spoiled and did just fine. We had the BEST time together. We strolled (not a fast, chaotic walk) through Leavenworth, went to some wine tasting shops, and then went back to the resort for a delicious, relaxing dinner. This time we got to enjoy also their rock hot pool....alone too! It was so wonderful to have time just the two of us - no distractions, no 6am "alarm", no rushing. Just being with each other and talking and loving one another's company.
We were excited to see Lilah though too....at about Monroe I started to feel kind of sick to my stomach. Not because I was worried, but because I was just so excited and anxious to see her.
What a perfect weekend....with beautiful weather with the best husband and then a very lazy Sunday.

9 months and Counting...

Here are some of Lilah's 9 month pictures...she's such a fun little baby. She is all OVER the place! She's crawling and cruising, and to be honest doesn't care too much right now about her toys. She loves instead the tv (which isn't usually on when she's awake, but still is fun to touch and pull up to), the computer, the remote, my phone, cords, outlets, and anything she can see herself in. Lilah loves to see herself and yells and screeches like it's another baby. We visited my friend Dana and her nephew Sam the other day, and Lilah made him cry from her screeches of excitement. She loves, LOVES other kids....but hasn't figured out how to say hello, so instead screams in their face. Some babies are not fans of this type of greeting. I spend a lot of my day chasing after her, although she also will just play with her wooden food and bang toys together by herself while I'm cleaning or cooking or whatever. Lilah now loves books and turns the pages to help mama and daddy. Her favorite game is to lay on both of us and suck on our face (and for Lance, she loves his nose). All three of us crack up when we play....it's so cute and I want to believe that she's trying to give us big kisses.
What a bundle of joy and such a blessing...we love her!!!

Dessert Fairy

Since last year we've been having BL nights with the Muchlinskis (BL= Biggest Loser). They come over every Tuesday and we take turns making yummy dinners over here. In honor of Biggest Loser we usually have a dessert as well - often times it's been brownies with ice cream (Jillian would definitely frown upon this). We all look forward to these nights, as they've been happening for quite a long time. When Mike's on the road, Julie joins us, and if BL isn't on, then we'll find some good ole reality tv. :)
Last week they had to skip out on us to watch the first new episode of Lost (which we've found to be pretty interesting since we got a chance to watch the hour long synopis of all 7 or so seasons before BL this last week). We were a little bummed...we ALWAYS do Tuesdays with them and they were ditching us for Lost. Hmmph!
But, low and behold, the "dessert fairy" as Julie called her/him visited. Julie and I were texting back and forth and she was throwing hints at me to look outside our front door, and there waiting for us was some ice cream, brownies, M&MS and Snickers (to make our own blizzards). Mind you, this is not the first time the Muchlinskis have played "dessert fairy". Last year on our anniversary, they dropped off blizzards and sped off before we could see them.
What good friends....they know the key to our hearts!

Day Date with the Muchlinskis

The Muchlinskis have become our very good friends in the last year and a half. I met Julie years ago from a mutual friend, and then we reconnected through church last year. They started coming to our community group around November of '08 and not only did Julie and I hit it off, but Mike and Lance were like long lost brothers. Since then our friendship has really grown - Mike and Lance enjoy getting out together to golf or have a big, nasty burger at Sluggers while quoting various movie lines; Julie and I like to chat over a glass of wine, watching reality tv. We all have talked so often how blessed we are to have found friends that we have so much in common with and all enjoy being together. They make us laugh, they are so supportive, and they are the type of friends we will have forever. We even talk about our cabins we'll visit together when we're old and gray and retired.
One Saturday my mom came over to babysit little Lilah so that we could get out with Julie and Mike. We went to a few wineries and did some wine tasting. It was so nice to get out and just sit and chat and laugh with them. We bought some wine and came back to our house afterwards to have Pizza Bank and a glass of wine to finish off our perfect "date" together.

P90X

I try to get to the gym at least twice a week, and then the rest of my workouts are either at home (on the treadmill and doing weights) or running outside with Lilah when it's nice. Mandi gave me her P90X videos since she wasn't going to use them, and so I've used those to supplement my at-home workouts (the treadmill can be one of the most boring things). P90X is pretty awesome...challenging workouts and I can do them while Lilah naps or some days (when I'm feeling quite motivated) before she gets up. Lilah must have wanted to try it out because I found her the other day with my bands all wrapped around her. After snapping a few pics, I told her "these are NOT for Lilah" and then put them so she couldn't get to them again. :)

p.s. the thing she's chewing on is a plastic carton of McDonalds fries....just like her mama and daddy....workout so you can eat things like that!

Our Big Girl

I don't think I mentioned this before - but at 8 months and 1 day, Lilah officially started crawling. It took her a few days before she really got the hang of it. For awhile she would do a few crawls, then just roll to where she wanted/needed to go. Then, it was all over. She figured out how to do it efficiently and quickly. It's pretty wonderful in that I can just yell to her where I'm at and she'll come "thump, thump, thumping" down the hall or around the corner to come and find me. I think our very favorite is when Lance gets home though. It's so cute...I have GOT to get it on video this afternoon. I just tell her, "daddy's home!" and she crawls into the kitchen and peeks her head around the cabinets until he walks in. If he doesn't get in as fast as what she thinks he should, then she starts to whine. She gets SO excited to see her daddy. He always washes his hands when he gets home before he'll pick her up. Usually she looks at me like, "why won't he get me?" and I tell her to go get daddy. She crawls like I never see her crawl to the bathroom to wait for him to snatch her in his arms. It's the best feeling and has almost put me in tears so many evenings.
In a month's time she's learned to not only pull herself up on her knees to things, but now up to her feet. Needless to say, this has resulted in her not only getting into EVERYTHING imaginable, but also a lot of bumps and bruises. She forgets sometimes that if she lets go or flails backwards that the hard floors don't feel so good. Lance spent a weekend doing our minimal babyproofing, most of which is almost done (except for a gate to block off our gym).
Sometimes you think, "it can't get any better than this", but then the next week comes and it does. Maybe not better, just equally as amazing and such fun new adventures.