Peacocks and Horses

While Phil was off of work over the holidays, we decided to pass the time by taking Lily to the stables near our house.  They have peacocks running rampant, and obviously, horses (that aren't running rampant) too.  Lily loves animals so much.  She usually growls/roars or woofs at them.  I'm thinking with her love for animals and her love of dancing, she might have a future in the circus.

 

  

Christmas

Christmas was so much fun this year with Lily being more aware of what was happening all around her.  We had a chaotic but nice service at our church on Christmas Eve.  Our pastor is an artist and he painted an amazing piece as part of the service.  It was hard to pay attention during the sermon because the little bug kept climbing over us, eating her raisins and crackers and wanting to sit in different people's laps (namely Emily and Hilary.)  Phil had to take her out for the last fifteen minutes but she did pretty well for most of the service.  I just love the end of the Christmas Eve service when all of the candles are lit and the lights are out and everyone sings Silent Night.  It is beautiful and a reminder that Christmas is about the birth of our Lord and King.

We stayed at our house on Christmas Eve and the bug woke us up at 6:15, bright and early.  I had to break out my flash to get some decent pictures, little stinker.  We are trying to keep Christmas reasonable, and we gave her two presents from us, one that each of us picked out.  A ball from Dada and a doll from Mama.  She also gets a cross ornament every year, but I'm a little behind and haven't ordered it yet!  There were many more presents from grandparents and aunts and uncles, so she was still spoiled rotten.  Later that morning, Phil's grandparents came over and rode with us to his parents house.  We celebrated with them and had a nice lunch, then came back home.  Our poor tree was so incredibly dry this year, and only half decorated due to the two and a half foot terror, so we ended up taking it down that night.  Normally we are sad to take down our tree, but this year we couldn't wait to get it out of the house, it was that bad!  We had such a wonderful Christmas and had so much fun watching Lily experience it all.  

Opening presents

Loves her new ball

 The doll is ok, but this bag is awesome

 Snuggles with Dada

Snacks for Thimba

 

Loves Pops

Mimi's snow village before it was destroyed by Lily

Thimba the prisoner

Santa

In true Lily style, she was not afraid of Santa at all.  She was a little curious why she was sitting on a bearded stranger's lap, but no tears were shed and we got a smile.  I'm not one to deal with the lines at Northpark for everyone's favorite Santa, so we went to the Arboretum instead.  There was no line, it was free and Lily did great!  Can't beat that.

Merry Christmas!

I loved our card this year.  Thanks to my friend Jennifer for taking our family photo.  She is amazing!  We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your families!

16 Months

Lily is so funny these days. We went out and took pictures the day she turned 16 months so I wanted to share a few. She is in to everything right now. She ignores her toys for the most part and chooses to terrorize Thimba and look for drawers to get into, things to pull off of counters and tables, trash and recycling. She is very busy and has a ton of energy. She gives you the "I know I'm cute look" all the time. Such a silly stinker. She loves to laugh and be chased. She doesn't like to snuggle unless she is really tired. Right now she is an ok eater with her favorite foods being fruit, beans, cheese, bbq chicken, turkey, french toast, waffles, eggs, pasta and sweet potatoes. She doesn't like many veggies at all sadly. She loves animals and doesn't have much of a fear of strangers. She still doesn't say too many words. Mama, dada, uh-oh, hi, woof woof, meow, and growling. Since she learned to growl like a bear, she stopped saying woof woof and meow and prefers to growl at all animals. It is pretty funny. We love our little Lily stinker so much. She is a total mess but oh so funny and we are so thankful for her!

The Blonde Baby

Food Photography

My photography playgroup had a fun little get together last week.  We normally focus on shooting the kids, but this time we decided to make food our subject.  Of course the kids invariably make it into some of the pictures!  We had a great time and it was nice to be able to take our time which you can't do when you are shooting a wild toddler.  It was Carrie's birthday so I stopped by Sprinkles on my way out.  It isn't often that you eat your subject when you are done shooting. :)