Daddy Day

Phil is off on a hunting trip right now, but before he went I had a really nice lunch with Sherry and Emily at Royal Thai and then we went to see New Moon together (and we were definitely shushed by a pair of older women because we were talking and laughing during the previews.) I need to get out more often without Lily, because it was so nice to get some time to myself, and we were both happy to see each other when she woke up from her nap once I was home. I know she had a lot of fun with her daddy. He can always make her smile and laugh, and she was so good and even took two naps while I was gone. Phil's Aunt Robbin gave her the onesie she wore, and I thought it was appropriate attire for the day.

White Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, and having a little baby around makes things even more special. We went to the children's service at church this year with Lily, then decided to head to Arlington that night in case the roads were bad in the morning. Unfortunately they were already bad, and it took us an hour and forty five minutes to make what it usually a 45 minute trip, complete with a stop in the south Dallas area to feed a screaming baby. But we made it safely, and we had a really nice time with our families.

Waking up to snow

A new stocking for Lily on the mantle

Jim looking scary in his new hunting mask

Lily eating Aunt Carol's shirt

With Auntie Victoria

Auntie V all spiffed up

Visiting Grandpa

Hanging out with the Captain

Santa Baby

Or a baby visits Santa, however you want to put it. Liz and I decided that rather wait in line at the mall, we would visit the Santa that comes to Renaissance Tower, home of my former employer. It was so nice! There was no line, Santa was very nice, Mrs. Clause was a little over the top and really wanted to hold my baby, but other than that it was a good experience, and Lily didn't cry.

Lily with Santa

Sweet little Hector's turnThe whole group

Christmas Tree Farm

In the interest of creating family traditions, Phil suggested we go to a Christmas tree farm this year and cut down our own tree. Well we discovered that the closest tree farms are about an hour away, but I decided to humor his romantic notions of trekking through a plot of land to find the perfect tree. And that we did! I'm not going to lie, I was a little beaten down upon our arrival. Lily was fussy, I had to take her back to the car and feed her after all of 15 minutes, and she kept fussing after that. It wasn't until after we got home and I realized how much floofier and puffy our tree looked than in past years. It's like going from a greyhound to an overweight husky dog. So although at first I wasn't too keen on this new tradition, I think that it is here to stay.
Totally sporting my Pi Phi colors.
Wearing her "tree hugger" onesie of course.

Thanksgiving

I'm a little behind on blogging, but better late than never. We actually spent Thanksgiving Day in Dallas with our good friends the Browns and had a delicious non traditional Thanksgiving dinner together followed by the A&M Texas came on tv. Liz's Longhorns triumphed, but fortunately she isn't exactly a superfan and didn't rub it in. On Friday we headed over to Phil's parents' house and had a late lunch with his aunts and uncles and cousins. Lily was passed around and loved all of the attention that was showered on her, and I got a little break and was able to spend some time reading my book (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, if you like Twilight this is right up your alley, and it is a trilogy, the third book is set to come out next year!)

Sweet Pauline loved Baby Lily!

Getting some love from Auntie Robbin.
Graves Clan. Dodger always tells Blake that he's not the only redhead in the fam. ;)

Child's Play

The Ironman

I should really let Phil write this, but that isn't going to happen. Right now he's sitting on the couch eating the ice cream that he told me not to buy anymore. Oh and making the most horrible sounds while he eats it too. It must be a Graves thing to have your chewing sounds be akin to nails on a chalkboard for some people because it runs in his family and hopefully Lily girl doesn't inherit the super annoying chewer gene. Maybe she will inherit the easily annoyed by chewing sounds gene (I know my brother is with me on this because he could not stand having anyone eat cereal next to him growing up...and probably still can't.) I'm about to have to leave the room because the sounds coming from the couch are killing me. I will have to be strategic about where I sit at the Thanksgiving table this year...

So back to the Ironman. Well it was Lily's first plane ride and she was a pretty good traveling companion. Phil managed to pack everything that he needed including his bike and make it to Florida in one piece with his parents, and they picked L and I up from the airport. Even sweet Dodge boy came. There were several meetings and bike check ins and the like prior to the actual event, and lots of catering to little Phil. The day of the race we went out to the start and watched the swim and the start of the bike, then came back that night to watch the finish. Phil had a really good time and was very happy with his performance and I am happy for him and also very glad that the Ironman is over and that he has more time to spend with his family and new baby. They were pretty lucky that the Ironman wasn't a day later because a tropical storm stirred up the water and brought in rain the following days and the red flags that signaled no swimming were flying high. Phil had a few small nagging injuries that kept flaring up the weeks and months prior to the race and he was a bit worried about them causing problems during the race, but luckily he felt wonderful all day, and the worst thing that happened was a giant blister on the bottom of his foot.

I don't really know what more to say because it was Phil's race, not mine, but I do have pictures!