Happy Halloween

we celebrated lilian's first halloween this weekend! saturday night our friend dee had her annual, over the top costume party so grammy watched lilian for us while we attended that. we snapped a few pictures of all three of us in our costumes before heading out! lilian was a ladybug and did not mind wearing her costume too much either so that was a plus! brian was mario from super mario brothers and i went as little red riding hood.


on sunday we got to babysit kaiya, what a treat! she is seriously a perfect little girl. i cannot believe she is in first grade, i can remember the day she was born! she is hilarious and so smart. lilian LOVED having her here for the day. kaiya would read her books and help me change her and get her in the car seat. she was wonderful with her. we ran errands and everyone thought they were sisters (and i secretly loved it and didn't correct them, ha ha!) we made halloween cookies and played around the house mostly. it was so cute watching them interact together.

how beautiful is kaiya!
on halloween night we took lilian over to my brother's house to visit them and meet the new addition to their family, a dog they adopted on saturday, named bell. then we went over to my parents to "trick or treat." my parents got her puffs and mum mums in leau of candy, pretty cute! we also stopped by our babysitter's house as well as a friend of mine that lives in our neighborhood. our little ladybug was a hit!

our little buggy

cousin curtis was batman!

grammy and pops with lilian

uncle bryan, love this pic of them

Welcome Baby Amelia

our good friends, colleen and drew, welcomed their new baby girl, amelia kate, into the world on monday, october 25th. i work with colleen and drew and brian have become good friends as well. we are so excited to have another friend for lilian to play with and grow up with! we went to the hospital to visit them monday evening. lily tried grabbing for amelia and spoke to her in her own language. i think she was trying to say, "i am so glad you finally got here, i cannot wait to play with you!" mommy and baby are doing great. we visited them at their house on saturday and brought them lunch. lilian showed amelia a few of her tricks, i.e. crawling and clapping. congrats to colleen and drew! she is precious and we know lily and milly will be great friends!

i cannot remember lily being this small! they grow up TOO fast!

lilian with her new friend. how do we look as a family of four? ha ha

Favorite Things

lilian is at such a fun age right now. i took some pictures the other day of her doing some of her favorite things so i would have them for my memory and to show her one day. she is crawling everywhere so sometimes it is hard to get a good picture! she is loving life and i couldn't love anything more!

she loves these peek-a-boo balls that make sounds when she shakes them. she has now figured out how to bang two of them together to create her own sound as well and loves it.

ralph is definately her bff. he is a constant source of entertainment for her and is sure to bring a smile and a laugh from her!

playing tug of war with ralph

she is loving these peek-a-boo books. she lifts up the flaps now and for some reason loves the page with the pig on it, she must know her grandpa has a pig farm!

talking to her book

love this face!

Mommy the Matchmaker

last friday we took lilian over to visit her buddy, westyn. brian and i work with his mom, prudence. westyn and lilian are 7 weeks apart, he was born in mid december. the last time they were around each other she was a little overzealous and was grabbing at him, i think she scared him! i told her she cannot be so aggressive, ha ha! friday night they were great together though! it was funny just watching them check each other out and communicate in their baby language. here are a few pics of their first date!

they look about the same size but westyn is 7 weeks older than miss lilian

i think she was jealous of his head full of hair!

giggle time

Lights, Camera, Action!

thanks to our friend, drew, we now know how to post videos from our camera, yay! lilian learned a new trick this weekend, clapping! she is pretty proud and has been practicing all weekend. she is also crawling! enjoy the videos!

Baptism

last sunday, october 3, lilian was baptized back in iowa at brian's family's church, mamrelund lutheran church in stanton. pastor eric kutzli, who also married us, baptized her. we waited until after the service to have her ceremony...she did wonderful. you could tell she thought the water was a bit cold but she never cried, just let out a little whimper. brian's sisters, leanne and andrea, stood up with their husbands as her sponsors. she is one lucky to girl to have so many wonderful people in her life that love her. afterwards, leanne made us a nice meal back at her house. as always, lilian loved playing with her cousins and having them entertain her! what a special day for our girl!

lilian in her pretty dress

pastor blessing lily

pastor kutzli and us

lilian's godparents

the whole family

Red Barn Farm

on our way to iowa saturday morning we stopped in weston, missouri (about 45 minutes away) and took lily to the red barn farm. it was adorable! they had a huge pumpkin patch, hayrides, pony rides, a cute country store...what a fun place for fall! it was pretty chilly out, especially up on the hill where it was located. we loved walking lilian around and showing her the pumpkins and horses. she took it all in and seemed to really enjoy everything. i know next year will be even more fun for her! i love starting all these new traditions as a family. i have dreamed about it for a long time!

Daddy and Lily

family pic

happy girls

8 Months Old

lilian is growing so fast! she has gotten so big in such a short amount of time. we definitely have a healthy baby! you know you have a chubby baby when complete strangers tell you she looks like she is eating well, ha ha. i always love chunky babies, now i have one of my very own! she does love to eat...we have not found a food yet that she doesn't really like. we are feeding her the stage 2 baby foods and are slowly introducing her to table food. right now she mostly just sticks with her baby food, baby mum mums and her puffs. we have let her try a few things of ours as well and no complaints!
she is definitely babbling more...lots of da da, ba ba, and mmm sounds. still working on getting a ma ma out of her! she literally screams at the sight of kids. if she is close enough to a baby she will scream and then put her hands out to touch them and open her mouth for a sloppy kiss, pretty funny! she laughs a lot, especially when playing peek a boo or when you find a tickle spot.
she is getting more mobile each day. she has the army crawl down! her biggest motivation for crawling is when she spots the remote control or one of our phones, they get her moving fast! she gets up on all fours and rocks and now moves her arms in one swoop and then both her legs, she looks like a frog hopping. she does not like being held much anymore because she wants to be on the ground moving and exploring. i guess our cuddling days are over for awhile, boo!
her favorite toys and activities are pretty much the same as last month...still enjoys her jumperoo, but for shorter amounts of time since she is enjoying exploring on her own more. she loves anything with music, her peekaboo blocks, any ball, her blue monkey that jingles, and her stacking rings that make animal noises. she seems more interested in her touch and feel books now, she actually looks at the pages and touches them rather than only using them for chew toys! ralph is still her favorite entertainment, he keeps her happy when we are getting ready in the mornings. she truly adores him!
car rides can be a bit tricky anymore...because she likes to be on the ground and moving she does get upset in the car and will let us know that she wants out! we are hopeful that once she is able to face forward maybe she will enjoy the car a bit more? :) overall, we have one very happy, healthy baby! love you lilian!