Kaiya's Birthday

friday night we were blessed to watch kaiya! brian and i picked lily and kaiya up from michele's after school. we came home and had a snack and then headed over to my brother's house to drop brian off to go to the bs high school football game with my family. i had the perfect girls night with two of my favorite girls! we went to mcdonald's for dinner and then to the mall. kaiya's 8th birthday was saturday so we wanted to get her a special birthday gift. she recently got her ears pierced so she picked out some new earrings! afterwards, we came home and the girls played together before i put lilian down for bed. kaiya is the perfect big sister! she makes lilian giggle and smile so much. i cannot believe she is 8 years old. i remember the day she was born so clearly...she has grown into such an incredible little girl. i hope lilian is just like her! we love you, kaiya! happy birthday!

tickles from kaiya

smile time

LOVE

August Birthdays

i heard the other day on good morning america that the most babies are born in the month of august...i believe it! in our family we celebrate the twins, alison, nannie, brian and ross all in the month of august! for alison's birthday we went to a new mexican restaurant. they had just returned from their colorado trip so it was fun to hear about their trip and see all their beautiful pictures. curtis and lilian were loving playing at dinner and i snapped a couple of adorable pictures of them...

the following weekend our entire family went over to bryan and alison's for a bbq and to celebrate all of the family birthdays. we grilled out burgers and dogs and had a yummy ice cream cake! lily loved being reunited with their dog, bell! she is in love.

our august birthdays...brian, alison, nannie and ross

curtis helping ross open his birthday card

uncle bryan reading with lilian and curtis

hugs for bell and ross

goofing around with daddy before bed...the girl LOVES hats!

hillary's shower

it's that time of my life, i have tons of great friends pregnant! i LOVE it! my close friend from work, hillary, and her husband, seth, are expecting their first (a GIRL!) in late september. cindy, mona, and i hosted a shower for her at cindy's house with a bunch of our jwe pals the wednesday before school started. it was at the perfect time...right before everyone was heading back to start their school year so it was nice to catch up with everyone about summer and get excited to start our year together. we had everyone bring a book for baby shippy, she loved it. hill received lots of great gifts...lots of pink of course! we played a fun game and also had everyone write their best mommy advice on mommy recipe cards for hill to keep. we are so excited to meet baby girl shippy....just a few weeks away!

the food table...we had a mexican theme...burritos, chips and 7 layer dip, rotel...yummy!

dessert table...with fonda's delicious cupcakes with cookie dough centers!

hillary and me

the hostesses...cindy, me and mona

adorable backpack on wheels packed for a weekend at grandma's from nancy!

darling!

one of my favorites (and the book hillary got lilian when she was born!)

baby paxton got to spend the night with the girls too! we were all fighting ashley over who got to hold him!

Dog Sitting 101

my brother and his family took a trip to colorado the second week of august and asked us to watch their dog, bell. we could not have had a better time dog sitting! we are such dog people and it was so hard when we had to give up ralphie (our 3 year old corgi) once he did not adjust well to having a new baby in the house. having bell around all week really made me miss having a dog and also made me realize what we were missing...she is an AMAZING dog and did so well with lilian. lily would grab her tail, pull her ears, practicially sit on top of her and she never flinched! she gave her tons of hugs, would put brian's hats on her head, and try and put her sandals on bell's feet...it was so cute. we cannot wait to watch her again!

18 Months

our baby girl is a year and a half old, wow! she actually was 18 months on july 27th but we couldn't get into the doctor until the first week of august. here are miss lily's stats...
height  31 inches...27%
weight  22 lbs...23%
wears 18 month and 12 month clothes still
wears size 4 diapers
wears size 5 shoes
it's funny because her weight has truly just leveled off, i remember back at 9 months and 12 months she was closer to the 60% for weight and now she is back to the 20%...all that moving and shaking i suppose! she is super active and into everything (like i am sure every mother of an 18 month old says!)
her vocabulary is getting better each day. she will try and repeat everything we say, it is hilarious hearing her try to say some of the words! she just keeps adding to her list of words each and every day. i love it! she is getting better and better at stringing two and three words together.
interests...
BABIES, she is now loving puzzles which is new, we are starting to work on colors and counting to 3 (she has mastered the number 2 and the color blue so we try and make her look smart with questions like "how many feet do you have?" and "what color are your eyes?" to impress the relatives! ha), obsessed with her swing (cries at the door until you take her out to swing and then cries when it is time to come in, no matter how long you are out there pushing!), loves her cousins and being around kids/babies, loves playing in mommy's make-up bag, dancing, still loves reading her books
favorite books...
how do i love you, green eggs and ham, numbers and color books, where is teddy? my first picture dictionary
favorite foods....
grapes, watermelon, chicken nuggets (this is new), chicken noodle soup, mac and cheese, cheese roll ups (new favorite), green beans, cheerios, string cheese
new tricks...
can go up and down stairs well
animal noises...pig, lizard, cow, monkey, cat, dog, sheep, snake, lion, tiger, owl, bunny
does the motions to "twinkle, twinkle"
loves to sit in her chair and "read" her books
our new schedule...
now that we are back at school she is adjusting to her new schedule at the babysitter's. she had a great first week and took a few great naps for michele. she is loving being around her friend amelia all day and kaiya in the mornings and afternoons when she gets off the bus. laurie got to watch her on thurs and fri because our new sitter, michele, came down with the stomach flu. we are so lucky that laurie was avalialbe...lily sure missed her! she got two new puppies over the summer so they were a big hit! when we picked lily up on thursday after school she would not let go of laurie and cried, clinging to her! it was so sweet. she is our back up babysitter for instances like this which works out perfectly, lily loved spending a few days with her.
our 18 month old...

this is pretty much the package you get now...EVERYWHERE we go she has to bring at least 3 to 4 babies with...pretty comical. look at that toothy grin, too. she has 11 teeth, working on number 12.
she is our pride and joy, couldn't love anything more!

Twins Turn 5!

lauren and andrew turned 5 on august 11th! it is so hard to believe they are already 5 and going to start kindergarten in one short year. time really does fly by. i remember waiting in the hospital for them to be born and the first time we held them. now they are so smart, loving, and full of their own personality. we celebrated their birthdays with them on the wednesday we returned from the lake. we all went to dinner and then back to mark and leanne's for cupcakes and ice cream and opened gifts. we got lauren a barbie doll and andrew a nerf gun...they both loved their gifts! we love them to pieces!



Lake Okaboji

i have heard several stories of okaboji (a lake in iowa, close to the minnesota border) from brian and his high school buddies...it is where they spent many summers hanging out and having fun. when brian started teaching at jwe he noticed one of our fellow teachers, prudence, sporting an okaboji sweatshirt one day and so the conversations began about when we would all visit the lake together. well, this week it finally happened! brian and i drove up to iowa on sunday morning and spent the day with his family visiting. rhoda was sweet enough to watch lilian for us for the two days we would be gone. lilian is loving this one on one grandma time! here are some pictures from sunday before we left of lily playing with lauren.

lauren taking lilian for a spin

this was her favorite! the slide was a new addition to grandma's fun house!

drew and colleen drove up to brian's parent's house on sunday evening to break up their drive and we all left monday morning to meet prudence at the lake. it was such a relaxing few days. we went out to lunch, enjoyed the afternoon on the boat and dipping in the lake, sat around the cabin playing games, went out to the town and shopped and visited the local restaurants and bars. it was a great trip! thanks for hosting us, prudence!

the girls

at barefoot bar, this place was so cute!

we stopped on the way back for a photo opp with albert the bull!

Kenny Chesney Concert

saturday night brian and i attended the kenny chesney concert with drew and colleen. we had purchased our tickets back in november so this has been a much awaited evening! kenny is brian's absolute favorite and neither of us have ever been to one of his shows but have always wanted to. we were not disappointed...what an amazing show! they had uncle kracker, billy currington and my favorite, zac brown, all open before kenny.

tailgating before the concert

colleen and me

b and drew

our seats were on the floor about 10 rows back so we were very lucky! we got some great pictures too!

what a fun, memorable night! thanks for a great show, we will be back!