Turkey Day!

for thanksgiving every year we head up to iowa to celebrate with brian's family. we headed up on wednesday morning and stayed until friday. wednesday we had rescheduled our family pictures with becky since it started raining on us the last time with the entire family. becky was sweet enough to take a few more of our family of 3 and we are so happy with the way they turned out. thanks again, beck! my main goal was getting at least a couple of good ones for our christmas card! here are some of our favorites...

thursday night leanne had the immediate family over for a delicious dinner. lilian loved playing with the twins...she loved riding the horse, playing with the kitchen/grill, and hide and go seek. she is always in heaven when we are in iowa visiting! surely not from all the attention she gets!

this face...pure joy!

grandpa with all the kids!

aunt andrea and lilian!

some fierce faces from uncle brian and andrew!

grandma was nice enough to babysit lilian afterwards, and grandpa babysat the twins, so the older kids could go out and have some fun! we met up with some of brian's high school friends at virginia's, always a good time! on actual thanksgiving we went over to kirk and jera's house for a wonderful meal with his extended family (lots of family!) lilian loved playing with the twins and in brian's cousin, heather's, pretty girly room!

thanksgiving day, so much to be thankful for!

that night we stayed in and got comfy at brian's parents house. one of our traditions when we are home is to go deer spotting. (something i was introduced to the first time i made a trip home with brian when we started dating!) now we have lilian to enjoy this tradition with, she loves looking for the deer and pointing at them. grandma came with us too (lilian was not having it any other way, she is quite attached!)

lets get a closer look...

"driving" with daddy, so fun!



we spotted tons!

 after deer spotting we came home and played, read books, and we watched our favorite christmas movie, elf, too! it was a great thanksgiving! we are thankful for our amazing families, our good health, wonderful friends, and the blessings God has brought to our lives...the most important of course being our little love bug.

Baby Micah

one of my best friends from college, jill, and her husband, mike, (see previous post from their february wedding) welcomed their first child...a sweet baby girl named micah. it is so surreal now that my close friends are having babies. i remember meeting jill back as freshman in college and long talks at night as roomates about our future kids' names...she always talked about naming her daughter micah, and here we are! i love it. her due date was thanksgiving and she came about a week early. she was tiny (7 lbs. 1 oz.) and had a head of dark hair (just like her mom and dad and exactly what i pictured!) we could not wait to get up to see them at the hospital (she delivered at north kansas city). we drove up on saturday around noon. of course lilian was in heaven...giving hugs and pointing to all her features, naming them, "nose," "eyes," etc. i loved holding baby micah and seriously cannot remember what that was like! we brought her a new book and a new flower headband, no girl can have enough! :) she is beautiful just like her mama! we cannot wait to visit her again. congratulations, jill and mike. the word family has a whole new meaning to you all now! we love you!

It's Beginning...

to look a lot like Christmas! our favorite time of the year is quickly approaching and we are loving every minute of it. last christmas our greatest gift was our precious girl taking her first steps on christmas night, what a memory! this year she has grown so much it is unbelievable! we took lilian to the bass pro shop on tuesday night to see santa and their beautiful winter wonderland. we have been talking up santa at our house and showing her pictures everywhere we go of "santa" in hopes of her not being scared of him, but...no luck! we waiting in line (a very short line thankfully) to see santa, i kept showing her how all the little girls and boys in front of us were sitting on his lap and having fun...but as soon as we got near the guy in red she was not having it! we went into it figuring as much! it was pretty funny...so our picture this year is me sitting on santa's lap smiling, lilian clinging on to me crying and santa looking at lilian making a sad face! we'll try again next year! afterwards we enjoyed a delicious dinner at the seafood restaurant at bass pro. we hardly ever go to a nice sit down dinner anymore so it was a real treat! lilian loved walking around the store afterwards pointing out all the animals she knew.

how cute is this place!?

testing out the four wheeler floor model! we think her cousin andrew would approve!

one of her cute christmas outfits from grammie!

another one of my favorite christmas traditions that we were able to start with lilian this year is our elf on the shelf! i have been so excited to start this tradition with our family since i learned of its existense when i was pregnant. there is a book that explains this little santa's helper, the elf in which your family gives a name, comes out once a year and hides different places in your house each day. he is there to watch over the children and report back to santa each night. everything about it is absolutely adorable. we put up our tree on sunday night and got out the book and our elf, buddy (after one of our favorite christmas movies, elf, of course!) we were not sure what lilian would think but she loves him! she sat and listened to the story several times and she loves finding buddy's secret hiding place each morning when she wakes up! she waves to buddy and talks to him, so sweet! i love making these new traditions with our family! 

she found him!

hugs for buddy!

this santa is the polar express santa and he talks when you press his hand, this has become another favorite...she has to press his hand each night before going to bed and each morning when she sees him!

look at her a year ago on the same bench from nannie with her santa! not quite a baby anymore!

now this santa she can handle!



Yo, Gabba, Gabba

anyone that knows lilian knows she loves the yo, gabba, gabba songs and show. we went with my whole family on sunday, it was at the music hall in downtown kansas city. when we first got there she saw the stage with the poster of the characters and kept pointing at it saying "gabba." when the show did start she had a similar reaction as the circus, one of being overwhelmed and clinging to one of us...luckily, she adjusted to the noise and lights quickly and became the fan we know she is! by the end she was dancing away!