Little Miss Lily

What a fun little person this girl is! She is so delightful, we just couldn't love her more. She is now two and a half and has become very independent. It's actually a pretty funny comparison between she and Benson. Benson is almost five but he still wants help with many things. He doesn't get himself dressed or put on his own shoes, and is thrilled when someone is willing to feed him or accompany him to the bathroom. 

Lily, on the other hand, is constantly saying, "I do it!" usually with an exclamation point! She wants to dress herself, feed herself, put on her own shoes, and go potty all by herself. It takes us about four times as long as it used to in order to do anything. Leaving the house is a major ordeal when she has to put on her own shoes and coat, plus bring along her backpack of treasures. And, often she feels frustrated when she finds she doesn't have the dexterity to complete the tasks she attempts. However, she just keeps at it until she succeeds. It's a good thing I've slowed down so much this semester in preparation for the baby so that I can give her the time she needs to "Do it herself".

Lily continues to be a huge Mama's girl. I feel badly because I think it hurts BJ's feelings a little. She wants me to do everything with/for her. If I leave the house without her, she cries. At mealtime she wants to sit next to me or on my lap to eat. At bedtime she insists that I put her to bed. Last night she woke up in the middle of the night. BJ went in to help her and I heard her shouting, "No Dad, go 'way, want Mom!" She cried "Mommy" over and over again until I went in. I'm certain she'll grow out of it and probably become at total Daddy's girl but it's going to be a little tricky when the baby comes to have her feeling so Mommy-centric. I guess we'll all have some adjusting to do.

Truly though, Lily has been my little companion and friend. She is charming and outgoing. She loves to dance and sing. She has decided opinions and expresses them now in full sentences and with impressive clarity. I'm so grateful she's a part of our family.

Christmas Morning 2014

I would venture to say that this Christmas morning was the most fun yet! The kids were at great ages for understanding that Santa was coming. They wrote their letters to Santa and counted down the days till his arrival. They also each asked for some fun toys and were delighted at receiving some of what they asked for and a few surprises too.

Benson's Preschool has a "ziggle" and he loves it. He always reports on the days when he get's to ride the Ziggle at Miss Suzie's. Santa must have known how much he enjoyed it because he received one this Christmas!

Santa also brought all three boys (Benson, McKay and Daddy) each a Nerf gun. They quite enjoy having wars together. And, Lily likes it too! She runs through the room shouting and chasing while they play. She loves to be part of the action.

Lily got a play kitchen from Santa and lots of play food. She also found a sock monkey in her stocking and carried it around all day.

Benson loves to do puzzles and is very good at them! He got a new puzzle for Christmas and had fun putting it together.

We had to have this picture of Lily on record! She got a set of 7 pairs of underwear in her stocking and immediately insisted on opening the package. She then proceeded to make us put all the new pairs on her at the same time! It was hilarious!

Oh, and she wouldn't put any pants back on because she wanted to be able to see all the new pairs of underwear!

The kids, of course, stayed up late on Christmas Eve and woke up about 6:45AM on Christmas morning. So, they look a little bleary-eyed (like Mckay here).

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Lily got a tiny telescope in her stocking. She played with it for days, each time putting it right between her eyes (like at the top of her nose) and "looking" through it. 

And of course, this little sweet tooth girl found the candy in her stocking and started madly stuffing it into her mouth as fast as she could until we noticed what was going on! Nothing like candy for breakfast.

We didn't want Lily to miss out on any of Christmas morning so as soon as the boys woke up, we got her up too. However, she usually sleeps in later than that and was pretty tired all morning. Here she is snuggling with her Nana, Baba, and blankie. Who could ask for anything more?

The only thing McKay asked Santa for this year was a Robot. He was thrilled to get it! It's called a MIP and is controlled via cellphone. Of course Santa didn't bring him a cellphone too, so he uses ours. He loved to drive it around, have it dance, and pick up/carry items around the house.

Though he never "officially" asked for it, McKay kept saying how much he'd like to have a giant nutcracker at our house during Christmas.  On Christmas morning, there was a two-foot-tall nutcracker which McKay and Benson loved to play with.

Benson out demonstrating his Ziggle skills (which were quite good, by the way)

Nana and Papa spent Christmas morning with us. Here they are, opening our gift to them, a new set of luggage for their upcoming trip to Hawaii!

Though it's blurry, I love this picture of Benson and McKay giving each other a hug after opening their presents to one another (both Lego sets). They have such a great friendship and brotherhood. It makes me so happy to see how much they love each other.

Here Lily is playing with her new kitchen and play food. Below she's stringing her new beads. Once she realized that great things were inside the wrapped packages, she was ALL about unwrapping. 

We loved having Christmas morning at our home and watching our kids be so thrilled with their gifts. We felt blessed that they could have such a fun Christmas. Nothing brings greater joy than seeing your kids so happy. :)

Too much fun!

Lily really loves to dance! She just joined a class called "Two Much Fun", a dance class for two-year-old girls. During each class they dance with different props and dress-ups and end each class with a tea party. It's a little girl's dream! She loves "Dance class day" as she calls it. She also loves that Nana is the one who takes her to class. She can't get enough Nana time. 

She dances all over the house too. Last week McKay came home from school and reported that as part of PE they did the moves to the Cha Cha Slide song. We pulled it up and did the dance together, with Lily and Benson doing their best to keep up. We had done the Cha Cha Slide at a wedding at Grandma Cox's house over the summer and Lily had loved it then too. When the song came on she said, "Cha Cha Now...Grandma's house!" I couldn't believe she remembered it from months ago. Now each day she requests the "Cha Cha Now" song and dances to it, complete with the jumps, spins, and Cha Chas. 

Bensons creation

Bensons preschool teacher sent me this pic yesterday. He did it all by himself and was so proud of himself that she took a picture :).  Look at it sideways... Go Cougars! 

Parrot

Little Nee-Nee is going through that funny stage of repeating everything we say. This is always adorable but sometimes gets us into some trouble. Like, for example, the other day when I said casually, "Oh, I left my papers in the other room, dang it." And behind me I heard a high little voice repeat, "Dain it!" 

Oops! 

A few nights ago I was getting Lily ready for bed. We got her all changed into her diaper and footie pjs, then I went to go get her bottle and tooth brush. When I returned she had completely striped and was standing there shivering. She then grabbed her blanket and tried to wrap herself in it but couldn't get the blanket to go around her correctly. She tried a few times unsuccessfully and got mad. She started slamming her blanket on the floor and said, in rhythm to the blanket-slamming: "So, fuss-waited!!" 

I burst out laughing as I realized she was copying all the times I've said to her, "Oh, are you so frustrated?" It's so funny to hear big words coming out of her tiny little mouth. We sure love our little Nee-Nee! 

Happy Halloween 2014

Whew, our Halloween week was a blur of parties, costumes, and candy! I love Halloween for all of it's spooky fun. To me, it's just a lot of fun but I have to say, it's exhausting too!

McKay as Harry Potter in the school Halloween Parade

Benson's cute Preschool Class puts on a Halloween performance each year. Little Bens is the Batman in the middle. He has been so excited for his performance and has been singing bits of Halloween songs here and there. However, when it came time to start the program he sang one song and then came and sat by Nana and I. When I tried to coax him back up he said he was too embarrassed. He's such a tender little guy, even dressed as Batman.

Little Nee-nee was a kangaroo for Halloween this year. She found her costume about a month early while accompanying me on a trip to TJ Max. She put it on right there in the store and has loved it ever since. Like I said, she's technically a Kangaroo but when asked, she tells everyone she's a puppy. Hehehe so cute!

I somehow ended up as the Room Mom for McKay's 1st Grade class this year, so I was in charge of the Halloween class party. It was a really fun party, despite the chaos of 20 first-graders on sugar highs. We played Halloween Bingo then split up into rotations for other games including Jack-o-lantern toss, Don't Eat Pete, Monster Bowling, and Mystery Feelers. We finished up with monster donuts and witches brew. It was really fun! A big thanks to Nana for being the Associate Room Mom and seriously helping out!

The kids all looked so cute in their costumes. Benson's was really cool but a little bit funny in that his mask was way too big so in order to see out of it he had to tilt his head way back. It was so funny to see him wandering around with his head thrown back. Ahh the comedy of kids and costumes.

And, I just had to include this, "day after" pic of Lily. Crazy hair, still in jammies, and wearing her spider headband. It's only Halloween once a year so we enjoy it :)

Looks like McKay found one of his missing teeth!

Papa and Nana went Trick-or-Treating with us and were great sports to carry and push kids in strollers from house to house. McKay doesn't really like candy very much so after Trick-or-Treating at a few houses he decided to just sit in the stroller. When people would offer him treats he would politely decline. It was so funny!

Another pic of Benson at his program

Two cute boys, ready to head out on the Trick-or-Treating trail

Harry Potter

One more crazy shot of the class party!

Pumpkin carving! 2014