My mom and dad, Nannie and Bompie, just went to Hawaii
and brought this dress back for Lily. So pretty!

So, a lot has happened since my last blog! We went to Sacramento and San Francisco, California over Thanksgiving. Jason's family lives in Sacramento. We really hoped to see his daughter, but she was out of town too. Here are pics of Thanksgiving.

Here are the cousins on this side of the family. Such cute kids!

Jason and his siblings. Trevor, Tony and Alissa.

One morning while sitting at the hotel and realizing that the indoor swimming pool heater was broken, we decided to try out a bounce house. Here Lily wants to face Matt on the air hockey.

Since the swimming pool heater was broken, the big whirlpool tub in our room worked well for Lily. I scrubbed her down and then turned on the jets and these bubbles are the result. It's her first bubble bath and she LOVED it. She is a total water baby!

We spent a day in San Francisco. Pier 39 to be exact. The weather worked out great for us. A little chilly, but no rain. At the end of the pier, there was a SpongeBob movie premiere. We didn't go in to watch it, but they had this wonderful plastic "Bob." We love bob at our house. In fact, we had to watch him a lot on the way to and from California in the car!

Matt and Lily posing in front of Bubba Gump Shrimp. Matt is wearing Forrest Gumps tennis shoes. His suitcase and box of chocolates are next to Lily.

The day we got back from California, was Lily's 2nd birthday. Nannie, my mom, made her a cake and we had family over to celebrate. Here she is "testing" the frosting on the cake. YUMMY!

Nannie and Bompie gave her a Sponge Bob memory game, an outfit and some new Bob pj's. It was so funny. She opened her memory game and not even knowing what it did, just that it was bob, she sat there saying, "Oh my gosh! My gosh, mom! Oh my gosh!" It was hilarious! She's never said anything like that before.

We moved her booster seat to the piano bench just to make sitting room for the adults, but Lily climbed up on the bench and into her seat to play the piano. She also had gone to her closet and put on her little red riding hood coat and had Nannie put on her bib (not sure why, but do we ever know why kids do some things?) all before she would play the piano! It was so funny.

I took some pics of her in her new Bob pajamas, but this was a freaking cute one. She is actually sitting at the counter waiting for Daddy to make her some food. The look on her face is too cute.

It snowed really hard and all day long on Lily's birthday. Here is Matt getting ready to go out in the snow to help shovel. (He actually did most of it).

Here's Lily getting ready to go into the snow. She is nothing like Matt was. Maybe it's the boy/girl thing. Boys jump in the snow and roll around and throw snowballs and stuff. Girls walk in the snow and maybe put the tip of her glove ON the snow, but not in it. She just so...careful in the snow. It's funny to watch and to see the differences in them.

Here is the dress Nannie got Lily for her birthday. It's the pink t-shirt and skirt. It was so cold today for church, that I tried to find some stuff to warm up the outfit. I found these stockings that were given to us when Lily was little and the only long sleeved shirt I could find to match it was her Ariel from the Little Mermaid pj top. So, I think she looks a bit like a clown, but super cute.

Nannie and Bompie's ward had a Christmas breakfast with a talent show and Santa Clause. Lily is cuddling with them here.

Lily with Santa, which is a HUGE improvement from last year. 2 times last year she sat on his lap and both times she is FREAKING OUT! Purple face, arms outreached and mouth wide open screaming. So, here she didn't stay on long, or even say anything, but at least she sat there for about 10 seconds.

Matt didn't want to sit on his lap, but I made him for pictures. Mean mom that I am. Here, he's asking for a puppy. He doesn't really want a puppy, but he's being funny.

And, last but not least, Jason has graduated with his Bachelor's Degree in Human Resource Management AND had a birthday! Here he is blowing out his candles, but we are also celebrating his graduation too. Happy times for us!

Halloween

Lily goofing off in the tub.

Throwing a fit in the front yard. It's really hard to get mad at this cute face!
Even when she is practicing to be 2 years old!

Her very favorite thing to do right now is take a walk up and down the street with her little car. She doesn't want to ride in the car, she wants to push or pull it. By herself. No help please!

Daddy, Lily and Mom went to Witches Night Out (Matt was at his dad's) at Gardner Village. It's this really cute, quaint shopping area near our home. That night we saw TONS of ladies dressed as witches, enjoying the Halloween spirit! Here is daddy and Lily pointing at some witches. (Daddy has been a pretty good sport. I keep dragging him to girly things, but he comes and "enjoys" the family time)

At Witches Night Out they had these horses for kids to ride. It was her first time on a real horse and she LOVED it! I had her pet the horse first, and then she was totally into it and couldn't get enough. So cute!

Okay, so one day we are wearing levis and t-shirts and the next morning we wake up to about 5 inches of snow!! I couldn't believe it! I was actually off of work a few extra days this week because Matt had pink eye and Lily had croup and double ear infections. So, after I drugged them up with their perscriptions and tylenol, I couldn't let the opportunity pass to try on all the new snow gear for Lily and let her play. Matt said "Pass", so I let him stay inside, but Lily and I went out and shoveled the driveway and walked through the snow. She liked to eat it and kept saying "Yummy."

Here's Matt being a goof ball. We just got him this new University of Utah sweatshirt and he LOVES it (he is a huge fan), so he wanted his picture in it. I snapped it when he thought I wouldn't, so this was the outcome.

We had a chili cook-off ward dinner (we took 3rd place) along with a trunk-or-treating party last night in our neighborhood. Lily is a cheerleader and Matt decided to ditch the camouflage outfit in lieu of his new fedora hat and U of U sweatshirt. I love pictures like these. They sure love each other!

Here's Lily in her costume in front of a painted jack-o-lantern. She isn't into the whole trick or treating thing, but she is realizing how yummy the stuff people are putting in her basket is. She just wants to take the candy right then and eat it as she gets it. Too bad mommy doesn't play that game! She had fun anyway though.

Lily's new bed

So, we've had some fun at our house this past month. We decided to clean out the house as much as possible, so we moved a bunch of stuff to a storage unit and than had a HUGE 2 day yard sale. We did pretty well. Matt raked in the money from all of his stuff he sold! We now have room to move around the house and it feels so much better and less crowded! The stuff in storage is stuff we won't be using until next summer at least, so it's nice.

We also had a long fall break weekend this past week. So, we decided to break Lily of her bottles. I know, I know. Bad mom that I am, she's almost 2 and still had a bottle. Well, not anymore!! I packed them all up Thursday morning and went cold turkey without any at all. She didn't even bat an eye! She's never asked for one or anything. Sippy cups are what she uses now, except in her high chair. I bought her some small cups without lids that we put just a little bit of liquid in and let her try that out.

Then, because that wasn't enough, Lily found out how to climb out of her crib yesterday. Luckily, Jason was home with her because he wasn't feeling too well. She climbed half way out and fell the rest of the way. And then she wouldn't stay in her crib at all and kept falling. So, I looked around on the internet and found this adorable toddler bed for really cheap. It's purple and white and has the Disney princesses on it. It just uses her crib mattress. So, we bought it, brought it home, set it up, took down her crib and than made her room toddler proof. We had to take the bookshelf out because she wanted to climb up it like a ladder. She also has a little trampoline in her room, so she was jumping from that to her new bed. She loves it. And, most importantly, she stayed in it the whole night! I put a baby gate up at her door way so she didn't wake up at night and wander around the house. There are stairs right outside of her room and I didn't want her to fall down them. I can't believe my baby is out of a crib and off of bottles! Next is potty training.....we may wait a few weeks for that!

Matt is doing really well all around. He has made some great friends at school and he is getting straight A's. I'm so proud of him! His classes are accelerated too, so not too shabby! He is having a Halloween party too this year. His first party other than birthdays, so he's pretty excited.

We, as a family, are also getting ready for our long Thanksgiving vacation. We have decided to spend it with Jason's family in Sacramento, California this year! We can't wait!

That's it for now. It's plenty though! Lots of stuff going on, hopefully things will settle down a bit for a little while. I'm just glad we are healthy and happy (most of the time!). Here are some pictures of Lily's new bed and of the kids. See ya!

Lily playing with an army hat and jacket at the military store
(we were looking for a Halloween costume for Matt).

Matt and Lily on a hay ride at a local farm that did an Octoberfest type thing. It was fun for Lily, but not really Matt's thing. He was a really good sport about it all though.

This is Lily on the first morning she has her bed. She stayed in bed and on the bed all night! I took these pictures before I woke her up to go to the babysitters house. She has her favorite pajamas on....Sponge Bob Square Pants!!

Yes, that is Lily washing the walls with her wet wipes. She will clean anything with those things! I just barely wiped the wall down because we had moved her crib and she watched me, so, of course, she had to help! Such a cutie.

Pics in September

Matt sure has Lily trained! Here she is rubbing his back!

These two sure love each other. They are cuddling and playing.

Here they are just cuddling.

A teacher at my school made this hat for Lily when she was an infant. She LOVES this hat! She will wear it all day if we let her. So, here she is putting on shoes (another favorite past time) and pulling on her hat.

Cute stuff in her hat.

We were cleaning out our house and dejunking with a storage unit and a yard sale. Lily was playing on the hand cart during all of this and fell off and hurt her face. It's clearing up here, but it was really bad. Thankfully, now it doesn't look like there will be a scar.

Here is Princess Lily with her tiara. She put it on herself, which is why it's upside down and around her head the wrong way. She is also blowing on a whistle. She fits the roll of princess well.