Waiting for Santa

 

Lilly and I went on a little shopping trip to Walgreens and found this guy.  Of course I couldn’t say no to a toddler who was shrieking with excitement.  We put him outside of the playroom window so she could see him whenever she wanted :)

Lilly was a little concerned when I told her Santa came down the chimney.  We have a little bitty fireplace.

I found some neat tutorials online about photographing Christmas tress.  So I tried a few out and this is by far the best! I love this picture so much it makes my heart melt.  This was taken before Raelynn could sit up on her own so Lilly is literally holding her up.  About two pictures later Lilly was tired of sitting still and  let go of her sister.  You can only guess what happened next!  No babies were harmed in this photo shoot, a few tears were shed but not permanent damage was done.

A quick picture unload from my phone

I had a couple of really cute pictures on my phone that I needed to post on here.  They are all from different days and random times, so they will probably be out of order.

Raelynn is such a little cuddle bug, she wasn’t sleepy at all, just laying on my shoulder.  Lilly never rested her head on my shoulder until she was at least 18 months old!  It’s crazy how different they are!

 

I caught this picture at the perfect time, you can see both of her dimples!

 

Lilly may kill me for this one when she gets older, but oh well that’s my job as a parent!  She climbed up on the couch next to me while I was nursing Raelynn and said, “Tigger is hungry” Then proceeded to pull up her shirt and feed him :)

 

Lilly (with a Tigger tail on) and Raelynn had a tea party.  This was probably the very first time Lilly and Raelynn sat next to each other and played with the same toy like that.  They normally sit by each other and play with different toys or Lilly just steals Raelynn’s toy from her and Raelynn moves on to something else.

 

Raelynn found the baby toy basket under the table! And learned very quickly how to dump it out.  Since this picture was taken she has now figured out where the board books live in the coffee table.  Nothing is safe anymore.

School Christmas Program

This year I got to witness hundreds of preschoolers signing Christmas songs.  All of the different age groups “sang” a couple of songs and clapped to the music while the parents played paparazzi  and took tons of pictures of their precious children.  I looked around before it started and saw that there were no seats left and people were standing in the back, I am still amazed at how packed the place was. 

Lilly did good, she sat with her class until it was time to get on stage a sing.  She looked around for a while but never really saw me, I’m convinced that was a good thing, I was really concerned that she would see me and run off the stage to come and sit with me.  Once on the stage Lilly kind of faded into the crowd of singing kids.  After they were done singing she moved over to the side so I was able to take a few pictures of her.

 

Lilly loves her teachers

I couldn’t help but to take this picture, these are parents of the one year olds. 

Lilly stretching to see over her peers

Singing “Happy Birthday”

Singing some more

I think I took this picture when she finally found me in the audience

This is what I came home too, Raelynn was sick so Daddy stayed home with her.  He said she cried most of the time I was gone and wouldn’t eat or take a bottle.  He put her in the jumperoo and she finally calmed down, then passed out!  He said he didn’t want to move her after she fell asleep so he left her like that until I got home :)

A frog, really?

Lilly’s school had a special guest come to visit, Santa!! Lilly was very excited to bring Santa her letter.  She asked for a frog, yes a frog, not a stuffed or real frog but a little plastic frog just like the one at school.  The first time Lilly and I visited her classroom she picked up a little yellow plastic frog and she has played with it just about every school day since.  School was also nice enough to let me bring Raelynn along to take pictures with Santa. Lilly said Raelynn wanted a frog for Christmas from Santa too.  She said that Mommy and Daddy wanted frogs too…silly kid wants a family of frogs!

 

If you look really closely in the picture you can see Lilly holding onto the yellow frog from her classroom.  She wanted to show Santa what kind of frog to get.

Raelynn says, “horray for Santa”

My happy girls!

 

Lilly was such a good girl this year, that she got three frogs for Christmas from Santa.  A stuffed one, a plastic one like the one from her classroom and a sticky one.  Lilly also picked out a toy frog for Raelynn, that was her gift to her sister.  I really don’t know where this obsession came from, but I like that she likes the slimy bugs and frogs as well as the pink pretty princess stuff.  She’s a well rounded little girl. 

How much did our family change in a year?

March of 2011

November of 2011

And here’s another comparison picture for you enjoyment…

My little helper & Raelynn vs the ball

Lilly has recently started to ask if she can help me when I cook dinner.  And of course I cringe a little when it’s a messy meal but it’s still really fun!

Lilly helped me roll out dough..she was really good at it!!  Now every time we cook she asks if she can use the “steam roller”

Stirring brownie batter

 

Now here’s the epic battle between Raelynn and the ball.  I’m not sure why she likes it so much because she gets so frustrated with it when it rolls away.  Maybe she’s like her sissy and loves the color “PANK” (insert cheesy southern accent here).

 

 

Got it!

This kid makes the funniest faces (concentrating much??)

I love seeing those little chubby feet holding the ball, it cracks me up

Loosing it…

Uh oh it’s gone

Oh wait there’s a camera, time to be a ham!

Rolly polly kiddo

Mmmm shoes!

And the ball is back! Yup that is really the natural progression of the photos. I think Lilly may have brought her the ball back.

Fall Fest

A couple of weeks ago Lilly’s school had fall fest (yes I’m behind on my blogging I know), it was on a Thursday and Lilly normally goes to school on Wednesdays but this week we traded her day so she could take part in the festivities.  Take a look at some of the pictures of Lilly playing!

 

In the tunnel

 

Oh and out of the tunnel

The ball pit was fun until it ran out of balls..gotta love 30+ toddlers in one room!

I told her to carry the (plastic) egg on the spoon.  Well she did it, but she held the egg in place with her other hand. I guess she got me on a technicality.

Drawing mommy a pretty picture

Cutie pie!

My first baby!

 

Making lots of noise, as if it wasn’t loud enough let’s add noise making instruments!  Preschool teachers are probably the bravest people ever!

I don’t think this is the intended purpose of this tunnel but Lilly thought it was hilarious!

I have at least 20 pictures of Lilly posing with the scarecrow, she kept asking me to take more pictures..silly girl!