Letter "L" week

Working with our Leap Frog she got for Christmas. Wonderful gift, so glad I found it last minute at Target. Hopefully it will last us a long time and she will continue to enjoy it as much as she does now.



Then we went to www.starfall.com (after a recommendations from this blog) and did the activities there that coordinated with the letter L. Here she is pointing to the letter that does NOT belong, she did such a great job and really enjoyed this activity. I think we probably did it about 10 times.



She was looking all over the place for things starting with the letter "L"



We also went around the house and found objects that started with the letter "L". Lilliana did a great job and we would write out the letter each time she found something new.


We also went to this blog and made a lion out of the letter "L". This is a blog I have followed for a while now and one that my friend Amber sent me to back last summer when we originally started doing letter's of the week. After taking some time off when L started school in August, I decided I have got to quit making excuses. Just because she's in school 2 days a week doesn't mean the learning should stop there. She LOVES to do crafts and will sit at her little table for over an hour doing things with Momma. I just love this precious time I have with her and look forward to continuing our "Letter's of the Week".

Snowed in

Typically when Memphis predicts snow, just the opposite happens. This time, they were about 50% accurate. We did get ice and a little snow. Unfortunately it was not enough to play in but just enough to close schools. I felt so bad for Lilliana because she kept asking over and over again to go play in the snow. I guess she didn't understand when I told her it was just white ice.

We were able to get out a little bit on Saturday afternoon and Lilliana played in the little bit that was there. She even went down her slide and attempted to get her ride on airplane out. That last part was futile! :) It was fun no matter what though!

Top 25 at 25 month's

1. One of L's most favorite names to call me lately is "Mom", it drives me nuts considering she is only 2 but, I guess it's better than calling me by my first name like she does to her Daddy! If she hears me calling him by name, she will say "Clayyyyyy", "Oh Clayyyy, wake up Clay" or whatever else she has heard me say to him.

2. Another one of L's new sayings is, "I'm toot" AKA "I'm cute!" I'm pretty sure I have created a monster!! Oh yeah and by the way, she does this with her hands on her hips and with her little hip cocked to one side!

3. If I ask her a question that she wants to ponder the answer about, she likes to say "hmmmm" "hmmmm" with her hands on either side of her cheeks and tilting her head. Again, I believe I am to blame :)

4. Her new favorite food is pancakes and she can devour about 6 small ones and at least 1 large one by herself. Clay has been taking her to McDonald's for some Daddy / Daughter time on Saturday mornings so that I can get a couple hours sleep after work and she loves it! She talks about it all night on Friday and then continues to tell me about the panCAKES after I awake from my nap.

5. Although she has only played in the snow once, she LOVES it and is always asking to play in it. Sorry love, we live in a city where snow doesn't really fall much more than once a year :(

6. She is such a chatty Cathy and will tell you how it is. After napping the other day, she woke up calling for me and then proceeded to tell me, "Momma, I was crying, Momma, Momma over and over for you".

7. She loves to sing, and according to Miss Sha, she was leading music at school last Monday! They were singing "Old McDonald" and L was the only one calling out all the animals and making their animal noises. She told me she did a little jig in between each one too. That's my girl :)

8. She is an avid Memphis Tiger's fan and everywhere she sees anything Tiger related she will call out the Tiger's spelling T-I-G-E-R-S TIGERS. Or she will just say "Go Tige's, Go Tige's, Go Tige's, GO!!"

9. She loves to fly like an airplane by laying on my feet. She will stick her hands straight out and doesn't seem to have any fear at all!

10. She is really turning into Miss Independent and likes to pick out her own clothes, and especially her shoes. She would probably wear her cow rain boots everyday if I would let her. She is constantly telling me, "I do it", and then proceeding to get very upset if I try to help or do something for her!

11. Her new favorite TV character is Dora, although she has only watched about 2 of her shows. She now has a Dora umbrella, panties, her Dora doll from Christmas, and some fun stuff coming for Valentine's Day. I hope it isn't going to be like this for everything new character she falls in love with!

12. Maggie is now referred to as Maggie Abigail, (which is her full name) but L insists on calling her by both names. She is always saying, "Maggie Abigail, come play with me," "Maggie Abigail, come read books with me." Poor Maggie, you would think she would be used to it by now, but she still shakes and acts like L is going to pull her tail off every time she comes close.

13. She wears between a size 3-5 shoe, and 12-18 month clothes. We are fully potty trained so no more diapers for this house!

14. She only has 10 teeth, but I guess since she didn't get her first one until she was 17 month's we're doing ok. Clay did feel one of her canines poking through the other day, so maybe we are on the way to even more in the near future.

15. She is constantly asking me, "Whatcha doin Momma?" or "Hold me Momma". I love that she wants me all the time, but if she would ask in her non-whiney voice, it would make things so much better :0

16. She loves to do crafts with Momma, as soon as she sees me get the craft bins out she will repeat over and over again, "let's do caft Momma"

17. She also loves to do puzzles and play with her matching cards. She has mastered the Noah's Ark cards and we have moved on to the Mickey Mouse one's she got for Christmas.

18. I believe, rocking before bedtime is slowly coming to an end. She typically wants to "rock for 2 minutes", then she wants me to lay with her in Bobby's bed and sing songs with her. Her favorite is "He's Got the Whole World in His Hand". We even do a rendition that includes all her favorite animals, her friends and family members, and even Lilliana's money bank every now and again!

19. A while back, when we transitioned her to the toddler bed, we started placing the pillow pal she got for Christmas on top of her and saying, "no, no piggy move." Now, every time we tuck her in , she asks for her piggy and repeats it back.

20. When we made our monthly trip to Costco last week, before we even got in the door, L was asking for a hotdog. Then when it was time to check out we decided to go ahead and eat dinner there, she kept yelling at the man, "Hey there Mr. Hotdog man." I believe we make too many trips there for her to remember that!

21. The same thing happens when we go to Target. She immediately wants to go potty in the family potty, and then get a hot chocolate. She is such a mess, and remembers EVERYTHING.

22. She loves story time at Davis Kidd and is getting better and better sitting still while Miss Marjorie reads and enjoying singing songs with the other kids.

23. She still loves to cuddle, especially after nap time, and reading books is by far her favorite thing to do with me. I absolutely LOVE our cuddle time :0

24. She is really precious and almost always prays for the sick babies at Momma's work when she says her prayers before bedtime. :)

25. Clay and I love her with our whole entire heart and we always say that we don't even remember what life was like before her. We go in and check on her every night, before we head to bed and tuck her in one last time and give her more kisses. She is so much fun and has brought more joy to our lives than I ever thought possible!

Bribery

Bribery: the giving or offering of a bribe; AKA giving Dora gummy snacks if Lilliana would sit still for her photo shoot!!



Mission - Accomplished and photo submitted, just in time!!

A moving target

I bought this cute swimmie for Lilliana the other day at Target, yes you read that correctly. I couldn't believe it when I ran across it because I saw one that looked identical to it at a boutique here in Germantown last year that retailed for more than $50.00. The saddest part is that I almost caved and bought it last year! So glad I didn't and found this one for a measly $9.99!! Anyways, all that to say, I was trying to get a cute pic of Lilliana to send in to the Beautiful Baby contest through Regis and Kelly and this is all I got. She is such a little stink these days and won't sit still for 1 second. I tell her to look at me and even with my new camera, I typically get the back of her head. I guess I am just going to have to bribe her with television or something in order to get her still!! :)







I guess I'll keep trying!!

GO TIGER'S GO!!!

A Day at the Zoo!

Today Lilliana and I headed to the Zoo to enjoy the warmer temps Memphis has been experiencing. It wasn't nearly as warm and sunny as it was yesterday but we were one of only a handful of people there so it turned out really nice. She had such a great time and it was nice to get some fresh air. It has been so cold here the last few weeks that we haven't been much of anywhere lately. We have had lot's of jammie days at the house.

Memphis Snow!

Last week, Memphis got a snow storm tiny bit of snow. We were supposed to get much more, even to the point that they cancelled schools here, but in the end, all we got was less than an inch. Lilliana and I decided to make the most of it though and she was so sad we were unable to make a snowman with our lack of accumulation. We had fun none the less. Everyday, through her eyes is SO much more fun!!

Picnic House-nik

After school Lilliana and I ran some errands, and then stopped by and got a pizza for dinner. Daddy was at school and is supposed to be there pretty late so we decided we would have a girls night. When we got home with the pizza we decided to have a little house-nik and enjoy our pizza on the floor while watching an episode of Mickey Mouse. Just because I don't want to forget, this is the first time I have heard her answering back some of the questions they asked on the show. She was so funny and I couldn't believe how much she is picking up on. Even if it is from television!

2010 New Years Resolutions

I have never been really good at setting and keeping my New Years Resolutions. To that fact, I typically just don't set any because I don't like to fail at things. I do however, realize there are some areas in my life that need improvement, so in turn, I have decided to write out some resolutions for 2010.

1. Have a closer walk with God, do my bible study and or read my bible daily and make better use of my prayer time - This is something that I was pretty good about when I was pregnant with Lilliana, but I have allowed so many other things to cloud my focus and take up my time, I have placed God on the back burner.

2. Be a better Wife, Mother, Daughter and Friend - I have always been a huge perfectionist, so when it comes to others I am surrounded by, I sometimes feel they should be that same way. I want have more patience with Lilliana and especially with Clay and would like to realize more how blessed I truly am.

3. I would like to have a date night with Clay AT LEAST once a month - I know that doesn't sound like much, but considering the fact that I can probably count on 1 hand the number of times we have been out on a date since Lilliana was born, this would definitely be making strides in the right direction!

4. Try and not stress over the little things , or at least give my worrying over to God - I am the world's worst at worrying about what other people think about be. I allow other's opinions, or what I think they may think about me change my focus at times. I want to enjoy every minute with my little family and not allow, a not really that dirty house drive me crazy!

5. I want to spend less time on the computer, but I want to blog more - This is my family journal and I want to keep recording more memories but as far as Facebook and other Internet surfing goes, I want to only do that when Lilliana is asleep or Clay is busy with other things. I don't want to allow it to take precious time away from my family.

Well, that is the main things that I want to focus on for 2010. Most of them aren't very big changes but will make a big change in my life if I will stick to them.

An Update ...

Well, I thought I would give somewhat of an update since I have been such a blog slacker lately. There still isn't any real progression with the job search for Clay. I am hoping it was just the holidays that was the hold up. We have just been praying that with the New Year will come new opportunities and blessing that abound. One thing that will soon be changing is that Clay is going back to school at The University of Memphis to complete his MBA. It is a new online program that they just started last August and can be completed in about 18 months. With Clay's many years of sales experience, many of the positions he is interested in say that a MBA is highly recommended or required. We are hoping that tis will give him somewhat of an advantage and since it is all online, he can still work a full-time job if the opportunity presents itself.

Lilliana started back to school on the 4th and will be going 2 days a week this year. This was a hard decision financially along with emotionally for me but I know it is the best for her. She absolutely LOVES school and I think he going more than once a week will be so good for her. It will also be nice to have one day a week where I can get some things done that are more difficut while toting a toddler around.

I am really looking forward to 2010 and all the changes it may hold in store for our family.

Long time coming ...

Tonight we headed to Shelby Farms for Starry Nights. This is something that Memphis has not hosted in over a decade so I was really looking forward to it. It had been crazy busy and the wait was over an hour to get in before Christmas, so I was glad that we hadn't had time to go until now because we didn't have to wait but about 5 minutes. As soon as we pulled in Lilliana decided she had to go potty so we had to get out of line and head to the restrooms before officially starting. Another funny thing is that, you are supposed to turn your lights off on your car as you drive through and on our car you can't turn them off. They are automatic, so we were 1 of just a few cars that had our lights on. We felt so bad for the car in front of us!

Lilliana loved looking at all of the lights and had such a great time. She loved Christmas so much this year and I really hate to see it end. One big thing that was included in our excursion was that we turned Lilliana facing forward so that she could see the lights. I had all intentions of turning her backwards again after we got home but it was so cold outside that I hated for Clay to be out there doing that. We will just see, it was so fun to be able to look at her little face in the rear view mirror, and since she has finally reached 20 pounds we are legal to turn around anyways!!




Daddy getting Lilliana belted in, I didn't get another good pic of her turned around yet, but I promise to post one soon :)

I'm a Big Girl Now

That's right, Lilliana IS a Big Girl now!! She is officially potty trained and is wearing her big girl panties everywhere we go. We still do a pull-up for nap and bedtime but when she is a school, she doesn't change into one for naps. (I think it's because she only naps about an hour when at school, but at home, it's usually more like 2-3 hours!) We started back in early August just after getting back from the beach and although she acted like she was ready, she was NOT, and neither was I. We got frustrated with each other and it was just much more stressful than it should have been. I decided to abort the mission and try again when she showed readiness.

Well, about 1 month to the day that we had originally started she decided she was ready. We stayed home the entire week and were very strict about pottying. I used M & M's for treats and had gone to Target just before our original attempt and purchased a lot of things from the dollar bins to give out as treats. She did great initially and would tell me when she needed to go and although she didn't always make it in time, for the most part she caught on pretty quickly. By December she was officially pee pee potty trained and it wasn't until the last couple weeks that she got the pooping aspect down.

I am so proud of her and she just loves to prance around the house in her big girl panties!!


we started out by watching "Elmo's Potty-Time" DVD


then we colored in her new Sesame Street Potty-Time coloring book


then we placed big girl panties on George and took him potty


helping Mommy put the Christmas Tree up with her big girl panties on (Princess panties!!)

I used the "Potty Wise" book by Gary Ezzo, and I highly recommend it!! It was fabulous and such a big help. I wasn't ever a huge fan of Baby Wise, because I couldn't let Lilliana "cry-it-out" but this doesn't have anything to do with that :)

Christmas Traditions

This year we decided to do a lot of different Christmas Traditions and some of the same one's we did last year. We put the Christmas Tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving and Lilliana was such a big helper. She loved each and every ornament we pulled out of the box and was so excited to "help Momma." We also started a new tradition with The Elf on the Shelf. It turned out to be one of my favorite things we did because Lilliana got so into it. She named her elf Dobey, and she would look for him every morning when she got up. She was so hilarious calling his name and looking all over the house for him. Sometimes, when he was up in a high place like on top of the window sill or something like that she would tell him, "be careful Dobey, don't bump your head!" She really liked him and was so sad to see him go on Christmas Eve. I know that is a new tradition that will just become more fun in the years to come because she will be able to understand things better and become even more excited.

On Monday night the 14th we had our traditional dinner with the Mefford's and allowed the kids to play. We enjoyed Amanda's wonderful Chili and yummy garlic bread along with some Christmas cupcakes that Lilliana and I made together.


Dorothy, Wilson and Lilliana under the Christmas tree. Lilliana loves her Wilson Bobby and they play so well together!


We also went to Zoo Lights at the Memphis Zoo, which was again such a great time. It was all I could do to get Lilliana away from the front entrance where there was "snow" falling. She was running around, and trying to catch it on her nose and tongue. So precious. She loved all the lights and she got her first chance to meet Santa while we were there. She did so good. I thought she would freeze up and not talk or possibly start to cry but she loved him. She told him she wanted M & M's and Dora for Christmas. (On that note, she wasn't receiving anything Dora related for Christmas because she doesn't even watch that show but her Poppy came to the rescue later that evening when he came across a life size Dora doll just waiting to be bought by him!!)


Gigi, Lilliana and Nana all bundled up waiting for the "Polar Express" at Zoo Lights!


trying to catch the snowflakes at the Zoo entrance!


Mommy and Lilliana in front of one of the exhibits that was sponsored by the high-risk OB that followed me when I was pregnant with Lilliana. Such an awesome man and he has such a special place in my heart :)


Lilliana and Uncle Eric after seeing Santa for the first time, she was greatly enjoying her M & M's from Santa!!

Another new thing we did was going over to The Phelp's house to make Salt Dough ornaments. Lilliana and Becca had so much fun playing with each other and working so hard on their ornaments. Becca choose pink food coloring and Lilliana choose purple so they were able to use only half of their dough and share the other half to have different colored ornaments. They had so much fun and played really well together while Rachel and I had a chance to catch up ourselves. :)


the girls waiting on their dough that Rachel and I were making


Lilliana working diligently on her ornaments


my precious little love :)

We also went over to the Whitsell's house to make Gingerbread Houses with Clark. It was really hard for me to to try and do everything for Lilliana and make her house like I wanted but to see her excitement made it all worth while. I think she ate more candy then was placed on her house but she never gets to do that at home so I tried to just let her enjoy herself!


Clark getting ready to decorate his gingerbread house


Lilliana ready to decorate her gingerbread house


the kids working diligently on their houses, and enjoying the candy along the way


Clark working on his gingerbread house

Christmas started early on Sunday night the 20th with a get together at Clay's parents house. This is the first time in about 5 years that we have gotten together with Clay's Dad's side of the family. They are from all over Tennessee and it was so nice to see them again. Many of them haven't ever met Lilliana so it was nice for her to be able to meet all of her great Aunts and Uncles. She was such a little show-off and was singing songs and talking non-stop!


An early gift that Clay and I allowed Lilliana to open on Wednesday afternoon


she loved it and became a real pro at gift opening over her birthday weekend!

For Christmas Eve, we headed to Clay's parents house where my mom joined us and we had bar-b-que and opened gifts. It was just a nice time to spend with close family and not have to worry about cooking a big meal and getting things prepared. When Clay and I got home with Lilliana we quickly got her to bed and started preparing and putting together her new toys from Santa. It was so much fun to just spend time together and look forward to her excitement the following morning. When Lilliana woke up around 7:30 am, we headed into the living room to see what Santa had brought her. I don't think she really understood at first and was more concerned with where Dobey went! She loved her cozy coupe though and it was all I could do to tear her away from it so we could head to my Aunt's for Christmas lunch. She kept asking if she could "play a little more." After Christmas with my family we headed to Clay's parents again for their extended family Christmas. Lilliana finally caved around 4:00 and settled in for a short afternoon nap. She was more than spent and was about at her breaking point. I think she showed a side of herself that people other than Clay and I rarely see! After her nap she was a new woman though and woke up ready for more fun. It was such a great Christmas and we are so blessed to have family close by and so easy to work with trying to get equal time in.


Lilliana extremely happy about her new Minnie Mouse panties from Gigi and Poppy


sharing her peppermint stick with Dora


helping Momma bake cookies for Santa


gifts under our tree on Christmas Eve


Lilliana making tea with her new tea cart


opening her new Princess tent


driving her new "car" from Santa


trying to fit in her baby doll bed from Nana


Lane, Lilliana and Mimi


Christy, Hal, Nana and Lilliana