Daily Lily - Nov. 20

So....Jeff and I attempted to take our own Christmas pictures this year....I think next year we will go to Sears. We were able to get a couple of cute shots for the Christmas card...but most of them came out like this,

Daily Lily - Nov. 20

I get ideas for activities to do with Lily Grace from all over the internet. This is SUCH a fun age to explore and learn for her.
A week ago I found an activity on Pinterest. Pinterest an AMAZING website full of neat ideas and SUPER addictive too. Anyway, I found an activity for using dyed rice as a type of fun indoor sandbox type activity for toddlers.

To dye the rice you take plain white rice and put a few scoops into different ziplock bags.
Add a few teaspoons of white vinegar (I used two or three depending on the amount of rice in the bag), then add drops of food coloring. The more you add the more concentrated the colors. Seal the bag and rub the rice around to distribute the color. Pour onto parchment paper to dry overnight.

This is what it looked like after I poured it in an old chips and salsa bowl we had lying around.



I layed out a big blanket in the dining room and set Lily up with measuring cups, spoons, and bowls. I did not get many pictures at all because I was trying to keep the mess ON the blanket and Lily really wanted me to scoop and mix with her. Most of our activities here at home are like that....she wants me to do things WITH her, not sit back and snap pictures.

Here she is happy as a lark! She REALLY enjoyed this activity. We have done it before, with just PLAIN old white rice when she was younger and she did not seem too interested. That was when she was 9 or 10 months. Now at almost 16 months, she was able to pour and try to sort the rice into different sized cups.







Head on over the www.thehalsteadharold.blogspot.com to check out Lily's friend G. His mom tried the rice activity with him too!

Daily Lily - Giant Halloween Weekend Post

Lily was SO BUSY on Halloween Weekend! Whew! I needed a vacation after all that fun! She attended a Halloween Party at MyGym (which is where our weekly playgroup meets), We did crafts here at the house, she helped her Daddy carve the Jack o'lantern, we went to the fall festival at our church and handed out candy on Halloween night to all of the ghost and gobblins. Lily had a blast. She dressed up as a pumpkin this year, a costume she picked out all on her own! Boy does she have opinions these days. I had a sparkly sequins dragon costume picked out for her to wear, but she insisted on the pumpkin...so a pumpkin she was. I have to admit, she was a VERY cute pumpkin. :-)


Jeff and Lily getting the Jack o'lantern ready



Doing a little school lesson about seeds.



Lily's turn!



Intrigued by the slimy feel of the pulp and she really enjoyed picking out the seeds.



They had so much fun doing this together.


Mommy's little Pumpkin.




Snippets of our other activities....



Riding a pony at the church fall festival. She LOVED every minute. She smiled and squeeled the entire time.


At the play group Halloween Party.

Daily Lily - Oct. 14

Today, Lily and I went to Mcleod Farms in McBee with some friends to visit the pumpkin patch and old country store. We went on a hayride and picked our very own pumpkins from the patch. Lily had a blast! As you can see, Lily is walking now! She is still not very good and has a long way to go, but when she is around other children who can walk, she keeps up pretty well! Here at home though, she is still mostly crawling if she REALLY wants to get to something fast.






When we got home I let Lily paint her pumpkin ANY way she wanted....so now we have a charming blue pumpkin on our porch. Complete with darling toddler finger prints all over it.

Daily Lily - Sept. 30

Just a few forgotten pictures....

Playing in the overalls I knitted for her.



Finger/body painting on the porch.

Daily Lily - Sept. 24

Lily is 14 months old! I would say a little blurb about how time flies and she is getting so big, but we all know that already! She is still growing and thriving, like the little flower that she is. At her 1 year check up she was 18lbs and a little over 30 inches long. Which puts her in 15th percentile weight and 70th percentile height. Long, lean and FULL of energy! She keeps Jeff and I on our toes.

So, I bet you are wondering what Lily has been up to these days.....we recently took a road trip to Florida to visit some of our family. We took 10 days and drove first to Charleston, SC for some fun with just our little family, then we went to Ocala, Hudson, Tampa, then Bradenton. It was a long trip and a LOT of miles on the car, but Lily was a trooper.

Lily met, my mother, my aunt and two cousins, my sister and my two nieces, her great grandpa Bill and great grandma Sherri. She also visited with her GG (great grandma Ellie) and Grand Pap (great grandpa Bob), Uncle Brett and Aunt Bobbi.

She met lots of new people, did just GREAT and loved ALL the attention.

my mom

my sister
my nieces



Jeff and I took Lily to Busch Gardens. She LOVED IT! They had a whole Sesame Street Section there. Lily is a HUGE fan of Sesame Street, Elmo in particular. We thought she would be frightened of all of the people in the costumes, but she was actually REALLY excited and happy to see them. We took her to the show "A is for Africa" which featured Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster and a few other characters....She was so happy! Clapping, dancing, laughing and smiling the whole time.




There was also a whole Safari/wild life park at Busch Gardens and Lily REALLY enjoyed the Safari Train that went around to see all of the animals.




We then drove to Bradenton to visit with Bill and Sherri. We had a lovely time. Lily LOVED walking on the beach with Sherri.

Grandpa Bill

It really was an amazing vacation spent with family. Lily had a GREAT time.

Daily Lily - Aug. 28

What have we been up to????

Just learning new things everyday and enjoying the world around us.

Lily Grace, 13 months old

Daily Lily - Aug. 15

Lily loves coloring.

Daily Lily - Aug. 12

We have been so busy lately! I have so much to catch you all up on. Lily has been extremely sick with croup and a double ear infection. She is doing much better now, but as you can guess, this Mama has been working OVERTIME!


Recently, we took our first family vacation to the beach. Lily was not at all impressed with the sand at all, but LOVED the pool and the ocean. She got to spend a lot of quality time with her dad, just the two of them, and I was able to relax a bit. We did not take many pictures....we were too busy having fun!


Lily LOVED the Ripley's Aquarium...the tanks were REALLY impressive.

We have also been doing a lot of learning at home. I do a loose curriculum that consist of a program call "A letter a week" and I add in fun sensory, motor, and music activities. Lily is learning a lot and really seems to enjoy it.

Here is a picture of our art project with the color green. I put a little green food coloring in vanilla frosting and let Lily "paint" with it. She LOVED it.
Lily can no point to and recognize two colors (red and green) identify about 10 different objects and animals in books and pictures, knows 15 signs in sign language and can say a hand full of words. She is growing SO FAST!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!!!

Today is Lily's First birthday!!!! The year has one by SO fast. SO FAST!
To celebrate we took Lily to the zoo, then to lunch and to Rita's for Frozen custard. We think she had a great day! We are so blessed to have this amazing little girl in our life. I could say SO MUCH more, but I will let the pictures speak for me. I will have a "One year as a mama" blog post later.

This free picture collage made with Smilebox

Click to see 12 months of LILY!!!!

Daily Lily - June 24

We celebrated turning 11 months by taking a trip to the park!

WHOA! That's a lot of Water!

Shirt knitted by Mama!

It's Hard to believe Lily is 11 months old now. She's getting so big and independant. Where did my baby go?!