With an Oink and a Moo...

Lily Grace is turning 2!

 In July....but we celebrated this past Saturday because we will be off visiting family during her birthday.

Jeff and I booked this AWESOME farm for her party since she loves animals. We had an amazing turn out in spite of the over 100 degree heat. All of Lily's toddler friends and their parents drove 45 minutes out to the country to celebrate with us. It was a truly special day and we will miss everyone so much. Lily had a smile on her face the entire time. The folks who owned the farm made sure that the day was about her and gave her as many pony rides as she wanted, let out any animals she wanted to pet (on a leash) and let her linger as long as she wanted in any area. If you want an awesome party, please consider using Country Adventures in Blythewood! (shameless plug) So, without further delay, here is a picture recap! 

All the children had SO MUCH fun. I think the parents had a good time as well!

The hayride was a HUGE hit.

Lily had the time of her LIFE. It was so rewarding to see her little smiling face.

Daily Lily Turns TWO!!!

I had really planned on having a FULL photo shoot done for Lily's 2nd year portraits. Our whole family, in a studio or at a nice park, 100s of nice pictures. Well, Jeff left the country and we have SO MUCH going on, I just couldn't get it together. Luckily, one of my very good friends was in town doing mini photo sessions, so, I immediately snapped up one of her appointments!

Here are a few of my favorite shots! 

                         

 *Don't worry Grandparents, you are getting your photos in the mail shortly*

Photos Courtesy of Christina Alcorn Photography 

Daily Lily - June 6th, 2012

Jeff is home from his deployment! Lily and I missed him so much. Lily has been glued to her daddy's side from the moment he stepped off of the plane. Life is about to get REALLY crazy (it has been kind of crazy already, but it will be getting even crazier as we get closer to the move....), so we decided to take a weekend and hop to the beach. Jeff's cousin and her little girl happen to be there that weekend too, so Lily was able to play in the sand and the surf with her cousins! 

This year was a MAJOR contrast from last year. Lily actually REALLY enjoyed the beach and did not mind playing in and walking in the sand! She loved the ocean and went running straight to it. She would have run all the way into the waves had Jeff and I not been there to stop her! 

She loved sitting right in the surf.

Sandcastles with Nicole and Brooke!

Dancing to the island music in the pool area. She is so funny.

Daily Lily - May 19, 2012

We have a contract on the house. This whole move is very real now! With all of the mayhem going on I had to stop and be in the moment. Soon, we might not have a yard for Lily to enjoy. So today, I took out the baby pool and let her have a BLAST! We have had rain for week straight with more to come next week. Today was clear and perfect though.

 "COLD!"

"ahhhh...not so bad.."

Beautiful baby...

Daily Lily - May 10, 2012

Lily is 21 months old now and SUPER busy!! The weather is nice, so, we go outside everyday to play. She needs it. I need it. With all of the packing and cleaning for the big move and with our house on the market, Jeff and I have been distracted, but,  Lily lets us know loud and clear when we have not been paying enough attention to her. So, instead of letting her throw tantrums or rip apart the house. I take a break and we go outside and play or go for a walk or go on an outing. 

At 21 months she is VERY aware of when Jeff and I leave. She is great in the church nursery and even fine when she visits preschool, but she misses us when we are "gone." Right now Jeff is on one of his trips and he is "gone." She ask about him first thing in the morning and at night before she goes to bed. She misses her dad. Luckily, we are able to video chat with him everyday.

With Jeff being away I am trying my best to keep Lily and I busy. Today we went to the Edventure Children's Museum. Let me first say....this place is AWESOME. I wish it was around when I was a kid, I would have loved it. Everything is on kid level, everything is interactive and they can touch and climb on EVERYTHING. Lily was in heaven. We went with her friend Christopher and his mom from her play group. (She has known him since they were 6 weeks old!) Here are some pictures from the day. She had a blast and is currently asleep on my lap as I type this. 

This HUGE character is Eddie. Children can actually climb inside of him and learn about parts of the body. Lily is in that big chair in front of him.

She thought it was so cool.
They had a fully stocked kid sized grocery store! Lily LOVED it. Shopping carts, play food and even a working scanner at the check out.

Next was the agriculture section where they learned all about farm animals and planting.

Inside a full scale Firetruck.

A car to explore.

Playing with the cars and trucks in the toddler area with Christopher.

Outside was an area where they could learn about water purification and waste water management. SHE. GOT. SOAKED!. Thank goodness I pack SEVERAL changes of clothes, socks and an extra set of shoes.

We did some other things, visited the gift shop, then left. Lily was tired and hungry. I stopped for lunch, but when I looked back she was like this. I guess she was worn completely OUT. Mission accomplished!

Daily Lily - April 16, 2012

A post just because...

 Kissing her bunny. Such a sweet kid...

She was looking at the new flag we put out. 

I am going to miss our yard, this porch, this life. I'm going to miss my family and everything I know. Most of all I am going to miss the memories made in this house. I know we are going to make new memories and Lily will have someplace she can play outside, but here at OUR house, in OUR yard, she is free. Down here, she's a little girl in her yard. Barefoot, blowing bubbles, picking flowers, collecting sticks, petting caterpillars, and catching lady bugs. I will miss it more then  I can ever admit or even speak aloud.

Okinawa could be the best place ever. Lily could learn so much and experience so much and be SO VERY happy. Jeff and I could be too. We will just have to wait and see. 

Daily Lily - April 9th, 2012

Well, HELLO! It has been a LONG time since my last post. Things around here have been CRAZY! CRAZY, I tell you. The powers that be in the Air Force have decided that our little family will be moving to Okinawa, Japan! We are so excited, scared to death, overwhelmed, happy and sad ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It is going to be an amazing opportunity for Lily Grace and us. We will miss our families and we will miss the only culture we know, but man is it going to be fun learning a whole new culture.


 I am so sad Lily will not be going to her private preschool here in town and we are sad to be leaving our church family as well, but we have researched schools and have narrowed our choices down to about 5 that we will look at when we get there and we have narrowed our churches down to two. We are thinking we are going to send Lily to a school off the military base. We think a full Japanese immersion school will be too much for her, but we are seriously looking into dual immersion school teaching her proper English and formal Japanese. We will see. We might hate them all and I might homeschooling her and just getting her into a Japanese class for preschoolers (which they have on base.)

 We have been busy fixing up our house, getting it ready to sell and DOWNSIZING. MAJOR downsizing. The housing in Japan is really small and we will be losing 500 to 600 square feet of living space and 2000 square feet of storage space, when we get there. (I am not kidding, we have a TON of space here and will have literally 1200 of living/storage space there if we are lucky) We hauled away about 6 truck loads of crap away from our house and sold over $700 worth of stuff at a yard sale. It is AMAZING how much useless stuff you accumulate in 7 years. We are still getting rid of stuff! We are not messy people at all, but you would think we were HOARDERS looking at all the stuff we got rid of.We just keep praying that the house sells quickly and without too much of loss.

 Our beautiful Lily Grace is just growing and thriving. She gets more beautiful everyday. I am just in awe at how smart,funny, precocious, curious, and bright she is. She picks things up so quick and understands a vast amount of knowledge for her age. She is speaking in 3 or 4 word sentences and can express her wants, needs, and feelings very well. And let me tell you....she will let you know exactly how she feels. :-) She is getting so tall, but remains our lanky little girl. She is in size 18 month clothes these days and some 24 month things. Everything is loose fitting on her, but I have been knitting TONS of items that fit her tall, slim build. It is so fun. Here are some pictures from Easter and the past couple of months: