June Milestones

How am I finished with her June spread when June isn't over you ask? Well, it's because I had to send my camera back to Nikon AGAIN!!!!!!!!! AGAIN!! Argh! Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. Triple Sigh on top of that sigh. It just stopped working. Tried everything. Had a scare at Christmas, then it bounced back, but then the real breakdown happened just 2 months ago and it had to be returned. sniff. sniff. Now the same thing. Sending that beloved camera back packaged in its little box was like sending away pieces of my little heart. Ok, maybe not that much, but maybe. (sniff. sniff. sniff. blowing nose) I still have a 'point and shoot' to use, but it's just not the same. Thank goodness it's still under warranty. I am pushing them for a full replacement, but we'll see how that goes.



Anyway, onward and upward for Lily's little and big milestones for June...

We know Lily loves her sleep (like her mama), but look what I found! I gave her a PBJ sandwich to munch on and then left to put the clothes in the dryer. As I was putting the clothes in the dryer, I thought to myself, "wow, she must really like that jelly(usually just put on PB) because she's so quiet". I peered around the corner and look what I found...(very huggable indeed)

June, page 2:







Where are these curls coming from?? So cute!




Relying on my drafts for posting...this is about a month ago and seems like a different baby already!! Wow, it flies by!! She loves to go behind something and play peek-a-boo!

She sure used to fall a lot...so cute!!


My sisters and I used to catch our mom staring at us and never understood they why. Now I get it. I catch myself staring at Lily in utter amazement because

...she is here.

...she is healthy.

...she is loving.

...and she is ours.

FOREVER!!


Life is Good!

Scrap Attack

Sure is easy to stay on top of Lily's scrapbook being home for summer...lucky for me Lily likes to sleep so that is my time to play :)





And our Hyatt pages...I want to buy a second home at the Hyatt when I grow up :)



notice my hat from md? I think I have worn it everyday this summer except not to bed :)



I had a gift card to go here so I thought I'd surprise David for Father's Day and boy was he ever! He's usually the first to see any pictures of Lily and it was so hard to keep these a surprise; here's one spread they did (in Lainey's adorable dress). They gave me the 85 jpegs which is a digital scrapbookers dream come true! I think she's showing off her bracelet too!

My FAVORITE walking video of Lily from about a month ago. When she first started walking, she did just 1-2 steps for a few weeks, but then did significant walking for the first time around the entire family in WPB. It was so exciting for everyone; especially the kiddos. I think she was holding out until she had a larger audience. Now she's zipping everywhere and never crawls which still amazes me. I don't miss the crawling as much as I thought I would because the walking is almost cuter and makes her look even smaller!!

may 23:

the frankenstein walk from same time:

oh and how I love her kisses. She doles them out on a regular basis and each time I can feel my heart melt down into my toes. She even kisses books now because she loves them so much! I ask myself everyday 'how did we get so lucky?" I know every parent feels that way about their child and it's neat to finally know for myself. I get it now.

Did I mention?

Life is Good!!

Father's Day-Take 2

Summer makes it easy to have quick turnaround scrapbook pages! (props to Heids for the adorable hat that will always be associated with Father's Day now)




Lily walking is still the most adorable thing ever and makes me weak in the knees! Cue JcPenny model Grandpa walking down the sidewalk holding her hand...had to grab a brown paper bag to stop the hypervenilating!!

I want to photoshop Douglas and Grace in this shot!!



Oh and how she is loved by these two! Add in a game of airplane and the smiles were from ear to ear...



and all the baby's daddys



other than me looking like I put my finger in a socket, I love this picture!!
I can feel the love in this picture...this is part of the "herd". We miss the rest of the herd!! (looks like Lily has her arms spread open wide when it's really Jen's other arm)




love, love, love, love this face!! I added salt and pepper the other day, but it's not edible! (Snapping fingers)




When will I ever get used to her walking??? Still stops me in my tracks!!



I think she's spreading her arms saying I love you people "this much"!! :)


I love these next 2 equally and couldn't decide which to post so I chose BOTH :)

(thanks David for your picture taking patience - I know how you love showing your pearly whites)[dripping with sarcasm]


Where's Lily? A picture without Lily! (Gasp) Mommy and Daddy went out for date night and left Lily with more babysitters than I could count! People were lined up 'round the block like cattle to Lily-Sit her! I think at the last count, we had 11 sets of eyes watching her while we wined and dined the night away! Well, I don't like wine, but you get the point! Thank you to all 11 babysitters!! (plus Charley)



Life is Good!!

Happy Father's Day

Deer Daddi,
Fwank yu fr reeding 2 me, senging selly sungs, teaching me funny dances, and picing me up wen I cri and telleing me it well bee okae. Yu mak mi hart smil evrydae. I luv wen yu cumm hohm frum wrk, plaeing peeekabu wif yur rms & lgs den gev me lotz ov hugs and kesses and tehl me hw mch yu missd me. Yur my most favritest daddi evr.
I wuv yu,
Lily Grace



i wuv u daddi. my life is gud bekaz ov yu.

May Milestones

Still cleaning out my drafts folders which is easy and fun, but if someone could come over and clean out our den closet (animals might be living in there) that would be a great plan!! I did some other closets hoping it'd inspire me to tackle the den closet, but not so much. I'm having nightmares. I digress.

Here are some milestones I jotted down...thanks to Allison who gave me the idea to keep a small calendar next to the couch to write down the little new things she does to remember when making her scrapbook pages. That has been such a great idea and helped to keep track of some of her milestones. (thanks to Kelle and Kim for these 2 great shots)

Are you kidding me with that smock? ("smock" is a fun word to say)




We were rolling around the grass when she was showing off her body parts so Jen snapped and I put them into a collage...then I turned it into a scrapbook page...I'm trying to do some simple pages mixed in with some other pages with more embellishments. Whichever I do, it's addictive!!

...if I knew Jen was going to be snapping like crazy, I would've made sure her shirt matched her hat!! haha

Lily's teacher took this video and I can't think anything cuter! The last 5 seconds are priceless!!

This little one could take peek-a-boo all day and all night!!

Life is Good!!!!!!

Summer Cleaning

Cleaning out my drafts folder; posting to my drafts allows me never to feel pressured to blog because I know there's always "one in the hopper"; only problem is when there are too many in the hopper and then they're outdated. Oh well, I still wanna post them for when I print volume 3 of her blog into a book.

This is "back in her crawling days" when she found a secret pathway we didn't know existed...

This was so cool to me that we never talked about her bibs and suddenly one day she decided to help us with something we do everyday like she knew what was coming next. She does it every single time. She also reminds me to turn down the AC after I wake her up in the morning before I bring her downstairs like daddy always did when he took her to school in the morning. Oh my creature of habit...

Standing and looking cute...she walks 100% of the time now and it still surprises me every time. Still strikes me as odd when I put her down, I put her down on her feet and not her bottom!? Even though she's getting bigger, she looks so little when she's toddling around. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Oh, how she loves this game. She'll even come up to us and try to push us down to play along:

She loves to rock like her daddy...thanks Heidi for this cool cat:


Katie is turning her into the next rap star:

I'm still trying my best to keep up with the monthly pictures, but it's sure becoming a 2 person jobber!! How do you like her new bib from Grandma?


wow, she sure is happy to be 14 months old!! or catching flies!!

Here she is at the school playground looking like she's posing for the camera...

and learning from the "big kids"

and all snuggled up going nigh-nigh for her nap...

this is what Lily gave me for Mother's Day - it came in a handmade painted bag that read "For Lily's Mommy"...I still have to look around the room to see who they're talking about and I STILL can't believe it's me! I'm her mommy! How did I get so lucky to spend my days with this nice little soul. (happy sigh)

get it? puzzle pieces? play on words :)

and boy does she love her daddy! She walks around all day saying "da-da" like she's looking for him while he's at work. It's so cute! Her face lights up like the sun when he walks in the door usually playing a game of peek a boo around the corner (with different body parts playing the game) before he finally unveils himself with big hugs and kisses!

mmm, i love this sweet little soul with every fiber of my being...



Life is good!

Favorite Place

We went to my favorite place on earth this weekend for a belated Mother's Day celebration...I wasn't sure if it'd be more of a vacation for Lily and that we'd be running everywhere after her or a vacation for all 3 of us. It turned out it was the latter. It was so much easier and more fun with her walking and able to explore the kiddy pool and fountains on foot. Seeing her so happy experiencing everything for the first time made me giddy with excitement too! I felt like I was a kid again.
http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j206/kelster5/?action=view¤t=Jun062009-VID00001.flv



She was so wiped out from all the play, but seem to think the crib in the hotel was a bed of nails so sleeping on our chest was the only way she wanted to nap while we were there. It was heaven! She felt like a newborn again as she burrowed her head in my neck (or Davids) and it was magical to sway in a hammock while she slept, all the while listening to her breathing her heavy breaths.



or snuggled up in the sling as we both napped under a shady tree...



Then she was ready to play again. It didn't matter where. We had so much fun in this golf green grass until a wild football pass came our direction alongwith the intended receiver barreling his way to catch it. The only problem is that our backs were turned and were tackled like we were in the NFL. Lily was inches away from me and didn't get hurt because the receiver tackled me going for the ball and then I took Lily down with me. It was like a scene from a movie. A horror movie! It was awful! There were lots of tears. None from Lily. All from her mom! I was hurt, shocked, shaken up, and then I went into the "what if's" with Lily so close to me, but Lily just looked at me with her big blue eyes like she was telling me she was ok and everything was alright. sigh. See how happy she looks! She looks like she's on watch for more random flying footballs. click here if box isn't working
( I love her cute little smile she shoots at me)http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j206/kelster5/?action=view¤t=Jun062009-VID00002.flv






and don't even get me started with the Lazy River! That is thee destination spot for me once I get to the Hyatt. I dream of it before, during and after our trip! There is nothing like it. Then to have Lily on my lap who sits as still as statue babbling the whole way is too good to be true! And I'm safe from wild footballs too! http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j206/kelster5/?action=view¤t=VID00018.flv

http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j206/kelster5/?action=view¤t=VID00018.flv







Standing under this fountain was like a tranqulizer for Lily when she wanted to nap! It was like her sound machine on crack! It also makes a nice backdrop for a family picture.



cue the crisp white dress in the bright green grass



...thanks Heidi for this sparkling white bday dress...we put 17 bibs on her while she ate dinner!! Dresses take on a whole new life now that she's walking...




I wish I was a professional photographer because there were photo shoot sites all over creation! I swear I could've taken her in the bathroom stall for a backdrop! They were everywhere!!



This time last year with a cuddly newborn...


and then today...wow!
Life is good!

Does she have gills?

Since it started getting hotter, the pool is our favorite place to be. Any body of water actually! I checked the other day and Lily is starting to grow some gills. Very cute ones I might add.



See if you can see them in this picture?






I just love the chubbiness of her cheeks when she's trying to figure something out or has a new toy. She's playing with a new sun fan and amazed she can start and stop it.





Now that she's walking, it's a whole new world of exploring. She doesn't know what to do with all the new stuff she finds during her travels. She literally giggles as she walks in the middle of a room because I don't think she can believe it herself that's she's fully vertical. Thanks Jan for this Jack in the box that she LOVES with a capital L!

See, I told you she loves it:

This is one of the last times she can wear this suit because it's becoming too small, but oh my cute! Thanks for the awesome borrow Peyton Mae!








Scrapbook-able picture from Mother's Day :)

or this one too...Thanks Connie for this adorable bathing suit. Confession: I think I may be addicted to baby swimsuits. I won't go into details, but it's not pretty. I'm working through a 12-step program now. It's a difficult recovery program. I'm doing my best. Please support me through this process. Suits with SPF built into it(like this one) are my triggers.

Here she is lovin' on her 1 of 567 stuffed animals. She even loves the pigs in the bunch! What an unconditional girl who even loves snouts!

And her first dip underwater. Her face is PRICELESS when she comes up! Her eyes are as big as the moon where it seems like her forehead disappears and then she uh-uh-uh's for more.



Life is good!