Lily's News

Attention please.

Take your seats.

Please silence your cell phones and direct your eyes to center stage. (lights dimming)


Lily has something very important, she'd like to announce



Can you believe it? It feels so surreal, unreal, and real all at once?


He. Him.

A boy.

A son.

A little brother


One of each.


All these words are new to me and when I hear them out loud, it's like they're talking about someone else. To say I was shocked when I heard "it's a boy" is an understatement. Obviously, I know the choices are a boy or a girl when the u/s tech looks for gender parts, but when she said boy, she might as well said we're having an orangutan because it seems so foreign to me for us to have a boy after spending 2 years in girly-girl land. I even took an over the counter gender test a few weeks ago to confirm the same news, but still didn't believe it. We haven't told Lily the gender yet, but she has asked for a sister for 18 weeks straight, but changed it to brother consistently in the last week or so, before we even knew. It's crazy like she was psychic. I've talked to more moms of boys lately, feeling like a 1st time parent all over again hearing them talk about their son with this secret twinkle in their eyes about an unfound love I have no idea about. And it's pretty cool to be able to go through it all over again with everything feeling so new, when it's really the same because his little heart will be in our hands to mold like clay and he will think we hung the moon. I was so excited to be pregnant, but now I'm even more excited to meet HIM!!

life is good.

Mother's Day Pages

I try my very berry best to stay on top of digi scrapbooking so it doesnt swallow me up whole where I feel I can never catch up. Actually, that's exactly how i feel about the "Laundry Monster"-im actually scared of him and will do laundry more than necessary in fear of being eaten alive by him, i call him names, he taunts me and I talk back to him like he's real telling him he won't swallow me. He's mean and he's scary. Now I just need to do that with my mop.


but i digress

Anywhooo, here's the mother's day page for Lily's 3rd year book or family book. Not sure how to swing the whole scrapbook projects with 2 kids. (still feels funny to say "2 kids") Do I still do individual books for each child or merge into a family book once he/she is here? Obviously, the kids will be doing most of the same activities/holidays together and taking pictures together so how do I delineate? I could have individual pages for each child for milestones within the family book or should I do 2 separate books. To say I've debated this in my mind 100 times would not be counting enough. Any advice out there how to scrapbook for 2 kiddos?

I seriously can NOT believe that I'll be holding TWO little ones next year on Mother's Day!!! I never thought I'd even have one baby in my life and to be expecting #2 is just totally surreal!


and a belly picture for the Mother's Day page since I'm his/her mother already just yet to have met :)



We went to see my mom's house on the east coast for mother's day and to help Molly move into her temporary house until they close on their dream house so it was part-work-part-play. Being 20 weeks pg and not being able to lift anything over 5 lbs (no one in my family would let me even come close to helping) I got to play with the kiddos which was the easiest move I've ever done. Lily thought so too.
(there she is doing that foot 1/2 way up move that I lurve)


and Grandma got a new hammock just for the kids and boy was it a total hit...


and this is what I came home to see after running out with the girls for a jaunt....


now I really want speech bubbles above both of their heads...

seeing them interact is the best mother's day present ever...




sometimes I think Lily thinks gma is her momma bc arms instantly go out to her and even we the parents get trumped by gma! when we left for the weekend, lily was crying hard in the car signing more ferociously, batting her hands together saying "mo-gma-mo-gma-mo-gma" over and over. it was so sad and sweet at the same time as we drove off...


I'm actually not the jolly green giant, but I am taller than my mom and sister while standing on a hill so I look like I'm 10 feet tall in this picture and you can see a sweet ole' bumpity-bump for baby #2!! I'm so thankful to have these people in my life who love me for me and are the greatest role models. We missed Jen and the fam like crazy, but they had to stay back for Katie's dance recital that we all HATED to miss!! :(



a weekend that splashed more love into my love cup than possible where i left filling full and ready to tackle the week.... and the laundry monster. :)

life is good.

Go Bulls!

Before I met David, he was quite the baseball player and pitched his little heart out from a young boy until mid twenties; even playing for the Cubs in the minor leagues. I met him a few years after this big part of his life. Some of his favorite memories are from playing in college at USF in Tampa. Well, they're tearing down the stadium that has been there since 1967 and invited all the alumni up for a special tribute and time to say good-bye to their field that is being replaced by a state of the art facility. So we hiked up to Tampa to say our good-byes and it was well worth the trip.



They called out each player by name with a little bio and each ran out onto the field to their position they played in college. David took the mound like he had years before hundreds of times, except this time, he had his #1 cheerleader with him.



and people we had a breakthrough.... lils was asking to say hi to the mascot and actually got a picture snuggled up to him and no tears were shed; not even a nervous "bye-bye" repeated over and over as she got closer...



She was all smiles watching the game and you'd think she understood all the signs given by the coaches as she peered through the fence taking it all in...



I wish there could be speech bubbles over her head all day to know what is going on in her little mind ....



I think this speech bubble would read "Put Me In Coach" as she tries to climb over the fence...



Since this was the last game ever to be played on this field, all the players were given a corked glass jar to collect the clay and grass at the end of the game in memory of this special field of memories. David let Lily do the honors. I'm surprised she didn't lay down and go to sleep when she sat down to collect the dirt because this picture was taken at 11:00...as in PM!


It was a special event for everyone and neat to reconnect with all of David's friends from those years before I knew him to hear stories, hangout with his lifelong friends, and see him smiling from ear to ear, reliving his glory days with his buds, while carrying Lily around on his hip showing her off like his little trophy he is so proud of; except this trophy wasn't for a no hitter or best ERA. It was definitely a full circle weekend all around.

Life is good! :)

Happy Mother's Day

There are so many different moms out there with different styles and kids of every kind, but the universal theme of motherhood is we love our kids with every fiber of our being and all striving to the best mom we can be. Our hearts are outside our body walking around with our happiness tied up into the contigency plan that if they're happy, we're happy. I still can't believe I'm lucky to fall into that category of motherhood when there were many days and especially late nights I never thought it would happen and it's here with another blessing on the way. Lily has taught me how to live life happier, fuller and always make time to blow bubbles, tickle, use my imagination, giggle, and with her here it cements the fact that everything is okay in this world because she (and her future brother/sister) are here to celebrate all the ups and downs, while everything is a lot more "up" because of her/them.


I received this email and fell in love with every word...

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.


Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom

This blog post took the words right out of my heart too.

Happy Mother's Day to every mom or mom-to-be out there. Thank you to my own mom, Dottie, Mabel, Grace, Virginia and Thelma for making the shoes extra large to fill as we find our way following in your beautiful footsteps!

Thank you Lily and our little October baby for making this day possible for me to celebrate and feel like a million bucks without Ed McMahon even knocking on my door!

Life is good.