Christmas!!

Christmas was such a blast this year! Lilly was really into it. She kept pointing out Santa everywhere we went. She sat down and watched 'The Polar Express' many many times. She also enjoyed having all the company and I think she feels very lonely now, especially in the backseat of the car. The week leading up to Christmas Lilly kept wanting to open this small green present under the tree. She would go get it and bring it to one of us. We would tell her she had to wait till Christmas when Santa comes. So Christmas moring we go get her and tell her Santa came and it's time to open presents. She goes downstairs, runs right by the open present from Santa, gets the green present and brings it to us, like "do I finally get to open this present?" We thought it was quite funny. Lilly never wanted Christmas to end. She came down the next day and looked under the tree and then asked, "Where'd the presents go?" She was quite disappointed when I told her that the presents were all gone.

Logan and I sat down the day before we went back to work and decided which toys were to be left out during daycare and which toys would be put away for times when it was just her. When the daycare kids came back she had a hard time sharing but for the most part she did great. She's actually shared all of her toys. Now I just have to be careful that the toys don't get broken from all the other kids.

Well I hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Decorating for Christmas!

We decorated for Christmas this past weekend. Lilly is very interested in all the Christmas fun. She loves the lights and ornaments. I took some pictures I thought you would enjoy. Here you go!

Winter in Arizona....

Lilly got to celebrate Christmas this past weekend. We went to the mall where they brought in two large semi trucks and blew snow all over the parking lot. Santa and Mrs. Claus walked out in the middle of this heap of snow and shouted "Merry Christmas!" Everyone ran out and started throwing icey snow all over the place. Lilly wasn't sure what to think. We tried to let her down in the snow but I think there was just too much going on for her to feel comfortable on her own. She sat on Santa's lap later that day too and actually seemed to enjoy it. We took a really good family picture with Santa that I will be sending out with my Christmas letters later this week.

Thanksgiving was great! We had a nice group over to out house and enjoyed a turkey that Logan had cooked on the grill. It was the tastiest turkey! My mom is out here visiting so we were both in the kitchen fixing everything else. We had a really good time and Ben and Lilly actually ate quite a bit this year.

Halloweeeeen!!

Last night was Halloween and we had a great time. I couldn't believe the change from last year to this year. Lilly was very into the whole trick or treating thing. She would walk up to the door and shake the screen or bang on the door. Then when the people came with the candy she would grab something in each hand and put it in her bag that I was holding. Many times she went back for seconds, even though I tried to get her not to. Most people would say, "oh it's ok, she's just so cute!" She also enjoyed the puppet presentation at church. She loves puppets. We've watched several Muppets movies and Sesame street and she claps and says "yah!" and is really into it the whole time. I also think she enjoyed having mommy and daddy dressed up. We also carved pumpkins. She had a blast digging in the pumpkin and getting the seeds. I also think she enjoyed getting gooey and rubbing it all over her as much as she can. :) Unfortunately, we put our pumpkins out last night and when we returned home they were gone. I was pretty upset. So I never did get a picture of the actual pumpkins. Well I hope you enjoy the pictures!

I'm growing and growing and growing...

Lilly just keeps getting bigger and older. She has no trouble keeping up with the other 2 year olds around here. We have had a lot going on and have been extermely busy. She has experienced Vegas for the first time and enjoyed the lights and all the people. She also enjoyed seeing her Nana and Pawpaw. She is obsessed with shoes right now. The kids at daycare have to be careful or she'll steal their shoes right off their feet! She is talking a lot and I'm sure some of you have heard her on the phone as well. Her vocabulary is quite large and it's nice to communicate with her. I still have believe she is going to be 18 months old in just a couple of weeks. It doesn't seem possible. She has officially started asking for her pacifier which means we have officially started to wean her. It is the hardest thing we've done thus far. She is really attached to it. She is also very attached to her yellow carebear and will not go to sleep without it. I don't mind the attachment to the carebear. It's kinda nice to have something she really likes to calm her down with. Well, I don't have a whole lot of time right now so I'm just going to post some pictures for you all.

Officially entering Toddlerville!

Lilly has decided she is a toddler and has gone into it full force. As the kids at daycare are now mostly potty trained, Lilly has become completely interested in the whole thing. She wants to sit on it all the time. She has actually gone peepee a couple of times but I can't decide if it was on accident or not. It is still very early to try and potty train, but it's still fun to let her try! This was her first time on the big potty.

For Labor Day weekend the Freeman and Garland family headed off to Payson for a camping adventure. Ben and Lilly had a blast. They loved playing outdoors the whole time. I was a little worried about how Lilly was going to do but she did great. We just had to drive around for 2 hours each day so they could get theirs naps. Here are a few of the great great pictures I took. Also, if you'd like to check out some more pictures, please go to
http://photos.google.com/legarland.

Lilly has really started to have a personality. She also has a favortie color, yellow, and loves to say it and belly button over and over again. Usually she says something like yellow bellybelly button and then pulls up her shirt and points to her tummy. It's very cute. For some reason she must think her belly button is yellow! Since I taught her what color yellow was she has wanted everything yellow. She had a yellow chair for camping and a yellow carebear. Her favorite book is "Biscuit," about a yellow dog that says "Woof Woof." I think she likes it so much because she can say most of the words in the book and point them out too. I'm amazed by all the words she can say. She is also repeating a lot of things. I'll be in the middle of a story and she'll repeat something that I said. One thing that has just driven me nuts and is costing a lot of money is that she is a bottomless pit. She constantly wants to eat. At lunch last week she ate 5 hot dogs. 5!! I couldn't believe it. That wasn't all that she had either. She loves yogurt and would probably eat 2-3 individual containers. I am always running out of ideas for things to feed her and she gets frustrated too. She has gained quite a bit of weight. The doctor was surprised again when we took her in last week for an ear infection. She had gained another pound in a month. I guess she is still playing catch up from not gaining anything for awhile. I'm starting to think that she just has my dad's metabolism cause she is still petite and eats more than I could. Maybe she'll be tall too.

Lilly is very big on saying hi and bye right now so we tried to capture some of that on video. Hopefully I can get it edited and uploaded soon. Hope you enjoy!

Lilly saying hi and bye

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Peaches N Lilly

Saturday we took a trip to an orchard called Apple Annies. It rained most of the way there but by the time we got there we had the only little patch of sun in the sky. It was pretty muddy and muggy. None of this seemed to bother Lilly. She had a blast! We walked awhile to get away from most of the mud so she could walk where ever she wanted. While mommy and daddy picked peaches she walked up and down the aisles of fruit trees picking her own off the ground. We let her pick one of her own and I told her to eat it. (Surprisingly she hadn't tried putting one in her mouth yet!) She walked around eating that peach for such a long time. It made a mess of her shirt so with the mud on her shoes and feet and the peach all over her shirt and face she was a mess! She also got to help pick green beans, bell peppers, and several others. For lunch she enjoyed roasted corn so much that she wanted more. Needless to say she was asleep in her seat before we got to the highway but I really think she had a lot of fun.

Lilly has really increased her vocabulary. She repeats a lot of words we say. We've been showing her our eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. The past few weeks she's been able to point to our parts if we say them. Last week Logan was playing with her in the play room and was laying on the floor. He said she walked up to him, pointed to her own eye and clearly said "EYE!" He was so excited. He taught her to sing "e i e i ooo" the other day too. She's really started picking up a lot of other words too.

Lilly had a check up last week too. We were excited to find out that she had gained 2 lbs and grew 2 inches in just 2 months! The nurses didn't believe how much she had grown and weighed her twice to make sure. The doctor was happy to see her growing so much and how far she was doing developmentally. We were told to move her to face forward in the car (Logan said he didn't mention that he had already done so :0).

Lilly the clammy clown

So we were able to get pictures sent to us of Lilly's birthday in Missouri since our camrea stopped working. We also got our camera working again so I have another video to post. Lilly had a blast in MO visiting all her relatives. This was by far the best trip yet. She was still quite grumpy for her and when we got back we found out she had ear infections in both ears, poor little girl, I'd be grumpy too! She was still very much the little show off and while opening presents made sure to say "ooooo" and "wow" at every one. She really enjoyed the cards. We had to bring a whole suitcase home filled with presents. Thankfully she recieved several 12 month outfits that she very much needed and is already growing out of. She just continues to grow and grow. I totally understand why my relatives used to say I grew like a weed. She does. She's already grown out of the shoes we bought her for the trip. In length she's grown a ton. She has also gained some weight and is now able to sit in a forward facing car seat. Daddy couldn't wait any longer and has me drive when we're together so he can play with her. I think she enjoys it too.

We enjoyed a very fun 4th of July with Aunt Pam, Uncle Brian, and Cousin Ben. It's so much fun as Lilly gets older to watch her play with Ben. They are able to play together more and Ben is very cute holding hands with her. I think that he finds her a tad bit annoying sometimes.... :)

We took Lilly to the mall play area for the first time since she is walking around and she had a blast. She loves the slide even though it doesn't really let her slide. We've gone to the play area 4 times since and she is starting to recognize the entrance to the mall and gets quite excited when we go.
Lilly at the Mall

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Lilly is constantly adding more words to her vocab. A few words she says are "mama," "dada," "doggo(dog)," "ball," "grraff(giraffe),"up," "down," "look," and many more. The other day she actually put two words together and we were very excited! Sadly neither Logan and I can remember what it was. I'm sure that she'll do it again soon and this time I'll write it down.

As she gets older Logan and I are constantly amazed how funny she is. She does things just to get us to laugh at her. We go to the mall and she'll wave at people and try to make them laugh. She's just a clown.

Video time!

The Lilly dance...

So, Lilly likes to dance and this is one that we can usually get her to do for us. I think it started with Ben dancing for her and now she joins in.
Daddy and Lilly dancing

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This makes me laugh...

Ok, so this isn't long and I wanted to post one of her walking but for some reason this video just cracks me up!

LIlly making me laugh

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Lilly turns 1

So I just wanted to add some birthday photos since I skipped over this time period in the blog. Lilly had a blast turning 1. We had some friends and family over and made pizzas, had a pool party, and she had fun devouring the cake too.

Look at me! Look at me!

Sorry it's been such a long time since a post. I started getting discouraged because I didn't think anyone was even reading it. Let me tell you, a tiny little comment will make me want to keep posting and you might just get a couple of posts a week!

So Lilly is walking a lot now. I'd say probably 90-95% walking and 5% crawling. It's so cute to watch her walk because she's so little. We got her 1 year old pictures taken at JC Penney last night and we didn't get in there for about 30 minutes so Lilly and I just walked around and around the store outside the portrait studio. I was quite bored after the 5th time but Lilly loved it. Walking has also brought on some other things, like her thinking that she's a big kid and should sit at the table with all the other kids. It has also brought a little monkey out of her. She's climbing on everything! I have to keep the chairs on top of the table or I will find her sitting on top of the table! She also has 6 teeth now. The top four middle ones and two bottom ones. She isn't eating any baby food now but wants maccoroni and cheese for every meal. Or anything else that mom and dad are eating. She actually is a very good eater and some days I feel like all she does is eat, sleep, and poop. Now I vaguely remember that she was supposed to grow out of that stage by now... Sometimes I think her eating so much isn't normal but I guess she just has a fast metabolism. She has grown quite a bit but is still small for her age. We are guessing she weighs around 18 lbs and at her last doc's appointment she was 27 inches long.

This picture is just for proof, that yes, she does have hair!! :) So let me tell you a little bit about her personality cause it is coming out very loud and vibrant! She loves attention. We go to the mall and she just waves and smiles and says hi. Tons of people stop or smile. She is very sociable. She also has a sense of humor. She tries to make people laugh and if you laugh she'll repeat what she did. Her favorite thing to do to get me to laugh is to blow a raspberry on my shoulder. At her pictures she had the whole studio cracking up. She has also started to protest and throw little fits. It's interesting to see a temper develop. She's still very easy going though and very happy. Her grumpy moods are really not that bad. Well I hope you enjoyed the update and the pictures. I promise to post more stuff within the next week or so. :)