lily met santa today! there were big tears, but she cheered up right away when i picked her up and said 'thank you' and 'bye bye' to santa :)

it was snowing from the 'sky' and she loved that!

a little more fun with the tree pictures at lucy & charlie's tonight...

lucy & charlie


the cousins


lily & charlie

gaga and moon have the best tree!

ho ho ho! its almost time to make merry with family and friends :) erin, lily, and i are heading north on i-35 early saturday to spend a week up in big D. kevin and mike will come up on wednesday to join in the fun- i'm excited!

the blog might be kinda quiet for a week or two unless i feel the need to out my family with stories of their holiday shenanigans. :)

here is my 'virtual' version of our christmas card for my lovely blog readers:

(kevin refers to this picture as the "i'm the lead singer in the band" picture)

if you did not receive one in the mail:
a) i lost your address
b) who the heck are you?
c) i wish i had enough money to buy 100 cards
d) sorry!

i'm trying to be a good girl and clean off my hard drives (all 4 of them... yes i have FOUR!) sadly as it usually is when i try to clean out any room i spend more time reminiscing than actually cleaning. i just came across these two pics from last january and i can't believe my baby isn't a baby anymore.

check out my handy husband!! after being sad for a year and a half that i have an ugly fireplace with no mantle, kevin built me a mantle!! next step, re-tiling the facing! its so much better already!

its beginning to look a LOT like christmas!!!

so let's ignore the fact that it was 80 degrees yesterday and the high for sunday is back up to 77 again, last night a cold front came through and it SNOWED!!!





so for all of you nay sayers out there thinking 'you call that SNOW?!'... why yes, yes i do! it was lily's first experience and after a big bite of it, she asked for 'more! more!'. i didn't have the heart to tell her this is probably it for the year :)

we got to see our sweet baby today- weighing in at 14 ounces and 20 weeks, the baby is doing great and everything looks like its growing as it should be! it was so fun to see the little bugger in there- they look so different from lily to me so far, though there is only so much you can tell in an ultrasound picture :)

the ultrasound tech did put the answer to the BIG question in an envelope but it was promptly sealed and sent on its merry way with kevin who refuses to answer if he has opened it or not :)

the baby is breech (surprise surprise) and is completely CHILL! when we had lily's ultrasound she was flipping and moving like a gymnast but this baby was completely calm and perfectly beautiful!

here is baby #2! (sucking on its lower lip- awww!)



here is lily at the same age!

one mystery solved, another develops...

lily calls water 'agua'. i assumed this was a bastardization of her attempt to say 'wa wa' and passed it off as a cute mistake until this morning. we were waiting for school to open and one of the boys in her class came in with his dad and excitedly yelled 'agua!' and his dad pulled his water bottle out of his bag. apparently lily has bilingual friends who are rubbing off on her in a good way :) i told the dad that i had always wondered where lily learned water was 'agua' and he was pretty proud of his son for spreading his spanish around the class!

but then we walked into class and the radio was playing, at which point lily started showing her love for gwen stefani by dancing around the room (still not sure why gwen was playing on the radio at church, but i digress). the teacher said 'oh you should see her at music class! she doesn't stop dancing the whole time!'

so i asked if they sing 'old macdonald' (to which lily replied 'eiei') because i haven't been able to figure out where lily learned that song because it definitely wasn't from me! i was sure they were singing it at school, but they don't! how in the world did she learn it?!

i just read this in my advent devotional and thought it was awesome and would be a good reminder when you're out driving around through all the gorgeous christmas lights. (a guy on our block totally threw down the gauntlet and had his up already last week!!)

"the brightest light came to bear the darkest night of the soul. the light of lights came into this world so that those of us hiding in the darkness might find ourselves hidden in him. The light will return one day in his full and radiant brilliance. Celebrate his first advent and look forward to his second."

today we planned to get some family pictures taken but lily woke up a little out of sorts, which i wrote off as part of the side effects of travel. we made it to the shoot and she was super fussy and not at all acting like herself. we tried to take a few but mostly threw in the towel after a few minutes.

after her morning nap she woke up burning hot with a 104.4 fever :( thankfully medicine is helping a ton and she was actually starting to perk up a bit before i put her down for her afternoon nap.

don't get me wrong, i think these pictures are precious, but not the family portraits i was expecting from the day...

for my crazy aunts...

and a view from above...

happy thanksgiving :)

i definitely think i should be a candidate for the next OnStar commercial. You know those "i was just in an accident and you called the cops for me potentially saving my life" commercials? OnStar saved my life this morning... i called in a state of emergency and they quickly gave me turn-by-turn directions to the closest doughnut shop.

after all, where is a pregnant lady in need of sugar at 10am supposed to turn when she's finally grown tired of reeses peanutbutter cups?? (3 packages in 2 days will do that to a girl)

i left with a happy heart, a blueberry doughnut, half a dozen glazed doughnut holes and to my surprise, a very tasty potato, egg and cheese breakfast taco. crisis averted. thank you, OnStar! :)

not your usual lily glamour shot.... but my sunglasses broke at target today (ironic since they were from target) and lily insisted on wearing them through the whole store.

i jotted down these lyrics from a song we sang in church this morning and i've been thinking about them all day.

i know you gave the world
your one and only son for us
to know your name
to live within the savior's love

and he took my place
knowing he'd be crucified
and you loved and you loved
for people undeserving

beautiful words for those moments when i need be reminded of what is real and truly matters.

i thought it would be fun to see which of our top baby names are your favorites :) we still don't know if we're having a boy or girl - we will be able to find out in about 2 weeks. i'm still not sure i want to know, but kevin definitely does. if he does find out, he will keep it a secret until he or she is here! i know, i know. so mean :)

brrrr!! baby its cold outside :)

i was taking a picture of lily in pigtails today (because they are so stinkin cute) and i took one and showed it to lily, who then seeing herself realized there was no bow in her hair. this is what followed....

bow?


bow! bow!!


BOWWWW!!!!


whew... crisis averted. (and i clearly bore her)

signs the hospital may have switched lily with my real child at birth:
-she immediately twirls around the room when you put a dress on her
-if she catches sight of herself in a mirror without a hair bow, she politely demands one
-she has toddler a.d.d. and must be doing something at all times
-she has no fear

signs she is most certainly my child:
-she eats food off the floor of unknown origin
-she is content to sit outside for hours
-she has a mind of her own and isn't always super interested in your opinion
-you have to tell her things at least 5 times before she remembers
-she doesn't like meat
-she is completely comfortable dancing in public, even when no one else is dancing

all in all, i'm pretty sure she's mine, but that blonde hair/blue eyed thing sure does make you wonder... :)

well pregnancy hormones are in full effect. things that have made me cry this week include:

1. a you tube video about using carseats properly
2. a christmas-wish letter read on the radio
3. lipstick jungle
4. brothers and sisters


sheesh.

lily came home from school with this fine specimen yesterday. it might be the saddest piece of 'art' ever to arrive at my doorstep. not only is there just one half-hearted swipe of a purple crayon on the ENTIRE page, but they spelled her name wrong (as they do on every single thing they send home).

i'm guessing its ok to toss this one in the trash... :)

do you ever have those moments where you feel like you're looking at yourself thinking 'who IS that woman?! surely that's not me!'...

now i'll admit i've never exactly been the most pulled together or polished gal, but i've been able to keep up a certain level of style and taste. at least, i used to.

lily and i were driving past a cute maternity store this afternoon and i pulled in to see if they had any cute casual pants. i still haven't started gaining weight but my thickening waistline is threatening the bounds of my current wardrobe and i think at the most i have a few more weeks of regular clothes freedom.

as i stood in the dressing room admiring the super comfy and adorable maternity pants (and pondering why all pants can't be that comfortable) i looked down and saw the price tag. $112. one HUNDRED ad TWELVE dollars??! for pants i'll wear for a maximum of 5 months?!? sheesh.

then i felt something wet on my shirt and looked down and saw a few suspicious wet brownish spots, and upon closer inspection was greeted by the all too familiar stench of lily poo. the child has had diahrhea for 2 days and had poo juice running out the side of her diaper, through her pants, and onto my shirt.

i am that woman in the fancy store with my hair in a ponytail wearing workout clothes trying on pants i can't afford that smells of poo. when did this happen?! :)

is it bad that i took comfort as i walked out thinking 'at least i am carrying the expensive purse i bought when i still had a full time job'?

without ruining the fun for those of you on my christmas card list, i have to share this one pic i took of lily yesterday. i was letting her play with a giant red and white lollipop and when i took it away this was her expression:

just when you thought i was done with the costume pics, one of the kappas emailed me this picture today and it cracks me up. she was SO excited and proud of herself :)

now that's a girl who knows how to have a good time!

my birthday was awesome! kevin met lily and i for lunch and his costume assembly process. i had an hour and a half massage in the afternoon while he stayed with lily. i came home to gorgeous flowers and my new google phone!!! woohooo!!

the party was a blast, despite the fact that i left too early for my birthday cake apparently. haha :) day-after-birthday cake sounds pretty tasty though! :)

the following is evidence from last night and is not for the faint of heart. its some serious ugly people....

tom cruise (a la risky business) and john mcenroe (a la 1978)

happy birthday to me! i woke up to kevin singing me the birthday song being extra sweet and even bringing the dogs in to wish me a happy day. my mom called with her yearly ritual of playing the beatles' over the phone 'dun na na na na na na na... they say its your birthday! its my birthday too yeah!'

then sweet lily woke up in the best mood in her adorable halloween pajamas :)

we went and got starbucks and a doughnut to share to celebrate. its a pretty good day so far!

... so you can stop sending me political forwards or posting your opinion on facebook because i for one already made my decision! and for you doubters out there (*cough*mom*cough*) no, i did not vote straight party- any party!

erin and i took lily to the kappa house at UT yesterday for their halloween party. the kids got to eat lots of goodies and trick-or-treat door to door at the girls' rooms. she had a blast and was such a hit! the house mother took these pics and sent them this morning. :)



note- i had to sew her coconuts onto her top and sadly sewed them a little more where MY coconuts are hangin these days. poor girl really is perkier than i gave her credit for ;)

we went to the pumpkin patch (i know, i know, enough of the pumpkins) today with aidric and kyla. they had a great time and got to show off their halloween costumes :)

and this one cracks me up- who needs a field of pumpkins when there are stairs to play on??