Happy Halloween!

We saw Spongebob, Dora and Thomas the train. We saw Chickens, a monkey and an elephant. We saw pink monsters, blue monsters and orange ones, too. We saw lots of pretty princesses', ladybugs and hunters. We saw clowns, ghosts, and pumpkins. We saw Buzz, Woody and Curious George. We saw walking catsup, mustard and a hot dog. The list goes on and on.

We had an awesome Halloween. We passed out over 250 pieces of candy and 80 cans pf play-doh! Our neighborhood parade was a huge hit this year...the safety dog passed out candy, fireman hats, coloring books/crayons and suckers! We even got firetruck tours!

Lily learned that she LOVES chocolate and knows the difference...a girl after my own heart! She is asking for it as I type this...in her really cute, polite voice. "Chocolate...pleeeeeeease momma!" Too bad we just got out of the bath and brushed our teeth! Oh well...I'll split a piece with her :)

And here it is...the most beautiful little garden gnome!!

If only I could keep her this little and precious forever...........

Fall is HERE...

Fall is definitely here. I love this time of year. There is just something warm and fuzzy about cornstalks tied to our pillars, pumpkins on the haystack and crispy, colorful leaves swirling all around.

We 'packed up' our yard this past week-end...got the lawn furniture covered, took out the solar lights and summer decorations. We also cut back our flowers and planted a new maple tree. Afterwards, we all went in for some hot apple cider...mmmm, that's another fall favorite!

And, last but not least, we took our annual fall picture of Lily!

This was her last year.

This is her now. SHE is definitely my favorite think about Fall! :)

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Lake Charlevoix

This past summer was a great one. Not weather wise, but memory wise. This past summer Lily turned two and it was a summer of "firsts" for her, even though they were really seconds (and some thirds). This summer she really experienced swimming, boating, eating, playing and all that fun stuff! She loved it all! The best place for all of this in the summer is the cottage at Lake Charlevoix.

As you can tell by my lack of posting, I was also really busy chasing her around. The only bonus to this is I got some really good photos! Over the 4th of July, my parents got a new pontoon boat! This is awesome because a) we all love the water b) there is nothing like a day out on the boat of sunning, drinking hop, skip and go nakeds, eating, and napping c) it was only in for a couple of months and we have tons of great memories of Lake Charlevoix.

There is nothing like weekends up north at the cottage with family and friends. Sitting at my own kitchen table, over 200 miles away, I can close my eyes and smell and "see" the cottage as if I was actually there. I LOVE that! Here is a glimpse of some of my photos from this summer.

"I happy"

It was another crazy morning in our house today. Casey has been working 1st shift 2 days a week for level 1 trauma training and the rest of his shifts on 3rd. Needless to say, our schedules and routines have been a little "off balance." Today was a 1st shift...he usually takes Lily to school every morning or he has the day off, but not lately. As I was rushing around early letting Jake outside, getting Lily milk, feeding Jake, taking a shower, putting make-up on, making Lily breakfast, blow drying my hair, washing Lily off, getting dressed, getting Lily dressed, finding her a binkey so that she would let me comb her hair, putting on her shoes, and letting Jake out again, I was thinking about how I miss our old routine. I'm not used to doing that much in the morning!

Then, on the way to daycare this happened:

Lily: Momma?

Me: What honey?

Lily: I happy!

Well...that little sentenced made me happy...it is going to be a happy day :)

Lily is TWO...

Lily is two. I don't know where the time went (or the summer for that matter) but my baby girl turned two on August 19th. If you ask her old she is, she will hold up 4 fingers and yell TEWWWW!

On her actual birthday, we took the day off work and had a pizza party out on our pontoon boat. It was an awesome day of swimming, sun, pizza, presents and of course, cake. But, that day didn't hold a candle to her birthday party with family and friends. In fact, when you mention her birthday (or anyone elses, you just have to say the word b-day) she will hold up 4 fingers, yell TEWWWW and yell BOUNCE, with YoYo (Lo Lo or Laura, her cousin) and Ky (her other cousin, Kylie.) We gave her the best gift ever for a two year old. We rented a princess bounce house for three days. She could have cared less about presents, food, cake or me for that matter! In fact, I had to deflate the bounce house to sing and eat cake and open presents. She was crying part of the time for both...all she wanted to do was BOUNCE with her twenty little friends and cousins.

It was a party fit for a princess...and she LOVED it! I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

Our new boat...

Last week, we put our new boat in the water. We've been out enjoying it the last 7 out of 8 nights!! I think we will get plenty of use out of it this summer!

First Day of Daycare...

Today is the first day of "big girl" day care for Lily. She goes to Oaktree (Papa's school) where my dad teaches. Since she was three months old, she has been going to a family friend, Pam West. Lily loves going to Pam's and she is the only child there so she gets super spoiled! We decided a couple months ago that we should start putting her in daycare one day a week with other kids so that she gets some social interaction and lots of quality play time.

I would have never considered this when she was younger, but I'm okay with it now. She is getting bigger and loves playing with other kids. Plus, my dad is at the school in case she ever needed anything and he can pop into her room anytime he wants to. And, it's only one day a week and my dad will bring her home right after school.

I had to keep reminding myself of the second paragraph over and over again last night. I made five copies of the classroom phone number that they said we can call anytime to check up on her. I had total anxiety and needed to make myself feel better. I made Casey drop her off today. If she started crying, I would definitely start crying and I don't think I would have left her there!

Well, I just got an update (No, I didn't breakdown and call the classroom. I didn't want to hear that she was upset if she was.) One of the teachers e-mailed me (I didn't even ask her to!) and said she had no problem with the "drop off" and during the buggy ride this morning around the school, she waived and yelled "Hiiii PaaaaaPa!" to my dad in the gym! Then she went back to the classroom and was playing babies with her new friend, Zoey. She also informed me that Lily ate 4 of her 5 popcorn chickens, all of her peaches and dipped them both in LOTS of ketchup!

I think Lily is in heaven! I hope she wants to come home tonight.

Woo-hoo!

80 degrees today and it's Friday!!

Friday Night Dinner...

Tonight we went out for a special dinner...








at The French Laundry. The food was okay. The dessert was awesome!

Mmmmm...We love bug bar ice cream sandwiches!!

One of my favorite things...

I have a bad habit that I can't seem to break. I let Lily into our bed most morning around 4am. I have to admit I love it. I love her hugs, warm cuddles and watching her sleep. Sometimes, she doesn't wake up on her own to come to my bed and I go in and get her. Yup, I admit it, I walk in her room and grab my peacefully sleeping baby to come sleep with me. Sad, I know. But, I know I won't be able to do this forever. I get up around 7am and leave her in my bed sleeping until she wakes up and then I turn on PBS. She loves Curious George. Most days she stays in bed, watching cartoons, until I'm ready to get her going. Not today.

I was in the bathroom drying my hair this morning and the door pushed open. Lily came barging in and grabbed a hold of my leg extra tight and said "Hiiiii Mummmmmma!"

What a great way to start my day!

Oldie, but goodie...

This video of Lily was captured almost two months ago. Whenever I need a smile or quick laugh, I always turn this on.

I love it! More nights than not, you can find us in the kitchen dancing with the radio on. And, I do think my Lily is a wonderful dancer!

What a Wednesday...

I love Wednesday's. For about three months now, I've been fortunate enough to have four day work weeks and take every Wednesday off. I spend the whole day with Lily. We can stay up later on Tuesday nights and stay in our pajamas just a little bit longer in the morning! Some weeks I plan field trips or play dates with other friends, some weeks we visit Nana and Papa for lunch at school, most weeks we go shopping at Target and some weeks we just stay home and hang out. But no matter what, the day is always about me and Lily. I love it. I also appreciate it. Other than the first three months of her life, I've always been a full time working mom. I had a little mental breakdown earlier this year (on my 28th birthday to be exact) and realized my life is moving way too fast! My baby is growing way too fast and I'll never get this time back. I picked Wednesdays because it is right smack dab in the middle of the week. It's not thrown in as an extension of a busy week-end that we usually share with others. It is a day for me to stop, take a break and enjoy my daughter. And that's exactly what I do.

Today was a stay at home day with the exception of a quick trip to Target in the morning. It rained from the time we got up until about 3:30. We got lots done today and checked off my list! I even got to vacuum and mop my hardwood floors while Lily was napping (Bonus for me! I love the smell of Murphy's oil soap.) Lily woke up in a great mood just as the sun was starting to dry things out a bit so we headed outside for some fresh air. Today was a great day. I love my Wednesdays with Lily.

Tagged...

Wow! It is really sad that it took me being "tagged" to get back on here and write something!! I promise to make a better effort at this! Thanks for tagging me, Renee! It gave me a little bit of motivation and guilt to get back on :)!

Anyway, back to my blog...Renee tagged me about my nightstand! How funny! I'm supposed to take a picture and tell you what's on it. Well, here it goes!

When I moved to college, I rented a new, "furnished" apartment. My parents offered to pay for the furnishings because it was way easier to pay an extra $25.00 a month than to haul it back and forth from home every year. Plus, where would I sleep when I came home to visit???! After I graduated, I moved in with Casey and we bought a new bed! How exciting...a new big, beautiful bed and mattress set we probably couldn't afford at the time! Actually, I know we couldn't afford it because we couldn't afford any of the matching accessories like a nightstand or dresser. But, oh, well...I love my bed. After living for about 6 months without a nightstand my mom thought it would be a great idea to go the antique store and look for a night stand. Antiques are so not my thing, but, I decided to go with her anyway. What do you know...we found a night stand that I love. Well, it's actually not a real nightstand, but it's my nightstand and that's what counts! Plus, it reminds me of my mom and how much fun we have together and that sometimes (okay, most times) she is right!

My night stand is an old Martha Washington sewing machine cabinet. It has lots of character and it matches my cherry wood bed. It has lots of handy drawers and cubby holes. I have a lamp from Ikea on my night stand. I bought it on my very first trip there with my mom and sister. It doesn't give off much light, but it does project cute little flowers on the wall. I also have my very favorite framed picture of Lily when she was 3 months old. I love when she takes it off and gives "the baby" kisses. I wonder when she'll realize the baby is actually her! I have my alarm clock, that is usally telling the wrong time because Lily is tall enough to reach it and loves to play with all the buttons. I'm not kidding, I have to check the time and reset the alarm every night before I go to bed! I have a video baby monitor. A lot of people think they're crazy and not necessary, but I love being able to watch her as well as listen to her sleep. I also, at all times, have three binkies next to my bed. That way I know right where they are when I have an emergency situation on my hands...you know, like when Lily misplaces one and she can't find it!!

Thursday Night Sleepover...

Tonight, Aunt Katie, Lily and I had a sleepover. It was a Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice special episode. Daddy was at work; he works the 3rd shift at Hurley hospital. These shows always remind me of him and where he works. He hates these shows and he is not a fun person to watch them with; he's always talking through the whole episode saying 'that's nothing like real life!' It drives me crazy! Sleepovers with the girls watching the show is way cooler!!

Babies Together, Friends Forever

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a friend Val who has a baby named Madeline. Val is one of my best friends and has been since I can remember. We went to pre-school together and have been great friends ever since. We were especially close friends in high school. We played basketball, volleyball and softball together. If that wasn't enough, I think we hung out every week-end, too; Sleepovers, parties, boys, you name it! We were bridesmaids in each others weddings. After her wedding, her and her husband, Chris, moved to Tennessee. Shortly after that, I had Lily. This past November, Val had Madeline. She doesn't come home (back to Michigan) a lot but now that we have kids I know we will get together more often. We talk on the phone at least once a week. I hope Lily and Maddie grow up to be good friends and that they both have great friendships like Val's and mine.

It's a beautiful day...

Thank Goodness for beautiful weather in February! It was 61 degrees today and Lily got to play outdoors in her pink car. She loved it! We took a walk around the subdivision while she "drove" her car. The fresh air was great...we can't wait for Spring!

I kissed a girl, and I liked it...

No, no, no, I am not talking about the dirty Katy Perry song. Well, kind of. The lyrics remind me so much of Lily right now and her obsession with cherry chapstick! A couple weeks ago, I was multi-tasking; getting ready and doing my make-up in front of the mirror and having Lily brush her teeth in the morning. My routine was longer than hers and she was impatiently ready to head out of the bedroom and head downstairs. I was trying to stall her and so I randomly took my chapstick out of my make-up bag and showed her how to use it, hoping it would buy me a couple of extra minutes. Needless to say, Lily is now obsessed with cherry chapstick. She has to put it on every morning after she brushes her teeth. She now has her own chapstick because she doesn't put the cap on very straight and it drives me crazy. And, unfortunately to others, she goes crazy for it whenever she sees it...She now has her own chapstick and Nana and Papa's house and an extra one in her diaper bag. I learned that trick after going to Target last week and had to splurge on the expensive tube in the check-out line where she was starting to make a little scene.

I think of that song every morning that I kiss her goodbye and have a faint taste of her layered cherry chapstick!

When it rains, it pours...

I'm not exaggerating when I say that we, The Webb family, have had no real week-end plans since the beginning 0f 2009 (nothing even planned for the Superbowl!!). Honestly, it's been great. Since the middle of October, our life was go, go, go on the week-ends and it was a little crazy so the lack of social plans has been kind of nice. We would just decide who and what we wanted to see based on how we felt in the mornings! And then came this past week-end...

It all started on Friday. I went to work, as usual. Casey had the day off with Lily and he took her on a field trip. They went to Meijer and Sam's Club (this still brings a smile to my face and I would have loved to be a fly on the wall.) My husbands mission for the day was to buy Diapers (Pampers, size 4--I hand wrote it on a note for him that morning.) They went to Meijer first and bought $137.00 worth of 'stuff.' I say stuff because after looking at my refrigerator and pantry we sure as heck didn't get that much in food. That's really okay with me. I, also, have that problem whenever I go to Target. I run in just for wipes and apple juice and I come out having spent over $100.00. Anyway, while leaving Meijer, Casey saw my note that he put in the cup holder of the truck and realized he forgot the diapers. So, he thought he would just pull into Sam's and pick them up. Needless to say, he came out of Sam's with about 100 packages of Ramen noodles (I have never made Ramen Noodles since we've been together...I think he was trying to relive his college days), a case of water, 2 gigantic containers of Jif Peanut butter and a HUGE box of Huggies. Sorry Lily, you'll have to go a while without your Pampers, but at least daddy remembered your right size!

Shortly after they got home, Uncle Mike and Aunt Shelby arrived...Yay! Lily always gets soooo excited to see them. Shortly after, my Uncle Dan and Aunt Kris were driving by our house and saw the convertible with an Illinois license plate and they stopped over. Then I got home from work. Mike and Shelby had just left to go to Jason Brown's wedding rehearsal and Casey was getting ready to save lives at Hurley (this is the hospital that he works at, 3rd shift.) Not knowing that Lily had not napped all day, I decided to take her to swimming that night at Fenton High School. Lily loves to swim and always has. She is like a little fish. But, this Friday she was so tired the poor little thing could hardly keep her head out of the water. We only stayed half an hour and she was asleep before I walked out of the school.

We were up early Saturday morning...that's what happens when Lily goes to bed at 7:45 the night before! This was a big day. We went to Nicholas Pyle's 4th birthday party. There were 5 four year old boys, a one year old and Lily. I was thankful for two things that day. 1.) Lily is a girl. 2.) Lily is not four, yet. As we were leaving the party, we got a text from Shelby that Mike had locked his keys in their car (surprise, surprise.) This actually turned out to be pretty fun for me and Lily. We drove to the church and the wedding was just getting over. Mike had to ride in the limo and Shelby had to drive their car to the reception. There was about an hour between the festivities so me, Lily, Shelby and Nana went out for a 'celebration margarita.' This is the first time we had seen Mike and Shelby since they got engaged! It was fun. After that, we went and saw baby Madeline. Her baptism was earlier that day and we couldn't make it because of the birthday party. So, we went over and saw her later that evening. She is so precious. She is 10 weeks old and weighs about 10 pounds (I forgot how little they are.) We don't get to see her much because Valerie, one of my bff's from high school, lives in Tennessee with her husband. Lily loved 'baby madeline.' She kept pointing to her and saying "bayyyyybeee" and kissing her feet! It was so precious. On the way home, Lily fell asleep and left me thinking a bunch of really emotional thoughts. She is not four yet (thank goodness) and she sure isn't a little baby anymore. She is turning into a big girl. A big girl that I am so proud of. At the birthday party she was the only child that said please (well, it was actually 'peas' but it means the same thing.) Honestly, she was in a great mood all day and was an angel. Her little personality and sense of humor are really starting to show and I love being able to spend so much time with her.

On Sunday, we vegged around with Uncle Mike and Aunt Shelby. Then, we met up with the rest of the family for lunch before they hit the road back to Chi-town. When we got home, we went outside and played with Lily's pink car and we also took a stroll around the subdivision in the wagon. Thank goodness for nice, sunny days in the middle of February. I know we aren't done with the snow, but it was a nice treat and gives us something to look forward to.

And, that was our busy week-end in a nut shell. WHEW!! No wonder Lily and I are both yawning right now and are ready to go to bed. Good thing we don't have plans next week-end and we can rest up! :)

The Debut...

I can't believe I am finally doing this! I've always been jealous of creative people who make amazing scrapbooks, awesome blogs and keep detailed journals. I've always wanted to do them, but it overwhelmed me and I was afraid they would be no good or I wouldn't have time to make them good. Then, I got to thinking about a gift that I received when Lily was born. My mom gave me a babies first year calendar. It was so cute and easy. It was the 'Guess How Much I Love You' calendar and it came with stickers!! I didn't even have to think of things to say if I didn't want to!! Well, I did really good with that sticker calendar. In fact, I used all of the stickers and recorded all of Lily's "firsts." I even wrote extra memories on days there were no stickers for and Casey and I filled out the optional (don't get too overwhelmed) letter to your child. It was great. In fact, it is one of my cherished possessions and I hid it away so that Lily doesn't find it before she's old enough to appreciate it. The only bad thing about the calendar was that it was over in 12 months. As the new pages were becoming less and less it made me sad. Not only was my baby turning into a big girl, but our calendar was almost over. For the last 7 months, there has been something missing in my 'I want to be the best mom, ever' department and I think that this blogging thing might be the answer. I don't want to miss any more firsts and special moments. I want to keep track of them and share them with the ones I love. So, this blog is dedicated to Lily. This isn't just for her, but she is my inspiration for it. This is the start to the Webb Family blog.

Now, I also have to give lots of credit to Aunt Shelby. If it wasn't for her creative family, I probably would still have gone on in life never reading or following a blog. Shelby, her mom Renee and her sister Amber all have blogs...they are really good bloggers. In fact, I kind of feel like a stalker because as of today, I haven't met them in person (well, except for Shelby), but I feel as if I know them...really, really well. That's how good they blog!! Some of the stories Amber writes make me laugh out loud and I can tell Lily will absolutely love her M&M's! And, I will admit, I have used a few Kleenex's after reading Shelby and Renee's. They not only wear their heart on their sleeve, but they put it in their blogs, too! They are both so real and full of love. I can only hope that one day, my blogs will make someone laugh and maybe shed a couple tears too!