"When we recall Christmas past, we usually find
that the simplest things - not the great occasions -
give off the greatest glow of happiness."

           I want each and every one of Lilys christmas to be filled with happy memories and long lasting traditions.

Bad Dreams

  This morning Lily woke up around 6:30am crying .. Lily never wakes up crying or cranky really.. So I walked into her room to see what was going on and found her sitting in the far corner of her crib just crying. When I picked her up she hugged my neck so tightly and just clung.

 I brought Lily into our room and laid her down on the bed. " Did you have a bad dream" I asked, not really thinking that she would tell me if she had or hadn't.

"Yes mama bad dream"she whimpered.... I asked her what her dream was about and do you know what she told me?

"Jellyfish and Jack"

I can only imagine how that one went!!!

All I have to say is Lily was very clingy to Jack all morning, until he stole her cheese, than it was on.

I really love Fall it is by far my favorite season, Although, I must admit it is mid-November and I am getting very anxious for some snow, I am so excited to take lily outside in the snow this year. I hope she likes it.

Finnegan- Lilys new best friend

 It is a pretty cool feeling when your child discovers a love for something that you yourself adored growing up. Something that you can remember bringing you the upmost joy, something that you dreamed of everynight.

Something like HORSES.......

 

And thanks to one of my very dear friends shannon, Lily was about to Ride, Brush, Feed and Pick the shoes of a very beautiful Arabian - Finnegan.

Thank you again Shannon !!!!!!!!

Twenty-Five

 I always assumed I would have a  problem with this birthday. Being young, doing youthful things has always been something I’ve really clung to. I’ve always looked back on my childhood and the passing of the carefree years of my life with great sentiment.

Some parts of my soul stopped growing at seven. and sixteen. and twenty. and there are days when I only want to see the world through the eyes of the girl I was at those ages.

But, here I am 25 years old. Half way to 50. A quarter of a century old. And you know what I am much more content with 25 than i thought i would be. 25 to me always seemed so final, even more so than 30. And I know everyone over 30 right now is telling me to shut it, but that is just how i felt.

Although when I look at what I have today and what I had ten years ago - I wouldn’t trade places for even a minute. I spent the last ten years finding out who I wanted to be, discovering who would be the love of my life, learning what it meant to be a self sufficient adult, and more recently, how to be a mother.

And i couldn't be happier, these past 25 years have been an amazing ride and I can not wait to see what the next 25 hold for me.

Love
 Jules

Halloween with a 2 year old ROCKS!!!!!!

  Halloween with a two year old is anything short of AWESOME!! It was so much fun, everything from apple picking, costume making, zoo boo'ing, hay riding, pumpkin carving, and trick o treating.Each event was another new adventure. Yes i know this is technically Lily's third Halloween ( hold the boat ..rewind.. did i just say THIRD??? ) BUT, it was her first real Halloween- the kind that she is old enough to actually participate in.

  We let Lily pick out her own costume...Batman... I did however try and persuade her towards a princess or a little ladybug but she was serious about wanting to be na-na-na-na batman. So I busted out the old sewing machine and made her a pink batman costume. It came out pretty good, and she LOVED it!!!!

   We participated in a few Halloween/Fall festivities ( but unfortunately did not have the camera with us everytime) First we kicked off our fall fun with a little apple picking at patterson's, which is also where we had our wedding reception, so it was pretty cool to go back there. Lily had a blast picking apples she loved every minuet of it and didn't mind at all that it was freezing cold and pouring down rain.Once we finished apple picking we ventured up to the pumpkin patch and let lilybear pick out her very own lily sized pumpkin. Which she later painted.

   The next weekend we all went to Boo at the Zoo, late of course..sigh... but none the less we were there. Lily was soooo excited to be going to the zoo at night.

Go to zoo at night mama, go to zoo at night dada, go see elephant at night?"

is all we heard the whole way there. Once there Lily wanted to immediately go see the elephants, which we did than we ventured out to see the "spooky" zoo. I don't think we really heard much more out of lily other than "oh look at dat" or "ooo munster" for the rest of night. Boo at the Zoo was so much fun for the whole family and I am so glad that we were able to bring her back this year.
  Just thinking back on when we took her in 2010 how little she was and how cold and rainy and dead it was compared to this year. How differently she reacted to everything, last year was all claps and smiles this year was pure childhood enchantment and fun.I can't wait to see what next years boo at the zoo holds for us, but i have a feeling this year will always be my favorite.

 The following Friday we all went to the lake farmparks haunted hayride. I had never been to it before but Jason had, and he assured me that it would not be inappropriate for our little munchkin. As soon as we stepped foot in the LONG line for the hayride, Lily spotted the pony rides and boy did she want to go over there. We reasoned with her (as well as you can reason with a 2 yr old with a pony 15 ft away) and told her we would let her ride the pony before we leave. So as you can imagine for the rest of the trip she constantly asked about the pony ride. Really the whole pony ride needs to be a seperate post on its own. but lets just say i have NEVER seen Lily as happy as when she was sitting on the saddle of that pony. ( to bad i didn't have my camera cough* cough* jason)

  And finally our long awaited pumpkin carving and trick o treating blow out at Gramies house. Lily caught on to the art of trick o treating so fast. We took lily down the street i grew up on with Maggie, her friend Katie, and Jason. Than once we finished the street Jason took Maggie and Katie down a for more streets while Lil and I went back to gramies to pass out candy.

All in all we had a very succesful Halloween, and one that I am sure we will never forget.


Love
 J

I should be posting again very soon ...lots of updates and pictures to come. Our laptop has been broken but Jason finally ordered the power cord so I should be back soon. Anyways happy Halloween ya'll

Lilys 2nd b-day party.. and some special thanks

Thats right Lily's 2nd birthday was themed after one of her very favorite books. Dr Seuss "Green Eggs and Ham".

The party started off kind of rocky with rain showers all night and all morning/afternoon long. But luckly enough for us we were under a shelter and the refreshing rains kept those pesky bugs and mosquitoes at bay.

 When guests walked in, we asked them to sign the “guest book” which was a special party edition copy of Green Eggs and Ham. I wanted Lily to have a keepsake from the big day of who was there to celebrate her second birthday!

                                                We served of course Green Eggs and Ham.
 But, that was not all we also had Rigatoni with sausage, pizza, and of course a tray of carrots and celery and cantalope and honeydew ( had to stay with the green and orange theme lol) . 

  For dessert we had a deliciouse white cake, cake balls shaped as balls and green hams, and sugar cookies decorated as green eggs.

 Lilys Party was soo much fun to put together. And I am so thankful to EVERYONE who helped out with  making this day so special for Lilybear.
Special Thanks to Jason for putting up with me the past two months lol and for making such a delicious ham
                            Amy for baking sugar cookies at midnight for me
                            Justin for helping me wrap silverware oh ya thats right, he watched me wrap silverware lol
                                      j/k thank you for dipping the cake balls for me
                            My in laws for helping me decorate and for making the o so delicious Rigatoni
                            My wonderful mother for heling out with browines and making the awesome green eggs.
                            Lindsey for keeping me sane while working on the invitations and for letting me use all of
                                       your awesome supplies. They came out spectacular couldn't have done it without
                                       you.
Could not have done it without any of you!!!!!!!!!
Lily is so lucky to have so much love and support all around her.

Here are some pictures from the party, that i have currently stolen from all my fmaily members bc my computer is broke and i can not upload my own

Princess Lily

Little Miss Liliana decided she wanted to dress herself up as a princess today. She picked out her boots, tutu, and leotard. She is such a cutie. We literally spent 2 hrs dancing and spinning today. Mommy def got a good workout today lol.
  Days like today are the ones that I will forever cherish in my heart. Even when I am super old and grey I just know that I will always be able to recall these special moments.

Wordless Wednesday

Those are Little Girl Legs ....

Did you see? Did you see those long, lean,strong,amazinginly quick,beautiful little girl legs. Those perfect Little girl legs? Yupp its official she is a Little Girl now, no longer a baby... although she will always be MY baby girl always !!!

Love, Mama

17 days until my Baby is TWO YEARS OLD!!!!!!!! I can not believe how fast Two Years have flown by. At this time two years ago I am almost certain that i was Miserable beyond measure and was so anxious to meet my little gymnast in my belly.

Wee-wee-wee-we go potty

Ok so it happened TODAY. Lily decided to jumpstart her potty training. This morning she poo-ed in the potty all by herself without any direction by me ( ok maybe a little push that poop out, chugga chugga poooo-pooo) Than, at daycare she poo-ed in the potty again all by herself.... all i have to say is HOTDOG, I have high hopes for my baby being out of diapers by her 2nd birthday ...... Keep up the good work baby girl. Mama is soooo PROUD OF YOU!!!!!

  I seriously do not know who was more excited about Lily poo'ing in the potty Lily or I. Oh and did i mention she poo'ed in the BIG potty.

And she even remembered to wash her hands, and thats a more successful potty than most adults lol.

Stop Pweese....

  It trully breaks my heart when I see anyone being cruel to another person, especially my Liliana.

  The other day Lily decided she wanted to go to the "LIBERRY" so we cleaned up got dressed and headed out the door. Once we got there, Lily picked out two books which we sat down and read twice. When we were through she went over to the small corner with all of the blocks,puzzles,and toys to play. There she encountered her first bully,a older toddler whose parents were no where to be seen. The boy decided it was alright to press his forhead to hers and make horrible faces and growling noises at her. At first Lily only backed away. Than she started throwing desperate looks, and ran into my arms.

  I sat down with her and explained to her that although we cannot control how other people behave, we can control how we react. I told her that it is always important to stand up for ourselves and for others that are not being treated properly. "Ask them to please stop" I said to her and tell them "you do not like it".

  "stop pweese" she repeated back and off she ran to go finish playing.

 Well wouldn't you know it, that little boy shot right back over to where lily was playing,almost immediately after she settled in, and started getting into her face again, and what do you think lily did?
She didn't turn to look at me, she turned and looked straight at the bully stuck her hand out in front of her and said "stop pweese, me no liking it....no liking it" the little boy stepped back shot me a look and ran to his mother.
That was the moment that Lily realized that not only did she have the power to speak for herself, but the words NO LIKING IT made people listen.  She took to those words like a fish takes to water.  Strawberries on her lunch plate without the greens cut off?  NO LIKING IT.  Took her to the store instead of the park?  NO LIKING IT.  Made her hold my hand in a parking lot?  NO LIKING IT.

  Oh Lily you are so smart, and make me beam with pride every single day.

Love, Mama

  "stop pweese, no liking it" she parroted back

dankie..hvala..tak..dank je wel..dankon..merci.. mahalo..toda..grazie..dziękuję..dakujem..gracias..diolch.. and Thank you!!!!!!!

I don't know what I ever did to deserve this life that I live, but I am forever humbled by it

Lets start a tradition...

   Last year Jason, Liliana and I took our first family weekend trip to Pittsburgh. We visited the Childrens Museum, Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, the Aviary, and lastly we took a stroll down china town or wherever it was, I dont really remember what it was called all i know is that it was awesome!!!!!

Well this year we stopped into Pittsburgh for only one night but we managed to fit in the Childrens Museum and Zoo . We probaly could have fit in a few more places but we discovered IKEA and anyone who knows what I am talking about knows what happened with all of our time. Holy Smokes that store is amazing. So amazing that we are pretty much planning a big trip to IKEA to buy pretty much all new furniture. See look at IKEA go, taking over not only my vacation but now taking over my vacation blog hehehe I love that store. I am going to slowly back away from the IKEA topic  right now but i swear it is like crack it seriously is the HAPPIEST place on earth... well to anyone who isn't a toddler ( sorry lily ).

                                Ok back to our little trip!

   I really don't have all that much to say about it other than, minus IKEA lily was great. She loved sleeping in the hotel ( ok well laying in the bed, that is a whole diff story in it's self.... ugh stupid drunks and thier firealarms), she thought the childrens museum was the greatest place on earth, and loved the zoo as usual, but so could have done without the aquarium. She wasn't even impressed with the Polar Bears and Sharks swimming next to and above her in the walk thru tunnel.. I mean come on Lily a Polar Bear was swimming all around you and you wanted to go run around in the open auditorium. Oh yeah she is 22 months old ... forgot.. but the polar bears were awesome, don't worry though Jason was able to stay in the tunnel and get some pretty sweet pictures for the baby book.

   

                     Needless to say our weekend was filled with much laughter, smiles, and fun!!!!!!

Oh and a HIGH SPEED POLICE CHASE .... thats right people those cop cars were going 100 mph going the wrong way on the cramped freeway chasing a shoplifter from drum roll please... you guessed it...wal-mart lol It really was scary though the cops were driving like crazy people thank goodness Jason was driving lol

More pictures from our awesome get-a-way to come, for now just look at Lily last year at the zoo compared to this year. CRAZY right?

Oh yeah and this right here ^^^ yeah that is our new yearly tradition sorry lily you will stand in front of this pole every year until you are 18 thats right :) and than even than you know we are going to try and make you take a picture here