Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Merry Christmas!

We had an amazing Christmas 2008!!! I can't believe I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks. I've been busy baking, cooking, wrapping, decorating, visiting, packing, cleaning, etc. On Christmas eve we headed over to my parents for dinner and Lily opened her presents there. The last picture on this post is her new present from Uncle Greg and Katie. It involves a microphone and dancing so she is just crazy about it! We went to Christmas Eve mass at 6PM and it was circus. Lately, Lily has not been the angel she once was when we went to church. All she wants to do is walk around. She also likes to play "wet noodle." She flings her body backwards and literally becomes limp. It makes it impossible to hold her!!! Anyways, we came back to our house for dessert and more present opening. Tyler and I got Andrew The Office game and that's what he got us! We had a fierce game of winning Schrute Bucks!

Then we ventured to Chicago on Christmas morning. We had brunch and then opened presents!! You can see another picture below of Lily enjoying one of her presents. We played lots of great games with the Mayer's including the never ending game of Risk!
Hanging out with Mike. Lily especially loved being at Grandma and Grandpa's because Grandpa was sneaking her whipped cream whenever he could.


On Christmas day with Dad!


Lily's very own shopping cart!



We got back in town on Sunday night. It's was great to be able to be with both sides of the family!!!!



Friday, December 19, 2008

What I've Been Up To

Taking the sink out of my kitchen and sitting in it. Also, I have my PJ's on and I begged my mom to also put on my shoes.
Reading books with Daddy!

Playing in the water table at the Children's Museum.


Riding the giraffe at the Children's Museum.



Going down the HUGE slide with Uncle Bubba. Lily can now say, "Bubba," which has always been my nickname for Andrew, so I think we're going to start calling him Uncle Bubba.




Dumping all 1000 of my mom's toothpicks!
Today is Tyler's last day of school. He has 2 weeks off!!!! We are still finishing up our Christmas shopping. Only 3 presents left to go. We're looking forward to spending time with both sides of the family. We have a "special treat" up our sleeve for Christmas Eve and we're hoping to introduce the game of speed scrabble to the Mayer's. Can't wait!





Sunday, December 14, 2008

Can you guess my new favorite candy?




Yes, Lily tried her first candy cane and adored it! Her hands were so sticky afterward that when she took off one of her socks, it stuck to her hand. ha! We got our tree up. So far Lily has not really been interested in it. I have even put some presents under it and she has just ignored it. I was expecting her to be trying to crawl up it. Keep your fingers crossed!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Play-Doh







Lily played with play-doh for the first time. At first she was just excited she could push her finger in it. Then she figured out she could pull it apart. She was occupied for at leat 30 minutes!!!!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Our Christmas Lights!

For those of you who know Tyler well, you know he is a Christmas fanatic or maybe just a Clark Griswold's wanna-be. Tyler decks out our house each year with lights. When we moved into this house on December 11, 2006 he was already putting up lights on December 13th. No, the boxes weren't unpacked, but we had lights put up on our house.

The number of lights seems to grow every Christmas. Now he does have an accomplice...Fr. Meyer, of course. These two guys spent lots of hours last week engineering our lights. Yes, sketches were involved. They finagled it so that all the lights are perfectly straight. You can't miss Santa and his reindeer. The picture definitely doesn't do it justice. Fr. Meyer made the set last year for Lily's first Christmas. He sketched them, cut them and painted them. They really are gorgeous and a true piece of art. Be sure to drive by if you are in town. You'll be able to see our house from three streets away!

You can kinda see Lily's hand in this picture. She waves to Santa and his reindeer each time we leave the house!





Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving (late)!

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure did!! Tyler's football team ended up not going to State, so we headed up to Chicago on Wednesday. I have no pictures, because I forgot my camera. Do you believe that? Anways, Lily enjoyed eating her first Thanksgiving dinner. She wasn't so into the the turkey, but she loved the mashed potatoes. Her favorite part was sticking the mashed potatoes up her nose.

Lily also got to see Santa for the first time. Grandma Mayer and I took her to the mall. The second she sat on Santa's lap she screamed!! She did like to see all the people and lights.

We came back on Saturday to celebrate Uncle AJ's 21st birthday! Tyler and I made it out to Broad Ripple, which hadn't happened in a LONG time. The first thing I thought when I entered the bar was, "Gosh, this music is WAY too loud." Guess I'm getting a little older. But we had a great time and so did Andrew.

Yesterday, we began to put up Christmas decorations and Tyler and Fr. Meyer have begun the outside lights. Lily loved seeing all the decorations!!!!

Here is a picture of Lily help unpack some of the decorations. I pulled out my snowmen that sing and dance. When I turned it on, Lily's jaw literally dropped. It was hilarious!!!

I'll have to get some pictures of the outside. Tyler and Fr. Meyer are definitely decking it out. Santa and his reindeer are out. They were made by Fr. last year and almost life-size. All I know is that on their list they needed 10 more strands of lights. Yikes!!


Lily playing with her new letters from Grandma! Thanks!

Monday, November 24, 2008

:(

Today our dog Loni was put to sleep. The tumor she had grew and she became unable to walk. She was 14 years old and an amazing guide dog. She has hiked many miles with my dad and swam in many lakes. She kept my mom company on lots of carpool rides. I can still remember seeing her for the first time when we wen to pick my dad up at the airport. She got so excited she started jumping on all of us.

Lily had especially loved Loni lately. She enjoyed crawling underneath her and would laugh hysterically when Loni's tail would wag in her face. We will miss Loni greatly, but we are glad she is out of pain.

On a happier note, my dad plans to get a new seeing eye dog in the near future. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Yeah Usher!

We got a little video of Lily dancing. Sorry, it's sideways. I'm still challenged in the technology area. I thought it was still worth posting!!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Hanging Out

Cooking up some Thanksgiving dinner in her own kitchen.
By the way, she's wearing pink sparkly shoes given to her by her friend at school. I took them off for nap and as soon as she saw them, she screamed to have them back on. ha! If I hand pink sparkly shoes I would want to wear them all the time too!

She loves her little doll and gives her hugs and kisses.


This is Lily's new look. She makes this horrible frown face and it just started this week. I don't like it!



Today and yesterday Lily and I have been just hanging out and running some errands. It's been so nice to just have a little break. Lily has taken a couple of steps. She's definitely not confident and really only does it when she doesn't realize she's doing. I think by Thanksgiving she'll be cruising. Tyler left a couple of hours ago for the semi-state football game. They are supposed to win and then head to state next weekened. If they win Tyler and I will be hosting our first Thanksgiving. I'm pretty excited!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Long Break

I'm back! I left last Wednesday to go babysit Kirkland and Kjirste and I got back late last night. That's why I have been MIA. Three girls under the age of 3 gave me little time to update the blog. We had a great week together and Lily had a blast with the girls. They wore her out so much that she was sleeping past 9 a.m., which is unheard of for Lily Grace Mayer. Everything went well, except for the alarm going off in the middle of the night and the police coming to make sure there were no burglars, but that's a story for a different day.

Kirkland and Kjirste moved to Chicago today. :( I have been babysitting for the Miller family for over 2 1/2 years. I met Kirkland when she was just six months old and I knew Kjirste when she was born. They have been Lily's little buddies and my little buddies, too. We are going to miss the Miller family a lot, but hopefully we will get to visit them.




Lily is sooooo close to walking. I honestly think it's going to be any day. She has a lot more confidence when she is standing. Lily definitely has a little mischievous side to her and I think I'm going to be in trouble when she can walk.
Tyler's football team won again. They will be heading off to semi-state next weekend. I'm excited the team is doing well, but I'm ready for Tyler to be home. I know he is ready to be home, too.
Other than that, I will have a slightly less hectic schedule. I won't be nannying, so I will have more days home to hang out with Lily. I'm really looking forward to that. Also, today is Lily's 13th months birthday! How bout that! One last thing...my cousin Kate and Brian had their baby!!! It's a little boy named Jack and he is adorable. That's the 3rd boy cousin within a year, but I'm sure Lily will have no problem bossing all 3 of them around in a couple of years. My cousin Patrick and Becky will be having their baby soon. Hopefully, it will be a girl for Lily to play with. :)

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Dad's are funny!

Lily was sleeping and I had to leave for a meeting this morning. Tyler was going to drop her off at Nana and Granddad's while I was gone, so that he could go to his meeting. As I was leaving, I put out Lily's hat and coat and reminded him to put them on her. When I go to pick her up I asked my mom, "Where are her shoes?" She said that she asked Tyler the same thing. Tyler's response, "Allison told me to put on her hat and coat. She never said anything about shoes."

Did I really need to specifically say put on her shoes? That man makes me laugh! At least he did exactly as I told him to! Next time I'll know that I also need to remind him to put shoes on our child!

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Is it November?

We have had an amazing week. Can you believe this weather? The people I nanny for have wanted me at night, so Lily and I have had 2 whole days together. It's nice, because I haven't felt like I've been working full time. Lily and I have taken full advantage of our time together and of the amazing weather. On Monday we had a picnic at Holliday Park with Nana. Lily loved the swings and she even convinced me to go down a huge slide with her! Then yesterday we walked on the Monon with Katie and Norah Healy. The day was beautiful, but both girls were rather grumpy. But it was still nice to get out.



This is the first time I let Lily hold the banana and eat it. She was SO proud of herself and thought she was really cool. It was so funny to watch her! Can you imagine getting really excited about holding a banana and eating it by yourself? It's amazing what little babies bring into your lift...a whole new spirit. They truly enjoy every little bit of life and it has helped Tyler and I do the same. Sorry about the glare on the pics, I just realized my lens had a smudge.




At the park having a blast on the swing.



Monday, November 03, 2008

Lily's first birthday party!

YES! Finally, something I LOVE...FOOD! Lily is an amazing eater. Yesterday, she ate broccoli and spinach. Is that normal?

I'm way more happy about jumping than Lily.



Lily attended her first party for a friend. It was Kirkland's 3rd birthday!! They had the party at Bounce Zone. It had all these crazy jumpy things and slides. Now Lily wasn't too sure about the jumpy stuff as you can tell from the picture. But she was VERY happy about eating pizza and cupcakes. Uncle AJ was nice enough to get up early and come with us. Dad had football, so he couldn't go. I think it's safe to say that Uncle AJ had fun at the party! He loved going down all the slides.
It's election day and Tyler has called me from the line at the poll. He said it will be a while and I should dress Lily warm, because the line is all the way outside!!! We pray that the Catholics of our nation vote with the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Life is sacred from womb to tomb.


Saturday, November 01, 2008

Happy Halloween!

We hope you had a safe and fun Halloween! We had a great one, although Tyler wasn't able to be here for the Trick or Treating part. He had a sectional football game, that they did win. Lily got to do a little Trick or Treating at school. They took the kids around to the classrooms. They all looked so cute. Then we were off to the doctor for her one year appointment. She is still on the same growth pattern: 95% height and 50% weight. She checked out great!!!

We went over to Nana's and Granddad's to trick or treat and then did a few houses in our neighborhood.

Here's a picture of Lily at Halloween last year. Can you believe the difference?
Yes, Lily was a ladybug this year. Now I know it wasn't one of the choices. A few weeks before Halloween Nana called and said she found an adorable ladybug costume at an extremely good price. Since I'm a sucker for deals, I told her to go for it. I'm sorry I didn't choose from the pole, but is this costume totally cute?!?!

Uncle AJ always gives Lily treats!!


Happy Halloween! Yes, I'm eating more candy!



Monday, October 27, 2008

Our Night Away

Both sets of grandparents gave us an amazing gift...a night's stay at the Marriott downtown with dinner included. This was for our second anniversary. Thank you so much to all of you!!!! We had tons of fun!!! We went to the IMAX to see a show about the Grand Canyon, which was awesome. Then we went out to dinner to Weber Grill. The food was delicious. Tyler claims that my mom's ribs are better. Do you think he may just be sucking up? We went to mass at St. John's, which is where our good friend Fr. Meyer resides. Unfortunately, he wasn't there. But the church is absolutely gorgeous, so it was definitely a special treat. We woke up Sunday and walked around downtown Indy and went to breakfast. It was our first full night away together since Lily was born. Break in story.......

Just had to let you know that as I'm writing this Lily has just found the out that we have a lamp that when you touch it, it turns on. If you keep touching it, it will get brighter. The room is going from pitch black to bright light about every 5 seconds.

Now some of you may know Lily is an amazing eater, but still not the best sleeper. She wakes up many times during the night. Now we don't go and get her, she eventually falls back asleep. Well, at about 2AM while she was at Nana's and Granddad's, Nana went downstairs to see Lily having a ball with her 2 uncles. They claim that they heard her, so they went to go get her. I guess you have uncles to spoil you, right?


Friday, October 24, 2008

Big Kid!

I had to post the picture below. I seriously think it may be one of the cutest that I have!!! She loves to give kisses now!! Also, one of her new loves is handing me all the silverware from the dishwasher. She thinks she is such a big girl when she pulls out a spoon and hands it to me to put away. Some other new tricks are asking to point to her nose (which she usually then picks), hair, belly button, and toes. We're still working on know where her ears and hands are.

I was able to get her walking with her new toy. I seriously can't believe how big she is!!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Best Husband of the YEAR!

Last night I fell asleep very early on the couch. Right before falling asleep I was complaining about having to fold the 3 baskets of laundry that were still sitting out. I woke up this morning and Tyler has folded all 3 for me!!!!! Now this may not seem like a huge deal, but he totally helped me out so much. Folding laundry with a fast crawler who gets into everything is quite a task. It's the little things that he does for me that I absolutely love!

Also, Lily is now walking behind her push toy. I'll try to get it on video.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Birthday pics!!!

The official last pics of Lily's first year of being alive!


She is seriously a nut!

Not sure the next time I will do a post with Lily's picture and the sign. Maybe on her 2nd birthday?

Catching up!!

First, she scoot in between the VERY small space between the table and couch. I thought I had pushed the candy bowl far enough back that she couldn't reach it.
Boy, was I wrong! Laughing, because she just snatched a piece.
How many pieces do you think she has in her mouth!!


Yet another post!! I hadn't posted in a while so I feel like I need to catch up. The pictures above are from the day after the party. All around the house I had candy corn in dishes and come to find out Lily LOVES candy corn. Actually, I think she may have been cursed with my tastebuds, because she loves ANYTHING that has sugar in it, just like me. This whole sequence just totally cracked me up, because she thought she was being so sneaky the whole time.

The Bash!

Lily had fun at her first birthday party! We had a chili bar, fire pit, and even rides on the surrey.

Lily loved pulling tissue paper out of bags and boxes. Sometimes she loved the tissue paper more then the present!!! But I loved all the adorable outfits she got.
Checking out her duck cake!
MMMMM....delicious!!
Can you see the big 1 on my shirt?
Lily and her buddy Nora.
Going on a surrey ride with Grandpa and Thomas.
Lily absolutely loved the big duck chip bowl. Now it's a toy we just have in our living room. She loves to climb inside of it.