Smash Cake!

Finally getting my act together to display Lily's 12 month/smash cake pictures.  I use the term "smash cake" loosely, as there wasn't much smashing.

the delicious cake, thanks Betsy!

playing airplane before the excitement

if nothing else, I like how the tutu turned out!

poking the icing

trying to coax her into eating some of it

Fiona showing Lily how it's done

because really, I just can't get enough of this picture

hah

more cake!

back off, this is mine!

My official theory on the smash cake thing is that Lily doesn't like getting her hands dirty.  Like her daddy.  Jesse could be covered head to toe in mud, and as long as the palms of his hands are clean, he won't mind.  I tried giving her a piece of cake on her birthday, and she'd get a little on her hands and immediately try and wipe it off on me or her shirt.  I know she doesn't mind getting dirty, because you should see her eat spaghetti..but that's ok :) maybe she'll play along next year or at Fiona's birthday!  I had fun trying, and I really enjoyed the tutu I made.

Now I have to go wake the little goober up for her 12 month wellness check-up!  Why would they schedule me for the middle of nap time?  Seriously.

Big Girl is ONE!

My apologies for lack of updates on this front.  Life hasn't exactly been busy..but it's been keeping me moving.  And in the spare time where I can sit down and put my feet up, I don't really feel like blogging and have actually been reading a bunch more recently.  Which is excellent.  I actually just finished re-reading Pride and Prejudice.  I read this in high school and hated it then, but I really enjoyed reading it this time around.

Well, what can I tell you.  Lily is officially one.  I no longer have a baby, because apparently she is now classified as a toddler.  Even though she's been walking for ~2 months now, she wasn't 1 so I could still think of her as my baby.  Now it just seems weird.

At One, my big girl has 5 teeth; is walking everywhere and trying to run; eating all table foods; hating cow milk; referring to Zeke as "zzzz" and trying to at least get out "itty" for a cat; signing "more" and "all done"; looooooves swimming and is learning to jump in (thanks Julia..) so we get to be even more extra careful hah; taking one good, long nap during the day and we're working on sleeping through the night (which hasn't happened since the whole RSV business); climbing stairs like a pro; loves to laugh and smiles all the time; is wearing 12 month clothes; and is absolutely ridiculous.  

Lily's new favorite things involve her birthday presents from Jesse and me: kittens!  Ok, so they were more for me than for Lily, but we used her birthday as a good excuse.  My friend Jen and I went to pick them up Friday and Lily is in heaven.  I need to try and get a picture of her with them because she will occasionally catch one of them and the look on her face is one of absolute pride as she walks around holding the poor kitten.  

Zoey

Spock

And in case you were wondering, Zeke loves the kittens, too.  He is absolutely giddy and cannot wait until they aren't scared of him anymore so they can play.  I'm not sure what kind of playing a Boxer and two kittens will do, but they hiss and put him back in his place quickly already, so I'm not too worried.  Spock is much more timid and scared than Zoey is, who is much more adventurous.  

I guess that's about all the excitement from here!

let them eat cake!

We went to the park today to take Lily's 1 year pictures.  But before we get into that, real fast..

 My parents came to visit!  It went by much too quickly but I'm really glad they were able to come visit for a little while.  Dad and I went for an 8 miler on Saturday morning, and it was an absolutely gorgeous morning.  Mom, Jesse, Lily and the dog all walked a lap while we jogged.  It was a good run and I was surprised by how good I felt after we were done!

 And we went for a bike ride!  Fiona loves her little seat on Betsy's bike, and Lily, Ethan and Kayla all rode in the pull-behind-the-bike-carriage things.  Logan kept up on his own bike and Julia and I...well.  We rocked.

She only almost lost her leg once, and I only almost tipped us a few times.  Riding a tandem bike is NOT the easiest thing I've ever done, but after a few minutes, we both stopped screaming and were able to almost go in a straight line.  It was incredibly fun, to say the least.

Onto other matters.  Lily was a major party pooper with her pictures today, but that's ok, it was my fault: poor kid didn't want to take a nap allllll morning and was super tired and pretty grumpy when we went to the park.  Rookie mistake: reschedule and let your kid nap.  Regardless, we had fun and got some cute pictures.  Not of Lily, of course, but of Fiona!  She definitely stole the show.

always, always, always have a friend you can share cake with.

look at those baby blues..for the record, this picture was not edited in the slightest.

have you ever seen such a happy baby?

how Lily spent most of the pictures

of course..this did happen, too.

I think she's saying, "hey, back off, this is mine."

double fists!

and since Julia and I are both 5, it turned into a cake fight with the top layer.

Just a small sampling of the fun we had, but more pictures will be posted eventually.

Labor Day Weekend

Oh, let's see what can I tell you about.  This past weekend was spent in Zanesville, Springfield and back in good ol' West Virginia.  We headed to Zanesville on Friday to spend the night at his parent's house before we headed to a wedding in Springfield on Saturday.  We left really early for the wedding so we could stop in and see some of Jesse's family that live over that way, and we're both really glad we did.  I unfortunately didn't take nearly enough pictures of the weekend, but it was a great time to be sure.  The wedding was beautiful (congratulations, Steph and Matt!) and we had a great time seeing friends and family.  Sunday was spent relaxing with Mom H, playing with Lily and Jesse helped out with some yard work before we headed home Sunday evening.  That drive home was super exciting, as it was raining the entire way from Parkersburg to Clarksburg-- typically an hour drive, took us at least 1.5 hours.  There were parts of the drive I could barely see the road, and everyone was going incredibly slowly and cautiously.  It was quite the storm, and Lily slept like a champ through the whole thing (wonder who she gets this from..).

We got to visit with Jesse's grandparents before the wedding.  The one of Lily and her great-grandpa Brennan is the only one we got of great-grandpa looking at the camera.  He loved Lily's painted toenails and was talking to her about them in the other 10 pictures Jesse took :)

At the wedding: 

Sunday:

the flowers are ones that Mom H gathers the seeds from and replants every year.  they were her great-grandmothers (is that right?), making them Lily's great-great-great grandmother's flowers.

playing on Grandpa's tractor

In other news, I'm working out details for Lily's 12 month pictures :) they're going to be super fun, and even if they don't turn out according to the plan, I think they'll still be cute.  Hopefully we'll be doing those next week, as it's supposed to rain all the rest of this week (as I look outside and notice the sun shining..thank you, Weather Man for an accurate forecast).  But, the weather is turning cooler, and I couldn't be more excited about it.  My runs outside have been so much better than when it was a million degrees (obviously) and the cool air encourages me to actually run.  I love it!

before things get too crazy..

No garage sales this weekend.  Ok, one, but I didn't buy anything.  I have noticed this summer that I have a compulsion to stop at garage sales.  Where ever we go, if I see a garage sale sign I want to stop and feel like I need to stop at it and check it out.  There are a few specific places we go fairly regularly that always seem to have a ton of signs as we drive past..and we just keep right on going.  It kind of makes my heart sad inside, thinking of all the deals I'm missing!  Sad and pathetic a bit, I know.  But Lily, Zeke and I were going for a walk at the park and I saw a sign as we were driving home that I just had to stop by.  They had some cool stuff, nothing we needed though.

Anyway, before this weekend really kicks off, I felt like I needed to update so I could start next week with a clean slate and no back tracking on my blogs.

Last weekend, we took a little road trip up to Pittsburgh to the Renaissance Festival that is in town.  One of the guys I work with is in it, and we all had a good time.  Jesse asked me within the first 10 minutes of being there why we hadn't done this before: there was food, knives, chain mail..and if he was to go back in time to live, I'm pretty sure that's the time period he would have picked anyway.  I reminded him that I was a whale at this time last year, and he just nodded and ran off to look at the swords.

Lily rode on her first ride with cousin Ethan.  And loved it.   And I was one of those mom's that took 3,000 pictures of it.

we know these people :)

just love this picture of Kayla, Fiona and the Queen.  Lily was a party pooper and didn't want to sit with them.

she stayed a safe distance away with Aunt Julia

and mooched water from Uncle Mike..

Nothing too exciting has been happening..Lily is walking all over the place now and I think I am starting to see tooth #5 coming through on the top.  She's been kind of finicky with her food, too, so I'm anticipating a growth spurt.  Hooray.  I guess that's about it..I'm not sure what all we're getting into this weekend, but I'm looking forward to it!  Go check out my other blog for udpated Lily pictures!