Update - Lily, Moving & Christmas

I have been wanting to post some updated pic's of Lily and I finally found some time to do so!

She is now 4 months shy of being 2!!! yes, 2 years old! already.

We are still packing and getting things together. With all of the craziness around us both James and I managed to finish Christmas shopping last week, wrapped the presents and bake!

We will be going to his parents house in Cobb Mt. for Christmas Eve, we might spend the night the night before. We will come home Christmas Eve night and will spend our last Christmas morning at our place. We will open presents and then go to my parents house for presents and dinner.

I am kind of getting sad, when packing I feel like all of our memories in the house are getting erased. I don't like moving, and having to find home again. It seems like it takes me a while to get used to the new place and call it home.

I am calling U-Haul today to reserve our moving truck, thankfully I will not have to drive it, 16ft is a little intimidating to me! I think James' dad said he will drive as he will not be able to help us move much because of his back. Works for me! =)

I probably won't be posting again until the new year, so have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Thanksgiving (getting ready!)

James and I have decided to have Thanksgiving at our house, we usually do Christmas but we figured with the move it would be too much, so his family and my family will be over about 12-15 people. Over the weekend we decorated for Christmas, we put up outside lights and decorated the windows with Christmas cut outs. We are decorating early because everything will be coming down sooner. My mom and dad came over Saturday night to go over the plans for dinner, who will bring what. We made a list of all the food we would like and assigned foods to people, we figured it was the easiest way because when we ask what will your bring for dinner? you will get a, "what do you want me to bring?" this way we know who will bring what and we don't get too much for one thing. The next couple nights James and I will have to clean and pick up, move all of our boxes into one room and shut the door! I am getting excited about Thanksgiving, I love it when all (well, almost) of my family will be in one house at the same time!

Packing

James and I started to pack this past weekend, even though we are not moving until 1st week of January we figured we should get some things going now because time flys! We are packing up nick knacks and odd ball stuff that we really do not need in everyday life. We even packed up some of Lily's toys (shhhhh) she doesn't know :) We are very excited and wish we could move in before Christmas as we have more room in the new house for a bigger Christmas Tree! oh well, have to wait until next year. Now that Lily is 19 months she is actually a big help with packing, she will run and grab you the pen to write on the box, she will help with the bubble wrap, she will run and get you a box and enjoys every minute of it. Last time we were moving she was about 5 months old and she wasn't the baby you can leave in a swing while you got stuff done she needed to be in my arms 24-7, so this move I predict will be easier then the last. Since we do X-mas dinner at our house we figured we would so Thanksgiving beings everything will be in a box at Christmas time. This is a last minute idea and hope everyone will make it, if not then more Turkey for us! :)

Finally!!!!!

We got the house!!!!!!!!!!!! We got it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy :) We sign the papers today! It's not avaiable until January which is nice because it gives us time to pack, clean, and get rid of things we no longer need.

cross your fingers!!

Ok, so the Realtor finally called at 7pm last night! She said that the owner will lower the rent, YAHOOOOOO! So we are meeting with the Realtor at 5:30pm today to give her our application, I was surprised to of herd the owner doing all of this for us when we haven't applied for it yet... So maybe it's a for sure thing then? We will find out. I brought some box's home from work last night and we will start the packing process tonight, whether or not we get this place we have to move regardless, so I figure there's no point on procrastinating anymore, just get it done!

Still waiting...

We are still waiting to hear back, I am beginning to think it's a no because of how long it has been. I am going to call around noon and see if the Realtor has herd anything. I am trying not to get my hopes up but it is so hard, I really want this place.

The waiting game...

Here is a pic of the house we are trying for. Yesterday I spoke to the Realtor about the house we are interested in Cotati. We figured out how much our water bill should be each month and James and I agreed that we could afford it. So I called city of Cotati to find out if there is a deposit we have to give them to put the water in our name since we have never had to pay for water. The deposit would be $253! and this would be due 10 days after we had the water turned on, I DON'T THINK SO! So I called the Realtor and told her thanks but no thanks, she said she would talk to the owner and see if she would lower the rent because she thinks the 253 is ridiculous. So now we play the waiting game and hope the owner will go through with it.

House Hunting

We have looked at several places and some are right away, NO! and others are, "think abouts" So far there hasn't really been any that we have to have. We are running out of time as the landlord sold the house on Tuesday, he didn't think it would sell that fast... surprise! So we no longer can be picky, I just found 2 places I am going to call on today and set up a viewing. There is one place we keep pondering on, it is in Cotati about 10 min away. it's a townhouse, it's not attached and has both front and back yard, it even has a fire place! Both James and I like it, the only thing holding us back is having to pay for water, I hear that can be pricey, and we use A LOT of water. So we are not sure what to do! We have a application filled out and it just needs to be sent, but I feel like there is something better out there! We are running out of time and need to find a place now. This is both frustrating and exhausting for all of us, and can't wait for it to be over... wish this was happening after the holidays!!

Other than that I am proud to say that Lily used her potty for the first time! I clapped and she gave me a high five, I hope this is on her way to using the potty more often, I am not going to push her but if she shows interest again I will be once again a one proud momma! Needless to say as soon as she did this immediately I had to tell James, he was at work so I texted him and he was just as proud.

Frustraitng news

Last Thursday James and I found out that we have to move, our landlord is selling the property =( We have only been here for a year and we just got settled. In the past 4 yrs we have moved 3 times, we just want to find a place and stay there! So now we are on a hunt for a new home. It's frustrating because we have a dog, and no too many places accepts dogs. I have put a call into a house for rent over the weekend and I am anxiously awaiting a call back this morning. It's a 3 bedroom 2 bath house with a back yard and garage!! We have never been able to get a house we have only been in apartments and duplex's so this would be great. Both Sprocket and Lily need a place to run. I am crossing my fingers and praying that we can get it, it would be perfect. So until I get a phone call I am still looking and hoping we find our new home pretty quick. I hate moving around the holidays.

Other than that my weekend was pretty relaxed, James worked both Saturday and Sunday so Lily and I hung out at the house and read books, played with her dolls and took naps basically gearing up for next weekend! going to be fun =)

Keep you informed about the house hunting...

Decorating for Halloween

This past weekend James and I have been decorating for Halloween. It's has been fun, we have bought some gel clings that stick to the window. They are cut outs of pumpkins, bats, stars, ghosts, and skulls. We stuck them all over our kitchen window, Lily loves looking at them and trying to name off what they are. We got a cute little pumpkin decoration that you can stick in the ground or put in a potted plant, we stuck it in our potted plant =) We didn't really decorate a lot as we never have trick or treaters, our house sits too far back from the street, but we thought it would be fun for Lily.

Last night I spoke with my cousin Shelly and she invited James, Lily and I to her Halloween party on the 24th. apparently it's "the place to be" :) The 24th is a busy day for us, it's James' nephews 5th b-day party which is at Pump it Up! a place where there is nothing but blow up jumpies and then off to the Halloween party, I hope Lily can stay awake for all of this. Once we leave the b-day party we have to drive to Sacaremento which is about 1hr and 30 min drive, so she will take her nap then i'm sure. We will be spending the night there and this will be her 3rd time away from her bed so I hope she will sleep ok. Should be fun can't wait!

Too Cute

This morning at work I received an advance copy of a title, "Knitted Toy Tales". This title is too cute!! There is everything from bears, dolls, pigs, penguins, frogs and all of them are adorable. This title is due to be released in October, if you enjoy knitting Amigurmi or little animals, this book should be on your shelf! Lily will be sure to get one of these cuties in her stocking this year!

The Park And A Couple New Words

On Sunday, James, Devin, Lily and I decided to go to McNear Park. We brought a Frisbee, football, and Lily's ball to play with. I didn't think we were going to be there very long, but we ended up staying for 3 hrs. We had so much fun, Lily was running in the grass, chasing her daddy and uncle Devin while I was snapping pictures. When she got tired of running around she would come over to me and snuggle on her blankie and enjoyed some of her milk. We had such a great time we are planning for another trip to the park this weekend. We played on the slides and swings for a while, but she preferred to be in the grass running around. Fine by me, I get so nervous when she wants to try and climb up the jungle gym with all the big kids. She never wants to stay in the "little kid" part, its always the bigger the slide the more she wants up.

Over the weekend Lily has learned a couple of new words, Bathroom "baroom" and Turkey "Turtey" (Turkey is our nickname for Sprocket) She is now into saying Uh-OH! whenever something goes wrong, and ewww every time she sees the fly swatter or a nasty cigarette butt on the ground. Oh the things kids do that make you laugh :) I love it!!

Baby B's 1st B-Day PaRtY!

Last night Lillan and I went to my friend Kims son Bobby's first B-Day party, we had a blast! I loved spening time with my old friends Kim and Heather as we are the same age with kids! Heathers son Nathan is 3 but Lillian and him played the most. He came up to me a said Lily is pweety :) so cute! We were there for about 3 hrs and then Lily started to get crabby (it was past her bed time) so on the way home she fell asleep, it worked out perfect! I thought the cake and ice cream was going to keep her awake. I got some cute pics and should post them soon. Just a quick update!

Little update

Lily is now 15 months old, she is getting a bigger vocabulary day by day. Her new thing to do is say "ewwwww" whenever she picks up something off the floor, she will crinkle her nose up and run whatever it is over to you for you to see (sometimes there is nothing in her hand). When she went in for her 15 month old check up the doctor said he was amazed on how much her face has changed. He said she is losing her "baby face" I don't want to hear that, she is growing up too fast. She also has lost 4 lbs since her last check up, she is loosing her rubber band hands and her rolls on her arms from all the running around :( my little girl is becoming a little lady. James and I love to sit and watch her, she will take daddy's old cell phone that no longer works and put it up to her ear, she will put her hand on her hip and pace around and just talk away (we don't know what she is saying) she will do this for about 5 min. We have taken some pictures of her doing this but it just doesn't show you enough. What she also has learned is how to turn on our clock radio, she will turn it on and dance around to the music and when she is done she will turn it off and simply walk away. I want to post pics so bad, but not have the Internet at my house and only able to post at my moms and I never seem to have time to bring my camera over and download my pics. Just a little update, have a great weekend!

Potluck

Tomorrow is our yearly potluck, which is so much fun. We invite friends and family and usually end up with 30+ people. We have a huge b.b.q with lots of food and drinks, we set up a volley ball net and depending how hot it is we have water balloons and a pool. This weekend is supposed to be in the 100's so I think the pool and water balloons will be an essential. Last year Lily was only 2 months old, this year she is 14 months and I think she will really have some fun! I don't think this year there is going to be any kids her age, but she I am sure she will get enough attention from the adults.

Tonight James and I are going to my parents house (where it is held) and putting together the volley ball net and do some last minute yard work, they live on 11 achers so we have a lot of room to use. I will try and take a bunch of pictures, I always plan on taking pictures and never get a chance, the day goes by to quick and so much is going on. I better get going, TGIF!

Lilys House

For Lily's 1st b-day James and I wanted to get her something huge, something she would enjoy for a few years. We decided to get her a play house... We ended up putting in the living room, and she loves it. She sits in it, opens her windows and watched TV from it, so funny. Here are some pics of James and Uncle Devin putting it together.

Top Dog

I took this pic a couple weeks ago and couldn't resist posting it! He looks so funny! Oh Sprocket, he's such a good pup :)

Getting Ready for Summer

We are getting ready for summer, that means sunblock, shades, a floaty and a bathing suite. We have picked out Lily's swim suite for the summer, its a one piece Polk-a-dot pink, green, orange and white. She has her green heart shaped sunglasses her Beach Bum sunblock, and her Palm Tree pool. This weekend is suppose to be hot, around 90+. It gets kind of miserable in our house, it's so stuffy and no matter how many fans you have you still want to lay down and not move. We are planning on going to my parents house and playing in Lily's pool my mom got her a while back. She has used it a few times and loves it. Ever since I have been a mom I get so excited about summer, Holidays and toys! It's like I get to re live my child hood :) Sometimes I think I have more fun with Lily's toys then she does!!

I will make sure to take pics of Lillian in her swimming pool this weekend, of course if it's too hot I think we will resort to the bath tub.

Craft Day

Today's craft day at my moms house, a tradition that my family(grandma, 2 aunties, cousin, and my mom) have been doing for years. We all get together 1 Saturday a month and we craft, scrapbooking, knitting, crochet, paint, whatever you feel like doing. It's so much fun, I'm now introducing Lily to it, she will be our next generation crafter! I should post some pics of all of us around the table crafting... I need to take some first.

Love Birds

I was looking at some old pictures and ran across this pic of James and I, this was taken at the beach summer of '06. That night was lots of fun, we were sitting at friends house about 10pm we decided to go to the beach and have a fire. Back then we were able to get up and go, no worries. Well things have changed, in a good way! I think it's fun to look back at old pictures, you really start to day dream... Oh the memories :)

New Book

I am so excited about this book, it's not coming out until November. I have a review copy which is not proofed, but it's getting me so excited, theres so many cute toys to make. Susan B. Anderson is one of my favorite knitting authors, I love all of her books, Itty Bitty Hats, and Itty Bitty Nursery. I can't wait to start knitting some cute toys for Lily!

More Recent Pic

This is a more recent pic of Lily (horrible scan), this was taken about 2 weeks ago at my moms house. It was very hot, around 90* I believe she was on her way out to the pool.

Tonight James Lily and I are going grocery shopping, now that Lily can walk it seems like we always leave the store with an extra item or two. She will grab things off the shelf that she knows she likes, like Cheerios, Gold Fish, Juice Box's, Chicken nuggets etc. Then she will walk around the store saying yummmmmmm.... and rub her tummy! very cute. Her personality has blossomed the last few weeks, she is turning into such a little lady.

Where have I been?!

I have been super busy and on top of that we no longer have Internet at the house. One of the luxury's we gave up to be able to get rid of some bills. I miss blogging and posting updated pics of Lillian. She is now 13 months walking and talking (baby talk) She knows how to say, mama, dada, baba, buba (the dog), spoon, balloon, ki ki (kitty). She knows what a Tiger says, a Bee, and we are trying Dog. She is growing up so fast, it's scary. You can't take enough pictures, she changes everyday. She's my little lady :)

Her first birthday was great, all my friends and family came I will try and post some pics soon.

yesterday James, Lily and I went to my friend Heidi's house for her daughter Delilahs 1st b-day party, we had a blast! She is so cute, she had a great first birthday. I wish Heidi and I can see each other more often, it's not like we live 100miles away, but beings we are both moms we understand how busy we can get.

I will try and post some pics soon, I don't have any on the computer except for the one I am about to post, this was on Lilys B-day invitations. She was about 11months here. I will post more pics soon!

I do tweet on Twitter alot.. I will add it to my Blog.

Later gators,

Dionne

The Window

The other night when Devin was over, he went outside and stood on our front porch, Lily was eating in her high chair and wanted out when she saw him outside. I took her out and stood her on the kitchen table, Devin put his face up close to the window and she started smashing her face into the window and moving her head up and down, it was so funny. Luckily James had time to grab the camera. Now whenever she is up to a window she starts to lean towards it, silly girl!

New Snack

As James and I were walking through Safeway thinking about what we can get for dinners, i saw a bag of mini bagels, I thought they were so cute and just the right size for Lily. When we came home from the grocery store I opened up the bag and handed her one, she kind of looked at me with a weird look, as if I was crazy for giving her something so big. This was definitely not bite size. She was having a hard time eating it as it just crumbled into big pieces. I decided to freeze them and give them to her, as you can see she loved them! This is her new favorite snack, she has a bagel every where she goes, whether she is eating it or not.


She looks so proud!

Snow Day

Today was such a fun day!! We ended up going to James' moms in Cobb Mountain. Last week it snowed and still had a lot left over, so we decided to take a drive up there. Devin decided to come with us, it was about an hour and a half drive, Lily slept the way there. The minute we got there Sprocket jumped out of the truck and ran into the snow. He started to run so fast his jowls were taking flight, so funny!

I tried to get Lily to touch the snow but she wasn't having it, so we decided to make a little snowman for her to play with, she took the eye out, and then had nothing to do with it. She was enjoying watching James, Devin and Sprocket play in the snow.

We spent the whole day there so needles to say both Sprocket and Lily were tired, and slept all the way home. It was such a blast, I can't wait to do it again!

Reading

For the past 2 weeks Lily has shown a lot of interests in books, she will sit on your lap and listen to you read and even help turn the pages. When you are not reading to her, she will pick up a book and start reading it to herself, it's so cute to hear her baby talk to herself. This will keep her entertained for about 20min. We have bought her a few new books and while in the store she will squeal with joy when we hand it to her. Her favorite book is called Lamb, I got it from work. I left it over at my moms for her to use while she is babysitting, thinking it would just be another chew toy, but come to find out it has been her favorite book. She likes to life the little flaps inside to see what animal is under it, while my mom makes the noise of the animal, very entertaining :) The book in the picture I bought at Rite Aid for $2, since they are going out of buisness, they have a lot of good buys. She also enjoys Mrs. Spiders Sunny Patch Family Photo Album that I bought her at Grocery Outler for 0.99! yahoo!

Best Buds

I think it's time for you to meet our first baby, Sprocket. We got him at the pound when he was 2months old. He is our baby boy, and goes every where with us. He goes to work with James every day. The moment James and I found out that I was pregnant, we thought Sprocket would be very jealous and things wouldn't work out with him and the new baby. He was with us for 2 years before Lily came. When Lily was born we introduced Sprocket to her, it was totally different. When she would cry he would run up to her to find out what was wrong, he would go to her for her every need. When we started to give her tummy time, he would be right there next to her. He would lay next to her every time she was on the ground, it was so cute. I have attached some older pics of them together, with some that I took tonight. They are truly best buds, and with time will only get closer, how cute!

Potty Time?

So the other day James and I bough Lily a potty. I know it's a little soon, but I couldn't resist buying her one. It is so cute, it even has her own toilet roll! So we got it home, I pulled it out of the box and set it up in the bathroom. I sat her on it, and well... you tell me? She immediately threw herself off of it and crawled away. I don't think she will be potty trained anytime soon, but I just wanted to share the cute pics of her on it. The pics show how she reacted to it in stages. funny.

Chuck E. Cheese's

Tonight Lily went to her first birthday party. My friend Heather's son Nathan turned 3, and had his b-day party at Chuck E. Cheese's. First off, Lily has been suffering from an ear ache for a couple of days, so needless to say we didn't stay very long. We stayed for about 45 min and she had a blast. She saw Barney, Bob the Builder and some robot thing. She played a basketball game with her daddy and won 6 tickets, we attempted to get a picture taken of all of us, but she kept moving and she came out blurry. I think her favorite thing was the disco ball in the middle of the party area.

I am so thankful she is starting to feel better, when she went in for her shots she caught a cold at the doc office. She ended up getting so congested, that it turned into an ear infection. She is on antibiotics for 7 days =( She is feeling much better, and sleeping really good. I better get going, she is starting to get mad that I am on the computer and not playing with her. Enjoy the pics!

Lily's new ride

So for Christmas Lily got her first car. An '08 Fisher Price! It was love at first sight. Since Christmas the weather has not been that warm enough to take it for a test drive, but finally a couple of weekends ago we got a warm streak with very little wind. We thought we should take her to the park. We pushed her around Luchessi Park and she loved it! We managed to get around the entire pond and then some. She was such a good little girl, I can't wait for some more nice weather so we can do it again. Here are a few pics of her, notice her cell phone? She has one hand on the wheel and one holding her cell phone, typical California driver! =) Enjoy the pics, I'm going to get my Jammie's and get ready for American Idol!

The perfect bathtub

So I have been bathing Lily in the bath tub, trying to hold onto her and suds her up at the same time, My back would start to kill me and she would start crying. bath time was not fun. One day I was putting the dishes in the dishwasher and it occurred to me, the sink! I can bathe Lily in the sink, duh! Why didn't I think of that before?? I think everyone has a photo of them getting a bath in the sink! I felt like a dork, but ever since I thought of it Lily has been enjoying her baths until her toes turns to prunes. I love it! Here are some pics of her.