What have you been up to Lily??

Oh my goodness, Lily Grace is growing and changing so much! I so wish that I could share her with all of you who read this! She is just so adorable in person. I must say that watching her each day is the most beautiful blessing that I could imagine and a highlight of my life!



It is so much fun to be able to spend each and every moment with her. I could not even imagine having to give her up everyday and go to work. God Bless all of those Moms out there who have to do it every day!

Lily and I have been running, running, running lately. She absolutely loves when I put her in her jogger. It has become part of her routine so much so that when we don't go running, her morning nap gets disturbed. She looks at me like, "Mom, why am I in my bed? I don't nap here in the mornings, this is all wrong." We usually run 3 times a week and then do a long run on Saturday. She usually is awake for about the first half mile and then out like a light for the remainder of the journey.

She is finally big enough to sit in the jogger like a big girl!


Yeah for mom and dad because the carseat was getting bulky and heavy, especially with the growin' baby. Of course, just when I get used to pushing her, she will gain more weight. I will always be behind! Oh well, I am going to be an in shape Momma! Next week Bob and I are running a 10 mile race. Since I can't take the jogger I am guessing that I will fly to the end. Training with the baby is like adding weights.

We finally decided to put away her swing and trade it for this awesome jumper!


She is a little small still and can't quite touch the ground, but all of the toys make for plenty of baby simulation. She especially likes the rainbow!


We are slowly working on getting her on a daily routine and it is somewhat challenging. Her nighttimes are still hit or miss with sleeping. I so wish that she would be consistent, but that is not my child. Some nights we only get up once, and other times we get up 5 times. It's like a sleeping surprise every time we go to bed.

Everyday she is getting stronger and smarter.


Just this past week she started to think about rolling from her back to her stomach. She has been really working on it and just the other day she made it! She gets up on her shoulder and can't quite figure out how to get the arm out of her way, but she is movin' and groovin.'




I am so excited to see her roll all the way across the room. I know, I know, then I will have a tiger by the tail, but thats how you stay in shape right?

Much to Grandma Feddy's delight, Lily Grace is officially blowing raspberries.


Yes, she sticks her tongue out and blows spit bubbles. Thanks Mom for teaching her to spit at her mother.....that is going to be awesome in a few months!

Lastly, as I am sure you can tell from the photos, Lily Grace is losing her luscious locks and slowly heading towards the bald baby look. Oh it is just so sad. I know it will grow back, but it is so sad to see my little girl's hair line receding. She now has a tuft of hair on top and a tuft of hair (long hair-like 2 inches!) at the nap of her neck. Party on the top and party at the bottom, but all other areas are very sparse indeed. Oh well, with a smile like this who needs hair?

Tobacco Road 2011

Bob is a Marathon Man! After his Rock and Roll Arizona debut, he just got the itch and decided he needed to do another one. Down here in North Carolina we have awesome trail systems as well as the American Tobacco Trail. The Trail is an old train track that has been converted to a running trail. It is crushed gravel and wonderful to run on! When we discovered that they have a Marathon and Half Marathon scheduled Bob was signed up in a hurry. March 20th was a bit too soon for me to plan on running the half so I decided to be his transport and cheering section (Lily too).

On race day we were up at 5:30 and Lily was a little bit confused.


She had this zombie look on her face and as soon as she was buckled in the car she was fast asleep. Bob was all nerves but was such a good sport when it came to me and the camera.


We dropped him off at the starting line and got to hang out with him until he had to enter the shoot for the start.



Bob was getting more and more anxious as the time approached. His goal was to finish the race in 4:00 hours and he knew that he was going to have to run 26.2 miles at a 9 minute pace. In Arizona a year and a half ago his time was 4:36 so he was going to try to shave nearly 40 minutes off of his time. Lofty Goal, but GO BOB!

The gun went off and the pack went with it!


Lily, Rocky and I did our best to see him in the middle of the race, but it was so difficult to get the timing right. We missed him at mile 16, but decided that was okay as long as we got to see him cross the finish line. We arrived at the finish line 45 minutes before we saw his blue shirt on the horizon.

Liily and I were so anxious to see him and there he was.....still running! While we were watching him I kept on thinking of Dori in "Finding Nemo," "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming." Here he is right before the finish line.


He was so focused that he didn't even see us! And there he goes to the finish line! Way to go Bob!


He did so great and he not only made his goal, he beat it by 9 minutes! Bob proudly crossed that beautiful finish line at 3 hours and 51 minutes. He felt great and finished strong!




This marathon thing has gotten in his blood. Even 15 minutes after he crossed the finish line, he was ready to talk about the next marathon on the books. Disney World 2012, here we come!

The Rest of the Story

Well on Wednesday of Lily and My Arizona Adventure we started off with a trip to the North West side of Phoenix to see Aunt Linda!


Since we moved Linda hasn't been able to make it out to see us so we met at Mimi's Cafe and had a delicious breakfast while oogling the baby. Lily slept nearly through the entire morning which meant that Linda and I got to have a nice breakfast together. Once she woke up from her beauty sleep she had a blast getting to know Linda and snuggling with Mommy.


Linda gave her some awesome outfits and the best one of all was an Arizona Sun Devil Softball Jersey.



To make it even more special, Linda was able to get the entire women's softball team to sign the back!



How awesome is that?

After breakfast, on our way back to the East side, we stopped at a dear friends house to catch up. Crystal and Ben have become such an awesome part of our lives and it has been fun having babies together. Rowan is their first and is about to become a big sister!


Crystal and I tried to get our little girls to take a picture with us, but just when the camera came out Rowan got shy and Lily started screaming. Oh well, here are the cute mommas.


I also got a chance to visit my old office and see all of my coworkers later that day. Needless to say, by the time I got home Lily was exhausted from all of the travel and all of the new faces, smells and sights.

The next day was Saint Patty's Day and we did the most exciting thing. We went to the ZOO! Oh it was so much fun.


I haven't been to the zoo in so long and it was so much fun to take Lily. Megan (Tara's Sister) bought all of us little Saint Patty's pins. Tara was the "Head Leprechaun," Traci was the "Shamrocker," and Lily Grace was the "Party O' Animal."


In her hat and cool sunglasses she looked ready to party. We had a blast walking through the zoo and seeing all of the cute little animals.




Lily was more fascinated with all of the people, but we had a blast none the less.

For the last night in the Valley, Lily and I spent our time with Tia Traci.


We had a wonderfully relaxing afternoon of iced coffee and cookies, good conversation and then dinner complete with wine! Wonderful! When we decided to sit down for dinner, we went out on her patio and enjoyed the mild weather. The baby was happy so we just put a beach towel and pillow down on the concrete and the baby fully entertained herself through dinner.


Once we took this picture and saw the flip flops and hose we thought "Oh boy, this is red neck." That's okay, we had a great time together.

As our time to leave approached I asked Traci if she would take me to In-N-Out Burger. I LOVE that place. While I was pregnant I could not even look at a hamburger without wanting to loose my lunch. Unfortunately, that aversion lasted until about 3 months ago. I hadn't had a proper hamburger in over a year. Oh my heavens it was good!


The place was packed so we just stuck Lily Grace on the floor.


I can't wait until she can enjoy it too!

Lily and I did great on the plane and made it home safe and sound. Bob was so happy to see us!

Give me an A, Give me an R....

Give me an I-Z-O-N-A, Where did we go? ARIZONA!

What a treat, Lily and I got to spend a whole week tootling around our old stomping grounds. Ever since we moved from Arizona, I have been anxiously waiting for the day when I could take Lily Grace back to meet all of our dear friends and family that live in the Valley. When we found out that I was going to be able to go with Lily I just couldn't wait to get there. She and I left a week ago Saturday and made the long trek (5 hour flight) across the country back to the good ole Southwest. When we got on the plane and discovered that it was going to be a five hour flight, I think my heart dropped into my stomach. Lily is good, but 5 hours good? I wasn't so sure. I am happy to say that she did great. Although she is noisy and is very strongwilled, we made it there and back with little drama! Yeah Mom and Baby!


My parents drove my Grandma down that weekend so Lily got to see Feddy and Kemo for a day or so too. They picked us up at the airport and we headed over to meet Uncle Rob, Aunt Steph and some of my awesome cousins. Cassandra came to meet the little one and just loved her.


Cassie is like a sister to me and I miss working and spending time with her. I am so glad that Lily could meet her even if it was only a for a few minutes. Charity and Nathan were next. Charity was absolutely adorable with her and Lily was a happy camper in her arms.


It was such a blast to meet everyone and enjoy some catching up. My cousin Alayna is an amazing dancer who had just come back from a competition and was bone weary.


She got to see the baby and snuggle for a few minutes later in the week too.

Lily and I were really blessed to be able to spend a lot of quality time with Traci, aka Tia Traci.


We got to go to church with her on Sunday and Lily loved the nursery. In fact, when I went to pick her up she was completely content to sit in the worker's arms. I am so happy to know that my daughter is content to play without constant Mommy attention. After church we headed over to Joes Farm Grill for some good BBQ food.


I had a delicious hot dog (yes, I am already starting in on the kid food) and sweet potatoe fries, YUM. Lily was shocked at how warm it was and I had her completely overdressed. Lets just say that she started the morning in longsleeves, pants and socks and ended the afternoon in a diaper. Every time she would fuss I would just remove more clothes. Finally we got down to the diaper and she was like, "Geez Mom, couldn't you just have done that five hours ago?" Needless to say she spent the rest of the week in a diaper or shortsleeved onsie. Why in the world did I bother to pack her a bag? Note to self, babies are exceptionally low maintenance especially in warm weather, got a diaper? CHECK, got a food source? CHECK, packing done!

That evening we had a little shindig at Traci's house and lots of old and new friends came. Traci's boyfriend Tyler was there as well as Joan, Loren, Whitney and Parker Olsen, Matt, Tara, Katie and Mason Weatherly, and Feddy and Kemo.


Joan got to snuggle the baby and thought her little shorts outfit with a butterfly on her fanny was so super cute (Me Too, thanks Mom for gettin' us some shorts!).



Grandma Feddy got her some awesome shades which really came in handy with the Arizona sunshine.


That is one cool Baby!

That night Lily and I headed over to Matt and Tara's house to stay for the week. It worked out great because they still had a lot of baby stuff for Lily like a Pac-n-Play and lots of fun toys. Lily got to meet Grandma Bev (Tara's mom) and she gave her a floppy bunny for Easter. Lily loved it and has already thoroughly chewed the ears. Thanks Grandma Bev.


Katie is Tara's 2 year old and she loved baby Lily. She kept asking about Baby Lolly!


She could get her L's out, but the i and y got a bit lost in translation. She was also mesmerized by the camera and kept wanting me to take a picture of her and then show it to her. Kids these days love the instant gratification that digital cameras bring. Does anyone remember the film days when you had to take a picture and hope you got smiles and eyes open, use the rest of the roll, rewind the camera, take the film to the store, wait a day or two, go pick it up and then see your photo? If kids had to do that these days it would shock them completely. Am I getting old?

Mason and Katie really had a blast when Lily got to take a bath with them. Tara was awesome and crawled in the bathtub with all of the kid's.




Lily had a great time and loved watching the big kids splash around.

After bathtime the next morning, Matt was a rockstar and took Lily so that I could sleep. I loved it. Matt had all three kiddos and spent some time playing on the floor.



Keep posted for the rest of our Arizona adventure.....