Rainbows in the Grey

I am simply amazed with how the Lord brings people into our lives at just the right time.  I have decided to start my own photography business and met a wonderful photographer in our Supper Group through church.  She is unbelievable and has opened up her business and knowledge to mentor me.  What a blessing.  One of our meetings we decided to do a photo shoot using my girlies as subjects.

 

We picked the perfect day and headed down to Downtown Littleton for the afternoon.  I have never shot in an urban setting and it was so much fun to see how Tara finds just the right picturesque spots.  I just love the creative outlet that photography gives me.

The girls were as well behaved as I could have expected, even if I did have to bribe Lily with 10 M&Ms. 

We had so much fun capturing a few precious childhood moments.  Lily was so busy and while it normally would have been somewhat stressful for me, it was really powerful to see how Tara caught the craziness.  Photography lesson learned.....let kids be kids.

Towards the middle of the session, Lily started getting antsy and ready to be done, so Tara whipped out her rainbow umbrella.  Let me tell you, IT WAS A HIT!  I didn't even plan to match the girl with the umbrella, but it worked perfectly!  Lily loved carrying it around and some of my favorite pictures are the ones I got once she started playing with her rainbow.  Maybe it was the color contrast against the grey of fall, but they were perfect!

Spending a day capturing my girls made for an extra special day.  This time in their life is fleeting and I just love stopping the moments and making more memories.

Bye Bye Boo Boos!

We had a rather monumental thing occur recently and I wanted to be sure that I immortalized it.  Lily officially said bye bye to her Boo Boo (paci).  For those of you who know Lily intimately you probably know that she has been completely attached to that little item since birth.  She was just one of those kids that was a pacifier kid, and we KNEW it.  I actually thank heaven above that someone created such a neat little contraption because it gave me many an extra few minutes of sleep in her tiny years.

As Lily got older I could see clearly that it was going to be a tough battle getting rid of the Boo Boo so we started with small steps.  First it was to only have it at nap times and bed times.  We did well even if she had a few digressing periods of time.  Soon we got it mastered and she was content to have them only for sleeping.  Let me tell you though, if she didn't have them........END OF THE WORLD.  She was so attached to them at night that she asked Bob to tie ribbons on them so that she could hold onto them and find them.  To be honest I did have that moment where I was thinking she was going to go to high school with her little boo boo tucked away safely in her back pack.

Well about 6 months ago we cut all of the tips off of her boo boos so that they were literal nubs.  We thought for sure she would be rid of them because there was NOTHING to suck on, but she proved us all wrong and clung to them like a night time lifeline.  So we didn't push it too much, but frankly I was getting tired of having to keep track of the silly things (I cannot tell you how many times we travelled and I worried the whole time about the boo boo!)

As her 3rd birthday approached we started talking about all of the things she as a big 3 year old would do and included saying bye bye to the boo boos in the list.  Lily would politely tell us "Mommy, Daddy I'm not ready to say bye bye to my boo boos." We would calmly reply, "Well Lily soon you will be ready and when you are you just let us know, okay?" "Okay" she would say, but reiterate "but not right now I'm not ready."

We registered her for swim lessons to start following her birthday and kept on telling her that since she was 3 she gets to do all of this fun stuff!  Casually, about 2 weeks before swim lessons started, Bob said to her "Lily, why don't we say bye bye to your boo boos when we go to our first swim lessons?"  I knew it was a long shot, but Lily thought about it and then said, "Yeah!  I want to say bye bye to my boo boos at swim lessons, but not right now."  I couldn't believe it!

For two weeks she kept telling us that swimming day would be the day.  I was doubtful, but the morning swim lessons came Lily woke up, put her swimsuit on, grabbed that precious boo boo and confidently walked it right to the garbage.

There was not one tear shed and she has been awesome ever since (now of course we have to have 2 Minnies, 1 Mickey, a little kitty and her special blanket in its place, but........one battle at a time!)

I am simply so proud of her.  What a big girl thing to do.

Way to go Lily Lu!

Miss Evie Bee hangs with Mom or Dad while the other swims with Lily

All the Things Lily Loves about Dad

So today I asked for Lily's help writing this blog.  I wanted to do a special blog from her to her Daddy.  Here are all of the things Lily loves about her Daddy:

1.  I love swimming with Daddy because I feel safe.

2.  I love to go to the museum with Daddy and I really like the Children's museum because Daddy helps me and teaches me.

3.  I like crawling up the ladder with Daddy to get the leaves off the house.

4.   I love that Daddy is big and strong.

5.  I love when Daddy does tickles and throws because Daddy is with me.

6.  I like reading books with Daddy

7.  I love Daddy for teaching me about moon and stars

8.  I love to make waffles with Daddy because he lets me stir and gives me syrup in my mouth (her words not mine!)

9.  I love Daddy Daughter dates because he keeps me safe.

10.  I love Daddy Very Very much.

Well, you heard her.  He's pretty awesome!

A Wonderful 5

Evie is 5 months today!  Oh Baby, BABY is she growing.  There are days when I see her little smiling face and I just want to pause in the moment and suck in all of the preciousness that is Evie Frances.  There are moments where I just wish for one minute that Grandma Fran could give her a snuggle and see how beautiful her little namesake is.

Evie is taking her time on the rolling over front.  She is not in a hurry, much like her sister.  She can roll from her tummy to her back and from her back to her tummy, but not consistently and she hasn't discovered that she can actually get places by rolling.  The time will come I know and for now I am just having a blast capturing her many faces while she spends her days in her tummy time pose.

Nearly all of her baby hair is gone and she now has this wonderful fuzz that is growing in to replace it.  I love it and can't wait to see what color it will be.  We are all thinking it is going to be light, but it just might have a bit of auburn in it.  I am really hoping for curls, but we will see.

Evie is all things happy these days and her smiles are endless.  When she is not smiling and making friends we can eek some big giggles out of her especially by blowing raspberries.  She thinks those are the cats meow.  She is really starting to find her voice and spends much of her days squealing, squawking and talking.  Lily delights her to no end right now and whenever her big sister comes near Evie's joy is apparent in her face.  Her legs and arms start going and this big smile pops out.  It's precious and simply more than I could hope for.  I am excited to see their friendship and sisterhood 

emerge.

We have officially begun a scheduled nap time and although some days are a bust, Evie is slowly figuring out how wonderful it is to have a dedicated 2-3 hours to nap.  There is just so much of the world to see and cat naps hardly let her little mind recover.  She is still not a pacifier kid and is working on finding her fingers and thumb.  At present I am the only thing that will pacify her well and when she wants to sleep, she needs Mom.  

We finally found a bottle that she will take, under duress, in a desperate situation, after she has screamed herself silly for a while.  I am grateful because I can now have a far less stressful date night.  My heart still hurts thinking about her screaming it out, but I always make up for it by coming home and nursing her.  It makes me feel better even though she sleep nurses.

In one more month we will start solid foods and while I am excited for her, I am sad for me.  No I don't want her to stay a baby forever, but I am becoming more and more aware of the reality that she too is growing up and away.  I love this little girl so much.

I have loved these first 5 months, yes even the hard times, and look forward to the next 5.  I do hope that maybe they will go by just a tad slower.

Our Lily Bear is 3!

Miss Lily Grace is 3 today!  She has changed so very much and she is becoming quite the little lady if I do say so! Her joy for the world is just wonderful to watch and she all about everything these days.  Especially Minnie Mouse (if you didn't know that!).

This year Lily wanted a Minnie Mouse party (of course).  When we went to Target to pick out her little costume she was nearly beside herself with glee and kept asking me, "Mommy, when is my birthday?"  When last Sunday arrived she woke up with a big smile and said "YEAH, today is my birthday!"  She couldn't wait to get her costume on and get to the party.  I had made her Minnie cupcakes the day before and she was so antsy to get her little hands on one.

We had a great time at the little park by our house.  We had lunch and enjoyed some delicious cupcakes and marshmallow pops (provided by the lovely Aunt Heather).  Evie was super giggly for most of the time and looked super cute too.

Lily is growing up so fast.  She can count now and has her ABC's in the bag.  She loves to explore and run, eat gogurt, listen to Veggietales and play barn master with all of her horses.  Her heart is so big for her little sister right now and she is simply precious to watch.  When Evie is fussing on the floor and I can't get to her immediately, Lily will stop what she is doing, get up and run to Evie yelling, "I'm coming Evie, I'm coming."  She will then proceed to either talk with her, play with her, let her hold Minnie or read to her just to keep her happy.  The best part:  IT ALWAYS WORKS.  Evie loves Lily and it is such a source of pride for Lily to be able to make baby Evie feel better.  Makes me cry nearly every time.  I love her, no doubt.

Sweet Lily Lu, I remember this day 3 years ago when you came screaming into our lives.  It is one that your Daddy and I will never forget.  God gave us YOU Lily Grace and we love you to the moon and back.  You are precious and wonderful, strong and beautiful.  Your future is bright and we are in absolute awe of you.  You have a big heart and one that loves others and is full of compassion.  Thats special.  We love you so so SO much.  Remember, you are strong, you are pretty, you are smart, you are kind and you are important.

Happy Birthday Lily!

A Golden Hue

For the entire month of October, our world out here in the city has been covered in a golden hue.  The leaves are simply beautiful this time of year, but the color most prevalent is gold.  Its EVERYWHERE.  We have a huge tree in front of our house that seemed to sluff its leaves off all in about 3 days.  It was unbelievable how dense the leaf coverage of our yard was.  It took us a week to get a handle on all of the leaves and the girls LOVED playing in them.

Miss Lily was all about running and jumping in the piles.  Every time we would have a spare second she would run to me and say, "Mommy, lets rake the leaves!"  She was simply so precious to watch and it was such a treasure for me to see how delighted the leaves made her.

Lily wanted a Minnie Mouse birthday party this year so for Halloween she of course wanted a Minnie Mouse costume. She sure made a precious little Minnie.  We met up with my girlfriend Carolyn and her family for a night of trick or treating.  The first couple of houses made Lily nervous and she wouldn't go close without Daddy, but by the 3rd house she had it figured out.  She raced from house to house gathering her goodies as she went.  The best part is that she is completely indifferent to the candy, it was the experience that was so much fun!

The golden hue is still ever present on our street, but last Friday was the final hoorah of leaf raking for us.   Lily and her Daddy raked the last bit and stuffed them all in the garbage can.  Our tree is bare now and ready for the winter months. Fall truly is my favorite time of the year especially now that I have two rosy cheeked blue eyed little girls to take delight in the golden leaves.