Christmas Eve 2010

We spent Christmas Eve at Mimi and Papa's house for some pizza and some more gifts! Lilly really got into the whole gift receiving this year! She really enjoyed tearing off the paper to see what was inside and even more exciting was throwing the paper away!

She enjoyed opening the gifts so much, she helped Mimi and Papa open her gift to them!

She made sure they saw her painting inside! I know I'm biased, but I really think all of you should buy one of these frames (at least 1!). I found it at Target. The frame stores your favorite niece's or granddaughter's art work in a folder inside the frame and has a magnetic closure thus making it easy for you to change the display! I'm so impressed that she found such a great deal!

And I believe this was my favorite part of the evening! Lilly showed off her piano skills! Really - she did - please refer to the posted video!

And now - Lilly presents to you The Sound of Music - Papa and Lilly style!

Christmas with the Church/Coyne Clan

Ok - so we spent the holidays in Alabama this year and I would like to use that as my excuse for not posting in so long. It is just that though - an excuse. a pathetic one, but an excuse nonetheless! Anyway - we got there late Tuesday evening and Lilly explained to us she had absolutely no plans to sleep in the pack and play. Good to know. Thank you for communicating. We got very little sleep and all three of us ended up sick. Lilly threw up on me several nights. Merry Christmas!

I could not wait to put her in her holiday dress with her little shrug and knee high boots. She didn't seem to care that she was so pretty!

The kids' table where all her cousins joined her for dinner. She ate yogurt despite the fact her cousin, Stephanie made a delicious butternut squash ravioli. She also ate grapes for the first time this day. She loved them. So I bought her some when we got home and she'll have nothing to do with them. Thank you very much.

This is her with her cousin, Molly. Molly is a couple months younger than Lilly.

Leonardo Strikes Again

This girl loves to paint! Have paint? She'll come right over....

She takes her art very seriously.

and has this happy little face the entire time.

Wagon Trail

So I posted quite some time ago about the favorite birthday gift! Here is a video of her with the winner. Thanks Mimi and Papa for the wagon! She loves it!

Holiday Baking

Ok, I admit it, I'm not in the Christmas Spirit this year. The past few months have been really tough on me at work and then having to nurse my back didn't help either. So I tried to do some holiday baking. Every year I try new recipes and I look forward to adding a new cookie to my list of favorites. This year I've only tried one.

Lilly wanted to help fill the cookies with the peppermint cream which did not turn out to be very helpful. But she was fun to watch. And then she decided to taste it.

And look at this happy face! The cookies, weren't really that good, but having the time in the kitchen with Lilly was worth it!

Bump in the Night

Recently, the bump in the night was our daughter leaping from her crib to the floor. Fortunately, she landed on her feet every time, but she would then start screaming and crying because she couldn't figure out how to get back into her crib. So we converted the crib to a toddler bed the next morning and nap time and bed time just hasn't been the same since. In fact, it's been rough. We go in and check on her periodically to see where she is. One time she must have been really mad at us because she was blocking the door, sleeping on the floor. Her most recent place is her rocking chair.

Charlie Brown Christmas

Ok - so I cannot wait to get past this back injury. I'm so behind on everything! Laundy, shopping, wrapping, decorating for the holidays... So instead of the traditional tree and all the holiday toys, we are using Lilly's miniature pink tree.

I don't remember how old we were when Mom started letting us help decorate the tree, but I'm now sure it wasn't at 2. I'm smart enough to use non-breakable ornaments.

And I really confused her with this garland. She carried it all over the house. It makes a great boa.

But seriously, Lilly - put it on the tree!