Ocean Wonders

For Christmas, my parents got Lilli a really neat projector that plays water sounds and music, as well as displays an ocean scene on the wall or ceiling. Last night after story time, I put Lilli on my knees and projected the image up on the ceiling. This was her reaction...(she's never "talked" so much in one sitting)!

We've been trying very hard to capture Lilli's smiles on film, but she seems to put them away whenever the camera comes out. It has made for some other funny videos, however. She makes some pretty cute faces and has started "talking" back to us, which is so much fun (ask me if I think that when she's 16 and talking back!). Hopefully soon we'll have some smiles to share!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope everyone had a wonderful day celebrating Jesus' birthday!

Two Months!

Lilli celebrated her two month "birthday" yesterday! How exciting! Time is going so quickly (I'm sure I'll say that every time she is another month older)! She's still working hard on her neck control and recently has started rolling onto her side from her belly. We're hoping for a full tummy-to-back roll any day now! She's also been really good about staying awake during the day and sleeping a full 8 hours at night. Ryan and I are very thankful for this change, although she's admittedly never been a terrible sleeper. We're looking forward to month three and can't wait to see what new things she learns!

Playtime!

We have so much fun with this stacker that I just had to take video. Today she was "dancing" and giving us lots of smiles while playing with her toy! We're very thankful to Emma and Tyler for passing this toy down to their baby cousin!

Tummy Time

Lillian has been spending a lot of time working on her neck strength lately, and I've been able to capture some video. This isn't the best one, but all of the great video I captured is too lengthy to post on Blogger and Facebook. Nonetheless, we hope you enjoy this one!

Lilli's First Thanksgiving

This week we got to celebrate our first big holiday with Lillian...Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a delicious prime rib dinner Thanksgiving Eve with Ryan's dad before sending him off to Florida to be with the rest of the family, and then spent Thanksgiving day with my family. We had a great time with everyone! We hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and have many things to be thankful for this year! We certainly know that we have been blessed!

One Month!!

Today Lilli is celebrating her one month birthday! This time as flown by so quickly! We're enjoying every inch of our beautiful little girl and are loving parenthood. It is somewhat bittersweet that's she's already outgrown most of her newborn clothes and has moved up to size 1 diapers, but at the same time we knew it wouldn't last long when she started out at nearly 9 pounds! We didn't have too many milestones this month other than growing from sponge baths to an infant tub...and she absolutely loves bath time! She's sleeping very well (about a 4 to 5 hour stretch every night now) which Ryan and I are grateful for. We can't wait to see what new things month 2 brings!

After spending several days in the hospital, our little girl has finally arrived! Lillian Claire was welcomed to the world on 10/22/09 at 9:38pm. She weighed in at 8lbs 15 oz. I had a bit of a rough labor and ended up with a c-section but in the end, the result was our beautiful baby girl! We can't wait to get her home and start our parenting adventure!

Getting Ready for Baby

Over the long Labor Day weekend (and in preparation for labor - ha!) I decided to put together the furniture for the nursery! Everything looks adorable and I can't wait for our little girl to arrive and enjoy her new room! The crib quilt is being delivered soon and is my birthday gift from Ryan's parents! It was so nice of them and I can't wait to add it to the crib! We also received a beautiful glider rocker from my parents at my shower last weekend and we'll be putting that together soon. For now, though, I thought I'd post some photos of the crib, curtains and changing table. There will be more updates once the chair, bookshelf and a few other things are put into place. Let the countdown begin!

Nursery Update

The nursery is painted! We went with a soft yellow that matches the color in the curtain panels we ordered for the room and Lowe's did a fantastic job matching the color. I finished the final coat of paint tonight and now it only needs a few touch-ups on the trim/doors! We'll add more photos as we start to furnish and decorate our peanut's room!

Our closet has flooring!

Thanks to the hard work of my husband and father-in-law, we FINALLY have flooring down in our dressing room! It's still a bit dusty and we need to finish painting the room, but I feel like we're making progress! More photos to follow as we get the room completed.

Our First Baby Shower

This past Thursday, Ryan's mom and sisters threw me a beautiful baby shower. We still have quite a while until baby girl gets here, but since the family was all here from Florida, it was the perfect time! We had a delicious cake and received many wonderful gifts! Ryan and I are even more excited to welcome our little bean now that she has a closet full of clothes...and a travel system to ride around in! Thank you all so much for the wonderful evening! We love you!

IT'S A GIRL!

Yup...that's right! We're having a baby girl! She's 20 wks, 12 ounces, and has all of her necessary parts to be strong and healthy!

16 Weeks

We're still growing!! I feel as though I've had significant belly growth since my last photo 4 weeks ago, but my measurements show only 3/4" and 2.4 lbs. It will be interesting to see how big this belly gets!! Oh well - I'm enjoying every minute of it :-)

Amy's Baby Shower!

My dearest friend Amy is expecting her first child on June 1st (so soon)! I've posted some pictures to share. Her shower was wonderful and she received so many nice gifts! It made me very excited for my own showers to come! I got to spend this past Thursday with Amy visiting, seeing her nursery, taking a last minute trip to Buy Buy Baby and then, of course, out to Cold Stone for ice cream! We had a great day and I'm so excited to meet Baby Boy Quonce in the near future!

Ryan's New Toy

Ryan finally broke down and bought a new lawn mower last weekend...and he hasn't come inside since!! Last year it took every ounce of pleading I had to get my husband to mow the lawn, but now, I'm afraid he'll never come in for supper!! Here he is enjoying his new toy. He picked up a Troy-Bilt XP 7.75 Torque 21" Cut Self-Propelled Gas Mower. Our yard is just the perfect size to push mow, so Ryan was a little disappointed that he couldn't get himself a nice John Deere rider! Ha! I'm glad that he now has something he enjoys using to keep our yard looking beautiful!

Nursery

We started working on the nursery this weekend! No room pictures yet (mostly because the room is gutted and not very pretty right now), but we did want to share some of our decorating choices! We decided on the "All Creatures Great and Small" bedding set from The Land Of Nod (http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=167&f=4157&pc=67). We received the crib bumper, valance and window panel already and they are just perfect! The quality is more than we expected and we're very happy with our choice. The walls will be done in a soft yellow tone. I ventured to Lowe's alone to pick out the carpet today, and was successful! I chose a very soft, kid-friendly, earth-friendly low cut pile in Sahara Tan. We decided to go with carpet in the nursery to help with the acoustics since the room seems to have quite an echo. It will be strange since there's no carpet in the remainder of the house, except the finished basement area (I hope I remember how to vacuum! Just kidding!). As the room progresses we will be sure to post photos, but for now you can at least check out the bedding and let us know what you think! We can't wait for our little one to arrive and start making up bedtime stories with the characters on the quilt! Should be lots of fun!

...let the countdown begin

Pregnancy Tickers from WiddlyTinks.com

Two became three...

We did it (no pun intended)! We're having a baby! This has been the most exciting 8 weeks of our lives and we are thrilled to have found out we're adding to our little family! The pets are great, but we're ready for little life to shape and mold! Our little peanut is due to arrive on October 20th, but you all know how that goes! We're very excited and will keep better updates on the blog now that it has a focus! Can't wait to share more photos with you!

Living Room

In house news...we've moved on to the living room. This is not to say that our other projects are complete, because they are definitely not. However, the living room is where we entertain those who come to visit us and it currently is less than welcoming in all of its white-wash glory. This weekend to spackled and sanded down the walls and marked off for the chair rail. Then it was on to painting! The two tones we have chosen are Vanilla Bean (a very pale, creamy yellow) and Sesame (a light silvery-brown). Both of these colors are the same as the stitching in our cranberry silk window treatments, so I think they will really compliment the room. I'm also very excited about the chair rail and am hoping it gives some depth to this otherwise boring area of our house. It's taking a TON of work, though, because all of the baseboard needs to be redone, along with the ceiling, crown moulding and window trim. We're looking forward to having this room done so I can finally find a matching living room furniture set and feel proud to entertain!! We'll keep you updated on the progress!

Sparta, NJ

This past Thursday and Friday, Ryan had to travel Marypaul Labs in Sparta, NJ for work. I decided to take some time off and join him for the ride. We boarded Phoebe for the first time, and we hear that she wasn't too thrilled with our decision. I spent my time shopping at Olde Lafayette Village to take advantage of their being no sales tax on clothing (it's 8.25% here in Syracuse) and got some excellent deals. The shopping outlet was very quaint and wasn't very busy (since most people were working). They had this great little place called The Village Barkery, so I picked up some homemade doggie treats in hopes that Phoebe wouldn't be quite so angry with us for leaving her behind! It was so nice to have a few days to relax and not think about the work that was waiting for me back at home...and the work Ryan went to do only took him a few hours, so we got to spend some "quiet time" together without worrying about animals to feed and dishes to pick up!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Yesterday we celebrated Ryan's birthday! We had a really great and relaxing day. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to come up with the 4 rechargeable batteries necessary for camera function, so the only pictures I have are on my phone (and they're not great, so I'm not posting them). We enjoyed a great dinner at Ichiban with the Pops and also had a fun night on Saturday with our friends, Nick and Mary. I had gotten Ryan a drum set that he really wanted, but once it arrived, he decided it was "too frivolous"...so he returned it for some more "practical" video games and a new set of hair clippers (please contain your excitement)!

GO GATORS!

Just a reminder to everyone to make sure you watch the big game tonight! Go Gators!