We have a 1-Year-Old! AHHH!

I can't believe it has been a year since Lilly was born!  Our little girl has grown up so much.  She is so bright, determined, particular, smiley, rhythmic, funny, and cute!  We can't love her enough.  She has grown from this

to this

Photo by PhotosByWendyG.com

We started celebrating on Saturday with a little party for Lilly.  

We had friends from church (Wendy and Emberly; Beth, Roy and Finn; Mallory and Melanie; Maylin and JoAnn; and Mike and Brenda Tuttle), friends of ours (Bennions, Moores, Thompsons, Mathesons), and even some family (Aunt Shannon and cousin Katie) come over for a cupcake party!  

Thanks to LaNell for the beautiful cake and cupcakes.  They were divine.  It ended up being a beautiful day outside!  Pret and I were grateful to have cupcakes smashed on the grass and not on the carpet in the house.  

Lilly showed off perfectly as she ate her birthday cupcake.  It was quite cute!  She kept asking for more, but I figured one cupcake would give her enough of a sugar high to make it through the rest of her party without a nap.  

Even though we requested no gifts, a few people broke the rules and brought us gifts anyway--silly people!  LaNell really went over and above by making Lilly a darling dress that matches one that she made for her daughter's birthday.  Here they are in their matching dresses!

I needed someone to help stabilize Lilly on the other side, so Nate gladly stepped in!

Lils was quite the trooper and had smiles all day.  She went down to bed about an hour earlier than normal and slept for 13 hours last night, so I think she was a bit tuckered out!

As my parents were doing some cleaning at their house, my mom found the outfit I wore on my 1st birthday (bought in Greece and worn in Egypt), so she sent it to me.  It had a few spit-up stains on it, but they weren't too noticeable unless you were right up close, so we decided to have her wear it to church today.  She looked adorable in it!  Not too shabby for a 29-year old dress!  

I had to take her monthly picture, so I decided to use the end of the natural light outside.  It added a little variety to the background of the pictures, as well, so it was nice.

Then I just had fun with some other shots.  She enjoyed picking the grass and even tried a few blades...

Then we went on a walk as a family and Lilly enjoyed her first ride on Daddy's shoulders.  

We walked by the canal and saw lots of ducks, dogs, cows, and chickens.  Lilly still loves to walk holding hands, but sits herself down as soon as we let go of her.  Since she started moving before Thanksgiving we thought for sure that she would be walking by her 1st birthday, but she is doing things her own way.  Don't worry, this Momma is none too anxious for her to start walking, so I am A-Ok with it all.  

On the other hand, she is "talking" up a storm.  She can verbally say, "bye-bye," "Da-da," "Jesus," and "Kate" (the name of our dog) and noises for "uh-oh" and "amen."  She can now sign "more," "please," "all done," "again," and "food."  She gives big, wet, tongue-filled kisses and has started blowing kisses, too.  She loves to turn lights on and off and is starting to want to help close doors, too.  It is so cute to see her walking in her shoes, but she has recently figured out that our shoes go on feet, too, so she can often be seen attempting to get my shoes on her feet.  So cute!  She is obsessed with my phone (to the point of screaming when it is taken away) and has figured out that the TV remote does something when it is pointed at the TV, so she has been trying to "make it work" for the last week.  But her favorite thing of all is to be outside--especially if that means that she gets to see Kate.  

Lilly is definitely the joy of our life.  She is such a good baby (and yes, we know we are spoiled!).  She is a great eater, sleeper, and player.  We can't even remember what life was like without her and can't wait to see what the rest of life will be like with her!  Love you, Lils!

photo by PhotosbyWendyG

It's Been 6 Years Already?

Yep!  Pret and I celebrated our 6th anniversary over the weekend.  Because of the cruise, we decided that we would save our money and stay close to home this year.  It turned out great!

Saturday started with us cleaning out one of our sheds in preparation for a big SWAP.  Unfortunately, over the last couple years, we have faced our own city of NIMH.  :-(  We have tried various traps and been successful sometimes, but we have started getting sick when we enter the place, so we knew an intervention was necessary.  More to come on that, later.

Later we went to the temple.  We were going to be really cheesy and go do sealings, but we were too late for the sessions, so we just did initiatory.  It was our ward temple night, so we saw lots of people from the ward, but we decided to skip out on the dinner and go by ourselves.

We went to Red Robin (one of our favorites).  It was DELICIOUS!!  We got the fried zucchini.  I would totally recommend it!  We each got our favorite drinks and meals.  Our server was great, we had a nice quiet table, and Lilly was well taken care of, so it was perfect.

Then, we put Lilly to bed and watched We Bought a Zoo.  A very cute movie we recommend if you haven't seen it yet.  It was not fast paced, but had a great soundtrack and a good message.  Then we hit the sack as Pret had to speak in Church on Sunday.  He did a great job and I had lots of people come up and tell me what a great talk he had given, so it really must have been good!  :-)  He spoke on how the Atonement can help prevent sin, not just work to repent of it later.

In a rare occasion, our weekend did not end on Sunday as Pret had taken Monday off so we could continue working on the sheds.  We totally gutted the "ratty" shed, sprayed it down with Bleach, and moved all our stuff into the lesser of the two infested sheds.  As we were working, we encountered some of the rats.  Pret took up arms against them with a 2x4 and a metal pipe.  He was ready for REVENGE!  I asked if he would be offended if I videoed the scene and he said yes, so you will just have to imagine what Pret looked like as he attacked 4 rats and succeeded in killing three of them, one of them being HUGE (from nose to end of tail, almost the length of my arm).  It was quite the scene and I was very proud of his protecting and exterminating abilities.

We successfully moved everything, but didn't take the time to do a whole lot of sorting or arranging, so that will have to wait until another day, but we felt that we had gotten about 85% finished with everything, so that was a huge sense of accomplishment and weight off our shoulders.  And what did we do with Lilly during that time, you may wonder?  Well, she slept for about 4 hours of it altogether and the other time, she happily played in a giant tub next to Kate's kennel and close by where we were working.  She is such a good, well-mannered girl.

We are so truly blessed in so many ways!  I feel especially so by my amazing husband.  He works so hard for our family in so many ways.  He encourages me to be better every day, compliments me more than I think he should, and makes me laugh in a way no one else can.  And he has a darling daughter who adores her "DaDa!"  I love you, Pret!