Silly Lilly

Taco Salads

Usually Tyson is the one that post pictures of food he cooks but I am particularly proud of this meal I made. I made some Café Rio chicken in the crock pot and with the left-over’s I made taco salads. Those are homemade taco bowls. We used a tool that was given to us by Gloria. She was giving away stuff she didn’t use anymore and I grabbed it. I am so happy I did because it was a lot of fun. The taco salads were amazing and had all of the fixings on them. I know that if I was still living in Utah Steve would hire me immediatly as a chef at Sonora Grill.

Lilly's Book Club

The Holidays

Wow… I am way behind on blogging. To catch up let’s go over the holidays. Our Holidays started with a small Thanksgiving at our apartment. We had been invited to go to a couple of other people’s home for Thanksgiving but we were excited to have our very own Thanksgiving. Tyson made a wonderful turkey and I made all the fixings, well most of them.

It was such a beautiful and warm day that we decided to go on a hike after dinner at the Latta Plantation. We didn’t even have to wear our jackets.The rest of the night was spent relaxing, watching movies, and eating leftovers. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. I thought I was going to be lonely but I wasn’t at all.

December was spent doing the usual Christmas preparations. We decorated the apartment and since Tyson didn’t have a house to put lights on this year he put lights around our deck. We also drove around checking out lights and spending time at the SMALL Christmas Village set up down at Birkdale. One house close to us had their lights set up with music. A sign would tell you what station to tune into and watch the light show.

In this picture Tyson and I are trying to make both Lilly and Herbie look at the camera.

Our apartment complex brought in Santa for all the kids to see. We brought Lilly
down to see him. She did not like Santa and cried the whole time. Before we saw Santa we taught her how to say Ho Ho Ho. After we saw Santa she refused to do that trick anymore.

On December 19th we did a small Christmas together before flying to Utah. This way we didn’t have to bring all of our presents with us. Lilly and I had gotten sick this week so it was a snuffle-ie Christmas. Lilly was very cute at opening presents. She enjoyed ripping everything open.

On December 21st we made our way out West. I am always nervous about flying with Lilly but she always ends up doing pretty well. Usually she only gets fussy the last 30 minutes of each flight. I don’t know how she knows when we are 30 minutes from landing but somehow she figures it out.

While in Utah we had several family parties including a Harris Christmas party, a Ballard Christmas Day party, a Ballard sibling party, and a Harris New Years Eve party. They were all a blast. It was funny playing games with the Ballard siblings. I am surprised how shocked everyone was about how competitive the Ballard’s are. I think the Harris’ knew that about me from day one (or the first time we played Pounce). We also went to the lights at Temple Square, Tyson went shooting with the Wiricks, we eat at Sonora Grill and Café Rio (both of these are very important ‘To-Do’s’ for Utah), we spent an afternoon at the instant care, and both Tyson and I had a chance to hang out with friends. It was so much fun seeing everyone, Lilly loved seeing and playing with all of her cousins.On Christmas day we opened presents with the Dave Ballard family and Richard and Gloria. Lilly had a good time opening presents with Luke, Isaiah, and Layla. Usually she liked their presents better then hers and we couldn’t keep her away from the stairs.
Lilly wanted to thank Grandma Harris for teaching her how to go down the stairs, the Kippen’s for letting us stay at their house, Gloria for babysitting, Richard for letting us use his car, and everyone else for being so nice to her.

10 Things You Should Know About Lilly

Lilly loves the dog bed. She sits it in any chance she has. If the dog is in it she will go and harass him until he gets out. She likes to sit in it without the pillow so she will take that out first before climbing in. Sitting on things is a newer trick she has learned so she also like sitting in laundry baskets, in cupboards, on the boppy, in her own spot on the couch.

Lilly loves stairs. She uses the dog stairs we have going up to the bed as practice at home. She refuses learning how to go down them though which causes dangerous situations. When we are at church she wonders around the halls until she finds the stairs and then insists on climbing up them several times.Lilly is very naughty at church. She refuses to sleep on mom or dad and when she is sleepy she gets extremely wiggly and hyper. Her favorite thing to do at church is to find other little kids that are drawing on their chairs and joining them. She takes their crayons and pretends she knows how to color. Sometimes the other kids aren’t in a sharing mood and will take the crayons away from Lilly. Then she starts bawling and I have to take her out in the hall – then the search for the stairs begins.

Lilly says Daddy when she is really excited, like when Daddy comes home. She says Mommy whenever she is sad. I am not sure what to think about this.

Lilly loves fabric. She plays with towels, wash cloths, blankets, clothes…pretty much anything that comes out of the dryer. She likes to take whatever she is playing with, wrap it around her neck like a scarf and wonders around the house.
Lilly pretends to drink out of everything. Sometimes she will put her hands in water and then licks them and I swear it is always dirty water she finds in various locations (dog bowel, shower, dishwasher). Now imagine her sitting in the middle of a kitchen with a Tupperware she is pretending to drink from and a towel wrapped around her neck. She looks like an ancient Medicine Man doing a ritual and drinking from the sacred cup of life.

Lilly likes to steal other people’s mommies. As soon as she sees a little kid leave their mommy she will swoop in to steal a kiss and a hug until the other kid sees her and gets mad.

Lilly is extremely observant and smart. I know that everyone says this about their own kids but other people have mentioned it about her and even the pediatrician comment on it. She notices all the jewelry you are wearing and must play with each piece. She also has figured out how to pop out the safety plugs, find a cord, carry it over to the plug, and try to plug it in. This causes another safety issue.

Lilly isn’t very good at sippy cups yet, she doesn't like bottles and real cups get spilled down the front over her so we have to use straws.

Lilly likes to get in trouble. If you do not notice her doing something naughty she will come and inform you that she is doing it. She also will hold her hand up waiting to touch something she isn’t supposed to until you look over. Then she slowly puts her hand down to touch it with a big grin on her face and she giggles the whole time you are telling her she is being naughty. I guess I am not a very scary mommy.

Bonus thing to know – Lilly likes to yell at the dog when he barks. She also tries to tell him to come here by patting the ground when he is in big trouble.

Happy Birthday Lilly

Lilly turned 1 on Tuesday the 15th. Unfortunately, Tyson was out of town on her birthday so we celebrated it on Friday. We got a purple butterfly cake, some balloons and decorated her highchair with pink streamers. After eating pizza we let her open up her presents. She liked the presents but didn’t give much of a reaction. After present time she eat her cake. She was very lady-like while eating the cake. She got small fingers full and carefully put them in her mouth. She didn’t tear into the cake.

I am very sad my baby is 1. Although, she is still adorable and wonderful I am finding it sad watching my baby get older….and it is just beginning.

Happy Birthday Lilly –

I have loved having you in the family. You are the most amazing addition and have been the best baby ever. You eat well, sleep well, and have a wonderful attitude (most of the time). You are very loving. You love to give hugs and kisses to your mommy and daddy, the people in your books, and all of your toys. Nothing makes me happier than having you sit on my lap and getting hugs and kisses from you.

You are good at Mommy and Me and are great at climbing on all of the toys. When all of the kids are off playing you like to sneak up to their Mommy’s or the teacher, flash them a smile and your puppy-dog-eyes, and have them pick you up for a hug. You like dancing with the music, clapping your hands, and waiving hello/goodbye. You also get excited when the bubbles and parachute come out.

Thank you for being nice to the dog even though sometimes he isn’t nice to you. Thank you for always trying to help mommy when she is cleaning up. Thank you for being a good traveler and going with us to North Carolina, Florida, Wrightsville Beach, Atlanta, Utah, and all of our other weekend trips. You never cried or complained when we were out exploring. Thank you for being mommy’s best friend when she moved away from home.

Your mommy and daddy love you so much.

Love,
Mommy

Lilly's First Halloween

I am trying to get all caught up on blogging about our busy October. It was Lilly’s first Halloween and it was packed full of activities. We started off our celebration with a Trunk-or-Treat at our church. Tyson decorated the trunk so well. We even had spooky Halloween music. After the trunk-or-treating was done they had games in the gym and a pumpkin carving contest. Tyson’s pumpkin did not win and we are sure there was some cheating. It was fun having Kathy at the Trunk-or-Treat with us.
On Halloween we started off the night by walking down to Birkdale Village for their Halloween Festival. It was packed. By the time we got there all of the stores ran out of candy. So we trick-or-treated on our way home. There were some spooky houses that scared Lilly a little bit but she still had a lot of fun talking to all the new people and holding her candy bag.

Look how cute Lilly is in her costume. People kept calling her a boy but that is what I get for putting her in brown. I think she is the cutest Kangaroo in the world.

We had zero trick-or-treaters come to our apartment. We put the sign on our door letting trick-or-treaters know they were welcome but no one came and we had a lot of left over candy.