Strawberry Festival

Today Me, Mikey, Lily, Danielle(my twins sister) and Nephew Dylan went to the strawberry festival! We had a lot of fun! It was pretty crowded, and hot as crap, but we really enjoyed ourselves. Plus It was nice to get out of the house, since we've been cooped up since my sister's surgery. I was so excited when I came across a hair bow stand! Lily has a few hair bows and I absolutely love them. I've been on the hunt to find a navy blue one to match her 4th of July out fit. And I found one! I also bout a cute white one and a little pin with the letter "L" on it that goes in the middle of the bow. I had been storing them in her little diaper caddy thing, but I also found a little hair bow holder that nails into her wall and all her bows snap on to it! It also had an "L" on it, which I loved!

Lily had a great tine at the festival, she love to be outside, though she did get a little cranky about an hour in, but she took a nap, and woke up in another great mood!

I am so in love with being her mommy!

Cereal and a red head! ha!

The last two days have been exhausting. Having my niece and nephew here is a lot of work. Between Madison, Dylan and Lily I feel like someone is always needing me. I haven't sat down since they've been here! Thankfully though, My sister is recovering well.

We have been just hanging around the house, But some new things have been going on..We tried cereal with Lily! I felt like she was ready, and my sister, and my mom started all their kids around this time also. I figured I'd just test it out and see how she took to it. SHE LOVED IT! We ended up mixing it with some banana baby food into it, she liked the flavor of it more than just the plain cereal.

I was so relived because I have a fear of food and babies. HA I'm going to have to get over it I guess.

I have always noticed something else that is new with Lily. I think she may be a RED HEAD! I think some of it is just Light but her her is noticeably turner more red.

  

You can also see it a lot in the first picture of her eating.

ahhhh a red head! who would of guessed.

Just some things...

Not much has been going on around here, We have enjoyed some nice days out at the beach. Lily LOVES being outside. She loves to feel a lite breeze, and gets so excited as she feels it go by.

Lily Pie and Daddy

Enjoying the sun with mommy

We have also been doing a lot of cleaning and relaxing. My sister is getting surgery this Tuesday, and since her husband is on a deployment, and she wont be able to lift Dylan for a few days after, she is staying with us. I've been organizing our spare bedroom for her. Since we've moved in it was kind of just a catch all room. I am excited to have my niece and nephew around for a couple of days, They move to Ohio in Oct so I'm trying to treasure every minute with them before they go. It is creeping up so quick. I really don't know how I'm going to manage with my sister and the kids gone. I see them every day and they are such an important part of my life. Plus, I've had my twin around me all day everyday for the past 22 years. It's going to be a big change with her not here.

We have had a lot of fun just laying around the house( when we weren't cleaning) We have been just playing together. Me and mike love seeing Lily smile, so we spend all day trying to coax them out of her. :)

Another new first!

Lily slept through the night! ahhhhhh! How exciting!

She slept from 9pm to 6 am Sunday night. Me and mike woke up around 4:30am and We both asked "did you wake up with her?!" I even went in her room to check on her, and sure enough she was still sleeping like a rock. Mon, and Tues night she did wake up to eat once, but I was still excited about Sunday night, I think she is on her way to making the sleeping though the night thing permanent. Hopefully, anyway :)

Taking a nap in her swing. She ALWAYS has her hand(s) up while she sleeps.

Dancing Queen

Lily's new favorite thing is dancing. She loves to watch music video's in the morning! she just kicks her legs and moves her arms!

The video isn't great quality because it was taken on mike's phone, but I still wanted to share it! She starts to dance around 36 seconds in. you cant hear the music very well but she dances every time this song come on!

Lily is 3 months old today!

I can't believe it! my baby is  3 months! it's going by so fast and I am trying to treasure  each and every moment, smile, milestone and giggle.

She smiles like crazy! and is such a happy baby.

She is still waking up once during the night to eat, but it's only for about 30 minute so it's not too bad. Though i'm definitely looking forward to sleeping all night some day!

She is holding her head up on her own, and cooing so much! She makes the sweetest noises.

She loves bath time and i'm going to have to find a new bathtub solution. She is out growing her baby bath but i'm not sure i'm ready to put her in our bath tub yet... hmm guess we will see what I come up with.

She is such a joy and being a mother is every bit as wonderful as I had imagined, and so much more!

Look at my adorable 3 month old!

My first Mother's day!

I am so blessed to be able to celebrate this day, with my daughter. Yesterday was an amazing first mother's day! even though, I had to work :( I was off by 2pm, so it wasn't too bad.

While I was at work my sister text me and said her and my niece Madison were  going to stop by and get some drinks on the way to Busch gardens. When they walked in I walked around form behind the counter and saw my precious niece holding flowers for me. I started to cry! It was so thoughtful of my sister to do this for me, and to have my niece give the to me. so sweet!

Yes, they are in a pitcher.. I can't find my vase anywhere. I'm thinking it was lost in the move since the last time I saw it was at our old apartment.

I came home around 11am for my lunch break( I LOVE working so close to home!) and I found a note taped to the front door that read "To Mom"  Mike had written me the sweetest letter. It was so much better than a card! I'm so lucky to have him! He also got me something I had been begging for since Lily was born! my baby book! From Penny Laine!

I Love this book and can't wait to start filling it up with beautiful memories of my Daughter.

Some days I still find myself saying 'oh my gosh!, i'm her mommy!' She isn't  niece or nephew or someone's baby that i'm watching... she is ALL MINE! and I am so thankful to her and her to be her mommy. I love her Little laughs, her big smiles, and dimples. I love when she just wants to be cuddled becuase she is tired or when she lets out her little 'meow' cries. Being a mother has been more fufilling then I could have ever imagined and I can't wait to spend the next 50+ Mother's day with her!

Show us your Life - your kid's names

Lily Elizabeth

Like any other girl I always thought of baby names growing up. When Me and mike became pregnant, we talked about it pretty often. We were totally lost when it came to a girls name. Couldn't agree to save our lives. We had tossed around a few names for a girl. We liked Sophia , Isabelle and Harper, but had trouble with middle names for all of them. We couldn't agree at all. I pushed for Sophia and mike pushed for Harper. When we had our ultrasound and the tech said it was a girl, I was so excited! she then went and showed us her face. I knew as soon as I saw my girls face for the first time that she was a Lily. it was the only name that came to mind when I saw her and the only name I could imagine calling her. I just saw her, and she named herself. Then it came to picking a middle name. I wanted some way to include my twin sister's name, but wasn't sure how. We went to dinner that night and spent the whole time discussing middle names. Finally we gave up and googled "middle names that go with Lily" yes... we actually googled to find our baby a middle name. The first one that popped up was Lily Elizabeth. I love the way it sounds and it worked perfect since my twin sisters middle name is also Elizabeth. I think her name is beautiful, girly and timeless!

Thankful

Before I started blogging, I spent about a year just reading blogs. I started with just one, found a few more on that blog that interested me, and my list kept growing. One thing that many of these women, whose blogs I follow have one thing in common. They have lost a baby. Some from miscarriage, others we're still born, or lived just a few short days before they went to be with Jesus. I admire these women more than I could ever express in words.

I look at my daughter everyday and am so thankful that God has given her to me and Mike. She has brought us so much joy. I do however, every now and then find my self fearing the worst. I'm a worry wort. No matter how much I try to stop myself from thinking of the bad things that could happen, those thoughts still manage to sneak in from time to time. God has a plan for me and my family and I have faith that His plan includes a long healthy life for Lily. I'm sure that a lot of my fears are because I am a new mom, ad maybe I'll grow out of some of the worrying as Lily grows, But I'm also learning that as a mom.. I'll never stop worrying. The thought of SIDS scares me the most, and I worry about making mistakes, but I am also confident in my decisions and believe that Me and Mike are making an awesome team when it comes to raising Lily. To clarify, I don't stress about these fears day in and day out, Just occasionally, and tonight happen to be one of those occasions. It reminds me to be thankful for everyday, every minute and every second. I am so thankful that God has blessed me with this child that I prayed so hard for.

A new first!

Today my Lily Pie laughed for the first time! It was so amazing. She was laying on her changing table after I had changed her diaper ( she is always in a good mood after she has a clean booty!) and she was giving me tons of smiles. The I snorted at her like a pig, yes I know.. I was "oinking" at my daughter, and She gave me her first laugh! I continued to oink but I couldn't get her to do it again. I can't wait to hear her do it again :) It made my day.

Bedtime Routine

We have realized that lily is very dependent on her bedtime routine. When she was around 6 weeks we moved her out of our room and into her crib in her bedroom. She is a really noisy sleeper and I was not sleeping at all at night because of it. I was still a little uncomfortable with her being in a separate room but our baby monitor helps ease that. It was worth EVERY penny. It's the Summer Infant Day and Night video Monitor from babies r us and I love being able to see her!

It sits right on my night stand and made the transition much easier for me. I was really serious about getting her on a routine. Thankfully she caught on in about 2 days! She goes to bed at 8:30pm and we sit in her room with the lights out and feed her a bedtime bottle which usually gets her close to being asleep. once we lay her down she moves for a minute or two but then it out! she wakes up around 3 to eat then goes back to sleep until 6:30- 7 am.

Well yesterday My sister watched Lily while me and Mike went on a date. I thought it'd be ok even if she was at a different house, as long as my sister stuck to the same bedtime. I was wrong! She didn't go to bed until 10:30 at night! thankfully once we got her home she went to sleep, but it showed me that maybe we need to let her get more comfortable with her routine before we try and throw it off every once in a while!

I'll leave you with a picture of Lily loving tummy time!

Holy cow! It's May :)

I am so excited that May has finally arrived. I Love knowing that summer is right around the corner. I am a summer girl, always have been and always will be. Winter is just not for me, I sware I feel actual pain when I'm cold. Though my two favorite people's birthdays are in the winter... Mike in January and Lily in February. I am much happier in the summer, sunshine puts me in such a great mood, plus I'm a summer baby, and who doesn't loves when their birthday rolls around?!

We enjoyed our first day of May by spending most of it outside. We first decided to go to Mt. Trash more ( a park) where they we're having some sort of festival like thing for earth day. We quickly realized it was too hot for that. I am pretty panicked about Lily being in the sun. Her getting sun burnt terrifies me! So after about a half an hour we decided it'd be best to go home for a little while until it started to cool down. Lily went down for a nap while I read some of my book. I'm reading New Moon.. even though I saw the movies before I read the book but I figured better late than never. We decided to head over to my twin sister's house after.. her and her neighbor's were having a mini cookout. We had a lot of fun and Lily loved being outside. It was much nicer this time around, the sun wasn't beaming down on us! Lily loved laying outside, and my niece Madison loves to spend time with her cousin.

 It was a great day and I can't wait for more fun summer days with my sweet family!

She always lays with her and calls her Lily Bugs. I just love watching them together!

Hope everyone had a great 1st day of May!