Lillian Lately

This little girl's personality continues to blossom and melt our hearts.  She's becoming more and more verbal--her first official word was 'uh-oh' and now she'll also accurately use the words: Daddy, Mommy, Hylie (Hy-ee), Eliana (Ah-na), Cracker, Bath, Please, Baby, Up, and No, No, No (complete with a little finger being shook in your direction, ha ha!)  She makes the animal sounds for a cow, duck, and monkey consistently and is adding to the list every day!

She cruises around furniture like it's nobody's business and if you leave a bowl or plate near the table's edge, consider it gone if Lillian notices!  She's an expert crawler, loves climbing the steps, and will walk around with assistance.  Every once in a while we'll catch her trying out these moves:

Eating with a spoon has recently become one of her specialties!

Lillian is also a magnet for any writing utensil.  This little stinker has written on more floors, walls, and other various objects in her lifetime than Hylie and Eliana combined!  She literally becomes giddy if she gets to write on something, so I'll be shocked if her future doesn't involve creating something with pen and paper.

I put her in a box with a crayon and she was thrilled!

Currently she's also obsessed with wet wipes.  If you're changing her diaper and want her to lay still, you hand her a wipe and she is good to go!  If you need two hands to get something done, just simply hand Lillian a wipe and she will be all over the place wiping everything down--it's a riot!

She can pretty much understand everything we say and even responds to things like 'go get your coat', 'it's time to eat at the table', or 'Hylie's coming home'.

Lillian is also proving to be a dancing fool--with or without music and we absolutely adore her.

Today was also a sweet little moment, she folded her arms for the first time while we were having family prayer.

We sure love watching Lillian grow--we just wish it didn't happen so extremely fast!

Quiet Book

Sitting down to blog is quite an accomplishment for me, so when I was able to actually finish a quiet book to give to Lillian for Christmas--I was ecstatic!  I started this project 4 years ago and got 4 pages done...and then it got shelved for all these years.  I truly and thoroughly enjoyed designing and creating each page and if I ever get some motivation (and time!) again, I hope to add to this book.

 This particular page shows what little brain power I had by the end.  Notice the last column of beads?  When Hylie was playing with the page, she turned to me and asked why there wasn't a number 15 to place with those beads...I honestly thought I had strung on 12 and didn't print any higher numbers!  Ha ha!

Christmas Day

The girls were sure glad that Santa made a stop at Grandma and Grandpa's house for them!  We had a sweet, quiet (and white!) Christmas morning.

Hylie was super excited to get her "fridgit" spinner!

Grandpa also helped Lillian realize she had some mad standing skills!  The novelty wore off fast though and anytime she sensed we were setting her up to stand, she'd buckle at the knees!

Later, Grandma hosted a very nice Christmas dinner and afterwards Grandpa orchestrated the little ones in putting on a nativity.  Andrea was able to bring over some costumes used at the church and it was a treat to watch the kids play all the parts.

 Eliana played an inn keeper, angel, and wise man

Lillian stayed on the sidelines as a sheep

 Hylie was excited to play the part of Mary

It seems every year my appreciation, understanding, and love of the Savior grows.  I am so grateful He came to this Earth to show us how to live and that He made it possible for us to progress, repent, and return to our Heavenly Home.

Time with Family

Hylie and Eliana were elated to play all day with cousins.  It was really fun to watch Eliana want to be in all the action--especially after how reserved she was last year.  Lillian, on the other hand, wasn't digging all the attention and activity.  Instead of warming up to everyone during the visit, she became more and more clingy to Mom.  Hopefully next year she'll realize how much fun everyone is and get into all the action.

Our visit was also sprinkled with stomach bugs and fevers and poor Geoff seemed to get the brunt of it!  Thankfully it was a short-lived sickness for everyone, and after illness passes, I know I recognize how blessed we are to have such amazing health 99% of the time!

Lillian wanted to wear glasses just like her sisters!

 This little stinker rarely took naps while we were there.  One time I let her cry herself to sleep and when I went in to peek on her, this is how she was positioned!  Crazy!  (The nap lasted for maybe 20 minutes that day...)

We keep talking to Eliana about becoming a big girl and no longer putting fingers in her mouth.  While in PA, Grandpa would tease her and ask if he could suck on her free fingers.  At first, she'd immediately pull her fingers out of her mouth and go off to play--but then her thinking process changed and she figured if she put ALL her fingers in her mouth, there wouldn't be any left for Grandpa!  Oh my!

Bridger had to find out the hard way that Lillian hasn't quite figured out this sharing thing...

 Lillian definitely became a pro at climbing stairs during our stay!

 I don't think a family gathering can be complete anymore unless you play "Speak Out", right?  Hylie was thrilled when Janna surprised us with our very own edition, complete with little kid mouth pieces!  (Gotta love the static-filled hair, too!)

This cutie is ready to go out and play in the snow!

Amy and Hylie were joined at the hip!  It was fun to see these two have so much fun together.

Eliana making sure she wasn't missing out on any of the fun!

For Christmas, Geoff got a raspberry pi which he programmed so he could play a lot of retro video games.  All the kiddos were pretty excited to try out these oldies but goodies!

Sledding Fun!

Dean and Andrea organized a trip to a near-by park for some ultimate sledding fun!  Geoff took a very excited Hylie and they had a wonderful (and cold!) time.

Family Christmas

This year, we decided to have the majority of gifts exchanged from family and then Santa would fill stockings and bring one gift.  So before we headed to Pennsylvania, we had our family gift exchange.  The girls all seemed to enjoy their new things and Geoff and I were so glad it kept them busy while we tried to prep everything to hit the road the next morning.