Christmas Day 2008

One of the most wonderful things about Lily Kate is how expressive (dramatic) she is. Her facial expressions as she opened presents Christmas morning were so great. She found play dough in her stocking (top right pic) and she said, "Ohhh, wow!" then she put it on the table and looked at it and said, "what that, mommy?". Isn't it funny how her expression says "I've waited all my life for this" yet she didn't even know what it was. She's so sweet. And by the way, it isn't very cold here at all - at least not fleece hat indoors kind of weather. We woke up to Lily Kate calling for "Daddy" yesterday morning and when we went to get her she had her hat on sitting in bed singing "jingie bells" and, of course, she left it on all morning.

Many of you have been asking for more belly shots. Here's one if I've ever seen one! I really wanted to put a caption on here about being careful not to eat too much at Christmas dinner - look what can happen if you get carried away :)

Christmas Eve

We each opened one present on Christmas Eve. Lily Kate opened a puzzle that makes animal sounds when you put the right animal in the right spot. We couldn't get her to look up from the puzzle for a picture - guess she liked it.

Baby Oliver!!

I thought this was fun, the picture below is my friend Stephanie and me on the 20th, just 3 days before the picture above. There is baby Oliver Lanier, he is precious. The next picture in the series will be Oliver and Charlotte laying next to each other. It won't be too long now.

4 More Days Until Christmas!

This has been a really fun year to celebrate Christmas with Lily Kate, I think she understands enough to be pretty excited this year. We saw Santa on Friday and, although she wasn't a big fan of his, she is still very excited about "sowmen" and "baby Jesus" and "Kissma lights" on all the houses. It's bittersweet to be here alone with our little family. The simplicity and peace of not traveling are nice but we will each miss our families. Having Charlotte soon will make the ban on travel worth it soon. Just 3 1/2 more weeks until the due date - which in my case probably means 4 1/2 more weeks until we meet her! I put that bottom picture in for fun, it's from last Christmas. It's fun to see how much Lily Kate's grown.

PS. I'm really going to try to get a video of LK talking to Charlotte soon. She tries to feed her snacks through my belly button. Tonight she put her mouth to my stomach and yelled "Charlotte, I love you" and then gave me some zerberts until I made her stop b/c it tickled too much. She's a funny one.

"Feshial" Dress

We opened our Christmas package from Aunt Becca yesterday and she gave Lily Kate a very fancy Christmas dress. She also had a great idea that we pass the dress to our neice, Lillian, who will be 2 next Christmas, and then pass it back to Charlotte, who will be 2 the following Christmas. Isn't that a fun idea! We spent a lot of time in front of the mirror when we first put it on. Lily Kate called it a "feshial dress" - which it is. She thought the whole photo shoot concept was very weird and kept yelling for me to be in the picture with her. The only time we got a smile on film was when I got in the picture. We also snuck the picture below when she wasn't watching. I think we'll try again in a couple days or, at least, I'll dress up a little to be in the pictures too.

Growing Up

A couple different times lately I have looked at Lily Kate and felt like she is looking much older. It's fun to see her face and catch glimpses of what she'll look like as "big girl" and not just a baby. She is so excited about Charlotte coming. She talks about her all the time and prays for her (as well as for Shady, my parents' dog). I really think she's going to be a caring big sister, she is very helpful and nurturing (at least, with her baby dolls). Charlotte will have no lack of someone telling her what to do - that's for sure :)

The Zoo

While we were in Houston we went to the zoo. Lily Kate had the greatest time. Here she is (above) talking to her favorite animal - who she is still talking about. And there he is (below). I didn't realize how exciting it would be for her to meet one of her favorite characters in person. (Can you say "in person" about a fish?)

Here she is (above) with her Nona brushing a goat at the petting zoo. Yes, we caught her hand just before she reached up to brush her own hair. And here she is (below) riding the carousel with daddy. What a day!

Cousins

How sweet is Lily Kate trying to take care of "baby Scott".

Look at these kiddos, there's a lot of love here!