Our Thanksgiving was really nice. We traveled back to SD/IA and saw both sides of the family. The day was busy but not overly rushed. We ate a lot of turkey and yummy side dishes and I had more for lunch today. I don't think I could ever get sick of turkey dinner.

Lily and Harrison traveled well. We purchased a portable DVD player on black Friday and it was wonderful on our return trip. Lily doesn't watch much TV but she zoned into Elmo and Horsey long enough for me to sit back in my seat. Harrison is really good. He enjoys playing a little bit or trying to grab a toy but otherwise he eats and sleeps during the car ride.

We celebrated Christmas with my family when we were in SD. It didn't really seem like Christmas but rather a night opening a ton of gifts. Lily took forever to open her gifts. Initially she wanted to color, then opened one gift and played with that for a while. It probably took 2 hours to open all her gifts.

Lily will start a toddler gymnastics class this weekend. It involves a parent and I think it will be fun to do with her. Anything to help rid her of toddler hyperactivity sounds good to me!

Randy is busy being a professional but in his down time he is working hard on his rock band. He loved playing guitar hero on his x-box 360 (see baby I don't always call it a Nintendo) and the day rock band came to stores he had to buy it. I have to admit I'm now addicted to guitar hero and gladly play the guitar and occasionally the drums in rock band but nooooooo way will I sing in front of anyone else. I like our friends and want to keep them.

Well that's it for now. Kind of boring but oh well. I have a few minutes before I leave work and that means one final bathroom break.

Our girl

Lily is 2 years and 25 days old. The best adjectives to describe her are goofy, adorable, cute, and silly. Oh yeah, add loud too!

Lily loves to bake. She loves to sit in her booster chair and "help cook." This means she transfers flour from one bowl to another bowl via spoons or measuring cups. "Cooking" entertains her for at least 45 minutes and then she starts experimenting. I'm learning my lesson and need to monitor more closely when those 45minutes are up.


Lily's other favorite is coloring. "Poppa want to color?" is asked of Randy about 10 times a day. Her coloring style changes every few days. She likes to fill in circles or squares but other times will make little v's or diagonal lines. A favorite of her parents is mess free markers. They only produce color on a specific coloring book. They also have finger paints that work the same way. Lily liked those but once she started using it as lip gloss I took them away.


The weather has enabled us to enjoy some fall days outside. One specific playground had a wobbly bridge. At first Lily wanted me to carry her across it, then I had to hold her hand as we both crossed then. Then...she did it all by herself. To see her confidence grow was awesome. She was quite proud.


Lily loves her blankets, stuffed animals and dolls. She picks a favorite every few days. Right now she loves Harrison's blanket (my fault since I was washing her other two too close to bedtime), her baby doll we named Teddy (resembles our friend Ted in the hair department), and Harrison's stuffed animal lion. Thankfully he doesn't mind sharing yet.


Lily is quite a talker. Her verbal communication has improved significantly in recent months. Of course we occasionally rack our brains trying to figure out what she is saying. A few days ago I figured out that "alc" means "Alex" as in a boy from daycare. She kept asking "Where'd alc go?" It took a few times for her to repeat it and thankfully she didn't get upset every time I had her repeat it. Lily always says "good morning" to Harrison. Once when she was in his face he touched her with his hand and she thought that was so funny. Now everytime she talks to him she will put her face by his hand and when he makes the slightest move she says "baby got me!"

Last Saturday was a very eventful day in the land of toddlerville. Thirty minute nap + poor eating = cranky, miss crankerson. All I can say is that I'm thankful Randy was there. We took turns with discipling. I can't tell you how many times Lily went to time out but she started to enjoy it and didn't want to come out. A example of how the day went...when I asked her to help put bubbles in the bath, something she loves doing, she bursted into tears. A very long bath (only thing that calmed her) was followed by early bedtime. The next morning when Randy opened her door she stood on her bed and said "I had good night."

When I arrive at daycare her face lights up and she shouts "Momma!" and runs to hug me. When we pull into the drive way she asks "Poppa home?" When she is counting she always follows #4 with #9. Usually it goes "1,2,4,9,8" and if she's using her fingers she will throw a "rock on!" in there as well. She is learning her colors but typically will answer yellow to everything. She makes us laugh continuously. As Randy says every night when he gets home "I just want to squeeze her." When I ask for a hug and she says "okay" and runs across the room and puts her arms around my neck, well, it's the sweetest thing. We love you Lillers.

Our boy

Harrison is now 12 weeks and 3 days old. The best words to describe him are chill and cuddly.

We figured out his schedule around week 6. He does best when he eats, plays for a bit, naps, wakes up and repeats all steps. He does get a tad fussy in the evening, right in time for Lily's bedtime. Randy and I make a great tag team and we take turns bouncing fussy boy while the other performs Lily's bedtime routine. Seriously, if Harrison is fussy-BOUNCE. It's all it takes.

Harrison loves to cuddle with us. He loves to sleep on us for his cat naps and for a long time he slept in bed with us at night. We moved him to his crib about 2 weeks ago. He hasn't perfected sleeping through the night, yet. He was waking to breast feed every 3 hours, even at night, until week 8. I bought a swaddle blanket (baby straight jacket) and positioner and wahlah that night he slept for 5 hours straight. The next night was 6 hours! Ever since he has gone between 4-7 hours stretches at night. Until...I returned to the office this past Monday. Lily and Harrison are teaming up and plotting to keep momma from sleeping. They decided last night it would be even more fun to keep poppa from sleeping too.



Harrison is smiling a lot. If you talk to him he will smile. And likely coo and talk back. Randy got the first belly laugh out of him last weekend. I've been acting like a fool trying for more but for now I'll settle for the heart melting smiles. He will go from serious face to this huge smile so fast. Occasionally he'll take his time and go from serious face, to the start of a little smile to a huge smile.


Harrison loves to watch his big sister. He is able to visually follow her more. When Lily talks to him he will smile in return. It's a wonderful thing to see-- when your children smile at each other. A few times Harrison started crying when Lily screamed (not in a naughty way but a toddler-wow-I-have-a-loud-voice sort of way. When he does cry he will stick out his bottom lip, way out, and then do a silent cry followed by a pretty loud cry. He's getting used to these random shoutings from big sis cuz it hasn't bothered in recently.


Harrison is only 3 months old but he has made a huge impact in our lives. He has enriched us and we are so lucky to have him. I love you buster brown.

The Comparison

Tinkerbell in action

Introducing Tinkerbell and her sidekick monster

Halloween dress up began approximately 2 weeks ago when Lily decided to wear her Tinkerbell shoes to daycare.



















Last Sunday we took Tinkerbell and her blue monster to Boo at the Zoo...




























We got good use out of her Tinkerbell costume. She wore it to daycare yesterday morning. Wings, head band and all.















Harrison took a quick break from his monster costume to join me at my work party. He was my prop.



















Last night we went to Joy's house to practice trick or treating. Here is Tinkerbell and monster with their cousins Kelsey (punk girl), Payton (scary teenager), and Sydney (cotton candy).















Randy took Lily trick or treating around our neighborhood with Joy and the girls. She loved it. Lily would let Sydney and Kelsey ring the doorbell and get their candy and then she would walk up to the door, take a piece of candy and drop it into her bag. Her little nose was red from the chilly air but she had a great time. If we allowed her to eat candy all night she would have.



















I stayed home with Harrison and in between trick or treaters I did a Halloween photo shoot with him.