Zoo Trip

Last weekend's weather was so incredibly beautiful that of course there was only one place to go...THE ZOO! Apparently a lot of people had that same idea, because it was packed on Saturday. Shaun had left the house at 6:30 that morning to go to the library to get some work done for a presentation he had this past Monday-it went GREAT- and then he met Lillian and I at the zoo around lunch. We had such a great time just following her around, watching her explore and discover all the animals all over again. It has been so long sense we have been I think she forgot about how much fun the zoo was. We fed the birds, played on the playground together, grabbed a bit to eat at the cafe and saw the monkeys. But we pretty much spent most of our time looking at the ducks! Lillian was OBSESSED with those stinking ducks! We would look at them and then start to walk away and she would say, "Ducks, ducks, ducks, ducks!". It is not even like ducks are a real zoo animals; we can see them almost anywhere. It was pretty funny, and she has talked about those ducks for a solid week now. Hopefully, that wonderful warm and sunny weather will return again soon, and when it does you will be able to find us at the zoo. Most likely around the ducks.

trying to give the monkeys a hug.

*The girl loves her ducks.

Dinner @ Church And An Ash Wednesday Play Date

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and we went to eat dinner with Alli, Korey and Eli at their church. It was very good, and I think that Shaun, Lillian and I might start going with them every week. Good food and only $8 dollars for our entire family to eat! Afterwards I took the kids back to Alli's house so that her and Korey could attend Ash Wednesday services. Poor Eli cannot go to the nursery because of his cast, so he and Lillian go to have a night time play date! They were so cute together...they wanted to get in the bed with the cat and Lillian kept tucking Eli in, pulling the covers up to his neck and giving him his sippy cup. When he started to cry she rubbed his head and said, "shh,shh". She is going to make a GREAT big sister! I cannot wait to see her interact with her new little brother or sister.

of course she wore her hat again all day yesterday.


has to take her baby stroller every where!



she likes to cover up with a blanket when she is in her car seat. Just a new little quirk of hers.

cuddling Eli....

giving Eli his "juice"

*Lillian calling for the cat at Alli's house. Notice how she smashes her checks with her hands; she is actually trying to cup her mouth like you or I would do if we were calling out to someone. She is so smart; I don't even know where she picked this up.

Cute Pics Of Lillian And Eli

These pictures are from last week, but I thought they were worth sharing. Lillian and Eli love each other so much, and it melts my heart to see them together.

Our Valentine's Day Weekend

Our Valentine's day weekend was pretty uneventful. Shaun and I didn't get to go to dinner together like we had planned, but I really don't think either of us minded. Hopefully we can sneak a date night in soon. While I get to spend all day/everyday with Lillian, Shaun usually does not see her much during the week, so he doesn't really like to "take time away from her" on the weekends. And to be honest, I love him more for that. I love that he is conscious of the time he spends with her. He told me that I had to share Valentine's day with Lillian because she is the other girl in his life. And believe me I don't mind that at all. I love that Shaun buys us both flowers-he puts Lillian's in her room-and gives us both cards. He can't wait to take her to Valentine's dinners as she gets older. It is so important for a daughter to know how important she is to her Father. He sets the tone for how she should expect to be treated by men for the rest of her life. That is a heavy responsibility for a Dad (so far I think Shaun has the bar raised pretty high; Lillian might have to lower her standers one day). Lets just hope that Baby Hays is a little boy or I will be sharing V-day with two little girls for the rest of my life! Poor Shaun would have his hands full.

mommy's flowers....


Lillian's flowers- or "Dada flower" as she calls them.

**Also, this weekend we went ahead a got Baby Hays' bedding. We were at Pottery Barn Kids looking at Lillian's new bedroom suit, and saw the bedding that we had been looking at online. As it turned out it was on SALE, so we just bought it. When it comes to gender neutral bedding there isn't much to choose from so I was just happy to find something that I really liked. This is the bedding. For some reason I couldn't copy and paste the picture so just click on the link if you want to check out our gender neutral decor.

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/cottontail-friends-nursery-bedding-boy/popup/more-views.html

"Hat, Hat, Hat"

For the longest time Lillian has been very into hats! Which is kind of funny considering when she was younger she would shy away from anyone, other than Shaun, who was wearing a hat. Her Uncle Korey use to have to take his hat off if he came over because she wouldn't go near him. It was kind of pitiful, but apparently she has gotten over that little fear because she OBSESSED. She walks around with Shaun's hat saying, "hat, hat, hat" trying to put it on her head. And then get so frustrated when it falls off or keeps sliding down in her face. We even had to clip one of my hats in the back so it would stay on her head. We decided that maybe we should get our little tomboy a hat of her very own.

this is my...way to big


So of course Shaun said that if we were going to buy her a hat then we were going to buy her the right hat. Prepare yourselves for a bunch of pictures of Lillian in her new Auburn hat- War Eagle!



she liked to wear it backwards for some reason.

Lillian literally wore this hat more than most of the day. She LOVES it, and no longer has to walk around trying to keep her Daddy's hat on her little head. I am just hoping that we can go to church without her wearing it.

SNOW DAY-2010!

Lillian and I had SO much fun in the snow today! She must not have inherited her mommy's hatred for the cold weather. Of course, before we could go outside she had to get her stroller and baby. The baby didn't last very long before it was tossed aside so Lillian could fill the stroller with snow. She just had an absolute blast. Moxie also had fun running around in the snow. When Shaun got home, we all went back outside again and played some more. Lillian just wanted to explore all the snow this time. The fun ended when she fell and got her pant leg wet... that did not make her happy. We definitely had a fun day, but I won't be sad when all the snow and cold weather moves out for some warmer days!

Lillian is LOVES to give out hugs these days...

...as you can imagine Shaun and I eat it up.

her little foot prints in the snow.

* Here are a few videos of Lillian's fun in the snow...I can't even begin to tell how much fun she had today!

For Your Veiwing Pleasure

Sense Shaun is gone a lot these days with school I try to take as many little videos of Lillian as possible. Last week he did not see her for FIVE straight days, so he really loved coming home and watching these quick clips of Lillian playing, talking and bossing Moxie around. This video was his favorite for some reason. He kept watching it over and over again.

*oh, I took this video with my camera. And right in the beginning of this video Lillian says "No cheese" because she thinks I am trying to take a picture and she doesn't want to say cheese. She is so funny these days.

Shaun has been working so hard for our family and I am so proud of him. Honestly, I do not know how he does it all. He leaves our house before 6:00 am, works all day, then goes to class or the library and is rarely home before 9:00 or 10:00 pm. And right when he walks in the door, after peaking in on a sleeping Lillian, he asks me "What can I do to help you?". He has never once complained, moped or let himself get frustrated over his intense schedule. As hard as juggling work, school and family has been I know that the toughest thing for Shaun has been missing Lillian. Especially now that she has really started to notice his absences. She will bring me my cell phone and say, "Call Dada". Or ask me, "Dada come home?". The funniest thing she does is in the mornings, she will wake-up and walk around the house yelling, "Dada, Dada, Dada". It is so cute! Whenever she says, "Dada come home" I always just tell her that Daddy loves us very much and working hard for our family. She might not understand that now, but in the years to come I know she will understand and appreciate his sacrifices.

Blog Slacker

Okay, so I know that I have been the biggest blog slacker these days but I am trying to get back on track. I would like to take this opportunity to blame pregnancy on my poor blogging performance. I cannot even begin to tell you how exhausted I have been these past few weeks, and Lillian and I have been super busy lately. Between playgroups, mommy and me, and Temple both of us are pretty worn out by the end of the day. Now usually I would just take a quick nap while Miss Lillian napped, but that little turkey has not been napping very well the past couple of weeks. I would try to catch you up on the fun we have been having with an extremely descriptive play by play of our activities, but it is currently 9:08 pm and I am pretty sure that if I don't go to sleep right now that I will not be a fun Mommy to be around tomorrow. So I am just going to let the pictures tell our story today..... I am sure you are appreciative.

We met some friends at Chuck-E-Cheese last week.


this is Lillian's favorite ride...she loves her man Chuck E



she was not in the mode for this picture, but here she is sitting in her cubby at Temple.



someone got a hold of Daddy's sticky tabs he uses to mark pages in his notes.

just being silly...

she loves to sit in this for some reason.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARTINA!

All the girls at lunch to celebrate Martina's big day. We left the place a mess!

These next few pictures were taken at Mother Goose this past week. Lillian was not a fan of Simon the Monkey puppet. She only liked him from far away.

Colton was not a fan of Simon either; at least not an up close and in your face Simon.

don't know what I would do without these girls...oh wait I would go crazy!

trying to get a picture of all the kids...

they weren't really feeling it.

a picture from our Wal Mart trip the other day. Lillian insists on bring this baby with us everywhere.

**Oh, and we got to go back to the doctor this week to have another ultrasound! I was shocked at how much our little baby has grown in just one week! I went on Tuesday and the baby was measuring right on target at 8 weeks exactly. Also, my fertility doctor went ahead and gave me the green light to go back to my regular OB who I will see in three weeks.