Happy 1st Birthday Zachary!!

Jen and Ken had a birthday party for Zack yesterday. It was a lot of fun. Jen had everything decorated in a blue prince theme, including a crown for Zachary. He was really cute. Today is his actual birthday.

It was neat for Anson and I to see how Lily's party is going to go next month. After about 2 hours, Zack started to get tired. We are trying to decide the best time to have Lily's party because I'm sure we'll be in the same boat with her. He handled all the commotion really well considering. The party turned out great. We hope Lily's party will go that well.

The birthday boy playing with his balloon.

We tried to get a photo of the 4 of us with the kids wearing their hats, but it was really hard because neither of them really cared for the hats.

Jen had gotten Zack's 1 year photos taken. He was digging into his "smash cake." Aren't these photos cute?
Blowing out his birthday candle!
Lily Bug eating her birthday cake. It was ice cream cake...yummy!!!
Me and my pumpkin
Daddy and his princess
The birthday boy opening his gifts. The red wagon was from Lily. She also got him 2 books, 2 boats, a truck and some bubbles. He kept going for the wagon, so we think he liked her gift.

Lily bug before we left the house to go to the party. I love her little Capri jeans. I got them at Old Navy when I was in California...I couldn't resist! And her Crocs from Grandma Cross completed the outfit!

Lily's 11 month old photos

Yesterday, Lily turned 11 months old. It's so hard to believe that she is getting so close to turning 1. We can't believe how fast the time has gone. Her newest thing is to point at things, especially people. She also does it when she wants something.

I think I say this every month, but it really is getting harder and harder to do her photo each month. We just can't get her to stay in one place, or to leave the sign alone. We did the best I could....

Lily Reading Her Books

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Puppy Love

Lily loves her puppy. Last night Lily escaped her play yard as she usually does. She usually crawls towards Sampson's cage to play with him. Sampson was out of his cage and they got to play together. We usually keep them separated since Sampson is so big and could hurt her if he ran her over. But, it was nice to let them play together and see them interact. Lily pulled at his face and crawled on top of him, but he just laid there and loved the attention.

At one point Lily was sitting inside Sampson's cage. But, before I could grab the camera and turn it on, she was crawling out.

Hurry home, Babe. We really miss you and love you!!!!

Visit with GG; Sunday afternoon

This afternoon we went to visit Great Grandma. She thought of a new name that Lily can call her as not to confuse all her grandmas..."GG"

GG is doing great! Doesn't she look great? What a difference from last week. She is continually getting stronger. They told her to keep it up and she may get to go home at the end of April =)

Lily and her daddy. Anson went to Chicago today. He'll be home late Wednesday. We miss you, Babe!
Baby Girl fell asleep in her car seat.

Sampson getting his bubble bath today

My sweet angel

Oh, look what my angel did...I went out to the car for a minute and when I came back in, Lily had made a mess of her books and our magazines.

Lily does a new thing. She picks up her book and acts like she's reading it. She gets a real serious voice and talks to her book. It's really funny! I captured a little of it in the video below.

A Day with An Old Friend

On Tuesday, I took a vacation day so that Lily and I could spend time with Kim and Avery. I've been friends with Kim since I was 14 years old. And even though she's been living away from the Akron-Canton area since we graduated high school, we've remained friends. It was great to see her and caught up on our lives. It was also fun to reminisce about old times. I can't believe we both have little girls. And she has another baby on the way!

Miss Avery being silly by wearing her winter hat.

Lily swinging in Kim's Mom's backyard. The sun was really bright so she had her eyes closed.

Avery and Lily swinging

Avery pushing Lily

Kimmy and Lily

Lily with a huge Elmo. She loved that thing.

Look closely and you can really see her two bottom teeth. She does have a top tooth now, but I don't think I'll be able to get a picture of that one!

Cousins Avery and Kayleigh. Avery is 2 1/2 and Kayleigh is almost 5. Kayleigh is Kim's sister Katie's daughter. She has gorgeous red hair, and she's such a toothpick. Katie also has a little boy who is almost 3. His name is Riley but I didn't get a photo of him. They were playing "princesses."

Kim and the princesses.

I'm kicking myself for not getting a photo of Kim and Avery with me and Lily!

So Glad to Be Home!

I am so glad to be home! I hated being gone that long. I flew out of Cleveland Monday morning and returned Friday morning. It was very difficult being away from Anson and Lily for that long! I went to California for a trade show. It was in Anaheim, which was nice but it really wasn't that warm. It was really sunny, though, which was nice. One night we went to Disneyland to walk around. We didn't pay to go in the park, though. And Thursday we went to Hollywood to see the sign and the Walk of fame. It was okay, but really not that exciting. We flew the red eye home Thursday night and I pulled into the drive at 8:30 Friday morning. I was tired, and I slept a lot this weekend to make up for it.

Babe and I at O'Tani's in the valley last Saturday night. We went there for Megan's birthday. Look how skinny my hubby is!

Baby Girl in pigtails! She had just eaten spaghetti...can you tell?

Today, outside. It was a really nice day. Sunny and about 65 degrees.

Lily Anna sitting on the deck stairs in her walking shoes.

Baby Girl and Sampson playing. Lily loves Sampson. She laughs at him a lot.

This weekend, Anson and I cleaned house! We cleaned the garage, cars, kitchen, extra bedroom and living room really well! We rearranged the living room to open it up more and give us more room. Lily has more room to crawl.

Lily Update

• Still crawling anywhere and everywhere she can! She's cruising a lot more now too.
• Lily is our new puppy dog. Every time we have food she whines until we give her a taste! It's cute. She likes everything. I haven't found a food that she doesn't like.
• She puts her cell phone up to her ear as if she's talking on it. But, she also does this with her choo-choo train.
• She says "mama" and "mommy" pretty regularly now.
• She looks at puppy or daddy when I say "where's puppy?" or "where's daddy?"
• She is getting a tooth on the top. It is finally pushing through.
• She loves to make the "thpppppppttttt" noise a lot...as spit goes flying out of her mouth.

Tomorrow I am taking a vacation day because Kimmy & Avery are in town. Lily and I are going to go spend the day with them. It should be very fun, and I'm sure I'll get some cute pictures of the two of them!

Almost Time to Come Home Babe...

As promised Cutie here are some pictures of baby girl for you to hold you over for just a couple more days. I can tell she really misses you...especially at night. She went to bed at 8:45 so I am hoping that it doesn't come back to bite me, but she was so cranky that I knew I just had to put her to bed. I certainly hope she sleeps through the night.



I set her in there while I was changing clothes. Ain't she a cutie?



One more of her in the crib getting ready to be changed.



One last one before baby girl had had it and was ready for bed.

Well babe, I hope these will help you over the last 2 nights

Love you Tootie!

Babe and Baby Girl