Sunday, January 24, 2010

Trip to Kentucky to Visit Family

This weekend we went down to Kentucky (near Cincinnati) to visit Uncle Dennis, Aunt Jeanne and the kids, and Uncle Larry. We had a lot of fun. We left on Friday around 2 and got to their house about 7:15. On Saturday we went to the Children's Museum. Saturday evening we ate a yummy dinner that Jeanne made and played games. Sunday morning we left around 11. We stopped in Columbus to see our friends, Chris and Kim and their son AJ. He was having a birthday party at Magic Mountain, which is right off of 71. We got home last night at 5. We owe my mom and dad a big thank you for dog sitting Sampson! What would we do without my parents? They are always helping us out!


Since we were making the car trip down there, we decided to go ahead and turn Dillon's car seat around. He was so happy to be able to see us, and it made it more convenient for me to give him snacks or a binkie. Plus we took the DVD player so they could watch Dora (Poor Dillon doesn't have a say in what they watch).

Saturday morning...Rebekah and Lydia loved playing with Lily. They read to her a lot.
Rachel and Dillon
Mr. Michael - he's 2 months younger than Lily and about 2 inches shorter. He's a little guy.
Me, Jeanne and Dennis making yummy breakfast. I made the scrambled eggs. Rachel helped me. Anson cut up fruit. Jeanne made the best french toast I've ever had.
Lydia and Lily and of course, Baby Jaguar
Michael
Lily with Baby Jaguar. She loved to push him around the house it the cart. She even said she was taking it home. I think she loved the room to run and play.
After breakfast, we got ready and went to the Children's Museum. Rachel and Lily were looking at the fish.
Lydia, Sarah, Rebekah and Adam playing some game
Dillon fell asleep on the way to the museum and slept through some of it.
"The woods" is a play area that the kids can crawl around in. They took Lily up too.
This is a TIGHT area where the KIDS climb through...
But the kids wanted ANSON to go through it with them and he did...They were trying to help tell him where to go. He went down head first!
He was so proud of himself!
Uncle Dennis decided to try it too. He went up, though, which he said was easier.
Lily was way up on the bridge all by herself. Rachel went up to get her.
Rachel and Lily in the rope tunnel
My cuties
Water works area. This is Michael's favorite area.
The kids wear jackets so they don't get wet. Unless your kid dunks his head in the water like one little boy we saw. Lily played in this one area for a long time.
We couldn't get Dillon to smile in this picture, so Rachel wanted to try. She was convinced he would smile with her. She was right...see below.
But... I think it's because he was smiling at me!

We took Dillon into the infant play area, which is much quieter. He enjoyed playing at this car station for awhile. Then he discovered himself in the mirror and giggled.
The little kids' favorite area is the pretend area where there is a diner, a grocery store, a veterinarian office, and other make believe places.
At the grocery store. Michael is filling his cart. Lily loves the grocery store so she really enjoyed playing in this area.
"Weeeeeee"
Playing blocks with Daddy
Back at home on Saturday evening... Lydia enjoyed pulling Lily and Michael on the blanket around the house.
Sarah playing piano and Lily and Becca dancing
Daddy and Lily resting
Lily was so tired Saturday evening that she fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table. I laid her on the coach so she could take a nap.
Poor Uncle Larry! He got in a bad car accident a few weeks ago and has to wear this awful halo brace that it screwed into his scull. He is probably going to have surgery in a few weeks so he won't have to wear this thing. He says his head hurts alot and he doesn't sleep more than 1 hour at a time because he can't get comfortable. He's in good spirts though because he could've been paralyzed or even killed. The accident happened just a few weeks after he moved down to Kentucky. His apartment is right across the street from Dennis and Jeanne's. The woman who hit him was 25, didn't have insurance and was trying to beat him by turning left in front of him. Before we left Sunday morning, we went over to his apartment to visit him. He had gotten Lily and Dillon Christmas presents and gave us a special gift. When he was going through Grandma's beanie babies, he found two dogs named "GiGi." He thought we would want to keep them for the kids because that's what Grandma wanted her great grandchildren to call her. That was really sweet and I will cherish them!
Maryellen and her boyfriend Adam came down to visit too.
Playing Mao at the table. Poor Adam was the newbie!
The little kids (and Adam) watched Veggie Tales
Dillon loved all the room to crawl and all the new toys to play with.
Overall we had a great weekend. It was a lot of fun and we hope to go back down this summer to visit again! We are so glad we took today off, though. We all didn't sleep well down there and we needed a recovery day. Anson is at the grocery store, Lily is napping and Dillon is crawling up my leg. I'm going to go clean the house and move over the laundry. Have a great week, everyone!!

"I need a raise, Papa"

Recently, we dumped all the money out of Lily's piggy bank and rolled it and took it to the bank. She had $70 from Papa!! That's just since Nana & Papa bought her the bank last Easter! One night last week, Anson and Lily were upstairs putting her daily money in her bank. She shook the pig and said "I need more, money!" So, Anson told her to ask Papa for a raise, and she did and she got one. The next day, Lily came home with a purse full of change :) So, we brought her piggy downstairs and she sat on the floor and put in each coin. Papa is going to need a raise too. Especially when Dillon is old enough to ask for money too!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Lily as Dora the Fairy

Grammy Cross bought Lily this cute dress up outfit. At first she didn't really like it, but she wore it all day today! She loves it now. She "flies" around with her wings.
And one of Dill Pickle

Friday, January 8, 2010

Dill Pickle is 10 months old

Dillon is growing so fast! Faster than Lily did, I swear! He's crawling everywhere. He follows us into rooms and tries to climb up our legs. Right now he's at the bottom of the steps wishing he could climb up to go see Daddy and Lily who are upstairs. Won't be long.

He's eating more and more solid food. I usually give him a bite of everything I'm eating. He prefers to feed himself. I'm still nursing him in the morning and evenings. I'll continue until he turns one...as long as he quickly learns I have a strict "no biting" rule.

He standing up by himself as long as we put him up like that.

It's getting harder and harder to take his picture because he just wants to grab and eat the sign. Good thing there's only one more month left :)
Lily straight out of the tub the other night. She loves bathnight. I mean LOVES. She gets so upset on non bath nights.
Lily hugging (or strangling) Dillon

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year!

Can't believe it's 2010 already. Anson and I were remembering 10 years ago. We were preparing for Y2K. We were at our friend Kristal's house in her basement for New Year's Eve. Anson and I weren't together yet, but we were both there :) Where were you 10 years ago? Life is so short. Make sure you make every moment count!

Here are some photos from the past few days...The kids playing blocks
I'm still getting used to my new camera. Some of the photos are blurry.
Baby blue eyes. Now that Dillon is on the move, he is going everywhere. He follows us around - bathroom, kitchen, bottom of the steps when we go upstairs...and his goal is to get the cat food. He comes close but we manage to catch him right before his little hand grabs it.
Last Wednesday, Jen and Zack came over for lunch and a visit. It was fun to watch Zack and Lily play together. They did really well sharing the toys. It was so nice to see Jen and catch-up on life.
Eating mac n cheese. They were so cute and funny because towards the end of the meal, they were giggling and cracking us all up.
Hugging bye
Later that night, Anson went to the movies with the guys and I stayed home with the kids. We made a house and had a light show inside it :)
Dillon liked playing in the house too.
We wouldn't let poor Samba in
Lily's hair got really staticy
New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. We went to Jill & Josh's for the evening. The best part was that Nana and Papa watched the kids over night for us. We drank, laughed, played games and rang in the new year with some great friends!
Mindy and Jabin
Chris and Kim - so glad they were able to make it up for the night!
Hosts - Jill and Josh
Playing games - Taboo
The pics below are from today. We stayed in our jammies again all day. It was wonderful. Anson made yummy sweet n sour chicken, which we ate for lunch and again for dinner. Dillon is wearing his adorable Batman outfit from Grammy and Grandpa Cross.
His outfit even has a little cape!
Lily helping Mommy by sweeping and cleaning up!
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010!!