Surprise Birthday Party for Jill

Yesterday, Josh threw Jill a surprise party at Whirlyball. We had a blast. As you can see from the first few photos, Jill had no idea we were all going to be there! Her birthday isn't until March 22, so she really wasn't expecting it. After we played, we all went over to Linking Lizard to eat dinner.

Lily helping Jill put on her party hat.

Aunt Jill holding her niece, Lexi

Playing Whirlyball

Josh and Jill

Me and Jill

Lily with Jill's party hat

Cake and cookie cake. It was one of Jill and Josh's other friend's birthday too. Her name was Laura and Jill thought they were going up to play Whirlyball for her birthday.

Blowing out their candles.

Dillon fell asleep on his Mommy - I love those moments!

Jill opening her gift from Mindy and Me. We got her a beach bag, sundress, and promise to take her shopping for an outfit. Her and Josh are going on a cruise in April.

A few night ago...Anson and Lily playing Candy Land. She does really well playing it.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sending love to all our friends and family - near and far! Remember that life is too short. Always tell those you love how much you care about them.

Lily loves lollipops!
This morning at breakfast opening her present. We got up before Daddy this morning and Lily saw her present and asked "What's that?" When I told her it was her Valentine's present but that she had to wait until Daddy got up to open it, she was not very happy. As soon as she heard Daddy's footsteps coming down the stairs, she yelled "We can open the present now!"

Look at that face!

Lily loves flowers too. We got her this rose.

Dora and Baby Jaguar chocolates

Nana and Papa got the kids each a ballon and some candy and cookies. Plus some money for their piggy banks.

Grammy and Grandpa Cross sent Lily a card with her favorite thing inside...stickers! It came in the mail yesterday right before we left to go to the store...

Visit with Katy, Dale and Kai last Monday evening. It was great to see them and catch-up! Kai turned one in January.

Lily had Dillon had fun playing with him.

I love this photo of Dill Pickle

I figured out how to get videos to upload from my new camera!!! Here's one of Lily and Dillon playing with Puppy the other night. She can say her ABCs really well. And we are working on counting to twenty.

Dillon is 11 Months Old

I'm not happy with my camera right now. I had about 10 pictures on it and they disappeared! Anson had taken photos of the snow, we had taken Dillon's 11 month old photo last night and we had some other random cute photos of the kids. Plus, I took some adorable videos, but blogger isn't allowing me to upload them. I think the files are too large! Urgh! Hopefully I can figure out how to take videos that will work, and I'll get them up on here soon.



Other that my camera troubles, all is great at the Cross house! The kids are growing too fast. Dillon will be a year in just a few short weeks. Lily started walking about 3 weeks before her birthday, but I don't think Dillon will be walking before his birthday. The photo we took last night was so cute. It was Dillon in a hat like this one and he was smiling really big. It stinks that we lost it. Owell, these are cute too...

Lily acting like Dillon

That's all for now. Gotta go nurse Dillon...

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!!