Baby #2

For the few of you who may not know... we are expecting our second child in August. We are very excited. Not sure how much Lilly understands yet but she seems excited when we talk about it. My sister is due in February so we will be welcoming 2 new babies into the family next year. It is such a blessing to be able to do that. We have enjoyed Lilly so much we figured why wait, let's go ahead and do this again. The photo below is Lilly's reaction to the news. Is she mad or excited? Not really sure. Let's hope excited :)














Other than telling everyone the news we have not been up to much. We actually got to see a few snow days here. In NC in December that is rare. It did not stick around long but it was beautiful to see. Rumor is we may see more on Christmas Day too. Thanksgiving was quite but fun. We went to my mom's. After dinner the boys (except my husband who helped wash dishes :) sat on the couch and relaxed and so did Lilly. It was really funny. She was so slouched back too and her full belly stuck right out. Lilly has been sick off and on lately. We have been to the doctor 4 times in like 2 months and the hospital once too. Everything under the sun she has had. Hopefully in 2011 she can get back on track. We have not really had nay illnesses until these recent ones. We have been so lucky.

Well below are a few winter pics of Lilly, the big sister to be. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and we love and miss you all very much, especially this time of year it is hard to be a part from so many of you. Know that you are always close in our hearts though. OK, I am starting to get tears in my eyes, those darn pregnant hormones! Merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Lilly understood the concept of trick or treating, and was very excited about it. She would run from house to house smiling and screaming in delight. She was a giraffe and her cousin Kayley was a lion. My mom made both of the costumes and they were so adorable. We pulled the girls around my mom's neighborhood in the wagon. It was a little warm when we started out but it cooled off and wound up being a beautiful evening. Lilly also carved a pumpkin. Can you guess who it is? Ryan's mom said he hated touching the inside of a pumpkin when he was little but not Lilly. She dove right in.

Lilly's pumpkin...





























Trick or Treat...
































Scary monster...

Fall is here!

I love fall, it is my favorite season. It has finally started cooling off in NC too. I love a 70 degree day with a breeze. We have had a busy fall already. Ryan's parents came for a visit and they got to spend some quality time with Lilly. Lilly really enjoyed all their attention. Both of Lilly's cousins turned 3 years old recently too. Kayley on Sept. 21st and Payton on Oct 13th. I think Lilly opened more of their presents then they did. Lilly has changed so much in the last couple of months. She looks like a toddler, talks like a toddler and acts like a toddler. What happened to my baby?? She is so much fun right now, she does and says the funniest things. She is always making Ryan and I laugh and boy is she busy, busy, busy! We are really into Elmo right now which is better than other things she could be into like Dora. Ryan put a tv in her playroom becuase after 2 Sunday's in a row with big brown eyes looking up at him saying Elmo, please, Daddy, and he changing the football game to Elmo, he decided it was time to put the tv in there for her (and him!)

Pictures fron Payton's Birthday Party and Nonna and Grandpa's visit:

































Some other cute fall pictures:


































Lilly and Granpda having story time:

Music to my ears...

You cannot hear it very well but she is playing beautiful music. She loves to play the harmonica!

Da Beach 2010

They yearly trip to the Beach with the Archer Family was enjoyable like always. So relaxing! Lilly really enjoyed the water and being outside so much. When we went to leave, Kayley, my niece asked where we were going. Her mom told her home and she said, "Oh I thought we all lived here now". Everyone was like, WE WISH!! Anyways here are a few pics of the beach, I did not take as many as I should of but we were all too busy playing!
































Here are a few other pictures of Ms. Lilly recently. She is all girl. Loves to dress up and play mommy. Her purse has to go everywhere with us. Also she is quite the eater. She had some cereal the other day and this is a pic of her drinking all the milk out of the bowl!

Trip to Massachusetts

We took a trip to Dudley, MA a few weeks ago for a friend's wedding. It was nice and cool up there, a nice break from the NC heat. We got to see a lot of family and friend's we had not seen in a while. Lilly really enjoyed it too. She was the center of attention and eating it up. It was just Lilly, me and my mom. My Uncle and Aunt had a beautiful yard with lots of flowers I got to take some pictures of Lilly in. She also LOVED the Boston Pizza, well she loves all pizza really. It was a short trip, flew up Friday night and got hom Sunday night. Lilly was great on the airplane, she loves to fly.
































I have some pictures from the wedding too, I will post soon. They are on my other memory card.

Pictures from the wedding, a little late but here they are...

BIG NEWS!!!!

Well I am very excited to blog to everyone that Ryan has a new job!!!! He is going to be working for Golden State Foods which is right near our house. And he will actually be working a 40hr week unlike the 70 plus hour week he works now. We are so happy for him and so happy we are going to spend more quality time as a family. He starts on the 26th of June. This is going to be such a wonderful opportunity for him. Please pray for him that the change goes smoothly!

How to beat the summer heat...

Well it has been a while since my last post, almost a month and a half, which means life has been VERY busy but VERY fun! Where to start... Well end of May we headed to Minnesota for an amazing 10 day vacation. Lilly was a trooper on the plane and behaved so well, she even got complements on her good behavior. This was not only our annual trip to MN but the main reason we went was for Megan and Blake's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding at Elbow Lake Lodge in Northern MN. Very relaxing and accommodating. Lilly was the flower girl again and same story as Heidi's wedding, looked very cute but did not walk down the aisle. We also got to spend a couple of days in the cities, we went to the mall of America and a Twins game. Ryan's Uncle Mike and Aunt Deb were gracious enough to let us stay with them the first night we got in. Liana(their little girl) and Lilly played together and had a lot of fun.









































Since we have gotten back every weekend has been busy. Lilly went to her first concert, Rascal Flatts. Ryan and I really enjoy their music and shows. She had so much fun, she danced until 10:15. It was soooo hot than night, she probably drank 3 cups of ice water and had some frozen lemonade and all night only had one wet diaper if that tells you how hot it was. She had a lot of fun though as did Ryan and I. We also have had a lot of nice long family weekends lately. Getting to play in the pool and have picnics. Just trying to stay cool but still play outside. We go to the big pool in our neighborhood a lot too but Lilly really enjoys the baby pool too though. She can get in and out of it and run a round.






We also had a great 4th of July this year. Ryan got Monday off of work (small miracle) and we enjoyed a 3 day weekend together. Ryan and I also celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary with dinner and a round of golf. Which I played the best game I have ever played! It was a lot of fun and I have a painful sunburn to show for it. We also went to fireworks Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday was at a friend's house. They had a party, with a bouncy house (Lilly loved it) and lots of games for the kids. Lilly had a great time. Sunday we went to Carolina Country Club with my sister Cindy and her boyfriend, Michael. To say this place is nice is an understatement. Michael works there so he snuck us in the back and we took 2 Gators and rode around the course and watched the fireworks. Lilly liked the fireworks but LOVED the ride on the gator.