Oh my gosh, oh my gosh oh my gosh....

It was adorable. I'm so glad Grancy (and Will) got to see Sophia's princess camp recital. It was simply precious. The three year old girls - of which Sophia was the tallest one - first performed a tap dance then a ballet number and finally a tumbling session. WOW! You'll have to see for yourself. I took a few videos and a bunch of photos. You may recognize Sophia's friends in a few: Haley, Addie, & Cameron.

Here's a video of the girls walking for the first time as tap dancers. You can see Sophia's face light up when she spotted Grancy and Daddy, but mostly Grancy I think because this morning when we were looking at the videos she asked me where Grancy was in the video. So cute. If you want to see more videos click on the links underneath this one. I know I'm biased, but they are all worth watching. The photos will be posted soon.



Tap Dancers

Ballerinas

Walking in as tumblers.

Sophia doing the tumbling routine

Sophia looks like Shirley

That's what 60% of you think. That's not a very big majority (but if you subtract out my vote and Will's vote too (both for Will) then 80% of you think Sophia looks like me). I'll take it.

Just for the record, Will and I both think the girls look like him!

Taken this morning

I just had to post these pictures since I rarely get the two of them in the same frame at the same time. Sophia got a real peacock feather at church today and she was holding it up in the air, but it didn't make it into any of the photos.

Lillian dances and claps

Lilly in the chair

The outfit that Lilly is wearing in the photo below is one of my favorites. Take a look at all the pictures I took of her sitting in the chair. She climbed right up the other day and since she doesn't know how to get down yet she yelled for some help.

She can also climb up the stairs now which keeps me pretty busy.

The Lilly poll

77% of you think that Lilly looks like Will and only 22% of you think that she looks like me. Let's see what you think about Sophia. Don't forget to take the poll.

Another Botanical Garden photo

I took this picture on my cell phone today while Sophia was in her art class.

Lilly and I enjoyed walking around together again, but this time I actually let her walk instead of just pushing her in the stroller. Look how cute she was as she looked up at me.

Daddy and his girl

Can you guess which kid...?

One is easy going and the other inflexible.

One smiles all the time and the other is always very serious.

One enjoys being part of the crowd and the other demands to be the center of attention!

One seems fearless and the other constantly scared.

One eats anything offered to her and the other refuses to eat.

One is a Gemini and the other a Taurus. (Both are frighteningly accurate!) So one is brimming with energy and clever and the other is stubborn and tenacious.

One really really wanted to get into the swimming pool today and even helped the other kids by handing them water discs and the other screamed/cried/wanted to sit on my lap for her entire swimming class! ! ! !

Can you guess? Can you?

Don't you just want to pet her?

Just chillin' with Dad

A bird's nest

Usually when I'm on the phone Sophia interrupts me and makes all kinds of noise because I'm not paying attention to her!

"Mommy, go talk to someone!" That's what Sophia told me to do this afternoon when she was building a bird's nest in the fancy room. She was literally layering paper, leaves that she plucked from one of my plants, and soap that she stole from the bathroom into a new decorative bowl of mine. In a hurry I replaced the bowl with a skillet from the kitchen and let her have at it.

I did go talk to someone - my brother and then my mom. It sure was nice to have some peace and quiet on the phone for a change.

The second photo was taken after the soap bubbles had dissolved.

Loyal Lillian

If there's one thing that Lillian is loyal to it's FOOD! She absolutely loves food. She's gobbles up everything I give her or don't give her. In this case she helped herself to Sophia's chocolate pudding. She even knows how to use the spoon (a task that Sophia still likes me to help her with).

I literally turned around for a split second and when I turned back I found Lilly covered in pudding. When I tried to tear the spoon out of her hands she wouldn't let go. I quickly cleaned her up, but she was insistent on finishing the pudding.

I think someone has a sweet tooth. (She loves donuts too!)

Sophia and Haley at the mall

Haley's got her arm around Sophia. So cute.

Pictures of Lilly

While Sophia was in her art class on Tuesday Lillian and I took another walk around the Botanical Garden and this time we stopped a few times to take some pictures.

She always gives me the best smiles. There are only a few pictures to see, but here they are.

Peek-a-boo

One of Lillian's favorite games is peek-a-boo. She plays it during diaper changes, while walking around the house, and even in the car. She doesn't play by covering her face with her hands. She always uses clothes or her Lamby.

Yesterday she found these beads in the toy box and literally put them around her neck. She also tries to put sunglasses on her face whenever she's lucky enough to find a pair. Monkey see. Monkey do. Or in this case: Lillian see. Lillian do.

Here's a video of her playing peek-a-boo.

Another trip to the Botanical Garden

We took some of our neighbors to the WoW kids sprinkler area at the Botanical Garden on Thursday. Taylor (8) and Riley (2) were so excited to play in the water with Sophia. Check out all of the pictures.

Sophia made a new friend, Lily and the two of them were holding hands and running around together. Lily is going to turn 4 next month. I'm sure we'll never see her again, but we have a few photos of her to memorialize their friendship.

Lilly had a fun time toddling around in the water, but mostly she enjoyed staying dry and walking around the park on the concrete.

(Check out those thick thighs. So adorable.)

Water Water Everywhere

Yesterday evening Sophia was outside playing with the garden hose, a bucket and her imagination. She was literally dumping buckets of water on head and enjoying every minute of it. Her new Dora nightgown was soaking wet when she was finished. Check out the video below to see her in action.

Lilly, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the water and actually flinched every time she got wet.

Dora

Sophia started her 4-week long art class today at the Botanical Garden. The program is offered through the national art education program, Abrakadoodle. The theme is "Butterflies" in honor of the new exhibit, Flutter Fantasy. (We checked it out about 2 weeks ago and I think some of my photos rival those on the Flutter Fantasy page.)

Sophia seemed to enjoy herself in the class and although her painting didn't really resemble a butterfly at all she was smiling when I arrived to pick her up at 4:30. While she was in class Lilly and I went on a walk through the Garden. It was so nice just to spend time alone with her. I finally stumbled upon Baker's Overlook, where Will and I got married. I've been trying to remember how to get back to the overlook for almost 5 years (yep, we'll be married 5 years next month).

Anyway, when I picked her up the teacher was handing out the completed artwork and she addressed Sophia as Dora. I cracked up and told Ms. Sharlene that her name is Sophia. All the moms that stayed in the classroom during class were laughing so hard at "Dora" because that's seriously what they thought her name was.

She's been playing Dora and Boots with Will for a few weeks. Sophia is Dora and Will is Boots and they pretend to explore and overcome obstacles! She's funny. Today while we were at Target, Sophia's favorite store, I bought her a Dora nightgown. She wore it to bed tonight and told me that she was beautiful. Of course, she was!

Man, give us a break...

About three weeks ago our air conditioner unit basically exploded so we had to replace it - for a pretty penny. Ironically, the same exact night our dishwasher and the overhead light in the kitchen also quit working. Coincidence? Seems like it, right? The A/C guy said the three were not related, but at this point I was still convinced all three things were related and I was blaming the air conditioner.

Sidenote: I've been hand washing the dishes and even though we've switched to throw away plates and cups, there's still a ton of dishes every day. Boy do I pity the people who don't have a dishwasher!

We had friends over this weekend and the guys decided to take matters into their own hands and literally changed the light bulbs in the kitchen and presto that light came back on. I find it rather strange that both bulbs burned out at the same exact time, but OK, I can buy it, I guess. What I can't buy, however, is the fact that both bulbs were CFL bulbs that should have lasted for SIX more years. Sounds pretty fishy to me! (That stupid air conditioner.) The guys also removed the dishwasher and tested the outlet for an electrical current and they definitely found one. OK..that means the three year old dishwasher has to be replaced. And this part is really weird: the kitchen lights came on when the bulbs were changed, but the lights in the dining room, formal living room and the hallway went OUT! (Thankfully the electrician will be here in the morning).

This highly referred electrician, Keith, came today and fixed our faulty light switch plate in the kitchen and presto the light was totally fixed. Keith told me blah blah blah and the wiring company blah blah blah didn't push in the back wire or blah blah something like that. I didn't really know what he was talking about, but I definitely understood when he said NO CHARGE! (Thanks, Keith! Boy it pays to be friends with a builder.) Keith weighed in on my theory that all three things were related and he agreed with the A/C guy. He even told me that bad things come in threes!

Another sidenote: Bah humbug, I'm pretty sure that bad things come in sixes because Sophia's bed broke when I rearranged her room, Sophia broke one of the automatic doors on the minivan, and there was a severe pink paint accident in the play room. I hear new carpet calling. Ugg...

So my new and final theory for the latest series of bad luck is that our house must have been struck by lightening three weeks ago when the air conditioner exploded.

9 teeth

Yep, she's got 9 teeth. She first got four on the top and two on the bottom. Then she got 2 molars (1 top, 1 bottom) on her right side and just 2 days ago another tooth broke through on the right side. What's up with that?

Lillian Walks

In the first video she can only take a few steps, but in the second one you can see that she's mastered the walk (and she has the hiccups).

Messy Room

Every single day Sophia has to go into her room for quiet time even though she doesn't nap anymore. After she's done ripping all her clothes off the hangers and putting 4 or 5 additional shirts/dresses on she then empties her bookshelf and throws all the books on the floor!

She called me into her room last week and I didn't see her immediately, but there she was . . . on the bookshelf!

Update on Lilly

She can:
- Walk
- Wave Hello
- Say Hi
- Dance
- Color with a crayon
- Give a high five

A random Sunday...

Duck, North Carolina

Our trip to the Outer Banks was phenomenal. And I won't mince words...if either Bonnie&Dan or Cynthia&Don want to invest in a beach house in the Outer Banks, I will personally take care of all the decorating, maintenance, winterizing and dewinterizing, etc...

I arrived on Thursday afternoon around 3:30 with the girls and we immediately unloaded the car and hit the swimming pool. Sophia was timid in the pool, as to be expected. She hung out on the stairs most of the time. She was in heaven when we finally got back to the house and she realized she could hang out with her buddies, Addie and Haley, for hours. Lilly played with her friend, Carlie, and Carlie basically showed her the ropes of walking all weekend. As soon as we got home Lillian started walking about 90% of the time.

The next day we hit the beach for a few hours in the AM before the day got too hot. Lillian didn't care for the sand at first, but warmed up to it and learned not to eat it by the end of our trip. Will finally arrived in time for dinner after a long day at work. Everyone was glad he had arrived. Will's always the life of the party.

Saturday was a lot like Friday except we went out for dinner. We went to a pizzaria called The Tomato Patch and had a great casual meal followed by yummy ice cream cones at one of the local shops.

On Sunday morning we hit a t-shirt shop were the girls were able to pick out their favorite decal design and have it heat pressed onto a t-shit of their choice. Sophia chose cats....go figure. She loves cats! I chose a light blue shirt for Lilly and her decal was a little girl listening to a seashell. When we got home we decided to hit the pool instead of going to the beach. Actually Lilly and I joined the crew late because she was taking a nap when they left. Later in the afternoon we took a pair of kites to the beach for some afternoon fun.

Will left on Sunday night to return to the other Ladie in his life, Sadie. (smile) We all missed him dearly.

We packed up the house and left on Monday. We didn't want to leave and I may have even shed a small tear. There's something about the Outer Banks that can't compare to anywhere else in the world. The ocean salt water smells amazing, the sand feels hot and smooth under your feet, and the cool breeze counters the blazing hot sun. Ahhhh.....

So cute....

She's a walker now. Lilly turned the corner this past weekend. She went from a crawler to a walker! My baby is growing up.

We're off again...

This time we're headed to the Outer Banks until Monday. Well, I'm taking the kids today and Will is coming tomorrow afternoon.

Haley and Carlie's mom and dad invited us to their family beach house in Duck. They also invited Addie's family so I'm sure the three girls are going to have an awesome time.

Sophia is so excited to go to the beach. She told me this morning that she can't wait to swim. I mentioned to her that she's going to have a sleep over with her friends and I think she almost peed her pants she was so excited.

Our trip to the zoo

We went to the zoo because I had a free admission ticket and I wanted to buy tickets for the G. family for the twins' birthday gift.

The weather was perfect. Not too hot and there was a nice breeze. We stayed for almost 3 hours and believe me that's hard to do. It's a very small zoo.

Sophia was really excited to see the giraffes, the lions and the elephants.

Sophia posed for some really great pictures for me. Take a look.

Her first word

Lilly has been saying her first word for a few days now! Guess what it is? No, it's not mama or dada or bottle or anything like that! It's Sadie!!!! She says it like DEE, but everytime she sees Sadie she does the sign and says DEE.

She's currently working on mama, but it hasn't actually come out yet.

Sidenote: Sophia's first word was Sadie too! She pronounced it like: ADEE

Pictures from the twins' birthday party

Here they are.

Birthday party

Last Sunday we went to a 2nd birthday party for Jackson and Lola Grace, the G. twins. The party was at My Gym...a place where Sophia has been going to for two years, yet she clung to Will. Sophia was one of the oldest kids at the party too. She was incredibly timid and shy for most of the party. She enjoyed being in the ball pit when nobody else was in it, but the minute she sensed someone else was even thinking about joining her she would start to freak out and get scared. At least she doesn't push anymore. Now she just hides behind our legs and starts to cry as if she's terribly frightened.



Lilly had a blast crawling all over the place and exploring the scene. She really enjoyed this ride on toy for a few minutes before she decided she didn't want to be on it anymore. She didn't care for the ball pit one bit.

Both of the girls had a blast when the bubble machine was turned on and started blowing hundreds of bubbles all over the place. But I think the girls had the most fun before we even left the house because Will was letting them crawl all over him.

I'm having a problem uploading the pictures. Darn!

Two more teeth

Last night I thought I saw a new tooth in Lilly's mouth, but didn't get a good look. This morning I got a great look and she has two new teeth! They look like molars - one on the top and one on the bottom on the right side of her mouth. They are not coming in directly beside the ones she already has. Strange.

I did it! I dressed myself

This morning Sophia completely dressed herself including her underpants and shorts. Usually she puts on shirts and dresses and she does this during her quite time in her bedroom EVERY SINGLE DAY! She's so proud of herself and so am I, but I'm kind of getting tired of hanging up 20 shirts and dresses up EVERY SINGLE DAY! She usually has on three or four new shirts.

She's not tall enough (yet) to reach hangers so she pulls as hard as she can on the bottoms of the shirts until the hangers either break or slip off the rod. I seriously need to buy more hangers for her clothes.

She also wears a princess costume EVERY SINGLE DAY and pretends she's a princess. She loves it. I have a mirror in her play room at her level and she literally stands in front of it to admire herself. I guess I would too if I looked so darn cute EVERY SINGLE DAY!

3 steps

Yes, Lilly took three steps last night. I seriously thought my face was going to crack because I was smiling so hard. She performed her amazing new trick not just once, but about 5 times.

She would take three tiny tiny tiny steps and fall on her butt. As soon as she's done with breakfast I'm going to see if she'll do it again.

Guess what?

Lilly has slept through the night for the past 5 nights. Have we finally reached this major milestone? I really really really hope so!

This is a picture of her sleeping in the jogging stroller. I was able to take her for a run with me and she ended up falling asleep. Adorable.

And check out the size of that thigh! I love to squeeze them.

I still love Lamby the most!

Water, water everywhere

Lilly likes to play in water. She likes to stand up and reach her hand into any toilet she sees. Side note: she also really likes to pick tiny pieces of toilet paper off the roll and throw it into the toilet. Playing in the toilet is gross.

Bath time: when Lilly takes a bath she absolutely refuses to sit still. She immediately stands up and it scares me to death!

At Great Wolf Lodge she really liked it when Will was holding her in the wave pool.

Two packages arrived on the same day.

How fun! Two big boxes arrived for the girls about two weeks ago and I haven't had a chance to post about it yet. Well, I finally uploaded the photos so I can tell you about the squealing fun Sophia and Lilly had opening those boxes.

One box from Grancy and box one from Isabella and Logan, my friend Annie's kids. As you can see from the picture Sophia was staking her claim to the boxes and demanding that Lilly retreat.

Can you say packing peanuts? They were everywhere! This is the second year in a row that Annie sends a box full of packing peanuts! I'm going to have to get her back one of these days.... Sophia was playing "rain" with the peanuts throwing them up in the air and laughing as they fell all around her. She even threw some on Lilly in a loving manner.

The box from Grancy had packing paper in it that must have been twenty feet long. Sophia kept pulling and pulling and pulling the paper out of the box.

She thoroughly enjoyed discovering the cute insect puzzles at the very bottom of the box. The very next day we sat down together and I helped her put them together. I was impressed with how many pieces she was able to place on her own.

Take a look at all the photos. They are so adorable and you can almost hear them having fun. At least I can.

We had so much fun!

Great Wolf Lodge was tons of fun for everyone. Sophia enjoyed the wave pool, the outdoor frog slide, the kiddie pool, the lazy river ride, the basketball pool and the outdoor play ground. In that order too.

Will and I enjoyed four of the six water slides. The two we couldn't go on required at least two riders. I had so much fun I told him we need to get a babysitter and go back for another overnight stay.

Lilly liked being held the entire time we were there. She got spoiled in only 24 hours.

I took so many pictures.
Click here to see set 1.

Click here to see set 2.

We're off....

to Great Wolf Lodge water park in Williamsburg for an overnight stay. We're all looking forward to a change of scenery. Hopefully we'll get some great photos to share.

A trip to the WoW Garden

Sophia, Lilly and I met our friends at the Botanical Garden on Tuesday. This was Lilly's first time in the sprinklers. Poor Lilly had to wear a onesie because she was swimming (pun intended) in the one I just bought for her. There was no way she could wear it. And...the water shoes that Sophia wore at this age were also way too big on Lilly so she wore socks instead. She didn't really know what to think of the water at first, but a half hour into it she started to have fun realizing that she was going to have to wear a hat!

Sophia had a great time with her friends Haley and Addie. The three of them were jumping into the sprinklers and running around squealing in delight. When one of them does something the other two immediately join in. We had a picnic lunch together and during lunch Addie ran off to run up the big hill right beside us. Sophia and Haley quickly followed. We had to bribe them to come back and eat the rest of their lunch.

We could tell it was time to wrap it up when the girls decided to get their towels out and "sleep". They thought this was hysterical.

Take a look at all the pictures...

Lilly in tissue paper

Lilly's big birthday bash

OK, I hope this won't be too long. Here goes:

Lilly's birthday party was on Sunday afternoon at 3:00. Luckily it was over by 6, but even though the party was short (or just long enough) it was a long week leading up to it. This is the "before" photo. Lillian wore a cute little Birthday Girl dress. Sophia wore a Big Sister shirt, but as usual, I wasn't able to get a decent photo of the girls in their shirts next to each other.

Will was off work the week leading up to the party and watched the girls for me while I did party preparations. I made most of the food on Saturday. The menu included burgers and hot dogs, capris salad, black bean salsa salad, potato salad, fruit salad, a watermelon tray and a veggie tray and one enormous, delicious, beautiful strawberry "Lilly" cake.



We had about 60 guests. Half were adults and half were kids and small children. They all loved the pinata, side walk chalk, jump ropes, and the scooter that we brought along for entertainment. We were also lucky enough to have a small play area next to our pavilion.

On Saturday I picked up 25 balloons for decorations. I also bought crepe paper and wrapped each post and used matching table covers. On Sunday I opened the back of my minivan and the balloons flew away. All 25 of them. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to cry...but I kept it together!

One of our young neighbor girls took my camera and took all of the photos. Click here to see them. Thank goodness she was taking pictures for me because I was kind of busy talking to everyone. Will and I both had a great time. We hired a babysitter to tend to Sophia and we brought Lilly's high chair so she wouldn't have to be held the entire time.

Speaking of Lilly, this is the "after" photo:

Memorial Day Weekend

Uncle Rob and Christina came for a long weekend and a good time was had by all. They arrived just in time for our Friday night kickball game. We lost the game. Not only did we lose, but Christina was also kicked out of the game. I told her to play my position for an inning and the Ump saw that she didn't have a kickball shirt on and told her she couldn't play without a shirt. That rule has never before been enforced! After the game we went out for pizza with some of the people on our team.

On Saturday we went to the annual Pungo Strawberry Festival for four hours. I know how long we were there because Will was keeping track. I guess when a person is dragged to an event they keep track of time?? Maybe.

Rob and Will played some Corn Hole, Rob won tons of souvenirs, Sophia rode her first carnival rides and we all paid way too much for lemonade and lunch! My search for strawberry pie was met and we had strawberry pie for a few days. I had it built up so much in my head and ultimately it wasn't as good as I anticipated.

Sophia, however, enjoyed her strawberry crunch ice cream bar. She had one at the Strawberry festival and then she ate another one the next day when we went miniature golfing.

We hit the beach on Sunday. It was really windy and we actually got rained on a bit too. The sky looked gorgeous everywhere around us, but directly overhead our spot on the beach was really cloudy. Then we played a round of miniature golf course. Rob won.

On Monday morning Christina and I got pedicures and then in the afternoon the ladies hit the beach again and the guys went to see the new Star Trek movie.

The weekend really flew by and before we knew it Tuesday had arrived and they were leaving. I know Sophia misses them because she's asked when they are coming back.

Dog meat or treat??

Lilly's stats

Sophia and I took Lilly to the doctor this morning for her well baby check up.
Weight: 22 pounds 3 ounces (71%)
Length: 29.5 inches (75%)

At the same age Sophia was
Weight: 23 pounds 6 ounces (85%)
Length: 31.25 inches (97%)

Her final works of art