Silly Lilly Jeanne

Oh, this girl!  She cracks me up.  She has such a personality and sense of humor right now.  She is talking talking talking all the time.  My favorite thing with her right now is that she is adamant, ADAMANT, that her name is Lilly Jeanne.  If Jon or I call her a pet name, like "big girl" or "muffin", or "Lil", she'll sweetly say, "Noooo. Lilly Jeanne!"

Yard Work

A few weeks ago, I was out for a few hours in the morning and left the girls with a sitter.  When I returned home, they were playing in the backyard.  I immediately noticed white string all over the yard.  Upon inquiring what happened, Cecilia was proud to tell me she made a "spider web".  Oh what a web it was.  She had unwound the ENTIRE spool of string and wrapped it around the swing set, garden posts, patio table and chairs, the playhouse, grill, bikes, patio posts, etc.  There was probably over 300 feet of sting that had to be rewound onto the spool.  

Summer means lawn mowing.  Looks like Lilly is *almost* ready to take on this chore.  Take a bow, Lilly Jeanne.  Take a bow.

The new water table has been fun to play with, and ON.  When I caught them playing like this, they were just too cute.  The table is full of water and dirt here (their favorite combination).  Very shortly after I snapped these pictures, Cecilia dumped the entire table over on to Lilly Jeanne and covered her in dirty water.  Then, the fun and games were over.

We've had watering restrictions in place because we are in a drought, but that hasn't prevented me from getting out the new water toy.  The girls took a few minutes to figure out if it was fun or not.

My youngest brother, Pete, is home for the summer, and living and working in Denver.  It has been such a treat to have him around.  Pete and Jon decided to brew a batch of beer with Jon's new turkey fryer.  This way, the brewing can be done outside, keeping the heat and mess out of the house.  Cecilia helped, of course.  Cecilia and Lilly Jeanne were both fascinated with the beer as it fermented too.

Cecilia Says

Me (talking to myself): oh, I need to email your daddy the address for tonight.

Cecilia: Daddy doesn't wear dresses!

Me (giggling): You're right!  But I said address, not dress.

Cecilia: Well, if Daddy wears a dress, I match?!?!

I hand Cecilia a Birthday Cake Oreo (if you haven't tried them, you really should).  She says "MOM!  Amazing!!  Party in my mouth!!!"   

The other morning, Cecilia crawls into bed with Jon and I.  
Me: Good morning sweet girl! Did you have any dreams last night?
C: Yes.
Me: What did you dream about?
C: You!
Me: Me?!?! What about me?
C: You rock Tater Tot (folds her little arms and rocks them back and forth), and kiss her on the head.

A Wedding Shower

My brother's, wife's, sister is getting married!  In other words, a very close friend of the family is getting married, Lizzie & Eric :)    My mom and I threw a shower for her and her fiance on a lovely afternoon in June.  We will not be able to go to the wedding because it is in Iowa and I will be too pregnant to travel that far from home.  It was a couples shower and we had a BBQ theme.  Everything came together so nicely.  I designed the invitations (I also designed their wedding invitations, I'll do a separate post on those).  We served sliders, chicken salad in carrot shaped buns, corn, french fries, fruit kabobs, broccoli salad, s'mores cupcakes from MadiCakes, and the signature beverage was a beer-garita in mason jars.

We embarrassed the couple a little and played the shoe game.  We asked questions like "who spends more money?", "who sunburns faster?", and "who is a better driver?"  Lizzie and Eric each held a shoe belonging to Lizzie and Eric and they answered by raising the shoe for the person that best suits the answer.  It was pretty funny, especially since Lizzie kept trying to clarify her answer.



Lizzie and Eric received many wonderful gifts to get them started.  The shower was a way for many of their Colorado friends who won't be able to make it to the wedding to celebrate with them.  We also did a large group gift and got them a new grill and grill accessories.

 For fun and games we made giant letters for a relaxed version of scrabble.  Guests also played croquet and had their pictures taken by the tractor.  It was great to see Pat and Sarah, and meet their new addition, Haley the Golden Retriever puppy.  My grandparents and parents crack me up sometimes...

 

Lilly Jeanne's Age 2 Photos

Over Memorial Day weekend we visited my parents, and I took the opportunity to take Lilly Jeanne's pictures in the mountains.  There was no shortage of beautiful scenery!  She was such a ham and was totally into it.  Here are a few of my favorites. She's just too cute!

Last Day of MOPS...

I have been coordinating the MOPS group at my church for the past three years.  It has been a very fulfilling, rewarding, and fun role to have.  I'm proud to say that over the past three years, our group has tripled in size and we have a strong group moms who have found friendship and support for their vocations as mothers.  Our group has also discerned a more Catholic focus through our speakers and fellowship over the past year and a half or so.  We have decided to drop the MOPS affiliation and move towards a Catholic moms group.  We will now be called Magnificat Moms, and we are working with another parish in the area who has also gone through this same path.  I have officially passed the baton of the coordinator role to my good friend and assistant coordinator for the coming year.  However, I feel called to grow the Magnificat Moms ministry and will be working on making our resources available to other parishes this year.  I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be part of this Mom's ministry and to grow it and to make it available to other moms in the same boat as myself.  I too have developed friendships that will last a long time through this group.

Memorial Day Weekend

We headed up for some much needed mountain time at my parents house for Memorial Day weekend this year.  Cecilia was SO excited to go, that on the Monday before we left (a full 5 days before), the first thing she did with Jon was to make her packing list.  I was still in bed and could hear her listing things to Jon.  It was so cute!

It was a low key weekend, which was just what we needed.  My parents hosted a BBQ for their friends in the area and the girls "helped" wash the deck off.

We made s'mores on Sunday night around the campfire with the girls.  Cecilia was all about the chocolate (that's my girl!).  She went to all the effort of making her s'more, just to pull the chocolate piece out and eat it first.

I love the view from my parents home.  These are just a few of the changing scenes we witnessed this time from their deck.  Simply beautiful!