December, January, February recap

So it's a really good thing that I don't blog for a living or I'd have been fired long ago.  I'm really sorry to everyone (and to Liliana if she's reading this many years from now) for neglecting the blog for so long.  I have a 2013 resolution to do better!  Here is a quick recap of the past couple of months:  (please forgive the somewhat random order, Blogger does not seem to be cooperating and I don't have the patience to fight with it today)

One of my favorite places is here on the couch with Liliana and a good book

My first birthday card autographed by Liliana herself!

Christmas with Liliana's "brudders"

Buxton boys and Liliana

The funny face picture (the boys didn't get the memo)

Our traditional Christmas Eve picture

Camping out next to the Christmas tree

Liliana loves her some grandma!

And her silly face...again

My birthday cake being delivered by a hottie!  Happy Birthday to me!

We went in to check on Liliana and found her sound asleep, sitting on the floor next to her bed.

The angle of the shot makes her look even longer but seriously, when did this kid get so big?!

Santa brought her exactly what she asked for.  She must've been a very good girl!

My daddy made me a pair of stilts when I was a tween-ager and I loved them!  I think I probably asked for them on a whim and he whipped up a pair for me and helped me practice until I could walk on them by myself.  I ended up getting fairly good at using them.  I think they became a casualty of our house fire but I remember telling Jason about them at some point and how much I enjoyed playing on them.  So he made me this pink pair for Christmas.  I felt like a kid again!  :)

Liliana got a Silly String gun for Christmas.  Jason caught this neat pic as she took aim at him

Ready for some winter fun

Liliana tries them out

Fun with friends

Funny girls!

Then Liliana got ahold of the camera took our pictures. 

Miscellaneous fun in the kitchen.  Here she "helps me clean-up" after a baking job.

Self-portratit

The world from Liliana's level again

Hi Mary!

Phillip and Liliana, instant friends.

The beautiful Bennett family at their Baby "Sprinkle"

  

The Glorioso boys

I was so happy to meet Baby Daniel and even happier to love on him!

Batteries

I know we owe you a Christmas post, but I had to document this before I forgot about it.

Lilie has been feeling under the weather for the past few days.  It was mostly a head cold until yesterday, when she added a croupy cough.  So it was no surprise when she woke us up last night, asking if she could climb into our bed.

I opted to let the girls have the bed (Lilie is not a delicate sleeper), and went to the guest bedroom.  Lilie found me there this morning, and snuggled with me while Katie was getting ready for work.  At one point she looked at me, frowned and sniffled.

"Awww....", I said, and reached over to tap the tip of her nose.

Lilie sniffled again, then reached over and touched the tip of my nose. 

"Boop."

She did it again, grinning.

"Boop."

She paused, then offered a gravelly giggle.

"I'm going to run your batteries down."

Santa!

Santa made an appearance at our local library, and since we didn't have a chance to visit him at his shed in the mall, we decided to meet him there.

Lilie's anticipation was running very high.  She insisted on wearing a dress, and spending quite a long time carefully applying 'fakeup' so she'd "look her best for Santa".  She was so excited when he arrived!  The jolly old elf was in rare form.  There was book-reading, and coloring, and candy-caning and of course Santa's lap...

At first Lils was adamant about sitting on my lap when she was that close to Santa.

Eventually, she realized he wasn't that frightening, and she went all independent on me.

Santa and Lilie really hit it off.

"A Dreamlight and a makeup kit, please."

Seal the deal with a hug!

Lilie did really well, although she did have to be reminded to put in a word with Santa for Dad's motorcycle...  We'll see how well Santa can do with that one in about a week!

Recital

Liliana has been taking ballet classes at Daughters of Grace this fall.  Her training culminated in a performance at a big recital last Friday night.

We weren't certain Lilie would choose to participate, mostly because of the costume: a leotard with a tutu... made out of tulle.  Any of our regular readers will recognize that on the Liliana 'roughy scale', tulle ranks a ten out of ten.  Fortunately, with a little bit of coaxing and some help from another Lily in her class, our Lilie managed to muscle through her flavor of OCD and into the whole outfit.

Liliana was especially excited to hear that her favorite Gretchen would be able to watch her recital!  If you turn the volume waaaay up, and listen waaaay carefully, you'll hear Lilie do an honest-to-gosh 'stage whisper' into the live microphones at about 0:26: "GRETCHEN!"

The video is grainy (sorry!).  Liliana is basically in the middle, and does a wonderful job.  What you won't see because of the graininess (sorry!) is that she spent a good deal of time scanning the audience in search of her Gretchen.  I think she found her around the time the girls gathered around the crib...

Liliana was very excited to participate - and gather flowers from her admirers after her performance.  I made sure to buy some, since she had explained to me earlier, "You know, Daddy, sometimes daddies buy flowers for their daughters after their recital."  Noted!  

Gretchen?!

Is she on the left?

Or maybe the right?

Kicks require pretty intense focus...

Tiny dancer....

Getting in the Christmas spirit

Christmas angel

Last year, Liliana was WAY into Christmas - when it finally arrived.  This year she is beyond excited about preparing for Christmas as well.  She loves Christmas lights, especially the ones at a house in our neighborhood that play music.  We cannot enter or leave the subdivision without her begging us to drive past the "singing house".  It has become a fun (mostly) routine to stop in front of their house, roll down the windows, and catch at least one song each time.  Obviously, this is not fun is when we are late and/or in a hurry.  For some reason, preschoolers just don't understand what the rush is all about.  Actually, come to think of it...I wish I could live like that. 

On another note, earlier this week I decided to surprise Liliana with a pajama-clad, Christmas light excursion after bathtime.  I told her that she and I needed to go put gas in the car.  Once we got to the gas station and filled up, I took her inside and bought each of us a hot chocolate.  Then, on our way home we got "terribly lost" (in three subdivisions) and enjoyed the beautiful decorations while sipping on our cups of hot chocolate.  Liliana informed me that she thought my idea was "the best, best, best, best, best, best, best, BEST idea ever!" and that she would like to do that every night.  I don't think we will do it that often but I'm definitely feeling a tradition coming on.  

It is pretty obvious that a certain shorter member of the family is a little more enthusiastic than other taller members about decorating the tree.  I am tempted to leave it this way.

Proud of her Christmas cookies in the oven.  This was followed by delivery of said cookies to all of our cul-de-sac neighbors.  (I had to get those babies OUT of the house!)