Lilia's Cute Haircut

Lilia's hair is a constant battle. She's a hair twirler and creates knots in it when she's tired. She doesn't like keeping bows in it, if she allows bows in it as soon as we're on our way home she rips them out with a handful of hair. This a before picture with her typical crazy flighty hair.

This is another before picture. If her hair would only stay this curly I would never cut it. When wet or with some product it curls beautifully but she rolls around and gets it too static-full to keep it curly.
I was cutting my sister and her kids' hair and Lilia jumped up in the chair and said it was her turn...so I took advantage of the opportunity.


Please forgive my appearance and that of the kitchen behind me. Notice how long it combs out to in the back.
Here is her profile afterward. She has a cute bob now!And here is our adorable pixie who requires no bows! She's always been beautiful and now her hair is not a concern for her or me.

He's my forever Valentine!

"So I hear you're pretty good at cuddling?"
That's how it all began.
19 months later we were married.
7 years and 2 cute kiddos later find us here,

loving life and loving each other!

I couldn't wait to kiss him then,

and not much has changed since!

We love and adore our Lily Sue Bug!

We love and adore our Mr. Max!

WE TRULY ARE A HAPPY FAMILY!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas in a flash

My camera had over 500 photos from Christmas vacation. So I decided to show 1% of that. Here it is....
We went to Enoch, Utah and spent lots of time with family. We all got sick but then we all got better and had fun! Lily became a puzzle master!

We had lots of family time and loved it! David's big gift was a Sony Walkman. My big gifts from him were a watch and a hand-held sewing machine.

Max loved his 1st Christmas! He only ripped paper on one gift but he drooled on the presents a lot! He pushed things all over the house to practice walking and he had 2 ear infections right in a row, poor baby. He and I spent an evening in the ER-his ears, I had strep.
Santa was good to the kids. Lily's big gifts were Sleeping Beauty, a duck game, and a princess cd player. Max got lots of fun toys but mostly just wanted to eat the wrapping paper and boxes.
NJ got pummeled with snow while we were gone. this was taken a few days before we left for Utah. Lily wanted to help. We had warm days in the 50s and played outside without coats while out there and then we had days of 2 degree weather with lots of snow and sledding.

It was a wonderful holiday visiting with lots of family! We met the two newest Brough babies and spent a few days up in Salt Lake visiting my family. And to end it all our flight home was canceled due to weather and we couldn't leave for another 3 days. thankfully we found out before we left for the airport and had lovely family to stay with. If we saw you on our travels it was wonderful! If we missed you, we're sorry, we still love you!

Santa came twice this year!

We got to celebrate Christmas twice! Santa knew we were heading out to visit family in Utah so he agreed to stop by both places. We've been very nice in our house :)
Christmas Eve before opening our new pj's


brotherly/sisterly love is sometimes rough and painful...

New jammies

Mom and Dad gave me my big gift that night! My new friend, Violet!
Christmas morning brought lots of fun things!

Max thought his toys were tasty

Lily loves Mr. and Mrs Potato Head and her microphone cd player from Santa

her umbrella and new suitcase were big hits too!




CHRISTMAS AGAIN....

Lily loved her new game from Santa and Sleeping Beauty doll. But she immediately asked where the prince was. when I told her I didn't think she had one she raced downstairs and found a prince and played with the two of them for 30 mins before we had to call her back to open more gifts.
Dave opening his big gift from me. It was an MP3 player. He was really surprised!
Max finally interested in playing with some of his toys. He kept leaving his toys to check out what everyone else got.

Max and Daddy on his 1st ChristmasLily with Daddy on her 1st Christmas

All three are cuties!

Happy 1st Christmas Max!


We all had a wonderful Christmas! We are so blessed to have so many gifts and loved ones. We hope the Spirit of the Lord was with you while you celebrated.

getting ready for christmas

Life has been crazy around here. a few things lately,

I pulled out the swing again to see if Max would be amused.

Yup! He thinks its great fun!

We tried to take a few christmas photos. it didn't go so well. And would you believe me when I say Lily was harder to control than Max?


This is Lily trying to pull Max back to her with her feet while he crawled towards the camera

She refused to smile on command so this is as good as it got...they were both looking and he's happy!

So he got a great solo photo shoot with the antlers!Lily loves to help in the kitchen. This is after licking the brownie bowl.
Cute story, while stirring the brownie batter I called to her "Lily, don't get brownie on your shirt." "ok mom." she replied. She then turns to my mom, "Mommy tell me no get brownie on my shirt." So my mom offered her an apron. she replied. "no I got my shirt."

Helping Grammy decorate the shelf! she felt so big, she's not allowed to touch the shelf normally.Proof our little one is trying to ascend the stairs.

He also loves the VCR! he's a stinker!

Coolest balloon creations

Recently we went out to dinner to meet my brother, Tyler, and his colleague. It was great to see him while he passed through our area on business. And Lilia loved the restaurant and the fun lady creating balloon animals! She could have had anything...and I mean anything. This lady was awesome!

Lilia decided on Ariel and Tiana

seriously cool!

and Lilia recently got new glasses :)

and our new favorite activity is painting.

Lilia Lately

• My gorgeous girl is 2 and a half going on 18. She told me today, "Mommy I'm a big tiny little girl." She thought that qualified her for using scissors ;)

• She makes me laugh so much. Her vocabulary is larger than I could have imagined at this age. She understands and remembers things I couldn't have expected her to and she is such a performer. She pretends to be sad and searches for a mirror to watch herself "cry", she tells me silly things to make me laugh. Yesterday she came in the room with 2 skinny pretzels stuck up her nose while smiling. Of course I told her we don't put things in her nose and as she walked away I quietly laughed.She begs me to take her to dance school.
  

• She asks everyone "where's your baby?" (single people find that very odd) Lily loves Max and frequently hugs him while saying "Hi baby sister." She keeps confusing who's the brother and sister in that relationship.
  

• She is amazing at folding clothes and wants to help do everything! I will not squelch that, I want her to help me!
• She likes trying to teach me how to do things and give instructions. She even tries to tell us when we've done something wrong "mommy, that is so bad! you in trouble!"(that doesn't fly)
  
• She's amazing at potty and I'm saving a fortune not buying diapers for her :)
  

Lilia Sue

She's our love bug and here is a tribute to her!

she loves to help in the yard clean up

no this is not lily, but she took this photo of her best friend Nina! She steals my camera and goes up to people saying, "Mommy say 'Happy Halloween'." and then takes your picture. she's actually pretty great!
Proof she's a born performer. These are her dollies set up as her audience. she even tells them to clap and at the end she bows and says, Thank you very much!
Her newest fascination is with the cd player. she has her own copies of all her favorite Disney cds and plays them and changes between them often (too often). She's learning all the words to all the songs!
She's been asking to go to the jungle, meaning the zoo. we went and her favorite animals are the snakes, lizards, and crocodiles. Is that normal?
new favorite activity- storyhour at the Margate Library! The lady is amazing and the timing is perfect, just before dance school! They played with ribbons, sang songs, bubbles, marched, puppets, and stories. So fun!
She insisted on dressing up while watching a luau mickey mouse club house.
Brother and Sister loving each other! It melts my heart!