Trip to the Museum!

Lily and I took a trip with some friends to the Museum yesterday!  We had a great time!  Lily is growing up so much and enjoying "big kid" activities more and more.  The last time we went to the Museum of Nature and Science was when she was 9 months old.  Then she enjoyed pushing the stroller around with her dad but that was about it.  This time she loved everything!  She loved playing in the Discovery Zone, pushing the buttons to make the animal sounds and playing with the moon rocks in the Space Zone!  I so enjoy her discovering and loving life!  It helps me love life too!  What joy it is to be the mother of this adorable little girl! 

 In the Discovery Zone they have story time and of course Lily was all over that!  To say she LOVES books is such an understatement! 

 Sitting with her friend Valeria during story time

 After she just had to see the books one more time!

 Playing with the puppets in the Discovery Zone

 Playing with the buttons in the Wild West Exhibit

 Picking up moon rocks.  I didn't think she would get it, but she got it as soon as she picked up the little claw!  She had a great time with it too!

New Years!

New Years Eve was very quiet for our little family!  We had a lazy morning and then TJ and Lily headed outside to shovel and play in the snow!  Lily was in heaven!  She is a true Coloradan!  She asks almost daily to go and play in the snow, no matter how cold it is!

 She followed Daddy around while he shoveled until I came out to take pictures.  Then she decided to throw snowballs at me!  I asked TJ if he taught her how to make a snowball and throw it and he said no.  This means that she figured it out all on her own!  It was so cute to watch her.  She would get a big grin on her face and look at me and say, "I throw snow at you mommy!"  And then laugh as she did!

 When daddy finished with the shoveling, the two of them played on our little hill in the front yard!  Lily was grinning from ear to ear the whole time!  She loves her sled and has no reservations about falling off!  As soon as they got to the bottom of the hill she would say, "Again! Again!"  So they would go again and again!  Those two are the best of friends!

That night we put Lily to bed, played games together and watched some 24!  We made it until midnight! 

Then on New Years day, we started the morning off with the New Years Fairy!  This is a tradition from the Gray side - which we LOVE.  You leave your shoe out on New Years Eve and the New Years Fairy comes and fills it with treats!  Lily put out her boot, in hopes of getting more!  It was fun to see her excitement when she saw what the Fairy left her!  Then we watched the Rose bowl and went to dinner with some friends!  It was a great day!

Too Cute!

The other day I was doing dishes.  When I went into see why Lily was being so quiet - which usually means she is in trouble - this is what I found!  She had found a blanket and my Book of Mormon!  This little girl loves any book.  Lately she has been really into the Scriptures.  She likes to look at the pictures as well as flip through the other pages.  She is so gentle with them as well.  We gave her her own book the other day and she LOVES it! 

 We finally got a real snow here!  It came the Thursday before New Years.  Lily was so excited that it was snowing and sticking to the ground!  She couldn't wait to play in it!  We got home Thursday night after dark, but she still wanted to play.  Daddy was oh so kind and took her out on her new sled for a while in the dark.  She did not want to come in.  When she finally came in for hot chocolate she put on daddy's big boots and was ready for more!

Christmas Celebrations!

We had a GREAT Christmas this year!  We stayed home and celebrated with just our little family!  It was nice and quiet, but of course we missed seeing family.  The Sunday before Christmas Lily got to wear her new Christmas Dress, which she was very excited about!  After Church, we visited a few friends to share a Christmas treat with.  Lily really enjoyed giving these gifts.

 The whole month of December, Lily and Daddy had a great time changing the number on the countdown to Christmas!  Lily also enjoyed dancing to all the Christmas songs on the radio.  Her favorite being "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!"  She would get so excited when this song came on.  She even started saying she wanted a Hippo for Christmas!

 Christmas Eve started with breakfast at a "Astronaut" as Lily would call the restaurant!   We also had a Special Christmas Eve dinner, in honor of spending Christmas Eve at my Warner Grandparents house, of Hamballs and Hot Chicken Salad.  This is one of the things I remember most about Christmas Eve at the Warner Grandparents house, which is where I spent most of my Christmas Eves as a child!  It is nice to have those special memories and to share them with my own family now!  After dinner we drove around and looked at the Christmas Lights!  Lily LOVED this!  She kept on saying, "another frosty the snowman!"  As we have had no snow this year, this is all Lily knows of snowmen!  Then we came home and read the Scriptures about the birth of our Savior and talked to Lily about why we celebrate Christmas.  Next we opened up Christmas Jammies and read  "The Night Before Christmas" and set out Cookies and milk for Santa!  Lily really enjoyed putting cookies out for Santa! 

 Christmas Morning came at 7 am!  Lily came down into our room and was ready to find out if Santa had eaten his cookies and milk.  We hurried down to find he did!  Lily was so excited to find out that Santa had eaten his treat for leaving her presents.  Then we opened our presents.  We were all very spoiled this year!  Even baby brother had gifts under the tree!  Lily loved each present she got.    These next few pictures are just a few of the highlights from the morning.  I didn't do the best of job taking pictures because I was so excited to just watch her open them!
Daddy gave Lily a very special gift this year.  He bought her a glove and ball to play catch with him.  Ever since he played ball this fall, she has wanted to play catch with him with her own mit! They were able to go outside and try to play.  She caught the ball, but had trouble throwing it back.  She will have to learn to take the ball out and then throw it.  Needles to say, she got a little frustrated with the experience!  I know they will have many good times playing as she gets older.

 Lily brought both chairs into the living room so she and her new doll could have a "hot chocolate" party together!

After presents we had Zac and Chelsea and her parents over for Breakfast.  TJ's family does crepes and omelets for Christmas morning and they invite family and friends, so we decided that we were going to do the same!  It was fun to have actual family over on Christmas!  Thanks for moving to Denver Zac and Chelsea!  Then later that afternoon we went to our Bishops house and visited and TJ played in a ping pong tournament, not the winner though:(  We spent the rest of the evening playing fun new games and eating yummy food!  It was a great day!  Now we look forward to starting a new year! 

Vist from Tiffany and Cassie!

Last weekend we had two very special visitors!  TJ's sisters Tiff and Cass came to visit us!  We had a great time while they were here.  Lily could hardly wait for them to come!  They came in Thursday night after Lily went to bed, so Friday morning the first thing she said was, "I play with Ninny and Cassie now!"  They played hard and enjoyed each other!

Friday we went to see Tangled.  That night we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens at Chatfield.  They were a lot of fun.  It was the perfect night to go too!  It was in the 40's when we got there and the upper 30's when we left.  They had old tractors decorated as well as the old barn and houses.  We will surely go back!

Saturday morning I took my Activity Day Girls to a service project at the Denver Health Hospital.  While I was gone, TJ, Lily and Tiff and Cass went to the Library.  Lily still talks about going to the Library with Tiff and Cass.  When I got home, we headed up to Georgetown.  We shouldn't have gone, but at least we saw reindeer!  TJ really should have stayed at home in bed.  He felt horrible, but since his sisters were in town, he tried to suck it up.  When we got there, we were let down by what they had going on.  Santa was supposed to be there but he was nowhere in sight.  At least Lily got to ride the school bus and see reindeer!  We wont be going back to the Christmas Village in Georgetown! 

 To say that Lily was excited about the school bus, is an understatement!  Every place we drive, Lily is on the lookout for buses!  To actually ride on one made her day!

 Sunday we went to Church and then played and made Gingerbread houses!  It was a super fun day playing games and decorating our houses.  TJ and I had to redeem ourselves after our horrible gingerbread houses we made while we were dating!  We had success with our gingerbread not falling apart this time!  Lily LOVED decorating almost as much as she enjoyed eating the candy!  She was a little sad when I told her she was done with candy!  Then to avoid going to bed, she pulls the, " Now we have hot chocolate and watch the Prophet!" bit!  How do you tell your daughter that we cant watch the Prophet?  So we watched the first two songs and told her it was over.  The next day we watched the whole thing with her for Family Home Evening! 

 Before

 During

 After

 Cassie's house

L to R:  TJ and Lily's house, Tiff's house, Megan's house

We sure do enjoy having visitors!  Lily is already asking when they will come back or when someone else is coming!