Spirit Week

Last week was Spirit Week at school, so we decided to let Lily dress up, too. Friday was Twin Day- so my girls in my room, along with Lily, wore purple to all look alike.

Wednesday was Team Day. Nana bought Lily this UT cheerleader's outfit. So, she was dressed up in her UT outfit while I wore my Miami Hurricanes outfit.

Tuesday was Hero Day, so Lily and I dressed up in Kentucky clothes to represent my Mom's memory. My Mom was from Kentucky, and she was a huge Kentucky fan. If you ask Lily where Nana Claire is- she says that she is Heaven with Cajun. It is so sweet.

It was fun to have Spirit Week with Lily! We didn't take pictures on Monday, but it was Pajama Day. She really enjoyed getting to wear her PJs all day long!

A preview...

Our wonderful friends, Lita and Todd, came over last night with their son, Colin. Lily adores Colin! Lita is an amazing photographer. It was time for her to do another photo shoot with Lily. (The two pictures on the left hand side of the blog of the 3 of us and the one with the daisy were both taken by Lita, too!) She got some beautiful pictures, and I cannot wait until she is all finished so I can show them off. But, she did send me one picture of Colin and Lily that I just had to show. By the way, I love the panda clothes from Gymboree. I am sure we all have them for our girls. They are just too cute!

O Christmas Tree!

Yes, we did! We put on all of our ornaments tonight, and Lily got to hang her own stocking on one of her favorite Disney characters- Marie.

Here, our little photo-poser is showing off her Mulan ornament.

She had the best time pulling out the ornaments to decorate "Lily's tree".

She also loved the bubble lights. We had to show her that if you take them out of the socket- they will not work anymore--- because she wanted to carry them around with her!

She had to stop to read a book.... just like our Lily...

But, very quickly, she began to decorate the tree again.

After we finished, she wanted to pose for more pictures of her with her tree.

We let her have complete control of all of the ornaments she could put up. So, the bottom of the tree is a bit full!

Here are a couple of examples of her parts...

They really don't do it justice. But, for her first time decorating- she did an excellent job!

I wanna go Atlanta and go shopping again, Mama!

Since we returned late on Sunday, that is all we have heard- "I wanna go shopping... Mama, I wanna go Atlanta... Baba, I wanna go eat breakfast at the hotel." Needless to say, we had a wonderful trip. Before we left, we took a few more pictures last week of Lily dancing (above).

She also still enjoys showing off her gymnastics. She loves doing splits for everyone! She even did one in Atlanta at the breakfast buffet at the Marriott for her friend, Erica, who always waits on us. She also showed Erica her ballerina skills.

A little more dancing going on- she loves to have her picture made. I hope this new found love for the camera will really show up for our Christmas photos. :0)

She also wanted to slide for me while I took her picture. After she poses, she runs over to see what she looks like. So, I actually have to take every picture.

Her favorite things to do now in her playroom are: playing with legos, playing with her train set, playing with her kitchen, doing puzzles that are made for 3-6 year olds, playing with her dollhouse, and playing with her baby dolls (feeding them, putting them to bed, taking them shopping, and especially putting them in time out!).

We are putting our Christmas Tree up completely this weekend. We already actually have it up because we bought a new one, and we had to check it out to make sure it was okay- so we just left it up. Lily is ecstatic about putting the ornaments on. This is our normal thing to put the tree up instead of celebrate Halloween. So, we should have lots of pictures after the weekend. We did let Lily go ahead and set up her Little People Nativity Set. It is so cute how all of the animals and shepherds are right up beside baby Jesus staring right at him. She made sure they were close "cause they were so excited to see Him". We love Christmas and celebrating Jesus's birthday! ONLY 60 more days til Christmas!

Mama's Dollhouse

Over the years, I did not keep things from my childhood. The only actual things I have are items that my Mom kept for me. So, I have some Madame Alexander dolls and a few toys to pass on to Lily someday. But, I did keep my dollhouse because it was very special to me. So, I decided to pass it on to Lily. She seemed old enough to play with it, and she had been very interested in the one at PotteryBarn Kids.

So, we bought her some new furniture from PBK to put in her dollhouse. She also asked us to paint the walls like our walls. She also asked us to paint the outside. She had a hard time deciding on pink or purple, but she finally picked this shade of pink from a Sherwin Williams card.

She loves her dollhouse, and she enjoys playing with it every day! She also loves to get her Little People and make a town with her dollhouse, farm, bus, airplane, and car. We have had a lot of fun pretending!

Plus, Jamie and I had a lot of fun painting her house. Lily even helped us paint the first coat. She loves saying that she painted her house, too!

29 months old!

Here are some pictures of Lily before we left for church last week.

She was so excited about her new purple dress; however, she wanted nothing to do with the cute purple tights that matched it! :0) I guess we are going to have to stick with leggings without any feet.

She loves having her picture made now, and she asks for us to take it constantly.

She also enjoys pretending to take pictures, so she is going to be super excited when she gets her FisherPrice camera for Christmas.

Our little baby is growing up! She has recently learned how to feed herself without making a mess- grits and Chinese noodles. She has also worn panties for 8 days in a row with only one accident that happened with Mrs. Alice, and it wasn't a big one. We had still been putting pull-ups on her for her travel time to Alice's house and for her naps- but we finally just decided to let her try without them. She is doing great, and it is so nice to go places without having to take pull-ups with us! It is really funny at school though- she has to walk out of the bathroom before I flush the commode because she says, "Mama- wait- I scared of the potty." The flushing sound is just too loud!

Have a great weekend! I will try to post a few times this week...

A Busy Weekend

Since The Moon Festival was last weekend, the ladies at our local Chinese restaurant ordered some authentic mooncakes for their families- and they saved some for us... and for Lily. They were very .... interesting. But, still so much fun to have! On Saturday, we got up and headed to our local Pumpkin Town Festival. Jamie had to try his hand at throwing Tomahawks.

Here he is with the second one flying through the air. This is the one where he hit the playing card on the board.

He was a natural at this- below showing his skill after throwing his 3 tomahawks.

So, he won a prize for Lily. She was thrilled with her new bracelet.

I wish we would have gotten a picture of her eating the deep-fried Oreos. Yummo! She thought they were delicious. So did Mama and Baba, by the way.

The picture above of her huge smile shows how much she loved the Oreos.
After the festival, we headed over to Nana and Poppa's house to see Jamie's family. Uncle Gene and Aunt Holly were in for the weekend. Lily enjoyed playing with her cousins.

Nathan enjoyed eating Nana's chocolate cake. He said, "I need my spoon." as soon as he saw the cake being opened.

Lily played and played with Nana. She started riding on the tricycle, but Uncle Gene showed her how to sit on the back of it. So, she wanted to try that, too.

Lily is looking forward to seeing everyone again tomorrow after church!