Thanksgiving in the Smokies

We spent Thanksgiving in the Smokies with Jamie's family this year. It was a Thanksgiving/Birthday Celebration for his grandmother. In the picture above, we had spent the morning watching the Macy's Parade. Lily loved it! She loved it last year, too. However, this year she kept telling us how much she really wants to go see it next year. We are considering this for a future family outing because we do love New York. We can't wait to share that trip with her.

This picture is from the night before at Jamie's grandmother's birthday dinner. We stayed at the Park Vista Hotel which was really nice. We had a great time spending time with family.

This was the view we woke up to on the first morning we were there. Check out what was underneath the smokiness...

Pretty cool, huh! We were surprised at our view from our hotel balcony.

We enjoyed the weekend! Plus, we ended up spending some time going to see TANGLED which was the best Disney movie ever! We loved it. Jamie still loves Princess & the Frog the most, but Tangled is now my new favorite. I think it is Lily's too since she had to have the Rapunzel doll at the Disney Store today after church!

We love Sundays!

We have started going to a new church which is 45 minutes from our house. We are cherishing these moments together. That much time in the car every weekend has been wonderful for talking, singing, and just spending time together. So, today, I took the camera with me. I taped a lot of things. So, I hope you have time to enjoy a few minutes of Lily-entertainment.

I am sorry! I am having a horrible time getting these videos to upload. I have one of her singing her ABCs, the "Tinkle Tinkle" song, telling a made-up story, and just talking in the car. I will try again sometime this week.

Remembering...and Catching Up

Sometimes it seems like yesterday that we were in China.... but Lily is 3 1/2 now! I just cannot believe how quickly time has flown by. I haven't posted in awhile because work is so busy this year for Jamie and me. Of course, having a 3-year-old makes my computer time absolutely pointless. Besides, I would much rather be playing with Lily!

Lily is doing great. She is growing and growing. She amazes me every day with the conversations that we have. She has a major obssession with cleaning now- but she is just like her OCD Mama. So, I can't really fuss too much about that. She is really into telling stories and making up her own songs. She has been making up songs for awhile, but these actually make sense. She loves to do school work of any kind- writing her letters, coloring, figuring out patterns. Her new favorite tv shows are Team Umizoomi and Wonder Pets. She is learning a lot about math and the world from these shows. I really like them, too. She enjoys shopping probably a little too much, and she loves going out to eat. Her favorite meal at the moment is steak, but she also loves anything that has to do with pasta.

Right now, she is extremely excited about Christmas since we put our tree up last weekend. She has 6 presents under the tree- 3 from Aunt Suzette and 3 from us. (Since Jesus only got 3 presents- she says.) I had no idea that she would remember every ornament and where they came from. I told her stories last year, but I had no idea she was paying that much attention. Getting the ornaments out, she would gasp and happily hug each one, telling me where they came from or who they belonged to before she gently hung them on the tree. I think Jamie and I were responsible for about 10 ornaments, but the tree has been redecorated a few times since the original hangings.

I will try to post some pictures this weekend, and I will try to get a little video for you to see.

Dress-Up, Board Games, and Driving Around

This has been such a beautiful weekend! We spent most of Saturday morning inside playing dress-up and going to a ball where we danced, waltzed, and twirled. Then, we headed outside for the afternoon hours...

While Baba trimmed bushes, mowed, and weed-eated; we continued learning how to drive. I am not sure when Lily will ever get her driver's permit! Then, we played with sidewalk chalk. We actually helped Baba a lot, too! Lily said, "This is so much fun carrying all of these sticks to the road!" We are so thankful she is such a good, willing helper!

We ended up back inside for the evening playing more dress-up. We also spent hours playing board games- Lily's favorites at the moment are Hungry Hippos, Memory (the Kai-lan version), Chutes and Ladders, and Hi Ho Cherry O! I think that CandyLand and Operation will be our next purchases! We saw a Toy Story version that looks like so much fun!

I am truly enjoying this new Lily who loves to dress-up! By the way, for those who don't know- Lily has changed her name. She is now Lily Grace Flower Davis- and she is very serious about it! :0)

The Princess Parlor....Finally a Fairy Princess!

I have to start with this picture first simply because it reminds me of a Breakfast at Tiffany's shot. Plus, for those of you who remember the post from last year, we had no idea how this evening would go. Lily would barely participate the last time we went to The Princess Parlor. This time was different. She was very excited about dressing up like one of Tinkerbell's friends.
We went this time to celebrate Kenli's birthday.

Lily knew immediately which dress she wanted. Even though we had some difficulties, she was allowed to wear the dress in the end. After last year, I was so thankful that she was able to wear the one she wanted.

She is in the dressing room choosing her jewelry in this picture.

Now, she is really taking a good look at her fairy princess dress. She picked this out all by herself, and I just loved it. I wish I could find one to buy for her at home.

Next, they put her fingernail polish on, a little blush and eyeshadow, and some lipgloss.

She was ready for all of it! She looked beautiful with the make-up they put on her.

Of course, we had to get a picture with Lily and her Baba. There will be more of these...

I loved this picture of her with the flower, especially since she has changed her name to Lily Grace Flower. She has been telling that to family and friends lately.

Isn't this dress just beautiful! She was mesmerized by this flower.

Do you think she feels completely confident about how they are fixing her hair?

She listened and did what she was told when they began spraying her hair with hairspray.

I do believe that she likes what she sees.

I watched closely to see how they fixed her hair. I was amazed by what they could do with Lily's short hair. I hope I learned a few things.

She is really ready for her raspberry tea. She has been waiting so patiently for this tea. It was the one thing she remembered from last time that she loved.

Once again, she is wondering about this princess crown procedure...

Finally, everyone is ready for some tea. Can you see the look on her face? She is really ready for some tea. Kenli, the birthday girl, is in the middle. Kenli is so beautiful. Look at her gorgeous smile!

As soon as they sat the cup in front of her, Lily was drinking her tea. I am pretty sure she had many refills- as many as they would give her. She absolutely loves this tea!

She also enjoyed the plain vanilla cupcake.

I do love this shot of her drinking her tea through the glass window.

She certainly enjoyed her spot of tea and her scrumptious cupcake.

Now, it is time to dance. She is once again a little fearful of what is next.

Then, she remembers this is the part she loved last time. She loves to dance!

All of the girls danced together, while Kenli's Prince Charming, a.k.a. Baba, stood in the back watching. They had already had their dance together.

Then, Lily danced with her Prince Charming, too.

We had a wonderful evening! Thank you Kenli for inviting us to your birthday party!

Tigger & Lily

We found Lily and Tigger hugging in her bed the other night.
It is always interesting to see who Lily is snuggled up with when she falls asleep.
When we showed Lily these pictures, she said that Tigger was really happy when he was hugging her in bed.

Hunting Eggs

This was taken after an evening of hunting eggs. Lily loves hunting eggs in every room of the house. She enjoys finding brand-new hiding spots for her eggs. The other evening, she picked up an egg, and exclaimed, "Mama, Mama- the egg patched!" I thought, "What? What does patched mean?" Then she continued, "There is a baby in this egg! It patched! It patched! Do you see it?"

It patched (hatched)! Seriously- I love this age! The imagination, the stories, and the words are just absolutely entertaining. I could listen to her made-up stories and her imagination at work every second of the day.