Having Ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

Traditions.  We started to wonder if we had any of our own since we got married...?  Other than a crazy looking 80's star on our tree, Decem-Bear on our wall, and unfortunately working at the hospitals on Christmas, I'm not sure we have much in the way of traditions.  So we decided this would be the year we make some.  We home made stockings out of felt.  We went to Christmas at the Zoo for one evening of chilly weather, lights, dolphin shows, apple cider (cup 'o cheer), and pictures with penguins.  We will drink wine and have bread each Christmas Eve to honor Christ, and finally, we will be together.  Being together will be the best part.  And our newest tradition, is a baby-proofed Christmas.  Large gates surround our tree and family room.  It defeats the purpose a little bit as Lilah still finds a way to slam her body weight against the gates and knock them over into the Christmas Tree, therefore, knocking over the Christmas tree.  But it's pretty for all to see, and it's relatively safe.

Dolphin show!

Penguins... Daddy's favorite!

It was beautiful at the zoo!

Our awesome stockings!

Sledding at Butler with friends... even the duck made it!

This has been the year of the most religious growth for both of us, and we can thank Lilah's arrival for that.  Having this beautiful treasure of a child makes us more aware of how greatly we have been blessed and the great gift that we get to raise her.  One of my favorite traditions of Christmas is Christmas Eve Church, singing carols by candlelight.  We were both scheduled to be on call this Christmas Eve, again, for the 3nd year in a row.  By grace, another resident insisted on switching me this year so at least one of us could be home with Lilah.  I LOVED going to church with my little doodlebug and letting her take part in this Christmas Tradition of mine. Merry Christmas to all of you!

Baby Chaos & Daddy Does Fashion

Messy house.  Baby chewing on cords.  Baby pulling out doggy fur from doggy.  Baby leaning over the side of her high chair and directly feeding Rooney.  Rooney now loving following Lilah's every move in hopes he gets fed.  Bruises all over baby's head from trying to cruise but not being quite ready.  Daycare being out of diapers for Lilah as I'm changing her from a blowout first thing in the morning... Yikes.  Not a single inch of free counter space.  Happy screeches and laughs from our doodlebug.  This has become our life!

What's the point of to-do lists anymore?  I give up.  Our friends without kids must cringe when they come over to our house.  It's a cross between an episode of baby hoarders and small amounts of our trash and backyard tracked throughout thanks to a baby & Rooney.  They are what we affectionately call our Mess Team.  The Mess Team is a group of professionals, I'm telling you. (However, we also owe it to Rooney for much of our clean floors as he is an excellent crumb clearer.)

Our organizational skills have gotten so bad that we lost our own dog.  Ben and I were sitting on the couch shortly after a walk outside and saw a flash of white through the window.  I mindlessly stated, "I think there's a dog outside our window."  It was followed by another white flash at the window and scratching at our door.  Ben said, "the dog must be at our door now."  Real genius.  We have lots of random dogs that run around our neighborhood, so this is why we were unimpressed.  We checked the front door and poor, dejected Rooney blasted through the door.  I have no idea how long he was out there, but worse, I have no idea how long it would've taken us to realize he was gone.  Poor guy.  He's practically got to look out for himself these days.  We luckily still keep it together enough to do our laundry, etc.  But despite Lilah having clean clothes to wear to daycare, her Dad tries to "mix it up a bit".  The teachers at Lilah's daycare laugh  and chuckle when I come in to pick her up some days and say, "Dad must of dropped her off today..."  Mismatched clothes in Ben's eyes are a forward fashion statement.  To me, it's just outrageously entertaining.  I wish I had more pictures as proof, but these 2 are the only ones I have.

I hope you appreciate the 3 prints involved in this masterpiece

Another Creation By Dad

Chaos is our life... and we love it!

The Holidays: Part 1

I promise I did not abandon the blog permanently, just a small holiday hiatus.  I'm allowed a few of those a year, especially when there is tryptophan and apple pie involved. Our now 8 month old expertly travelled by plane back to Nebraska for Thanksgiving.  I congratulate myself, but I did nothing. The Travel Gods looked fondly down on me.  I breastfed on both flights smoothly, only endured 5 minutes of screaming/crying and otherwise showed myself it is possible to travel with a child!  I don't want to encourage too much technology at such a young age, but there a few baby apps on my ipad that were life savers on the airplane! 

Lilah and I visited my grandma, Gigi, in a rehabilitiation home where she is recovering from breaking her hip.  Her spirits were high when she got to have Miss Pookie Rose on her lap.  Lilah attracted quite a bit of attention around that place as well!  We wish Gigs a speedy recovery and hope to have her home soon!

Great Aunt Joan

Great Uncle Ron/Momo :)

Uncle Trev and Tristan

Uncle Ty

Grandmas are the best.  They spoil, spoil, change diapers, laugh at everything Lilah does and are just great.  I wish they lived closer!  Ben and I went "out" one night with friends... big stuff!  While in Nebraska, Lilah attended her Aunt Lauren's baby shower for her new cousin... coming February 2014.  We also discovered how to climb steps, started saying what might be Mama and Dada (?!) and met a few new family members!   Poor Lilah also endured an agonizing 3 hour trip to Verizon to set up Gramma and BopBop Otto with smartphones.  If it was a movie, it would be entitiled "Chevy Chase's Verizon Vacation".  Just before teaching my dad what texting was and slightly after explaining how to use a mobile hot spot, Lilah blasted out her pants in Verizon's main room.  It was a trip to be remembered by all. 

If everyone had this much fun with baths!

Gramma Otto and pumpkin pie

PopPop singing Pony Girl

And of course, we enjoyed the best Thanksgiving ever together!  Ben drove overnight to join us and we celebrated with both families for the first time in 3 years!!!  Before I could say no, Gramma Otto, had Lilah try her first bites of pumpkin pie.  Like father like daughter... this girl's going to have a sweet tooth! My brother's girlfriend, Jen, took expert photos of Lilah, all while minimally using her shoulder- impressive!  Lilah partied with her Great-Doctor-Unc-Dude-Man Scott, who calls her his great-neph-dudette.  And we also said hi to Allie, Marth and Iz.  Iz is 13 months ahead of Lilah... a glimpse into what next year at Thanksgiving will be like! At the Taylor house, Lilah partied on her two scooters!  She brought the house down laughing when she figured out how to ride these with hilarious charm!  It was a quick trip but we loved it!
Jen's Photos:

Really, how can you not love this?!

The Fam! (minus Gigi, Jeff, Nancy)

George & Gracie

A new idea was suggested by my dad, midnight driving.  We left at 1am to drive back to Indiana.  That man is a genius.  We endured the most quiet and easy car trip with a baby.  We will repeat this clever strategy in a heartbeat! (Please note, Ben drove all 10 hrs and I slept.  This can also be repeated :)    However, when we got back, we had a fussy 8 month old for a day.  We call it Black Sunday.  It's the day you endure when there are no grandparents around to smile, play and laugh at your kids.  We had one.  She was displeased about not having a mega adoring audience around anymore.  Ben and I think she's fabulously cute, but we clearly don't meet Lilah's expectations for attention giving. 

We miss everyone already... but Christmas is right around the corner!

Happy Memories

 Well intentioned pictures always get rained out.  We did... a six hour delay made for some pretty adorable muddy photos :)  Lilah was 5 months old when these were taken and they are absolute treasures!  She did take a tumble off a statue and knicked her nose and grabbed at the mud in almost every photo-- but who cares!  She was so darling! 

Human Kleenex

I have now discovered what it's like to be used as a human kleenex.  My every outfit has white goo on the shoulder.  The other amazing thing is how babies innately learn to avoid having their nose be wiped.  It's like  But a little cold and cough didn't get little Lilahkins down!  Last night we celebrated her 7 month birthday with a little squash.  She raspberried that squash all over her mommy and daddy like a pro!  That's my girl!

My husband spoiled and spoiled and spoiled his girls last week.  Powdered donuts, homecooked meals, flowers, girly movies and whole lot of his time!  My good friend, Kate Gogela, came down to help me ring in my birthday by carving pumpkins, going to a brewery and watching some good 'ol football... and of course, helping me bathe the baby, etc :)

Miss Sassy Frassy in the bathtub

Terrifying!

Kate, Lilah and Mom on my bday :)

She's on the Move!

Well, folks... she's on the move!  Our lives as a stationary baby are over.  The opportunities are endless to get into trouble, the beauty of crawling!  We made a very hefty trip to the safety store- buying cupboard locks (seems more handy around teenagers than babies in my opinion), baby gates, and cord concealers.  Yes, they make cord concealers. Still not sure how they will help from her pulling down my Scentsy on herself, but we have them.  Rooney has not been a big fan of the baby gates, suddenly understanding he's been trapped into the same room as Lilah.  Lilah is obsessed with Rooney.  She talks to him all the time and has only twice ripped out a big fistful of hair, poor Rooney.  She bosses him around, but he's the most patient pup with her.  We secretly think he may even be starting to like her... sort of.  We have also become acutely aware of how dirty our floor is.  Not until your precious baby is crawling on top of your floor do you scrutinize all the strange things on it.

Airing out before bedtime

Mom, where do you keep the cookies?

We also go to celebrate a very special occasion- Lilah's baptism!  She was lovingly welcomed into St. Luke's Methodist congregation with one of our favorite pastors!  We were so proud!  Babies really are God's miracles.  We know while watching the ceremony live from afar that uncles Trevor and Tyler were secretly rooting for a Lilah meltdown or blowout, but we smoothly sailed through the ceremony in her pink ruffled dress. It was so wonderful to have some special friends and family there for it.   We just hope she grows up to be a good person and a happy one.

I love an Eileen's cookie!! Thanks Mom!

Grampa the Babysitter

Miss Smiles with her grandparents

Baptism

VanPelts with us at the baptism

Purdue vs Nebraska: crossing our fingers for an away win, we hesistantly bought tickets for the Purdue game.  My dad, Ben, myself and my best friend Jenna's family tailgated and watched the game in West Lafayette Indiana.  WOO! What a win!  The fans were sweet, they mostly just dislike IU.   THanks to Gramma O for providing baby sitting services :)

Grampa...

Go Big Red!

Tailgating with the Hills and VanPelts before game