Chateaux de Lily

Welcome to the Chateaux de Lily!

For the last couple weeks my parents have been getting their floors re-done and so Lily's little play area has been a little compromised. We have been trying to stay out of Brother Smith's way as he put down the new floors, but Lily loves when he comes over to "play with her" and keeps insisting that he "mon" (come on) to come read stories and play in her room with us. Thank goodness he's a grandpa and understands her sweet little personality! We have been trying to stay out of his hair by hiding in Uncle Trevor's room and watching movies or reading stories in her room, but it's been hard for such an energetic girl to be so couped up. Finally today as the renovations are almost at a close, my mom had the wonderful idea to build Lily a "castle" fort. Lily is definitely in an imaginary stage and constantly talks about "Beast" from "Beauty and the Beast" who is one of her favorite Disney characters. So we pretended that her fort was the Beast's castle and that Lily was visiting. She got right to work with that imagination of hers, telling the wolves that were trying to get in to "stop" and "go away" and reading stories with the Beast. She probably spent a couple of hours in there today! It's so fun to see how inventive that little brain of hers can be and how much fun she can have with a few chairs, a couple blankets, and a book. I'm definitely going to try to milk this fort thing for all it's worth!

Inside the castle

Saucy Girl

It's not very often that we get fast food for Lily, but the other day Tobby and I were both craving McDonald's and since they have healthier alternatives for Happy Meals, we gave in. We have known this for a while, but Lily is obsessed with dips and sauces. Whenever she won't eat her veggies we have gotten into the habit of offering it with ketchup or ranch dressing. She usually dips the food into the sauce licks it off and dips again with the occassional bite. So, you can imagine her joy as she opened her Happy Meal not to find one dipping sauce but two! She loved dipping the chicken nuggets into the caramel dip and her apple slices into the honey mustard sauce. I'm sure her sauce loving Aunt Meredith is very proud of her!

California Sun

Last month we had the opportunity to go to California for the Clark family reunion (minus Tobby and my dad). One of our favorite things to do while visiting is to swim in Aunt Janan's pool, so every day we were over there enjoying a nice swim. I thought Lily was going to be so excited to get in the water because she talks about wanting to swim all the time, but when she got in she was really clingy and didn't want to swim. On rare occasions she would let us get her in the superman position and try to kick, but mostly she would wrap her legs around our waists and hug our necks tight. I couldn't really complain though, it was nice to have my little toddler want to be so close!

After visiting at my grandparents house for a week, we traveled to Copperopolis and stayed at a lakehouse. The house was right on the water, so we went boating all day every day while we were there. It was so fun to see all the cousins and aunts and uncles (well, uncle) there! We really had a great time!

Boating

With cousin Lauren

Our captain, Uncle George

Tiffany and Lauren

Adam and Connor

Trevor and Haley

Our lakehouse is the one in the middle with the tree to the left that's kind of blocking it. It was pretty big!

Expecting

We weren't really going to publicize this for a while, but Tobby keeps telling me that if I didn't post something, then he would. So, for those of you that haven't heard yet, we are expecting another baby! The due date is April 6th. We are ecstatic. I was kind of skeptical before I took a test because I didn't feel pregnant like I did with Lily. So, I had this plan on how to tell Tobby, but he guessed what was going on the second he saw me and spoiled the surprise, so we used my plan on his parents. Lily and I had been in California for over a week, so they were coming over to visit with us. My mom helped me make an iron-on letter message on one of Lily's shirts that said "Big Sister". I thought it would be interesting to see how long it took Scott and Sherry to figure it out without pointing out the shirt. They walked in the door, starting talking and hugging Lily and when they finally put her down, Scott said, "Wait a minute. Look at her shirt." By this point I was trying not to burst out in laughter. A second later it clicked and they were congratulating us. Even though I have felt a little scared about becoming a mommy of two, I was so excited to welcome a new little baby to our family. Lily's also excited and loves to point to my belly and say, "Baby!" and kiss my tummy. She's going to be a great big sister!

Tyring to get Lily to show off her BIG SISTER status

Independence Parade

We have a tradition every year to go to the parade in Provo for the 4th of July. Last year, Lily actually fell asleep during the parade, which is next to impossible, but taking into account her developing activity level and her attention span, I was a little nervous that I would be chasing my daughter all over the place. To my pleasant surprise, she was pretty content to sit in someone's lap or on their shoulders. She seemed to have a great time! I always love the opportunity we get every year to celebrate the birth of our wonderful country and the freedoms that we have. Even though things aren't perfect here, as I'm sure they are not anywhere, we have so many protected rights and chances to do many things that others can't. My favorite part of the parade has always been standing up and cheering for war veterans. I am so thankful of all of those who are in the military and fight for our country and those freedoms that we have. At this point I feel like standing up and singing, "I'm proud to be an American . . ." but I'll spare you!


Ooing and Aaing

A little too loud!

Showing our true colors

A little diversion

New Family

On Father's Day, we got an expected call from my oldest brother, Jared, who lives in Arizona . . . but what we weren't expecting was his news. He and his girlfriend, Sara, were getting married and it would probably be within a week. I was so excited to hear this news!! Not only was I going to gain a sister, but Sara also has two beautiful daughters that were going to be my nieces. Yeah! So, a few days later me and Lily hopped in the car with my parents and brothers, (Tobby was in Wyoming for work :( )and drove down to Arizona to help with the wedding. We only had two days to help out, but thanks to aunts, uncles,cousins and friends, Jared and Sara's ceremony and reception turned out beautifully. You would never know they didn't have at least 3 months of preparation.

My nieces

This is Dezi (stands for Dezra) and she will be turning 10 in August.

This is 6 year old Ashley.


The set-up

Sara chose light and deep purple as her colors



Good thing Jared works at an event rental company and was able to get all the chairs, tables, table clothes, silverware, etc. because it turned out looking great! By the way, the food was not catered, it was all done by helpful family members and it was delicious.


The Ceremony

Waiting for his bride

Sara's dad passed away when she was younger, so my dad had the opportunity to walk her down the isle. I know it meant a lot to both of them.

Dezi and Ashley were flower girls and my cousin's son, Jace, was the ring bearer.

Lily and me at the ceremony

Exchanging vows

My Uncle Paul is a Stake President and got special permission to marry Jared and Sara. It was so nice that he performed the ceremony.

The new family

The Thomas boys with the bride (Sean, Trevor, Sara, Jared, Justin)

I am so thankful that Jared has found a soul mate in Sara. I don't know her very well, but I am looking forward to a lifetime (and beyond) of getting to know her and her girls. Welcome to the family Sara, Dezi and Ashley! Love you already!

Our BIG Boston Trip

I'm sure you've noticed the absence of blog updates . . . but we were on vacation! Last month we went out to Boston to visit Tobby's brother Cody, his wife Meredith and their little girl Emerson. We were out there for 10 days, so we had a chance to do so many things.

Museum of Science

Lily's favorite thing at the museum was "talking" to the person on the automated telephones, you know, the ones that tell you information about the display you are looking at.

Lily swinging in the playground room

In the beautiful butterfly garden

Duck Tours
For those of you that have never heard of the Duck Tours, they are basically military "buses" that were used in WWII that drive on land and also go into the water. The city of Boston has a bunch of them and they take tourists around and show them the city.

I should remember the names of these amazing buildings . . . but I don't,
it was the end of a long day.

Children's Museum

The bubble room

The ping pong racing room

This dance floor would light up when you stepped on it and Lily loved running around on it

Musical chairs

Airplane in Arthur town

Lily thought this statue of a seeing eye dog was real and she kept petting it!

Fun at the park

On the Ferry

The New England Aquarium




This is a sea dragon-my favorite creature at the aquarium!



Six Flags
This day was so fun! Although all my pictures are of the little girls in Wiggles World or Thomas (the train) Town, the adults had fun too. The craziest ride was called the Bizarro and it's the steepest roller coaster in the U.S.(world?). I am usually a roller coaster person, but I went on it once and that was enough for me.










Beach Day


Emmy showing Lily the waves



"I touched a crab . . ."

" . . . and I liked it!"


For anyone that knows Lily, she gets upset around messes, so she is pointing out to Emmy that she is very dirty and probably saying, "Oh oh."


Plymouth




In front of the Mayflower II


Cousin Loves
Despite our many worries that Lily and Emerson would not get along, they actually got along beautifully. My favorite thing about their little relationship was that every time Emmy would wake up, the first thing she would say is, "Mo Yiye" or "More Lily" for those of you that don't speak baby. They were great buddies the whole trip.