A fabulous time of year.

We managed to celebrate Lilly's second birthday with with 15 of her closest friends. Well, at least 15 kids of similar age and that she could name them all :)! We decided to have an egg hunt to celebrate the big day and it was a huge hit...kids just love to be outside even though it was not one of the warmest of days (like in the 50's with a brisk wind). The kiddos loved it and the swing set but the parents were itching to get back inside to the warmth of the house. Lilly loved her party and is still not quite aware of the present concept. She opened them and then would just toss them aside, and move on to the next one. After we finally got her calmed back down from her sugar high and in her crib for a nap. We did a bit of cleaning and crashed ourselves; I think the party was harder on us then the kids. After nap time it was full into presents, and playing with everything. She loved all of her gifts, and we loved that my folks let us come over for dinner since we were still pooped and I was not able to plan for dinner.

Lilly's actual second birthday is Sunday (Easter), so we are going to have a very small celebration with my folks and some cupcakes! Little MJ is still holding on strong in my belly so we will see if he decides to come on Lilly's actual birthday; I have a check up tomorrow so we will see what they tell me. But I think all of the docs are happy that I am nearly 37 weeks along and basically full term. I just keep joking that this child will come out talking with all of the extra time he has spent in utero. My folks and friends are all on edge when I call them....in case it's "the call" luckily I have some great people surrounding me and ready to help out however they can. And since my parents don't sleep much anyhow, I am not worried about needing them to watch Lilly in the middle of the night. Here's to this baby boy making his debut soon so I can stop learning where each potty in carteret county is!!

Little Miss Independent

Our Lilly has taken to be very independent little gal...wants to pick out her clothes, shoes, accessories, put them all and take them off. She loves to wear my high heels and "clomp" around the house. Some of her favorite phrases are....."no momma, I do it," "by self" and of course "no dada, back up." Lilly also enjoys singing, a few of her regular songs now are: ABC's, itsy bitsy (sp)-pider, and skidamarinc-e-dink. I will work on getting new videos of her singing soon. We are in full swing of planning her 2nd birthday, it's going to be an easter egg hunt with chick-fil-a nuggets (one of her favorites). So far I have stuffed nearly 200 eggs, and hopefully that will be enough. As long as the little baby in my belly stays for a while, we should be able to get all things done for her big day!!

Track...

So a few local friends have asked for my help in creating some track workouts for them to get them ready for 5K season. I have always loved yelling at people, so I thought why not. Plus it will be good when I am trying to get back into shape to have a schedule already established. Last night, we made the track workout a family affair, well a Hoover family affair (Fitz was slammed at work so he stayed back). Off we went to call times, let my Dad run some repeats and try to tucker out little miss lilly. Little did I realize how much she would love it....she kicked off her flip flops (and informed us she was running like Ms. Amy-who occasionally runs bare-footed), and off she went running all over the place. Then she preceded to pick up on what I was saying and cheering on Ms. Amy, Ms Heidi, and Commadore. Too Cute!! After that she decided to cheer on the other people (some students, and a lady walking) with sayings like...."good job lady" and "good job boy. " Needless to say, I have lost my position as head cheerleader as no one and I mean no one can resist smiling and running a bit harder when a little bare-footed blonde-headed, blue-eyed baby girl cheers you on!

Laughs from Miss Lilly

So I have been very slack in keeping a journal for Lilly, but I wanted to share two funny Lilly-isms from today. While in hawaii over the holidays, we were trying to teach Lilly that we could not cross the street until the walk came up. We made the mistake of calling it "the white man" because well, you have to wait for the little white man to come up before you can cross. We thought that Lilly got it, but in recent weeks she has been saying "white man" at times when there is no cross walk around...so yesterday at the St. Pattie's Fest; Lilly ran up to a fire hydrant and said "white man." Cracking us up......we never realized that each time we had told Lilly to look for the "white man" she only saw a fire hydrant! Then this morning at the park, Lilly started doing laps of sorts out of the park and to a street lamp (like 25 feet away from the park entrance and no where near the road) and touch the lamp, then run back. So on the second lap we asked Lilly what she was doing and she said "I see the light." Again, we were in stitches. Kids say the darn-dest things! I hope to be able to post more as they happen as to have some record of our beautifully smart caring crazy gal, Lilly!

My Baby Girl is Turning TWO!!

Our good friend Missy took some beautiful photos of Lilly for me to use as her two year photos; we are still three weeks from her actual birthday, BUT with me being past my 34 week mark; I could deliver any day now so better to get them done while we have time and a beautiful day! Enjoy!

Group shot!
Lilly looking out at the water; at least this time we kept her out of it!

She loves to climb!

Lilly and Dada!

Lilly with donut on her face and in her hands!

Beach Day fully equipt with sunshine!

We got to us our beach pass over the weekend and with the sunshine, it was great! We first stopped for donuts to fuel up for the adventure! We got to go for a walk down the beach, and enjoy the swing set at the circle! Lilly had a great time and I know will be much happier when it is really warm outside! Here's to warmer weather on the way and finally getting to feel the sun on my face!