Lily's Birthday

Lily turned 2! TWO!! Where did the time go?!

Obviously other things have taken up a lot of our time/energy/minds and I have yet to get the invitations out, anything bought for her birthday (which is kind of ok because we're a little broke!) and we haven't done much in the gift department (we meaning her parents).

We celebrated last night with some family while they were still in town and it was good to have something else to look forward to and focus on. We are so thankful that Lily is in our lives.

This Monday, Memorial Day, will be her actual party. I have A LOT of cleaning and preparing to do. When I say we don't have much, I mean it! I bought some pink plates and napkins months ago and have cups and utensils left over from last year (that might last forever) and that IS IT! No decorations, no pictures... nothing! I'll wait until the weekend to go buy food and I'm thinking of trying to make some of those tissue balls you see everywhere in blogland.

I really hope the weather will behave for Monday because I'd much rather have it outside than everyone inside. At least our AC works this year so the cake and I won't be melted before people arrive.

I'll try to post pics tonight. I'm taking pics of her tomorrow while in town for her doctor's checkup so we can continue the series from last year (I plan on taking her there until she makes me stop).

Why?

"How are you doing?" - "How are things?" - "How are you?"

And my personal favorite (sarcastically speaking), "Are you ok?"

NO, I am not ok. How can I be?

I have never mentioned on this blog before and I'm not going into details, but I lost my brother this week. He passed away after fighting a short (6ish months) battle with cancer.

It's not fair.

He was only 31. His whole life was ahead of him.

He is (I don't like using was for some things) my only brother. My only sibling.

His visitation was last night. The line was out the door and took hours to move. He was truly loved by many! Some of his close friends came in from all over - Colorado, Chicago, Florida, all over our state. Our family came in from everywhere too. Even a ton of his coworkers came AND some of his customers (he was a sales rep).

His girlfriend (I was hoped I'd be able to call her my sister-in-law) did an awesome job at setting things up for last night. His personal belongings were all over the place. I may try to get pics of it today when we go back to the funeral home. He loved music, shoes, nice clothes, sports, and so much more.

It's just so unreal. I know it hasn't really hit me even though I feel like it has. At dinner last night, I was out with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandmother and it felt like he should have been there with us.

So, no, I'm not ok. We are not ok. We're mourning. We're pissed off. We're upset. We're sad. We're devastated. It was a messed up situation with a horrible end. 31 year old healthy guys should not get stricken with a horrible cancer. It's not like he was a chain smoker or worked in a coal mine or surrounded himself with unhealthy habits.

I just want to scream. I did the night he died. I also have wanted to throw things, hit things, and cry. I've done the crying. I've thought about buying a punching bag. Or one of those really big body bags for punching and kicking. And I almost threw my phone the other day but realized even if I'm super upset, that would only add to the frustration as I'd probably break it.

I'll miss ya, big bro. We all will and I hope you saw just how many people came to pay their respects to you last night.

{Family} My Cousin's Wedding

The happy couple, feeding each other ham from the WHOLE roasted pig (pic below ... warning, if you're a vegetarian or vegan, you better not look!)

The pig... I had never seen one before and was told by my aunts that I need to take pics for a cousin who couldn't make the wedding...




My princess...



Always expressive!



Dancing!



The pretty flowers - these were the bouquets for the bridesmaids.



The centerpiece - it was in a huge urn and was awesome!



The full turn pic... it was HUGE!



DELICIOUS cupcakes. My aunt's friend made all the food, cake, and cupcakes for the reception. These were delicious chocolate cupcakes with a chocolage ganache on top. The butterflies were made out of chocolate.



The dessert table

The Fence, part 2

Ahh...the fence... thanks to our tax refund, and planning ahead, we put our money into a fence to help keep in the children - all five of 'em! (Lily and the four pets)

Don't you just love the look of the privacy fence? And yes, I'm fully aware that most privacy fences are built with the nice part looking OUT but they had to put one side facing in and when they asked about the other sides, I said to make them all look the same ('cause who would want one side different?!). So they did it and I like it. Plus, WE paid for it, so we should see the pretty side, right?!!!



Lily's Obsession

Lily is obsessed with Elmo! What is it about the annoying, fuzzy, red creature that every two year old loves? My aunt brought us a bunch of DVDs from the library (she works there) and we have all but worn them out! I bought two at Wally World for a little variation and now I'm super sick of all of them! I bought Kids Favorite Songs, 1 and 2. They are really good for Lily and have helped her with counting and just recently, some singing. She's trying to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and can put her hands up like Tully (for "like a diamond in the sky..."). There is one part of one of the videos that SCARES her though. It's when Snuffy losses his giant meatball (from "on top of spaghetti...") and it almost runs over Elmo! Talk about a little worried baby - she actually SHAKES when she watches it and cries out for Elmo. One night after watching it, she was half asleep and cried out for Elmo. We have a little stuffed doll of him, so I gave that to her and she calmed down. Maybe it was the video or maybe it was a coincidence... I'm just glad we had a little mini Elmo to make her feel better. It was also when she was sick, so I'd do anything to make her feel better! It was her first time sleeping with a stuffed animal!

Even though he may be annoying, the little furr ball has wormed himself into our lives and I honestly don't know how he couldn't. I avoided it for so long but she seems him at daycare and when we've watched Sesame Street. Luckily it's not all just Elmo - she does like the Mr. Potato Head dolls and all of her other toys - Little People stuff (my $3 garage sale find - the house that makes sounds!), Fisher Price ($1 auction piano buy), and some other goodies.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

I found a few good pics of my mom on my computer (not many of the two of us, but lots of her and Lily!). So I thought I'd share. There's one of Lily, me, my mom and my grandma but I can't seem to find it... I'll keep looking!






Here's a pic of Doug's mom and Lily.


And because I found this while looking for other pics, I thought I would add it. She was just a few days short of arriving on Mother's Day two years ago. :)

Lily's Birthday

Thanks to a coworker (hi Kayla!), we now have our invitations and I just need to get them printed!

I can't believe that in a few short weeks, she will be TWO! And then we'll have the party... for those wondering (since it'll be a few days until we send out the invites), the party will be on Memorial Day and we'll be doing a BBQ. Yippee! Doug can break out his grill for the summer, we'll have potato salad, cake, and who knows what else!

The fence should be done by then, maybe we'll have the beginnings of a swing set in place too!

Home Tour




I'm going to join in on the Parade of Homes tour at A Bowl Full of Lemons but I couldn't decide what posts to put in, so I figured I'd do a list of things...

1.
The Upstairs Remodel - this has taken forever but we're almost there. As in we just need a few strong men who will carry some freakishly large and heavy pieces of furniture up some super narrow stairs. And Doug's closet still needs to be finished... and well, a few other pieces too, but it's practically done!

2. The Outside - front garden, veggie garden, etc.

3. Lily's Garden - this in progress, as we have plans for a path and lots more plants... but all in time. :)

4. Our new fence! - technically we didn't do this, but we are paying someone a nice chunk of money to have it installed professionally.

5. Lily's Nursery - tihs is about to get a make over but I haven't done anything yet (and won't until we're ready to move her into a big girl room).

6. Our main bathroom - it was so ugly when I started! We have plans of remodeling this at some point in the semi-near future.

7. Rock Garden - I desperately need to get some new pics because some of the plants have really grown in the last couple years!!

Fence Posts

I came home today to see almost all of our fence posts in the ground!!! The first pic might need enlarged to see them (they were taken from my phone). It'll be nice to have some privacy! I did my student teaching in the school that's only two yards away and you could see everything (obviously, since it's so close!) but now there will be a 6 foot wall between us and our neighbors! Oh, and my neighbors' pesky cats and dogs... including the one below (although he's cute, he likes to mark his territory and it's bad enough he can do it everywhere else in our yard!).






This photo is better... that's my neighbor's house and garage (the crazy lady with all of the cats) and it's nice to see how much of her house will be blocked. We may try to do something later (a lattice) to make the corner (not in the pic) be taller and block her deck and side of the house. It would be all in shade though, so we'd have to get some shade loving plants to grow...

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