Ice Skating

I've been waiting nearly three whole years for this moment.  The moment that Lily and I get to lace up skates and glide out on to the ice together.  It finally happened today.  Lily laced up her size 10 skates on her size 6 feet and we lasted an entire 60 seconds before I had to carry her.  

After the zamboni cleaned the ice we convinced her to get back out.  Uncle B was even able to snag her a cheater bar and she was all giggles and smiles by the time they kicked everyone off.  Hopefully next time we'll find her some appropriate sized skates and have less of a fear factor.

34 Months

That's right - it's your lucky day!  Not one, not two, but THREE posts in one day!  How am I accomplishing this you ask?  Well.  Mike is parked in front of the television watching the Colts game and Lily is parked in front of the iPad watching cartoons.  That leaves me parked in front of my ginormous Mac.  #thankgoodnessfortechnology

It's been awhile since I've posted a milestone month update.  Mostly because I have to use my calculator to figure out how many months my child is now (not lying - I should have just subtracted from 36 but that would have been too easy).

Lily made star student at school this week.  She gets to design a board all about herself to share with her friends at school.  I had to fill out a questionnaire all about her and we picked out pictures for her to take in to put on display.  She's really excited to share her pictures of her with her cousins and of her with the hula dancers in Hawaii.

Earlier this week Lily woke up screaming in the middle of the night.  When I went in to see what was going on, she told me she had to go to the bathroom and I realized we'd forgotten to put a pull-up on her.  We decided to see if we could continue the trend of no accidents in big girl panties and we went 4 straight nights without an accident.  Yesterday she didn't nap so I'm sure she was in a deep slumber. She woke us up around 5:00am to tell us she was sweaty....I really wish it was sweat....

Another big step for her, she asked to have the gate removed from her bedside.  She informed us that only babies need gates and she's not a baby.  So far we've only lost a teddy bear overboard.

So here we are with an almost three year old who is testing our patience, making us laugh and cry, and proving she's smarter than both of us combined.  Lord help us when this girl's a teenager.

Winter, is that you?

Today is the first day that we've had temperatures in the double digits, let alone close to above freezing in over a week.  Since the snow started falling, Lily has been begging to get out and play.  It's been so frigid that they've been cooped up inside at school for the past week and I'm sure her teachers are going batty.

Mike took Lily and Diesel out this afternoon so I could get some quick cleaning (and perhaps some posting) done.  Lily had a blast making snow balls for Diesel to fetch and couldn't stop giggling.

Yes we are currently running a used car lot.  If anyone's interested, one of them is actually for sale, one them could be for sale, and one of them is getting traded in soon.

And guess what?  I made that hat!  

Project: Hallway

Slowly but surely, we are putting the house back together.  I'm sure you may all think I'm crazy for dedicating an entire post to our hallway but it's had some pretty significant changes.

The dreaded layers and layers of wallpaper are finally gone.  The drywall has been refinished and the paint has been rolled on, the switch plates and return air vents have been replaced, the hideous doorbell is gone!  I even refinished the mirror that the previous owners left on the wall.  We are getting some place!  Left on this list of to-dos: replace the closet door and trim, new can light, and new thermostat.  

Holiday Happenings

December seems to be busier and busier each year now that Lily is getting older.  The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year literally flew by in a flash.  I finished off Thanksgiving weekend with a nice bout of bronchitis (viral - no need for an antibiotic of course).  My "virus" turned into a full blown sinus infection coupled with the flu and I spent four days in bed with a fever never dropping below 101 - missing an entire week of work, trip to Dallas and had to ship my kid off to Grandma's.  After trying three different antibiotics, we finally found one that I wasn't allergic to and my body actually wanted to respond to.  And the really crappy part is that I'm still coughing...and could be for awhile according to the doctor.  But KNOCK ON WOOD Lily and Mike have yet to catch any of this awful stuff that seems to be running through everyone.

When I was finally back on my feet, Christmas was literally upon us.  Lily's Christmas party and program at school snuck up on us pretty quick.  The school party was crazy and the program was so fun to watch.  My child wasn't the screamer this year and she actually stayed on stage the entire time.  She even got back up on stage with the entire school to sing "We wish you a Merry Christmas".  And  we've gotten to listen to her sing and dance to the "Dancing Christmas Tree" over and over and over and over.

"Jingle Little Bell"

"Dancing Christmas Tree"

Where's Waldo?  Behind the left microphone between t
wo kiddos that have at least 6 inches on her.

And in case you DON'T know the "Dancing Christmas Tree" song....you'll never get it out of your head after you watch this!

We rounded out the week with the annual BDO holiday party.  I still wasn't at 100% so Mike took it upon himself to have my share of the cocktails.  We got all fancied up and didn't even manage to get a picture of us together.

The following morning, complete with hangover, Mike and I hopped in the car and headed to Indianapolis for the Hoy family Christmas.  We met up with Grandma, Grandpa, and Lily on the road and blew into Indy early Friday afternoon.  The kids had a blast playing together, decorating cookies, and opening all their gifts.  And the adults had a blast drinking cocktails (even Grandma got in on that action), cooking (way too much food), fixing clogged sinks and empty water softeners, cleaning up puke (from a kid...), putting together new toys, and just plain hanging out together.

More butter?

Everyone unclogs their sink with a plunger right?

Cooking outside in a light fleece - in December.

She was so patient waiting her turn to unwrap.

Like father like daughter

I don't ever remember a Christmas this warm without snow.  

And when your house has been under construction and mom has been sick, that means there's a million things left on the to-do list.  Thankfully our wonderful new cleaning lady was able to come scrub down our house before my family came over to celebrate (unfortunately not before Mike put new can lights in and dirtied up my clean house).  So we spent Christmas Eve Eve at one of our favorite places - Home Depot - and Christmas Eve morning at Lowe's crossing off some to-dos.  A big one?  Our Christmas tree!  I was afraid that the price of a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve was going to be inflated but instead it was 75% off.  Best deal ever.

It's a little big...hey it was $10

Eh...the fireplace is still a work in progress.

Watching the Santa tracker

How many elves does it take to put together a race track?

Turns out we just needed the engineer.

Santa came!

Brayden's first ever cup with his name spelled right

With all these new toys...
the basement may need a remodel ASAP

I think this is one of the first times that on Christmas night, we weren't loading up our car and driving an hour or more back to our house.  When most of the dishes were done and my glass of wine had been refilled, we put our feet up and snuggled on the couch watching Christmas movies.  It was the perfect end to a long, exhausting couple of weeks.

And as I close this extremely long post, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  I think Brad Paisley said it best:

Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book.  Write a good one.