Girls, Girls, Girls!

They say a girl's first love is her Daddy and boy do these girls love their Daddy!  Not only does he get serenaded with love and affection when he comes home from work every day, but he also gets a little cheering squad when he does yard work!  What a lucky guy!

I had the blinds drawn up to see Bryce in the back yard mowing, edging and blowing.  It was very entertaining for them to watch!

Oooohh!

Aaaahhh!

And every time Bryce looked in and waved or blew kisses, you'd think the girls saw a rock star!!  They were screaming "Daddy!  Daddy!" the whole time.  Too sweet.

Eventually Abby lost interest but Lilly watched until Bryce finished the yard.  Who knew doing yard work was a spectator sport.  :)

I think I've mentioned this before but I love that both my girls are such great eaters.  Abby LOVES to help feed her sister.  ♥

Did I mention Lilly likes popsicles?

"More?"

Heehee...not sure if Bryce got any!

Abby  got to enjoy an entire popsicle by herself.  That's more than Mommy and Daddy can say!

This was my attempt to get a picture of them in their matching dresses.  :)

And a single shot of the one that can sit long enough for a picture.  :)

I love, love, love how these 2 are really starting to play more and more together in the last month.  ♥

Look at them getting along!!

What a lucky guy!

My ballerina walker also likes to stand on her toes.

My baby.  Who's growing up too fast.  And getting so big.

"Helping" with laundry.  :)

Lilly after a big dinner.  That's her saying "I want my bath, milk and BED!"

Yes ma'am!

Impromptu Day at Grandma & Grandpa's

Wowzer, what a week!  We usually have fairly mellow weeks when Bryce is out of town but not this time.  Somehow I jam packed our week and wore the kids and myself out.  Luckily this weekend will be more low key so we can all recover.  I hadn't planned on spending almost all day at my in-laws but that's just how it turned out and the kids loved it, as usual!  I got some great pictures of the kids with Grandma & Grandpa so I wanted to post them real quick.  Grandpa had surgery in the last week and my sweet, sweet Abby was oh so sweet and attentive with him.  She's a very sensitive, nurturing child.  I can't really explain it but it makes me happy to see this side of her.  :)  Lilly is too young to know what's going on so she was her usual go-go-go self.  She's like a little Tazmanian Devel.  By late afternoon, she is always a complete sweaty, sticky mess with a huge mischievous grin on her face that looks to say "what's next?"  Oh how we love her for that.

Lilly is FINALLY sitting long enough to hear more than one page from a book before running off.  Hallelujah.

The Fighting Irish Duo!

Grandpa got some cuddles from Lilly as well.  Look at that beautiful smile!  Can you tell I trimmed her bangs a few days ago?  Not bad, if I do say so myself.  :)

This is Abby's old floatie that somehow became an inside toy.  Lilly had a blast on this today.  Let's hope she likes it in the water too!

Lilly Update

I realized the other day that I don't post any Lilly updates like I did with Abby at certain milestones.  Or I did, I just got behind.  Poor 2nd child.  So a while back, her 9th tooth came out.  This is terrible but I'm not even sure if it was her right or left incisor.  So there's that.  She and Abby are going through some serious growth spurt.  Abby's gained almost 2 lbs since her 4 year old well check at the end of April.  And I'm not sure how much Lilly's gained but I know that she fits her 18 months clothes right now and will probably outgrow them in a month.  And her feet at HUGE.  But that's no surprise - she takes after me in that department.

Lilly has really started to talk a lot too.  I love this age - the comprehension of their little brains are more and more evident in every day activities.  As with Abby, I talk about what I'm doing with Lilly for every day things.  For example, when I change her clothes in the morning, I tell her what I'm doing, why I picked that outfit out, I tell her which leg to put into which leg hole, same with the arm holes, I count out loud the snaps I snap on her rompers, etc.  And now when I count the buttons/snaps, she knows!  I say "One..." and she'll say "two!" and then I finish with "three."  It's great!  Abby did the same when she was little.  Lilly's bilingual just like Abby too.  I can speak to Lilly in all Chinese and she knows what I'm saying.  I love that.  Lilly is still all muscle.  She and Abby couldn't be more different in that aspect.  Every day by mid-afternoon, Lilly is a complete sweaty mess from head to tippy toe.  She is ALWAYS on the move so she's just gross and sticky all the time.  The only people it seems to bother is me and Bryce.  She (and Abby) could care less.  We used to give Abby baths every other day at this age but we can't with Lilly.  She won't sit still in the bath tub either.  I know it's all relative but we call her our crazy baby because that's what she is to us.  And I wouldn't change her for the world.  I absolutely LOVE this age. Love it.

Lilly also has a mean streak.  I'd say 99% of the time she's a uber happy girl on the go but when she doesn't get her way or if Abby takes something out of her hand, she can mean mug with the best of them and her angry cry face surfaces.  And let's not forget the crocodile tears!  She throws her little arms back and yell/cries.  It's HILARIOUS!  I'm sure seeing me smile, laugh and "aawww" at her only makes her more upset but I can't help it!!  I think both she and Abby have the cutest "mean/mad" faces!  ♥

Like I mentioned in my previous post, the Baker house is currently temporarily quarantined until they all recover.  Here are a few pictures from around the house these last few days.  We may venture out tomorrow just to get some fresh air.

Poor, sick Thing 1 & Thing 2.

More sick cuddling after their nap.  What a sad pair!

One of Lilly's many nicknames is "Muscles" because that's all you feel on her and before her bath today, I decided to take some pictures of her.  Like most kids, she's going through a belly button phase where she's always poking at it.  And this is a good example of her ever constant tippy toe walk/stance.

The tip toeing makes it worse but Lilly doesn't really "walk" per say, she likes to charge where ever she's going.  This is a perfect picture demonstrating her preferred gear.  Like I said before, she has her Daddy's head/face and my body neck down.

Ruby - see what I mean about her shoulders looking like our baby pics?

Look at her hair!!!  I don't have much to say about this picture - I just like it.  :)

This is the face I love to see!  She looks just like Bryce when she smiles like this.  ♥♥

Look at those beautiful eyes.  I'm in love!

And this is my sedentary one.  I came back from putting Lilly to bed and this is what I find.  It's quiet in the living room and she's cozying up to a book.  I love this about Abby.  Thank goodness she's on the mend now too.

Road Trip to Kansas

I'm not even sure where to begin.  The last 5 days have been a blast and a blur.  But mostly a blast.  We decided to make the ~730 mile drive to Ulysses, KS - hometown of our very own Bryce.  It was a much overdue trip, as can happen when you have a baby.  We haven't all been to KS since Abby was 1.5 years old and we went for Christmas of 2010.  Although we were only in KS for few days, we managed to see so many friends and family.  It was worth the long drive and I'm glad our girls got to spend time with their great grandparents and learn about their Daddy as a child.  This was Lilly's first time to Ulysses and I know she won't remember it but I'm sure Abby will tell her all about it.  :)  We showed Abby the hospital Bryce was born at, the house he grew up in, the pool he learned to swim in, his elementary school, etc.  She was so curious about what he did, where he slept, what he played with, etc.  It was sweet to see her genuine interest in his childhood.  What a fun age.     

On our way up, we spent the night in Fort Worth and got to catch up with our old college buddies and friends.  The fun part is seeing all of our kids play together.  This was also a much overdue reunion.  We had great food, great company and now great memories to add to our friendships.  

Unfortunately, Bryce got sick on our drive up and had a fever for the next 3 days.  Eventually, Abby caught it and she spent the drive home sick.  We drove straight home on the way back.  We spent 13 hours in the car yesterday and let's just say, we were all glad to get out of the car.  So Bryce is now recovering and Abby is in the peak of her viral symptoms.  Cross your fingers for me and Lilly!  On to the pictures...

There were so many kiddos!  And so many boy-toys for my girls to play with!

Abby loved playing with the twins!  It didn't bother her at all when they pulled up on her.  She loved how little they were.  :)

We drove into KS on July 4th and this is the birth place of Bryce's inner-pyro: Grandma Jo and Granddads back yard.  You can't tell but it was past 8:00 PM here and still this bright out.  Lilly was fast asleep in the dark, quiet basement and missed the festivities.

Abby loved the tank fire work!  Sparks flew out of the front and back and in the very end, the American flag pops out of the top!

Grandma Jo and Abby.

And who doesn't love a pink firework car?

My poor Bryce.  He has a fever in this picture and he really wanted to participate more but was forced to sit on the sideline and let his younger cousins have all the fun.

Bryce's cousin Trent stopped by with his look-alike son.  I always thought Bryce and Trent could pass for brothers!

Abby's "reading" the comics to Granddad.  :)

Bryce going down memory lane.  He was going to sell all of his Transformers as a kid but Grandma Jo thought he would regret it so she bought them from him years ago.  Well, now she gave them back.  Her plan worked.  :)

The inevitable happened.  The girls wanted to play too!

This little girl was her usual self - nonstop, always on the go.  ♥  She wore herself out every night and fell asleep before her head ever hit the pack-n-play.

Shhh!!!  Granddad's napping!

Bryce's cousin's brought their 2 year old puppy Samson and the girls loved watching him...from a safe distance.  :)  He's a sweet little puppy and Lilly kept saying "gou gou" and woof woof to him!

It's a tradition for Grandma Jo to take the kids to get donuts in the morning and this was Abby's first time to go!  She had so much fun and loved spending time with her cousins Josh and Caleb.  :)

Abby's "friends" liked to take naps on Granddad's couch with his blanket.

We spent Saturday with the Bakers and both girls loved playing with all their toys.  :)

We have a picture of Abby kissing Grandma Baker on our last trip and this time Lilly did it too!

My sweet girls.  ♥

The Bakers!

Then we headed over to Bryce's other cousin LeeAnn's house for a delicious dinner.  Grandma Baker set the bar high for home cooking so I wasn't surprised when both girls ate everything on their plates!

Do you think Lilly liked Grandma Baker's pineapple cheesecake??  :)

Abby had so much fun playing salon with Alison.

They were taking turns and giving each other pretend hair cuts.  :)

And, of course, Lilly wanted in on the fun too!

What a fun trip!  We can't wait to go back again!