A Day at the Zoo

Granny & Lily

Marje and Lily have been having so much fun together. Lily is so good with Marje, she is always on her best behavior with her. She is showing Lily pictures from Zim.

Marje brought over a gift from our cousins in England (Thanks!!) and it was a little artist canvas and a set of paints and an apron and a small easel. Lily & Granny had a wonderful time painting but it was just so hot outside!

Kinda funny, because the gift that Ross & I were planning to give Lily for her birthday was an easel too! I'd picked this out at Ikea ages ago and waited until now. I was excited to take Marje there too (I just love that place). Lily is beginning the stages of being a nightmare to take out for long periods of time. Next time I go to ikea, I will either have her on a leash, or she stays home.

The new easel is working out great though.

FINALLY home!

Thursday morning I got up and went to get a new tire. Thought I could get away with two, but it turned out that they were all in need of replacing. So, $350 later, we head on home.

Lily slept the whole way (thankfully) and it didn't rain.

The house was so nice and clean and wonderful to come home to.

About 5 hours later, Marje (Ross's mum) arrived from Zimbabwe!

Yay. More exciting adventures!

Day 10 of our adventure

By this point in the trip I was feeling so crappy because I had been eating so much junk and sleeping in strange beds for so long. We got up, packed up and headed home.

We rolled into Melbourn right before dinner time so we unpacked and then went out to eat. Sandy and I had a beer and played NTN while Alexander & Allison took Lily into the gameroom to play. I needed that. The NTN game was all about superheros and I won!!!

Lily would not go to sleep that night. It was probably only the third time in her life that she had trouble sleeping so it frazzeled us both. I'm sure she was just worn out but she finally fell asleep after I sang to her for an hour. It is amazing how little ones just love their mother's voice regardless of how bad and off key it is.

Day 9 of our Adventure

Tuesday, we had to head back home. Lily and I packed up early and went down to Grandma's house. We spent a couple of hours there showing Grandma & Pat the pictures that we'd taken at while on vacation. They don't have internet so I knew that they wouldn't get to see the ones that I post here. It was a nice visit.

Then, headed home. We stopped in Macon again and stayed at the same hotel. We figured that we wouldn't risk getting a garbage place when we knew that there was this one for a great rate and it was clean & nice. We had dinner at Olive Garden and Lily was not very good. She ran all over the place and I had to take her outside a couple of times.

After dinner we went to big lots to get Lily some swim diapers and couldn't resist but to buy her a new barbie. We could barely fit all of her new toys into the van so I have no idea what I was thinking buying another one. Even worse, Sandy bought her one too!

Day 5 in Huntsville, Day 8 of our Adventure

This was Monday and we went to a water park!!! Lily was awesome. I almost didn't go because she is kinda at a difficult age for a waterpark. She wants to be completely independant but doesn't know how to swim yet so I can't just let her go.

Day four in Huntsville, Day 7 of our adventure

My little baby is TWO YEARS OLD!!!
wow. I can't believe how fast time flys. I woke up that morning to Lily singing "hap bir-day" (she is so smart!). I got her out of her play-pen and put her in bed with me to snuggle and tell her about her day. I told her that it was her birthday and that now she is not one anymore, but that she is two. Now, if you ask her how old she is, she will say "not one"
My dad said he got a tick on him the other day when he and David were shooting up in Tennessee and Aunt Charlotte volunteered to pull it out. I thought it looked funny so I made sure to get a picture posted.

Then, unfortunately, my dad had to get back on the road back to Texas.
David, Sherah, Aunt Linda, Lily & I went to see my cousin Jeannie's house and visited there for a bit. Aunt Linda took us out for mexican food for lunch, then we went to Jeannie's husband's store Across the Pond to feed the fish. Lily loved it there. She had her hands in the fountains and fed the Koi fish and the turtles. I asked her if she wanted to swim with the fish and she started taking off her shoes.
So, since Lily was soaked anyway, we went to a sprinkler park.



Then stopped by my Grandma's house for a visit there a bit.

Then played and played with Dave & Sherah until they had to head back home and Lily just passed out. Couldn't take it anymore. So much playing.

Day three in Huntsville, Day 6 of our Adventure

The family reunion was supposed to start at something like 10 or 10:30, the food was being served at noon and we arrived at 12:30!!!
How in the heck can we be up at 8 AM and can't get anywhere before noon?
So, everyone was eating at we arrived. There was a giant super slide but somehow I didn't get any pictures of that. (If you have some...send them to me please!)
Aunt Gertie and the crew was so sweet to get Lily a Dora birthday cake and everyone gave her lots of presents. She loves all of them especially the tea set and the puzzle that makes animal noises. I love the cute clothes that she got!


I took her play pen with us just in case she might get tired and want to lay down but it came in much more handy for little Rowe. Lily wasn't upset at all that there was a baby in her bed, she just kept pointing to her and telling me that there was a baby.


A nasty storm rolled in and cut the party short. :(
That evening we went to eat at Red Lobster and Lily decided that she really loves crab alfreado.

It was very sweet because on the way to "the Lob" my dad asked Lily if she liked her birthday cake and she said "birthday again?"

Sure, we'll have your birthday again, no problem.

Day two in Huntsville, day 5 of our adventure

My dad & brother drove into town late on Thursday night after I had already gone to sleep. I had been telling Lily that Joe (my dad's dog) was comming so in the morning she started wandering around saying "where's joe?"
As we were getting dressed, I put Lily's shoes on and she said "too tight" so I told her to go tell Grandad. She walked up to my dad, stuck out her shoe and said "too tight". Worked like a charm, she got two new pair of shoes within hours.
Friday night Aunt Linda invited the out of towners over for burgers (check out her sweet new shoes)

Lily ate chocolates:

AND Ice Cream

Below is the newest memeber of the Strong family, my cousin Jeff's baby Rowe. However she won't be the newest for long, another cousin is expecting any day now.

Lily and I are on an adventure

Lily and I left Ross and Zelda at home and went on an adventure to see my family. We were having a family reunion in Huntsville and we drove up to Melbourne and caught a ride the rest of the way with my cousin Sandy and her kids (Allison & Alexander). Sandy has a DVD player in her van so Lily got to watch her favorite movie "Nemo" over and over. I have no idea where the glasses came from.

We divided the drive into two days. This photo is of the Lily sized fridge at the hotel in Macon, GA.

We got into Huntsville on Wednesday and Sandy dropped Lily and I off at Aunt Linda's house. She wasn't home from work yet so we made ourselves at home. Lily walked in and said "Soooo Pretty" so I guess that means she liked it there. We were going to walk down to my Grandma's house but by the time we got out of the shower it was pouring down rain. Lily was pooped from the drive so we just ate and went to bed.

Thursday was Aunt Charlotte's birthday so she had an open house party. My cousin Melissa had taken her barbie collection over to my aunt Charlotte's house for Allison to play with while she was staying there. Lily thought this was great. The entire time we were there, (besides when we were running around in the sprinklers) Lily kept sneaking into Aunt Charlotte's bedroom to play with the barbies or into her closet to try on her shoes.

As you can see from the above picture, Aunt Charlotte has interesting shoes, she and Lily get along very well. Lily got that University of Alabama dress for Christmas and although we are not Alabama fans, Aunt Charlotte is a die-hard, so we figured it was appropriate to wear it on her birthday. I'm sure it got Lily some bonus points in Aunt Charlotte's book.

The following video shows just how talented this little baby is.

Wonder Woman!!

I love wonder woman and have quite a collection of Wonder Woman stuff. The other day when we were cleaning out the workroom we came across a couple of plush Wonder Womans. I don't collect the newer justice league stuff, but through the years many people have given me some of it, so when I came across the little Wonder Woman, I gave it to Lily. She knows exactly who it is too. Then, we opened another box and found the same doll but a larger version. She was thrilled that now she had a BIG Wonder Woman too.


We keep the sweets in a Wonder Woman cookie jar and I asked Lily who it was and she said "Mommy" and I said no and to try again and she said "Grandma". So funny how she knows Wonder Woman on TV and on dolls and comic books but thinks that the cookie jar is me.

We look at pictures and I talk to her about her Grandma. There are a few times that she has identified my mom in pictures and even though she never got a chance to meet her, she knows who her Grandma is. It makes me cry.
The other day I was taking pictures of some stuff for eBay and set up the camera and took a few pictures of myself wearing an outfit. I took pictures from the front then turned around and took pictures of the backside. Later that same day I took a picture of Lily standing on the pool table then she turned around and told me "back, back". Ross & I are really going to have to start watching everything we do and say now that this little sponge is soaking up everything.

Yesterday Lily was watching TV while I checked my email and when we were leaving the room she ran back in saying "pause TV, pause TV". She reached up onto the table and hit the pause button on the remote!

When I turn my back....

Today I've been trying to organize my workspace because I've finally broken down and hired a shipper to help me with my busines and need to have things cleaned up to where someone other than me can actually find things. Lily had found a small box with a few coins in it and was having good fun playing with them. Yes, I know, coins are a choking hazard but she has never yet tried to put them in her mouth. Usually she takes them right to either my piggy bank or Ross' s money jar. Today, I got a brilliant idea to have her bring her little box of coins into the bathroom so she could play on the floor with them while I showered.

Not so brilliant. Lily has figured out how to open doors so she escaped from the bathroom and took her box of coins to my room. Today, instead of putting coins INTO Ross's jar, she dumped the whole thing all over the floor.

Then, we got dressed and I got this cute video not 10 mintues later

As I'm uploading them to the computer to post, I realized that there was yet another cute one on my memory card. This one was shot yesterday.

Really, who needs toys when you have fun things like coins, chapstick and rainboots to play with?

Fish! by my little artist

Yesterday, while I was working on the computer, Lily had pushed her chair up next to me and was drawing on my notepad. We were working along rather nicely. I was getting things done and she was not drawing on anything that she wasn't allowed to draw on (although she was using a Sharpie and usually she is not allowed to play with markers). Then she declares "FISH!" then immediately breaks into song "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming" (from Finding Nemo)

I look over and am pleasantly supprised that Lily really has drawn a fish. I'm not sure if she did it on purpose or was suprised herself that she had drawn a fish. Regardless, this one is going on the fridge.