Lillianisms

Lillian is at it again saying the sweetest and most hilarious things. Wilson continues to prove himself to be a boy by grunting, barking, breaking and sliding down things (like stairs!). I'm the luckiest dad in the world. Here are a couple recent Lillianisms from our three year old that I hope you'll find entertaining:

1. Yesterday Lisa put Lillian to work in the kitchen shucking fresh peas for a salad. As she stood atop her step-stool she wore her pink, sparkling princess dress and high heels. Lillian gave a running commentary about each individual pea. One of them Lillian described as "huge". And then she said, "Mommy, 'huge' is another word for 'big.'" Lisa asked her if she could think of another word for big. Lillian fired off "massive." When asked if she knew yet another synonym for big, she said "gargantuan. Daddy says that word." What Lillian doesn't know is that I didn't know what gargantuan was until I was 18.

2. This morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table with Lillian and Wilson feeding them breakfast. I was thanking God out loud for having a job that I love, and in a time like this, for just having a job. I could tell Lillian was taking it all in, her dad talking out loud to God. She's learning that this is prayer. And so I said, "Lillian, do you know that I love my job?" She nodded and then said as energetically as she could, "Daddy, I love my job, too. I get to stay at home all day and play!" Priceless.

3. We then left the breakfast table and Lillian followed me up to my bathroom to watch me shave. She and her pink stuffed bunny took up their front row seats on the closed toilet lid. As I applied the shaving cream, Lillian asked, "Daddy, why do you use shaving cream?" I told her it keeps my skin from getting irritated. She followed up with an appropriate question: "You use shaving cream because you don't want to cut your face off?"I responded in the affirmative.

That's it for now. Come see us...but only if you want to laugh!

Much love,

Daniel, Lisa, Lillian and Wilson

Chicago, Wedding, Home, Tulsa, Wedding

Well we are home after doing some traveling for weddings! It has been a fun few weeks but I must admit I am glad to be home and getting back in to a "normal" routine!

The morning of July 7th we flew to Chicago. We had the 6am flight out of Denver! We debated on getting a hotel in Denver that night but then I decided that the hour or so of sleep we would save in the morning we would probably loose the night before trying to get the kids to sleep in a different place. So at the last minute we opted to sleep in our own beds for our short night. We got to Chicago and got our rental car without any problems! It went really well. We spent Thursday with my best friend Kristin as well as seeing my dear friend and roommate from college Alissa and her two boys (one of which is a day younger than Wilson). We also got to see one of my WVHS basketball buddies Dani Becker. It was fun to walk around downtown Naperville although it was hot and crowded! :) It meant a lot to me to have friends take time out of their days and get to hang!

We spent the night at the Ostergaards and loved it. The next morning we were able to take a walk to the park Kristin and I grew up playing at and let our kids play! I must admit it was somewhat surreal to have our kids playing there together.

Friday night we headed into the city for my cousin's wedding rehearsal dinner. I so loved being in the city. I really miss Chicago. It was fun because my parents where there as well as my brother Kevin and his family. The remaining nights of our trip we spent at our friends the Beatties. They were our families best friends during our time in Naperville. They were our "family" in Naperville.  Saturday was the first birthday for my niece Chloe! We got to have some cake and then we headed to the city for the wedding.

The wedding was at a lovely church downtown and the reception was at the Willis Tower (formally the Sears Tower). That was exciting. We got to stand on the Sky Ledge (Daniel was not happy about that) and enjoy seeing the city. My dad worked at the Sears Tower during our time in the Chicago area so it was fun for him to be there. Sunday Daniel and the kids and I spent our day downtown walking around and ended it with some Chicago Pizza!

Wilson leaning on the glass on the sky deck. Daniel was not happy!

Mom and her siblings and mother

Lillian and Cooper

After arriving back in Denver early on Monday morning the kids and I began to pack for our trip to Tulsa. We left on Friday morning. Daniel's sister Anna was married in Tulsa on July 23rd! It was lovely. We had a great 10 days in Tulsa with my family as well as his family. The kids as well as Daniel and I were  a part of Anna and Stephen's special day. We drove to Tulsa and I must admit it is a little more relaxing to drive with two kids rather than flying with two kids! We can stop and get out whenever we need too.

Unfortunately I hardly got any pictures during the wedding day, but here are a few others from the week.

Bridal Luncheon

The "Grothe" Ladies

Eating cupcakes to celebrate Taylor's birthday 

My boys

It was great to hang with Nana and Pops...and boy did we need their help!

Cousins

Things at home are back in full swing. Church, work, The Children's Playroom, doctors appointments, dentist appointments...welcome back to real life!

Catch Up

We are WAY behind on updating our blog. I always get frustrated when that happens. I actually keep putting it off because I am so far behind, which just puts me further behind. There has been a lot going on in our home and we've had a busy and fun 2 months.

The end of May we celebrated my birthday and Lillian's birthday. Thankfully we celebrated Lillian's birthday the weekend before our birthdays (mine is May 27th and hers is the 28th) because I ended up with the worst case of the stomach flu I've ever had. I ended up in the Urgent Care topping the morning of my birthday and got some IVs administered. I don't think I have ever felt so terrible as I did during those several days.  Thankfully once I got the IVs, I started to feel better but it definitely was not the way I wanted to spend my 29th birthday!

Starting in June we had a lot of company, which is one thing we LOVE! My best friend from Naperville and her family came. We had 4 kids in our home and Lillian was the oldest (at barely 3). It was a blast and they all did really well together. Kristin's husband Scott hiked Pikes Peak the first full day they were here! What an accomplishment. It was so fun to get to spend some quality time with Kristin and her amazing family.

Next came my brother Kevin and his family--Julie, Cooper and Chloe. Cooper just turned 5 and Chloe is 6 weeks older than Wilson. We had a lot of fun and the kids all played so well together. We went to the zoo, went on a great hike, ate some good food and enjoyed some great time together. It was so special to our family to have them come.

While my brother was here, Daniel's long time friend Gyle Smith and his family arrived. They didn't stay with us but we got to spend some quality time together. We road the Cog train up to the top of Pikes Peak, we put together a trampoline (thanks Smiths), ate lots of good food and went to the pool. I have never spent an extended amount of time with the Smiths, so I really enjoyed the chance to get to know them better.

Between all the company Daniel has been to San Antonio and Nashville playing drums as well as laying new sod and rock in our yard! We had 15 tons of river rock brought in and the guys wheel-barrowed it all over our yard. This last Saturday was our first real day off together in a long while. It has been such a fun month!

In the last month it sure feels like our kids have grown a TON! Lillian is now 3. She is so much fun!
Here are a few things that we want to remember about Lillian at 3:
*She loves to imagine...play imaginary games. These games include playing doctor, pretending to drive places, and "reading" books
*Lillian loves to look at letters and talk about the sounds and figure out how to spell a word. She does well when we help her sound it out.
*Numbers: she counts to 40 without any help and can go higher when we help with the prefix (fifty __)
*She also loves to add and subtract when we help her visualize and talk through the problem
*At her 3 year old appoint she weighed 30 lbs and was just under 38inches tall.
* She does NOT like car washes, smoke alarms, or the lawn mower. Basically any loud noises are not among her favorites.
*She is an amazing big sister. She insists on giving Wilson kisses before naps or bedtime and really enjoys being around him (except when he is after one of her toys).

Wilson is now 10 months:
*He started crawling at 8 months and is totally on the go! He loves to get places.
*Right at 10 months he conquered going up the stairs. I am now awaiting him figuring out how to go down. He fell down the stairs the Sunday morning after he started crawling and it was all my fault. He fell all the way down the steps on to the wood floor. He recovered in about 4 minutes and I have yet to recover. :)
*With his newfound freedom he gets into EVERYTHING! He pulls all sorts of treasures out of the cabinets. He also chases Lillian around and she used to hide on the stairs so that he couldn't get to her but now that he can do the stairs she's had to resort to going on the bed or the table. ;
:)
*He pulls up on everything and in the last day he has started letting go of things and trying to stand. The first time I saw him do this was when he was playing on Lillian's drum set.
*He is making lots of sounds and I am pretty sure he has learned the word "ball". He LOVES to play with any kind of ball. He throws to you if you are near and if you aren't, he will throw it to himself and chase after it.
*He will do the sign for "more" and "all done" and if you say "how big is Wilson?", he will throw his hands up in the air as if to say "so big".

We are loving life and are so grateful to God for our precious kids and our family and friends!

Lisa