belated Christmas gift

(arriving early August)

January update

It's been a little quiet around the ol' blog lately.  A case of post holiday malaise, I suppose.  Anyway, a few Lily updates for the grandmother(s) who are not so patiently waiting on pictures!


~Lily has become quite the pro at riding her tricycle.  She begs and begs to play on the 'front backyard' (ie driveway).  Her favorite thing is to start at the top of the driveway, petal as fast as she can, fly down and over the bump.  We've had to enforce a helmet rule as she's gotten so fast.

~Her sayings are just hilarious right now.  A few favorites:
  *"It's not fair Mommy!"  Which I find myself replying "life isn't always fair Lily."  One of those things I swore I'd never say when I had my own children.  
  *One day after school, I asked her what her favorite part of the day was. She started singing "Alleluia, Alleluia, Crazy Lord!"  I asked if she meant "Alleluia, Alleluia, Praise the Lord" and she said "NOOOOO Mommy, it's CRAZY Lord".  Apparently her preschool worships a pretty entertaining God.  :)
  *We went out for Mexican food a few weeks ago.  I was chowing down on chips and salsa when Lily said "Mommy stop.  No more chips or it will hurt your tummy.  Just chips for Lily and Daddy."  Apparently I needed to be cut off?


~We have started potty training.  Oh boy.  Have I mentioned how strong willed and stubborn our girl is?  Poor girl comes by it naturally and my mother likes to tell me I deserve every bit of payback.

In an attempt to motivate her, Lily picked out her own 'big girl pants'.  Her favorites?  Buzz, Woody, and Lighting McQueen.  Yep, she's got herself some boy underwear.

We started with the three day potty bootcamp.  However, it took us almost three days to figure out what bribes would even get her to sit on the dang potty!  Candy?  Nope.  Stickers? Nah.  Begging, pleading, ignoring? No way.  Finally, Daddy tried some reverse pyschology (thanks Grandma O for the suggestion), telling her he didn't think she knew how and that she wouldn't be able to do it.  What did that little bugger do - ran straight for the potty to prove Daddy wrong.  Whoozah, we are in trouble with this one!


~We've been spending as much time outside as possible, enjoying the beautiful winter weather.  Thank you Nanny and Papa Kurt for our new swing and slide!  Lily loves to play and Mommy loves to bask in the sunshine while our girl is happily entertained.

Christmas recap

We spent Christmas at home in Kansas.

What a treat to be with all our family for the holiday!

SAYLOR FAMILY RECAP
Once again, we were able to get the entire gang together.
What a fun, loud, energetic few days we had!


We had a sick toddler throughout the week of Christmas.  

She kept falling asleep in my arms, and a part of me absolutely loved it!

Mema, and her husband Woody

Darby and Aunt Kristin

Uncle Tom, Aunt Soni, and Auntie M

Auntie M, Nanny, and Uncle Tom

Who put these two in charge of putting together Lily's wagon??
Uncle John and Papa Kurt

Lily was more into presents than I expected.  

I assumed she open one or two and then get bored, so I didn't wrap much for her. 

I was wrong.  

She loved opening, kept searching under the tree for her name, and when those ran out, insisted on helping everyone else with theirs.

Reece, Luke, Cooper, and Darby

Helping Uncle Matt

OSTERHAUS FAMILY RECAP

Lily loves being around big girls!

Liam got an huge red barn, which kept him entertained for hours!

A game of baseball broke out in Grandma basement.

I'm impressed nothing was broken - these kiddos can hit hard!

 Lily (2 1/2), Aynslee (6), Liam (3)

Thank you for such a lovely Christmas and visit back to Kansas.
We miss you all already!

Let it snow!

Kansas welcomed us home with a light snow. 

Lily kept begging to play outside, while Mommy said "no way, it's too cold!"

Nanny came to the rescue, bundled Lily up and outside they headed.

(Mommy then felt guilty so bundled up too.)

Pure joy during her first little snowball fight.

Brrrrrrr.  We're not in Arizona anymore!

Zoo Lights

Zoo lights at the Phoenix Zoo was a success!

Lily loved all her favorite animals decked out in lights.

We liked the monkeys and giraffes best. 

She also enjoyed singing 'Jingle Bells' over and over again.

Mom and Dad would be ok if they never had to hear that song again!

Such a fun event. I believe we have a new Christmas tradition!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

A new tradition we started this year was an advent calendar using Christmas books.  

Each night of December, Lily opens one book to read before bedtime.

Not only is she warming up for Christmas morning with her present opening skills,

she is also learning about Santa, the meaning of Christmas, and the names of every reindeer (her favorite!).

It's been so sweet seeing the excitement on her face as she opens the book,

and even sweeter, seeing her cuddled in Daddy's arms!

Good friends

What a treat we had last weekend.

Lesley, Tyler, Alex, and Drew came for a visit!

Such a fun weekend just catching up plus keeping three kiddos entertained.

While Lily was at school on Friday, we took the boys to the Children's Museum.

Their favorite was the "fake food."

On Saturday, we treated ourselves to Dunkin Donuts.

These three kids were never as quiet as when they were shoving sugar into their mouths.

(Don't you just want to squeeze little Drew?  He is flipping adorable!)

Followed by a (cold) visit to the train park.

(Thanks for dragging the winter weather to AZ guys! 
And you forgot to take it back with you!)

Thankful for good friends, good conversations, and good times. 

Thanks for making the trek southwest...

...our turn to head towards Arkansas!