Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season filled with family, friends, laughter and love. My apologies for such a long period of time since the last post. December was filled with a lot of fun and in between all of that I found myself sick with a cold, a different virus, strep and then finally because I didn't listen to my body the first three times the terrible flu; all of which rendered me out of commission from all of our usuals. We are slowly trying to get back on track and I am making my way through all of the things that were supposed to happen over the last few weeks. I know many of our west coast friends have called and written and I am sorry I have not returned the calls but please know you were all in our thoughts and prayers this season. We felt so blessed to be close to our family but we missed you all out there.

Lily scored big this year from Santa with her first kitchen (complete with a stove, fridge, oven, microwave and sink). It was so great to watch her slowly notice it Christmas morning, pointing at it, looking at us, pointing again and then finally not walking away from it for the rest of the morning. She didn't even open all of her presents she was so content just to play with it. So officially we now have two kitchens in this house, both missing a dishwasher. (Thanks Marmie and Poppie for the great Christmas morning pi's!)

We spent Christmas afternoon with my family. It was a nice and relaxing day and even better only having to travel 20 minutes versus 2 plane rides and 2 car rides.

Lily is just starting to show interest in dolls and she spent 10s of minutes covering her new baby doll, holding her, and hugging her all Christmas Day. Thanks Aunt Megan!

By mid-day Lily had the hang of this whole "unwrapping the present" thing. She would quickly unwrap and say "oh wow a......" She was just as excited about the boxes as she was the toys (she had no idea the boxes contained toys). We would say Lily do you know what it is and she would say, "yes a box." So sweet!

Look at that adorable new outfit, thanks Katie, Geoff and Harper it was a big hit!

We got a backpack for hiking, which we are so excited about! Colin tried putting Lily in it and walking around the house with her and she wanted to get right out. Then my mom put the babies in the carrier and walked around the house, Lily wanted to get in immediately, so of course a picture op was had.

We have had very little snow and for that matter cold days (until this week) but that didn't stop Lily from wanting to wear her snow pants and hat to daycare- yes she put the hat on herself.

For New Years (and a late Christmas celebration and a party to show Dave and Carrie off to their wedding in style) we went to Gaylord. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures because I was not feeling well but I did capture Lily in her new purple leather ankle boots from Aunt Carrie and Uncle Dave- they matched perfectly with Aunt Bri's and Uncle Dermot's jean leggings; thank you all for keeping our daughter up with the stylish times. I assure you she is the best dressed 20 month old in Michigan.

The last two days in Gaylord it snowed and Colin and Poppie were able to take Lily on her first sled ride. She seemed to like it but I think she liked jumping into the snow drifts a little more.