So Far This Holiday Season...

As usual, the holiday season passes far too quickly, I can't believe there is only a few weeks left till Christmas. Here are a few of our holiday highlights thus far...

Happy Thanksgiving from a very cute Pilgrim.

Good food and good company...

The woman folk working on a special project...

What to do when there are six different varieties of pie to choose from and you just can't decide which kind to pick? Not a problem, just go right ahead and have a piece of each! (Says the nephew with the high metabolism and 0.3% body fat.)

This was not a holiday happening, but definitely worth mentioning. Alex was "King for a Day" at Kindergarten. We made this poster to show the class all about Alex. (He likes Thomas, Cars, Sonic and Mario, soccer, school, marbles, the Steelers, tumbling, visiting Napa/San Francisco.)

Alex and I went to the Festival of Trees. You would think that a five year old would soon tire of looking at literally hundreds of trees, but he really enjoys it, especially the trees with a train theme. There is also a fun kids section with activities. This bubble machine is of course the most popular. Alex is inside of a giant bubble.

One of the highlights of the day was running into one of Alex's favorite cousins, Josef!

Showing some Ute Pride!

A beautiful tree and display dedicated to a former classmate of Steph's, and his companion who were hit and killed a year ago while serving in Texas. Trevor was supposed to have been home by that time, but loved being a missionary so much, he had extended his release date by a few weeks. I know he is still serving in an even bigger capacity right now.

Steph, Alex and I went to Gardner Village and did an Elf Scavenger Hunt. Lots of fun displays all around the grounds, and by completing the scavenger hunt Alex got a yummy sugar cookie from the bakery.

Steph getting a smooch from her favorite guy under the mistletoe! I hope we can fit in some more fun activities over the next few weeks. Alex is so excited and at such a fun age that it pushes me to make more of an effort to make the holiday season special for him. Alex's most used quote these days when he wants something is, "But Mom, Christmas is for giving." I think we have a bit more teaching to do about the true spirit of giving at Christmastime!

Alex and Frosty

Not much to say, other than "Tis the season". What a blessing to have my Alex's enthusiasm to help bring excitement to my little Grinch heart.

October- Family, Football and Fall Fun

Some highlights from this Fall... Family time with grandparents and cousins...

All my sisters and some of the granddaughters got together for frozen yogurt and visiting while the guys were at priesthood session. It was a fun treat to have girl time.

Football: Steve is coaching at a new school this year, Woods Cross. They've made it through the first round of playoffs. We'll see how they fare on Friday against Timp View.

Fall Fun: Steph and Alex had some quality sibling time when they made some Halloween cupcakes. The next day (after having worked a night shift), I woke up to find 4 cupcakes sitting on the family room floor with the frosting licked off. Hmmm... wonder who could possibly be the culprit?

I am now working with the Young Women (teenage girls) at church and took Alex along for our Halloween party. (Let the record show that I am a devout 49'ers fan, but for the sake of coming up with a last minute costume, Alex and I got decked out in the vast supply of Steelers gear, thanks to Steve.) I have tried to familiarize Alex with the term "Young Women" so that he'll understand what I'm talking about when I am going to an activity, etc. I think he's still a little confused as the other day he said, "Remember when we went to the Halloween party at the church with the Old Ladies?"

 

Halloween was a success, with a fun party at school and trick or treating in record breaking warm temperatures. Steph made this cool skeleton shirt, and I was quite pleased that I put together Alex's costume for $2.99.

He was very much "in character" as we were taking pictures.

With this mustache I can't help if wonder if this is a glimpse into what Alex will look like when he grows up. Let's just hope that he's not sporting a big hoop earring when that day comes!

Warning: There's a whole lotta huggin' goin' on in this here post!

Last week we got to do something completely awesome... welcome home my nephew, Andrew from his two year mission to Brazil. The anticipation was agonizing in this picture, as everyone's eyes were glued to the top of the escalator waiting for Andrew to come round the corner.

Finally!!

Missionary homecoming rules: Mom gets the first hug. My brother couldn't hold back another second, understandably!

Family hug! Elizabeth, the youngest is in there somewhere...

Together again!!

Grandma's hug. My parents came all the way from California to be there. I love the look on my dad's face that says, "I'm so happy, I wanna cry but I'm trying not to..."

Grandpa's hug.

Last but not least, the awkward Lilly family. (Alex wasn't sure what to make of all the hoopla. He went into his, "I'm not sure how to act so I'll act like a baby koala" mode.  It was so fun to have Andrew come home, can't wait till December for our next nephew to come home!

 

 

First Day of Kindergarten

It's official. My baby is now a big boy kindergartner. He was very excited to go his first day, showed hardly no nervousness at all, and could barely be bothered with telling me good-bye (which I'm actually grateful for).

It helped that he already had a little friend, Maysi, in his class, who is also in his class at church. Maysi is very mothering, and came up to Alex and gave him a big hug as soon as she saw him.

I liked the way that Alex's teacher had the parents come in the classroom as she read the class a book about the first day of kindergarten. At the end of the book, the parents give their kids a final hug and wave good-bye... which was a polite cue for us parents to then hit the road.

Alex has come home so happy every single day so far and is really loving school. I have even gone against the grain of my overprotective motherly instincts, and let him take the bus to and from school. The bus seems to be his very favorite part of the day.

I have a few frustrations and reservations. One, being that his teacher will be going on maternity leave in the middle of the year and am worried about the kids having to adjust to a brand new teacher at that time. The other being that there was a rash of slacker parents who registered their kids at the last minute, taking Alex's class from a nice and tidy 20 students, up to 26. Twenty six kindergartners.... that's all I'm going to say about that.

Regardless of my griping, I really am so grateful that Alex is such an easy-going and social little guy and is having so much fun going to school. His big sister was a whole other story 15 years ago, and so I am going to enjoy every minute of it!

Summer Days, Driftin' Away...

This time of year, towards the end of August I get downright panicked that the summer is almost over. I often lament over the "woulda, coulda, shoulda's" of all the things I hoped to do before the summer began. Thus, here is documentation, primarily for my own sake, that we did do a few fun things... (outside of the obvious trip to California).

Went to a cool new park with a fun splash pad.

Alex enjoyed his swimming lessons, particularly on the last day when he got to go down the slide. (Steph was slightly jealous that Alex got to sit on the cute lifeguard's lap!)

We went to Herriman Beach 3 times, and even got Steve to go with us once. (no easy feat!)

 

Last weekend we went up Little Cottonwood Canyon and took a nice little hike. Nothing like the beauty and fresh air of the mountains. I was kicking myself that it took till August to finally get around to doing something I enjoy so much.

Of course, we've also done some of the small and simple things we enjoy in the summertime, going to the local pool a number of times, walking to the gas station to buy Icees, lots of barbecuing. I promise to soak in each moment of these next few weeks, and not allow myself to feel sad that I have to wait another 9 months for summer to roll back around. Ok, maybe not promise, but I will do my best!

My Cute Little Four Eyes

My baby had to get glasses. Just in time for Kindergarten. I'm a little nervous about how that's going to pan out. Hopefully he'll get used to wearing them over the next few weeks before school starts. He looks so handsome, but at the same time when I look at him I feel bad. I know a lot of children have much worse medical problems to deal with so I'm certainly not complaining. In fact, there's a chance he'll grow out of the need for glasses in a few years. In the meantime, I'll be asking for a lot of advice on how to get a 5 year old to keep his glasses on, to keep them from getting lost, and to keep them in one piece!

Deseret News 10k

I've never been much of a runner, but I have learned to enjoy it more and have become a little better at it over the past year. I've done some 5k's before and really enjoyed that. I've wanted to push myself a little more, but certainly am not ready for a half-marathon so I thought a 10k (6.2 miles) would be a good middle ground for me. I'd heard the Deseret News 10k was supposed to be a good course, particularly because much of it is on a decline. So... I signed up, got really nervous right before, but ended up having so much fun and was happy with my time.

Steve dropped me off at the starting line, then went and found a place to park at about mile 3 so that he could cheer me on and snap a few pictures. I spotted him from about a block or two away, but he was so busy cheering on all the runners that he didn't even see me. I was waving my arms in the air as I'm running, but he still didn't see me until finally I shouted out "STEVE!!!" when I was about 20 feet in front of him and he frantically tries to get a picture as I'm running by. (Hence the blury pic!)

These pictures were taken by the professional photogs near the finish line. This top one cracks me up, because I know at that very moment (as I'm starting to poop out), I spotted the clock at the finish line. It had just struck 59 minutes, and I thought, "Oh my gosh, if I hurry I can finish before the hour mark!" That gave me enough oomph to step it up, and my actual chip time ended up being 58:33.

Tim, a friend of ours that I ran into after the race. A lot of people commented on how cool it was that I had the bib # 2000.

I definitely caught the bug and hope I can keep getting better at running!