merry christmas from our home to yours!

a week in review:

lily's past week went something like this...

monday: terrible cold. had to cancel all plans. poor girl, she was just crummy.

tuesday: sent her to school, but still feeling pretty sick. however, when i picked her up in the afternoon, cold was all but gone! hallelujah! shortest cold ever!
(side note: tuesday night, ryan up all night with stomach virus)

wednesday: starts out great. we are on the up and up as a family.

wednesday night/thursday morning: lily up all night with the vomits.

thursday: clearly started out rough, but it looks as if the stomach virus for lily was very short lived. again, resilient immune system!

friday: stomach virus seems to have resolved, but she won't eat and is all in all miserable seeming.

saturday: exact repeat of friday and she is so clingy it is beginning to wear on us!

sunday: ryan convinces her to eat pretty much the first thing since wednesday, which was half a pancake for lily's favorite thing: "second breakfast with daddy." however, still miserable. we take her to church since she is fever free and meet her at the nursery door with eyes covered in goop. to the doctor we go and she is diagnosed with conjunctivitis and an ear infection.

way to go, lil... i think you had the majority of the most common childhood illnesses in the past week!

now, i am not one of those people who thinks i should be given antibiotics often. i firmly believe that they are over prescribed and we are doing ourselves harm. however, when the doctor handed me a prescription for a 10 day course of antibiotics, i almost could have kissed him.

and i am also not the type of person who likes to say "it was a bad day" or "it was a bad week" but all of lily's illnesses coupled with a few personal things, made this past week an all in all "rough week." i have never been happier to see the start of a new week and a monday morning! so here's to a fresh start this week!

motherly love...

ask anyone in my family. growing up, when someone was sick, you could say i kept my distance. and if you had a stomach virus, i pretty much avoided you for a week until i was sure all germs were good and dead. i was not exactly the most sympathetic sister to those who were vomiting. you can say it is a phobia of mine. i truly think it is the worst. i would even occasionally follow the poor patient around with a can of lysol to ensure they weren't tracking germs through the house. i've even been told by a few of my siblings that i really hurt their feelings when they were sick (for which i am terribly sorry!) and it is pretty amazing that i became a nurse since i've known this phobia all along.

i remember being amazed by my mom as she would care for us so tenderly as we were in misery all night long. she never got upset when we would puke right into her bed or when huge messes were made. she just let us know we would be ok and stayed by our side. i also remember telling her that i would never be able to do that when i had a child of my own... it was just too gross.

well, lily got her first case of the vomits in the middle of the night last night. and i have to say, my hands did get clammy and my heart was racing as my mind was thinking "she's so highly contagious!!" but then, my heart broke so painfully for my poor little one who did not understand what was going on and was just miserable. i held her all night and when things finally calmed down and she was able to fall asleep in my arms, i found myself thinking, "this is the best feeling in the world." let me tell you, the love of a parent is unbelievably strong...

now here's to hoping i stay well! :)

'tis the season...

so, i have kind of dropped off of the blogging train the last few weeks... i would love to tell you all sorts of excuses (one camera broken, the other still in indiana, busy with travel to indy and chicago, blah blah blah...) but really, i've just been lazy. i have however been quite sad about my camera plight over the last two days.

yesterday, we decorated our christmas tree with lily. i must admit, when i thought of decorating the tree, i figured we'd put lily to bed and just power through it with some christmas music in the background and no sweet one helping us. but, ryan really thought lily would enjoy it and so i conceded. well, i am so glad he had an opinion about it because she absolutely adored it. she literally squealed with delight with every new ornament and constantly said, "more decorations... ok??!!" it really was a joy and i wish i'd had my camera. now the only trick is that she got to touch the tree all last night and now it is magically off limits? hmmm... she can't quite figure out why this has happened?

and the second instance in which i really have missed my camera just occurred. ryan is running in a urology sponsered 4 miler tomorrow. well, last year he was maybe a bit over zealous and ended up being the first urology physician to cross the line (including coming in before his program chair...yikes!) so, naturally, he is feeling the pressure this year and doesn't want to do worse than last year. anyway, he and lily just did some yoga together to loosen up for the big race and it was about the cutest thing i've ever seen. she mimicked his every move and actually held the poses better than i often do!

i guess these memories will just have to live on in our minds... but hopefully sooner as opposed to later i will be back on the photography band wagon!

i stand corrected...

pictures compliments of eric. thank you! quite impressive, rick!

tea for two...

she worked so hard on this while i made dinner. (note that pooh is eating an octopus!) my little hostess...

sweet words

i am sure every parent thinks that the things their child says are just the cutest. and while lily has been chatty for quite some time now, she is really starting to string words together and speak her mind more freely. i am finding myself already mourning the day when she no longer calls herself "ninnie" and for when her sentences are more grammatically correct. i've decided that i don't want to forget her sweet mumblings and i wanted to post them here to remember them forever.
some of the things that have come out of her mouth this past week:

- when she is hungry: "ninnie eat... something!" (with almost a desperate sound in her voice... "please mom, anything you can get your hands on will do... just feed me something!:)

- when she is tired or hurt and i am trying to console her, but not doing an adequate job: "daddy hold you. daddy hold you!" (i will be sad the day that "me" replaces "you.")

- one of her teachers at school put her hair into two ponytails (not pigtails, mind you... one on top and then one that slightly resembles a rattail in the back). well, ever since, she is obsessed with it and constantly says, "pony hail! pony hail!" every time i try to put her hair in a barrette. yikes... i can already see the day coming when she decides she should be in charge of clothes and shoes and such!

- our child still prefers not to drink much, so in an effort to get liquid in her, i have been making a smoothie every day, which she now lovingly refers to as her "hoo-mie!"

- lily prefers to have her personal space (where could she have ever gotten this trait from??) consequently, she used to freak out a bit if you were in her space. we've worked really hard on her saying, "excuse me, mommy" or daddy or whomever when she feels the offender in violating her space. she has done quite well with this and has taken it to the next level... when an inanimate object is in her way/space, she now says, "excuse me this! excuse me this!" these words ring through our home countless times a day.

boys will be boys...

every fall, ryan gets together with three of our wonderful friends from high school, eric, andrew and adam. it has become somewhat of a tradition for the fellas to spend a weekend in dc doing whatever it is that boys do. well, this past weekend, was the said weekend and although adam couldn't come along this year, they still made it happen. lily and i got to crash the party to spend some time with the guys and with lisa and it was wonderful to see everyone. thank you so much for your hospitality, andrew and lisa! all i know is that we may grow older, but that doesn't mean we get much more mature...
thanks for a wonderful weekend!



ps. someone (eric) was supposed to send us pics of the weekend since our camera was on the fritz. i am beginning to doubt they will ever arrive! so, i instead posted a picture from 5 years ago. sweet, i know.

i love the certainty with which she says things...

eggplant? but of course! it looks just like it! (she told me with complete sincerity this was what she was drawing about 5 times!)

sugar rush...

UVA students who live on the lawn open their doors every year to all the kids in c'ville to come trick-or-treat. it seriously seems like thousands of kids donned in the most adorable costumes are there and it is a lot of fun. lily warmed up to it a lot more this year than last and by the end of the night she was loving her "bee cos-ume" and "buzzing" all over the house.




dr. david charles III


yohan the skunk!


ainsley as a beautiful angel




her first bite of a candy bar from ryan...


and LOVING it!


happy halloween!

for all you tony dungy fans out there...

lily's a.m. halloween costume.
eat your heart out, mom!
happy halloween!
(p.m. costume to follow...)

"go home with muffy, too?"

this was the statement made by lily last night when my mom was giving her a goodnight kiss. my mom so kindly came to visit us for a long weekend during her fall break. we just relaxed and cherished time together. it is so precious to us to see lily with our families. thank you so much, mom for coming to visit. we love you so much.


lily feeling SO big in muffy's heels and loving the sound that they made on the hardwood floors!

a sporty 24.

being the peace-loving couple that ryan and i are, we try to compromise on the movies that we watch. well, we have found that what usually suits us best is to go back and forth from a girly movie one time to a more boy movie the next. and i must admit, that we both usually enjoy what the other has picked. occasionally, we don't quite agree (case and point: court's recent pick "go further" - a documentary on organic living. ryan's recent pick "transformers.") but, for the most part, we end up really enjoying one another's movies.

well, this past friday, the movie that was next up on our list happened to be one of ryan's picks. i will readily confess that i was immediately not looking forward to ryan's selection of "kicking it" for several reasons:

1) a documentary
2) a documentary on sports
3) made by ESPN.

yikes. it didn't have much going for it.
however, i will admit i was far too quick to judge this movie.
it was a documentary about the homeless world cup (which i embarrassingly didn't even know existed) and it was fascinating! it interviewed coaches and players from around the world and told their unbelievable stories that led them to be homeless and then find themselves playing in the homeless world cup. it was a very humbling story and made me have a whole new compassion for those that are homeless. we would certainly recommend it!



well, to continue our sporty 24 hours, ryan and i had been planning to run in the c'ville 10K saturday morning. maybe it was the rain that kept ryan from running with me... or maybe it was that he was required to go do laparoscopic surgery on pigs that morning and sadly i ended up running alone. but, i have a whole new love for a 10K and think it might be my new favorite race distance! i even managed to come in 3rd place in my age group. so, next year, i will be sure to have ryan by my side!

a week in review - part three...

the third part of our trip we traveled to the mountains in north carolina. our amazing friends, the hammocks, had invited us to come and stay in a gorgeous cabin with them for a long weekend.


we hiked to a couple of waterfalls that were breathtaking with the autumn foliage.






wouldn't it have been sweet if we had happened upon this in the wild?? we went to grandfather mountain, which is the highest peak in the blueridge mountains, and they had tons of animals in a zoo of sorts.


preston and ava on the mile high swinging bridge.

thank you so much, preston and kristi for a wonderful mountain getaway!

and thank you so much to all of our friends and family for the most perfect week!
we miss you all already!

a week in review - part two...

the second part of the trip we spent at kathy's house. it was wonderful...


lily loving every moment of it!


after months of petting this horse, she finally decided it was time to ride...




we made a quick trip to IU to see everyone. it was way too short, but so great to be together!

sam and ryan rocking the same shirt.
ryan's first words to sam upon seeing him, "you gotta change, man."
did sam change? nope.


the IU crew.

we were able to have dinner with our amazing friends, the wrights. we don't see them nearly enough, but when we do, it is always wonderful.

avery and brady couldn't be cuter. i promise this is the pacifier that avery chose for him - adam is loving it in all its pinkness...




adam being an amazing multitasking dad.


they are the best!

a week in review - part one...

ryan had the last week off and we were able to travel and see family and friends and just enjoy being together. i treasured our week as a family...

the first few days...





were spent at my parents' house and lily couldn't get enough of the leaves!

we took a family trip to a nearby pumpkin patch that had tons of goodness for kids!

doesn't get much cuter than this, does it?


they had big boxes filled with thousands of corn kernels for the kids to play in. lily adored it!


lily loved the baby animals and did a very accurate pig imitation that sounded nothing like the typical "oink!"




soaking up some time with muffy!


colin and stefanie and kathy made the trip out to the patch with us!


choosing her very own pumpkin (which she thought was fun to throw like a ball. i do understand the confusion, but the poor pumpkin took a beating!)

oh we love you...

our amazing friend katy just had her 29th birthday and we were able to have a surprise double date with she and her husband. it was wonderful to have an evening out with them! and we all felt pretty sneaky as katy arrived to our house blindfolded and david schlepped her all through our yard and over bushes and fences to throw her off our trail!















katy, you are so beautiful and we cherish you. we were so glad to get to be a part of your birthday celebration.
much love...