GardenFest of Lights

Lily & I made a trip to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden this weekend for their annual GardenFest of Lights. Everything was beautifully decorated for Christmas. Lily was amazed by all the lights kept trying to run everywhere to make sure she saw everything. She was so worried she would miss something. She made us go through the maze of lights a bunch of times & made sure that we went a different way through every time.

Lily & Zoey's New Game

Lily & Zoey have a new game they play all the time & it is just hilarious. Lily grabs Zoey's blankie, runs down the hall with it & calls Zoey to come get it. Then Zoey comes running & pulls Lily back down the hallway by the blankie. I tried recording it on my camera, but it came out pretty dark & I don't know how well you can see it, but the sound effects (Lily's giggle) is worth it anyway. I included some pics so you can get a better idea of what is going on...

Trimming the Tree

We decided to put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving this year, because Brian had to go back to Dover & we didn't know when he would be able to come back to help us put it up. We had a little trouble with the lights at first, but we finally got it all sorted out & Lily loved putting all the ornaments on the tree.

Not having a good time with the lights...
He still doesn't look happy, even though the lights are finally all working...


The finishing touch

Thanksgiving with the Hodos

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year due to Brian's work schedule & we were so happy to be able to have Mimi, Grant, Granny & Kris join us here.

Brian surprised us all & was able to come home a day earlier than expected, which everyone was very excited about.

Miss Lily was thrilled to have everyone visiting & took full advantage of all the attention. :o)

Lily & Kris watching Shrek the Third

Our fantastic Thanksgiving chefs

Brian BBQ'd our turkey - which turned out terrific

Someone mooching for some turkey...

Despite predictions for rain, we had amazing weather for the entire visit, which was enjoyed by all.
Lily taking Stevie for a cruise in her Jeep

Showing off her vacuuming skills - I wish she was this helpful all the time!

Mimi teaching her olive trick to Lily - silly girls!

Time for dessert!

Turkey makes us very sleepy...

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!!

CATS

Lily & I went to see CATS this weekend. We had a great time & Lily loved seeing all the people dressed up as cats, singing & dancing. She was on the edge of her seat for most of the performance. When we were leaving she couldn't stop talking about the show & kept saying "Thank you so much for bringing me here, I had so much fun! I'm so glad we came here!" (What a sweet girl!)

Here's Lily getting ready to leave. She insisted on wearing her cat ears since we were going to "the kitty show".

Cars, Care Bears & Curls

Well let's see...not too much has been going on the past couple of weeks. My dad ended up extending his trip (a couple times) to finish helping me fix my car. I'm happy to say that after all his hard work & figuring out what was wrong with the darn thing, it is finally fixed!! YAY! Thank you, Daddy!! Lily and I are very excited to be able to get in the car & know we are going to make it to wherever we are going & home. :o)

We also had a visit from Brian, which was very exciting. It was nice to have him home, even if it was just for a couple days. He got the chance to BBQ one last time before it gets too cold, so he was happy about that. Lily loved having him home & was pretty much attached to him the whole time he was here.

Brian brought this CareBear home for Lily & she & "Sara" (as she calls it) have been inseperable ever since.

When Brian got back to Dover, he was moved from the hotel he was staying in to a fully furnished apartment. The army is establishing a contract with the complex so all the future soldiers working there will be able to stay there as well. He will be staying there the duration of his time in Dover. Hopefully this will make his stay a little more comfortable, now that he has a full kitchen and a little more space to move around in.

I've been meaning to post about Lily's haircut she got recently. I had been thinking for quite some time now that she needed a haircut. Lily has always been against haircuts, but one day after school she went with Stevie to have his hair cut. After seeing that, she decided she wanted hers cut too, so about a month ago, we took her for a haircut of her own. She had quite a bit cut off and I somehow managed not to cry watching all those beautiful curls being cut off. :o) Her curls are definitely all gone now, with the exception of a couple in the back underneath all the rest of her hair, that you can't really see. However, her hair is much healthier & a lot easier to manage, so all in all, I'm glad we had it done.

Before

After

Haunted Halloween House

Lily & Grammy built another Halloween house this year - which is haunted according to Miss Lily.

Almost looks like she has horns in this pic :o)

It's all in the details...

It's hard to see in the pic, but Lily insisted on drawing scary faces in the windows - the faces are what is haunting the house...

The architect & designer

Halloween Festivities

Grammy & Papa came to visit for Halloween since they are not going to be able to visit over Thanksgiving. As soon as they got here we began our traditional Halloween activities...

Lily stirring her witches brew (cupcake batter)

Helping Mom pour the batter into the cupcake wrappers
Frosting them all by herself!

I don't know if she got more frosting on the cupcakes or in her belly...



My festive pups

Getting this photo of them both looking was quite a fete!

Carving Pumpkins!!
Lily was actually brave enough this year to stick her hand in the pumpkin & get out all the seeds & goo. (Last year she wouldn't get anywhere near it!)

EWWW!!!

Concentrating very hard

Our spooky pumpkins:

Our fantastic pink poodle!

She puts Poodlena to shame :o)
Too cute!

The pink poodle in our yard - with the fantastic scarecrow Daddy made before he left!
The trick-or-treaters
Stevie, Kale, Kylie, Lily, Noah & Drew