Merry Christmas and a Silent Night...

Christmas was a little different for us this year. Tom's parents still had their Open House on Christmas Eve but poor tom had to work both Christmas eve and Christmas day. He was able to work in our area on Christmas eve so he took calls from his parents house. He actually was only able to stay a bit before he got a ton of calls. :( sad. But he came after he got off work at 530 so he was still able to mingle with his friends and get some yummy food. Georgia did AWESOME with only one nap. she really enjoyed seeing all her cousins. there are about 20! The one closest to her age is Caroline and shes 4. so there is a pretty big age gap but she loves it and they love playing with her. they all chased each other and it was great fun. We did our big gift exchange and got some very nice gifts.

Christmas morning was just me and Gigi. My mom came over around 11ish and opened gifts with us. My mom gave Gigi a beautiful doll. She has red hair and blue eyes just like gigi. My mom was very happy that Georgia was so excited about this doll. it really made her christmas.

After tom got off work at about 530 we went to his parents again for our gift exchange with just them. Georgia got a lot of great gifts. And tom and I got a navigation system! its awesome and we have already used it.

Tom and I celebrated our little family Christmas the day after christmas. I woke up and started breakfast, turned on the tree and Gigi came down the stairs and saw her new Kitchen! she played with that until i was done with breakfast and then we started opening gifts. we h ad a great time and all got what we wanted. It was a nice relaxing morning. We ended up going to toms aunt an uncles later on for a party. It was really good to talk and catch up with his cousins and family. Gigi enjoyed running crazy through their home and burnt off alot of energy. it was a great time.

Now to the other part of my title.

My grandmother passed away on Christmas morning. She has been battling dementia for some years now and has been in a nursing home for about the last year (a little less). It was very hard to see her there, as she had lost a lot of weight and really didnt remember who I was. She barely remembered who my mom was and my mom went to visit her all the time. She was always a great grandmother and I will always remember her as a strong independent woman. Its sad but predictable that she would leave us on Christmas day. Thats something she (and I haha) would do. "you HAVE to remember me NOW!" only my family. haha I had to almost laugh at the day she choose to leave. its very much HER.

anyways she will be missed. here is a picture of Me, Georgia, my mom and my grandmother last mothers day at the nursing home. 4 Generations in one picture!

In the posting mood...

I have no idea why I feel the need to post. My mother in law just said Im nesting, which I didnt think it was but Ive been cleaning out closests, getting rid of clothes, buying double everything (double strollers...) wrapping gifts like crazy, and just plain cleaning. hmmm maybe I am. wayyyy to early, I still have 4 months to go.

I have been thinking about Georgia second bday party. I can not believe my baby is going to be 2! thats just crazy to me. She really loves Dora and Blues Clues but I think I can get away from those theme parties for a few more years. Until she can say "Mommy I want a Blues bday party" i think i can get away with just having girly parties. hehehe

I took some pics of Georgia and our tree but she is at the stage of funny, crazy smiles so these pics are pretty funny. She is also distracted by the TV, Im sure its Dora or Blue. Enjoy.

Cant you just imagine her saying "mommmmm do I have to take this stupid picture??"

"Ok! If youre gonna make me take pictures im gonna make THIS funny face"

almost normal

"ENOUGH MOM!!!"

"FINEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

would have been perfect had Dora not been on the TV!

ABBY!

This is a video I took of Gigi today showing me who Abby is. (Abby is my friend Karens baby). Georgia loves to tell you all about her friend Abby (sounds a little like Ablee). Sorry for the messy face, she had just eaten. Also, be patient, I do turn the camera to face right.

sick sick and hopefully not more sick...

so I took Georgia to the doctors yesterday for a runny nose, slight fever and "pulling on her ear" according to toms grandmother who watched her yesterday. Good news is NO ear infection which is a HUGE blessing. I, for some reason, have a bad issue with ear infections. I currently am on my 3rd one, just this pregnancy. I got them horribly when I was pregnant with Georgia but luckly more towards the end of my pregnancy so they were able to use other meds. Even though Im in my second trimester and this little girls organs are all formed the doctors dont want to chances it by giving stronger meds. so they have been trying to figure out new and different therpy to get around it. So I was very nervous about her getting an ear infection. luckly she just has a bit of a cold. she was stuffy for two days (which equals no sleep for me and tom) but it much better today. she still has a runny nose but she can at least breathe. The, no sleep, leads me to my second SICK of my title. Im now coming down with this cold she has. everyone at work is sick. and with not enough sleep AND an ear infection I guess my body just couldnt take it anymore. Plus I have been told that my baby has completely taken over my immune system. so my "hopefully not more sick" part of my title is HOPING tom doesnt get it. that would be the worst. having all three of us sick.
We are very excited about Christmas coming! Gigi LOVES the christmas lights on everyones homes. we have to drive the long way home in order to see them all. WOOOOOOWWWW and AWWWWWWW, come from the back seat. Since I love Christmas so much Im thrilled that she is so excited.
Off to bed for now with my sickness. More later.

IT'S A....

GIRL! Yes the Lillis household will be blessed with another little (hopefully red headed) girl. We are so excited. And even better, she has PERFECT feet and no sign of a cleft lip! Honestly we couldnt be more blessed. We had decided going into the sonogram that if this baby has clubbed feet or a cleft lip that we would be ok with it. We have been through it once, we already have the best doctors and if God felt sure enough that we could handle it all again then so be it. We gave it up to God. He gave us Georgia b/c He knew we could handle it and that we were the best parents for her. Everything happens for a reason, right? But seeing those perfect baby feet, I couldnt hold in the tears. I just knew from looking at them that they were fine. i have never seen baby feet on an ultrasound like that. Georgias were always squishy.
I do apparently have placenta previa (sp?) which for those of you that dont know what that is its where the placenta (the thing that gives the baby all her nutrients) is lying low. Its supposed to be toward the top of the uterus but instead mine is on the bottom. This will be a problem if it doesnt move since they wouldnt allow me to deliever naturally. I would be schduled for a C section. So we are obviously hoping it moves. they will keep an eye on it.
We go back for another ultrasound on the 23rd to get the 3D pictures. Apparently the baby needs more fat then what she has right now to get good pictures with the 3D scan. This will also allow her to get bigger and for us to see her lip better. To rule out completely the cleft.
So all is well and we are very excited. :)
Thanks to everyone for their prayers and thoughts this pregnancy. My first one was a very difficult pregnancy (emotionally) so your thoughts and prayers for an easy and uneventful pregnancy for me are very much appreciated.

Thanksgiving

wow its been awhile. sorry! this has been a very busy household. we are still trying to help Gigi's scar recover. Its big and red and purple. I just bought some of that miderma (sp?) cream ($15 for a tiny tube) to help. its supposed to work on even old scars so I hope it can do wonders on her big one. I hope she can wear flip flops on day when shes 16 and not worry about people looking at her scar. :)

The new little bean is growing perfectly. Heart rate is the same that Georgias was, 160 bpm. Old wives tale says thats a girl. But we find out for sure on Dec 5th. We will be heading straight to the high risk specialist for our ultrasound instead of going to the normal radiologist. They want a clear picture of the babys feet and face to look for clubbed feet and/or cleft lip. The high risk people have a sono machine that flips back and forth from the black and white pictures to the really good 3D pics. And insurance pays for it. hehe So I get those cool pics that people pay for but the insurance company has to pay for it. Its about time they pay for something right! haha i shouldnt say that since they always pay for gigis $1600 boots and bars that she gets about every 4 months. :)

We are getting ready for a very busy holiday season. Toms mom always makes thanksgiving dinner and the entire family is invited. We love it! tons of family, really loud (so Gigi fits right in haha), good food and a good time! After that we are leaving to drive down to NC to visit my aunt and grandparents in Wilmington. They have been inviting us for months now and with this being a long weekend it seemed like a great time.

We will also be celebrating our one year wedding anniversary on Monday the 5st! I really dont understand why people say the first year of marriage is the hardest. That truely has to be from back when people didnt live together before marriage, and the hard part is learning how to live with another person. I have loved every minute of being married to tom. Our little family always has a great time together. We laugh and play and just love spending time together.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving with family and friends and if I dont get back on here before Christmas, have a great Christmas too!

Wow its been awhile.

Sorry ya'll. life has been very busy in the Lillis household. Gigi is finally able to look at her "booboo" and be ok with it. For a week or so we had to put a sock on it cause she didnt like looking at it. She had 13 stitches in all and they hadnt all desolved so she didnt like looking at it. Im sure its very scary. She went back to the doctor and she said it looked great. we have to go back on monday due to Georgia being a little allergic to the stitching covering (steristrip, i think its kind of like second skin bandaids) so she was a tad swollen. They want to take another look at it to make sure all is well. I will see if i can post a pic of her new "battle wound". her dad tells people she wrestled alligators and thats how she got it. haha she IS a cool kid.

We are getting ready for Halloween. I have a lot of my decorations out and gigi has her first pumpkin candy holder. trying to teach her to say pumpkin but its coming out pA. she knows what a ghost says and sometimes calls her pumpkin "BOO". we are working on it though.

For those of you who I have not talked to in a few weeks, we would like to announce that baby number 2 will arrive in May! We are very excited. We wanted to wait until Gigi was at least 17 months old and once she was we would start trying. Well, that didnt take long! haha The new baby's due date is May 8th. Right before mothers day! what a perfect gift. We will keep you guys updated. I have been sick since the minute we found out. First with the flu, then the morning sickness kicked in HIGH DRIVE and then gigi and i both caught a terrible cold that we are still getting over. Its one big snotty mess. So tom has been a lifesaver and lets me rest when Im sick and cant stand up, and plays with gigi which gives me more time to rest.

Gigi has started to show signs of wanting to be potty trained! I however am not ready. I have no clue what Im doing. haha then again, does anyone? haha so we are going to get a seat for the toliet in her bathroom and start getting her used to it. I still think shes a month or so away from REALLY starting but HEY its something. Im praying to only have one kid in diapers at any given time. wishful thinking?! we shall see.

Well i think thats all thats new here.

here are some pics to enjoy.

this is her scar from her recent surgery. You can see how her big toe goes under her second toe, this is due to the extra bone that was just removed. It took up so much space in little foot that it pushed the big toe bone under and caused it to curl. the doctor thinks over time it will go back to normal.

My silly girl with her cast on. if you know gigi you know the cast didnt stop her at all!

This is how our immediate family heard the news!

surgery update, what an angel!

hey guys, im still recovering from some sort of virus so i dont have a lot of energy to update each person so i thought i would just post on here. this is still going to be short and sweet cause i cant sit up for too long.

yesterday was gigi surgery. tom and i had to be up at 445 AM to be down in DC at Childrens at 545am. everything went well. I prayed HARD the night before just to have no fever for a few hours and to have the energy to be there for her. and God gave me that. he gave me enough energy to get her through it and get home, after that it was back to a fever.

anywho. when we got there her dr. Dr. Tosi came in and said she and the radiologist had spent a lot of time with gigis MRIs and they had shown it was more complex then they thought. i will have to explain that more later. we took her back, they put the gas on her and she went night night. about 3 hours later we got to go back and see her. she wanted to be held and was in a lot of pain but i think it was more her throat from having a breathing tube put in then in her foot. they had already casted the foot so we havent seen the incision but have been told its pretty big. Dr. Tosi came in to talk with us and told us that once she got in there it was even MORE complicated then she had expected. she apparently had an extra bone but also a joint that was attached to it. Dr. Tosi said "I called Uncle and got the hell out". haha leave it to our kid to throw the best orthopedic surgen off her game. She said she removed the bone like we had discussed but didnt feel removing the joint "just b/c its there" was a good idea. we will wait and see what the joint does in the next few years. she may need another surgery to have it removed later but more like when she is 3 or 4. so all is well right now. she is home and recovering nicely. tom has had to do most of it cause of course last night my fever spiked up again. here is a pic of her yesterday when we got home sitting with her Nana. even after going through a long complex surgery she still smiles. she amazes me everyday. she is our gift from God and we feel so very lucky that he choose us to be her parents. :)

911 and Surgery

So it finally happened. Georgia called 911! Oops. nothing more embarrassing then a cops kid calling 911. Luckly the deputy that got the call of a 911 hangup and was on her way out here works with tom and knew it was our address so she just called here and asked tom if the baby had been playing with the phone. hahaha little turd. tom thought it was funny and I thought it was embarrassing. Oh well, it happens. its not like she did it on purpose but the 9 and the 1 just happen to be on the end so when she holds the phone her little fingers can reach it. guess we need to be more careful on where we leave the phone.

So last week Gigi had her MRI on her feet (she has an extra bone in her left foot) so that the Dr. can map out the surgery to remove it. she obviously need to be put to sleep in order to get her very still. so it was a whole ordeal. here is a little sleepy picture of her before she woke up from it.

isnt she so peaceful and sweet?! she did so well waking up from it. lets see if i can add this video.

she was obviously a little "drunk" on the meds they gave her. she was so sweet.

Her surgery is this coming friday. its really nothing BIG. we dont have to stay overnight and she can walk the next day is she wants to. the doctor said it will hurt but she must have forgotten what child she is talking about. MY kid is go go go allllll day and you cant keep her down. so i bet money she will be up and going the next day.

We will take lots of pictures for our out of town family and friends so you can feel like you were here. :) pray for little Georgia!

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

Let me start by saying, NO, we didnt win any moolah! hahaha Tom and I just got back from Vegas this past weekend. We had a GREAT time! It was a nice break before all hell is about to break loose.
We walked about 100 miles while we were there. WOW even the Strip is long. I actually am glad we did all the walking since we ate all the good food like it was going out of style. the food was AMAZING. we ate at the Top of The World (at the Stratusphere) the night we arrived. the view was just awesome. I had steak and tom had pork chops. OMG! i thought i had died and gone to heavan. soooooo good! We took some pictures but they didnt turn out all the good. I will post some later.
The next day we walked down the street and bought tickets to KA one of the Cirque Du Soliel (sp?) show that night. We were both really excited to see this show. Vegas has about 5 of these shows in different hotels. Each one is different. We went to see the more martial arts one and it was great. those people must have like NO body fat and be in amazing shape. plus we were able to buy drinks before we went in so that was nice. hehe
We ate at a nice Italian resturant at the Venitian afterward. GOOD food. and the atmosphere in these places is so fun. Both tom and i love to people watch so we had alot to look at. haha vegas is a whole other world. haha
We hung out at the pool at the Mirage (our hotel) and had a great relaxing time. they have like 3 bars around the pool and also have servers that will come to your chair and take your drink order. We got two HUGE drinks ($30 for two drinks!!) and floated around the pool lazily drinking them. it was tons of fun. I enjoyed the people watching, well, until i saw a little too much of one fella. YIKES. needless to say security escorted him out. haha i guess what happens in vegas stays in vegas! hahaha
We both missed gigi very much. I think we annoyed the grandparents a little since we called about 3 times a day just to hear her give us Kisses over the phone. I could barely talk to her cause I always choked up the second I heard her. yes i am a mess! We had a great time and cant wait for the next vacation WITH Gigi this time. haha I will post pics as soon as I find the cord to load them on the computer. Me and Tom in front of the Wynn.


Me enjoying a HUGE drink in our pool at the Mirage .

Saturday Mornings

I LOVE the weekends. who doesnt?! I remember as a kid, getting up early (im sure my mom loved that part!) getting some cereal and watching my cartoons. I would put a pillow and a blanket on the floor and vegg out in front of the tv while i ate breakfast. this gave my mom some extra sleep time and i was so comfy. then i would play play play or mom would put some music on and we would clean. well i tried to help but i prob made more of a mess then anything.
but now its my turn to help make those memories for gigi. every weekend we get up, I put her on our bed while i finish getting ready, brushing teeth and whatnot. we have started brushing with gigi, she has her own little spongebob toothbrush. she doesnt really like the feeling of it yet but she likes to copy us. i turn on her cartoons and she lays in our bed and watches the Disney channel while I finish up. Then we head downstairs and I fix her morning sippy cup of milk and make some MUCH NEEDED coffee for me and we hang out on the sofa. this is just long enough for me to wake up enough to function. HA! then shes off like a bolt of lightening. if you have ever met Gigi you know that from sun up to sun down she is go go go. Recently she has learned to climb up on the ottoman and flip over the arm of the sofa! ahhhhhh I have a feeling she is going to be a climber like her daddy. apparently as a kid he LOVED to climb. great, i foresee many broken bones in our future. wish us luck!
i will post pics of our sat morning later.

Pictures

So this weekend we decided to take Gigi to have her picture taken at Picture people at the mall. We havent had any done since her first bday around Easter! Shes walking now! so much has changed. I actually started tearing up when the women was showing us our photos. My baby has grown so much. I swear it feels like just yesterday they handed a brand new baby to me in the hospital. shes almost 17 months! thats crazy. I can not believe it.

So here are some that I took offline. it has the zazzle in front of it but you get the idea.

:)

they asked that this one be placed in their baby contest! how cute!

and thats what we like to call "a redheaded attitude" ladies and gents! some say she gets this from her mama, not sure what they mean. ;)

notice the clinched fists! hahaha (by the way, this happened b/c someone told her NO!)

having another "1st time mom" moment...

Ok so yesterday I came home from work and my mom mentioned this rash on Gigi's back. It had been there a few days but it looked like heat rash which she gets all the time in the summer cause her skin is so pale and sensetive. Dont worry, tom and I took her temp all week to make sure this wasnt some illness with a rash as a symptom. she was fine other then this rash but since it wasnt going away i called the doctor. At 4 pm on a friday evening. opps. but they were able to fit her in. so in we went. they weighed her and she is FINALLY over 20 lbs! all my fattening up WORKED. anyways back to my point. it was NOT a rash apparently but just a bad flare up on her ezema. boo i hate this stuff. so he gave us some meds and sent us on our way. HOWEVER before we left i voiced my concern. here is my overreacting 1st time mommy moment....
Georgia is 16 months and will NOT say Mama. She knows who I am. If someone asks her "where is Mommy or Mama" she will look for me. But other then that I am DADA just like tom. If tom is in the room with her and I leave the room she will call for me "DADAAAAA DADAAAAA DADA!" even with tom sitting there. One day I decided I was determined to get her to say it and I would have her look at me and say "Gigi can you say MAMA" and the lil turd actually shook her head no. I couldnt believe it. Im not sure WHY i couldnt believe it cause that is just like her, little stubborn self. And I cant be mad cause shes just like me. haha
So I asked the doctor if it was something we should worry about. But when i explained it to him about her actually saying NO when i asked her to do it he just laughed and said its her little way having an attitude. she knows we want her to say it so shes not going to. fabulous! that proves that she IS just like me. we are in for some serious trouble if thats the case. hehe
He said as long as shes speaking about 10 words then there is nothing to worry about. So, Im going to count out her words on here to make sure I list them. Plus Im too busy to update her baby book too much so this will help me remember. haha

Gigi's words at 16 months:
1) Dada
2) Airplane (sounds more like apple but she looks to the sky and says it when an airplane goes by)
3) Bird
4) Bubble
5) More please (sounds like mama which kills me but whatever)
6) milk
7) Meow (dr. says that animal sounds count)
8) ruff ruff (what a dog says)
9) quack quack
10) up (this just started today)
11) she knows what an elephant says and make the trunk (not sure how to spell that) haha
12) night night (this is what she calls her blankie
13) ball
14) elmo
15) blueberry (new as of this morning sounds like boo boo)
16) she knows what a fish "says" bloob bloob" but puts her fins up (this is thanks to the Lillis side of the family at the beach this past week)
17) Hi
18) Bye
I think thats it but she understands so much more. but I dont think that counts. haha
Ok so I feel better about that mama thing now that she knows 18 words.
I felt a little silly leaving the Dr. cause Im sure he was thinking, "stop freaking out lady she is fine."
haha this is just a prime example of 1) how different all kids can be and 2) that she is exactly like me.

Beach time!

We just got back from the beach. I miss it already. We went with Toms family. His aunt and uncle and their son Nick (another red head!), His uncle Billy and his 4 kids. His other uncle Jimmy. His uncle and Georgias Godfather Chris and his 3 kids. Toms grandparents and his parents and sisters. His cousin Mark and his girlfriend Karen also came down but got their own house. with all those kids, I can understand WHY. hahaha

Mark and Karen got engaged while we down there which is WONDERFUL since they have been together 10 years! A wedding is soon to come. I guess when you have been together that long why make it longer with a long engagement. Karen said babies are soon to come too! yea! gigi will have cousins her age. I think sometime this Fall will be the wedding. I love fall weddings. they are so pretty. It will be our 3rd wedding before this year is up. Ashleighs (toms cousin) is in Aug. His cousin David is getting married in Oct. and now Karen and Marks. YIKES thats alot. but i love weddings so its all good.

back to the beach...

so gigi HATES the water and the sand. She didnt mind the water as long as you were holding her and not trrying to put her feet in it. here are a few pics. notice the death grip on toms shirt. haha

We had a great time spending time with family. The house was AMAZING! each of us basically had a suite. A huge bedroom with a hugeeee bathroom. we had a steam shower AND a jet tub. double sinks! WHOOP WHOOP. gigi slept great which was awesome. we put on her spongebob and to slumbertown she went. she loved playing with her cousins. here she is with her cousin morgan who just loves playing with her.

This is the UVA protected tent that we bought our pale daughter. haha

Gigi in her Bob Bob chair.

Mommy and Gigi enjoying the water.

Eatin a snack.

Happy 4th

Well since we were leaving for the beach the next day we didnt do too much on the 4th. Tom had to work (which he HATES on july 4th cause everyone becomes stupid on this day) so gigi and i hung out at the house and had a photo shoot. haha basically i dressed her up and followed her with a camera. loser i know. but what else was i going to do. then tom got home and we went to his parents and ordered pizza and hung out with them. we had to get up at 330 am to leave for the beach the next day. we let that early in order to allow gigi to sleep most of the way. which she did which was awesome.

here are some pics from our photo shoot. :)

By the way, this little bike was my mothers when she was little. My uncle Chris found it in my great grandmothers basement and completely redid it for Gigi. It was totally rusted and in bad shape. Everything on the bike is original except for the little pedels. It was a very thoughful gift and gigi just LOVES it. her little feet dont touch the pedels yet but we push her round the house on it and she loves it.

my poor baby.

So monday we got some bad news. our precious baby will need another surgery.

I cant begin to express how upset about this we are. When we found out, it literally felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I couldnt breathe, I couldnt speak. nothing. my worst fear was coming true.

last summer was pure hell for us. Georgia had two different surgeries. One on her feet (nothing big) and then the big one on her lip. I thought that was far behind us and we were done with this crap. I can not tell you the empty feeling you get when you watch your tiny baby being walked down a hallway to surgery with someone you dont even know. as a mom you want to protect them from everything from someone hurting their feelings to pain. I felt like I had no control. i couldnt protect her from what was about to happen to her.
and now we have to go through that again. Im literally spent. I feel like I have no fight left in me. I know we will get through this. and I know it will make us stronger. but it still really sucks. why us, why my little baby, why? will it ever end for her? will we ever be done with surgeries?
sorry if this is such a debbie downer posting. caught me on a bad day. Im not always this, whoa is me. We will get through this. we will deal with it. She wont remember it and hopefully this surgery will be the best thing for her.
I'm not a very religious person, I obviously believe in God, but as for the church thing, not so much. I know God will protect my baby and will give Tom and I the strength to get her through this. Please say a little prayer for our precious baby. Our gift from God.

running...

I LOATH running. it HAS to be the worst EVER. why would you want to run anywhere. blah. i hate hate hate it. but i do like what it does for my body. haha walking is great but doesnt give you fast results. so i run. boooooooooo
I ran last weekend with gigi in her jogging stroller. she loved it. i hated it. but whatever. so during the week i did my workout video. i hate that too. hahaha I HATE working out. so today i went running alone since tom had his workout at 930 i went out early. lets not discuss the fact that i forgot SUNSCREEN ahhhhhhhhh. my face is bright red. ew. but i ran for abotu 41 min. (not straight through mind you but im getting there). so i feel pretty good about myself. i obviously would like to go longer and actually RUN the entire thing but that will take some time i believe. i feel like i pushed myself today so isnt that all that matters.
i HAVE to do something cause the scale keeps going up up up. i dont get it. :(
well more on my workout is to come.
PS. i HATE runningggggggggggggggggggggggg

busy weekend!

Wow we had such a great weekend. Sat, gigi and I went to The Mooney household for their Big Ass Summer Bash! it was a lot of fun. Jen, of course, always the party planner, had an awesome set up. Many water toys for the babies. A baby pool, a slip-n-silde, a skim bored thing, and we brought gigi's sprinkler fish water toy. the water was a little cold for gigi's liking (always the princess) so she didnt stay in it long. she was also working on NO second nap for the day so it was only a matter of time before melt down. so we left around 5ish. but it was really good to see everyone and catching up with people. If tom didnt have to work we would have gotten a sitter and stayed much longer cause im sure we missed out on the "party" aspect of the party. Oh well, thats what happens when you have little beans. :)
Then today gigi and i went on a morning run. FINALLY! after i got off the scale this morning, noticing that i have continued to gain weight even with a modified diet. i almost choked when i saw the scale this morning. i mean i understand not LOSING weight cause i havent been working out but im GAINING it. what the heck is going on? so we went for a run/walk. i need to get back in shape since i havent been working out for a long time. i hope to start losing weight before baby number 2 is on the way and before VEGAS. so wish me luck.
then after gigis nap we went to the pool for an hour. with a baby it only lasts that long. she enjoyed it though. then we went over to my friend Christine's house for a play date. she has 3 kids under 3 years old! shes a freaking saint! not sure how she does it. but she does. haha her girls were very sweet to gigi and allowed her to play with all their toys. it was alot of fun for her and for me. christine and i havent seen or even talked to each other since freshman year in college. it was sooo good catching up with her. we are planning another get together soon and maybe a get together without kids. haha
so gigi is in bed for the night, thanks to a busy weekend. :)

Daddy Day!

Again its been awhile since my last post. sorry guys.

This past weekend was Father's day and since last year, thanks to just having a baby and Karens wedding, I failed Tom I had to step it up this year. So other then his gym membership that he REALLY wanted, Gigi and I (obviously more me then her) made him breakfast in bed. Gigi woke up at 6 AM. and then we went downstairs to make him breakfast. I made waffles in our waffle maker, I cut up strawberries and added some sugar to them for an awesome topping. I then added some powdered sugar to the top. Then we made some turkey bacon (HEY he got a GYM membership, i didnt want to ruin that) haha then I made MIMOSAS! and then cut a flower from my potted plants outside and the breakfast for daddy was complete! how awesome of a wife am I?! haha yeah i thought so. So after that we went to the mall to let gigi run wild. I actually let tom take her in the little playground they have there for kids. I could not go in, it gives me severe anxitey. the germs and all the freaking bad ass kids running around. blah i hate it. so tom took her in there and i went shopping. :)

after that we went to the pool and then had toms family over for a cookout. more people showed up then i expected but the more the merrier. :) gigi had a great time playing with all the kids.

Sat- we took gigi to the zoo for the first time. i honestly can not remember the last time i went to the zoo. it had to be with a school group or something. I didnt think she would really "get" the zoo and thought we would just roll her by all the animals and be on our way. I was soooo wrong. she LOVED it. we took her to all the animals that she knew. Lions, monkeys, elephants (she didnt know them before the zoo but does now!) hippos and pandas. she CRIED everytime we walked away from an animal. she Rar'd at the lions. it was so cute. here is a picture of her doing just that.

So that was our weekend. hectic as always but oh so fun. :)

Above is gigi after "sketi" and then at Mary and Kristins Graduation party chillin.

Grad parties and baseball.

God! Im seriously terrible at keeping this thing updated. Sorry ya'll. So thursday both tom and i took off work to go to Mary's graduation at the Basillica. What and amazing and beautiful place that is. you walk in and it almost takes your breath away its so beautiful. We didnt get seats cause there were a million people there. apparently they were supposed to be checking tickets but that didnt happen so there were more people there then the place could hold. people were sitting in folding chairs and most of us had to stand. which was fine cause Gigi lasted about 3 min in her stroller, and that was only cause i was shovling blueberries (which she eats like candy) into her mouth. But that got old after awhile so she wanted up. we let her roam for awhile but once she realized her voice made echos we were dunzo! oh and the fact that she thought the holy water looked like the baby pool at our pool. yes, she splashed in it and almost climbed in! opps. we left early needless to say.
Friday my aunt came to babysit for us and Tom and I went to an O's game with some of our friends and some of my co-workers. Lets just say, I think some people should learn better manners. Let me clarify... one of my co-workers got everyone together and got us group seats. well that means they brought their husbands/wives. one of the wives was cheering for the other team, which is FINE. in fact my best friend and her hubby are huge Sox fans. but she actually had the near to say that something we did, as O's fans was "so Dumb". Im sorry, but didnt you JUST meet us? Why would you do that?! I just dont understand some people. But regardless of that moment everything else was so much fun. it was a late night but it was a good night. :)
then sat we had the girls (kristin and Marys) graduation party. It was a lot of fun and good to see everyone. We all prob wont see each other again until Ashleigh and Mikes wedding in Aug, which we are very excited about.
I also got a little cleaning/organizing done. I put away all of Gigi's "baby" toys. you know the rattles and the teething stuff. that felt good to put it all away. her toys were taking over the house. I really want to get her a little wagon. i think she would just love it. then again considering she is a little monkey she would prob stand up and climb out of it. hmmm

ok pics to follow soon, im just too tired.

Fireworks

Wow, its definitly been too long since I posted last. Sorry guys. We have been very busy. Last weekend we were in WV for Kristin's graduation from WVU. The ceremony was very nice and not long at all. most graduations are horribly long, but this one was not bad at all. Gigi of course refused to sit still so tom and i took turns in the Hall with her. Along with every other parent with a toddler. Gigi made a little friend named Isaiah. I have noticed thats a very popular name for little boys. very cute.

Sleeping away from home is looking to be an issue for her. Any advice on this would be helpful. We took her pack-n-play and her "sounds" (a sound machine that is on all the time when she sleeps) and her blankie of course but she STILL refused to sleep in it. She has never for one second slept with us in the bed until last weekend. it was the only thing we could do to calm her down. once she was in bed with me (poor tom had to sleep in the pack-n-play! hhaha just kidding, he slept in the other bed. but just picture for a min, a 6, 5 dude sleeping in that lil thing. hehe) she fell right asleep. she also refused to sleep in it for naps. so tom and i put her in her car seat and drove around for 1.5 hours so she could get a nap. needless to say it was a very long weekend for us.

here are some pics.

I made this shirt for Gigi to wear to both her aunts graduations. on the back of the shirt it says WV and DJO.

This weekend we are celebrating Memorial day. and the pool opening! very excited! Last year Gigi had her casts on so we couldnt ever take her outside due to her getting over heated. So this is really her first summer outside. She's not diggin the grass too much, but we are hoping that changes.

Yesterday was the Ashburn Farm Summer Kickoff. They had a band and robecks and beer. We went with my prego friend Karen (who is due July 5th!) and her sister. It was very nice just to sit and talk. here are some pics.

Gigi was Quacking at the Duckies. By the way, can I get some props for keeping that pale skin PALE!? thank you! Im a tad obsessive about sunscreen but if you have ever seen my pale baby you would understand why. :)

more later.

Mothers Day

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! to all mommys out there. lord knows its the best job on earth. I recieved very sweet gifts from tom and gigi. I got a charm to add to my "gigi braclet" of a little pair of Gigi shoes. To celebrate that Gigi walked this year! We have all been through alot this past year getting her to that point and its a very nice way to celebrate her special little feet. I also got a wireless speaker for when we entertain outside. I have wanted one for a long time so its very nice to have one. I also got a cool plant that I can take to work with me. hopefully this will calm me more when im at work. haha im a tad highstrung there.

The only thing that would have made it better would be if tommy could have been home with us. Guess thats the life of a Cop Wife. I am used to it really, him missing a few things but sometimes it hits and I get sad. Oh well megan, get over it. :/

here are some new pics

Gigi and her aunt Mary (ready for senior prom) at Darrell Greens house for pictures.

Its tough being a one year old. Such hard decisions to make, pink or green, flowers or froggies?

So...Dont choose, double fist!

dogs, bushes, bugs, and sleep

So this has just been a great weekend so far! I had a tastefully simple party friday night that was just awesome. there are no other words to describe it. I had a good turn out of people and everyone meshed really well and we all had such a great time. 4 hours of a good time in fact! who knew, that a tastefully simple party could go 4 hours. haha I just want to thank all the woman (and shawn for keeping tom and gigi company) that came out, thanks for a great night.

Then this morning tom and i took the baby over to see my aunt karen and uncle robbie at my grandparents house. they came up for the weekend and brought the dogs. and OH MY GOODNESS does gigi just love them. they are so much bigger then she is that their tails knocked her right on her bum. but she just loved it. she GIGGLED and she hardly ever giggles out loud. they would knock her down and then lick her face all over. it was so cute. tom of course wants a dog so bad but ummmmm NO. haha too much work.

Here are some pics from today.

This one is after one of the dogs just licked gigis face!

We also went to see my grandmother in Reston and they have a koi pond outside that gigi really enjoyed. here is tom and gigi sitting at the pond (before gigi ate dirt!)

i love her face in this pic. shes saying "what mama?"

We also changed gigis carseat from rear facing to front facing. she just loves it. she can see so much more now. look how cute she is

A Lillis Weekend!

So we had a very hectic weekend in the Lillis household. We had our friend Debs 50th bday party to go to on Sat. night. It was so much fun. Gigi walked right into Deb's house and started walking around going "ohhhhhhhh, ohhhhhhhh" with this really high pitched voice like she was sooo interested in everything in Debs house. It was hilarious! Everyone thought she was just the cutest thing which of course I had to agree. wink wink. Deb got alot of funny gag over the hill gifts. I have to admit I bought a few of them. I couldnt resist. Here are some pics of Gigi at Debs party. I love dressing her in peach colors cause she has that carrot top hair color and it just looks so good on her. So if you notice she wears alot of that color thats why.

I dont like this one of me but gigi just looked so darn cute I had to add it in here.

On Sunday my mother in law had a jewelry party. I have to say, I have been to these things before and have never been that impressed with the jewelry but this Premier Jewelry stuff was super cute. So, Im having a party in September! haha ya'll are invited! But the best part of the party was when the hostess brought out all the necklaces and earrings and Gigi walked up to them and said EEEEEWWWWW like she LOVED what she saw. We put a necklace on her and she walked around the room saying eeewwww and petting the necklace. it was a riot!

here are a few pics of her at the party

Here are some funny ones I just took of her. My mom gave her this little worm guy. she just loves it. Here is our little dare devil.

Look at that sweet lil face! she's such a happy baby!

This is one of my fave. I asked her to smile at the camera and this is what she did. What a lil Ham!