My baby is growing up!

I can hardly believe Lilah is now 1 year old, it just doesn't seem possible. Having kids really does give an entirely new meaning to time flying. I just want to thank everyone who has supported us and loved us throughout this past year. I'm glad Lilah has had such a warm welcome and so much love all around her throughout her first year of life. I just can't tell you how truly thankful I am for Lilah and how blessed I feel to be her Mommy. Bill and I talk about how we just could never imagine life without her and how lucky we are to gave been given such a precious gift. Every night I lay down with Lilah as she drifts off to sleep and we say our prayers together. And every night I thank God for her. Every day that I live I will remember what a gift she is, and every time those little chubby arms are wrapped tight around my neck, I melt a little bit more.
Here are just more photos from Lilah's big day. This was us singing to her and I must say she was kind of confused on why everyone was looking at her all of a sudden. She didn't even clap when we clapped which is not like her at all.
Oma & Lilah
Lilah loved her new basketball game. She loves to put the balls into the basket and then clap for herself.
Aunt Jennie got her a great cell phone that looks very real, which is why she likes it. Maybe now my minutes will go down on my phone since Lilah has one of her own now.

Let Lilah Eat Cake!!!

Here we started with the cake, actually Lilah had 3 cakes total, but this one was all hers! As you can see she had already gotten Miso soup on her dress from dinner.
What exactly is this stuff?
Oh yeah, I'm loving it!
I can't believe Mom & Dad are letting me get this messy!

The dreaded clean up.

I will say we didn't get Lilah naked and let her go quite as wild as I would have liked to, but since we were in a public restaurant we tried to keep it in control and it was just too chilly to let her be naked. She's got a huge clump of cake in her hair on the right side of her head, but somehow I don't have a picture of it. I found it quite hard to be the birthday girl's mommy and still get lots of photos.

Happy Birthday 1st Birthday Lilah - January 20th

We started my little pumpkin's first birthday with Oma & Opa making a big family breakfast for everyone. Here is Lilah with her sippy cup trying regular milk for the first time. I must say so far, she doesn't seem to crazy about it and would really rather just have juice in the cup.
Then we were off for the day. Lilah was treated to her first haircut. We went to a kiddie cut kind of place and she got to sit in a fun chair and hold Elmo and watch cartoons while they cut her hair. She didn't fret or even seem like she wanted to cry. She was rather inquisitive about the whole thing and enjoyed seeing herself in the mirror to admire her new "hair do."
Then Lilah enjoyed Lunch out on the town in Seattle with Mom & Dad after a morning of shopping. Mom & Dad bought her a really cute wooden playhouse to go in the backyard. She can't wait to get into it and run around.
Then it was back home to get ready for the birthday girl's party! We invited all the family plus our good friends the Yahn's out for Korean BBQ to celebrate our little one's big day. For those of you who've never had Korean food, its very fun to all sit around the big tables and cook your meat on a grill that's right at your table. We had 8 grown ups and 6 kids, we thought all the kids did really well.
Then back home after the party to open some gifts and wind down from a perfect first birthday. Thanks for all the gifts and cards everyone, I wish everybody could have been here to celebrate with us!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to All!! We started off our New Year with a bright and early breakfast in downtown Seattle with the family. Jeff heard this was the best place in all of Seattle for breakfast, so we checked it out. It was very good, and I really enjoyed the eggs benedict. Some were not in love with their gravy for their biscuits.
This is Norah showing off her happy pancake face she was served. It was quite yummy too, she doesn't mind sharing.
Bill called me a traitor all day because I was rooting for GA in the sugar bowl against Hawaii. I explained to him a million times that I was in no way rooting against Hawaii, but had to root for the dogs. He said if Lilah could talk she'd be requesting to wear green because 1. She looks more like a fan from Hawaii and 2. She lived in Hawaii not GA. My friend from Queen's Juliet even sent us delicious Hawaii snacks to get us in the spirit for the game and a shirt that said GA vs. HI. So, i'm sad to say the warriors lost, so many folks i love were rooting for them, but you just can't hate me for loving my dogs!
When we drove home from breakfast this was the view of Mt. Rainier over Lake Washington, i thought the photo turned out pretty good to be taken while driving.
These days whenever I brush my teeth, Lilah thinks she needs to be brushing too. What a good girl I have. So here we are sporting our pink toothbrushes. I just need to get Lilah a little one for her to get her 4 big teeth!

Christmas in Seattle

On Christmas Eve we took Lilah to visit Santa. She did really well, except she just wanted to run around a lot while we waited in line. While i'm thrilled she is now walking so well (she got good at it while we were in GA) she is now quite the busy little lady. And when they took the Santa picture she could barely look toward the camera bc she was so busy looking back at Santa, saying "who is this guy and what is he wearing?"
Mommy tried to make cookies for Santa. We seemed to have a pan malfunction.
Lilah in Christmas Eve, trying to decide which ornament to pull off next.

Daddy made us some butter/salt pecans that Papa had gotten from his yard for us all to enjoy. We had a low key Christmas Day with Oma & Opa and waited till the Evans clan arrived on the 26th to open our gifts. Lilah had a ball with all of her cousins. We all look a mess in those photos so i've promised Liz i'll keep those to myself.

CHRISTMAS IN GEORGIA

We arrived in Georgia December 5th, and my little dumplin did pretty well on the flight. I was glad Papa had just visited us in Seattle for Thanksgiving so Lilah didn't need any warm up time to hit it off with him. We had loads of fun just hanging out with Papa for the holidays.
For those of you who may not recognize, this is my cousin Cindy. She has now lost over 100lbs, lets give the lady a round of applause! She picked us up at the airport and if I hadn't seen her get out of her truck, and walk up with her son, I would have walked right past her. She looks fabulous and she, Lilah, and I had a nice girls day together and shopping & lunch. And what warm weather there was in Georgia. I didn't think I had adjusted to the seattle 40 degree weather, but it was high 70's while we were home and Lilah and I were sweating.

Lilah got invited over to Riley's house for a play date and she had an absolute ball. Ms. Kelly hosted a little tea party, and I couldn't believe how well my little cupcake participated. Riley was Lilah's first play date that was adopted too, so that made it even more special! Its been so great to share the experience of adoption with Kelly. I've made several friends through adoption, but its so wonderful when someone you already love is walking the same blessed path too ( and you too Andrea, but Lilah and Landon haven't met yet)!
Lilah thought Ms. Kelly's cookies and tea were the best!

Here's my favorite Christmas photo we took at Papa Jack's house. Lilah had a great time with everyone!

But unfortunately somewhere my little darling picked up a bug and had a few days of vomiting and extremely rough diarrhea. She's never been really sick, and of course the first time she is, we're away from our beloved daddy the pediatrician. Due to Lilah's illness we had to cut out a few scheduled visits with folks. My apologies. Then the day we left GA we both started with a terrible cold. And the cold lasted well through Christmas. Honestly it was one of the worst cold's I've ever had. Lilah seems better, but Mommy is still sick, its been 2 weeks, so i'm headed to the doctor tomorrow.

Happy 6 Month Anniversary Lilah!!!

This weekend, on December 1st, we have had Lilah in our arms for 6 months! She has now been with us longer than she was without us! What a wonderful milestone to reach!

On Friday night we headed down to see the lighting of Ivar's Clam Lights in Renton. Just this past week has been the first really cold weather us Hawaiians have experienced. And having to put so many clothes on a baby is new to me. Lilah doesn't even have any gloves yet, so i put my gloves on her. It was around 35 degrees while we enjoyed the lights and boat parade. But I must say, it wasn't quite as happening as the Hawaii Kai Boat Parade, no volcanoes or hula dancers on top of the boats. But all the pretty lights with cool weather and our coats made it easy to get into the season.
Good news, the house is ours! We finished signing everything this past saturday, with it all officially completed this coming monday. We're really excited, March can't get here soon enough. Saturday was Lilah's first snowfall and we thought it made the new house look great. We get to pick all the colors and stuff for the inside which I find exciting and over whelming all at the same time. We are meeting with our project manager this coming tuesday to get started on all the plans and we can barely wait. For those of you who know us well, know Bill and I always agree on big stuff like, should we marry, where to live, adopting kids, etc but little stuff like paint color and furniture selection...... we'll be duking it out for days! So come visit us and see what compromise looks like.
This is a pond right next to our house. Its in a cookie cutter neighborhood, but I think we have the best lot because all our windows look out to this very nice pond. It even has its own ducks, maybe we can even get Lilah her own duck, and don't worry, we'll have a fence around the house to prevent any accidents.
Here's a photo to show the house next to the pond so you can could a good feel for the place.
So Saturday was our 6 month anniversary with Lilah, it was also her first snowfall, and her first time meeting a celebrity..... and who did she meet you might ask?..... PAULA DEEN. Lilah and I went to Costco and there she was signing books, we had no idea she was going to be there, so what were two country girls like us to do... we got in line and got a book signed. Paula was very nice and of course said how cute Lilah was. We met her husband Michael too. For those of you who don't know, i'm originally from Brunswick GA, just 45 min south of Savannah, Paula's home town. And every dish of hers i've ever made has turned out great, unlike some other food network stars. And when we came out of Costco all excited after we met Paula, we got to enjoy a very big snowfall, Lilah's first snowfall. What a big day!

We leave this week for GA for two weeks, so we'll catch up again after we return.