Quick Lily Update

As promised...here are some pictures of the girls and a few quick stats from Lily's well checkup:

Lily is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight and the 25th percentile for her head size...which I think is ironic since the only thing the nurses noticed when she was born was how big her head was!

She weighs 17 and a half pounds and is 27 inches long.

A fun random fact...Brooklyn was 25 pounds at her 6 month well checkup and is now 30 pounds at age 2 and 1/2. The doctor said Lily would probably be just as big if she didn't have such bad reflux! Ha HA! Still...neither of them can compare with their Momma's baby chunk! Good times!

Yeah...that's me at Lily's age...check out those thighs!

Oh yeah...and me at Brooklyn's age! She's got nothing on those chubby cheeks! And look at that haircut. Yikes!

Happy 5th Anniversary!

(Click on image to enlarge. Click it a second time to make it even bigger!)

Today, Kevin and I get to celebrate 5 years of marriage! We have definitely experienced our ups and downs, but we've pulled through and are better for it. Kevin is my best friend and I actually mean that! I would choose to hang out with him above anyone else in the world. He is supportive, loving, funny, fun, motivating, a terrific father, a great help around the house, an incredible running coach, a great camping partner, provider, teacher and friend. Thank you Kevin for 5 memorable years! I can't wait to see what the next 50 bring!

Lily is 6 Months Old!

Today, Lily is officially 6 months old! We have loved having her in our family SO much over these last few months. She is a laid back and easy going little girl with a great sense of humor and a very sweet spirit.


Lately Lily has been practicing doing push ups. She can do several in a row when attempting to crawl and can also hold the plank position for nearly a minute when she is motivated. She is trying hard to learn how to crawl and even managed to make it a whole foot in the forward direction today.

Lily is eating a lot these days. She LOVES food just as much as her sister does. She'll eat baby food in any form but especially likes it when she gets to munch on graham crackers or bread. Now whenever we walk in the room holding food or shaking up her bottle, she starts to grunt and pant really fast and pump her arms up and down! What can I say, these girls are just like their mom!

Another development over the last month is that Lily has learned to love her big sister. She thinks Brooklyn is hilarious even when Brooklyn rides her like a pony (which is one of her favorite things to do when Lily is trying to crawl). The two of them spend a lot of time together playing on the living room floor with stuffed animals and pretty necklaces. When we go to work during the week, Brooklyn is VERY protective over her little sister and Lily really appreciates it since all the other kids are constantly trying to smother her. Its funny because she gets upset when the other kids lay on her or get in her face, but when Brooklyn does it she just smiles and occasionally gives Brooklyn a loving smack to the head.

Another fun thing Lily is doing is experimenting with sounds. Her newest discovery... babo babo babo. Here is a little video of her testing out these new noises.

Lily has also begun to drool uncontrollably, which kind of bites for us because she already spits up uncontrollably, and lets just say our carpets could REALLY use a good shampoo! Here she is attempting to crawl and foaming at the mouth simultaneously.

And just for fun...Everyone keeps telling me how Lily looks exactly like Brooklyn, and while they do indeed look similar, I find them to be quite unique in appearance. Here they both are at the same ages. Enjoy!

P.S.

Lily is going to her 6 month checkup tomorrow so I will post her stats and some more pictures later this week.

Nothing Beats a Visit from Grandparents!

On Thursday, Grandma and Grandpa Hanks drove out to Illinois with our new car and stuck around for a weekend visit. Brooklyn was giddy with anticipation the whole week before they came and was rewarded for her enthusiasm with the most excellent bag of dollar store gifts that a 2 year old could ever get!


Here she is sporting her new Hawaiian lei (that she calls her hula hoop necklace) and her fancy crown from Grandma!

After chatting for a while, we headed to bed to get some rest for our big day on Friday. Friday morning Grandpa took the girls so mom and me could do girl things and have a fun break from the kiddos. Later that evening when Kevin got home from work we packed up a picnic and went to a nearby park.


Brooklyn is now convinced that having a picnic is the best idea EVER! She got to spend the whole evening playing with bubbles, feeding the ducks, participating in a game of tennis and a game of Frisbee, and running around on the playground!


All of us had a fun time and even got to try some new things! I had never played tennis before but had a blast attempting to hit the ball. Brooklyn got to take a few swings as well, although I think she was under the impression that we were playing baseball with a weird shaped bat.

The rest of the weekend consisted of a fun trip to a cemetery where our ancestors are buried, (Brooklyn actually LOVED the cemetery. She thought all the statues of angels were her new friends) a morning at the Children's Museum, and a LOT of fun grandma and grandpa time for the kids!


During the visit, Brooklyn decided that grandma is her new best friend and favorite playmate! When grandma left, she threw herself on the living room floor and sobbed for 15 minutes while repeating, "Why didn't grandma take me to HER house? She needs to come back!"


But before grandma left, Brooklyn got to spend a lot of time playing dress up and make believe games, making rice crispy treats, and singing night time songs.


Lily also gained a new best friend over the weekend. Her and grandpa became inseparable and you could basically guarantee that wherever grandpa was, Lily wouldn't be far behind. Unfortunately for me, Lily is now convinced that she should be held and played with every second of the day, thus, she woke up this morning with a LOT of complaining and hasn't stopped since!


But don't worry! Lily got lots of grandma time too! Here she is playing the horsey game with grandma. She loved it when grandma would start singing and would immediately start smiling like a Muppet when grandma opened her mouth!


Brooklyn also got a lot of grandpa time! Here she is playing a different horsey game with grandpa. He was taking her to a castle for her princess ball.


Another fun thing that we can count on when grandma is around is that our kids will always learn something new. On this trip Lily decided to attempt crawling. She finally was able to move both her legs but couldn't figure out how to move her arms and eventually face planted. But still, she moved her legs!


On Sunday, mom helped me with my young women's lesson and both grandma and grandpa took wonderful care of the girls during church. I don't think I even held either of them once! When we got home, we had a yummo dinner and then played a few more games before grandma and grandpa had to leave. As I said, Brooklyn and Lily were VERY upset to see them go but we all feel blessed to have had them around for the weekend. Thank you mom and dad! We loved having you here and can't wait to see you again next month!

Playdate with the Noordas!

The other day, we were lucky enough to have the Noorda kids over for the morning. The Noordas are some of Brooklyn's favorite people in the whole world so she was pumped when they showed up to play.


Beckham immediately fell in love with the chair Kevin made for Brooklyn so we let him claim it until he was settled in. Then we got to work having FUN!

We started off the morning painting peacocks while watching Thumbelina. The kids really got into it and they all did a great job on their paintings.


Then I propped open the front door to let the kids play in the pool on our porch. Brooklyn and Lily had to get in first to let Beckham know it would be fun. It didn't take long to convince him!


Soon, he and Brooklyn were inseparable buddies. They played in the pool, lined up all their animals, created a nest in the rock pile, and had a GREAT time together!


After the pool party we played with bubbles. I didn't get a picture of all the kids playing but they all had a blast!

When the outside fun was over we ate snowflake shaped PB&J sandwiches, then Scott came to pick up his kids. Brooklyn was pretty sad to see her friends go but I think Lily was pleased to be the only one making ridiculous noises again! All-in-all it was a fun day and we can't wait to do it again!

Naomi's First 10K!

(Pictures were taken on Naomi's SUPER LAME camera phone because we forgot to bring the real camera!)

Well I did it! I checked off another part of my goal this year to run a 5K, 10K, 1/2 Marathon, and Marathon by January 2011, and it felt AWESOME! Kevin and I woke up at 5am on Saturday, July 24th, got dressed to run, woke up and dressed our girls, and then hopped in the car to go pick up our babysitter, Alexa. It was POURING rain when we got outside and there was thunder so loud that it was scaring me as much as it was scaring my kids! We were worried that the race would be canceled but we made the hour drive north anyway in case the weather felt like going easy on us.

When we got to the race site in Hoffman Estates, IL the storm was still raging, but there were other runners there and we had hope that we would get to race and wouldn't be "out" our registration fee. Everyone was huddled under a bridge-ish-thingy waiting for the announcement that soon came...we WOULD be racing! Just a half hour later than we had expected. This gave me plenty of time to panic, stress, and go pee 7 times before the race started! (I get the nervous peepees when I'm...well, nervous!)

The extra half hour passed and we lined up at the start line in the now, less-than-scary rain. I was hyperventilating a little while thoughts of my stupidity raced through my brain. 6.2 miles! Kevin does stuff like that, not me! I dance, hike, and play with kids! But running is for crazy people like Kevin, Becca, and Natalie. Fast people with nice legs and a competitive edge. I was very aware of the fact that the rain had scared away all the non-serious runners like myself, leaving me at the end of the pack with my 15 minute miles. And truthfully, although I'm not a very competitive person, I didn't really want to come in last place!


BEEP! The buzzer went off and it was time to run! I had my i pod wrapped in saran wrap (to protect it from the rain) and safety pinned to my pants, blaring my favorite tunes as I started my slow trot around the course. I had started near the front of the pack but within the first 5 minutes of running, there were only about 10 people left behind me! Wow! I knew I was slow but honestly, being passed by a couple hundred people in just a couple hundred seconds is REALLY discouraging!

It rained for the first mile but then it stopped, leaving dark clouds behind to block the sun and cool the air. I was just noticing how much nicer it was to run in the cool weather when we came running in to the first water stop, 1.5 miles into the race! Woohoo! I usually feel like death for my first mile but I didn't even notice how far I'd gone. Maybe I would survive after all. I took some water (spilled all over myself) and kept going. Soon a girl dressed entirely in pink passed me by and I happened to look at her face and notice how zoned out and happy she was. She was in her own world and was having a blast even though she was just barely faster than me. Her attitude inspired me and made me happy as well. The rest of the run I was smiling ear to ear, not noticing my sweat, fatigue, or slowness at all!

Soon I got to my fifth mile and the course split. The 1/2 marathoners kept going straight into the forest preserve and the 10K-ers turned left and headed back to the finish line. I had been pacing off the pink girl the whole time but she ended up going the way of the 1/2, so I was alone again being passed by the fast 1/2 marathoners who had now rejoined the course. It was in that moment that I realized I wasn't tired at all, in fact, I had a huge surge of energy! So I started to run faster...and faster...and faster, and before I knew it I was rounding the last bend and exploding with energy! Everyone was cheering me on for sprinting which made me go faster and then I saw the clock, ran under it, and was DONE!

I finished in 1:14:51! I think that puts me at a 12 minute mile pace which is 3 minutes faster per mile than my 4 mile race in May! I think I came in 87th out of 100 people, so I wasn't in last place and I was VERY proud of myself! Once I wiped the silly grin off my face, I drank some Gatorade, found Alexa and the girls, and then we waited for Kevin to finish the 1/2 marathon! (He'll have to tell you about his experience some other time!) Anyway, I'm super pumped that I can do hard things and am excited for my upcoming 1/2 marathon in September, as well as the Red Rock Relay I will be running around the same time! Wish me luck!

4th of July Weekend!

Over the 4th of July weekend, Kevin's old high school buddy Isaac, his wife Heidi, and their adorable daughter Esther came over for a visit. We chatted for awhile, ate some AWESOME pizza, and then headed over to the Eyes to the Sky Festival in Lisle.


Pretty much the whole festival was about entertaining Brooklyn, but the rest of us didn't mind watching her have a fun time. They were offering free princess makeovers in one of the booths so we took Brooklyn to get cheek sparkles and a tiara. She felt so special getting dressed up like a princess and loved the extra attention!


There was also a Free princess bounce house that we had a VERY hard time getting Brooklyn out of, which was actually pretty nice since all the rest of the rides were $4 a pop! We did manage to get Brooklyn on the Merry-go-round though, and she got to be the proud rider of a "chicken-horse".


Esther and Lily (who are a week apart in age) couldn't really do anything at the festival but they both had a blast being carted around in their strollers and were just as happy as could be to be chillin outside with us.

After we got home, our guests packed up and headed to a relative's house. Kevin said his goodbyes and then quickly got busy on his weekend project!


The only way this man can relax is if he is doing something that requires physical labor. So, in light of his extra day off, he set to work building a miniature Adirondack chair for Brooklyn that we saw on the Knock Off Wood blog.


Brooklyn immediately realized that the chair was to small for us and was thrilled that her daddy was doing a special project just for her. After Kevin finished it, she spent the entire day lounged out in her green chair. (She even picked the paint color!)


Here is the side view of the finished project. I think it looks really cute on our front porch and the best part about it was we almost built the whole thing out of the scraps from my headboard so it basically cost nothing!



We didn't get pictures of the whole weekend, but it also included a fantastic BBQ dinner with our friends, the Noordas, and their wonderful neighbors, and a lot of rest and relaxation. We missed our families but were just happy to at least have each other!