Lilly is a picky eater, but one food that she really loves it Mike's BBQ smoked baby back ribs!

Labels: Foto Friday

Mike and I are always working on some project around the house. I usually do it during Lilly's afternoon nap. The past few days Mike has been adding shelves to the shed and also he made a picnic table for Lilly out of an old table we had. This is actually this tables 3rd conversion, before it was a small square dinning table it was a rectangular light oak table. I wonder if it will turn into something else some day :)

Here is a picture of the table before it's final (?) conversion.

After! I love this picnic table for Lilly! Mike is so good at building things, now we are going to stain it and pick out an umbrella to use with it.

I have also been busy painting the dinning room. Here is a picture of 'during' the painting job, I remembered that I should take a before shot after I had already started painting.

After! Yay! Now I need to sand and re-paint the door. Also, do you like my new table! Horray for stimulas checks :)

I am going to try and start a weekly post 'Foto' Friday. Every Friday I will post my favorite picture from the week. If you have a blog and would like to join in on the fantastic fun of Foto Friday deffiantly jump on in and post away.

This past week we needed a little diversion from the rain. I thought a trip to the mall to spend my birthday gift card (thanks Shelly) was in order. I ended up not buying anything for myself and didn't use the gift card, but Lilly and I had some fun at the fountain, shared a soft pretzel and drank ice cold lemonade. For a few hours it felt like summer was here again, until we went back outside into the down pour of rain.

Labels: Foto Friday

Lilly is doing so good with potty training! She filled up her potty sticker chart and has had a tummy full of marshmallow's and M&M's lately :)

Since she completed her potty chart she won a prize, the prize was her very own pink lawnmower. Lilly and Mike went and picked it out tonight and when they got home they went straight to work, the yard looks awesome thanks to Lilly's help :)

Now we need to put her to work in the front yard. I killed ALL of the dandylions in the front yard a few days ago and am looking forward to re-seeding and re-landscaping the front. You would never know from looking at our front yard that our backyard is so amazingly green.

We had a wonderful time at the Zoo on Saturday with my sister and her family. We met at the gates and all went in for a picnic lunch for the Candlelighters Foundation http://www.candlelighters.org/ after lunch (and yummy HUGE cupcakes) Lilly begged us to see the animals. I think she was thinking we were at the farm still, though and kept asking to go see the goats :)

I asked Lilly what her favorite animals was at the Zoo and she said "the two Elephants" she really enjoyed them. Mike of course liked tricking the kids and trying to startle them at the snake exhibit. Lilly totally jumped when Mike sneeked up on Lilly, she thought it was funny and kept asking him to do it again.

Lilly has a ways to grow before she can stretch her arms out as wide as the gorilla's :) My arms are almost that long, though.

My favorite part of the Zoo was when we went on the train ride. Lilly loved it and I remember riding it as a kid. I also remember drinking out of that same drinking fountain!

Mother's Day can be a bittersweet time for everyone who is a part of the adoption triad...

• Mothers-in-waiting patiently wait, knowing that their time will come.
• Birth mothers remember the child they selflessly placed for adoption.
• Mothers through adoption recall the sacrifice that took place so that they could become a mother

Since becoming a Mother by my adoption miracle I have felt extra blessed on Mother's Day. It is deffiantly a day were I reflect a lot about how I became a mother. I can not imagine how my life would be right now if I did not have Lilly in my life and I have Lilly's Birthmother to celebrate, to thank, and to love. For without her selfless love I would not be a mother today.

Bryn is a really good dog, we love her so much! Today is her birthday, she is turning 4 years old... so in dog years that's 28!

Bryn has always loved kids! She really enjoys spending time with her 'boy friend' Jacob.

Last summer we all went on a hike in 100 degree weather, bad idea when you are a black dog! I thought Mike was going to have to carry Bryn down the mountian. We made it down alive and Bryn actually sat in the river at the end of the trail to cool down.

Here is Bryn when she was still an only 'child' little did she know Lilly would come into her life one month later! Bryn is a good friend to Lilly they get along well. Bryn puts up with Lilly hitting and pulling and yelling at her. She usually just lays there looking at Mike or I for help.

Bryn LOVES to hike, we enjoy bringing her with us just incase we were to meet up with a bear I think Bryn would protect us, or at least get ate first!


We have taken many road trips in this position. The drool patrool :)

We planted some of our garden this weekend and really enjoyed the great weather. We even set up our badmitten net. I would have to say that my favorite thing about our house right now is our backyard. It's been so nice to enjoy all the hard work we did last summer on our yard. It makes having a dusty, muddy backyard worth it. We just have a few finishing touches and it will be done, yay! Next we need to work on landscaping the dandilion patch, otherwise known as our front yard.

You probably noticed the plate full of nightcrawlers! Mike gathered these up in about 2 minutes out of our garden. I went out to take a look and there were litterally hundreds of worms crawling around in the garden area. Mike wants to save some for fishing, I say go for it!

I never did post pictures of Lilly in her Easter Dress, here she is in one of her Easter dresses :) She got two this year. I'll have to take a picture of her in her other Easter dress and post it soon. Yes, she is spoiled :) But she needed dresses for church, she has grown a lot the past few months.

Potty update: Also, Lilly is slowly progressing on potty training. We kind of gave up with the big girl underwear Saturday afternoon and she has just been wearing diapers. ( I got really tired of cleaning up pee, it felt like we had a new puppy again) But tonight at dinner she told Mike she had to go and she made it to the potty with just a tiny accident! Yay! Go Lilly!!! So she is starting to understand it all.

The Potty training of champions has begun! We made a Potty Chart this morning and went out and bought some big girl underwear. So far today Lilly hasn't made it to the potty, but it will happen and then we will have a BIG celebration!

Round #2 starts tomorrow, wish us luck.