Lots to Share

I'll begin with the most exciting (I guess that is an okay word to describe it) news . . . last night we had our first tornado warning. . . . A sever thunderstorm came in about 10pm -- lightning, hard rain, etc. (nothing unusual for here). They were predicting early in the week that we may get snow today since a cold storm was coming in from the north. However it was warm -- in the 70s yesterday. So, cold storm + warm air = tornadoes! Chip and I always record the 10 o'clock news at night and watch it before we go to bed. Since the storm was kinda bad, we briefly lost satellite reception around 10:45 so we watched the news from 45 minutes earlier. I could see that the storm was headed in our direction so I had Chip turn on the weather radio to see if there were any alerts and I ran downstairs to get something. While I was downstairs I heard the tornado sirens going off! So I ran up and Chip heard them too. We grabbed Lily from her crib and Lily and I got in the closet under the stairs while Chip called my parents to make sure they heard the sirens. I guess Chip (the genius) then went outside to see if he could see anything and went to the computer to check on the latest info -- he never did get in the closet with us! And Lily never woke up! She was so tired, she was like a sack of potatoes just laying across my shoulder the whole time. She must have been exhausted because she is normally a light sleeper. Anyway, we were in the closet for 10 minutes or so (I think) and then the sirens stopped and it seemed to be all clear. So Lily (never even knowing what happened) went right back to sleep and Chip and I went to watch the news. Our reception was back, so we rewound the broadcast 20 minutes to see what had happened (I love DVRs). It was then that we learned that the storm was directly over us and that we did the right thing as the meteorologist was telling people in our area to take cover in a shelter! The Doppler radar showed a few shear markers directly on top of us! Which basically means that the storm above us had clouds rotating and trying to turn into a tornado! Scary! So that was the excitement last night! The good thing about tornadoes is that they can tell you when they are coming and then they pass over so quickly. So after the storm had passed I knew I could go to sleep without worries!

Apparently, the rotating clouds never made landfall here. But the county directly to the north of us suffered sever damage -- as many as 20 homes destroyed and they are still trying to determine if it was a tornado or just strong winds that caused it!

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Here are some pictures from Sunday night of us decorating the tree. Looking back, I should have put some clothes on Lily!! We had been taking pictures for our Christmas cards and I took her dress off when we were done and since she likes being nude, I let her be!

The box of ornaments made a comfy chair

Lily was a huge help. She would hand us ornaments to hang on the tree! She had a lot of fun doing it too! She would identify each one as she gave it to us -- "ball, ball, another ball, Santa!" etc. . . She even hung one up herself. I warned her to be careful of the hooks and told her they would give her a boo boo. It worked! She totally listened to me because whenever she got a hook she say, "Mama, boo boo" and hand it to be quickly! I was a tad nervous and unsure how Lily would behave while we decorated the tree, but she did so well and was very helpful! She even tried to help us clean up afterwards -- we were putting everything away and she kept bringing ornaments and I was wondering where she was getting these extra ornaments. She was taking them off the tree to put away! She was confused that we were leaving them there! It was funny. She is way to neat and tidy to be my daughter!

She even managed to decorate herself!

Our tree

We decided to put it in the corner by the back door since we don't go out as much in the winter and if we do want to go outside it is just as easy to go through the door in the garage! Plus it was the perfect spot -- no furniture to move and we can enjoy the tree as we sit on the couch!

The tree and the mantle

I'll get the rest of the picture of the decorations up soon!
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Last night (before the storm hit) was the MOMS Club holiday party. We had it at a local park with a small clubhouse on a lake. Since is was unseasonable warm, the kids had tons of fun playing outside by the lake!

This is what Lily did all night -- ran around like a crazy girl! She has so much fun!

I wanted to be sure to preserve these pics, even though they aren't that great, in case Lily was still friends with these kids in 2o years, it may be fun to look back on! That is Ava in front.

Lily still running and a view into the room

Lily and Grace

They played music for the kids to dance to! Lily loved that. Then later they played the freeze game where they would pause the song and all the kids had to freeze! Lily had a lot of fun with that too! (now you can see why Lily was so tired and slept through the tornado warning!)

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When we got home, we grabbed Daddy and went back out for a little bit to look at Christmas lights!! We really didn't go to far -- just our neighborhood and one other. I want to go back out again. Lily was having so much fun! She liked looking at the lights and really liked it when there was an inflatable Santa on the yard!

A couple of my favorite homes

Lily enjoying the lights!