Pictures from our busy week

Like I mentioned yesterday we have had a busy week. The best way to blog about it is probably to just revisit the week in photos. . . so here we go:

Tuesday. . .

Lily riding on her "Elmo Car"
Lily and the new curtains!
Lily getting into the desk and playing with a box of labels!
Recognize the skirt Michelle? (it was Alyson's)
It was raining on Tuesday and Lily has loved being caught in the rain in the past, so I decided to let her go out and play since it was just sprinkling a little.

But then it started raining pretty hard, so we came inside! But it was fun!
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Wednesday . . .

Lily at Gymboree. We took Grandma with us so she could see Lily in action!! We went a day early this week so we'd have more time on Thursday to spend with Aunt Karen.

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Thursday . . .

With Grandma at the golf course. We took Aunt Karen for lunch and then went back for dinner and a cart ride!
Getting ready for the cart ride!
Aunt Karen and Uncle Bob on the cart in front of us.
Wheee . . .
Dinner in the clubhouse.
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Today we went to lunch with Aunt Karen and now Lily is napping. She has been shy around my Aunt and Uncle, so I haven't gotten any good pictures of Lily with them. But hopefully before they leave tomorrow she will warm up a little more. We have made some progress, but she is still unsure of them!

Chip's Best Night Ever

It has been a busy week. My parents got here on Monday, so we have been having fun playing with grandma and grandpa (or Ga and Pa as Lily calls them). Then on Tuesday during my normal blog time (aka nap time) I had to go to the course to meet with my Dad and the guy in charge of banquets because I am helping out with the local Bridal Expo next month. So I get to reprint and update all the info and get the booth all ready, not to mention having to work the event. So that will keep me slightly busy for the next month. Then yesterday during my blog time I had to get ready because Chip and I had tickets to attend the Dallas Cowboys season kickoff at Texas Stadium. Our local Miller/Coors distributor gave Chip 2 tickets. It was a dinner banquet in the Stadium Club with the owner Jerry Jones, the coach Wade Phillips and of course The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Then after dinner (and a brief description of the new Miller Beer Ad campaign) we had reserved seats on the 50 yard line to watch the Cowboys practice. It was actually an open practice to the public to promote the new season and the last season at Texas Stadium. But we had the whole other half of the stadium to ourselves, as the common folk were all crammed into the other side! :)

You can only imagine Chip's excitement. He has been a Dallas Cowboy fan his whole life, so just to be in Texas Stadium was a huge event for him. He had actually met Jerry Jones once before when we were in Montecito celebrating our first wedding anniversary (he proposed in Montecito). He had a one on one talk with him about football for a good 10 minutes and was completely in awe the rest of the day. And ironically today is our 4th wedding anniversary, so we used last night as our celebration, since we were able to leave Lily with my Mom and get out -- I'm not sure why Jerry Jones always has to be involved in our anniversaries!! :) But the best part was the practice, not necessarily watching the practice since of course we have been to training camp in Oxnard a few times, but sitting in the front row on the 50 yard line at Texas Stadium was huge for Chip (and I was pretty jazzed too). But then, we got a pass to go on the field!! Unfortunately it was only one, so I made Chip go without me for awhile and then we switched so I could say I was on the field too. That was pretty sweet. We had a great night out! Here are some of the highlights:

Chip arriving at Texas Stadium

Posing with the Tom Landry statue

The field from the stadium club

Superbowl Trophies
The Cheerleaders performing
Jerry Jones (with his MGD)
Coach taking questions from the crowd

Practice
Tony Romo
Our kick-ass seatsCalling his friends to tell them he was on the field
Chip on the field watching practice

Me on the field
Me again!

Chip has had an exciting year so far -- first golfing Pebble Beach and now standing on the field in Texas Stadium. I am pretty sure his life is complete!
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I'll try to post more pics of my Mom and Lily soon. My Aunt Karen and Uncle Bob are in town visiting! Bob has business in Dallas, so Karen decided to come to and stay a few extra days to visit with us! So we spent all day today with them and are hanging out again tomorrow! We are so glad they were able to make the trip! So I'll try to get some pics of all of us up soon!

Dining Room & Front Room

My curtains are in! You may recall back in June I posted about picking out fabric for new curtains for the living room and dining room! They were finally installed yesterday afternoon! It is amazing what a difference draperies make compared to blinds. The rooms are so much warmer and inviting. Now I just need some furniture for the front room and it will be complete! Here is the dining room before, with just the mini blinds.
And after! The picture is a tad dark, sorry. And I still need to change out the chair cushions since they don't match the new curtains. But I am loving the way the drapes look! So much better!

Another view of the dining room. The swinging door on the left leads to the living room and kitchen area. The door on the right leads to the entry way. The formal living room is on the other side of the entry way. The hutch and table we had in the Fullerton apt. The hutch held our TV, but now is being used for the fine China that was my grandma's. It fits perfectly and matches the table. So I didn't have to buy any new furniture for this room. I don't know if you can really see the curtains up close. They are a sage green paisley pattern.

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Here is the large window in the formal living room. The blinds were wooded and so heavy that they didn't even work properly. I kept them half way up the window because Lily would play with them.

Chip assessing the best way to get the blinds down.

And now with the new pretty curtains. Next stop, furniture shopping! :)
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In other news my parents arrived last night!! Lily was super excited to see "Ga" and "Pa". No pics yet, since the cute picture I took of Mom and Lily this morning was taken with the understanding (or demand) that it would not end up on this blog since it was before my Mom's hair and make-up was done and she was still in her pj's. I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures tomorrow!

Big Steps for Little Lily

The big rainstorms that were suppose to keep us wet all weekend long didn't actually amount to much. However, it did stay cool and cloudy which was an awesome sneak peak into what fall will be like in Texas. Since I am assuming this cooler weather won't be around too long, Lily and I took advantage again last night and walked over to the park where we had a huge breakthrough -- Lily got in the swing! I always try to get her to sit in the swing, but she usually refuses. I asked her again when we got there if she was ready to ride in the swing and, of course, she said no. But later on when I sat down and started to swing on the big-girl swing, suddenly her interest was peaked. She was still hesitant, but willing to try. She even stayed in while I ran to get my camera out of the stroller! She was fine as long as you didn't actually try to swing her. Once she moved, she freaked out. No one ever said she was adventurous! But at least she tried, maybe next time she actually swing a little!

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Speaking of Lily being all crazy and adventurous, we had another major breakthrough this morning. Lily ate a banana!! Anyone familiar with us knows that Lily is the pickiest eater. She even refused to try her cupcake on her birthday! Her biggest problem is with texture. She doesn't like fruit because it is mushy and slimy (but has no problem eating the strained, mashed baby food fruit). The last few days I have been cutting up strawberries and giving her small pieces and she has been eating them which just thrills me to death. So I thought I'd get crazy and buy her some bananas to try also. Bananas are fun because it is a word she knows and she always likes to identify them at the market. (I think I have to thank Elmo for teaching her about bananas because I HATE them, so she never sees them here at home). So this morning when I showed her that we were gonna eat a banana she got all excited -- until I cut it and tried to give her a piece. It no longer looked like a banana. So I showed her the remaining part of the banana and the piece and tried to explain that it was all the same. Nope, she wanted the whole banana. I was afraid the texture would scare her away if I gave her the whole thing, but she happily ate about half of it before getting bored and wanting crackers. It is a good start!

Jib Jab

This is fun! It is the closest Lily and I will ever come to the Olympics. You'll need a little patience because it takes a minute to load, but it is worth it!
(Thanks, Stephanie I totally copied you!)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Morning Stroll to the Park

It has been awhile since Lily and I walked to the park. We stopped once on the way home from shopping, but the toys were too hot to play on, and since it has been really warm lately I have just avoided it altogether and opted for water time in the backyard instead. But this morning it was cloudy and cool -- only 70 degrees, so Lily and I decided to take a walk. I got the stroller out in case she was too tired to make it home (and too heavy for me to carry), but she wanted to ride in the stroller from the get-go. So I thought it would be a good time to walk to my parent's house and see if I could check out the inside. I noticed it looked like they had all the drywall done inside the other day when I drove by, so I have been anxious to go see how the rooms are looking. Unfortunately when we got there the place was crawling with workers (on a Saturday morning!) and I was already apprehensive about bringing Lily into a construction zone, so I really didn't want to take her into an active working area. So we turned around and headed to the park. Hopefully while my Mom is here this week, we'll have time to go check out the house! My parent's house is only .25 miles away, but this was the first time I had walked there. Such an easy walk! Anyway, it seemed like everyone was out taking advantage of the cool weather. There was boys football and girls soccer practice going on and a few kids at the playground. The slide was wet, so we couldn't play there and Lily was refusing to go on the swing. So we mostly sat and watched everyone play. But, it was nice to get out.

I swear she was excited to go for a walk -- and the stroller was her idea!

She picked out this shirt last weekend at Target and has been asking to wear it all week. Seriously, every time I get her out of her crib she points to the closet and says "clothes" so we go look at her clothes and she immediately grabs the Elmo shirt (either this one or the sweatshirt my Aunt Karen sent) and says "hi" & "bye" to it. She says hi and bye to everything.
So she was excited to wear Elmo today! And I think it looks pretty cute! It is hard to get a good picture of her at the park since she is usually walking and looking down or checking out the people.
I have a love/hate relationship with these bench pictures. I LOVE them because she looks so cute, but I hate them because she looks so OLD!

This picture is from when we got back from the park. I had to post it -- I don't know if you can tell, but she has a green round link (you know those baby links) on her arm as a bracelet (she has been doing that often) and has her purse on. My little woman!