Lily and Great Grandma Squires

It worked now!  Here is Lily visiting Great Grandma Squires on Halloween!

Mama's little Love Bug for Halloween

 Looking back at Halloween......Hiking with my 2 buddies.....

 For Halloween, Lily borrowed Alaina's little ladybug costume...but with little hearts on the antennas, she was a little love bug!  The outfit fit her good, and kept her warm too!  We visited both her Great Grandma's on Halloween....unfortunately the one of her and Grandma Squires is not uploading right now, so I will have to try and remember to post it later.

Such a happy little girl!  When Lily sticks her tongue out like this- that is her really excited look =)

Life is busy with work and baby....

What else can I say....sorry it has been almost 6 months since I last posted!  Life has been moving fast and some things have fallen aside as life moved on- sorry to those who actually still check my blog occasionally!  Anyways- Lily is now 11 months old- hard to believe!  After a cold snap of under -20 the first part of this week, today it warmed up to nearly 40- so we went outside hiking and sledding around the yard! Lily wore her snowsuit given to her by her great grandma- and used by her great aunt when she was a baby!!  Pretty neat that it still works great!

Lily's First Boatride!

 My dad got a new pontoon boat!  It sure is nice for taking out the little ones!  Here are some pictures from Lily's first trip on a boat- last Tuesday.  She did better than I expected with having a life jacket on!

 Lily and her Grandpa

My nephew Vinny

Hiking in White Water

 Last week my mom and I went hiking in White Water went up to Chimney rock.  I hadn't been out hiking here in many years- but it is just as I remembered it!  AND- there were a bunch of tadpoles in the crick! Lily loved the walk, but I have decided she is getting too big for the front pack, and I ordered a backpack to carry her in.  When it arrives I should be able to go much further- and it has a little sun shade so I don't have to be so careful to stay in the shade.  My skin is truly the palest it has ever been in July....I am starting to get a bit tan though, and my freckles are definitely out!

I love this little manatee onesie she got from Steve and Judy Smith.  I don't think they knew how much I love manatees! She has little manatee socks to go with it, but they are a bit big yet and keep falling off.
Lily seemed to like the feel of the grass, and off course loved pulling it out.

First time in the Pool

Today was Lily's first time going in the pool...though she has been in the river 4 times now.  She loved it!!!  Since her time in the river this weekend, when her daddy held her up to her waist or more in the water, she has just loved it.  She loves sitting in people's arms and kicking her legs in the water.  Today she got really excited when I would start walking into the water, and she even started to splash in it for the first time- waving her arms around and splashing herself in the face a few times.

Katie, Aidan and Alaina are visiting from Missouri this week, and Trina, Chris, Vinny and Joey just left after visiting this last week.  It was a lot of fun to meet baby Joey, just one month younger than Lily.  He is a pretty content baby....and I hadn't seen Vincent in almost a year- he has definitely changed a LOT!  He seemed to really enjoy the water when we went out on the river last Tuesday and Sunday.  Today, as I mentioned I went to the pool with Katie and the kids- and Aidan passed the swimming test to jump off the diving board and go in the deep end. After that we hung out at Mom's house for awhile and got food from Winona Gardens and Jim came up and joined us.  Then Katie and Mom watched Lily for us and we got out to Freemont to do some work out there.  Jim fixed the air conditioner and worked on the hot water and I planted a couple azalea bushes, asiatic lilies, picked up sticks and pulled some weeds.  We got a couple hours of free time which felt really nice.  As much as I love hanging out with Lily all day during the summer, a little bit of time away is probably good for both of us....and I definitely got more done not bringing her out with us.  Tomorrow we are meeting up with Clare and Anne and Chris for breakfast....so we are getting a lot of visiting in this first part of July.  Soon Elisabeth is coming into town as well after visiting with her dad.  I am so excited to see her again! I love having so much company =)  Good thing I have summers off!!

Lily- 4 months

I had Jim bring home his nice camera from work, and I tried to get some good pictures of Lily......She is now 41/2 months old!

I also took her into JC Pennys to get some professional pictures, and then last night I went to a cancer benefit for a sibling of one of my students and I won a $150 gift certificate to a photo studio! Since we just had her pictures taken I will wait a couple months, but I am pretty excited about that!

We have been on summer vacation for 2 weeks now....mostly I have been cleaning out my storage shed, and getting rid of things.  Lily had her first dip in a lake- at Lake Wazee- when we went to Black River falls to apply for her passport.  Today we are headed to Jaeliah's 5th birthday party.  Lily is quite the social girl- loving social events and lots of people.  On Friday we went to the kiddie parade in Winona and she thought it was great- laughing at the kids going by. At the benefit yesterday, she was laughing at the guitar music.  She is one smiley little girl!  And this week she has finally started to take real naps!!  Maybe it is just a growth spurt and she is tired out, but it is great!  She has been sleeping for a 1-2 hour stretch each day!...even a couple times a day sometimes! This little girl typically does not nap long during the day- but she has been sleeping wonderfully at night for quite a while now.