A little update! sheesh, it's been a couple months. :)

We've been able to go and visit my brother's family in Richland a couple times over the past few months.  Lilly likes to go into her cousin, Sadie's room, and put on her shoes.  We heard Owen yelling for us to "get the camera, you guys have got to see this!"  We run upstairs and this is what we came across, Lilly wearing no pants, but with Sadie's boots on.  This girl just cracks me up!  

 

I was able to spend some time with my lady friends while in Richland, thankfully they were willing to come over late one night and hang out for a few hours.  It was a lot of fun and quite a bit of Mtn. Dews were consumed, mixed with OJ - it's fabulous!!!  These are two of my favorite people and they are amazing to hang out with.  I am blessed to have them in my life.

On February 5th, Lilly used the potty for the first time!  We were overly thrilled when she actually went potty.  After her nap, she said she needed to use the potty and actually did it!!!  It was quite amazing actually and I never thought we would be that excited.  Then on February 25, she did the next craziest thing, she pooped in the potty.  I could not ever imagine that this would bring us to erupt in clapping and cheers, but it did!  Now she likes to bring her pink puppy into the bathroom and help him go potty, it's really funny.  She also uses my step-stool that I got from my brother, Jared, to help her get up on the toilet.  I got the step-stool when I was two, to help me get into my bed.  27 years later, my daughter is using the same stool, it's the gift that keeps on giving.  Who would have thought that I would still be using it.  :)

Speaking of this big pink dog, Lilly usually always wants to sleep with it and that thing takes up half her bed!  She will typically start with the dog in her crib and after she's asleep, we will go in and get it out. 

We are so blessed to be able to communicate with Lilly's birthparents and a few weeks ago we had a little Skype session with Mandy.  We hope to be able to visit Lilly's birthfather and his family sometime this year.  It is our goal to see them both at least once a year, unfortunately, with all our moving and school and stuff, we weren't able to see Victor last year, but it is a top priority for us this year.

Lilly and I have been able to go down and visit my brother's family and we've been able to watch the kids while they go away for the weekend.  This past visit, there were a few stray dogs that would not leave the front yard and they didn't have any collars on.  I could not resist the sweet kids asking to make sure we call animal control and find the parents of the puppy.  Well, one dog ran away and we never caught him, but this little gal (which the kids named Spot, and her nickname was Two-Face, lol), she would not leave the kids' sides.  I called animal control and they were hoping to pick her up that night, which did not happen, so we had a dog for the night.  She stayed in the garage and we never heard her bark or anything and the kids would take her outside to go potty and played with her the whole time.  It was so sweet.  Then animal control came and took her away.  I just noticed today that she's on their website and is available for adoption, seriously the best little dog ever.

 

 Here's some stuff Lilly's into:

• She is obsessed with Phineas & Ferb.  She will ask to watch "Phineas" all day.
• She said her first prayer all by herself yesterday, Sunday, March, 10.  It goes like this..."Dear Heavenly Father, Thankful for this day, Amen."
• She likes to play with her phone and will usually call "Grandpa in Russia".
• She loves to help cook and bake.  She will say "I DO IT" and wants to stir whatever it is that is being cooked.
• About 2 weeks ago, she started saying "I love you" and can get away with anything when she says "I love you Daddy" or "I love you Mommy".
• She just got her 2 year molars and from what I understand, we are done teething for awhile!  WOOHOO!
• She knows all the Disney princesses.  Our homepage on the computer is Disneyland and we are working on having her understand all those characters so that when we go in a year, she will know everyone.
• She thinks every sports team is BYU.  She'll say "BYU, go COUGARS!"  We're just trying to raise her right.  ;)
• She REALLY likes to put her shoes on.  She says, "I do it!" and wants to put them on, most of the time she knows which foot they go on.  And she also likes to take off and put on her own clothes.  Of course, her shirts are usually upside down...yup, upside down.
• She knows her ABC's and can sing the song.  She can count 16 usually without a mess up, but most of the time she'll skip a number or two.
• She's the smartest kid I know.  :)
• She will do anything to make you laugh.
• She is a daredevil.  She likes to climb on top of chairs and jump off.  She will pull all the pillows off the couch and then jump off the couch onto the pillows on the floor.  She also does this with our bed and the pillows on our bed.
• She likes to wear Mommy's high heels and walk around the house.
• We started going to the gym and she loves to go and play there, which has helped with her going to nursery at church.  She now never has a problem walking in and going to church, she'll always say "play with toys?"
• Everything is, of course, HERS!  We are in the phase of "that's mine" and "you're looking at something, it must be mine".
• She knows when she's in real trouble.  We get mad at her and she will throw her head down to her chest dramatically and pout her lips and say sadly "go to room," then she walks into her room and SLAMS the door shut.  It's actually so cute and funny, but she doesn't know that.  haha!
• We love her more than she knows.  She has started to become very affectionate and will just run up to you to give you a hug and kiss.  She was a very uncuddly baby and I would have to force her to snuggle, but now she wants to sit with you and she will say "baby?" and want you to hold her a like a baby, and of course, I do!  I don't care how I get my snuggles.
• She likes to be chased and to chase.  She will say "I get you, I get you, I get you" and run all over our apartment.  She will scream with delight if someone just chases her.
• She always wants Daddy to play with her and her princess castle.  She says, "c'mon Daddy, castle?"
• She will destroy her room in about 10 seconds.  She has hundred of books and pulls them ALL off the shelf, then she sits on top of the pile and reads them all.
• She gets sad when she hears someone crying and will point to them and say "crying?"  It makes her very concerned.
• She will throw a horrific tantrum when she wants something, she is very passionate about it and extremely emotional too.  She always wants to go outside or go for a ride.
• She is obsessed with her cousins, Ansel, Jonas, Owen, and Sadie.  It's probably because they love her so much and she's sees them the most.  She walks around our house with their pictures and sometimes when we go for a ride somewhere, she says, "Ansel? Sadie? Jen? JenTopher (Her way of pronouncing Christopher)?"  She is the happiest when she is with her cousins and they are chasing her around the house.