Cruz's Baby Dedication

Cruz was dedicated at church this last Sunday. We are so blessed to have been given by God such an amazing little boy. He is so full of joy and happiness. We look forward to what the future has in store for our little guy. We chose Joshua 1:9 as our verse for Cruz. It says: "This is my command; be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Our hope for Cruz is that he would grow up to be a courageous man. He will take and use the gifts and responsibilities God has given him. That he would live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. And be a man after God's own heart.

It truly is amazing to see how God has used our prayer and hope in our children. We prayed that Makenna would be loving and compassionate. We prayed that Alexa would be BOLD. And now we pray that Cruz would be courageous. And we prayed these prayers for our children when they were just babies. Before we even knew what their personalities would be like. And so far... God has designed them that very way. How AWESOME IS THAT?!!!

Christmas Tree Tradition

SO we have a tradition every year when we go get our Christmas tree. Now...we are not the type of family that goes out to a Christmas tree farm with our ax in tow and cut down a tree. No, we support our local Home Depot or wherever we decide to buy our tree. This year we chose Menards because it had rained that day and Menards Christmas trees were enclosed, so that meant we were going to stay dry. So anyways.. it's a tradition to go enjoy the morning at Caribou and makes memories while sipping on some hot yummy coffee or hot chocolate. Then we go get our tree, go home and decorate it while listening to Christmas music. And we wrap the day up by ordering pizza and watching the movie Elf. This year Brett's brother Grant and his wife Caitlyn got to be a part of it. FUN TIMES!!

Everyone's excited to go get the Christmas tree!

Alexa is potty trained!

Another Lilly child is potty trained! WOOHOO!! So excited that Alexa is potty trainied. I thought it was going to be more of a challenge with her, but it actually wasn't. Only ONE in diapers now. Glad that chapter is over with.

Merry Christmas to you!

Wishing you and your family a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!! LOVE, THE LILLYS

Grandpa & Grandma

I am so thankful for my mom and dad who have been so involved in my kids lives. I feel so blessed to be able to call my mom whenever and know that she will be available to come help me. I am so thankful that my parent's are still in good health and able to travel to see us.

American Girl's

Makenna wasn't supposed to get her American Girl Doll until she turned five, but when her cousin Mae turned six, my sister Brook from Peoria decided to plan a day trip to go downtown and do the whole American Girl experience. So of course Makenna and I could not miss out on this. So actually it didn't take much convincing Brett to let us get Makenna her doll 4 months before her 5th birthday. So my sister and I planned the trip. Made reservations at the cafe for lunch and just made it a special day with our girl's. Makenna already knew before we got to the store which doll she wanted. She wanted the doll that looked like her. It had brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles. Cruz of course came along for the ride. Good thing he was too young to realize where he was at. It's definitely not a store for boy's. :o)

Summertime

So as you can imagine after having a newborn, we didn't do much this summer. The kids and I were pretty much stuck at home. And I was stuck indoors a lot! But this was our first official summer in our new house, so the girl's did enjoy their backyard and new play set. We probably got to an actual swimming pool twice. The rest of the summer they swam in our little plastic pool in the backyard. We also bought a slip 'n' slide and the girl's really enjoyed that. I made my mom's family reunion. We took a week vacation to Iowa to spend with Brett's family(blog and pics to come). Brett and I celebrated our 8th wedding Anniversary. We pretty much spent this summer adjusting to a family of five. I had to really learn to adjust to having three kids. And the girl's had to learn to adjust to a new baby brother. A LOT of changes! But good changes! I can't say I am excited about being trapped indoors this winter with three young kids, but we'll make it work. I have a lot of homeschooling planned for Makenna. And I really look forward to next summer with Cruz being older and having a little more freedom to do fun things as a family.

Makenna likes to think she is Cruz's second mommy.

Four Generations