Springtime

I'm so so so glad that Spring has finally decided to say hello! It sure took Winter long enough to leave us alone! I have been so ready for flowers and sunshine and warmer weather for awhile now.

Isn't this gorgeous! I totally forgot we had these trees at our condo because they've been dead for the last forever. I totally love them.

This makes me happy - green leaves! (At this point after our long winter, I'm easily overjoyed by the site of bright new-life green, as opposed to evergreen-tree green.)

To celebrate the fantastic weather, Lily and I have been outside as much as possible. Both Monday and Tuesday we picked Ben up from work and went straight to a park (ok, Tuesday was dentist and then straight to a park), and on Tuesday Lily and I had already played outside on two separate occasions before we went to the park with Ben. It was lots of fun. Both of us got a touch pink in the face, but we were happy.

At Marymoor park in Redmond. I love that place. It's so HUGE! We had a picnic dinner there Monday early evening before we went to Mor Furniture. Interesting trivia: Right next to that big tree behind Lily is where Lily sat up all by herself for the very first time. (Picture here.)

 
Trying to run away from us.

 
She was starting to get tired by the time we were leaving. (I love the tree branches behind Ben. More proof that spring is here!)

Playing outside our condo.

She loves flowers, and though is was really cool that there was so many on the ground that she could pick up.

She was also very intrigued with the rocks, and started collecting as many as she could hold. I think she got up to 7. :)

Sharing with me. I think she figured out she could get more rocks if she let me hold some of them.

It's such a cool rock.

This was as close as I could get her to actually looking at the camera. She was just too busy to do things like pose.

At the park again, Tuesday afternoon. I forgot the name of this park, but it's right on the river in Woodinville (the bike path goes through it) and we love it.

I was so impressed with myself for capturing the exact moment she was in the air.

Climbing up all by herself.

 

Swinging with Daddy...

 
and Mommy...

and all by herself.

I really like this one of us.

Wow, 6 posts in the last 5 days - I'm really on a role. And I still have more I want to blog about, cuz I've taken tons of cute pictures the last couple of days. In fact, when I emptied out my memory card last, there was 175 pictures, and that was just in 2 days. I went kind of snap happy. :) So I'll be blogging again real soon...

Bullet points

I've seen other people blog with bullet points, and I think it's an excellent idea when you don't want to write much. Which I don't. :)

Wednesday:

• My mom and Anna came over and we all went to the Seattle Science Center to hang out with Elizabeth Steininger (an long-time family friend)
• The Science Center was having a Spring Fling type deal and had lots of fun activities, including animals like llamas and donkeys, which Lily enjoyed. It was good times.

Thursday:

• Earlier in the week Monica called, a friend I used to nanny for before I had Lily, and wanted to get together. So Lily and I went over there.
• It was lots of fun to see Katalia again (her first daughter) and meet her 7 month old daughter Gabriella.

Friday:

• Ben and I dropped Lily off at Stephanie Roth's, and got to go to the Temple.
• It was really nice, we haven't been to a session in awhile, plus we finally remembered our family names we've been meaning to do for awhile.

Saturday:

• General Conference! I might have fallen asleep a little bit, cuz we watched it at home, but only a little bit!
• I especially liked the first talk in the morning session about preparing for financial stability and living within our means. I thought it was very relevant to our economy right now.
• And as always on a Saturday, Lily loved having her Daddy home all day, and was being extra cute. Pictures to follow.
• During the Priesthood session, Stephanie came over with her boys and so did Katie Currie to eat dinner and hang out. It was lots of fun to have a girls night, and we definitely need to do it again.

Sunday:

• More General Conference, enjoyed courtesy of the internet from the comfort of our home.
• After the second session, Ben and I took Lily for a walk in the park to enjoy the beautiful sunshine that finally decided to come out. It was so nice!

The next three pictures are from Saturday -

We recently borrowed this booster from my parents so we would have another little kid eating chair for when we have guests, and Lily loves to play in it, and always wants us to help her get strapped in.

I asked her where her smile was, and this is what she did!

She always makes this face at us, where she bends her neck down, and then looks up at us from the very tops of her eyes. It's so funny, and she always waits for us to do it back to her, and doesn't stop until we start laughing, and then she'll start laughing too. She's pretty adorable like that. :)

From Sunday, she decided she wanted to  play with her hat. I wish she'd actually wear them when we go out, but oh well.

Peek-a-Boo!

 
Another pose after I asked her "Where's your smile?"

 
At the park! It was so nice to get outside after a long conference weekend.

One of just me, since I don't put a lot of those on the blog. I should have had Ben get a side shot so you can see the growing belly, but I didn't think of it. I'll try to get one soon.

My good-looking husband! I think he looks hot in sunglasses.

Look! We saw a bald eagle!

Yay, I can start blogging about this week! More posts to come. Stay tuned!

More Catch-Up

I really want to blog about the last couple of days, cuz I have some cute pictures of Lily I want to put up. But... I also have lots to blog about that happened in the last two weeks that I'd like to write about as well. So I'll play catch-up first.

On the 26 of March my mom turned, well, let's just say a year older, in case she doesn't want me to write what her age is. (She does read this, after all! Hi mom!) Anyway, that morning I decided that Lily and I would drive down to Enumclaw and surprise her. I knew that seeing her grand-daughter would be the perfect birthday present, and I was right! She was totally excited. I don't think she even acknowledged me for like, 5 minutes, she was so happy to see Lily. :) Which is totally ok, cuz Lily is pretty adorable. We mostly just hung out and played with Lily, and ate yummy smoothies. We also had tried gnocchi and both really liked it, and Lily liked it too. I need to remember to try to buy it next time I'm shopping cuz Lily was a big fan and ate more than she normally does. Anyway, we didn't really DO much, just talked and had a really good time. It was nice to surprise my mom like that. I didn't take any pictures, sorry doods.

That same night was the last night of our dance classes. Actually, I don't think I ever mentioned it, but for the month of March, Ben and I took a rumba dance class at Dance Works Studio in Redmond. It was my Valentine's present from Ben. I thought it was an awesome idea, and we both had a really great time for the four weeks we went. It was a once a week class for a month, and we went every Thursday. It's definitely something I want to do again.

That Saturday afternoon we had Benjamin and Joshua Roth over so their parents, Dan and Stephanie, could go on a date. Lily really enjoyed having her friends over. Then that evening we went over to Ben's cousin's house, Paul Mashler, to eat dinner and play Wii. The Dan and Andy Lemmons were also there, and good times were had by all. Then Sunday afternoon my parents and brother and sister came over for dinner and to celebrate my mom's birthday, dump cake style. If you've never had a dump cake, I'm sorry. They're yummy. The version I made, my mom's recipe, is a can of crushed pineapple mixed with a can of cherry pie filling, with a yellow cake mix (just the dry mix, nothing added) dumped on top (get it?) and butter poured over the whole thing. It's really yummy, like a pineapple/cherry cobbler type thing. And since my mom is allergic to milk and eggs (isn't that sad?) it worked really well.

And yeah, no pictures of any of this. Sorry! Although, I really should have gotten a picture of Ben and I dancing. That would be nice to have. Sadness.

The next week was just as busy. Tuesday was Spring break for our friend Peter Adams (who goes to school at the Art Institute of Seattle), so we all went to Woodland Park Zoo. All being Ben, Lily and I, and Peter, Ashlyn, and their daughter Piper. It was good times. I forgot my camera (figures), but Ashlyn took some fun photos and graciously shared. So here are the first pictures of the post!

Doesn't he look just like the statue above? :)

I like flamingos! What's not to like, they're pink!

Ok, well I ran out of steam, and this is already long. So I guess I'll play more catch-up later. In more recent news, Mor Furniture just called and now they can't deliver until the 20th. Lame!

I'm so excited!

Ben and I have been talking for a couple months now about how it would be really nice to get a new sofa. It's been on our minds for awhile, but we didn't really want to spend the money. But a couple days ago we started talking about it again, and we started looking at sofas online. Yesterday we decided to visit Mor Furniture (check out their website, they are having some great deals right now, plus they have really good prices all the time anyway). And I'm so so excited because we bought one! I can't wait until it's delivered. Actually we bought a couch and a chair and ottoman. We went with the intention of finding something super comfy and cuddle-friendly, and we got the deepest couch in the store. It's probably twice as deep as the couch we have now. It's amazing!! I totally fell in love with it. I'll post pictures of it as soon as it's actually here. So, if anybody is in the market for some well priced furniture - and they have all sorts, tables and chairs and bedroom sets, etc - you should check out Mor Furniture. We like it. :)

Look, I'm blogging!

And since it's been over two weeks, there's lots to blog about, so get ready for a long post. :) Actually, it'll probably be mostly a picture post, just cuz that's the easiest way to chronicle the Lemmon family adventures.

Hanging out at my parents home. We were there for a ward activity that my mom and I helped plan, and it was a lot of fun. Lily always loves going to her "Ga-ga" and "Paw-paw's" house (as she calls them) and she LOVES playing with Mary, their Gordon Setter. She's a great dog.

See? Isn't she sweet?

 

 
Mary's going to be waiting awhile her Lily to throw the ball. We're still working on throwing.

Ever heard of a blood orange? I'd heard of it before, and when I saw them on sale at Top Foods a couple weeks ago I decided to buy a couple and see what they were like. They look like a normal orange on the outside, maybe tinged slightly red, but on the inside...

is this.
 
Very red. And when I tasted it, not so yummy. They weren't really citrusy, or sweet, or something. They just didn't have the typical burst of orange flavor that I love about navel oranges.

But Lily liked them! Not that she's smiling here, but I promise she did. It really did kind of look like she was drooling blood. Kind of creepy. :) I imagine they could work well for some sort of Halloween prank. I'll have to start thinking about that...

 
I like this photo. Ben thought we were really cute so he took a picture. I'm glad he did because I don't have bunches of pictures of Lily and myself. Lily was really really grumpy after waking up from her nap cuz she was still tired, and she ended up falling back asleep on my lap as I tried to calm her down, so I did the only sensible thing and took a nap too. We slept like that for over an hour and a half. It was nice - kind of like having an infant again, since Lily hardly ever sleeps in our arms anymore. Just three more months and I'll have the real thing!

I don't know why Lily started playing with Ben's scout shirt, but she wanted to put it on. She really likes dressing up. She's such a girly-girl already.

 
Look at that little pot-belly! The tights really emphasize it cuz her tummy just hangs right over them.

Hi! (She'll probably hate me one day for these.)

So, two weeks ago, we got together with the other Washington Lemmons, Ben's brother Dan and his wife Andy, and Lily's cousin Rachel for FHE. And Ben's cousin Paul Mashler came too, with his wife Joanna, and kids Geneva and Stephen. Oh, and Andy's younger brother Jonathan was there too. We had a yummy pizza dinner, and a good time hanging out, and then for the FHE activity, Ben came up with the idea of making homemade bubble solution and blowing bubbles! It was a big hit with all the kids.

We cheated a little and used store-bought bubbles to help fill in the gaps while the grown-ups got the big bubbles going.

Andy was pretty good with her medium sized blower (we used cookie cutters).

Ben working on a big one. They bigger ones we used wire coat hangers shaped into circles, but they were a lot harder to do.

Paul's pretty proud of himself here. :)

My little sweetie-pie having fun just running around. As the youngest one there, she didn't get to pop many bubbles, because they were usually all already popped by the time they got to her level! She still had tons of fun though.

Rachel's such a doll. I love that Lily and Rachel are growing up so close to each other. I never had cousins close to me (distance wise) so I'm glad that Lily and Rachel are just 45 minutes away from each other. They already have lots of fun when they get together.

For one reason or another, dropping off our rings to get cleaned I think, we were at the mall awhile ago - Bellevue Square. Recently they made a new play area for kids on the third floor, so we went there to let Lily run around. She didn't climb on the toys as much as we thought she would, but she still had a great time.

 

 

Ok, this is really really long, so I'm gonna split it into a couple posts. I should probably split this one too, but oh well.