Handsome and Gretel

Hello everyone! I'm back! Wow, its been so long since I've posted on this blog......... Just kidding! Its me, Lily!! I was looking my family up on the internet the other day (not creepy... :I) and I came across this website. I looked through it, and honestly, its so cute!!!! I love all of the pictures of my family. Although those pictures were cute, once my mom stopped posting, we welcomed to the family my sister Layla (7), and my brother Oliver (2). I'm going to try to post at least once a week.  Heres a few pictures of me and my family...

It's been a while since I've written...sorry for the blog slacking (is that the technical term??)  I've been wanting to write for a while, but I've had severe case of blog-writers-block!  I'm just going to try and push through it though, thanks to all my supporters out there who have encouraged me (you know who you are!! :) ) Lily is so excited to wear all her new clothes she got from Auntie Heidi...Heidi picked up some amazing deals at the Children's Place outlet in WI Dells and Lily got about 5 new dresses and she changes outfits about 5 times a day so she can wear everything!  This is a picture of her modeling one of her dresses and showing off her artwork. You can see she really loves the dress... Speaking of artwork, while Lily was painting she said "I am an artist just like Auntie Chrissy!"  Watchout Chrissy, there might be some competition coming! :) Anyway, I will try and do better with updating...I promise!  Check back often!!

. . . the boys will miss them TERRIBLY!!! (or "the boys will play". . . both apply) So Greta and Lily headed up to Rochester for a few days and, somehow, Greta trusted me enough to leave Joey in my care (I won't mention how many times she told me to not let him run in the street, not let him go down the big slide at the park (which he did. . . don't tell Greta), or not to leave him in the bathtub when I'm not in the bathroom). Anyhow, Joey ended up surviving the ordeal, and we had a great time. I must first throw a shout-out to Roger (Doc) and my mom ( Amma ) for watching Joey on Monday and Tuesday while I was at work. Joey absolutely loved spending the day with them (and I hope they enjoyed it half as much). I was able to spend some good guy-time with him in the evenings, and we made the most of it. On Monday night we took a nice, long walk, and we ended the evening at the park. Here's a quick picture of him playing with the fire engine, arguably his favorite...

Although I have 5 kids under my roof today, somehow I am blogging?!?... I wanted to quick tell about our adventures and post some pictures today just in case Heidi happened to check!  Let me start with this...anyone who knows me knows one main fact about me and my kids...we have MAJOR sleep issues in this house!!!.. I have always looked at the Justus kids and known they are perfect sleepers...Heidi and Eric can take them anywhere and they sleep.  They go to bed somewhere between 7:00-8:00, and it seems for the most part sleep all night.  I have witnessed this anomaly on numerous occassions.  However,...my children do not.  I've always thought it was something in the genes, however after last night I realized kids who are around me don't go to sleep!!!  I started the 'going to bed' process at 7:00....I herded all 5 kids upstairs to get ready for bed (Joey was very resistant because he had just woken up 1/2 hour earlier from a nap!!...) Got the 2 boys down, 1...

....she posts old pictures of you! The question is, which one is Greta and which one is Lily? :D    

I found a new favorite blog!...it shows all sorts of fun hairstyles to do for girls and so I had to try some of them out... It's been a lot of fun and Lily loves getting her hair done up in new styles. hairstyle #1 Lily and Adam went out to dinner and then came to my symphony concert on a 'date night' and she was excited to get all dressed up for it and I wanted to do her hair special for the night. hairstyle #2 My mom and I took Lily to Disney Princesses on Ice and I found this hairstyle that is fit for a princess! hairstyle #3 I actually made Lily a few minutes late for school today by trying this hair-do....oops!... Anyway, this actually is a pretty quick hairsyle...The other two styles took quite a bit of time.

Lily and I had so much fun last weekend when we drove to Minnesota to visit Chrissy and Jeff! Lily did a great job on our 4 1/2 hour drive, and we only needed to stop once for a break on the way there and back! We did so many things....I got to see the gallery where Chrissy's artwork will be displayed (I'm so excited for her!!), we got to hang out with Willy and Eddie (may I just mention that Eddie and I are big buddies!!), we went shopping (and of course found a mall park for Lily), and we ate lots of yummy treats (I won't go into the extra 5 pounds I came home with!). I also got Chrissy to work on some crafty stuff with me ;) and Jeff gave us a tour of Mayo Clinic (what an amazing place!). What a great weekend! This is a picture of Chrissy, Lily, and Me at Mayo Clinic. Isn't this amazing? It's a close-up of the blown glass sculpture behind Me and Chrissy in the first picture. I went to an exhibit of this artist (Dale Chihuly) in Milwaukee years ago and have loved ...

I had a stack of pillow cases given to me today, so I couldn't resist trying to make Lily another dress...Lily can't have anything without fairies or princesses so this dress has fairy ribbon sewn at the bottom and tied around the waist (and yes, we are in Wisconsin where it is snowing out today, but Lily somehow is never cold!). To anyone out there who might be under the wrong impression that I am a good sewer, I will tell you again I am not... This will prove it... While I was sewing today on the sewing machine I actually sewed the needle right through my entire tip of my pointer finger!! ouch!!! Would a real sewer do something like that?? :) Luckily Lily was right there to get me a princess band-aid!

Anyone who knows Lily, knows that she LOVES LOVES LOVES princesses. Did I mention how much she loves them? Anyway, we were at Hobby Lobby and she found this adorable purple princess fabric, and immediately loved it and wanted it!...I wasn't sure if I'd actually be able to make anything out of it, because I really am not the best sewer (is that actually a word?) in the world. But I found some cute dresses on-line (they're called pillow case dresses), and I thought I might be able to do it... It was so easy, and once we added the princess ribbon as the belt it was complete! Lily was more than happy to model the dress, so here it is!!

Before I had Joey, I always looked at little boys with long hair and wondered how their mothers could let their hair get that long...and then I had Joey. His little curls were so cute, and I just couldn't bear the thought of cutting them off! It wasn't until a few Sundays ago while we were leaving church that we stopped and talked to someone for a few moments from the Spanish Branch...now he was speaking to us in English, and he has a very thick accent, but I'm pretty sure he told us how cute our little girl was (while Adam was holding Joey)! From that moment on I have been trying to decide what to do. Joey had been having bad hair day after bad hair day for quite sometime...I would wet his hair down in the morning and spray it with hair spray, and it would poof right back out only moments later!..there was nothing I could do! I thought maybe if I pushed through this phase it would grow out and lay nicely (instead of, as Adam likes to call it, "the mad scientist hair-d...

I never can get Joey to sit still for me to take his picture, and if he does...he will not smile...all he can think of is trying to take my camera. So I was amazed when I asked him to smile for me and he did (he posed himself that way)...two seconds later he was off, trying to grab my camera (which is the picture on the bottom!)

Two weeks ago when it started snowing we were so excited...we all went outside and played around in the snow for a while...Lily loved throwing snowballs at Adam!..she must have hit him with them a hundred times!! We made lots and lots of snowangels...so many that there were snowangels covering the entire front yard!! Here's some that Adam and Lily made... Then it just kept snowing and snowing....and snowing...until now there is so much snow, and all our snowangels are covered and all my Christmas lights on my bushes are completely covered because the snow is higher than them!!! yikes...

Anyone who has seen New Moon may have noticed Alice's blue wrist warmers in one of the scenes...it didn't show them for too long though. I made a matching pair for me and Lily, and here is Lily modeling her pair! Check out this website to see the picture of Alice! http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/09/alice_wrist_warmers.html

We started putting our lights up outside a good three weeks before Thanksgiving this year! It was so nice outside I couldn't resist...even though I had pumpkins outside too for Halloween and Thanksgiving! (I didn't turn the lights on right away though) We got our tree up and house decorated a few days BEFORE, yes before, Thanksgiving (with a few stragler Thanksgiving art projects done by Lily up around the house)...and the kids have been wearing Christmas clothes to church for the past few weeks too!... We love the season and want to make it last!!!

The kids and I have spent the last few days outside for a good part of the day. We are loving this so much!!.. We have gone to the park, bike rides, wagon rides, backyard stuff, everything we possibly can...Lily even helped me cut down some bushes outside!...we are trying to soak up each precious minute that we possibly can outside...poor Adam...we feel bad for him stuck in the office all day! :(

THE CAKE... I made this cake for Lily...she requested a rainbow cake with pink frosting and we put princess candles on it. THE GUESTS.... Lots of fun with Auntie Heidi and Lara...they came for the weekend! Lily with her grandmas (mimi and amma)...and, of course, Lara :) THE FUN STUFF.... A princess tea party with the Princesses...and Prince Adam. We also did a princess treasure hunt, played pass the parcel and played hide the comb. THE PRESENTS.... A 'swivel hoop' as Lily calls it from Mimi and Doc...She wanted this soooo bad and is getting really good at it!...she keeps practicing (and so does Joey :)) A Belle dress from Amma and Bumpa...she put it on right away and has worn it ever since! Now she has Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Tinkerbelle and Belle dresses to dress up in! All the aunts and Uncles got Lily this shirt and a very beautiful Tinkerbell book...Lily and Lara as twins!! This picture was taken a few weeks earlier, but I wanted to put it in with her other pre...

Joey is my taste tester...he gets really into it!!! We made a couple different fun halloween treats the week before Halloween...Joey and Lily both love to help me bake (and eat it!) This is Lily and Joey before going to trunk-or-treat at our ward...it was a nice night outside and they didn't even need their jackets and they got tons of candy and had a great time. We spent Halloween weekend down in Cedar Grove and went to my parent's trunk-or-treat too!...we hit as many places as we could! The next day on Halloween we went trick-or-treating with my dad in Cedar Grove...Every year Lily gets to ride in the wagon, the lucky bum!... I wasn't planning on going along this year, but I couldn't resist. I love going trick-or-treating... the only shoes I brought with me were heels, so after two hours of trick-or-treating I had major blisters and then I got to ride in the wagon with Lily...after getting a piggy-back from Adam for about 5 blocks!(but sadly enough we didn't ge...

Lily has been taking a gymnastics class at the Y and loves it. This past week she had her last day of class where the parents get to come into the class and watch....she did the balance beam, bars and floor...her favorite is the bars. It was so fun to see her in action, but I had to bring the little Joey man in with me, and that wasn't quite as fun!...I just had to take a picture of him during Lily's class for posterity sake...this was pretty much what he looked like through the entire class...he was upset because he wanted to run around on the mats and I wouldn't let him!...yikes!!!!

It has been quite chilly out lately, and we've had to get all those warm clothes back out. I came across this blue jacket for Joey, and it used to be Adam's when he was a little boy!! Joey is almost too big for it already, but hopefully we can squeeze him into it (and the hat) for the next month or so... I went shopping with my friend Ashli a few weeks ago and picked up this hat for Lily. When I got home and gave it to her, she wasn't quite sure about it, but as soon as I told her Ashli helped picked it out and loved it, she has wanted to wear it outside all the time!...I guess she's still not so sure about my taste! She is my voice of fashion, and she will definitely let me know if she doesn't like something I am wearing or something I pick out for her to wear. Along that same line, she lets me know if she doesn't like my hair on a particular day too!! Isn't it nice?...I never have to wonder.

Ok, seriously I do a lot of cleaning myself around the house...but you'd never believe it after seeing this!...Lily and Joey honestly got into a fight over who was going to vacuum today!...I had to distract Lily with telling her she could dust!!...finally that made her happy. Hopefully they will always be this willing to help me clean... (yeah right!!! ;) ) Are there child labor laws about this??