HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!

Lily had an AWESOME birthday! The morning started with 7-8 am worship rehearsal for church tomorrow, which she joined with her new maracas. Then, she and Daddy played around the house with her favorite hat :)

Later, she watched some Elmo with her new Elmo nu-nuse (stuffed animal) and helped us get ready for her big party!

We had a birthday party the day before my family left, and then today, her actual birthday, we invited 54 of her closest friends to help celebrate! Many of them didn't come, and yet we still had 50 people (I'm not sure how this happened...that's ok!).

I put up photos of Lily from birth until now, and that was a big conversation piece for everyone. We ate cupcakes (75 of them), Doritos, Twizzlers (which few people liked and I caught MANY people sneaking bits of them to Lily to hide the evidence of that fact), drank coke (30 bottles) and juice, and sang Happy Birthday (Lily, oblivious to the fact we were singing to HER).

Her favorite gift of the day? Paintbrushes. Which she clutched the rest of the day and "painted" everyone and everything in sight. Go Josephine!

Then, we all headed outside to play baseball, a sport not one of our Haitian brothers or sisters knew anything about, and all had a BLAST learning the game and playing while we learned. Some of the missionary kids stood in the outfield and mostly just shouted directions to all the others about what to do next :)

What a joy to be in the midst of a crowd of dear friends, surrounded by peals of laughter and joyful uproars...Those moments watching baseball and our friends alone made all the baking, icing, set-up and clean-up well worth it! Lily was just SO mesmerized to have everyone there and tons of kids to play with and millions of things to watch. She fell asleep tonight at 6:30, just completely partied out!

My sister inherited my mom's fantastic ability to ice cakes, and made this adorable cake for Lily, and along with the streamers, balloons and new toys, the day was filled with lots of "Doggie!" and "OOOOO!"

Yeah, we don't understand what was happening in this picture. I'm not sure why you'd bring a one year old a bottle of champaign for her birthday, or why you would insist on having a picture taken with it, while forcing the child to grip the bottle, BUT, it was VERY IMPORTANT. Gotta love it...

How blessed we feel by ALL the family that joined us to celebrate this miracle that the Lord has given us! We were both chocked up more than once, standing back, watching our little girl in her birthday shirt, covered in Twizzler stains, playing with the other kids and babbling to the adults...just overwhelmed that this little child of God is OUR child, too.

Praise the Lord for Lily!

more Christmas pictures

Merry Christmas!

Joy, joy, JOY!

Everyday I think that we couldn't love Lily any more, or that she couldn't possibly bring us more joy, and the next day she keeps proving us wrong. She has been SUCH a joy lately, learning constantly, chatting up a storm, going EVERYWHERE, enjoying all things Christmas, the cat we are cat-sitting, everything!

"OOOOoooo!" she always says, pointing and wide-eyed by all kinds of exciting things. Her vocabulary continues to grow, now including "Doggie, Don, Cookie, Daddy, Mommy, No and Uh-oh" and lots of babble. She loves dessert and sweets more than anything else, but bananas and avocados are close seconds...It's like she has a sugar radar: the second you begin to eat ANYTHING sweet she appears.

She loves to follow Cat all over the house, peeking under beds and chairs and grabbing at her ears. She loves wearing her sandals and walking all over the yard, insisting on stomping through every puddle, ant hill and rock quarry. She wants to walk everywhere, but won't without holding onto one finger.

She also loves kids....ANY kids. Pictured here are she and her buddy Olie, getting into everything together until they were finally chased out of the kitchen.

We are so excited about Christmas this year, and sharing the excitement that comes with His Birth with Lil! Aunt Lee and Grandpa will be here on the 20th, and I think Lily is waiting to take those first steps on her own for them!

11 months and on the go...

Lily has been sick (check out our main blog), so it's been a rough couple of days...But now she's out and walking everywhere, though she still insists on clinging to something with one hand as she goes :) That is ok by us...her baby days are all but over, it seems! Meanwhile, she's spending tons of time with her new nativity set (Thank you Brenda and Don!), eating the sheep, donkeys, and Baby Jesus and lighting up the star and music over and over.

The only thing that has made her feel better while sick was her Elmo video on singing and dancing!

She's also getting into coloring (and not just eating the crayons) with her good friend Daisy. We are thanking the Lord for a happy healthy baby and the joy she brings!