A modern T'was the Night Before Christmas

Jingle Bell(e)

I didn't want you to think I didn't know the song for my Christmas recital. It's just that I get shy in front of crowds.

Visit with Santa

What an exciting morning we had. We had breakfast with Santa Claus at my school today. It was sure fun. After a quick breakfast, we waited patiently in line (well as patiently as we could) for our turn to tell Santa what we want for Christmas. Since Lilly only knows a few words, I was more than happy to share with Santa that we would like a Thomas the Train for Christmas. He said he would bring me one if I was good girl and listend to Mommy and Daddy and went to bed on time. Darn! I sure have a hard time following those instructions.

We're still both feeling under the weather. Lilly now has my cold. Poor Lilly. So we're resting today and hoping that we'll recover before Christmas.

We are going to enjoy more Christmas excitement today. Mommy is going to help us make Christmas cookies. I can't wait.

Holiday lights & fun

Belle and I are becoming the best of friends, as you can see from the photo. We like to dance together, eat together, laugh together and even wrestle! Despite some illnesses (colds) running in the family, we're having a great time enjoying the holiday season. Yesterday, Mommy & Daddy took us to a tree lighting at the Capitol. We listened to some bands play and even saw Santa at the Governor's Mansion before we left. Each week, we've enjoyed watching the holiday specials, like the Grinch Whole Stole Christmas or Charlie Brown's Christmas on ABC. Daddy & Mommy even let us stay up late to watch them. We've had a great time looking at Christmas lights and now that the tree is up in our house we can get a close-up look. Belle has broken a few bulbs, though, so Daddy moved all the ornaments to the top of the tree.

Today I had my first look at snow. Belle was more taken with it than I. She gazed at the snow falling on the back deck this morning. Daddy took her outside to play in it some, but she wasn't too keen on that, Daddy said. This weekend we're looking forward to a visit with Santa and breakfast at Belle's school.

Tis the Season

It's Christmas! This sure is an exciting time of the year. Mommy & Daddy pull out all kinds of interesting toys to put around the house, like snowglobes, that I just can't wait to get my hands on.

There are also many baby Jesus statues around the house. Mommy keeps scolding me to get down because I want to get close to baby Jesus and the animals she placed on the fireplace mantle.

We celebrated the beginning if the Christmas season tonight by watching Charlie Brown's Christmas and enjoying homemade caramel apples. What a treat.!

Holiday fun

We had a nice time visiting our Morgantown relatives over the long weekend. On Saturday, we visited with our second cousins, Kwanita and Kadence at Mamaw Chase's house. We enjoyed hanging with Grandpa and Grandma some more -- watching fun movies like Surf's Up and Shrek 3 -- all while enjoying popcorn.

Mommy gave me (Lilly) her old sunglasses so I could pretend I was a rock star. I think I have a future in entertainment as Grandma and Grandpa got a big kick out of my performance!

A parade, a pumpkin cake & lots of Thomas the Train

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, at least that's what Daddy explained to me today. So I thought I would share some of the things that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for a grandparents who volunteer to babysit us for a weekend; watch us every day while Mommy & Daddy work and love us to the ends of the Earth. I'm thankful for parents who love me enough to show me right from wrong and teach me about Jesus and how he loves me. I'm thankful for a little sister who I can make laugh and makes me laugh (even if I don't always show it.)

We celebrated this day of thanksgiving with some family traditions. Mommy and me enjoyed watching the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My favorite part was watching the Sesame Street characters sing and the large balloon of the princess from Sesame Street. After a long nap we drove over the river and through a subdivision to Granny's house for a delicious turkey dinner. After some initial shyness, I eventually visited with my extended family. I was especially grateful that Uncle Richie brought a whole Thomas the Train set and many, many, many engines for me to play with. I spent the next three hours playing trains by myself. I was sad when our day had to come to an end, but Mommy said I was getting too cranky and it was time for bed. So we returned home, ate a small snack and went off to bed. Tomorrow we'll drive over another river to get to Grandma's house for more Thanksgiving fun.

Happy Thanksgiving

High Places

We sure don't look forward to bedtime, but Mommy does! After chasing us around all evening (and days on the weekends), she said she's ready for us to hit the sack so she and Daddy can relax. Who can blame them, when I (Lilly) have learned how to climb everything, including the set of stairs in our house. Tonight, I climbed into the rocker in Belle's room and started jumping around.

Of course, all my growing up isn't so bad. I'm learning a lot from my sister. Some good. Some bad. A couple of good things: I've learned we have to pick up our toys when we're finished playing. I also know that we have to brush our teeth before bed. I like my new pink toothbrush and can brush my bottom teeth pretty well. Even with our bedtime routine, sometimes we're so wound up that it takes us awhile to calm down and go to sleep. Mommy tries to read me stories, but I'm not too interested in that. Belle has learned the art of asking for "one more" to delay the inevitable. She's should go to sleep before me since she's usually cranky from not taking a nap. Course, this weekend neither of us had much sleep. I was upset from the immunizations I received on Friday at Dr. Rubin's office. The end of daylight savings time threw us both for a loop Saturday night.

Mommy says I'll be talking before too long, since I'm mimicking everything Belle says. And that's a lot!

Development update for Lilly: She is 32 inches tall (95th percentile); weighs 21 lbs. 12 oz. (50th). So she's still very tall and skinny. And Dr. Rubin says no more bottle!! Boy has that been a rough transition.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was quite an event at the Beckner house this year! A weeklong event -- that began with trick-or-treating at Capitol Market on Oct. 25th with Grandpa and ended tonight with trick-or-treating with Pawpaw. After Belle's pumpkin was too heavy for her to carry, she decided she was ready to go home. I'm delighted to report that she did enjoy watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown with us tonight! Belle has accumulated enough candy that we can all have candy to eat until Christmas -- maybe longer. The slideshow shows some highlights from today, including Belle's Halloween parade and party at pre-school. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

Fall is my favorite time of the year. Probably because I have so many childhood memories of fun family times -- like carving pumpkins. I get nostalgic in the fall. This leads me to want to recreate my memories with my children. Unforutnately, they're not too keen on creating lasting childhood memories (yet!) No, they definitely like picking out pumpkins and think they're cool. But carve them? Yuck. What's that inside, Mommy, Belle asks. Cook pumpkin seeds to eat later? No thank you, Mommy. Drink hot apple cider while we listen to fun Halloween songs and carve our pumpkin. No, thank you Mommy. Just give me some juice and crackers and I'll run around and play while you do all the work. The extent of Belle's help was to pick out the pattern that we would use to carve our pumpkins. You see the end result. As for the Beckner family memories... I guess we'll have to wait a few more years for the girls to get older.

It's football season.... Go 'Eers!

Fall fun

Walking montage

First Birthday party

Thank you to everyone who attended my first birthday party. I had such a good time. I appreciate all the gifts I received. You should have seen our house when we got home. It looked like Christmas! At least that's what Mommy said. Belle and I are already fighting over the new toys and have enjoyed a couple of our new DVDs. Thankfully, I received some nice new outfits for the fall since the weather is getting cooler. Most importantly though, I am just happy to have such loving friends and family. Thank you, Lilly.

Our attempt to get Lilly to walk

Goodness this girl is stubborn. She could walk. We just have to figure out what will entice her to take her first steps.

Lilly turns 1!

Can you believe it was a year ago that this little bundle of joy came into our lives? My how the last year has flown. While Lilly is growing leaps and bounds in many ways, she still holds onto those baby ways. We think she'll enjoy being the "baby" of the family for some time.

Dance fever

We like to shake our booties. Today, Granny and Pawpaw got down with us!

Lilly walking, with some assistance

Mommy & Daddy are determined that I'll walk before my first birthday, but I'm not giving in to them yet! I do walk with some assistance, whether it's from Pawpaw (who helped me get around while we were at the beach) or from my toy car.