We drove down to my Uncle and Aunt’s house for my cousin Shane’s high school graduation party. My family was still there so we got to see them one last time before they went back to Illinois.
A few pictures of Lillian and I enjoying the party.
Shane is on the left and aunt Lila is in the middle. I am terrible and can’t remember the lady’s name that is on the left, but I am pretty sure that she is Lila’s cousin.
The picture on the left is my brother Josh and of course Lillian on the right. Josh also graduated from high school this year but unfortunately we weren’t able to make it to his graduation or party, so it was nice to have him come up here for Lillian’s party and the few days after.
Daddy and Lillian and then Shane.
The party was mainly outside and the forecast was for a high in the 80’s but it turned out to be in the 60’s, so much colder than we thought. This picture is of Josh, Lila, my mom, Lillian, and I, and my sister Kaitlin.
We had to go inside because it was getting to be too chilly so Josh got out his guitar and played for us. He is actually a drummer but has started to also play the guitar.
Here are other pictures from the party.
We celebrated Lillian’s first birthday with family and friends at our house. I did a butterfly and flower theme with bright colors.
Here is a picture of the cake table. We didn’t get enough close up pictures but I was able to get butterfly and flower picture holders that we put around the edge of the table. Toward the back of the table I cut out a sign that said Happy Birthday. You can see part of it in the picture of the cake and the picture of the smash cake. I also cut out the blue Happy Birthday sign and we put that above the gift table. The pictures on the sign are of Lillian’s monthly growth with her bear.
Here is Lillian in her birthday dress before everyone arrived. In the picture on the right she is pointing at the balloon that she was swinging around and then dropped.
Lillian enjoyed playing with Great Grandma Baylor’s jewelry. The weather ended up being nice so a lot of people enjoyed their time outside. Phil and Sue were kind enough to bring their bags game so that was a hit as usual.
Lillian enjoys her blue chair from Great Grandma Baylor. Even now she stands up to it and plays and is starting to attempt to walk around it.
She enjoyed helping open the presents and especially liked the tissue paper from the bags.
She also liked the ribbon.
Grandpa, Grandma, and Sharon put together her ball popper that she got from Aunt Ashley. She seemed to want to help, but then decided that she would just show off the orange and red balls that came with it.
I think the best part for her in regards to the cake was when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her.
After that, she didn’t really want to have too much to do with the cake. But Grandpa was able to get her to take a bite.
Here is the video of the cake eating (or lack thereof):
After all of her gifts were opened and put together she went for a ride on her new car. She then felt the need for a snack of Cheerios.
We also played with the balloon a little more. Below is a video of her going crazy over the balloon:
Here are all of the pictures.
Sue had a small surprise 60th birthday dinner for Phil at Cliffbreakers in Rockford. I think Phil was surprised but did think that something was going on. The picture on the right is of the table, you can see almost everyone.
On the left are Linda and Dave, and the right is Hans and Cathy.
The left is Ken and Sue, and the right is Sharon and Wayne.
The annual wiener roast was this past weekend. The weather was beautiful!! We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Many games of bags were played along with tractor rides and croquet.
I think Grandma enjoyed her time with two of the great grandbabies. Too bad the other three couldn’t be there! We missed everyone that wasn’t able to make it.
The little ones attending minus Brady because he was napping most of the time.
Jeff, Laura, and Ada travelled the furthest for the wiener roast. It decided to rain for less than five minutes but the sun was also shining so we got to see a rainbow.
On June 27 we attended the 1st annual block party. Our neighbors decided to give it a try and it was a big hit! Pretty much everyone on the block attended even if it was just for a little while. There was grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats, as well as chips, salads, fruit, and desserts. For the kids there was a jumpy thing (not the technical term), popcorn machine, cotton candy machine, slip and slide, among other sports and fun things to do.
There are four guys that have riding lawn mowers so they decided to race. They even spray painted their course! Unfortunately, Mark was not the winner but at least he had a good time! Jeff’s band made the trip over and played for about an hour. They were a huge hit and were even able to sell a few T-shirts!
The weather was beautiful for our Memorial Day weekend. We didn’t do a ton but we did plant some flowers and have friends over for grilling and a small fire. Mark also finished water proofing the basement and I was able to get a lot of reading done. Overall, it was a great relaxing weekend!
Here is a picture of our friend’s daughter, Samantha, enjoying her first roasted marshmallow. She wasn’t into smores but I think she enjoyed the marshmallow.
My coworkers were kind enough to throw me a baby shower. They provided a delicious lunch for everyone which included ham and turkey sandwiches, cheesy potatoes, cowboy beans, chips, and two kinds of salad.
A group of the ladies got together and got us our mattress along with a few other things. Other popular items were clothes and bath items. One lady even made a blanket and booties.
First we want to thank the ladies that planned the shower (Cathy, Dorene, Tanya, and Sue), it turned out fantastic. We also wanted to thank Phil and Sue for allowing us to have the shower at their house. Due to the rain, we had to have the shower in the house but I think it still worked out well.
We had a great turnout and want to thank everyone for coming. We got many great items, including clothes, books, a swing, a bouncer, diaper bag, diapers, a play gym, bath items, medical items, and many more things.
We also played a few games. One where we weren’t allowed to say the words baby or I. If someone caught you they were able to take one of your three pennies. The person with the most pennies was the winner. Dan’s children were the winners and they were kind enough to give us all of their pennies to put in the babies new ISU piggy bank. The other game was where we had to guess the price of different baby items and the person with the closest total was the winner. Linda was the winner of this game.
This is the diaper cake that my friend Stephanie made for us. The whole thing is made out of diapers and then she added a variety of baby items. What an awesome idea!! Thanks so much Stephanie!
Here is the picture slideshow from the special day. Thanks to Michele for being our photographer for the day.
Saturday we decided to have a few friends over for a “fun-do” party, aka fondue party. :) We made a cheese fondue for the appetizer, then used oil in the fondue pot to cook the main course, and dessert was a chocolate caramel fondue. It was all delicious and if someone went home hungry it was their own fault. We had so much food it was ridiculous!!
Last night we had my coworker, Dawn, and her husband and daughter over for an ornament party. We were originally supposed to also have two other couples over, but unfortunately someone in each family became sick. Oh well, maybe they can join us next time.
We painted wooden ornaments and played Nintendo Wii and of course ate some dinner. We had taco soup for dinner and Dawn and Dan brought brownies for dessert. You can see Samantha painting her ornament and Dan bowling on the Nintendo Wii.