Celebration of the Nativity 2012

Each year, Lilah's school puts on a program called Celebration of the Nativity.  This year, Lilah's class rocked out to Jingle Bell rock. The kids did AWESOME! And, Lilah was my little shining star. I was so proud of her for doing so well. I was wondering how she was going to do on stage in front of a ton of people. She did great!! The pictures are not the best--the lighting in the sanctuary is not great and this is about as far as camera lens zooms in. Oh, well. We'll definitely be getting a copy of the professional video.

It's amazing how much of a difference a year makes.  Here is Lilah last year with the Tiny Tulip class: http://www.jepandvaleriedubose.blogspot.com/2011/12/celebration-of-nativity.html

Team Jolly Joints

Last weekend we joined Team Jolly Joints in the Jingle Bell 5K Run for Arthritis. Our family participated in honor of my mom who has rheumatoid arthritis. Lilah was decked out representing her Grammy!

Below is a little pre-race photo of the girls in their tutus.

We had a great time! Jep ran while Lilah and I strolled very briskly--I'm no runner. :)   Lilah made it a little after the 1 mile mark and then got very antsy. She wanted out of the stroller. Thankfully, the course looped around so we ended up seeing Jep and he took over Lilah duty.

Later that day we just relaxed. Lilah watched Lady and the Tramp for the first time. This was my all-time favorite movie when I was little. To this day, I still love it. When Lilah got bored with it, I found myself watching it all by myself. :)

Then, my little elf helped me with Christmas cards.

Sweet babycakes!

Goodbye Buttercups, Hello Poppies

 Last week Lilah graduated from the Bouncing Buttercups (Infant 2) class to the Peppy Poppies (Toddler 1).  I'm so happy for my big girl but it was a little bit of a difficult transition for this mama. I think it was a little harder moving up classes this go around because Lilah is so much more aware. She was so used to her routine in the Buttercups class so I was worried how she'd do in her new class. It also meant leaving her fabulous teachers Ms. Gwen and Ms. April.



Lilah with Ms. Gwen



Lilah has been with Ms. April since Day 1 at the Center.



The transition to Lilah's new class has gone well. I heard reports that the first morning was a little rough--she missed Ms. April. :)  But, since then, she is doing great! Lilah has two new wonderful teachers--Ms. Mahogany and Ms. Darcy.  Ms. Mahogany has sent me a couple of pictures of Lilah in her new classroom. Love it! Looks like she's getting along just fine.

Lilah Lou Who

Round 2

Welcome to From the Ground Up Part 2! So much to catch up on. I've been a little busy with all that comes with prepping for the holidays so the blog took a backseat. So, it's time for a little catch up!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we traveled down to Elba. As always, Lilah was loving it. She is a country, outdoorsy girl at heart! She couldn't get enough of the Gator rides.  

We continued our tradition of picking out our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Lilah was decked out to go pick out a tree.



We were hoping to start a new tradition this year by cutting down our own tree. However, it was way too cold this particular day. So, we choose to head to Home Depot. We're hoping to start this tradition next year!



After the tree and the indoor decorations were set up, it was time to tackle the outside. Jep and I worked hard to get this all up while Lilah was napping.  I love the picture of our tree. It looks like a giant glass of White Zinfendel! :) YUM!

And, below is an assortment of random pictures.

I love this picture below of my sweet sleeping beauty!





Some of Lilah's favorite things lately are: 

• Pulling all of her books of her shelves. I love that she loves her books.

•  Spices. She is constantly in our pantry pulling down each spice and lining them up on the table in the family room. She'll grab one spice at a time and then run back to the pantry for more. I've learned the hard way that I need to make sure all caps are on tight. We had an incident with a bunch of spilled curry on the pantry floor. The house smelled of curry for days.



• Dress up. She loves to find my necklaces and wear them all around the house. She takes after her mama...I was obsessed with wearing beads when I was younger.  Another one of her favorite accessories is her purse. Last weekend, I asked her if she was ready to go bye-bye and she ran for her purse and put it over her arm, smiled so big, and waved.

• Slides. The weather this December has been amazing. We've spent quite a few days at the park. Lilah loves to go up and down the slide over and over.

Peek-a-boo!

While Lilah has a very fiesty personality, she also has an incredibly sweet side. She loves hugs and kisses. Here she is kissing the dinosaur. Precious!

Today, is Lilah's last day as a Buttercup. :(   My baby will now be a Peppy Poppy. I'm having a very hard time with this. We are going to miss Ms. Gwen and Ms. April so, so much!! The good thing is...she's only moving down the hall so we'll still get to see our former teachers. As a thank you, Lilah colored some plates for her wonderful teachers.

Funny story: I caught Lilah coloring one of her puzzles when I took my eyes off of her for a second!! I went to the kitchen to start dinner. Lilah was very quiet in the family room so I went to check on her. On my way to check on her, I found a cap to a marker on the floor. I started to panic because I was wondering where I would find a marker without a cap. Well, it was in Lilah's little hands. Here is her work of art. I'm just so thankful that it was a dry-erase marker AND she only colored on her puzzles. 



That's it for now! I'll be posting pics very soon of Lilah rocking out to Jingle Bell Rock in her Christmas performance. :)