Shake it!

I know I have said before on the blog that Lila is quite the performer!  She is often found dancing and singing around the house to the tunes in her own head, but when there is music on, she can't help herself...she just has to move to the beat!  I wanted to share a video of our little performer, click HERE to watch! 

Notice that Dancing with the Stars is on in the background, it is her favorite show!  She doesn't care about the overall dance skills, she judges the couples on how pretty she thinks the girls outfits are! 

There is never a dull moment with our little entertainer! 

Easter 2013

So, I  haven't been the best at keeping on top of the blog and it doesn't help that my personal computer is on the fritz.  Why is it that when our technology goes out it leaves us literally feeling like we have lost a limb?!  We functioned for how many years (or centuries) without computers, cell phones, tablets, etc. and got along just fine, but now that we have them it is almost paralyzing to be "disconnected."  That isn't the reason for my post, but it certainly does put a kink in my ability to post an update on the blog!

I kind of like Easter.  To me it is a holiday that is really exciting for kids.  The pretty colors, dying eggs, cute clothes, hunting for treasure filled eggs; the idea that a soft, human sized bunny comes into your home to hide a basket full of goodies...this is the stuff kids live for!  Side note: how did we get a bunny to coincide with what Easter means in the Bible?!  Another good question that I don't intend to answer in this post, but definitely worth thinking about and maybe something I will Google after I am done!

We started our Easter festivities the week before with our annual egg dying!  Last year Mike wasn't able to join us because he was at football practice, he was bummed.  So, we made sure that we included him this year.  We had a lot of eggs and a lot of dye and some stickers and other fun things to decorate our eggs!  I had seen somewhere that you could dye brown eggs, too, so I was anxious to do that as I often eat hard boiled eggs for breakfast. 

Lila had a lot of fun picking out all the colors and to no surprise, the white eggs dyed the best...especially since a certain Mom thought we had vinegar to make the dye extra bright and we were out, we had to settle for the water version of the dye!  Either way, Lila didn't know the difference and she enjoyed herself as she picked the colors, dunked the eggs, and then decorated them once they dried.

Ready to dive in!

Decorating her eggs!

Some of the finished product!

Saturday we went to the Eddins Easter!  We are so thankful that Mike's family is willing to be flexible with us on dates so we can do our best to attend as many gatherings as we can.  This started Lila's Easter "sweep."  The amount of stuff this girl got for Easter is wild!  She has her birthday coming up and we both commented that she already was in need of absolutely nothing, and after Easter, she really doesn't need anything.  We had a very nice dinner and enjoyed some time just hanging out!  Lila even got Aunt Maria to paint her nails!

Hanging with Aunt Maria

Sunday morning we woke up to eggs all over the house!  The Easter Bunny had not forgotten Miss Lila this year!  She woke up to eggs scattered throughout the upstairs and a trail leading her down the stairs to the basement...her basket was somewhere!!!  Low and behold, after a little searching, she found it in her play house! 

Showing off her Easter eggs!

That bunny left a lot of eggs!

Heading downstairs!

Getting closer and closer to her basket!

At last!!!  She found it!

We had the Smith Easter in Davenport at my Aunt Dianne and Uncle Kelly's house.  We have been a bit under the weather at our house, so Mike stayed back and got some rest and worked on some homework while Lila and I made the trip with my Dad and Laura.  It is always fun to go to family functions on this side, when we are all together we make for a large crowd!  Once again, Lila was met with Easter basket treasures from Grandpa and Laura, Grandma Smith, and her aunts!  We had a wonderful afternoon that even included watching "The Wizard of Oz," which Lila refers to as, "The Wizard of the Boz!"  Another great Easter weekend in the books!

In her Easter "best!"

Spring Break

It is always a dead give-in at the Eddins house when we are getting ready to leave on a trip...the minute the suitcases get brought upstairs the dogs start to pout!  Baxter is by far the worst, he barely even makes eye contact with you because he is so disappointed that you are leaving.  More often than not, we take them to the kennel where they have lots of fun playing with other dogs, but occasionally we are able to have someone stay with them at the house, which is so nice so it doesn't upset their normal routine!  My cousin Jorden had agreed to watch the two of them while we made our way to Oklahoma for Spring Break.  

 

Pouting

 

One adjustment that our family has had to make is our vacation planning.  With Mike in school (especially) and Lila in pre-school it is a bit more important to have them home consistently.  So, with Spring Break coming up we had a decision to make...what should we do?!  We originally talked about going to Cabo, but with flights and different issues with dates, we decided that wasn't going to work, and probably for the best as I am sure it was packed!  How did we decide on Oklahoma?!  Well, my Mom lives there 80% of the time, we have never been there, and it was easy to get there!

 

We decided to leave on Friday after Mike was done with school and head to Kansas City and stay the night as it was the halfway point.  We hadn't been on a long car ride with Lila since our trip to Nashville, so we wanted to be sure to ease into it.  We stayed at a hotel right down on the Plaza, it was perfect.  The weather was also wonderful, it was 80 degrees when we pulled into KC!  We got a good nights sleep and were ready to hit the road first thing in the morning!

 



Waiting for the car!  Looks thrilled!

We had about 4 hours in the car from Kansas City to Tahlequah, which is in Eastern Oklahoma.  The drive was really pretty easy and we met Mom and Terry in town to have lunch before heading a few more miles into Park Hill where their home is.  The house looks over Lake Tenkiller which makes for an absolutely beautiful view!

Looking out over the lake from the front of the house

We got settled in that afternoon and then had dinner out that night at a restaurant called KTK for Terry's birthday (a little belated)!  We were excited to give Terry his birthday present...tickets to see Willie Nelson at the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids!  Just another reason for them to come "home!"

One nice thing about spending the time in Oklahoma was that we didn't have a schedule.  There were things that we wanted to do, but we didn't have so much to do that we needed to maximize each hour.  We spent our mornings waking up as we pleased, meeting in the kitchen to chat and decide how we were going to spend our day.  It was nice, as it allowed Lila some time to run around and be a kid before we asked her to get in the car some more and "behave!"

Getting ready!

Lazy morning!

Sunday was a cold and rainy day, so we took advantage of that day and bummed around.  It never fails that I get sick the minute I go on a trip and this trip wasn't any different.  On Saturday as we were driving into town, I started to get a sore throat.  Lila had a cold, too.  When we arrived, Terry was also feeling a bit under the weather, so with the gloomy day, we hung out, took naps and tried to rest up.  Sunday night we went to Bill & Patty's house, dear friends of my Mom and Terry's, they were wanting to host us for a traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner!  Their hospitality was wonderful, with meeting them only one other time, they welcomed us like family!

With Sunday being a bit of a recuperation day, we knew we needed to make the best of Monday.  We got up, got ready and got out the door!  Mom took us around Tahlequah and the surrounding area to show us some of their favorite spots! 

Lila is a sucker for corn on the cob!

The downtown area in Tahlequah is really cute!  It is a college town, home to Northeastern University.  While the University is bigger than Cornell College, it reminded me a lot of Mount Vernon with cute little shops and local restaurants.  One place we were sure to visit was Mom's yoga studio...Studio 108.  She just recently invested in this studio that she was taking classes from, and she was excited to share it with us. 

Grammy & Lila @ the Yoga Studio

After we visited the downtown area we made sure to stop by Braum's to get some hand dipped ice cream!  The cones were delicious and rather large, our little girl had no trouble finishing every last drop of her cookies and cream cone!

YUM!

Happy to be together!

After ice cream we stopped back at the house to pick Terry up so he could come along with us while we visited a few other important stops!  The first stop was to visit Grammy's horse, Spirit.  Lila is fascinated with horses and was excited to see Grammy's very own horse!  Spirit is a beautiful girl who was happy to have visitors!

Loving on Spirit

Our next stop was at my Mom and Terry's new RV.  I would hardly call it an RV, it is really a decked out tour bus!!!  It wouldn't be my ideal way to travel, but if I had to travel that way, this would be the way to do it, it is very nice!  Lila loved the captains chairs in the front, looking out the big windshield!  She kept asking Mike to sit in the drivers seat and pretend to go on a drive with her!  When they have everything loaded up, including the trailer they pull with the car in it, they are 72 feet long!!!

Watch out!!!

What the RV looks like with the trailer on the back!

 

We then headed to Terry's development, Terry's business is excavation and land development. He has a very large piece of property on the lake that he has been developing for 20 years.  He has put in roads, homes, ponds, etc.  It is really impressive!  It is a continuous work in progress, but he has come a long way and it is really something to be proud of!

 

Our final full day in Oklahoma was spent in Tulsa!  Tulsa has a zoo and an aquarium that we thought would be fun to visit, but with limited time we decided to do the zoo since Lila had been to the aquarium in Chicago.  It wasn't as warm as we were hoping, but it wasn't raining, so we moved ahead with our plans!  We got to the zoo around 10:30 and it was packed!  A line formed outside of the gates that went on and on for a long time...apparently other people had our same idea!

 

 



At the zoo!

 

Leading up to our visit, Lila wasn't so sure about seeing all the animals.  She was excited to see them, but a bit concerned that they weren't locked up tightly!  We had to reassure her that everyone was nice and secure in their cages and even then she wasn't all that excited about getting out of her stroller, she could see everything just fine from there, thank you!

 



 

Ready to see the animals!

 

While the zoo wasn't overly big, it was a very nice zoo!  They had a great mix of animals to see and activities for the kids and families to participate in.  Mike and I commented that the last time we had been to a zoo was the San Diego Zoo, many years ago, so this was just as fun for us as it was for Lila!

 

 



Elephants

 

Rhinos



Zebras

Giraffes

These were by far a fan favorite!

Lions - "Just like Lion King," according to Lila!

 

After the zoo we went and had lunch and then spent some time at the mall in Tulsa, a trip just isn't the same without doing some shopping!  We had one last surprise for Lila and that was going to the Disney Store at the mall.  Lila is a Disney girl, particularly the princesses, but she really loves anything Disney!  She picked out a pretty Belle doll and dress as her souvenier!

 

Before we knew it, it was Wednesday and time to load up the car and head home!  We left Oklahoma a little after 8:00AM which would put us home sometime between 6:00 and 7:00 PM with a few bathroom breaks and a stop for lunch!  We had no reason to believe that Lila couldn't handle the car ride, but it is a long time for adults to sit in a car for that long, so we were aware that it might be tough for a 3 year old!  Once again, she impressed the heck out of us!  She was a trooper!  We had a few things to keep her busy, but even when she didn't want to watch a show or color, she was happy and content to just ride along! 

 

 



Enjoying some in-car entertainment!

Sleepy girl!

We pulled into Cedar Rapids around 6:30, while it was a long day in the car, the drive was really easy, we were fortunate enough to have great weather both ways.  We were all excited to get home and see the puppies.  While the dogs are excited to see Mike and I, they are always even more excited to see Lila and vice versa, she loves her puppies, too!
 

Welcome home!

We had a wonderful time in Oklahoma and I imagine that we will be back in the future, maybe next time we will plan it better so we can enjoy some time on the lake!  



My {funny} Valentine!

I should preface this blog post with the fact that Lila has been looking forward to Valentine's Day for a month.  So, here the time had come and our Valentine's week started off a bit rough when illness struck the Eddins household.  Sunday found Lila having a quiet day while nursing a fever and with a fever we knew she wasn't going to be able to go to daycare the next day, so we began rearranging schedules to accomodate our sick little girl.  

 

Enjoying a movie on her DVD player -- feeling kind of punky!

Her fever broke rather quickly, but we had to keep her home with the 24 hour fever free rule in mind, so I was able to move my morning around to stay home while Mike went off to class.  Mike came home from class around noon and I was planning on heading back in, until he actually walked in the door and shared that he, too, wasn't feeling well.  ICK!  So, I put them both to bed and ended up working from home the rest of the day!

Loves from Baxter always make you feel better!

She wasn't close enough!

Lila seemed to be doing really well all day, we did a quick bath and got all snuggled in for bed.  As she was laying down she said to me, "Mommy, my tummy hurts."  Before I could even get a word out she had puked!!!  This is the first time we have had to deal with vomiting and I must say that both of us were a bit shocked, but she really handled it very well.  We were of course concerned that this was just the start of all of this, but she snuggled right in, got a good nights sleep and we didn't have another episode, but it meant staying home for one more day. 

We finally got everyone well enough that normalcy resumed on Wednesday!  I was so badly hoping that she wouldn't be sick on Thursday for her big V-Day celebration at school!  We had to make 60 Valentine's to take with us.  Yes, you read that right, 60!!!!!!  For those of you that know me well, you know I don't tend to do things the easy way very often, so why would that be any different for Lila's Valentine's?!  I found a cute idea on Pinterst and thought, what's the big deal?!  These are cute, has to be easy, let's do it!!!  Never once did it enter my mind that maybe it was a little much considering we had to do so many...it was full speed ahead!  It wasn't long, probably around the 10th flower cut-out that I realized this maybe wasn't the best idea!  Especially since the Valentine was even a bit too advanced for Lila to really help with.  Enter in the best husband/Daddy in the world...Mike helped and did it with a smile on his face!  Thank God, because after cutting out 60 flowers and 60 leaves, it was really nice to have someone there to help me assemble them all.



Even though they were a lot of work, they turned out super cute and Lila loved the fact that she had pink suckers and flowers to hand out to all of her friends at school!  (Next year I might not be so ambitious!)

 

The finished product!

It was finally the big day!  I said above that Lila had been waiting for this day for at least a month!  She had a special outfit all picked out and an extra skip in her step!!!

Pretty in Pink!

We tend to do holidays and birthdays big in our house!  When I was a kid my Mom and Dad always made holidays and birthdays big, so it has trickled down into our family, too!  So, not only do we do something for Lila, but Mike and I always make it a point to do something special for each other...after all, Valentine's Day really is about romance, right?!

My beautiful flowers that greeted me at work!

 

Even though Mike and I share gifts and they are generally wonderful, I was the most excited to have Lila give her gift to her Daddy.  A week before the big day we went over to Racquel's house for a girls night with the little girls and put together Valentine's for the Daddy's!  It turned out so darn cute and it is something that Mike will have forever!

 

A constant reminder of her little hands and feet!

 

So excited to open her gifts!

A very happy girl...she got a kite!!!

Loving on her elephant from Jason, Jen, Celia & Ruby!

 

The perfect ending to our Valentine's Day week was a very special Sunday!!!  It isn't a secret that Lila LOVES anything and everything princess!  So, when I saw that Beauty and the Beast was coming to the Paramount I knew she had to be there.  I thought that it would be something fun that her and her bestie Henley (along with my bestie Monica) could do together and they were equally excited to go, it was a date! 

 

We met a bit early to have lunch before the show.  The girls couldn't have looked more adorable all dressed up for the big performance, you will also notice that they each brought their Belle princess doll along! 

 



Darling girls!

Monica and I both knew we were pushing it as both of the girls nap during the time the show was scheduled, but we were willing to take the risk as the show was only playing this one day.  When we bought tickets we were hoping to get first row, first balcony so the girls could see everything going on and we were pleased when that is exactly what we got!  Our seats couldn't have been more perfect! 

Beyond excited to be at the Paramount!

A performance we will always remember!

The view from our seats

A beauty with her Beauty!

 

Belle & the Beast falling in love!

From the moment the curtain opened until the very last song the girls were loving the show!  Many times I would look over and Lila would either be singing along or completely in awe of what was happening on stage!  It was such a fun day for all of us, even the Mom's!  Going to the theater is something I did a lot growing up, so being able to make memories with Lila similar to the ones I have growing up is very special to me!  I look forward to creating those special memories and the many more performances that are ahead!!!

Sock Hop!

This Friday found us heading to Lila's school for a Sock Hop!  We met up with Jen, Celia & Ruby so the girls could all boogie down together!!!  It had been several weeks since the girls had seen each other, so they couldn't have been more excited!!!



All smiles!

We dusted off Lila's Pink Lady costume from Halloween two years ago, I was praying that we could still make it work!  Thankfully the only part of the costume that really had a "size" was her jacket.  It was a bit short, specifically in the arms, but we made it work! 

Smooch!



The Pink Ladies!

The gym was full of kids, and parents, dressed up in their best 50's attire!  It was too cute!  The kids were loving the music from the DJ and the parents were able to let them run off and have fun or join in on the dancing, too!

The gym starting to fill up

Taking it all in...

 

The girls all found their friends and then you could see them most often holding hands making their way around the gym.  They would stop and dance or stop to chat with other friends, but mostly arm in arm scooping the loop!

 

Lila & Ruby with good friends Hannah and Abilene

Enjoying a very large cotton candy!

Among some of the evening activities they called each age/grade up to the stage to have their picture taken!  There weren't a lot of 3 year olds there that evening, but those that were there were able to get a picture taken together!  Pretty cute!

Preschool 3 year olds!

One of the cutest parts of the night was wacthing the kids do the Chicken Dance.  Now, I have to admit, I can't stand that song, but when you have a room full of kids doing it, it made the song bearable!

The Chicken Dance

We got home from the Sock Hop with a tired little girl.  However, she had enough energy to open a special gift from her cousins! The girls had been in Hawaii for two weeks and they both picked out a gift to bring back for Lila.  While Lila of course loved the gifts, I melted over the sweet card that they made that was taped to the outside of the gift bag!

Thanks Cel & Ru for my great gifts!
Merissa the Mermaid & Hula the Bear

The rest of our weekend has been really low-key!  We went to Mike's grandparents last night to spend some time with them and have dinner.  Elaine had found an Electro Art (Lite Brite) toy from when Mike's Mom was a kid!  We spent a lot of time creating light pictures!  That particular toy was 50 years old and still worked like a charm!  Too much fun!

Carousel horse

Lila also enjoyed crawling up on Grandma's lap to look at photo albums of her Daddy and Aunt Maria they were little, just like her!

Grandma & Lila

This year we don't have big plans for the Super Bowl, we will just watch it at home with some munchies, hopefully snuggled in with a fire in the fireplace!  Considering the Detroit Lions aren't playing in the game this year, the Eddins household will be rooting for the Ravens!  They are Lila's favorite because they are purple!  Eh, good enough for me!