Pictures of Lily in January

Lily is almost one! I wanted to post some more pictures from when she was 11 months old.

She can kind of wear a clip in her hair now. Its pretty thin still so she can just shake it off.

When can we read THESE books Mom?

These are our "safety gates" :)

Look at the pretty dress Aunt Judy gave to Lily!

Lily loves her bunny!

Look at me stand!

Lily being White Trash

She loves this toy she borrowed from her cousin Bentz until he is big enough to stand up and play.

Our Sweet Little Cupcake!

She would rather push the swing then ride in it now.

Bath Time!

Her "Buzz"

Love you!

Lily's Baby Curls!

Lily grew out of this toy several months ago. She plays with it in new an exciting ways now :)

Lily is 11 months old!!!

This post is about Lily's life when she was 10 months old until now- my big 11 month old girl!!!

Lily is at such a fun stage in life. Michael and I both wish we could just freeze her the way she is because she is just so stinking cute. We have said that many times in the past too though and she just keeps getting more fun and more adorable.

Eating: Lily eats lots of meats and dairy now to add to all her fruits, veggies, and cereals. She loves chicken and turkey but man do they stink to me! Its good for her to have the extra protein though. She has been doing great on her formula. I'm glad this is the last month of it though. She also loves little pieces of bread, yogurt bites, shredded cheese, cheerios, and she still loves puffs too. Michael and I aren't the most adventurous feeders but I think she is getting a good variety.

Sleeping: Lily is an AMAZING sleeper! She sleeps about 12 hours at night and takes 2  2+ hour naps in the day. Its nice. We slept at the Malouf's house 2 nights for Christmas Eve and Christmas and she slept so good at night, but would not take naps there in the day. I think it was too weird since she could see the room and knew it was NOT her bed. But it gave us an excuse to go home and shower while she took a nap at home.

Praying; We say 4 prayers a day with Lily. Before each meal, and before bedtime. So now whenever we say, "Let's say a prayer" she clasps her hands together. Its darling! She isn't very reverent though. She usually laughs and talks during the prayers :)

Playing: Lily loves to play! Especially with all of her new Christmas toys. She does patty cake all the time! She is quite the dancer now too. We got her a cute little motorcycle for Christmas that she can push around and it plays music. She likes to rock out to the music by doing head banging, shaking her bum, stomping her feet, pausing to roll her arms and clap, and twisting side to side. She has better moves than her mommy :). She is a lover of books like her parents. She got a few new ones for Christmas that she wants to read over and over. She loves ones that she can feel different textures. Lily also wants to read our books and is always pulling them off our bookshelf while I follow and replace them! We need to figure out a new situation there. She has started to pretend to eat food. She got a picnic basket and a tea set for Christmas that she likes to pretend to drink out of the cups and eat the foods. She does little fake chewing and swallowing sounds. She loves all the fisher price little people stuff so we got her Noah's Ark. She likes to take the animals out and chew on their heads for awhile then put them back in the boat.

Sick!: Lily has a cold. She started coughing on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day she got all snotty! I hate when she has a cold! It is so sad. And she hates having me suck her snot out with the blue thingy. I hope she gets better fast!

Pacifier: Lily found a plug or passy or whatever you want to call it in her toys and randomly starting sucking on it. She hasn't wanted to take a plug for the past 7 months! We don't want her to get hooked on it so we just have her suck on them when she is in the car so she will be calm and not do her incredible hulk routine and when we are at church. I think she needs to suck more since she has weaned from nursing. The bottle just isn't enough of a workout for her jaws :) She looks like a baby again when she has it in. It is weird when she has it because her constant little whispered talking goes away. She is just silent! We love to hear her talk so we usually keep it out!

This is from New Year's Eve. Here she is with her plug in her carseat ready to go home already!

Talking: Lily says "What's That?" All the time while pointing. She also says, "What is it?" and "Dada" and "Mama" and "No"  and "Bye" and she says "titty" for both Kitty and Pretty ha ha. She nods her head yes while saying, "yeSSSSS" and shakes her head no while saying "nononono!", she signs for more and all done and waves bye bye and blows kisses. She understands a lot. If she picks something up and I tell her to bring it to me she will. If I say no in my teacher voice she will crawl away from what she was doing as fast as she can shaking her head no. Michael's dad told her he wished somebody could feed him while we were over there at Christmas. She then tried to feed him her cheerios. Then he told her to put the ball down so she could pull herself up to her bike and she immediately threw the ball! She obeys Grandpa ha ha.

Miss Independent: Lily has a strong will of her own! When we take a toy away from her she can throw quite the tantrum! When she pushes around her little bike and I try to help her steer at all she grabs my hand and throws it off! I'm glad she has spirit. She is going to need some spunk in this world!

Other cool stuff: Lily loves to snuggle. She lays her head down on my shoulder and with her little hands pulls on my arms to hold her close. She gives us lots of kisses too. She is a sweetheart. Lily also took 2 steps on December 27th!! I was sitting on the floor and she was holding onto our couch a couple feet away and she just walked to me without holding onto anything! I don't think she even realized what she did. She is scared of our dryer buzzer. When it goes off she throws whatever toys she has and makes a beeline for me or Michael if he is closer crawling 50 miles per hour! Her face is pure terror! Its hilarious!

Can't believe our baby girl is 11 months old!

Lily's First Christmas Break!

It was so much fun to have a baby this year for Christmas!

Michael and I enjoyed helping Santa Claus out. Before Christmas, Michael, Lily, and I did our annual tradition of parking by the Pleasant Grove High School in the Seminary Building's Parking Lot and watching the lights on the house across the street dance to Christmas Songs. We have gone about 4 years now ha ha! But they do a good job and its nice to stay warm in your car. We went to Cravings in American Fork and had some delicious grown up grilled cheese sandwiches and tasty potato soup too!

On Christmas Adam (Sunday, the 23rd) we went to the Stokers! My family does a nativity every year where all the grandkids dress up and they act out the story of our savior's birth. We have really nice costumes for it too. The kids love it and all of us old people love watching it! My parents have 24 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild so it is quite the production! Lily was an angel this year. She looked pretty adorable! Even if she does have an orange face, ha ha! We ate a delicious dinner and exchanged gifts as well. Lily got an amazing present from her Aunt Jana. Its an Alphabet Wall! It is so adorable. Now Lily has something to look at when I change her diaper :) I got something I have always wanted- a quillow made my by talented niece, Holly. Michael got a playstation netcard from my brother, Ryan and he has already downloaded games. Lily gave her cousin Cohen an Iron Man Lego thingy and I gave my brother-in-law Darren a gift card to the Bike Barn and Michael gave my brother Mike a Giftcard to Gamestop. All of us kids chipped in and gave my mom a handheld dyson vacuum. My dad got a gift card for his Kindle from us. Lily gave both sets of Grandparents a little plaque that has her footprint and handprint on it and a paper weight of her hand print. I made an ornament of her footprint for us but even though I tried a million times I was unable to do it again for the grandparents. Our parents always give us stuff for food storage and end of the world survival. This year we got some water filter things and $. By then it was getting late, so Michael took Lily home and put her to bed while I stayed at my parent's and had some tasty desserts and did our favorite thing as a family. sit around the living room and just hang out and talk. It was a fun night.

Daddy and Angel Lily

Mommy and her Angel!

All the Angels! Katie, Cami, Lily, Zoe, and Elsie

Mischievous Angel

Grandma Stoker and Lilly

Lily Loves Grandma!

Charlie's Angels!

The Nativity Cast! Notice my brother Mike on the right who decided to be an angel last minute as well :)

The Alphabet Wall my sister Jana made Lily! Isn't it amazing???

Jana, the creator of the alphabet wall and one of Lily's favorite  aunts!

My Dad, the narrator of the nativity

Lily is excited for Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, we visited my parents for awhile before heading over to the Malouf's for another amazing dinner. Renee always decorates her tables so beautifully for every occasion. Michael's Aunt Diane and Cousin David  and Sheryl came over as well. They also do a nativity. Theirs is a lot more reverent because they have 6 actors as opposed to 25 ha ha. Lily was the baby Jesus this time! Then we had to put Lily to bed, but luckily we were sleeping there so Michael and I could still enjoy the night there. Lily slept awesome in her pack and play. After she was asleep we had some tasty dessert and then opened our traditional Christmas Eve Gifts from Craig and Renee-pajamas!!! Then we left some cookies out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and then the rest of the kids promptly went to bed so Santa could come :)

Aunt Kim with Lily. Lily is wearing her pretty Christmas dress!

Erin and Emmy, 2 of Lily's Favorite Cousins

Malouf Family Nativity

Kate as Mary and Lily as the Baby Jesus

Sweet Picture!

Such cute kids!

They were so reverent! What a sweet group of kiddos!

So many presents! 

Grandpa Malouf is NOT a night owl :)

Christmas morning Lily woke up at about 7. I was sleeping in the room with her so I just put her on my chest and she fell back asleep for another hour. They sleep in late at the Maloufs so we didn't want to wake anybody up. At 8 we snuck upstairs and fed her breakfast. Grandpa Malouf was awake and we woke up Michael too. Finally everybody was up and we all went downstairs to see what Santa brought at about 9. He came! The kids were all very excited. Lily wanted everybody else's candys. She would put 2 Snickers in each fist and crawl around. She didn't care much about her toys yet. She was too excited about everybody else's. But she loves them now! Michael and I shouldn't have gotten her anything since we could have gotten away with it this year but it was too much fun to shop for her! From us and Santa she got a motorcycle she can push and ride, a picnic basket that talks to her, Little People Noah's Ark a puppy that talks and some butt paste, some elastics, some bath toys, a baby, and 2 books.

A little bit later Chris and Alison and their kids and Sean and Brittany came over and we ate a delicious breakfast prepared by the men. Then we opened all the family gifts! It took hours! :) It was a lot of fun. We were all VERY spoiled.From her grandparents Lily got too many things to name! Lots of cute clothes, some diapers and formula, and some toys and books. I gave Michael some clothes, books, the new batman movie, Ratchet and Clank video game, a sound machine, some hair fiber, deodorent, shaving cream, and yogurt covered pretzels and raisins. He gave me some boots and a groupon for eyelash extensions and for a maid service to come deep clean our house sometime soon and an adorable diaper bag and a  book and some teeth whitening strips and lip glosses, lotions and some tasty Reese's trees that were eaten almost instantly. We also got a Playstation Move and the Zumba game to go with it and Just Dance! So much fun!!! Kim and I had each other and I gave her a giftcard to Barnes and Nobles and she gave me a gift card to Target with some cute gloves and nail polish and lotion. Michael got another playstation net card (which he was very happy about) and he gave his brother, Sean, a gift card to Home Depot. Lily gave her cousin Kate an I-tunes gift card and she got a cute little tea set from her cousin Emmy. Michael and I gave his parents a gift card to Costa Vida since they eat there like twice a week and they gave us $ and some gift cards and copies of all their family movies! We definitely got too much stuff!

Michael and I tried to have Lily take a nap at the Malouf's but she wouldn't have it so we went home to shower while she happily took a nap in her own crib. Then we came back, and watched some old family movies, ate some leftovers and played some games. That night, Alison, Brittany, my friend Amber, and Alison's friend Lyndsie went and saw Les Miserables! It was amazing. I cried and cried. It was a very powerful movie. Since I was out seeing the movie, Michael stayed at his parents to play games while Lily slept and we all spent the night again! Luckily Lily did great again. She didn't make a peep until 6:45 and I just snuggled with her again and she fell back asleep until about 8.

Lily on her new motorcycle!

The next day we all went to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner! I love that place! It feeds my inner child :)

On Friday, December 28th Michael, Lily, and I went to Scheels and had dinner at Noodles with our friends Brad and Amber and their three kiddos. Michael and I rode the Ferris Wheel! Lily was still too small, so Amber watched her with her little twins while Brad rode with Ryker (Lily's future husband). Ryker gave Lily a Little People Christmas Book where she can lift the flaps. She loves it! It said, To: Lily,From: Your Future Husband :). She gave the twins some cotton candy.

On Saturday, December 29th we had our annual extended family Stoker Christmas Party. We bring pot luck and play White Elephant. This year I brought the extra sculpey clay I tried to make footprint ornaments out of (Only one turned out) and the rolling pin I ruined trying to make it with a bunch of granola bars we don't like that much. Michael brought a few books he wanted to give to DI anyway. Michael had to leave early to take Lily home for her nap so he didn't get anything, but I got some raspberry muffin mix and a cake tester and a deck of cards. Not too shabby. Its always fun and interesting to see my dad's family. 

On New Year's Eve we spent the evening with my family at my brother Mike's house. This has become kind of a tradition. We eat lots of tasty, fattening foods and play Hand and Foot, my family's all time favorite game and sometimes mix it up with some Mexican Train (another family favorite). We set up a pack and play up in Mike and Nicole's bedroom so Lily could sleep while we partied the night away :)

Our First New Year's Eve!

Lily woke up to Ring in the New Year at Midnight with us!

We both have weird faces in this one

One of the noisemakers!!!

Scared of all the noise!

On New Year's Day we spent the day with the Malouf's at Michael's partent's house in Alpine. This is also their family tradition to spend New Year's Day together eating tasty food (soup!)  and playing games and hanging out together. Renee, Michael's mom also has a tradition of giving us little notebooks to write in for the year. This year we are writing things we are grateful for in them every day. I like this one because it helps me be more positive and happy when I am counting my blessings. Renee gave Lily a cute shirt to wear that says "Baby's First New Year's 2013".

Lily loves Grandpa Malouf. They are best friends!

January 2nd, Lily turned 11 months old!!!! Only one month left until her first birthday! Michael and I had to go to the dentist so my sister Judy watched Lily while we went to the dentist and then we even saw a movie after!  I have a chipped filling and Michael has a cavity so we even get to go back next week. It was Michael's last day of the break. So sad. Lily and I will miss having him home with us. Michael even let me sleep in a few times which was son nice! At least the school year is almost halfway over and we can have Michael home with us all day again when summer comes!

Happy New Year Everybody!