Pre-Lillian

I have little bit of catching up to do and I think there are a few who are anxious to see pictures of Lillian. So here's a little recap of the weeks leading up to Lillian's birth.

Nathan's parents graciously came to visit for 2 weeks at the end of November. They were extremely helpful for many reasons: entertaining James, Kathy did most of the cooking, letting Nathan and I get several date nights in before we had 2 little ones to care for, celebrating Thanksgiving and James's birthday, and being here around my due date to take care of James when I went into labor (even though it didn't end up being necessary). We had a lot of fun, although everyone was disappointed they didn't get to meet Lillian before they went home.

James's birthday cupcakes were the shape of cute little reindeer. James loved them!

Auntie Nessie (Nathan's sister) was also able to join us for Thanksgiving. James loved getting some playtime in with his Auntie Nessie and the best time of all was the birthday gift she game him: Candy Land!

We also enjoyed taking everyone to see Phipps Conservatory and going out to dinner at Church Brew Works.

Papa Harry was thrilled to give James his first piggy bank. Of course James loved collecting/asking/taking coins every chance he got. 

My parents flew out on December 1st. We got to have 2 more birthday celebrations in before Lillian had her birthday. For his actual birthday, we made a 4 layer dessert then went to downtown to see the big Christmas tree, a really neat gingerbread house display, and have dinner.

Next up was a celebration at school. We had planned on coming to James's school in January since we figured we'd have a newborn at the beginning of December. But James's teacher called and asked if we'd like to come the next day to celebrate James's birthday with his school friends. The parents are invited to the school to read a story to the class and then stay for a special snack and playing outside. One of James's favorite books for a long time is Clap Your Hands by Linda Bryan Cauley so Nathan read it to the class. They we cute doing all the motions together. Then we sang Happy Birthday to James and he blew out candles from a fake cake. Since my parents were visiting they joined us and helped make pancakes (James's favorite breakfast) for snack.