Sunday, October 31, 2010

at Shawndell's, the day after Lilja's birthday

After we celebrated Lilja's birthday, we stayed at Shawndell for the night.. She has two little dogs, Waxy and Ice, a Scottie and Westie.. just the right size for Lilja..but the animal Lilja was most fasinated with was Diesel.. a guinea pig.. she was allowed to feed him and loved playing tug-a-war with a tiny piece of grass..


Thanks Shawndell for being such a great host..


Lilja's birthday with Jasmin

We felt we wanted to celebrate Lilja's first birthday with her birthmom (or Tummy mommy as we call her ) in Denver . So we met Jasmin and her friend Sarah in Cherry Creek at a play area for kids..
First of all.. Wow! what a nice place... second of all, Wow!... how overwhelming.. there must have been at least 50 kids running around everywhere.. Lilja looked so little compared to all the running, jumping and sliding kids..
We started out having little cupcakes with little candles for Jasmin and Lilja to blow out as it is also Jasmin's first birthday for Lilja.. As you can see, they had a great time together.. Jasmin is so sweet and gentle, we really enjoyed spending time with her and Sarah.

By now Lilja really got the hang of it and smeared it everywhere.. poor Jasmin..




Lilja got her first little Tutu from Jasmin.. , maybe now she will be a future ballerina. It was so cute, she just crawled everywhere with it on.. She also got a cute little book about an owl.. Funny enough (and these kind of coincidences happen alot between Jasmin and us).. Lilja says "owl" and loves looking for them everywhere..on books, in pictures and around the house.. she even has owls on her plate.. Yesterday she started saying "Hoot, Hoot".. so this little book will be her favorite. Lilja also got a little scarf from Sarah, very fluffy and colorful, she will stay nice and toasty with it around her neck..

Jasmin, thank you for being there on lilja's birthday.. it means a lot to us and we look forward to future visits.. and Sarah, thanks for being there for Jasmin, have a great move!


a couple of photos of the big play area in Cherry Creek mall.. There were all Looney Tunes caricatures .. Lilja surprises me with her independence sometimes.. just going through tunnels and crawling everywhere.. she would check up on me once in a while, but she really likes to be doing it all by herself..


Here Lilja goes down the favorite slide.. Aran is catching her at the bottom, Jasmin and Sarah are watching her slide down.

Lilja's birthday

On Friday night we first drove to the Kreikemeier's house in Colorado Springs and had a little birthday for Lilja ahead of time..Ofcourse Lilja came down with a little cold.. poor thing but again was such a trooper this whole weekend!!
We got to their house around 7 , perfect time for dessert!!!Kade, Cole and Carson all got a little cupcake with a candle to celebrate!!! Lilja's second celebrated first birthday.. our first was in holland with Opa, Oma and Tante Brigitte.. this birthday is going to be a loooong one..


Happy Birthday Lilja... make a wish!!

Lilja is getting the hang of eating the little cupcakes.. her second REAL sugary treat..
Thanks Kreikemeiers!! You are truely such a special family and we loved spending this important day with you all!!! Thanks for all the amazing toys.. Lilja is loving them!!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

silly peekaboo pictures

Lilja likes to go into her room and close her door.. here I caught her around the corner.. What "are you doing, Lilja??? "Peekaboo Mama!!..

These are our new placemats from Holland.. Lilja LOVES them and again plays Peekaboo with them..
Peekaboo!!!Look at those TWO teeth!!!

When Aran comes home he takes over the Lilja duty.. they usually go and play outside with the dogs while I make dinner.. This is what I saw when I responded to a knock on the window..



Look mama, a leaf!!
p.s another knitted jacket from kathleen.. She gave us this jacket last year.. Lilja finally fits in it.. perfect timing, perfect weather, perfect size!!!




Tuesday, October 26, 2010

my little vest

Our friend Kathleen is a master in knitting.. As you maybe recall when Lilja was little she had a little purple jacket, and now a cute vest is made... Thanks kathleen for being so talented!!!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

dippin...

How do I get my girlie girl to eat veggies?? make a dip and let her dip in it all by herself.. Here I made some guacamole and she is dipping it with a carrot.. of course the table had more on it than in her tummy, but that's the fun of it.. She really likes to do everything we do... so Daddy had chips and Lilja a carrot to dip while watching the Football game.. too cute those two..

Not sure if I like this guacamole, Mama.. but dippin is fun!!! I'll keep trying..

You want to try some of this green stuff??



Saturday, October 23, 2010

all by myself!!

After the stay in Holland, Lilja is developing by leaps and bounds.. One of those is standing by herself.. she is making a game out of it.. we count... een (one), twee (two) and she will sit down on drie (three)..the counting is getting drawn out longer and longer and this time she stood the longest..she is getting close..






een, twee... and drie...

aran's favorite's




more favorite photos from the photo session

Love this one, she is so animated.

one of my favorites, I love the colors and her staring right in the camera
Favorite past time of daddy and Lilja..


she looks sooo little.. This one will definitely be blown up!!


I think this photo shows us as a family best.. Love, love love this one..can I say more??!!





Thursday, October 21, 2010

couple more...

My parents bought this little walker and it was Lilja's favorite toy.. it played music when you walked, so Lilja would walk and try and dance at the same time.. Bear liked to ride on it too. An exercise ball was great entertainment for young and old ;) my parents each had a rope to pull and Lilja would bounce her head against the ball and laugh out loud..

Anna and Raoul are Lilja's second cousins.. they brought the rocking horse for her to play on. Lilja loved to play with them and they were so sweet with her.


the beach

My parents live walking distance from the beach in a little town called Kijkduin, nearby Scheveningen. The weather was beautiful so we introduced Lilja to a real beach!first those little feet did not want to touch the cold water, but soon enough she got into it and loved walking around.
she really enjoyed throwing the sand and was fasinated with the sand on her hands. We buried her feet in it and she thought that was so funny. We had to do it over and over again.


it was getting a little windy ( in Holland.... NO!!!) so a jacket was put on. I love this photo. she is staring at the beach in such a quiet manner.


My parents just loved watching us play in the water and sand.
The weather was unusually nice, usually it rains a lot at this time of year, so we were very lucky.

lots of photos from Holland

Ok, there are so many to chose from to show you what an amazing and fun time we have had with my family.. here are again some of my favorites:
Lilja recognizes noses in pictures and then loves to point to hers and yours.. smart isn't she??
snuggles and kisses from Tante Brigitte..
Lilja knows the sign for "Bird" which is opening and closing her fingers like a beak... so we decided to go feed the ducks at the pond.. this is not just feeding one or two lonely birds.. no...
40-50 ducks, geese and seagulls came and devowered all the bread we had.. Lilja's eyes were as big as saucers, and kept signing "bird". When she woke up from her nap after that experience, the first thing she did is sign 'bird" and kept signing it... lots, lots of birds.. she must have dreamt about them.
My parents were impressed by Lilja's quick learning and loved watching her figure things out. They had great toys that challenged her.










Friday, October 15, 2010

Holland!

We left Durango on the 6th at 8 am in the morning and arrived in Amsterdam at 9 am the next morning... their time.. for us it was 1 am in the morning , but as you can see we had smiles on our faces and weren't very tired.. Lilja did great and it was smooth sailing.. When we arrived, my mom (oma ) had a bear for Lilja from my sister Brigitte , so she could be there too in spirit..as she had to work, luckily just one more day..
Oma is the nurturer, she loves waking up with us at 6 and snuggling in bed, and laying in bed playing with Lilja or giving her a bottle during the day.. she is teaching Lilja lots of fun Dutch songs and has babysat a couple of times now.. she LOVES it!!!
When we got to their house, there were toys galore, and Lilja was right away in her element.. Plus they had made a complete nursery for Lilja in which she sleeps sooo good and loves going to bed... Opa is the big reader of the family and is starting a little Opa and Lilja tradition of reading before bed.. so cute to see this big man being sweetened by such a little girl!



Opa is a very calm and collected man except with Lilja.. he is so silly and Lilja really looks for him when he is not around.
more tommorrow.. we have LOTS of photos'and these are from my dad's camera... on mine I haven't even started yet..







Thursday, October 14, 2010

from Holland

Hi everyone, sorry no pictures yet from beautiful flat and rainy (only today though) Holland.. my camera does not work on my dad's computer, but hopefully we can download some photos from my parents's camera tommorrow.. so just keep checking..

Just a little update.. our trip on all the planes(3) to Holland were amazing. Lilja was a fun and sweet travel partner.. she slept at the right times, smiled at the right people and was just a joy to be around and to be traveling with.. hopefully the way back will be just like that too. My dad met Lilja for the first time and they became fast friends.. he loves to play on the ground with her and read books to her.. my mom is the silly one and is teaching her every dutch nursery rhyme she knows.. lilja will now clap so she will sing a cetain song for her... all.. the... time!! And my sister Brigitte lights up when she sees her, plays peekaboo with her and it just makes me wish we lived closer together.. but we just have to make more trips on either side.. it's fun to plan the next trip already. well, it is late good night... goede nacht

Monday, October 4, 2010