kisses..

at home...

Lilja had the stomach flu on Wednesday and Thursday and today we made it a half day.. after walking the doggies, I got in a cleaning mode and changed her room around and cleaned out all the old toys and brought in new ones..she was having a blast with the new challenging toys..plus Lilja loved playing dress-up. (Great choice of skirt, Jasmin!!)

we still love to read our good night books in the rocking chair.. The cards are from Oma, and I am trying to find some cute frames for them.. Lilja knows all the animal words and sounds.. she stood in front of them and said them all!! smart little cookie!!
she was trying to give me a kiss her while I was laying on the ground.. she is starting to look like such a toddler with this little haircut!!

dancing, dancing!! Lilja's favorite thing to do!!

and so the bike riding season begins...

Road bike riding is Aran's passion.. Today he was excited to see the temperature is above freezing, so he is starting his training for the spring and summer races. The good thing is we get to go with him to some great places.. Laramie, Utah, Leadville, Salida.. so we are getting ready to find some cool hotels that Lilja and I can enjoy, while Aran is racing.. Preferably with a pool!!! :)

playdough!!

If you know me well, you know I love to play with Playdough with children. It is great for sensory intergration, sharing, imagination, problem solving and just plain fun to squeeze!! Today we felt Lilja was ready for it.. she did great!! she did try to taste it a couple of times ( why do they make it smelling so good??), but she understood it was not for eating.. she joked around faking us out a couple of times.. but it held her attention for a while and we all three had a great family activity time..

the cutest post ever!!!

After dinner usually Aran will give Lilja a bath.. They have a lot to talk about.. yes, even Aran and always have a fun time.. This is what I walked in on... I love how Lilja looks at Aran, just those loving eyes. You can really see she loves her daddy!!

Spagetti!!

Lilja loves any kind of pasta.. and it looks like she is really starting to love what we are eating. usually she eats farfalle (the bows) or the shells). But the spagetti carbonara seems to now be her all time favorite.. For a 14 month old this is the only way she knows how to eat it ,we are letting her just have some fun!! But she is pretty good in feeding herself her yogurt for dessert.. She loves her yogurt!! sorry they are sideways..

Lilja's first REAL haircut

Lilja got her first real haircut from my hairdresser Jane. I came prepared with a balloon and lots of grapes, and we had Lilja sit on my lap, so she did pretty good.

It's hard to see this cute little haircut. We did not want to cut her hair short, but Jane did cut some bangs and some layers in her hair.. It looks really cute and makes her really look like a toddler now..

more sledding

Today we took Lilja sledding at the "little" hill behind our house. she was very excited to be sledding again.. we pulled her all the way up...

actually Aran pulled her all the way up ;) here Aran is looking for the best way of sending Lilja down the hill.. OK.. Lilja, ready??

haha, did you really think we would send her off this early on.. she has to get a couple more hours on the sled before we would send her down this hill..

Gotcha!!

I bet you will be smiling!!

Just for fun..

Lilja's new snow suit

Finally the long awaited snow suit came all the way from Holland.. way too cute!! fits almost perfect and Lilja looks vey cute in it .. great colors, Oma!!

so we thought it needed to be put to the test...

Notice the big smile on Lilja's face.. she really likes to go fast!

Daddy likes to sled Lilja around pretty fast and she really enjoyes it.. This time she was holding on.. this was our last play with the sled.. she let us know she was done... very clearly!

Our first overnight date!!

Aran had to do a presentation for the Chama Peak Landowners Association and it was held at the Chama Lodge.. Lilja was allowed to come, but when I saw the website, there was no way a little 14 month old would be a good companion in a hoitytoity place like this.. so it became Aran and I's first overnight date.. and wow!! what an amazing place.. beautiful rooms (with our name tag on the door) wonderful food.. steak and a fish called Baramundi.. and a great presentation by Aran.. after the presentation, the bar was open and 5 of us just sat and enjoyed some yummy drinks.. We haven't done that in a loooong time..

Ohhh, you are wondering about Lilja?? she stayed with Robin, Freddy and Shannon and had a great time.. no sadness, just fun, talking up a storm, laughing and sleeping good.. she even slept till 6:45 am for them.. Lucky them.. we picked her up at noon on Saturday and she just looked like she had a blast.. Yeah!!! here's to the next overnight in 14 months.. ;) actually Opa and Oma already offered to do an overnight when we are in Holland in March... looking forward to it.. so here are some photos of our B&B..

http://www.lodgeatchama.com/theLodge.html

"

The "great room

Our nametag.. so posh!!

Our room..It was turned down for us when we went to bed.. and chocolates on our night tables..I can get used to this..

Oh yes, and this is the bar we sat at with the choices galore of every hard liquer you can imagine.. we did good though and just had a couple ;)

elmo

Ok we had to show the result of discovering those fun elmo songs.. Lilja will ask for "Elmo" and .."Sing".. and will point to the computer.. this has been after one day of listening to the songs.. .

the hair.

Lilja's hair is definitely a talked about topic around town.. I can not just go in a store and leave without someone telling how beautiful Lilja is (and yes she is smart too!) and "OH, look at those curls". Bathtime is Aran and Lilja's bonding time.. he loves to put her hair up on top of her hair, but now it is getting too long..
curly curls and flat head

Look at all that hair!! Lilja loves to float on her back..

the proof; this little girl has hair like a 4 year old!!

Sesame Street: The Alphabet With Elmo

the best ABC song ever...

Sesame Street: Diana Krall Sings Everybody's Song

imagine Lilja dancing to this song.. we love this song.. both of us.. Elmo is Lilja's favorite, Diane one of mine..

playtime

Hope you guys are happy with the next couple of blogs after a week of nothing.. (Aran had the camera for work).
We are getting in a little routine of some fun playtime before bed-time.. we are trying to make her bed time a little later than 6:30.. slowly it is now 7pm!!! we are striving for 7:30 but we are not here yet.. The theory is she will start sleeping later..(not working yet...6am.. still) hopefully it will work soon.
So today we made a game to stack the blocks as high as we could before Lilja crashed them.. she even walked away everytime, just to give us a head start..

little bird

A little bird flew against our window and was is shock, so Aran (the saviour)placed him in a little box for him to get better. here Aran is going to take him outside and see what happens .. The outcome is not good, though..it looked like he can't fly anymore :( Lilja loves birds and will sign the sign for bird and now say it..

swimming!!

Today it was not so nice outside so instead of sledding we went to our amazing pool in Durango.. Lilja loves the water and is a little dare devil..

Lilja is practising floatin on her back, but really likes to lay on her tummy.. she even has the kicking of her feet down.. just haven't let go yet ;)

There is a huge slide in this pool and as Lilja seems a little dare devil and not afraid of water at all I told Aran he should take her.. After looking at me like.. Really??? almost not believing that I said that.. he eagerly took Lilja up the big slide..

hear the angels singing... aaahhhh!!!

We received an amazing gift from Aran's parents and had to buy something with it that would save money.. Tada!!!
Imagine a halo around this refrigerator everytime I open it up.. I love it.. Aran told me to stop fondeling it .. The best thing is that all the fruit and veggies are in plain sight..

so my New Year's resolution will get even easier..
Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa for this wonderful, beautiful, very shiny, money saver !!!

Elmo

Ok, I swear Lilja has not been watching the TV, but somehow she LOVES Elmo.. she saw an Elmo at a friends house and just realized her diapers have Elmo on them.. so she has been looking for Elmo everywhere..Well, I caved in and watched "Elmo's World" with her last night and she had a blast, and this morning, yes, I bought an Elmo!!

Here is a little clip of her Elmo "love"

S=o I just realized... I talk A LOT!!! no wonder she is a good talker... sorry can't cut all the jibberjabber out.. so here is me just talkjing, and talking, and talking.. the plus side.. Lilja will have 10,000 extra words in her vocabulary than another babies.. (research shows!!), Yeah here's to talking... lots!!

I am NOT tired!!

Lilja is trying to undo her morning nap.. Depending on how early she wakes up (and the norm is still 6 am) she usually takes a nap at 9 am for an hour nap.. But she is starting to fight it. So, this day I was going to have her have a long afternoon nap and kept her up..she did great until 9:10 am.. this is what I saw when I turned around in the kitchen.. her head was bopping from side to side.. I guess that cracker made her tired!

Who wore it best.. i think it is a tie!!