The itty bitty baby at 13/14 weeks

Hello all. 
Lily is sleeping under the Christmas tree right now and I am finally getting around to putting up an update from my last doctor appointment on December 2nd.  The baby looked great and was right on track.  We did another ultrasound because last time, our dates and the size of the baby wasn't adding up.  I wasn't originally scheduled for one, but since the meds I am on can cause a heart defect so we wanted to make sure the baby was growing right on target and sure enough, it was.  The baby was measuring perfectly at a June 1st/2nd due date and the baby was moving all around being so sweet.  The heart rate was 156 bpm (Lily was ALWAYS 160+).  That is one of the things that makes me think this one is going to be a boy.  The second inclination is that I have been craving red meat.  With Lily, I wanted any and all meat far FAR away from me.  This one has me craving a hamburger a day.  My third inclination that this one is going to be a boy is that I keep referring to it as a "he".  With Lily, I always said, "she".  Who knows.  We shall see soon enough. 
Another really great thing is that we saw during the ultrasound is that the baby was taking "breaths".  It is kinda early to see that, but either way the doctor says that is a sign of good brain development.  Here are some pics from the scan...

 Profile shot

Face shot

 A little bitty foot.  So sweet!

Another profile shot

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.  We leave on Friday or Saturday to go back to LA, but we will only be there till the 26th or 27th.  We are coming home early this year because I have another doctor appointment on the 30th and it will give us a week to get things done around the house before Brandon goes back to work. 

BTW, I know I may get fussed at for saying too early, but Brandon has gotten a job offer at Chevron!  We will know more after the first of the year, but we are very excited and very VERY proud of him.  He works so hard and does some pretty cool stuff.  :)  Great job, love! 

Lily is ONE YEAR OLD!!!

Hello everyone!  Well, on December 1st, the big day was finally here.  Lily turned 1 year old!  What a crazy road it has been, but it has been an absolute joy watching her grow.  I just can't believe she is already a year old.  We celebrated her big day on Saturday, December 4th and had tons of family and friends around to celebrate the occasion.  The theme for her party was Winter One-derland.  I thought it would be fitting because last year, we begged to leave the hospital on December 3rd so we wouldn't get discharged in the snow on December 4th.  We had crazy amounts of snow here that day.  That being said, on December 4th last year, we also took a few ambulance rides through the snow to get to Texas Children's. Today, Dec 7th, we are officially 1 year without any seizures!  Yeayy! :)

When the snow first started falling last year.  It got to the point where the grown was completely coated for hours.

My little one on December 4th last year.  Sleeping through the snow.

My little Lily one year later playing outside at her first Winter One-derful birthday party (in 72 degree weather, mind you).  :)

Here are some things Lily is doing at 1 year old:
Going up stairs
Going down the slide in her treehouse without any assistance
Does "Twinkle Twinkle" motions when we sing "Twinkle twinkle, little star"
Knows her belly button, hair, nose and feet.

Some firsts we have had this past month:
First stomach virus with vomiting :(
First fever (the day before her birthday)
Turned around in her carseat (Nov 18th)
Walks all the way down the street to the mailbox with me
Trip to Maryland (2nd plane ride)
First Thanksgiving
Will bring us books for us to read to her and will let us know if she wants a different book.

Things she has said:
Night Night (more frequently)
Bye bye
Nana
Mom
Daddy (da-yee)
Cat
Hungry (huh-eee)--did it once in Maryland, but she did it! 
She is also using her head shakes (yes and no) more frequently when you ask her a question

What a joy this past year has been.  I love this little girl so much.  She is such a funny, sweet, happy girl .  She has learned to make these silly little faces where she will lift her eyebrows and look at you out of the corner of her eye and if you smile at her, she can't help but to smile back.  Sometimes, she will just laugh to get you to laugh and we laugh back and forth over nothing all the time.  Her smile is contagious and her laugh makes my heart melt.  She always wants her mom around, but would pick her daddy to play with any day over mom.    Mom is not nearly as much fun as daddy is. :)  She's so great.  I am so lucky to be her mother! 

Happy First Birthday, Lily!  We love you sooo much!  :)

Thanksgiving in Maryland!

I just realized that I forgot to post about our fabulous trip to Maryland for Thanksgiving!  Everything was wonderful.  Candice was a great hostess as always and Maryland was just absolutely beautiful.  Lily THOROUGHLY enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner to say the least.  She is an amazing eater and will eat anything and everything you put in front of her, just like her daddy.  She loved it! 

As you all know, Lil was supposed to be here on Thanksgiving Day last year, but decided she was waiting till all the leftovers ran out, so this was her first Thanksgiving.

Also, Hallelujah, Dave was back in the states this year to fry up a turkey right!  Last year, Dave was on deployment and we had a few issues with the turkey frying.  Nothing big, Brandon just dropped the turkey a foot above the hot grease because he couldn't find one of the pieces to the turkey fryer and then Mrs. Jerry almost fell in the fryer...seriously, like fell a foot away from the fryer.  Thankfully, Dave was back for it this year to take over and the peanut gallery stayed inside far FAR away from the fryer!  :)

The day after Thanksgiving, we decided to take a ride up to Hershey, PA (3 hrs away) to go to the Christmas in CandyLand up there.

That probably will never happen again.  First of all, omg, it was absolutely freezing.  I think it was 30 degrees or something like that.  Second of all, it wasn't NEARLY as amazing as it sounded on their website.  Now granted, I would love to visit Hershey again to go to the museum and to go to the Chocolate World (factory tour), but the park was not worth it at all.   The Santa was ok, but they have a better Santa set up at the Galleria.  Santa and "his reindeer" are almost a mile away from each other and this did not make for a happy southern girl when you have to walk from one side of the park to the other with a freezing cold baby.  No me gusta.

Anywho, Hershey wouldn't be THAT bad if you did it in the spring and had time to visit the other things around town, but forget the park.  It was pretty bad.
It was a wonderful visit though.  I LOVE IT when the kids are able to play together.  Lily just lights up when she is around other kids her age and she absolutely adores her cousins.  I love getting videos and pictures of them together.  These are just moments you can't get back. 
 Here is a video I love from the week there.  :)