Picture Update

Lily had her 1 year portraits done back in September and here are a some of those....












Lily and Papa

Lily and Mommy

Lily giving Daddy kisses

Bath time

Hair combed out after bath time

Mommy and Lily rode a dinosaur ride at the Gwinnett County fair, since Lily is SO tall she was actually able to ride some of the rides when she probably really wasn't quite "old" enough. We had a good time she didn't cry she just held on tight.




We bought Lily a big girl chair of her own because I was tired of her climbing on the couches so as soon as we bought this she was a sitting machine....she loves it. I only wish I had bought one sooner.

Getting in her chair

Mommy, Daddy, Lily and The Caudell's went to Col. Cobb's Corn Maze, Hayride and Pumpkin Patch. Here are some silly pictures from the day at the farm.


The Caudell's




Lily and Parker (Parker is 7 1/2 months old)

There was a bouncy thing there too so Lily and daddy bounced together.

Mike Mannschreck, Josh and Lily after dinner together.

Carrie Anne and Kristin Mannschreck (The Mannschreck's just had their 2nd baby a few weeks ago and are going to be moving back to Oklahoma soon.....too soon!!)

Hope you enjoyed some new pictures.

Posting Lapse

This past month or so has been a long month for me. I have been pretty sick with morning sickness since the end of August. I should be coming out of the morning sickness stage very very soon and I hope that I get a new found energy at the same time.

Lily is a firecracker. She is all over the place and into everything. We have found even more things to childproof than I thought was possible. Some of her conundrums lately have been, eating grease from the grill's grease trap, putting our TV controller in Timber's water dish, eating charcoal, spilling red Kool-aid all over the floor and dining room chair and pouring water in one of her stand-up electronic toys. You would think that I was not even watching her.....but I was and somehow all that stuff still happened. AHHHHH (said with a smile on my face).

Lily is very close to being able to run now, which I am not excited about. It is going to be harder for me to keep up with her as my belly gets bigger and bigger. Lily just learned how to drink from a straw yesterday. We have been trying to get her to do that for a little while now and something clicked with her yesterday, all it took was for her to get it one time and now she knows exactly what to do. Lily can also whistle. I know that you might find that hard to believe but I promise you it is the truth. I whistle a lot around the house and I guess she mimicked my mouth and she was able to whistle (while sucking in). She can replicate it so I know it was not a one time thing. I have not caught it on video yet, but that is coming soon.

Last month Lily had her 12 month appointment with the pediatrician and did really well (minus the shots that she was much more aware of this time around....not happy). She is SUPER tall and just an overall big girl. She is off the charts again for weight, height, and head circumference. The pediatrician said that she was not at all concerned and that Lily's big daddy might have something to do with her large stature. They did say that Lily should be saying about 1-3 words by now and I told them that I really wasn't sure that Lily was doing that yet. I have been working like mad to get her to say things (coherently). She babbles all day long in Lily language but not too many "real" words have come out yet. We will keep working on it.

Josh is doing some leadership training to hopefully become an administrator soon. He is enjoying some of his new opportunities and connections. Maybe next year he will be an Assistant principal which I think would be so fun! Everything else with us is going well. We are looking forward to the Thanksgiving and Christmas season right around the corner. We will probably be finding out the sex of Baby Rowan #2 at the end of November/beginning of December.

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather and the beautiful days of fall. Keep in touch!

Lily's 1st Birthday

Lily is 1 year old now and we had a fantastic birthday celebration for her on Sept 6th at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder. It was a beautiful day and lots of people came to celebrate with us. Unfortunately, that whole week before her party Lily and I were both sick with a cold and then the morning of her party Lily wakes up at 4 am with horrible diaper rash and diarrhea. The poor little thing was in pain and couldn't sleep well.......we barely got enough sleep for her party and by the end of the day she was EXHAUSTED. The party itself was great. Lily had lots of little friends come and celebrate with her and we had lots of our adult friends to celebrate with us. Lots of fun.

I don't have a ton of pictures yet because I was not taking any while this was all going on. Lily's first birthday cake experience was incredible........I will post a progression of pictures below for you to get the best understanding you can of what happened.

Lily is walking great now and she barely ever crawls anymore (no more dirty knees, yea!!). We have her 1 year doctor's appointment on Sept 15th next week. I also have my first ultrasound appointment next week to make sure baby #2 is growing healthy and strong like Lily did.

On Lily's birthday I took a moment to pause and think about the whole year that had gone by so quickly and remember the moment we first met our beautiful little girl. I know Josh agrees when I say it was the best moment of our lives. All the itching and pain was worth it for such a precious little girl who makes so many people smile when she looks at them. She is really a blessing from God that we feel so privileged to be able to raise. I can't believe that I will be doing it all over again in less than a year but the rewards are infinite and I know that I will be thinking all the same things after a year of his/her life.

Thanks to all the friends and family that were able to share in Lily's special day. We feel so blessed to have some many loving people in our lives!

It's Official.......Baby Rowan #2 is on the way!!!

Josh and I just found out that we are pregnant with #2!! We are very excited. The only proof I have at this point is the pregnancy test that I took. According to my calculations I will be due April 26th, 2009. Perfect timing for a teacher's baby! =) I just wanted to share the news with everyone!

Here's a little proof....

Lily is Walking!!!

Lily has 4 teeth now....they came in fast. She has the top two and the bottom two. She is starting to look less like a baby and more toddler.

This past week Lily has officially started walking. She can go about 10 steps before tumbling to the ground. I am so proud of her. She doesn't even get daunted or discouraged. Very determined and independent already! I have included a video of her walking below. I can't believe she will be a year old in a month. What a big girl.

Time sure does fly but Josh and I are loving "almost" every second of it. Lily is so funny and loving and it has been such a blessing to have her in our lives. If I am in a bad mood all she has to do is look at me and my frustration melts away and I start to laugh and smile myself. Thank goodness she is around, she lightens every situation.

So, I guess I should mention how the beach trip went.....let's just say it is harder to go to the beach with a 10 month old by myself than I thought. Lily was only down in Florida from Sunday to Monday and then my wonderful husband was kind enough to come and get her so that I could have a real "vacation." It was however the first time that I have been away from Lily overnight let alone a whole week......my heart was so homesick, but I tried to enjoy the beach and friends as much as I possibily could while missing Lily and Josh like crazy.

Here is a link to the pictures from our beach trip......not too many of Lily though =(

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=237690935/a=100740449/t_=100740449

I am planning Lily's 1st Birthday and am very excited about it. Her present from Josh and I is a playroom in our house. We converted our garage into a playroom so that she can have free reign and lots of room. I know she won't have a clue in terms of her present and her party, but I think it is a good reason to have a get together.

Here are some good pics of her and a video of her WALKING!!!

Lily's playroom (a work in progress)
LOTS of primary colors.......

Our Beach Baby

Lily's new experiences since the last post:

1.Officially went swimming (first in the baby pool, then at Nana and Papa's condo's pool, then at Grammy and Grampy's house, then at Lake Lanier)

2. Dunked totally under water by Daddy. Lily was not sure if she liked the experience the first time and has warmed up to it every time since. Mommy is too nervous to even try it though =(

3. First TOOTH!! Lily's first tooth appeared about 3 weeks ago. I don't have a picture of it yet but hopefully she will show it off soon. It is the middle bottom right tooth.

4. Standing and squatting unassisted. Within the past two weeks Lily has shown enough balance where she can stand without holding on and squat down without holding on to anything.

5. Has started pushing a walk-behind toy around the house. She has finally figured out that she can get around our house by walking behind a push toy and she doesn't have to crawl everywhere. Is she going to be walking soon???

6. She has FINALLY said the word mamamamama. I know that she doesn't say it and know she is referring to me, but I must say I am glad that she has the ability to actually say it since she has been saying dadadada for a few months now.

7. Transitioned almost solely to table food. Lily has always been a good eater and she has loved all the pureed foods that we have in jars and such, but recently she has been rejecting the spoon and wanted what is on our plate so most of her meals now come from our lunches and dinners. She LOVES self-feeding blueberries, peas, chicken, etc....You name it, she eats it. Definitely a daddy's girl when it comes to eating (she eats more variety than I do at 26 years old.)

I (CA) and Lily are leaving for the beach on Sunday with some of my girlfriends from our bible study. I am definitely looking forward to it but I am a bit nervous to have Lily for a solid week without Josh. He is such a big help at home that I am nervous about having to do everything for Lily for a full week. That's OK though. I haven't been to a real beach (minus Lake Lanier) in over 3 years so I am definitely looking forward to the ocean and beach atmosphere. Pray for us while we are gone because there are a couple of other babies going on the trip....should be interesting. It is a nice 6 hour drive to get there which might drive me nuts with Lily but hopefully all the activity in the car will keep her distracted.

Josh of course will have a whole week to himself here at home since not only are Lily and I gone but he is also not working. It should be fun. He is going to try and hang out with some guy friends and hopefully do some chores!! (maybe that is wishful thinking on my part).

Here are some new pictures of Lily from the past month or so, plus here are few of her professional shots that she got done this past month as well.

Lily's professional 9 month shots.....

Lake Lanier......Lily's first sandy experience

Dad cooking hotdogs at the campsite.

Lily's bouncing Zebra!

Toilet Paper Caper- Lily figured out how to unroll toilet paper and we forgot to shut the bathroom door and this is what we found after a few seconds.....
It just keeps coming......caught red handed.
Uncle Jay's new wheel barrow that he got for Father's day.
Lily and Nana at the beach.
Swimming in Lake Lanier

Lily's personal pool on our back deck......she didn't want to stay sitting, she was crawling all over the place and wanted to stand up on the edge.


Let me in!!
Timber and Lily behind bars!