November= Mommy stays home with Lily, a birthday, Lily's first cold, & Thanksgiving

November brought about some amazing changes and firsts. Jeff and I decided that I would quit work and stay home with Lily, I turned 30+1 ;), Lily had her first cold, and it was Lily's first Thanksgiving!

It has been so wonderful being home with Lily. She has gone through some amazing transformations in the past few months! She is such a joy to be around and that makes it all the more worthwhile!

On November 13, I turned 31- blah, blah, blah... Jeff took me to the spa (no, really, he actually took me to the spa & then picked me up!) for a manicure, pedicure, and massage. Then we went out to dinner with some family and friends.

Lily and Jeff both had colds the following week, and even though it was really sad to see Lily suffer, she was such a trooper through the whole thing! She managed to to survive me being obsessed with suctioning her nose so that she could breathe better, and the only other evidence that something was off was that she slept more than usual.

For Thanksgiving, we had dinner at our house with Jeff's parents and his older sister and her family. Lily had a really cute outfit that a girl I used to work with gave me before I left. The shirt said "Thankful for Mommy" and the leggings had a turkey on her butt. And I had bought her a turkey "headdress" of sorts that was made out of foam.

On to the pictures!

"Me & Mommy went to the park and I got to swing!"

"I'm 8 months old :)"

Birthday dinner at Firebird's

Our family

Kader, Tiffany, & Kirk came to visit for my birthday, and this is how close he & Lily got to each other the entire time!

Lily playing with my birthday balloons from Stacey

This is when Lily was sick. After taking a 3 1/2 hour nap from 5-8:30pm (!), she laid on the floor and watched Baby Einstein while Mommy and Daddy ate dinner.

Daddy and Lily on Thanksgiving morning

Lily in her cute outfit

Marley is ready for dinner!

Thanksgiving dinner

Mommy and Lily

Daddy and Lily

Our family on Thanksgiving

Family picture time!

Turkey butt :)

Gooooo Gators!

We bundled up to walk in the neighborhood on a chilly night

So pretty!

Love, Ashlee, Jeff, & Lily

Fall photos

At the end of October, we started to think about taking family photos. We hadn't had any pictures of the three of us taken, except for self-portraits or the occasional "Here, can you take a quick picture of us?" Lily was at a good age to smile and interact with the camera. Plus, Christmas was coming and we would need a picture for the card.

So we enlisted our neighbor Stuart to do the job. He suggested going to Fred Fletcher Park in Raleigh, and I think it was the perfect setting. See for yourself below...

October brings fall

October brought about Lily turning 7 months; Jeff's 30th birthday; a visit from Grandpa and Meme; and Lily's first Halloween- which meant time for pumpkin picking and wearing a costume! 

There are sooooo many great pictures of Lily in the pumpkin patch, so I tried to do a good job narrowing them down. 

Lily's first time trying a pickle at a restaurant in Blowing Rock

Jeff & his yummy burger

Austin's kissy face

Laura's fish face

Now to try a lemon

Our family at the pumpkin patch

Such an innocent sweetie

"I'm so excited to be with all these pumpkins!"

"Are you telling me that this pumpkin probably weighs as much as me?"

"This doesn't taste very good... kind of like that pickle and lemon in the mountains!"

"Yo dawg! That lime Grandpa just gave me was whack!"

Trying on a headband at Holly Fest

At the petting zoo

Crazy kids in a barn

Grandpa and Lily

Lily and Meme

Soooo tired after all the fun at Holly Fest

"Grandpa is so much fun!"

"That was a knee slapper!"

My precious ladybug :)

Daddy and his princess

How can you resist those beautiful blue eyes???

Love, Ashlee, Jeff, & Lily