Christmas :: Part 1

Hello friends!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior!

John 1:14
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Christmas is one of my very favorite times of the year! It is so nice to be able to spend time with family and friends.

Here are some pictures from the season!

Team Santa!

Take 2

Our beautiful Candyland house

Take 2

Admire my skillful placing of M&Ms ;)

Cara reading by the tree

Some families watch Elf or A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. Our family? We watch Duck Dynasty. So much quality. Si: "Once I reached down to pat a little dog and when I did it was a five pound squirrel."

After-Christmas shopping with my girls Mimi and Jenny (our photographer). We found some really great sales, including 50% off Vera Bradley!! Very thankful for those girls! They were just what I needed :)

Yummm- egg nog poundcake, chocolate sauce (both made by Mom), and ice cream!

CUTENESS

My December 26th! (see how I changed a foot in between pictures 3 and 4? It was unfortunately not a Christmas miracle... just a bench... 1: Cara! 2. Mimi! 3 and 4. Julia and Rach wearing skates! 5. Cute girls! 6. Chickfila's chocolate chip peppermint milkshake!

Annual Christmas picture!

Going through old pictures and found this little um gem... This was the year I decided to stick my tongue out the full duration of the preschool Thanksgiving performance. Why? Who knows. Poor deranged little Lily... Poor mortified mother... 

Mimi and Jenny treated me to Starbucks and sour gummy worms to cheer me up. True friends right there!

This grammatical error was a little painful. The girl's what? #nerd

Awww cute baby Lil cheesin'. To make up for the terrible preschool picture... :)

Coming soon: more Christmas, MY SENIOR PICTURES!, anddd... a review of 2012!

Meanwhile on the homefront, Julia programmed Siri to call me Princess...

Love,

Lil

Thankful- A bit behind... :)

Today, I am thankful for:

-a wonderful Thanksgiving
-a week off from both schools
-Darling Ariane, who came to stay with us for the week! We are missing her!
-Starbucks on chilly days
-two more weeks of classes (very bittersweet)
-a great semester
-the privilege to go shadow an amazing Spanish interpreter at Siloam Health Clinic.
-being very blessed during my times there (post coming soon)
-Pandora Christmas radios
-warm weather, especially when our upstairs heat goes out...
-having much-needed hang out time with several friends over break!
-Lighting of the Green with the fam
-chat and adventure time with Julia, Rachel, and Sarah
-that God is in control at all times and is using current situations for my good! (Romans 8:28)

Coming soon... Jenny's senior fall shoot, Siloam, and recent pictures!

Love,

Lil

Senior:: Jenny

Jenny and I have been friends since she was born :) I can't believe we are SENIORS! It was so amazing to get to take her senior pictures! Jenny can always make me laugh- she is awesome! I think we laughed for most of the morning :) We had so much fun!! She was a great sport- I made her stand in fields with spiders, stand in horse stalls, sit on fences... :) We went to Harlinsdale Farm and the Factory in Franklin! Love you!! Hope you enjoy your pictures!

(On a side note, I think I might need to make a separate post with the pictures that make me laugh from these shoots :)

Here are some of my favorites!

Tuesday Thoughts

Hey friends!

Well, I had my first day of college classes yesterday! Second year dual enrolling and I love it! This semester I am taking College Algebra and Spanish in Healthcare. I like both of my professors!

The other day I felt inspired and decided to make a recipe off of my Pinterest board! (By the way, have I talked about how much I love Pinterest?!)





So I made these yummy and super easy cookies! Check out the recipe here. I also made yummy biscuits for breakfast- and when I realized we didn't have any buttermilk, I decided to make my own! I mixed some Greek yogurt with milk- and tah dah! They tasted great! I was glad that it didn't turn out to be a fail :)

So excited- we have a 3rd car! Meet the newest member of the fam! (we are deciding on a name...)

Coming soon... Senior photo shoot sneak peeks! :)

Here is a picture (PC: Allie!) of me taking Rachel's pictures! :)

Breakfast at Fido with my Theophili girls! So weird- last year we were sending off Megan to college! Now all four of them are going! So blessed and thankful for these girls!

Speaking of Pinterest, here are some things that make me laugh. Check out my Pinterest here.

Some quotes for the day:

“I fall in love with people’s passion. The way their eyes light up when they talk about the thing they love and the way they fill with light.”

One of my favorite verses.

“Stay in the Word. The moment you start letting go of that, you’re on the road to compromise. Stay grounded, remain pure, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.”

—	Adam Young of Owl City

Verse of the day: Deut. 31:6: "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."

Be blessed today!

Lily

Update

Hey friends!

18! Crazy town! What a fun birthday it was! Sweet Brenda had the Gators each bring me a flower and a card- so precious! I got to the pool and everyone sang! Love my kids!!

This past weekend was city meet! Our Gators did GREAT! It was a CRAZY meet- clerk of course was moved into the bathrooms at Centennial Sportsplex (what?!). It was insanity! I helped work clerk of course- getting kids onto the bulkhead to swim! It was super fun- I was able to talk with my kids before they swam but also help with clerk of course! I would ask all the kids the same questions I ask my kids- "How many hands on butterfly? How many hands on breaststroke? What do we not do on backstroke? What's the order of the IM?" I did clerk of course with 6&unders and 7&8s! Julia ran the 6&under boys clerk of course- she was AMAZING! She had all those kids paying attention! And 3,4,5 and 6 year old boys are cute but crazy! With the 7&8s, I found that playing Simon Says was a great way to keep the attention of 7&8 boys while waiting to swim :) I will post more soon!

We WON CITY MEET FOR THE 2A DIVISION!! We won the 10&under meet and then won overall! And we were also the 2A dual meet champs!! So much fun!!

We are UNDEFEATED!! #winning

Pictures coming soon!! And I will tell about how some of our kids broke records, banquet, and more :)

Well, in 30 mins I will be sitting getting my wisdom teeth removed... Yuck... Not really looking forward to it! Prayers are appreciated :)

Much love and many blessings,

Lily

P.S. Check out my Tumblr!

Coming soon...

... revamped pages! You may have noticed the tabs above- about me, things i like, recent pictures, links, and lilylaurenphotography! Check back soon for the update!

Also coming soon... One Thousand Gifts and more Life in Pictures posts!

In the meantime I will leave you with a few things...

~ The Interlude Dance- aka the Gator's Flash Mob dance! So much fun!!



~ A blog that I love reading- New Dress a Day! I have her daily posts emailed to me! So much fun and so much creative inspiration!

~ BlimeyCow= awesome.

#YOLO



Thanks for reading! Check back soon for updates :)

Lily

Summer!

Summer is so wonderful!

Coaching is amazing. I can't even use the right words to describe it. It is fabulous. It is so rewarding! The other day a 10 year old girl came to afternoon practice with an illegal breaststroke. We worked together and by the end of practice, she did it legally! I am not sure who was more excited- me or the swimmer :)
~~~~~
Some of my favorite quotes.

No Gator Left Behind

#winning

Sportsmanship defined by a 6 year old: "It's being happy when the other team wins."

J to swimmer: "Let's have a heart to heart."

5 year old: "When do I get a trophy?" Me: "Not today, honey!" "Tomorrow?" "Actually, we get them at the end of the season!"

5 year old: "I HAVE A LOOSE TOOTH!! LOOK!" Several other kids: "Me too!"

You know you're a swim coach when...
Last night I saw one of my 6&unders in "real life" (read: not in a suit at the pool)
Kid: "What are YOU doing HERE?! Why aren't you wearing a swim suit?!" soooo funny!
~~~~~
I get fired (that's "fired" :) daily. Yesterday it was because I wanted the kids to breathe and not have to do lots of breath control... :)

More coming soon :)

Love,

Lily

Update- Life in Pictures

It's SUMMER!! What a happy thing to say!

Sorry that I have been AWOL the last few weeks! After finishing up finals and school, we went to Disney and Universal!! So much fun!

Coming soon... Disney secrets, Julia's birthday, last day of school, Ben and Jessie's wedding, and more!

But for now...

Here come pictures from our trip!

Favorite family picture from the trip (+ Tigger :)

HP World!

Plans for the addition to Magic Kingdom- SO EXCITED!!

Julia and a butterfly in Epcot

Lunch at the Perez's with PaJoe!

It's the Lorax!! - Universal Studios Florida

Dad!

Marie from Aristocats - France in Epcot 

Group picture with the super fun Todds (minus Julia our photographer) - HP World in Islands of Adventure

Stormy day in Magic Kingdom

Telephone booth in England, Epcot 

Leaving Universal Studios Florida 

Mrs. Potts! France, Epcot

HP World! Islands of Adventure 

Instead of posting 50000 pictures, I made some collages :) Top left clockwise: Epcot, fam at Epcot, sitting outside of the USA in Epcot, girls with Rabbit and Pooh, our fave ride- SOARIN!, and Lily and butterbeer!

Tink! Magic Kingdom 

Cara :) 

Waiting for the parade in Universal Studios Florida! (Cara is peeking through my hair??)

Despicable Me!! 

Aurora!! France in Epcot

Walking through a 5 min wait for Soarin, Tink, picture on Space Mountain, Mom and the girlies with pumpkin juice and butterbeer, Mickey ice cream bar, and super cute parents!!

Lots of Minnies and Mickeys in Magic Kingdom's Emporium!

it's a small world!!

Eeyore!

Fast Pass is the bomb! The Pooh ride gave us some random tickets to Mickey's Philharmagic... :) 

Tigger! 

Twinings in England, Epcot!

Encouraging sign at a rest stop in Georgia.... awesomeeee

Pretty sky on the way home