I miss...

I miss decorating the tree the day after Thanksgiving and eating chilidogs.
I miss mom and dad telling us Christmas will be small this year (ever year) and it never mattering (cause it wasn’t ever true) and because our family is what makes holidays at the Lilley’s so great.
I miss having all our friends over to play poker, or Evan and Tiffany over for long conversations in front of the fire.
I miss Christmas’ in the snow, around the fire with my family building puzzles.
I miss Erin waking us all up at 4 to open gifts.
I miss breakfast in the toe of our stockings.
I miss dad reading the Christmas story.
I miss snack foods and hot drinks, or chips and salsa and diet coke in a cup with a straw.
I miss sledding down the hill outside our house.
I miss listening to mom laugh at the Grinch… every time!
I miss my family
I miss being a kid….

I love being a Lilley <3

Family

Change, it seems to come in waves. And while the first wave always feels a little overwhelming, I find that with the right attitude any change can be a good thing. My family has become masters of embracing the changes and allowing God to use even the hardest times for good, not because we are the greatest but because we trust Him to be.
Today nothing is different and the Lilley family is in the midst of a sea of changes. As your family grows you take on the lives and changes of more people, opening your heart to more joy, and more pain. I thought about blogging about our trip to Colorado, or the camping trip we went on this weekend, but the truth is life and all its changes are really where I’m at so I’m going to share those instead :-)


Parents… They are living in Seattle! They bought a CUTE house and my dad has started working for the Seattle Gospel Rescue Mission! They are so excited about where God has them and starting their new lives off there. Me and Cody get to go visit in November for Thanksgiving and its killing me to have to wait!


Nole and Heather… They are living in Murrieta now! They moved into their new little home and Nole starts the LA County fire tower on the 13th! I’m so excited for them and this new stage, and that Nole got on so quickly (Two years! Haha) I cant wait to go visit them and see their cute place at the end of the month.


Nathan and Anna… Nathans coming home! He has been out at sea for 6 months and I know Anna cant wait for him to be home! It will be his last deployment for a while:-) I get to see Anna this weekend but am excited for the 25th when all us kids are going up to Oakglenn for a fun fall day together! Its good to all be together.


Dustin and Erin… are waiting for Talon! He is due on the 15th of November and it couldn’t come soon enough. Erin calls him man cub and none of us can wait to see his little face or to squeeze him! Dustin is working a lot and Erin is just getting ready to be mommy. We are having her shower this weekend which means all four of us sisters get to be together! Yeee

Edward… Is in Joshua! I have not heard much from him because he is busy but it sounds like he is having a great time! I miss getting to hear about his life and what’s going on but think his being there is a great thing :-) miss you Edward!


Us… Well we are waiting for construction to be done on the house (fingers crossed for the 28th!) enjoying time with family and friends before the move (which might be moved up…) I feel like I'm in the middle of a grand waiting game! Waiting for Talon, waiting for weekends with family, waiting to move and waiting for our turn to start the fire tower... God is so good and life is full of so many blessings even in our times of change and waiting.

Lurv this man <3

This is...
- My best friend
- My laughter
- My joy
- My hope
- My strength
- My LOVE
- My blessing

....My Husband <3

Erin's Shower!

Last weekend me and Anna got to throw a shower for Erin. It was so much fun to have all her close friends and family there. It was a dessert "Love & the Bedroom" sower. The cheese cake was my favorite :-) Everything came together so nicely and we found some great deals! Woop love those. Anyways my camera took mostly blurry pictures :-( boo so these are the few that turned out good.

I miss you

Life is short but a lot of the time its also amazingly sweet <3
I came across this picture of Chris today and couldn't help but laugh. It might be a bad picture but it reminds me of good times. This guy was great at three things making me mad, making me laugh and being one of the greatest friends I've had. Sometimes I still expect him to randomly show up like he loved to do. Knowing that he wont has hurt for a long time, but today seeing his picture made me happy instead of sad. I was blessed to know him. Today He is still making me mad for leaving so early. He is still making me laugh through memories of all the wonderful time we did have. And he is still one of the best friends Ive had. I miss you Chris <3

Good Movie!

I have read a lot of not great reviews on this movie but I still really wanted to see it. We went last night with mom and dad and I LOVED it. I honestly have not laughed that much in a long time. It wasn't to trashy, it was cute and very funny. So point being its going on the favorites list and you should watch it!

Also Ryan Reynolds is going on "the" five celebrities list.... Ahh haha how adorable is that man!?! Welp if anyone wants to see it I'll go with you!

Wedding Weekend

My top 3 favorite things about wedding weekends.

1 - Two people getting to commit to their best friends for the rest of their lives<3>

2 - Um it's a party, and theres a lot to be done! I love party planning, organizing and watching everything come together at the end to be completely beautiful. this weekend was no different. I hope its exactly what the bride and groom wanted because it was completely stunning! And honestly I love all the madness that happens behind the scene before its all finished!

3 - People. This is probably the best thing of all. Like I said life happens and is busy but on wedding weekends everyone comes together and focuses on each other. theres a lot of time spent together and that in itself is the biggest blessing of all. I have such a huge place in my heart for my family and friends and honestly cherish the moments I get with them knowing that you never know how much time you will have. This weekend was filled with so many precious people that I love and care for so much and was such an encouragement and joy in my life. Man I love people <3

anyways here is the only photo I have from the weekend, with some of those wonderful people I was talking about. I know I have said it before but God really blessed my heart when he allowed this friendship to happen. I love you Tilleys!

And congrats to the Settters! Hope you have a blast on your honeymoon ;-)

Room Remodel... And BIG News!

Okay well over the past couple months as you might know, the Lilley family has been going through some big changes. Both in my parents new direction of life (Which we are anxiously waiting for!) as well as my siblings and their life directions. Me and Cody have been doing a lot of talking and thinking for a while now and we have decided to move to Colorado!

Ahhh I know freak out a little bit :-)

Because of this his parents have agreed to let us live in their home until we go to save money for the move in February! This is such a huge blessing and answer to prayers and another way God is opening doors for us and making this feel like the right decision to make. While this is all very exciting giving up the idea of having a home for at least 7 months was a little hard on me (You will understand even more when you see the room we moved into!) So with a budget of $500 I redid the room to make it feel as much like our space as I could. Im pretty happy with how it turned out. For starters here are the before pictures.... (gasp)

Yes it is kinda sage green and red! The roof IS painted as well as a beautiful star on the wall. I didnt post pictures but the carpet had black spots all over it and the one door had been used to throw knifes into and light on fire a couple times. This room was scary!

It also came with this lovely beat up built in book shelf. Now in these pictures me and Robin had already spent a day cleaning this room out! haha just to give you an idea... Now none of this is her fault just to be clear. This room had been a guys zone for years and the previous paint color that was still peaking out in areas was a dark dark blue! Talk about a dungeon.

Needless to say the first project was to paint.

Cody was working the first two nights I worked on this project after work, and had a hunting class on Friday & Saturday when I finally finished it! It took three coats of primer on some parts of this room and those shelves were almost the death of me. I stayed up all night Friday night until this project was finished!

So here are the afters!

Pretty white shelves! And that door was the one that had been so damaged before! You cant hardly tell anymore :-) I actually dont like the tan color I chose, I had a lighter one picked out but got talked into a shade darker and was sad I did but Im still very pleased with how it turned out! Over all the paint cost $75 including trays and rollers...

Im still looking for an entertainment center but for now we are using Rylees little table and it works. I also dont have enough to decorate the shelves but they are coming together and will take some tweaking until its how I like it. I spent about $25 on some things to add to the shelves

This is looking back into the bedroom. I found that chair on craigslist for $50. It actually has a slip cover that is in the middle of a makeover itself. I'll blog about it when Im finished but I was pretty happy with the purchase. The yellow blanket and zebra pillow were $6 a piece! I Love Ross! I got white curtains that Im going to be hanging as soon as I find the right blinds to put behind them. There floor length and from Ikea for $20 and the lamp with the shade was only $7

Our bed, I didnt want to use out nice stuff we got as a wedding gift because I was afraid it might get damaged by all the traffic coming through the room. (I come home regularly to either the girls, cameron or cameron and his autistic boys in my bed watching TV :-) So I got this plane black duvet cover from Ikea for $14 another great find. I bought purple sheets for $30, the greenish yellow pillow for $14 and the scrunchy white blanket for $20 (yeah the blanket cost more then the duvet!) The lamp is also from Ikea for $25, it gets dust fast but thankfully the whole thing pops apart pretty easy so I can dust it good :-) We hung our wedding pictures finally! I love getting to look at them every day!

So far my biggest purchase was this wooden screen room divider. I got it from target for $116, it was shipped to my house already all pout together and I love it. It did come with one ding in it that happened during shipping but its nothing huge. I wanted the bed to feel a little separated from the rest of room. with this up it creates a sort of living room to the front half of the room. and also an extra security that if anyone comes barging into the room without knocking they wont see anything right off the bat. This room doesn't have a lock... yet! haha its in the works and on the top of the list :-) Anyways this is a wordy post but thats what I have been up to. There will be more posts coming on the more detailed projects I have been up to!

3rd of July

Down here they do a 3rd of July fire works show! Everyone goes early and hangs out before the big show and its a lot of fun. Im still not completely sure why they do this but hey its turning into tradition...
We spent the afternoon with Codys family checking out some fridges for their new kitchen. They chose an awsome 5 foot wide fridge! ahh haha so cool. and getting tons of snacks for the evening of course :-)
Um...
Mom showing us how to throw a soft ball ;-) Shes so cute
Rylee & Cody
Mom me and Cody enjoying the pretty evening!
As the sun slipped behind the hills it got COLD. Cody had a jacket and mom brought me an extra sweatshirt but Cody thought it was a good idea to zip us both up in the sweatshirt! Haha you should have seen us trying to sit down zipped together like this:-) I love how silly my husband is
The boys played Frisbee for a long time... and lost it into the crowd a couple times :-P Normally running and diving onto the blanket to avoid any blame for it! After confirming they were not very good Cody decided he was going to throw it and land it in my lap... Right! Nope it hit me in the face and that's why I look like cry face in the above picture :-S Lame haha

It was a great night with family and celebrating the day before Americas birthday! lol

Fathers Day

The day after Jessicas shower was Fathers Day. It just so happened that my parent were at Hume speaking for Romance Conference and so when they were finished we got to spend some time with my sweet daddy. I wont go on and on about how great my dad is since I have done that before, but I will say that as time goes on, and over these past few months I have come to love him even more. You get to see the true character of a man when life gets hard. My dad is someone who wont ever disappoint you in this area :-) I am so proud of him and can not wait to find out where God will be using him and my mom next. Wherever it is those people will be very lucky to have them!
Grandpa Lilley came over to which was so great! He is moving to Oregon soon and it was nice being able to see him before he left. North was happy to see him to and wanted to take a picture with his Papa
While it wasn't Dustins first official Fathers Day, North still thought it was fun to check out the little person to be growing in Erins tummy. (Stay tuned to find out what it is! She goes in at 1 today!)
Some pretty ladies :-)
Heather and Avery. Two of the most beautiful girls I know :-) And some of the sweetest too!
North and Avery. Are they cute or what?
Sisters <3
And lastly me and Avery Bay. I really really really cant get enough of my family. Im so glad we had the time to stop and spend some time with them on Fathers Day.

Jessica's Shower

My sister AnnaMae and I had the opportunity to throw a bridal shower for our dear friend since birth practically. Most of the credit goes to Anna who is the matron of honor on the wedding THIS weekend! She did a wonderful job envisioning and planning something special and beautiful. But I still had a great time helping out and trying to think of the little details that would make everything just right for Jessica. You know how we Lilleys love the details :-)

We had the shower at Brandons (The Grooms) parents home. It was the perfect gorgeous setting. I just loved all the aspens! Dianna was such a huge help to us and was the third planner for the party. Her and Ron took care of so many of the on location details for us and opened their home for us to work away all day Friday before the shower. Dianna is such a sweet lady and made us feel right at home and worked hard along with us to bless her soon to be daughter. I really hope Jessica knows what a blessing it is to have such a sweet mother in law. Not everyone is as lucky as the few of us who have mother in laws who are easy to love :-)
Me & Anna happy to see everything come together like we had hoped.
Erin also came along for the weekend and was another huge help! Even if she did have to stop for naps now and then ;-) Being pregnant is a lot of work! It was so great to have all three of us together and we enjoyed the long drives and the opportunity to chat and catch up on life. (Just wish Heather had been there too :-()
Anna made all those paper pom pom balls you see hanging back in the trees with the help of Erin and Dianna (Brave ladies!) They looked so soft and pretty surrounding the shower and added a pop of color. Im a big fan of these guys even if I would never brave making them myself! haha
This is the food table... Yum :-P I was in charge of the food of course. Besides accidentaly buying golden honeydew, which made it look just like the cantaloupe... everything came together beautifully (Until the sun started melting the mounds of chocolate covered strawberries... woops)

And to me everything tasted great.
This is the drink and favor table. Complete with heart shaped ice cubes with berries frozen in them! Haha its all in the details! To the right is a candy buffet for favors. Each guest got ot fill a little pail with their favorite candies to take home.
The center pieces. Each table had different colored fabric and flowers but I think they turned out pretty cute! I loved the butterflies that Anna made to sit on the edge!
Gift table. I found that delicious yellow fabric (Which has small white dots on it that you cant see) for 99 cents a yard! Now I just need to find something cute to make of it!

And the Big Picture!

I think the shower went great :-) We had a great time getting to pray for, laugh with and pamper Jessica before this big step in her life. Im really so excited for her and Brandon. Me and Cody are quickly approaching our one year anniversary and I have mixed emotions. I cant believe its only been a year, and I cant believe how much has happened in that year! Life happens and being married makes life that much more fun!