Great weekend!

On Thursday we headed to Lincoln, Nebraska for Eric's Christmas party. Each year BNSF is kind enough to host a holiday weekend and we always look forward to attending! Eric spent Friday in meetings so Lily and I hung out at the mall for the day. We walked around for hours and spent lots of time playing in the children's area. Lily is usually very well behaved during shopping trips because there are so many people for her to engage with. She waves and says, "Hi!" to everyone we see!

Friday night we met up with our friends, Ty & Breann, to meet their new baby, Raija Jewel. Ty and Breann used to live a few minutes away in Liberty, but moved to Nebraska for Ty's job, so we really miss them! While the Christians attended the cocktail hour of the party, Eric, Lily, and I watched Miss Raija. And during the dinner portion of the event, the Christians watched Lily. It wasn't anything like the BNSF Christmas parties of years past, but Breann and I aren't ready to be without our baby girls yet!

The best part of the weekend, of course, was seeing our friends and meeting Raija. She is such a little sweetheart!! Lily was so fascinated with the baby, but we had to remind her to be gentle because she wanted to poke at Raija's face. She didn't mind having another baby around...until I started bottle-feeding Raija and rocking her. Then Lily kept trying to climb up and take the baby's place in my arms!

Lily and Raija are 13 months apart, so seeing what a difference a year makes was really fun! That same evening another hotel guest guessed that Lily was about three years old because she's so tall and independent! It's such a miracle how children grow up!