Happy Birthday

Happy 1st birthday to Layla Grace!!!

Can you believe she’s already been here one year?? But at the same time, can you believe it’s only been one year? Listen, the days (and often the nights) are really long but the months have flown by!!

Layla loves pancakes...Ego brand, frozen, with blueberries. *insert eye roll* Plain pancakes? Naw. What about blueberry waffles? Pass. She knows what she likes and she wants to eat it everyday at every meal. 

She’s taken a couple steps but prefers crawling. It’s much faster and, bonus, she can grab a snack along the way. She loves blueberry pancakes...and anything off the floor. 

She can say a couple words...hi and dadda. But even though she doesn’t have many words, she has an abundance of opinions. She hates being handled, having her diaper changed and watching her sister sit in time out. 

Layla Grace, you are one of a kind and we love you SO very much!!!

Vaca!!!!!

We went on our first family of 4 vacation!! The first night was rough. Sometime around 2:30 a.m. I was googling directions to the nearest Starbucks. But all in all, our adventure was successfully fun!

We had some great cousin playtime. 

 

We completed our 2018 college visit. Guns out! (That’s what they say, NOT what we did. It seemed to be a very safe campus).

Th chicas did a great job in the car. They played and laughed and threw toys at each other. We had their seats separated but they just couldn’t handle being away from each other (and I couldn’t handle being in between them to occupy their attention). When we moved their seats back beside each other, all was right again.

We had such a great time!!!

Hoppy Easter

We hope everybunny had a hoppy Easter! Too late for Easter jokes? You’re right. But it’s never too late for Easter pictures!! 

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Last Gummy Smiles

Prepare yourself for the last gummy smiles of Layla Grace. That’s right...she’s working on some teeth. I figured they would be popping in sometime soon. Teeth are great and stuff but sweet, little gummy smiles are the cutest. 

We went to the park today and Layla had her first experience on the swings. 

She loved it. 

Here’s to many more sunny swing days!!

New Visitor

So...we have a visitor at house. Her name is Influenza A. So far, she’s kind of a jerk and hopefully she doesn’t stay too long. Unfortunately she’s visited all our friends and stayed at least a week. She’s mostly hanging out with Lily right now...poor chica. Lily did, however, sneeze right in BJ’s face so she might be sticking around awhile longer. 

Layla Grace has had 9 months of awesome!! She’s crawling everywhere, grabbing everything and standing mostly in places that are dangerous. She doesn’t have any teeth yet but she’s eating like a champ. She likes everything...well, everything except vegetables. She has mastered picking food up but hadn’t mastered getting it into her mouth yet. She is awesome and we love her!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Lily Girl!!!

Can you believe this girl is 3? I mean, I can but that’s probably because some days feel like 5 days long. Those are the days when she really wants to make sure the boundaries are secure and my endurance will, well, endure. 

As much as I joke about her somewhat strong-willed and extremely vibrant zest for life, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Lily wakes up with a smile and is normally smiling when she goes to bed too. Yes, she will challenge you but also, yes, she will love you with her whole heart. I know her energy and excitement for everything will serve her well as she grows up. 

My job as a parent is to help her become an awesome human who can contribute to our world, the kind of person who is compassionate and confident, smart and secure in who she is. I have no idea how to do that. Neither does Google. Actually, Google has about 4,500,674 ideas which doesn’t help at all. So I’ll pray and do my best. And, with any luck, she’ll only need a little therapy. 

Happy birthday, Lily Girl. Keep being awesome!!!