Merry Christmas!

It is a bit late, but here is our Christmas card from this year...I have been meaning to post it, but with the computer virus we were battling, it did not happen. Thankfully the virus is gone and all of our files were salvaged :)

Going to see Santa

We tried for a second time to get a picture of Leila with Santa. The first attempt had lots of tears, but we did not build Santa up ahead of time. Last year she did great, so we did not really think about it. So before bringing her again, we taught her what he says, and showed her pictures of him, and basically got her pumped up about seeing him. Here she is walking downtown with Nana on the way to see Santa at Home & Company.

However, despite the prep, she was still very much afraid of Santa, even when Nana was right there. She did manage to say bye bye to him, as long as we were at least 5 feet away from him.

It's Christmas!

We decorated the house for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. Leila is doing well with not taking things off from the tree - I think it helps that the tree is pokey.

Leila has her own tree in her room that she helped to decorate.

She kept taking the ornaments back off though.

Leila is now 18 months old - I can hardly believe she is already a year and a half. So today I took it upon myself to write down all the words she says today, because trying to just remember the words she knows is practically impossible. So here is the list:

all done, all gone, apple, baby, ball, bologna, banana, barrette, bee, bite, book, bow, brr, bubble, bug, bun, bunny, burp, bus, button, bye-bye, cheerios, cheese, chicken, clock, coat, cookie, cracker, dada, dolly, down, Drew, duck, eat, eggs, elmo, eyes, grandpa, happy, hat, hay, heavy, hello, hi, hippo, hot, house, Jenna, juice, knees, Leila, light, mama, mm-hmm, Molly, money, more, nana, nice, no, nope, nuh-night, nummy, off, on, open, ouch, Paigey, papa, peas, please, pooh bear, poop, potty, pretty, Reid, Ryan, shoes, sorry, spoon, star, thank you, there, toot, train, tree, up, waffle, water
90 words!!

Plus some sounds:
(car), (monkey), arf, baa, meow, moo, neigh, quack

Our Little Reader

Leila loves books. I get out about 50 and spread them on the ground for her to choose from :)

Right now she likes this Tractor book

She looks so old in this one!

I love the banana slice that is stuck to the side of the highchair...how does that even happen?

Chicago Trip

Jer and I took a vacation to Chicago last weekend. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and Michigan Avenue, Millennium Park, and on an architecture boat tour.

Here we are in front of the Cloud Gate (aka Bean) in Millennium Park.

Jer was doing acrobatic feats with his twin...

On the boat tour we saw a lot of really cool buildings. I liked the one in the center the best - Aqua - it is supposed to look like water.

Below are the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower and 311 S Wacker.

We finished up with a deep dish pizza while watching the end of the Michigan Illinois football game.

100th Post

I just noticed that this will be my 100th post on my blog. What a great time to tell you the good news! We are expecting our second baby due June 2! Below is his or her first picture.

Happy Halloween!

Leila was a puppy this year for Halloween, or as she would say, she was a Molly.

We made the rounds to show her off in costume.

Can you tell that the other photographer had string cheese?

And then we had dinner with friends and got pictures with Isaac and Josiah too.

On!

Leila loves to open the hall closet, take out her favorite shoes, and say "ON." This is an order, make no mistake. She wants those shoes on her feet and she wants them on now. :)

When Paige comes to play, everything Paige touches turns into the most fun toy in the world that must be played with immediately. Needless to say, we are working on sharing!

Her play money is still a favorite toy - she loves to stack them, put them into things, pour them into other things, forever in and out and round and round.

Today, it was not only shoes, but hat and mittens too..."On!" :)

Crayons

Leila has started to get into coloring. I wrote her name on that paper...she is not that advanced yet! :)

She has been making cards for Nana after her surgeries.

I just love looking at this now - it was not as much fun to clean up at the time - spaghetti has to be one of the messiest things to feed a kid.

Animals! Animals! Animals!

Today we went to John Ball Zoo with friends. The girls really seemed to enjoy seeing all of the animals.

We really liked the bears, especially since there was no visible cage.

And Leila's favorite - sheep! I know it looks more like a goat, but the sign said that it was a type of sheep.

And after a lot of stroller riding, it was time to walk a bit with Dada.

Race for the Cure 2010

This year almost my whole family participated in the Race for the Cure to support mom. She has come so far in the last year and we are so proud of her.

She commented that she was glad to be walking with us and not have us walking in memory of her. I could not agree more. Praise the Lord for healing.

Leila came along for the ride and did great in spite of missing her morning nap.

She and Papa even held hands for a while.

Jer was our only runner - and he set a new personal record of 23:13 for the 5k. Great job Jer!

This and That

This is Leila's blanket...we usually don't let her have it outside of her crib, but on days when molars are coming in, we sometimes make exceptions.

She just loves to suck on this blanket, it is rather odd I think, but she loves it. I have a hard time getting it into the wash and back to her before she needs to sleep again.

Here dada is reading Leila her bedtime books.

We have Leila's cousin Paige over today again, she loves to give her hugs and pat her on the head, although we discourage the patting, since she does not yet have a good sense of what "gentle" means.

Labor Day Truck Parade

After breakfast we went downtown for the truck parade

with Grandma, Grandpa,

Nana, and Papa.

The first truck was a Herman Miller. They all blasted their horns.

It was loud, but Leila refused to keep these on.

Jimmy Cracked Corn

Leila decided that corn is better when you eat it on the cob.

Yep, that's right.

I love this look! She is ready for more!

She ate that entire ear of corn!

A Day at the Park

I can't believe how old she is getting. She liked going on the jungle gym!

She absolutely LOVES the slide!

Again!

Hi Mama! I am going to go down head first! She had no fear.