Chuck E. Pics

Here are a couple of pics from Chuck E. Cheese that Joe's co-worker had taken. I know that Layla doesn't look like she's having a good time in these pics, but she really was, I swear!

What About Chuck?

Layla went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time today! We were invited to the second birthday party of the daughter of a guy that Joe works with. Layla loved it! I'm so mad that I didn't bring my camera along! She clapped excitedly and flailed her arms and squealed with delight as Chuck sang happy birthday (actually he just danced while his fellow employees sang). Seeing a large character walking around was good practice for Disney, I thought. Hopefully that means she won't be scared of a giant Minnie:-). Actually, so far she doesn't seem to be afraid of too much--she doesn't show much fear in anything she does--that could be trouble in the future! She did spill an entire glass of water on herself while we were there (I left it too close to where she could grab--oops!), but thankfully I had back up clothes! She wasn't fazed at all by the ice water soaking her clothes she was having to much fun!

Since I didn't get a pic of them together, just use your imagination to picture Layla right there next to him:-).


Had it been this Chucky, I think she would have been scared:-). Remember him??

Such a Big Girl

I like helping Mom with laundry!

So does my brother Elvis...

I try to be just like my cousin Gavin...

I like helping Gavin fix the ark even though he doesn't always want my help...(yes, this is how messy my floor is when Gavin is over)

Ok, I am not such a big girl here...big girls don't try to eat others' hands.

I LOVE eating...especially things I can feed to myself. I even grabbed a lemon off the table at On the Border the other day and liked it...for about a minute, then it made my whole body twinge!! I am pretty much a human garbage disposal--whatever you stick in my mouth (aside from broccoli--but then Mom hides it in my bread and I eat it), I'll eat. Even after my morning bottle, some yogurt and some oatmeal, I sometimes still have room for an entire pancake! If this keeps up, I'm sure I'll make it on the growth charts at my 1 year appointment!!

4 Years!!

It is Joe and my four year anniversary today! In some ways it seems hard to believe that it's been four years already, but in other ways I can't believe we've only been married four years! I can't imagine my life now without Joe. He is an amazing husband and a great dad. I have loved getting to know him better and better over the past nine years and I love him more and more every day. We've been through so much in the past nine years together and it's crazy to think how much more our lives will change as we grow old together. I hope we have many more happy and healthy years ahead!

Guns N Roses

It's been so great to be able to spend some time outdoors over the weekend! Saturday night after Layla went to bed we practiced some target shooting in our backyard.

This is where Elv spent most of his time as he doesn't like guns--even if you're not shooting them, he knows what they are and starts shaking.

We took Layla for her first walk of the year yesterday afternoon. She loved being able to sit like a big girl in her stroller (not in her carseat like she normally is).

I took her and Elv for a walk today too and it was even nicer out!! I think she couldn't see half the walk because her sun hat kept falling over her eyes, but she didn't seem to mind--she would just get really excited when I would move it up so that she could see:-). She still likes sticking her tongue out at times. She's going to have to learn to keep her tongue in her mouth during walks or she's going to swallow a fly during one of our walks!

Ok, so I realize that wasn't exactly about guns and roses...but it was about guns and the outdoors and roses grow outdoors:-). Oh, I know, this fits better with the title...

These were part of my b-day gift from Joe last week:-). He is normally not a flower guy and that's fine with me b/c I think flowers are a waste of money, so it was sweet that he came home with these last week.

9 Month Pics

Layla had her 9 month pics on Saturday at Tracy's. I think Layla just doesn't like photo shoots. I guess she probably won't ever be a model:-). She hasn't been real happy for any of her pictures, but as long as there are a couple good ones that's all I really care about. To see a sampling of her pics visit http://tracyvdmphotography.wordpress.com/. Tracy always does a great job despite Layla's moodiness!!

Little Dutch Girl

Last week Em and I waited in line at the Dutch Costume sale at the Civic Center to get a costume for Layla to wear at this year's Tulip Time. We were the third group in line so we had our pick of costumes for Layla (and for Gavin for next year). I would imagine that people further in line didn't get one if they were looking for a baby girl costume as there were only maybe 5-7 of them there. Well, I showed Joe's mom the cute little costume and she told me that she thought she still had one from Joe's sister. So now we have two! She's going to wear Joe's sister's old costume this year, but wanted to try them both on since they're both so cute!!!

I clap b/c I'm so excited to dress up in my Dutch Costume!!

Poor little Dutch girl:-(...

I want the camera!!

This is the one we bought at the sale...

I had thought that Layla would be able to wear some of the costumes that I wore growing up once she gets older, but unfortunately we can't find them:-(. Em looked at my dad's house the other day and they are nowhere to be found. My mom was ultra organized, so I don't think we're overlooking them in the house. I don't think my mom would have gotten rid of them, but she may have loaned them out to some people or something. There are three of them that I can think of that are missing:-(. It is times like this that I really wish I could ask my mom where they went!!

Little Drummer Girl

Parents' Weekend/Man Olympics

This past weekend we all headed to Brad's parents' cottage for a weekend away WITHOUT kids!!! The girls had a good time relaxing and the boys had Winter Man Olympic Games. We all got there Friday night, except Jamie and Curt--they drove up Saturday morning.

One of the games that the guys participated in was a Mad Gab competition.
Another game was blindfolded beer tasting. They had to guess which beer they were tasting. A couple of us girls decided to play too (just for fun of course--we weren't allowed to participate) and I'm happy to say that I tied with Joe--4/6 correct.

Another game was a Wii sports challenge. They played a variety of sports and at the end it told them their age based on their fitness/athletic ability. Joe came in last with an age of 64:-(.

They also played lawn darts and shot pallet guns. Joe won both of those games which made up for not doing so well in the other games. In the end it was a 3-way tie between Joe, Brad and Darrell. The girls then decided on a tie breaker game of "Newlyweds". Joe and Darrell both got all the questions correct but then Joe ended up winning after a couple more bonus questions. Guess he does know me pretty well! :-)

This wasn't a game, just the boys playing on the ice. Boys will be boys:-). Joe said it was really thick, but I think he may have just said that to make me feel better:-).

We ate lunch in Saturday and went out Saturday morning and night. We ate at some local greasy spoons. Breakfast was good, however dinner was, well, there was just a lot of fried food! Let's just say that I don't know why Jamie and I felt the need to "get ready" to go out.

Group guy pic (Curt, Jim, Darrell, Brad, Joe)...

Closing ceremonies--yes that's their "trophy" Joe is holding (unfortunately Jim and Julie had left already so Jim missed this final pic).

Jill and me...

Jill and Jamie

The girls had quite a bit of time to relax and watch movies. It was great! That was exactly what we wanted to do! One of the movies we watched was "The Jane Austin Book Club". We decided that since we don't have time to read books that we should just start a Movie/T.V. Club. Pretty much half of our conversation is about t.v. and movies anyway (when we aren't talking about lactating and blow out diapers:-D).

This girl pic was from Friday night so Jamie and Curt weren't there yet. (me, Jill, Julie and Lindsey). My head is tilted up weird...I swear Joe took another one, but apparently not.


And one more group photo, unfortunately missing Julie this time!

Gavin Update

Since Gavin's mommy never updates his blog, I thought I would. He got his hair cut pretty short a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't his first hair cut, but it definitely was shorter than he's ever gone. I think Em was afraid to go too short before, but it grows so fast and Gavin doesn't exactly love getting his hair cut, so she decided to go pretty much as short as possible!

Here's his hair at Christmas. Not a great pic, but you get the point. This might be before any cuts...I'm not really sure as I don't remember when his first one was.
\
After...

It's not even long enough to spike...

Gavin's been doing well. Him and Layla have fun playing together. He loves helping her by giving her her pipe when she cries and handing her toys...and of course sometimes stealing her toys and hitting her on the head with them. He also loves saying, 'Hi Lala' and is teaching her to wave (he's the only one she waves at). It's pretty cute:-).

9 Month Stats

Layla had her 9 month appointment today and her doctor said she's doing well. She needs to work on learning to crawl and pull herself up on things, but that will come with time I'm sure. She's not meeting many of the 9 month milestones, but they do take into consideration that her adjusted age is 7 months. Over time, as she approaches age 2 she should catch up more with a full term baby her age.

Here are her stats (based on a full term 9 month old):
Height: 27" (25%)
Weight: 14 lbs 13 oz (less than 3%--really close to being on the charts)
Head Circ: 44.1 cm (50%)

Since I compared my 6 month stats with her 8 month, I'll do it again:-). They're pretty close again. At 7 months I was 14 lbs 7 oz and 26.25".

Found

I had thought that I had lost one of Layla's bottles in Michigan City a few weeks ago. Well, Em found it in her lawn this weekend...after it had apparently gone through the snow blower:-(.

9 Months Old!

Our little lovie was 9 months old yesterday!! I can't believe that in only 3 months she'll be a year!! She has been a bit impatient lately as she wants everything that's not within reach and things that are within reach she throws away from her so that she can no longer reach them. Then she gets mad that she can't grab them. She tries to pull herself towards things when she's on her belly but can't do it so she gets tired and mad. Of course she is happy some of the time though:-). Some of her favorite things to do are "dance" (sitting of course) to music, bang on things using her little plastic stacker cups, open and close her "oven" door and take toys out of it, and watch her brother Elvis and any other kids. She loves standing against things, but doesn't do it very well on her own. She took a big face plant boom the other day when Joe turned his head for just a second. She was not so happy about that! She also still loves her paci and anything else she can put in her mouth. She hasn't gotten any teethers yet. Just recently she started bouncing back and forth in her high chair so that the whole thing shakes--she thinks it's a pretty fun game, but it can make getting food into her mouth challenging! She loves seeing her daddy when he comes home at night (even though he's only home about an hour or less before her bedtime) and loves to give him big hugs! She really is a good little girl and such a blessing! It is has been so fun watching her grow and develop over the past 9 months! 1 month 3 months 6 months

9 months

I was thinking today how she is about growing out of the jeans she is wearing today...

it's about time!!! Here she is wearing them on Labor Day!! Lucky for her she has these cute little Walmart jeans in the next 2 sizes too...so at this rate she could be wearing these same jeans for the next year! :-) At least we'll get our money's worth!

I was looking at my baby book today and saw that at 6 months I was 13 lbs 12 oz and 25.75"--last month (Layla's adjusted age of 6 months) she was 13 lbs 11 oz and 25.25". Uh-oh, she's shorter than I was! Hope she doesn't end up being any shorter than me! :-) We go in for her 9 month appointment next week so I'll get her current stats then.

Belly roll (and fluffy post bath hair)!!

Double chin!!

I still sometimes like my fingers...

Turning 9 months is hard work...yawn...

She LOVES finger foods. I break up her food for her but she grabs it and shoves it in her mouth so fast that breaking it into little pieces probably doesn't do a lot of good!

If I scratch the back of my high chair with my nails is makes a funny sound!! So fun!!