Holiday Weekend

We enjoyed a nice long holiday weekend! Friday night we didn't do much. I actually can't even remember what we did, so it must not have been too exciting:-). Oh, that's right, we picked up Boston Market and went and ate at a park with both kids (Elv and Layla of course). Saturday morning we headed to Hutchin's Lake for brunch with Joe's family.

Layla and her buddy Camryn playing (and often trying to escape) on the deck...

Layla and Uncle Steve playing together...

Little Miss Independent...that shirt sure does desribe her:-)...

Layla and Mommy...

She loves her monkeys from her barrel of monkeys...

On her first boat...no, not her first boat ride (they didn't go anywhere)...just hanging out on their boat...

Exploring the boat with Joe's cousin, Tim...

Practicing driving the boat for when she does get to go on her first boat ride...

Layla loves climbing on everything these days and she has no fear of falling which is trouble! She's only in a onesie since it was between parties and she didn't want to dirty her fourth outfit:-)

At night we went to Joyce's for swimming and supper and smores. This is the best pic I have of Layla and Gavin together:-).

Gigi and Layla...

Mike, Em and Gavin...

Us...

Joe had off for the fourth on Monday, so we just enjoyed a nice day working around the house and such. Elv and Layla enjoyed watching Daddy work outside...

Later in the afternoon we headed out to GR to look at a trailer that Em and Mike had found. We've been looking for the past month or so. After that we headed for dinner at Sonic (we had never been before!) and then to Menards to get some stuff that Joe needed for the basement. It was approaching Layla's bedtime by then (8pm) so Layla was getting a little testy in Menards. I was pushing her around in the cart while Joe found what he needed. We found a big bin of bouncy balls which she was very excited about. I gave her one to play with and she liked that for a second then pointed to the rest like she wanted all of them ("ba, ba" as she calls them). I then let her keep the one she had in the cart (she needs one for outside anyway--I don't always give in and buy her what she wants:D), she threw a total tantrum when we left the balls. She's been doing this at home with certain things too. At home, she screams, arches her back and throws her head backward into the floor. She has started doing that sometimes during diaper changes and while getting dressed and she's started hating baths all of a sudden. I guess she's just stating her independence:-). She likes to do things on her time:-).

Today Gavin is over and the kids are enjoying watching Michael Jackson's funeral. Okay, so they're not really enjoying it, but look back someday they can now know that they did watch it:-).

This is a lot harder to push with Gavin in it...

If Gavin can get in it, I must be able to too!

This works better to have Gavin push me!

Now if only we could both fit...

Like I said earlier, the girl has no fear of falling...

It's cute, if one of them lays down, the other often lays next to them...

Doctor

Well, I ended up taking Layla to the doctor this afternoon and it turns out she has an ear infection. So that's probably linked to the eye troubles she's been having. They put her on an antibiotic so hopefully that will take care of the eyes and the ear and we thankfully can stop the drops (I say thankfully b/c they're so difficult to get in her eyes--she does NOT like them)! Hopefully now she'll be a happy girl with regular looking eyes for the holiday weekend! Oh, and she's supposed to be working on gaining weight, but she lost weight since her appointment a month ago! She was 16 lbs 2 oz today (she was 16 lbs 5 oz a month ago). Hopefully she gains some weight before her weight check appointment in a month!

Poor Layla

Not only has Layla's eye infection now spread to both eyes, but she's also come down with a little cold. And I think I caught the same bug:-(. Normally she wakes up just before 8, but it is quarter to 9 and she is still sleeping. I heard her wake up many times in the night and this morning she's been whining about every 10 minutes, but then just goes back to sleep. Just in the past couple of weeks she discovered that sleeping on her tummy is comfy. It only took her a year to figure that out! She's always HATED her tummy, so I think that her figuring out that it's comfy to sleep on her tummy has also helped her sleep a little longer too. I'm glad she finally figured it out! Hopefully her eyes look better today or I'll probably call the dr. again. She looked pretty miserable yesterday with two swollen pink squinty eyes--she didn't even look like herself without her big eyes! :-( She also finally has another tooth coming in on the top (her 4th tooth) so I think that's helped her to be in a better mood lately--I think she's been working on that one for awhile!

Swimming, Soup and Layla's Eye

Saturday Layla, Elv and I hung out at Em and Mike's all day while Joe worked with his dad and brother on the electrical work in our basement. We still have a long ways to go, but we're making progress. Layla enjoyed throwing all the toys out of the pool while Gavin kept busy putting them back in:-).

This is what Layla's hair looks like with sunblock in it:-)...

Fighting over the car...

Gavin enjoyed drinking from the hose...

Em was busy cleaning Gavin's new jeep outside so I went in and gave them their first bath together. It's definitely a little more challenging bathing two kids instead of just one mainly b/c Layla was tired and not happy about the bath.

Sunday night we weren't sure what we wanted for supper and Joe said he felt like tortilla soup. I found a delicious recipe and actually happened to have everything (with some modifications) in the house. I thought I'd pass it along since it was so good:-).

2 (10.5 ounce) cans condensed chicken and rice soup (I used 1 can of chicken broth b/c I apparently read it wrong:D)
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers (I think my can was 14 oz)
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce (I didn't have tomato sauce, so I used 1 can of tomato soup)
8 ounces tortilla chips (I used tortilla strips)
4 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese

I added:

1 can pinto beans (would have used black beans if I had them--I really needed to get groceries!)

chili powder (which I think is what made it super spicy)

cilantro (which I buy in a spice jar which is so handy)

corn

onion (spice)

In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, combine the soup, tomatoes and chilies and tomato sauce. Bring just to a boil and remove from heat. Place some tortilla chips in the bottom of an individual bowl and sprinkle cheese over the chips. Pour soup over the chips and cheese (or garnish with strips, cheese and sour cream as I did).

This is probably kind of gross to post right after talking about food, but Layla woke up Monday morning with an eye infection. I don't know how she got it, but the dr prescribed some drops and already today it's looking better (although I'm not sure how many drops really get in her eyes as she starts bawling the moment she sees the drops coming!). Poor little baby looked pretty miserable with her puffy red gooey eye. At least it didn't seem to bother her!

Twins??

Ok, so I realize we don't look anything like twins besides our matching outfits:-). My Grandma Buurs got me (and maybe Em wore it too??) this outfit when I was a baby. It is from some other country, but I can't remember where...Sweden maybe? Or Switzerland? And "S" country I think:-). I was 10 months in the pics and I took them abot a month ago so Layla was almost a year (so by her "adjusted" age, it's like we're the same age).

It's a little short on her:-)...


Here I am playing in my sister's old room...


Em and me...

Happy Birthday in Heaven!

Today would have been my mom's 58th birthday. Today is also the one year anniversary that marks Layla coming home from the hospital after spending 22 days there. I feel as though a year ago today I overlooked my mom's birthday with the excitement of being able to take my daughter home from the hospital. I didn't think a year ago that it would be my mom's last birthday. I wouldn't have guessed that she wouldn't have stayed on this earth long enough to see Layla turn one or to even see Layla sit up. A year ago today my mom also came home from the hospital. I can't remember how long she was in the hospital that time (a few days maybe??), but it was her first extended hospital stay that led to more hospital stays throughout the summer/fall and eventually to her final hospital stay in December.


This picture was taken the day Layla was born. Of course now I wish I had more pictures of her with Layla, but at least I have some! I remember how excited she was to have a grandaughter (since she already had a grandson). And how she suddenly loved the song "Layla" even though she had never heard it before Layla was born:-). Someone she worked with burned her the cd and she played it over and over. She truly loved Layla and although I am sad that she only got to be her grandma for 6 1/2 months, I am happy that she GOT to be her grandma for 6 1/2 months. Even through all of my mom's pain and suffering, she still always had a smile on her face when talking about Layla or Gavin. She loved being Grammy. She was an amazingly loving Grammy, mom and wife.


She been gone just over 6 months already and I still find myself from time to time thinking, oh, I have to tell Mom that. I obviously know that I can't and I realize that before the thought even fully processes. I wonder if that will go away. Probably. But I'll probably always have things that I wish I could share with my mom or things I wish I could ask her. I hope I don't lose that. I don't want to forget her. The main thing lately that reminds me of my mom is the whole Jon and Kate divorse drama as silly as that seems. She would have been so disappointed:-).

I wish I could tell her happy birthday today. But. I. Can't. Instead I will just think about what an amazing day she had today celebrating in Heaven:-).

Recent Pics

Well, we survived the rain storm over the weekend! We couldn't believe how windy and rainy it was by us. We thought our house might blow away! The worst thing that happened to us was that we lost power so that wasn't too bad! We lost power during the night Thursday night and so Joe hooked our generator up Friday morning when we realized it. They said we wouldn't get power back until late Sunday night but thankfully had it back Saturday night. We're so thankful we bought a generator--it sure comes in handy when we loose power! The worst thing for us about having to use a generator is that we didn't quite dare use the a/c--that's difficult for us--we are both really warm blooded and have had our air on since early May. But that really wasn't too bad--with all flooding problems that I know others had over the weekend, having to be a little hot wasn't too bad I guess:-).


I thought I'd post some more pics of Layla and Gavin since Gavin's mommy has pretty much retired from her blog:-).


Layla loves playing in Elv's kennel. If I haven't heard her in a bit I can often find her there. Gavin used to love playing in it too--and again does--if Layla's in there!
That fuzzy blob on in front of the kennel is Elv--he doesn't think it's very funny when they play in it:-).

Watching the neighbors across the street...

Elv had some puke episodes a few weeks ago during the night and I didn't want the kids (or me) walking/crawling through the wet spots (from cleaning it--I didn't just leave the puke there:D) so I put baskets over them to cover them up. Gavin thought it was a good drink holder--like a high top table:-).

Layla then thought it was a good place to store her book...

Gavin found Joe's old Hart and Cooley truck and little car. Both kids loved them! Unfortunately Layla loved the car a little too much and sucked the words right off the side of the car:-(.

Gavin is hoping is feet grow soon so he can fit in Uncle Joe's sandels...

His daddy would be so proud:-)...

Such loving cousins...

One second they're playing nice together...

And then the next second, they're not:-)...

Gavin is putting a spoon in her mouth here...unfortunately for Layla there wasn't anything on it...(she loves wearing her Minnie ears--she gets them and brings them to me to put them on her:D).

These ears are ridiculous, Mom...

Give me my ears back, brother!

First "ponytail" (if you can call it that!)...

I thought this was cute...this is from the other day when they were both watching Daddy mow...

Elv did not appreciate the other day when Layla disturbed him during his nap time...

He really didn't like it when she shut the door and trapped them both in!

Saturday we were able to enjoy some time outside...

She loved her new pool! Apparently she just doesn't like BIG pools--this was pretty much like a tubby so she loved it!

Elv on the other hand did not appreciate me putting him in the pool. He HATES water (baths, rain, lakes, you name it).

She still doesn't like touching her hands on grass so she doesn't crawl on it--this was how she figured out to crawl around on the grass without getting her hands dirty:-)...