Another Birthday Party Weekend

Saturday we had Layla's buddy Alden's first birthday party! He was born the day after Layla's due date (on August 5) so it's weird for me to think that Layla wouldn't even been one yet if she had been born closer to her due date! Layla had a very fun time at his party and is glad that she could help celebrate his big day!

I couldn't find my camera for the before and during cupcake pics, so here is an "after":-).

It started raining a few minutes before we were going to eat, but it cleared up while we were eating so that we could still be outdoors for awhile.

It's getting more difficult to get pics of the kids together! Here are the party guests (minus their parents). From L-R, Jonathan (15 mo), Alden (12 mo), Layla (14 mo), Eli (8 1/2 mo), and Eli (Elijah--6 mo). I love how Elijah is the only one not crying in this pic--probably because he's the only one that isn't mobile!

Still not a real happy pic...at least the birthday boy isn't upset--he just didn't want to sit for the pic!

And now Alden is the only one that's not crying...

Layla enjoyed being the only girl and made sure to make the rounds getting to know all the boys. Here she is with Jonathan and Alden...

Talking to Elijah...

Here she is telling Eli that grass really isn't so bad (she used to hate it too)...

Layla wanted to be on Joe's team for bean bags...

But she doesn't exactly obey the rules of the game and gets a little too close to the hole...(at least she does get them all in:D)

The kids wanted the play bean bags SO badly but kind of got in the way...

This is out of order, but this is before the party started.

Alden and Jonathan...

Alden with his mommy and daddy...

Us with Alden...

Birthday boy with Lindsey, Darrell and Jonathan...

The Eli's had to get home, but we stayed for a bit so Layla and Jonathan went to sleep at Alden's. Here's Jonathan and Layla all ready for bed.

Whose Child is This???

About a month ago Layla started HATING bath time. She started screaming the second you put her near the water, screamed louder when she would get any bit of water splashed/poured on her head and continued screaming until she was fully out of the tub and in her towel. It was such a change because prior to that she had loved baths since she had her very first bath in the hospital. Well, tonight she is back to loving baths! Yea! Bath time can be enjoyable again! Well, hopefully--I'd hate to jinx it! :-) She also starting like in early June started hating nursery. She would cry the second I stepped into the nursery to drop her off. They would normally say she'd settle down after I left but liked being held (which tells me she was never real happy). Well, last week Sunday morning I had to be in nursery with her. She must have thought I was leaving because she clung to me and screamed for a few minutes until she realized I wasn't going anywhere. Well, then Sunday night when I went to drop her off she was fine when I left her in there and she did the same thing this morning! Crazy the phases kids go through! Hopefully this new phase with being happy in nursery continues!!

She's also been walking a lot more lately. She still falls down after maybe 8-10 steps, but it's like she gets too excited and tries to go to fast and then falls. But she's been doing it a lot more often than she was when she took her first step two weeks ago.

Enjoying her tubby time...(she found that old bottle of hers in her closet and didn't want to get rid of it--I figure if it made her happy during bath time, she could have the bottle!)

Cozy after being wrapped up by daddy...

And this isn't really related, but Elvis was in need of a hair cut VERY badly!! This was a recent pic of him with his winter coat.

And her he is after the cut! We haven't given him a mohawk in quite some time now, so we thought it was time to bring it back:-). He looks like a whole new son/dog!!

Besties

Jill watched Layla for me for a bit the other day and said the girls had fun together (hopefully Layla wasn't TOO naughty)! Instead of posting the same pics, you can just check out the pics of our beautiful little girls playing together at http://youinadifferentsituation.blogspot.com/.

Kissing Cousins

Em thinks these pics are a little gross, but I think they're cute. They're cousins, so it's okay. They just love each other (about 50% of the time that is).

Party Weekend!

Layla started off her weekend on Saturday by going to Joe's work party Saturday afternoon. It was at a park in Wyoming for lunch and games. Layla enjoyed watching Daddy play in the washers tournament--Joe and his partner even won first place!

Layla was too young to participate in the games, but at least she did get a grab bag which she enjoyed (she's been carrying around the bag as a purse and of course likes the beach ball that was in the bag)...

Saturday night was Gavin's 2nd birthday party! Gavin had a Mexican Mickey theme complete with fiesta food...

His gifts...

Layla and Elvis had fun playing at the party...

Layla now loves slides...

And constantly wants to climb up them (she doesn't get very far)...

The party...

Present time!

A Mickey book and magna doodle type thing from us...

Trying out the cup we gave him even though there wasn't anything in it. Layla was doing the same thing before I wrapped it:-).

Layla had fun playing with the Mickey grocery store check out scanner before I wrapped it too...

I turned my head for one minute to look back at Layla and right then Gavin grabbed my cup off of Layla high chair and it spilled all over him. He is probably saying "mess" in this picture as he says often:-).

We told Gavin to put his new boat in the spilled water and he listened:-)...

Layla (and Joe) were somewhat anti social and just wanted to play during present time...

Golf!

Gavin wasn't so into his new scooter...he was a little apprehensive...

Layla, however, wasn't...

Layla loved Gavin's new golf balls (we somehow even ended up with one at home--oops--sorry Gavin!)...

Birthday Boy with Gigi...

Cake time (and the only pic I have of cake time as my camera battery died)...

Layla also finally got her fourth tooth on Gavin's birthday (top left). Saturday I had tried her Mickey Crocs on and she did NOT want me to take them off. So she spent her morning in her pj's and her Crocs. Silly girl. She definitely lets you know what she wants!!

She still picks on Elvis, but is getting better at petting him nicely. Although she tends to have a short term memory and just because she's rubbing his belly nice one minute doesn't mean she won't be pulling on his snout the next minute:-).

Tuesdays with Gavin

Yesterday was Tuesday, so as usual, Gavin came over to play.

Layla thinks she can just crawl over anything and everyone (she does it to Elv too)...

I thought it was cute that they were both reading "Goodnight Moon"...

"Look, Gavin, that's a really good page."

"It's so nice that we can have such serious conversations, Layla."

"Yuck, look at that over there, Layla." "Ick, that is gross."

They were quite relaxed snuggling together after their walk...

Who knew that pillows could be so much fun!?!

This was on Monday, but I thought it was funny. She just kept throwing things out of her cart onto Elvis. Most things would bounce off, except the tuppaware cover (apparently she found that in the cupboard). Elv is so nice, he just sat there while things kept bouncing off his head:-).

Tonight Layla made it all the way across the living room walking by herself! She doesn't take steps too often as she must think that crawling is quicker, so making it 15ish steps was a long ways for her (our living room isn't very big:D). She had found these giant straws in our cupboard (I have no idea where--I didn't even recognize them??) and was walking around with them. I think she thought those gave her extra balance walking:-).