Forward

It was a long week.  Along with the rest of the country, we have been mourning the innocent children and staff that lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  I am not sure if it is our experiences that we have lived and worked or that we have young children, but it was a bit too easy for Ryan and I to relate to this situation.  We hope for peace and healing for the community of Newtown. 

Thankfully, we have had the Christmas season to enjoy with Layla and Grady.  December has been packed full of  family gatherings, Christmas trains, baking and performances. 

All Aboard!  Our first train ride of the season with Todd, Lisa and Quinn.

Layla was pumped to get her requests into Santa!

Layla and her school sing at preschool.  I am not sure if there is anything cuter. 

I love a room full of preschoolers.

Layla picked a drive by our old house and the yogurt place after the preschool sing.  She was pumped that night and really had Grady (and herself) giggling.

A good night!  And Layla ate ALL of that yogurt.

A mall train ride with Grady, Layla and Shea.  Grady actually sat for the entire ride!

Layla had a dance recital last weekend.  It was really fun and she had a big crowd in the audience.  Thank you to Grandma Barb, Papa Pete, Shea, Grandma Cathy, Joan and of course Ryan for watching Layla in the audience.  I got to help backstage and actually enjoyed the experience this time around!  This recital felt much less like Toddlers and Tiaras than last year :)  A special thanks to Cassie for babysitting Grady and Liam during the show!  

Layla loved this nutcracker in the lobby.

I love this picture of Grandma Barb, Layla and Joan after the show.

After the show, we went for a Christmas train ride and visit with Santa. 

What a fun day and night! 

More pictures to eventually come from our holiday season :)  Merry Christmas everyone!

Grady- 18 Months

 

 

 

 

 



Happy Hanukkah

Layla loves a celebration.  Layla is in full Christmas mode, but she has been very interested in Hanukkah.  She has a book that talks all about Hanukkah and Layla's preschool teacher talked about it a little this week too.  So today we celebrated Hanukkah!  Layla sweet talked me into buying a menorah last year during the Christmas clearance sale.  She was thrilled when she found the menorah and candles in the Christmas bins this year. So we read a little more about the holiday, lit our first candle and played the dreidel game.

I later learned that you add a candle a day, not to put all the candles on at once.  Layla and I will have to fix it tomorrow!

 

The big dreidel winner!

 I have a feeling for the next 7 days, we will be singing quite a few renditions of: 

"Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay.  When it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play!" 

No matter what you celebrate, we hope you are having a happy holiday season!

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Or maybe not.  The weather has been warm.  I am hoping (am I really typing this?) for the cooler weather to come.  Yesterday was 70.  It is just crazy to be in December and to be coat-less. 

 

But our house is starting to get decked out for the season.  Layla has been pumped to make a gingerbread house again this year.  I think it is her second favorite activity of the year.  I am pretty sure number one would be egg dyeing.  Anyway, tonight was gingerbread night!

 

Pumped for the building to begin.

Grady and Layla helping with the gingerbread house.  Grady can climb on this table in about ten seconds, but this time we did put him on the table to help. 

 

First we tried to distract him with Jello :)

 

And Layla and Grady with the finished product.  They are a very silly pair!

 

And just for fun, here is a picture of Layla and Grady in the game area at the store after grocery shopping this week.  They just run from item to item.  I don't even need to put in a quarter.  They are just happy to be done with a grocery run...me too!

 

Thankful

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year.  Ryan and I wanted to host our first holiday this year in our new house.  Our plan was that we could celebrate Thanksgiving with both families and it would motivate us to get house projects in motion. 

 

 

Layla and Shea on Thanksgiving.  They love spending time together. 

(Thank you to Cass for most of the pictures in this post!)

 

House projects...

 

I have a really hard time picking out paint colors.  At our first house, our office/playroom/Layla's room was five different colors while we lived there for seven years.  It was four different colors in the first week :)  So this time Ryan and I decided to do paint samples to avoid painting a whole room the wrong color.  A LOT of paint samples later, we finally decided on a color.  The color we picked is not even below! 

 

 

 

The color and our new chalkboard (peg board without the holes and trim)!  Thank you, Meg, for the chalkboard paint.  I love that we were able to do a big project with the paint you gave me when you moved!  Howie is pretty cute in this picture too!

 

 

Anyway, after a week and half of house projects and painting after the kids would go to bed....Thanksgiving was here!

Layla was PUMPED.

The turkey shuffle with an over juiced turkey!

My little helper!

 

Cooking my first turkey dinner was a bit chaotic but ended up fine thanks to help from Cathy, my mom and sister.  Thank you to Frank and family and Danny and family for bringing food too!  Anyway, I had a whole schedule ready to keep me organized for the day.  Well, the last two hours were a blur and we ate an hour late...but all tasted fine (minus the chunky potatoes...more milk next time!).



 

 

 

Loving the high heels from the dress up bin!

Playing ball

Layla and Shea and the wishbone

 

 

A few pictures from the day.  It was so nice to have Ryan's parents, Corrine, Kelsey, my family, my Uncle Dan's family and Uncle Frank's family with us for Thanksgiving!   As Layla said a couple days after Thanksgiving, "Wasn't Thanksgiving a hit this year?" :) 

 

And then after a bunch of Black Friday shopping and A LOT of sleep, we rolled right into Christmas.  I hope you all had a nice holiday weekend! 

 

 

 



Have a very...

 

 

Grady @ 17 months

Grady is 17 months.   If you see him, he would remind you of a ping pong ball :)
 

Climbing

He bounces from activity to activity. person to person. book display to book display at stores and libraries (gulp). and climbing opportunity to climbing opportunity.

Grady loves:
pointing out birds in the sky.
finding bugs and proudly bringing them to you (lots of box elder bugs!).
tomatoes.
brushing his teeth.
multiple baths a day.
pointing out planes.
fresh mozzarella cheese.
saying "hi."
climbing chairs. couches, etc.
dipping food.
running free.
coloring (unfortunately, not limited to paper!).
music & playing instruments.
suckers.
having his shoes on.
being chased.
touch and feel books.
anything Layla is interested in.
drinking out of a straw.


He could do without:

sitting backwards in the car seat still (It is the somewhat new recommendation to stay backwards until 2.  We may be switching before that!).
grocery shopping (He would like to try all of the food going into the cart).
being left inside when anyone is outside.

My birdwatchers

Layla making Grady laugh during lunch

They like to brush their own teeth after we get done giving their teeth a good scrub!

 Happy 17 months, Grady!