Last Christmas Party of 2008

Today we had a Christmas Party with Ryan's extended family. It was a fun day and it was a great way to end the Christmas season (sadly, I think the red bow is done for the season too). Enjoy the pictures below and yes Layla is wearing the same outfit (gasp!) as she did on Christmas Day :-)

Layla likes to eat her dress...

and her shoes too!

Santa and Layla...my best picture of the five I took.

Layla with Santa and many, many cousins. Sorry, it is not the best picture as I was contending with all of the other moms and dads!

Layla playing with Grandpa. She is really loving her grandpas these days...we're glad the scared stage is over (for now anyway!)

Remember the adorable twins, Lexie and Lizzie? They were born on the exact same date as Layla and we love to take pictures of the three cousins together. All three girls started the day with shoes on and notice in the first picture there is one shoe left on between the bunch :-) Don't worry, Layla didn't slide off Santa's lap!

After a change into more comfortable clothes, cousin Kelsey rocked Layla to sleep. The two were very sweet together.

Food, food, food

As you all know Layla has started rice cereal and Christmas Eve was to be her first day starting a veggie...sweet potatoes! Ryan and I stayed up really late the night before Christmas Eve steaming, pureeing, and freezing sweet potatoes (much easier than it sounds) so Layla could have a nice little feast on Christmas Eve. Well, the picture below describes how she felt about her first veggie. As you can tell...not a big fan! Hopefully they grow on her as we made about a month worth of sweet potato baby food for her :-)

So the sweet potatoes did not go well...but she still LOVES rice cereal!

And if the rest of the family is eating pizza, Layla fits right in with her play food pizza :-)

A Very Baby Christmas

It has been a whirlwind couple of days celebrating Christmas and Layla's first Christmas!

We started out celebrating Christmas Eve as a family of three (or six...as the animals were very much a part of the opening) then headed to Christmas Eve night with the Janisch Family and spent Christmas Day with the Sloan family enjoying Shea and Layla's big day. We had a wonderful couple of days and I frantically tried to capture every moment of this big first for Layla so enjoy the pictures below!


Layla with so many presents and she just wanted to hold onto these play food carrots

Layla and Kelsey on Christmas Eve

Ho ho ho...Merry Christmas morning!

Any gift for Layla...Shea was very interested in! :-)

With Layla's new sitting up skills, the babies were really able to play for the first time together. They were very cute and Shea even gave Layla a Christmas Day hug (and maybe a pinch and bump here and there too!)

This picture of the four of us in pajamas was taken at about 2:00 in the afternoon...Cassie and I were trying to savor every last bit of the babies first Christmas morning.

Layla is tired with her Grandma after playing with all of her new toys.

Finally ready for the day! Layla playing with new toys in her Christmas Day wardrobe


Merry Christmas everyone!

While the mom is away...

Actually, yesterday I was not away and only showering, but that gave Ryan plenty of time to concoct a whole new safe play area for Layla. With Layla's new sitting up skills, she has taken a tumble or two. Just in case we do not catch her in time, Ryan made up a nice cushion of two comforters and an exercise mat for Layla to fall into. Quite the funny sight when I came upon it and someone else besides Layla REALLY seemed to enjoy it :-)

Layla playing with her toys on the new safe zone

Who needs toys when you have a pretty dog to pet?

Layla loving that her new mat attracted Howie to her side!

Baby Visit

Today Ryan and I went to visit baby Truan and his mom and dad at the hospital. We were able to go into the NICU to visit the little guy and he was a tiny little baby with a lot of hair! Healthwise, baby Truan has made some great improvements since entering the world yesterday morning which was very nice to hear about and see. Ryan's sister, Katie, said it was fine if we posted pictures of the little guy on our blog so enjoy the pictures of our new nephew below.

Aunt & Uncle x 3

Ryan's sister Katie and her husband welcomed their son Truan this morning. After some complications for Katie and the baby, baby Truan entered the world about 6 weeks early at 4lb 1oz and 15 3/4 inches. The little guy is holding his own and Katie is feeling pretty good after her c-section.

We plan on heading to the hospital tomorrow after the weather warms up (if you call going into the teens warming up!) as we do not want to head out into the below zero temps with Layla today. We will post more then and hopefully capture a picture to share with all of you too.

Sitting Skills

Layla is continuing to grow stronger and therefore has been hitting many milestones recently. The most significant of last week was that Layla is now sitting up on her own. She went from being pretty wobbly last weekend to independent sitting last Monday.

Now she can meet Elmo eye to eye :-)

Sitting up should make bathtime easier and more fun now too! Here she is at Grandma and Grandpa Sloan's house, getting a bath with Grandma.