Christmas with Rand

We celebrated Christmas with Rand tonight with presents and several wonderful desserts, in a new family tradition: Holiday Dessert Night. We had a great time – Lyla was thrilled with her new puzzle and school house, Rand loved his Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, and I was personally over the moon with Ari’s meringue cookies, peppermint ice cream and chocolate sauce (Lyla was pretty happy about her first taste of peppermint ice cream – I couldn’t get it in her mouth quickly enough).

It was a festive night, and we loved being able to celebrate Christmas with wonderful friends.

Here are pics:

Who needs  presents when you have a coke bottle?

Lance’s Holiday Fave: Peanut Butter Pie

Boo at the Zoo

We had a great evening at Boo at the Zoo this year. Lyla the Ladybug was amazed when we first arrived – she kept looking around, smiling in wonder at all the kids around her. We were able to collect candy with our good friends Rand, Liam and Lily. Everything about the evening was absolutely perfect, especially being with our friends. It was one of the many times this year when I’ve experienced just as much amazement as Lyla – being a mommy and daddy is so much fun!

We are already looking forward to next year.

I’m going to have a hard time choosing pics for this post, so there might be more than a few:

Lyla’s favorite way to “ride” with Daddy:

Daddy said that Lyla walked right over to this hay maze and was intent on walking all the way through. People kept asking Lance how old she is because they all say she looks too little to walk.

Lyla loves Lily:

She is soooo beautiful:

We ended the night with a ride on the haunted carousel. I think Lyla was way too tired to enjoy it.

And, no night would be complete without pics with our favorite sea otter:

Cookout with BG Friends

We had a cookout with several of our old friends from WKU tonight. Lyla particularly enjoyed hanging out with all the kids – it’s hard to believe that many of us have kids…seems like just yesterday that Lance and his roommates were perusing the local Goodwill in search of costumes for the annual St. James Halloween party – they were all beautiful women.

Amazing to think that was 14 years ago. WHAT??!!

Wish I’d snapped more pictures of everyone, but hosting a party and managing a 10 month old means very little opportunity to take pics. :)

Thanks to everyone for coming - we had a great time and can't wait to do it again! Love you guys!

Thanks Aunt Bleu!

Lyla was happy with the new outfit her Aunt Bleu (aka Aunt Crystal) brought her back from a recent trip to San Francisco. We love the hat - it's so cute! And the owls are Lyla's favorite!!