Happy Easter 2011

What a wonderful Easter Sunday!

The day started with a visit from the Easter Bunny, who brought a long awaited (by Mommy anyway) table and chairs for Lyla. Her first word when we came down the stairs this morning was “Goby” (Lyla for Broby, her favorite Yo Gabba Gabba character) when she saw the book on her new table.

Lyla loves her new chairs. She refused to get down when she got to sit in the chair, and it took her all of an hour to figure out how to climb on the chairs and table unassisted.

After a nice nap, Lyla got to go to Nan & Nonnie’s for Easter Sunday with her cousins. It was a great day – she had so much fun with Isa and Blaire. Here she is with Isa in Nan’s tent she set up in the living room for the girls:

Sweet Isabella:

And, playing with Blaire was another highlight of her day. They looked at books together, although Lyla wasn’t as willing to share as this picture probably indicates:

Lyla enjoyed playing with Isa’s sunglasses:

Her most favorite activity of the day was going outside with Daddy. In fact, she refused to eat her Easter dinner, instead demanding to go “..side” . She loves playing in the waterfall out back:

With the turtle:

The girls enjoyed an indoor Easter egg hunt:

Lyla was particularly fond of an apple sauce “drink” from Aunt Beccs and Uncle Kip. She loved it so much, in fact, that she tried to pirate the other girls’ drinks as well.

We’re all so very blessed. Happy Easter.

Foundation!

Our House is moving along – they’ve laid the foundation and we’re starting to be able to discern where the rooms will be. Today, we went and visited with Lyla – she loves going to “The House” and usually has a breakdown when we get in the car to leave. Here she is with Daddy in front of the house:

Here’s the house from the front:

Here are Lyla walking around in what will become our finished basement:

Daddy has introduced Lyla to her most favorite thing to do when we visit The House – throwing rocks into mud puddles over the concrete wall. She could do it for hours and be completely happy:

Here Lance is getting ready to take a walk in his new backyard:

We love visiting our new neighborhood – today, we were happy to meet our next door neighbors, Jennifer, Lucas & Laura. The kids had a great time with Lyla, and she loves their “doggie” Rosie, who is more her size than our current neighbors’ dogs.

We’re Building!

Our family made a major decision this week, one that we’ve lamented over, prayed about, discussed and researched: we’re building a house. This was a huge deliberation for Lance & I, but we’re convinced we’ve found just the right neighborhood and community for our family. We’re excited to get started on the project, which should be completed mid-September.

We decided to take Lyla to our lot to check it out before anything is done there – we think we’ll all love looking back on these photos. She loved being there and cried when we put her back in the car.

Another sign. We’ve made just the right decision together.

Here are some pics of our beautiful girl:

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

I’m feeling tremendously blessed today in so very many ways.

A Visit from Leah & Aunt Donna

Lyla really enjoyed a visit from Auntie Donna and Leah today. It was so much fun hanging out with them both. Lyla tried on shoes and got to play airplane with beloved Leah for the first time in months. Gosh, we miss her!

Hanging out with Rand

We had dinner at the Girls’ tonight, and Lyla enjoyed time with one of her favorite playmates, “And”.

It is one of life’s most wonderful pleasures to watch them play together. They really enjoy spending time with each other:

Past Times

Lyla is a bundle of sweet personality these days, and she’s really exploring her environment at ever turn. Here are some of her most favorite things to do these days:

Looking at the “babies” across the street – she loves watching the kids from the preschool next door come out to play. She runs to to the door and watches them longingly. I am sometimes a little sad about how quickly she will become one of them:

Putting on “clothes of any kind” – whether it’s a shoe, purse or Mommy & Daddy’s underwear from the laundry basket, she LOVES trying to dress herself.

Here she is sporting a pair of Mommy’s panties:

Aunt Donna’s shoes:

Daddy’s boxers:

A purse:

And, Mommy’s panties again:

By the way, in case you’re wondering, all of the clothes depicted in this post are CLEAN!! Ha!