Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas

...and Happy Birthday Jesus. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas...Lyla and I did. Though we are looking forward to seeing Daddy soon. :)
Enjoy the pics and vids.

We went to "Winterhaven" in Tucson--a big neighborhood collaborates and puts up millions of Christmas lights.

One house had a "snow maker"--it was actually soap suds, but looked pretty cool!


Lyla loves her Sophie :)


Lyla's crawling has really been improving lately!


Christmas splendor at my parents' house

Charis & Sophie sang at the Christmas Eve service


The cuzzies in their Christmas dresses on Christmas Eve

Sophie always takes time to play with and love on Lyla--so precious.

Quite a crew on Christmas Eve, and a place was set for Jesus too--with the special birthday plate :) (below)



The girls had to sing for us before they could open presents--it's tradition!


Naomi Rose--getting so big!





Lyla loved crawling around by the presents






She was so excited :)




Our favorite gift under the tree

She fell asleep in Great Aunt Joanne's arms

Two cuties in their new Christmas jammies



Linc, Abby, and the girls got a Wii for Christmas--Charis was so happy that she started crying--it was priceless :)

Lyla sliding under the furniture on Christmas Day

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Winter Beauty

Winter can be SO beautiful-we're lovin it! :)


Snowflakes were falling slowly and glistening in the sunshine.

And here's the cutie in one of her new birthday outfits from Mark, Karn & Nelson :)

Friday, December 3, 2010

Happy December

Reading her morning paper :)

Helping Grandma & Grandpa decorate the tree


Grandpa's belly slide!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Two Amazing Years

By the grace of God alone, our sweet little miracle, Lyla Jane, turned two. We give God all the credit for the amazing things that are happening in Lyla's life. So many have prayed for her and continue to do so...those prayers are being heard, and that is why she is doing so incredibly well.
These are a few of the accomplishments she's made in her second year:
  • She can crawl! She likes to rock on all fours best though. :)
  • She is walking independently with her walker, as you will see in the videos.
  • She can cruise along furniture (very slowly and tenuously) and even lets go with her hands occasionally-she's getting braver and experimenting new things.
  • Her sweet personality is really developing-she is pretty interactive and loves to give big, toothy grins, and she loves being tickled (especially by Daddy's whiskers) and giggling.
  • She can transition from four-point to sitting and vice versa.
  • She is starting to feed herself different things like crackers, cheese sticks, cookies, etc.
  • She had her 2-year check-up today and she weighed in at 22 lbs 11 oz, and she's 32.5 inches tall! Of course her doctor was impressed with her growth and development-she is just getting so much stronger. :)
  • She loves looking at books and toys that flash and make noise.
  • She knows how to press buttons and she's starting to figure out how to play peek-a-boo and starting to identify things on Mom's face, like nose, eyes, ears.
  • As far as speech, she still just babbles and says mama and dada and several other consonant sounds mixed with vowels. She loves to make lots of silly sounds like Dad does-she can imitate him pretty well. :)
  • We are going to be starting speech therapy, as well as continue with physical therapy and occupational therapy. Sounds like she'll be getting some ankle braces to help her walk pretty soon. I'm so excited about that!
She continues to be an over-all great kid who is sweet beyond belief and is just so easy-going. She is a blessing and a joy-she brings sunshine to our lives every day. Enjoy the pics & vids from her birthday...

Here's our big 2 year old!

walking all by herself :)






Lyla and her friend Nelson-he shared his semi-truck with her

Fun tissue paper

She loves the spinning light globe from Auntie Bryana and Uncle Faz-she's mesmerized

And a fun popping ball toy!

Homemade hat from Auntie Bryana's mom

Cake made by Auntie--too cute! (and yummy)

Nelson enjoyed the cake too :)

Playing with some of her new toys-such fun!

Princess buggy from Grandma & Papa

Lovin her new toys :)


"Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Thank you Lord for taking care of our hearts in every way imaginable, and for taking care of Lyla in ways that we aren't even aware of. We give You all the credit and praise for doing a miracle in her life.