Lyla's Birthday

The following, is what we did on Lyla's actually birthday. (Oct. 13th). A post of her party will come next!

Lyla's Aunt Mary always seems to plan the mailing of her gifts perfectly! Every year they come right on her birthday! This is a doll from the movie Tangled. This is her first "barbie", but she just calls her "baby". Lyla is actually very good about taking care of the dolls long hair too. If it starts too get to tangled (no pun intended) she will bring it to me to fix it. Love this smile she posed for us! :)

Another good smile! Lyla REALLY enjoys painting and markers. Crayons are not her preference anymore. She likes to use paintbrushes when ever she can. Thankfully we now have three of these coloring books that came with watercolors and a brush!

One of the outfits from Aunt Mary and Momma Dot! Casey and I are always happy to see new clothes in the present she sends!

Aunt Jo Jo, (my sister) was the giver of this exciting gift! Lyla's eyes got very big when she saw her very own tiny cake. Jordan also gave her a "baby lion" (Nala from the Lion King), and a little tent that had the baby lions on it. She played house for a while, putting her baby down for a nap, hiding, etc. And asking to eat her cake about every 15 minutes! Haha. We all ate it together that evening after supper. We just let her dig in, similar to her first birthday.

We also went to eat lunch with her at Learning Land. It was neat to see how they do things and how they handle the children if they are not eating their lunches. And it was also neat to see what the other parents packed for lunches. We sang to Lyla, she seemed a tad shy when we did. Her teacher Mrs. Lisa said when the class sang "Happy Birthday" to her she was very embarrassed. She has never been the center of attention with so many little ones her age before. Mrs. Lisa was slightly shocked saying "Lyla is NEVER like that!". I made mini-cupcakes to share with her class. Lyla was very excited to share them first thing when we walked in the door! She sat down and started opening the container talking non-stop about the treat she brought for everyone. So cute. :)

Random Photos

We have been working with Lyla on her letters and tracing them/ drawing them. Learning Land has also been working on letters in her class. Depending on the day she will draw a few fairly well by herself, like A, O, C, H, L, and some other easy ones.  This day we were tracing though. :)

Since the weather has been so lovely, we have been going to the park pretty often after I get off work. Her expressions when sliding down are of pure joy! This slide is pretty steep (made for 5-12 years-olds) so Lyla really likes it.

This was Lyla's last haircut a couple of weeks ago. She did SOOO well. The lady told her to close her eyes. She did so and didn't open them until she said to. She sat perfectly still which normally is something we don't even expect from her. Our usual hairdresser is used to cutting Lyla's hair while she is in constant motion or talking the whole time. haha  Had to get a picture of her scrunched face. :)

This was one afternoon after work that Lyla was in a good dolling up mood and let me fix her hair! She even liked the end result!

Oh, how Lyla LOVES her cousins. She talks about them and asks where they are just about everyday. This is when Zuriel came down to spend the night with Mimi and Papa. As you can see Lyla was thrilled. And Zuriel is just like his daddy, not to fond of pictures. ;)

Johnstons Pumpkin Patch with the Ingmires!

Last Saturday we last minute planned a pumpkin patch adventure with Steven, Lindsey, and Liv Ingmire. None of us had ever been to a patch before, so we were all VERY excited ( I think Lindsey and I were the most excited). We all piled into their car packed with sandwiches for lunch and snacks and off we went!
Lyla had never really met or played with Liv (they are in different classes at church), so the night before I got on Facebook to show Lyla some pictures of her new friend! She was very excited and woke up the next morning talking about getting to see Liv. Here are some pictures of the event. :)

This is before we left. We thought it was going to be a bit on the cool side (low 70's with wind) so we let Lyla wear one of her new jackets. However, It was not cool at all. Rather warm actually. So we shed the cute jacket right away. Anyway, Here are some cute "poses" from Lyla with her new outfit. The one on the right was all her! I think she was tired of me taking pictures and she just flashed a half-smile at me. haha

This was the decoration at the entrance. They had so many opportunities for pictures! You will see what I mean as you scroll down. :)

 Lyla and Liv held hands constantly for the first 15 minutes. They were bonding :)

 Lyla picked this up and brought it to me. It weighed about 8 or 9 pounds! This is her "this is heavy mom!" face.

 All the pumpkins were pre-picked, and there were some piles of pumpkins that Lyla and Liv climbed on.

 SUNFLOWERS! It didn't look like their field turned out as well as hoped (only half the field grew and bloomed), but it was still beautiful. Lyla ran into the field and played a little hide and seek for a couple minutes.

 I do not remember what Lyla is pointing at, but she was getting pretty hot about this time and wasn't smiling for pictures too often. Still thought this was a good one of her and Casey.

Walking across a bridge over a dried up creek.

 Sandi, you and Tim would be proud! They had a petting zoo and Lyla was not afraid of anything. She wanted to hold or touch every animal we were allowed to. She also did very well with these babies. She was very gentle and sweet.

 A view of the pumpkin patch. They put ALOT of work into this event. Like I said earlier, all the pumpkins were pre-picked. Then they placed them around some smaller plants to give the kids a feel of picking the pumpkins from an actual field.

 They also had quite a few scarecrows. This one had a basket with strawberries (plastic) in it. The girls enjoyed looking at it.

 Here is a display of The Wizard of Oz characters as scarecrows and yes, even a little yellow brick road.

 Lyla is exactly three feet tall! This was neat to have to document her height right before her third birthday. :)

 Pretty bright orange and dark green pumpkins.

Ring toss game.

 This was a little building called "Pumpkin Elementary" I think. All inside it was painted with chalkboard paint for the kids to color on! What a great idea! The girls played in there for while.

Lindsey and Steven poking through the window.

These were some really neat pumpkins. Luminsomething or other and Cinderella pumpkins.

Riding in a wagon to the Hayride!!

Cute family photo + Lyla. Liv was very tired and hungry by this point. We were leaving after the hayride.

This was really cute! Lyla was excited to see the tractor and trailer!!! She was too short to look over the top with out one of us holding her, so she did some problem solving and found her own way!

Family Photo!!!



Pictures

Here are a few pictures (from my phone) of Lyla's adventures the past few months. Sorry for the grainy quality.

 We went to the art walk downtown a few weeks ago. Saw lots of pretty art and crafts and some very soothing music! It was at the depot so we found a toy train that Lyla enjoyed playing with for a while. I will upload more pictures of that event soon!

 This was at Petit Jean State Park. We met up here to eat lunch with Mimi and Papa one Saturday. Of course the scenery was beautiful and Lyla had a fun time at the playground.



Another picture at the playground. She had just come down the slide in this one.

This was much earlier this year, but still a cute picture!

One day before school (Learning Land) Lyla posed for a quick picture with her absolute favorite shoes on.



 Exploring our land one day in the early summer and dreaming about what is to come. :)

The joy of a empty cardboard box never ceases to amaze me.  

Lyla found a pretty wildflower at our land on Crow mountain.  

One evening we went to Pile High Desserts with the college group. Lyla was pretending to talk on the phone and making all the appropriate faces of surprise and intrigue. Could not resist a quick phone pic!