Thursday's thoughts...

Will Laela one day have a lemonade stand with her girlfriends?

I think it is so funny when I am driving into the neighborhood and see a group of girls screaming at every car that drives by. Too funny! I zoomedf around to park the car and then Laela and I went for a walk. Of course I walked her in the direction of the lemonade stand. We got there and one of the girls is yelling "Coupons! Get your coupons!" WOW! Five cents off of your purchase. We ordered a small and I felt bad taking the coupon. I gave Laela seventy-five cents and she gave it to the girls with a big smile. Laela was thrilled when she got to have a big gulp of lemonade!
Another random thought...

Will Laela love gymnastics?

No one in our family is involved in gymnastics, but today I took Laela to The Little Gym. WOW! It was fantastic and she truly seemed happy. Everyone was sooooo sweet and Laela really had a great time! We sang, jumped, counted, rolled, crawled, hung, walked on balance beams, and just had fun! Now...here is the crappy part...I was snapping pictures like crazy. With about 5 minutes left of class, I wanted to take a second to review a picture I took and the camera said "No Card." Are you kidding me? Seriously? Laela just had this wonderful, first experience and I did not get pictures. Oh man. I was so upset. Thankfully, these people are really prepared! While Laela was playing, one of the girls took this picture... It is a really cute little magnet. It was snapped just before she did her somersault. I am so thankful to have that picture! Anyway, like everything else, Laela was not sure about it at first, but once we started going...she loved it! One of the girls also took a couple of videos while Laela was exploring. Click here to see the videos.
I signed her up for more classes and I hope she continues to enjoy herself and interact with others her age. :)

Spring Break and Off to Omaha!

We try to get to Omaha at least once or twice a year to visit friends. It has been way too long, but we were glad we could finally make it! It was so much fun with Laela on the airplane, seeing old friends again, and meeting the newest edition...Finn. WOW! He is a fantastic baby! We did not take many pictures, as we just tried to visit as much as possible.

We left early Saturday morning. Laela was in a great mood. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We enjoyed a nice little McDonald's breakfast and then let Laela run up and down the terminal a few times. I knew she was about to sit for almost two hours so we wanted to work off some energy. Then she found the escalators and loved riding up and down. We made it into town and thankfully Laela fell asleep in the car, so we drove around for awhile as she napped. Afterwards, we check in to the hotel and then headed out to see our friends.
We headed over to Nick's house to visit him and his girlfriend, Leah. We love Nick! He is a great guy and Leah was super sweet. For goodness sake...she made it through all of Ro's horrible jokes and she even hung out with us the next day too! Laela was not sure about them at first, but felt more comfortable about 30 minutes later. It was great catching up on old times and just hanging out. They were off to a wedding reception so we moved on to the Hasenkamp's house. Kim, Greg, Gabby, and Finn were thrilled to see us...as we were thrilled to see them too! The girls were not quite sure of each other at first and then...next thing you know...they were like long-lost girlfriends. They were sharing toys, running around the house, and jumping on Gabby's big girl bed. Laela loved that she could get in and out whenever she wanted! (Kinda blurry, but I thought it was a cute picture!)I was excited to see some of Gabby's toys and get new ideas for Laela. One thing Laela LOVED was the vacuum cleaner. This thing looked real. It had an on/off button and it sounded just like the real thing. It did not pick up anything, but they say there is one that does. I will check into that in a bit! :)Oh! Of course my mom sent Gabby and Finn hats. Gabby wore her hat ALL weekend. She loved it and Finn's camo hat was adorable!It was so interesting seeing how Laela interacted with Gabby. It was like monkey-see, monkey-do. If Gabby had to go potty, then so did Laela. Fine by me! If we stayed a week, I think Laela would have been potty trained! :)What a fantastic evening we had with the Hasenkamp's. We ended the night about 9:00pm, but the time change was not good. Laela stayed awake until almost 10:00. We tried ot put her in the pack-n-play that was set-up in our hotel room, but that did not work out so well. SO...for the first time in Laela's life...she slept in the bed with us. OH MAN! That child loves to sleep sideways and her mommy and daddy did not get a ton of sleep. Oh well. We lived. The next morning came fast and little miss Laela was a bit grouchy because she missed about 4 hours of her beauty sleep. Well...that is what happens when you are on vacation!
Isn't Gabby so beautiful? Back to the Hasenkamp's house for some more play and talk time. We had a lot to catch up on and the girls had a lot of playing to do! Kim gave Laela one of Gabby old pair of shoes she grew out of, but Gabby has the same pair in a new size. Well, of course, when Laela tried hers on...Gabby needed to put hers on too!
Then they ran around together in their matching shoes! The little girls took a short nap and the boys listened for them while Kim and I went shopping! YEA for shopping with Kim and no kids! :) It was so wonderful to get to talk and shop. Oh how I would love to spend girls' nights with her on a regular basis.

Already it was Monday, which meant it was time to pack up and get ready to head out of town! The hotel had a serve your-self breakfast bar which we loved! Laela had a bit of cereal, yogurt, and juice. It was awesome! While we got ready, Laela made herself a little spot on the bed to journal about her weekend events. (I think she liked it! OH...by the way...do you think she looks like her mommy, yet?)
So lunch with everyone for one last eating fest (I forgot to mention that we planned everything around food while we were in town. The Old Chicago pizza rolls still make me drool just thinking about them!) Then we drove around town so Laela could nap in the car. (Actually, we pulled over and all three of us napped for about 45 minutes. Sounds weird, but sometimes sleep is priceless!) Then back to the airport where Laela did great once again! She was able to run around and play a little before we boarded. Then we were very lucky because the flight was not full so she was able to sit in the seat between us. (The next time we fly she will be over two and we will have to pay full-price for her seat! YIKES! That will be crazy.) Anyway, she loved having her own seat. She made a few phone calls to Nanna and Allie Mae...we think she warned them that we were on our way home.
Then she played with books, pen/paper, magazines, snacks, etc. Not too bad. 3 days was perfect! We were not gone too long, but it was just enough for our Little Laela. Now we are working on getting our sleep schedule back to normal. :) Thank you to our Omaha friends for being so welcoming to us when we visit. We love seeing you guys and hope to see you in Texas soon!

Cookies anyone?

When we visited our friends this weekend, their little girl had the cutest cookie set. I thought it was so awesome and we just had to have it for Laela! Well...low and behold, Laela and I decided to run into a resale shop today and there it was! Brand new and a great price so we snatched it up.We got home and opened it up right away. The funniest thing, okay...two funny things... First Laela put the glove on right away. She put it on her left hand and ever so delicately placed the pan of cookies on her right hand. (She even carried it one handed like a waitress.) FUNNY! Second, she went straight to the oven and looked at me. Uh...hello...open up the oven mom! Laela was so disappointed that I would not let her put them in the oven. Oh man!
Either way, she loved "baking" cookies this afternoon. This little wooden set is adorable.It even comes with a container for the cookies to be stored and a spatula/knife set! You gotta love pretend time! I can't wait to bake more cookies with my sweet little girl!

Wordless Wednesday

Where is everyone?

A little peek into Spring Break...

Laela and I started Spring Break a few days ago, but we went out of town. (I will have to create my post on that later.) I love to post on the days we are home, so here are a few shots that I caught today. She is too funny! I turned around to do something and Laela helped herself to mommy's snack...She even helped clean it up when she done. Then we went outside to play. I got a little sidetracked with all of our crazy weeds that suddenly popped up. Anyway, look past the leaves and notice our beautiful little girl. I busted out the sidewalk chalk. This is the first time that she has used it and she was not too sure about it. She tried it for a bit and tossed it to the side, so we will see what happens another time!

Sunny, warm day = Park!

On the way home, Laela and I were talking about how nice it was outside. We called dadeeeee and asked if he wanted to meet us at the park. He said, "OF COURSE!" We pulled up and Laela yelled "PARK!" So...off we went to play. The swings are still her favorite, as she just SMILES and giggles the entire time. A close second was racing daddy down the slide!I can't wait to be able to take her outside every day after work. She absolutely loves playing outside.

Our child's new laugh...

Turn on your speakers and be ready to hear Laela's new laugh!

Yummy cake!

I don't know why, but I just love when Laela shows interest in cooking. I think it is so funny that she will help herself to the stool or yell "STOOL, STOOL, STOOL" until we get it out for her. Tonight Nanna was making a cake for work and Laela had to help. She even cracked one of the eggs, helped stir, and cleaned up her mess. Her favorite part...testing the cake batter!