Happy 2nd Birthday, Laela!

This morning I went in to get Laela up and she greeted me with a friendly, 2 year old "Hi, Mommy" and wave! I sang happy birthday to her and she asked for daddy!...was my singing that horrible? HA!We chose a beautiful outfit and got ready for school, but FIRST...Laela found her gift...a new tricycle! She did not know what to think, then she took teddy for a ride! After the ride, Laela was hungry! Miss Independent chose a graham cracker and yogurt for her birthday breakfast. "YUMMM-E!" (as Laela would say)
Even Allie Mae wanted to celebrate with us this morning! She put on her birthday hat and smiled for the camera. :)
Off to school we went. Laela took small cupcakes to celebrate at afternoon snack time with her friends. Well, I guess that she was so excited about the cupcakes, she only wanted to sleep for 45 minutes at nap (typically it is 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours)! AH! Seriously? Now that we can watch her on-line during the day, we knew we were in for a crazy child when we picked up. :) Oh well...Ro really wanted to take her to the mall so she could ride the carousel. (Between me and you...I am wondering who likes it more...the birthday girl or daddy?) When she got in line, she was already telling Ro which horse she wanted and of course they ended up on a horse with purple (her favorite color).4:30 hit and the princess decided it was time for bites, so off we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. WOW! Don't let the picture below fool you! She was a TWO YEAR OLD TOOT! She was acting out, because I think she was tired; however, she got a lemonade and was much better! After birthday dinner, we headed home for a bath and gifts! WOW! Laela Grace is so fortunate to have so many family and friends. Thanks to everyone for making her birthday special, including the emails and text messages too. (She saw them all!)

Laela ended the evening with a nice ride on the tricycle...
new night-night clothes on - check.
new purse - check.
new baby on the backseat - check.
new sunglasses on - check.
Dearest Laela,
You brighten our lives everyday. We cannot believe that TWO years have passed so quickly. Your mischievous smirk and bubbly giggle will make anyone laugh. Not a day goes by without a stranger telling us how beautiful you are! You are daddy's little girl which makes him feel like the most special person in the world. Mommy loves you more than anything in the world and writes about you with adornment. Even though you are VERY stubborn (Which occasionally drives us crazy), you are SO helpful, kind, and loving to everyone. This birthday and every birthday will be bittersweet. As every year passes, you develop more and more into the wonderful girl you will aspire to be. At the same time, your mommy and daddy lose, little by little, their baby girl. We are very proud of you and will love you always.

Love, Mommy and Daddy

P.S. Allie Mae loves you too.

Lunch and dinner!

WOW! We ate a lot today! For lunch, we went to Granna and Gramp's house because Aunt Martha, Uncle Dick, and Aunt Sue were coming to visit. They live in Mabank, but we don't see them but a few times a year. They are so great and we really enjoy our time with them. As we were leaving our house, Laela noticed I was packing her lunch and she wanted to help! She got her little bag, put her food in (chicken, blueberries, raisins, and applesauce), and off we went. Laela was very responsible and held her lunch bag the whole way! After a great lunch (courtesy of Chef Aunt LeAnn), we headed home for a nap and preparation for dinner at the Murthy's house. They are going to be out of town during her birthday celebration on Saturday, so they wanted to create a celebration of their own. Well...Grandma Mala did just that...from balloons to birthday hats to party favors...Laela had fun! We all sat down for a wonderful fajita dinner, then a little playing...she even showed off her new skills on the scooter! Go Laela, GO!Then the gift opening extravaganza started! WOWZA! It was like Christmas. There were way too many gifts, but Laela loved opening them all! Oh, and of course we had cake. Here she is when we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She thought she was the queen and she LOVED it! Blowing out TWO candles was a SUCCESS! I should have known, because she has a ton of hot air! Thank you to the Murthy's for the first of three very fun and festive birthday celebrations.

PS - I forgot to post this picture on Monday. I thought it was so CUTE! Laela never eats ice cream, but Cousin Makenzi was eating it...so Laela had to eat it too. I just love how the spoon is in their mouth at the same time and they are sitting in the kitchen floor! Makenzi, thanks for coming over to play on Monday. You are welcome anytime!

Happy Father's Day...

The wonderful father's in our life...Ro, Gramps, my dad, and Ro's dad. We also never forget about our Papaw. :) He is in heaven, but he is never forgotten.

Dear Daddy,

Happy Father's Day! I love you bunches! Thanks for being an awesome dad. You will do anything for me! I love when we go to the park to feed ducks, when we go to Lowe's to shop, and when we drive in your fast car! Enjoy your daddy day.

Love,

Laela

Dear Gramps,

Happy Father's Day! You are so funny. Thanks for teaching me how to be sneaky, sneaky! I love you!

Hugs and Kisses,

Laela

The terrible two's...

have hit our house!
You gotta love the cutie!

Read about...

our Florida vacation. I started the writing on Thursday, so the post is two down below this one. Scroll down and enjoy!

Happy Birthday Makenzi...

Cousin Makenzi's birthday was on June 15th, but we were on vacation. We were lucky enough to be back in time to celebrate with her and her friends today at Chuck E. Cheese. Laela was so funny! She had a cup of tokens, but got mad when I showed her how to put them in the machines. She just wanted to keep her "MONIES" and shake them in the cup! HA!HA!
Happy 6th birthday, Makenzi! :) We love you!

Our Florida Vacation...

DAY 1...
We had a fantastic early morning start! I had to wake up Laela, but she was thrilled to be going on the airplane. She was continuously giggling and talking about going up in the airplane. We had plenty of time to eat our usual McDonald's breakfast. (Well...we ate our breakfast and Laela decided then that she was not going to eat much on our trip. Oh well...we ate for her!)BTW...we are in the middle of potty training too. Laela did awesome that morning. She loves going potty on public toilets...YUCK! Obviously she does not get that from me! THEN...it all started. CRAZINESS on the plane! We got on and we were waiting and waiting and waiting. Laela talked about the airplanes, wrote a few notes and even studied the airplane "rules." Finally after 1 hour of sitting in the plane, they said we were good to go! We got about 100 yards away and the plane stopped. Something was wrong with the engine, so a big truck had to come pull us back in. We deplaned and waited 30 more minutes inside. We finally got on a new plane, waited another 30 minutes and then off we went. SERIOUSLY! Thank goodness Laela was pooped from waking up so early and running around in the airport, so she fell asleep for most of the plane ride. We made it to Fort Walton Beach Florida and WOW it was HOT! The temperature was only 90-95 but the sun was BLAZING! Our first stop...Dairy Queen. HA! We do not have one close to the house and it was the first familiar place we saw, so we stopped. After lunch, Laela grabbed a cup of ice and we were on the road for about an hour. (We think she is getting in her final molars or something monsterous in her mouth because she ate ice the entire week!)Ro and I first talked about this trip quite awhile ago and he wanted to get a good deal on airline tickets so we booked that first. Then he booked a hotel room. After more research, he found a resort style place that looked better and closer to the beach. Only problem was that it was an hour away from the airport. It ended up being fantastic and the hour drive was really not a big deal! If people in Florida drove like people in Texas, it would have been a 20 minute commute! We stayed in Water Sound. Check it out here. The place was really cute and we would recommend it to anyone! Laela's favorite part of the whole place was that she could run circles through the living room, bedroom, bathroom, etc. She loved it!DAY 2:
We headed to Gulf World in Panama City early that morning. We did not realize that Water Sound was actually much closer to Panama City than it was to Fort Walton...Of course I needed a fountain diet coke, but you would not believe how difficult it is to find one in this place! We had to drive almost 20 minutes to get to a McDonald's and then it cost $2.50! YIKES! No wonder everyone is skinny in this state...there is not a fast food joint on every corner like at home.
We headed into Guld World and we saw several kinds of animals and shows. We blew kisses to the penguins, checked on the playful dolphins, tried to pet a stingray, looked at the colorful macaws, and peeked in on a tortoise and fish.

There was a sea lion show and we did not know how Laela would react, but she LOVED it! The sea lion's name was Otto. To this very day, you can ask her about Otto and she will tell you "Sea lions jump in the water!" (We actually have heard that sentence about 357 times since the show.) After the show, we moved on to the indoor flamingos, macaws, and fish. It was nice to cool off and then we headed into a bird show. It was very interesting and surprisingly kept Laela's attention. The coolest part was when they asked the audience for 2 numbers and one of the birds range a bell to answer the addition and subtraction problems. WOW! They are smart!At this point Laela was begging us to see the dolphins. It was not time yet, so we stalled with the insect show (YUCK!) and then the dolphin show! We were all so hot and sweaty, but, like the sea lion show, she LOVED it! Now she says "Dolphins and sea lions jump out of the water!"3 1/2 hours at Gulf World did us in. Here is Laela 3 minutes after getting into the car...DAY 3...
We were off to the beach! We loaded up our stuff and out to the beach we went. Miss Thang decided very quickly that she was not a fan of the beach. The sand was hard for her to walk in and it did not feel good on her hands or feet. HA! What a dork. Ro did take her out into the big waves, but other than that...we were not beach fans.We enjoyed the pool a lot more!DAY 4:
We headed to the pool for an early morning swim. We were able to stay and play for a couple of hours before heading back to pack and get ready to go. As we were showering off, we noticed that 4 days in the sun causes this problem...OH MY! Who would have thought? Laela has such beautiful, tan skin! :) Off we went. We left early because of the drive back and we thought Laela would nap for a good 2 hours in the car. Well...NOPE! She only napped a little over an hour so we were pretty early to the airport. Oh well! We made a record. If you know us, then you know we love to squeel in about time for boarding the plane. Believe it or not, we were waiting for 2 hours before we boarded! We walked and walked and walked, then Laela got out her dog and teddy bear to play. :)Overall, we had a FANTASTIC trip to Ocean Sound, Florida! We hope to go back again sometime...maybe even with a few friends so all of us can play a little more! :)