Not quite ready to walk.

I whole-heartedly believe that Lyla is able to walk, but she just isn't ready yet. She walks just fine, in fact quite enthusiastically, so long as she's holding on to someone's hand. It doesn't have to be two hands either, we went for quite the stroll the other day with her holding my one hand (it was totally one of those "Oh my! She's growing up so fast!!" moments). I have mixed feelings about her walking, I'm excited because she's so close and I think it will be slightly easier for her to get places without having to crawl or be carried. On the other hand, my baby is growing up so fast!! We've been looking through our over 2000 pictures we've taken of her and Katherine and I repeatedly say, "Remember when she was so little!" or "Who's that tiny baby?" or "I can't believe she was that small!"

The other day I was folding laundry and there were a bunch of her pajamas in there. She wears size 18 month because she's so long. Well, Katherine had put this old pair in that were size 3 month and the difference in size was drastic. They grow so fast.

Anyway, here are videos of Katherine and me trying to coax the little girl to walk. Enjoy!

I am a comic book nerd. I am not ashamed of this.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Our virtual koi pond

Follow this blog

Hi everyone,

Blogger has set up a subscription like service that allows you to "follow" the blogs that you enjoy. When you sign up a blog it will show up on your Blogger profile dashboard showing you recent updates to the site. It also is a great way to share the sites you like with people who know you.

If you're interested in "following" this blog, all you have to do is click this link:
Follow this blog

By doing so, you'll let us know that you're interested in our blog and your blogger profile will shown along with our other followers in the sidebar of this page.

Anyway, I just wanted to point this feature out and let you know I'd appreciate it if you decide you want to sign up.

Cheers!

I feel the same way

Lyla's birthday party

Decorations:Cupcakes (notice the butterfly theme):

Lyla and Daddy!!
Meggy and her daddy!!
Ian and his daddy!!!
Sadie and her daddy!!!
Adults!!!
Kids playing!!
Josh and Ellie!!!
Go, Meggy, go!!
Getting ready to open presents!!!
Time for presents:
Here comes Sadie, ready to help!Yay! Storybook Bible!

Yay!! Noisy toy!! Super cute and educational!! (I was quite relieved later to discover it has both a "low volume" setting and an "off" setting)
Yay! Princess papasan chair!
Hey! My presents!!
Oh man! I can climb all over this thing!! Mom and dad won't let me fall over so I can do whatever I want!!
Now it's time for my birthday cupcake!

Mmmm... messy and delicious!

Some awesomeness

Katherine wants me to let you know that this video is long and does not contain a lot of action. So if you want to skip ahead to the good part start watching at about 2:40. Enjoy!

Day 366

Happy Birthday to my beautiful little girl. I can not believe that one year ago at this very moment, I was standing anxiously outside the operating room as they prepped your mother for surgery. I will never never never forget the moment I first laid eyes on you. The moment I first held you in my arms. Thank you. Thank you for all that you are teaching me about love and life, about patience and perseverance, about beauty and about grace. Thank you for being my daughter. Thank you for smiling every time you see me. Thank you for still fitting perfectly in my arms. Thank you for falling asleep on my lap. I love you. Happy Birthday.

I am a search optimization genius!!!

I'm not sure why you read our blog. Maybe it's your first time here, maybe you're addicted to how cute Lyla is and check back every hour with the hope that I'll have posted more photos (sorry to disappoint you so frequently). But for one of you, Google Analytics has told me what you came here looking for... and I hope, no, I pray that we did not disappoint:



p.s. I really have no idea how that happened.

Thoughts on grace

This made me smile:

This made me smile more:

Four years ago in a large city in the far West, rumors spread that a certain Catholic woman was having visions of Jesus. The reports reached the archbishop. He decided to check her out. There is always a fine line between the authentic mystic and the lunatic fringe.

"Is it true, m'am, that you have visions of Jesus?" asked the cleric.

"Yes," the woman replied simply.

"Well, the next time you have a vision, I want you to ask Jesus to tell you the sins that I confessed in my last confession."

The woman was stunned. "Did I hear you right, bishop? You actually want me to ask Jesus to tell me the sins of your past?"

"Exactly. Please call me if anything happens."

Ten days later the woman notified her spiritual leader of a recent apparition. "Please come," she said.

Within the hour the archbishop arrived. He trusted eye-to-eye contact. "You just told me on the telephone that you actually had a vision of Jesus. Did you do what I asked?"

"Yes, bishop, I asked Jesus to tell me the sins you confessed in your last confession."

The bishop leaned forward with anticipation. His eyes narrowed.

"What did Jesus say?"

She took his hand and gazed deep into his eyes. "Bishop," she said, "these are his exact words: 'I CAN'T REMEMBER.'"

Messy foods

Just because... (we're all Lyla fans, are we not?)

Things I'm enjoying right now

First, iTunes's new Genius feature is, well, really smart. If you're not familiar with it, I recommend you check it out. It basically is a smart playlist creator. Remember all the hard word that used to go into making a mixed tape for someone? Well, the smarties at Apple have created a machine that does it for you... could this be how SkyNet gets started?

To show you how awesome it is, I'll walk you through the process of creating a playlist based on one of my favorite songs: Rubber Duckie. First, right-click on the target song and select "Start Genius":

And vuala! Oh. Hmmm. Genius is not available for Rubber Duckie... okay.


Well, if SkyNet can't generate a playlist based on Rubber Duckie then we probably don't have to worry about them destroying the human race any time soon.

The other thing I'm loving is seeing how random people are finding the blog based on Google searches. Here's a list of the search terms that have led people to our website. Good to see that 3 different people who Googled "diaper" found our site. I bet my post on Lyla's diaper hat was really helpful. I'm a SEO wizard!!!!