Breakfast with the Penguins.

A couple weeks ago we headed back to Ohio for several reasons:
 1. To get Doogie de-clawed...yep it was time and we are so happy we did.
2. To have Breakfast with the Penguins & The Schneider Family
3. To help my sissy celebrate her birthday.
A fun filled weekend for all - even the grand-parents who "had" to babysit while we went to dinner and a movie to celebrate my sissy's birthday. 
First up - Breakfast with the Penguins. Josie was SO excited about this day which made it all the more fun for the rest of us. We headed to Cincinnati bright and early Saturday morning...blizzard and all. Nothing was going to stop us from this experience!!

After a special breakfast we headed to a private viewing where we learned lots of new facts about Penguins.
 Lyla and Josie having their own agenda...

I just LOVE this picture...
 

Lyla getting a closer peak.
 

Of course we made her pose.

And this is when my camera died - BOOOO - check out http://www.threeschneiders.blogspot.com/ for much much more!  A great fun-filled Ohio weekend - Ohio we love you so!  Sorry grandma this doesn't mean we are moving back. 

The weekend before we went back to Ohio, The Grandparents headed to Chicago (already planned weekend) but The Grandparents weren't complaining - 2 weeks in a row.  The only thing they complained about was the stomach virus we gave them during their visit.  We were all sick with a nasty - highly contagious - stomach virus for a week.  Ughhhhh....Lyla got it - then Michael - then me.  We were so happy when grandma & DD arrived for some tender lovin' care.  We didn't leave our place the entire weekend (well except for one quick grocery trip) which looking back was a bad idea...they didn't have a fighting chance...we trapped them in all our germs. 

Grandma and I went to grocery and returned to find Lyla passed out in DD's arms :)

Grandma quickly swooped in for some cuddles :)

While Michael and I layed on the couch curled up in blankets...grandma & DD entertained Lyla...which I must note coloring is her absolute favorite thing in the world!!!  Her favorite suitcase has been forgotten...now her box of crayons and coloring book go everywhere with her!

2 family filled weekends back to back - great times - even when you are down for the count with the stomach flu!

A Josie Request!

Just checked out http://www.threeschneiders.blogspot.com/ to read this lovely post:

Carissa was just talking to Josie about Tia (Aunt in Spanish) having a baby and giving Josie a new cousin. Here's the conversation that followed:

Carissa: Do you want Tia to have a little boy cousin or a little girl cousin?

Josie: "I want her to have a baby tiger. A big tiger. A big tiger cousin. With a twin giraffe cousin. And a zebra cousin. I want Tia to have animal cousins for me."

Good luck with that one Tia. ;)

 

Oh dear...what's a girl to do...I'll try praying to the zoo gods to see if they can help :):) 

 

Josie - I love your imagination - it is the absolute best thing in the world.  XOXOXOX!!!! 

Lyla has an announcement!

Hint Hint - we like to make "this" kind of announcement on T-shirts !

Did you get the message yet?

Read Lyla's T-shirt closely!

Okay Okay to the point - I am pregnant! Baby #2 is due August 26th - which makes me 12 weeks...YAY for 1st trimester almost being over. All in all I have been feeling okay....just the typical exhaustion but hopefully only another week or so of that! We are very excited...for those that we have already shared the news with have all asked if Baby #2 was planned - haha - YES! We were so fortunate to get lucky Round 1. And yes we will be finding out the sex this time around - 8 more weeks!

We are so happy to finally share the joy with you all. Lyla Bird is going to be a Big Sister - the thought just makes us smile - what kind of sister will she be :)

 I had to share this one...Lyla will always be our Sweet Baby Girl.

Remember this - feels just like yesterday - okay maybe not - haha!

Happy Birthday Aunt Carri!

Happy Birthday Aunt Carri!

Happy Birthday Aunt Carri!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Aunt Carri!

Can't wait to help you celebrate this weekend and hope you enjoy YOUR day!

Love you,

Lyla Bird

Where's the Disclaimer?

I do most of my shopping online...so when it was time to get Lyla some new shoes of course I called upon Amazon.com for a quick fix. Being an experienced online shopper you would think I would know to read more closely to descriptions...but to my defense would you have picked up on this given the below description:

Your little girl will love these maryjanes. Not only does it look adorable, it sounds adorable, too. Its super-soft leather upper is embellished by scalloped trim and flower appliqués. She'll be over the moon every time she takes a step.
Turn up the Volume :)

Hilarious right...NO...the most annoying thing in the world!! Come on - Where's the Disclaimer? The very good news is we were able to pull out a tube on the side....OH the silence :)

And another real quick update: As you saw in the video Lyla loves to babble and have conversations with us. She is upto about 10 or so "clear" words. Her latest words happened a couple days ago while eating dinner....Lyla started putting her head up and down and saying up and down...much to our shock daddy and I looked at each other and said is she really saying up and down? As confirmation, written on Lyla's daycare sheet yesterday, "Today I was saying "up and down" alot." Confirmed - we are not making this stuff up - haha! Maybe the "up the stairs" and "down the stairs" song I sing to her everyday is working...you'd be amazed the number of times you can sing 1 song when you have 4 flights of stairs - still trying to find the positive with those darn stairs!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to Grandma!

Happy Birthday to you!

I love you Grandma!

Love,

Lyla Anne

Oh how we love our "Comfy clothes"!

Those closest to us will get the title of this post:)

After spending an extra long weekend in Ohio we made it back to Chicago with "so" many plans as we had the entire week off of work! One day of being back we knocked out 3 grocery stores and a doc appointment for Lyla. Unfortunately Lyla still didn't get a clean bill of health...4th round of antibiotics for a double ear infection.

Day 2 of being back we quickly agreed to throw all plans out the door and enjoy the time we had off until it was back to reality. So here it is Saturday night...looking back on the week it has been one of the most relaxing weeks BUT most of all a week to remember! As the pictures will show below we have been having a lot of fun with Lyla! Monday is going to be a very hard day...

The Austin family has not been out of their comfy clothes for 3 days and you can go ahead and make that 4! I hope you all had a great New Year. You will see our celebration below:)

Thanks Schneider Family for the new portrait lens...it's fabulous!!!

What you can't see is her holding her suitcase which goes everywhere with her. On this day, I think we found a brush and a panda bear inside.

Lyla loves LOVES her new activity table. Many more activity table photos to come...

Making sure her chair is positioned perfectly...

Sesame Street...she walked around the couch and right over to her chair:)

A box of 100 building blocks = many ways to have fun!

Check out daddy's face...all his hard work...

Gone...

Whew...a double smile :) :)

Trying out Doogie's bed (Lyla's new kitten)...notice the suitcase :)

Lyla's new tent - thanks Schneider family! I thought for sure I would find the two of them fast asleep inside...

There is nothing better than a sleeping bag and tent in your bedroom...Oh to be a kid again:)

Lyla and Doogie are becoming very good friends...whew!

Choo Choo...

Who says train tracks are for boys???

Lyla trying to blow in her Choo Choo sound maker thingy...

Doogie getting in the action...

Guess who's at the activity table again?

I am losing track of the days at this point...what a wonderful feeling!!!

Like Lyla was really going to allow that...

The suitcase it back...

This time making the perfect reading chair..

Ut oh...Lyla has had enough...Lyla did not stay awake until midnight to help us bring in the new year ;)

Lyla's in bed = Michael got down to business!

Last year we ruined some very good steaks so this year we decided to "keep it real"...

Michael made a couple of his specialities...yum I am hungry just thinking about it!

Twice baked potatoes and a very juicy...seasoned perfectly burger!!!

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...Double hand kiss!!!

And then we resumed our Scrabble game while sipping on Tea and Gatorade! Yep that's The Austin New Year Celebration...perfect! And if you can believe it we tied!!!

So to wrap things up here is Lyla's...once again...new and improved play area!

And there couldn't have been a better picture to end with...LOL!

So tomorrow is Sunday...But we are bound to conclude this time home just as it started...in our comfy clothes and enjoying time with our Sweet Lyla Bird!!!

Happy New Year!!