Crazy kids

I can't believe it's already December! I haven't really taken many good pictures lately, so that's why I haven't posted anything. Ayla is completely on the go now. She is getting into EVERYTHING! She now pulls herself up using the couch, chairs, bed, etc, and can even climb up a flight of stairs! When she is on a hard floor and just wearing a onesie and has bare legs, she walks on her hands and feet with her butt up in the air. She looks like a little monkey! She finally has 2 teeth coming in on the bottom, and is starting to make lots of different sounds. She says mama and dada a lot. : )
Ayla loves to get right in the camera if she sees it.
These are Logan's 3d glasses that he left at our house last week. Lara looks funny in them. : )

This is what Lara looks like when she dresses herself. She likes to wear lots of layers. And here is a video of her dancing for me. She was doing her "wash machine" dance.

We really haven't been up to too much lately. We have gone to Siren a couple times recently, and I went to a couple Viking games (BOTH of which they won!). I bought a guitar a couple weeks ago and have been teaching myself some chords for now, until I can get together with my friend who is going to teach me, and other than that, we just play every day.

Lara is still going to dance every Tuesday night, and they're working on their recital dances, so it's really cute to watch. I'm glad there isn't really any snow yet, because I'm sure Lara will want to go outside and play, and I HATE the cold! I'm sure that day will be here soon though.

I'm going to paint our bedroom next week, so that's when I plan to get my Christmas shopping done. I can't believe it's only a few weeks away! We are going to have a busy week when that comes! Mike was home last week, but we didn't get to see a whole lot of him. He flew into Milwaukee so he could pick his truck up, and was hunting for a couple days. He came over to Siren to spend some time with us before he took off. He drove back out to New York so he would have a vehicle out there. He will be back the 23rd through Jan 1st. Well that is about it for now, hopefully we'll do something exciting soon and I get some good pictures. : )

Ayla is crawling!

Ayla started crawling a little bit on Halloween, and has gotten more mobile every day since. She is even trying real hard to pull herself up to stand next to the couch, but can't quite get it. She is getting into everything now too, so we really have to start being careful. Mike also went up in the attic to get her bath seat, so she can finally take baths in the big tub instead of her little baby one. I used it today, and she seemed to enjoy it.

She ended up making her way into the bottom of her saucer, but needed some help getting out.

Happy Halloween!

We went trick or treating in Baldwin again this year with Jen, Bryan, and the boys. And Mike was home for the first time since Lara was only 6 months old so it was nice that he was finally able to come with us. Lara was a monkey (so was Peyton) and Ayla was a turkey. Ayla slept in her stroller under a pile of blankets most of the night, so nobody got to see her.

Once again, Lara was scared of some of the costumes out there. There was a boy with us that was dressed as a skeleton, and she wouldn't go anywhere near him. She felt better with Peyton protecting her, and by the end of the night she was a little more brave. After trick or treating, we went back to the Jones' and ended up playing games there until almost midnight. We couldn't get Ayla to go to sleep, so she just hung out at the table with us, and Lara played downstairs with the boys until we left. We had a wonderful time!

Pumpkins

Here are some pictures of the girls with their pumpkins.

Ayla's handprints looked more like blobs. : ) It's not easy for a baby to keep their hands open when they're full of paint. What was I thinking?

Lara was a bit wound up during the pictures.

Park Pics

It was sunny and 65 today, so the girls and I went to the park to play. Ayla loved the swings, and Lara quickly found a friend to play with, and didn't want to leave.

Lots of giggles

Winter is coming....

I tried to get some pictures of the girls outside in their winter coats and hats, but Ayla was starting to get tired and was staring off into space more and more with every picture that I took.

Ayla is finally eating cheerios and Gerber puffs without gagging on every one. : )

Fall Fun

The girls and I spent the weekend up in Siren. We didn't do a whole lot, but still ended up staying busy. Papa bought a couple kites while they were still on their Virginia trip, and we had a really windy day on Saturday, so we went out on the golf course and flew one of them.
Papa also made a big pile of leaves for Lara to jump and play in.
She also made some cut-out cookies for Halloween with Grandma.
They also carved a pumpkin, but I didn't take any pictures. If it is warm enough out tomorrow I will try to take the girls outside to get some pictures with all the pumpkins.


I took Ozzi to the Siren pet store to get his nails trimmed. While he was getting that done, I noticed a bunch of signs in the store about a free ride in a cop car, you just have to shoplift to get the ride. So of course, as we're walking out the door, Ozzi snatched a big dog treat out of a basket and just took it with him. Good thing it was something that needed to be chewed on and he couldn't eat it up right away, so we were able to bring it back in before we ended up taking it home on accident. (Actually I made Lara bring it back in.) : )

Mike is flying home again on Thursday, so he'll be able to go Trick or Treating with us for the first time ever. The last time he was home on Halloween was when Lara was 6 months old, and we obviously didn't go then. We are planning to go with Peyton and his family, so it should be a fun time! Hopefully it doesn't get too cold.

Tug o War

Lara and Ayla were having fun playing with a towel, so I got some video of it.

My Loves

Here are a few pics of the girls taken this past weekend and today....

Ayla is really good at sitting up now, and is ALMOST crawling. She can get back into sitting position if she's moving around on the floor, so it won't be long.

We got Ayla this hat in Virginia.

VIRGINIA

A couple weeks ago I went on a trip to Virginia with my mom and dad. Mike's mom took the girls for us so I was able to go. We had a really fun time and the weather couldn't have been better. It took forever to get there! We left on Wednesday the 8th, and got there Thursday night at 11:00. The first thing we did Friday morning was go to Busch Gardens Europe, in Williamsburg. My mom and I ended up going there 4 times. We love rides! My dad sat on the sidelines and watched. : )

This is the Griffon, a floorless dive coaster, their newest ride. We went on it a couple times the first day, then we found another coaster we liked even better later and rode it a bunch of times.

We got him to go on 2 3-d rides and the bumper cars.

These are the Budweiser Clydesdales. The Dalmation was there too from the commercial, but I didn't get any pictures of him because he was always behind a little fence.

We also went to Colonial Williamsburg. That was pretty interesting. They shot the cannons off a lot, and had some demonstrations. We also did little tours of the jail, the Capitol, and the governor's palace. Here is a room in the Capitol.

Here they are shooting the cannons. It was hard to get a good picture because there were 3 and we never knew which one was going to be going off.

This tree was HUGE. The limbs coming off the trunk were the size of the trees around here.

We went to the Jamestown Settlement one day too. We watched a little movie there on the history, then got to walk around and explore.

I'm not quite sure what I was doing. Scraping the hair off with a shell I guess.

On Monday we made our way to Norfolk. We went to a beach where they have the longest pier in America. You can fish off it, but we didn't stay long enough to do that. Then we went to the Naval base and did a boat tour, and went on the USS Wisconsin battleship. That was pretty cool but I was not a fan of all the steep steps.

After we got off the USS Wisconsin we headed towards DC so we could spend the night near the airport, since I was flying out the next morning and my parents were going to continue on with the rest of their trip. I couldn't wait to get home to my girls. I had a lay over in Atlanta. That wasn't too much fun, but it was $700 cheaper than taking the direct flight, so I really didn't have a choice. It was good to get home but I definitely miss Virginia.