Happy Birthday LylaBird!

Lyla's birthday started off with the reality of weather in Chicago - wind and hail. Here is Josie trying to figure out why there is ice falling from the sky.

Luckily, the weather cooperated and the sun came out in fullforce in time to celebrate LylaBird's big day! Here she is looking absolutely gorgeous in her big first birthday attire (and standing up like a big girl).

Please be sure to check out www.threeaustins.blogspot.com for all the details, but there were a few I just had to share - like these - of Lyla enjoying (and sharing) her birthday cupcake.

You also need to scroll down to check out the video on Amanda's blog after Lyla had her first cupcake. It is hilarious what sugar does to these little ones. Here is Josie enjoying the first of two cupcakes. Boy was she excited! 

And this is just after the second cupcake. She is literally swinging from my scarf going "weeeee"!

Here we are getting in some good cuddles with Lyla - and me trying to imagine what it would be like having two toddlers (and what it was like for my mom). 

 

Even more fun happened once we all got outside to play. Here's some fun from the big park we had for the party.

 

 

And these are my favorite. Josie loves her "Ti-OOO" so much and just follows him around everywhere. It was very sweet of Tio to take some time out of his little one's bday party to play on this big serpent with Josie. As you can see, she had the time of her life!

 

 

 

What would it be without a couple of family photos?

(Josie wouldn't get her finger out of her nose, so we decided we should all just go for it. She was actually laughing so hard in that first picture because I had just pulled her hand out of her nose for the 10th time.)

 

These are some other photos from the weekend in Chicago that I had to share. Here are Lyla & Louie at dinner.

 

(This is Lyla's new expression which we all think is adorable. And hilarious.)

 

And finally, here are Josie & Lyla in the crib reading together.  Notice that they each have a pacifier in their mouth and one in their hand. Josie really wanted to sleep in Lyla's crib with her at night - but she settled for an air mattress on her floor.  That's right, our girls officially had their first slumber party.

 

All-in-all, it's hard to believe that Lyla is ONE, Josie is TWO, and my sister and I are...well...let's just say adults.  Thanks to "Tia & Tio" for letting Josie help to unwrap presents and for letting us invade your house on a busy weekend. Happy Birthday Lyla! XOXOXO!

Josie's World

These are just a few scenes that I captured over the past week or so that give us all a little peek into "Josie's World." Things like this always make me giggle, so I hope you find the humor in them too.

This is Baby Stella - taking a nap - face down (because that's how Josie sleeps)...

Here are the dolls later - sleeping with their markers - for whatever reason.

 Here is Josie with one of her many lines of toys. She lined them up littlest to biggest while Lou & I were watching football then stood at the end (because she's the biggest of them all). As you can see, she was very proud.

This is Josie's latest facial expression. We have no idea where it came from or how it started, but she makes this face all the time.

Here we find Josie situated on a stool with her milk waiting for the banana muffins to finish cooking.  Now that's patience.

And this is Josie's "what big eyes you have" face which begs the question - how will I ever say "no" to these big baby blues?

With this post, I think we're officially caught up on everything that happened before we went to Chicago for Lyla's birthday. I hope to have highlights of that weekend posted soon! :)

Z-O-O

Well, it happened. Today Josie went over to her easel and pulled out some letters and spelled her favorite word. She plays with the letters on it all the time (and as you can also her magnet of little baby Isla and President Obama), but today she surprised me by saying "Mommy, I spelled Zoo." Honestly, I didn't exactly run over their to see it because I was talking to my mom on the phone and I figured it was just a "z" or an "o" or two. But, would you believe I walked over there and this is what I found? Wow. She really did spell zoo.

Real Leaves!

Biggest...Leafpile...Ever!  What a big surprise it was to arrive at "Grandma Fifi" and "Grandpa Bop's" house to find an enormous pile of *real* leaves to jump and play in.  Josie spent about 3 seconds on the front porch and then ran screaming "come on" all the way to the pile.  This is the fun that followed. Enjoy!