Sea World and Busch Gardens

For Christmas, Chris's parents got us Sea World and Busch Gardens passes. (Busch Gardens is a combination of huge amusement park and zoo.)

We went to Sea World last month but Lila was in a terrible mood and we didn't get to see a ton. I also didn't take many pictures. There were a few fun moments mixed in it though.

At a sea lion show that she lasted about 10 minutes of.

Admiring the penguin picture.

Busch Gardens was a different story. We went on Saturday and had a blast! The weather was perfect, there were no crowds, and we saw a tons of animals.

Lila wanted to touch all the animals.

We got to feed flamingos and exotic birds

There is an entire section of the park for kids that Lila loved! Part of it was a water play area. If you think her swim suit looks a little weird, well, that's because it does. I left the swim bottoms in the car and used bloomers from a change of clothes I brought. It didn't stop this little one!

This is so gross. I tried to stop her but when there are like 50 places the water shoots up, it's kind of a lost cause. Anyway, we can't wait to go back and hit some of the things we missed!

Valentine's Day

Just wanted to post a few pictures of my cute Valentine!

So excited about her new Valentine's shirt from Aunt Audra!

Spoiled with a cupcake

Love them!

Opening a Valentine gift (fun animal sounds book) from Mamie (Grandma Harris)

The move from...you know where!

After taking over a month off of blogging, there's lots to update!

Biggest news is we moved...5 minutes away! Those short five minutes make a big difference though. We hated our old neighborhood and wanted to get out before Lila got old enough to realize how bad it was. It was a long, crazy process and I'm sooo glad it's over. Our neighbor's in-laws actually are the ones who bought our house.

Every piece of paperwork seemed to have a mistake, need to be redone or resent, etc, etc. Our closing date took forever to actually be set so it was hard to plan ahead and know how much to pack. I did little bits at a time and started to fill the garage with boxes. We finally had a closing date and my mom was flying out to help me pack and play with Lila. She was going to be here just through the day of the move since I mostly needed her help beforehand. Just two weeks before the closing our date got moved up by 4 days and I wasn't ready! We had heard of people renting their house back out from the buyers to give them a little more time to get into their new place. We approached our neighbors and they agreed to give us an extra week after the closing. My mom flew in on a Tuesday night and we leisurely started packing Wednesday, thinking we had about 8 days to finish.

At 8:30 pm that night, our neighbors knocked on the door and dropped the bomb that apparently their realtor had just found something in our contract that says they can't do any deals with us of any kind. This meant we had to be out by closing on Friday!!! Chris tried all kinds of persuasion to do an under-the-table deal, but it was a no-go. That gave us about 40 hours instead of 8 days to pack, move and clean most everything! I wanted to cry, but that would have wasted time.

Luckily I had my mom there and I have some ridiculously amazing friends. Three of them came that night around 9pm and stayed until 2am packing. We were really, really lucky to be able to get into our new place early and get a moving truck first thing Thursday morning. My friend Lindsay took Lila all day Thursday and most of the day Friday and a bunch of other friends came and moved things over to the new house in their cars. Chris and some guys from church loaded all the heavy stuff and we just never stopped. It was a miracle, but we were almost completely moved out Thursday night and even slept in the new house that night. Chris finished the last of the packing the next morning while my mom cleaned and I started unpacking into the new house. I'm still in shock that we completely finished by Friday afternoon. The only good news was that my mom was there for all the unpacking and organizing which she is really good at. I literally have every box unpacked now and it feels so good!

We love our new house which has a big shaded back yard with a play set. Lila plays out there everyday and must think she's in heaven. The neighborhood is so quiet with shaded sidewalks and a YMCA just down the street that we joined for the gym, pool and kids' water play area. We are so happy to be settled!

Lila can already go up and down the slide and the ladder by herself. She's a little daredevil!

Lila's Dress

Here are a few pictures from our weekend, mostly for my mom to see Lila's new dress.

Christmas 2012

We spent Christmas at home in Florida this year. It was a strange Christmas season all around. It was in the 80's most of December, we had to have a "Lila-proof" decorated house, which included a tree on top of the dining room table, and Chris's family had a bout with stomach flu on Christmas Eve and Christmas! We were taken in by our friends, the Alvarez's on Christmas and were able to celebrate with Chris's family the day after and had a good time. I loved having Christmas on a Sunday this year because we enjoyed beautiful music and great messages. Here are some (or a lot) of our Christmas pictures:

On Christmas Eve we went to a place about 30 mins away called Christmas Card Lane where a guy completely decks out his land in Christmas lights, trees, trains, moving decorations, carolers, a snack bar and everything else. Best part...free admission!

Christmas morning. I wish I got more pictures of her with her Santa toys where Chris or I weren't holding her in our pj's. Not posting those!

(I love that in the morning, her hair makes her look like a Dr. Seuss "who")

Relaxing with a candy cane.

After church, ready to open presents!

My parents got Lila a baby doll with all the accessories. It is quite apparent that Lila is still the baby. All the accessories became hers.

Trying to get into the baby stroller.

There we go.

Baby went for a ride in Lila's new train.

My grandma got her pots and pans for her new kitchen that Chris's parents got her. She LOVES them. She puts binkies, balls, food and everything else in them and stirs it all up.

Relaxing on her new, huge, elephant pillow pet.

This is the day after Christmas right before leaving for Chris's family get together. Lila is sporting a new bow and shoes that go with a whole line of clothes I have been dying for her to have! My mom got her lots of the pieces and I am way too excited about it!

Her new kitchen!!! She is in love with it. She got a bunch of food for it too that she walks around or fills her doll stroller with. Maybe she thinks it's a shopping cart?? Whatever works.

Finally, I just had to post a picture to prove we finally got some cooler weather yesterday! Yay for having to wear a jacket. And yes, we take family outings to the putting greens. Sigh.

Merry Christmas!

I know, I know

I know it has been too long since the last post. We haven't been doing anything amazing as an excuse, but here's an update on us anyway:

Chris works, teaches most Saturdays, still putts on the fake, green putting foam in my family room (sigh), dotes on our daughter and keeps up on all things sports, cars and other manly things.

I get to play with Lila everyday, spend lots of time doing primary things, tutor every Tuesday, read good books, salivate over all the gorgeous clothes I want to buy for my daughter, try to think of fun things to do with a 1 year old and try to throw some cooking and cleaning in there.

Lila loves to play outside and throw balls in the street for me to chase, has finally learned what "stop!" means, putting an end to my near- heart attacks as she would dart into the street to chase said balls, she loves to snack and knows where the pantry is, has a sweet tooth like no other, is slightly destructive, has the cutest 4 -toothed smile I've ever seen, can't wait to dance to her favorite movie credit songs, jabbers incoherently to herself except for mom mom, dadda and her perfectly understandable and audible "no no no", has a screech that is close to ear-shattering, is desperately attached to her binkies and prefers to have at least 3 at a time to rotate, likes to walk around the house with random objects that change daily, loves to play "I'm gonna get you" (her running around the house as we chase her) and hugs her daddy like she hasn't seen him in weeks every night when he comes home. I could go on, but won't.

My friend, Jenn is getting into photography and offered to take our family's picture for free. Yes please! Here are my favorites:

Lila is a water baby. Always has been. We tried to take pictures by this beautiful fountain surrounded by flowers and iron gates but Lila had other plans. Notice her wet hair? We had to physically restrain her from climbing over the side to go swimming but she still managed to get soaked from being so close to the fountain spray and throwing her arms in. Now we know not to go near water if we want her to look at the camera.