Squadron Christmas Party 12/12/09

Tommy's helicopter squadron hosted a Children's Christmas party before Christmas. Tommy was out of town so he missed all the fun. My parents were in Jacksonville visiting us so they came with us and helped me watch Lyla.

Here are some pictures in front of the helicopter.

As simple as is sounds, they taped long pieces of bubble wrap on the floor and the kids love walking on it and hearing the bubbles pop. Lyla spent most of the party doing this. Crazy huh?There were crafts and cookie decorating tables. Lyla did part of a sticker nativity scene. She mostly enjoyed eating the cookies that me, Papa and Nana decorated for her.Santa arrived on a firetruck. The kids went crazy and ran up to give him hugs. Not Lyla. She took a year off from sitting on Santa's lap. We ran into Santa at the mall one day and he asked her to give him five and she screamed "No, no no!" So I didn't force her to talk to him anymore after that. Lyla spent about 15 minutes throwing bean bags into the Snowman. Papa patiently retrieved them every time. He started placing them further away from the snowman so Lyla had to run farther to throw them in.

We had fun and can't wait until next year when Lyla can do even more of the activities.

Lazy 5 Ranch

As promised, here is my post about our visit to Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC. We went there with Tommy's parents the day after Thanksgiving. We met one of Tommy's high school buddies and his family, including their little boy Harper who is about 3 months older than Lyla. Lazy 5 is an exotic animal drive through park. Yes, you can drive your car through the ranch and let the animal stick their heads in your window or anywhere else they choose. You can also ride through on a horse drawn wagon which is the option we chose. Do you really think I would drive my new Traverse through a Ranch where animals could scratch it with their horns? Parking at Wal-Mart is bad enough. Lazy 5 has over 750 animals including rhinos, giraffes, llamas, horses, zebras, pigs, and on and on. Harper's Grandma Mary Lou found this wagon and took Harper and Lyla on a ride. I think they could've ridden a long time, but our carriage was waiting. It looked like they were on a little date.Tommy and the rhino. This is one animal that they didn't let run loose. He was down in a pit. Apparently he is fast and dangerous. Lyla didn't feel too great the day we went to the Ranch. She fell asleep on the carriage ride in my lap. Lyla never falls asleep in my lap, so I knew she was getting sick. Boo!This one was after our carriage. We had lots of food for the animals on our carriage, so they quickly made their way towards us when we stopped.After the carriage ride, Lyla was rested from her nap and enjoyed seeing the animals at the petting zoo.Lyla with her Nana and Papa.My family thought it would be funny to feed him right behind my head. I could feel his breath on my neck.

We had a good time and I would suggest it to anyone in the NC area.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Tommy, Lyla and I packed up and headed to NC last Wednesday. Our first stop was Tommy's parents house in Kings Mountain. We had Thanksgiving lunch with Tommy's parents, sister and her kids. Tommy's mom wanted a Christmas picture of her grandkids, so we dressed them up and gave it a whirl. They actually sat pretty well and we got some cute pictures. Kissing cousins!

Here is Lyla in her Thanksgiving dress. It has a turkey on it and says gobble gobble, which I taught Lyla to say before Thanksgiving. We had a hard time getting pictures of Lyla Thanksgiving weekend, so I didn't get a good picture of the front of the dress.

We couldn't get good pics of us holding Lyla so here we are following her. Lyla loves walking around outside and it is nearly impossible to get her to come inside.

On Friday we went to The Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC. I'll post about that later. Lyla started getting sick on Friday with a cold and fever and slept a lot on Friday and was lazy the rest of the weekend. We went to Durham to my Grandmother's house on Saturday and stayed there with my family until Monday morning. Even though Lyla didn't feel well she had a blast with her family. Here she is with her 5 month old cousin Skylar (my brother's daughter). She is so cute. They are a year apart. Lyla looks so big next to her.

D-D-D-D-D Dora!

Tommy was in Las Vegas for a two-week conference in November. Lyla missed him so much while he was gone which was apparent as soon as he walked through the door. She ran to him and had nothing else to do with me the rest of the night. Tommy brought Lyla a Dora doll from his trip. She carried it, slept with it, and fed it for a couple of days before finally putting it down. We've taught her the beginning of the Dora song. It's pretty cute to hear her sing D-D-D-D-D Dora while she makes Dora dance.

Christmas Time!

Yes, the picture above is last years picture, but I have yet to get a good Christmas picture this year. So enjoy, until I get one.

Playground Fun!

Lyla is starting to really enjoy the playground. I let her play after my workout class each morning, so she's starting to get the hang of it. We took her a couple of times while my parents were here. She loves to climb and slide and she's starting to warm up to the swings again.I love this picture. Lyla is climbing through the tunnel while Dad looks on.That's a proud Papa catching his precious Lyla. Do you see Nana in the picture? She's peeking through the hole. I need to get better at taking pictures of Lyla with people. Poor Nana barely got in the pictures.

Our Halloween Costumes

Tommy dressed up as the Operation game for Halloween. I went as his nurse. Tommy made his costume. He is wearing a hospital gown with a fake butt in the back, but we didn't get a picture of it with our camera. We went to his squadron's Halloween party while Lyla stayed home with my parents.