I'm ready for my close up, mama!

I just took these pics over the weekend... Layla in her new raincoat. I thought I'd take a few closeups to capture her, "innocence". She does look pretty sweet and innocent in these, doesn't she???

What about these...

Not so much.

Total ham bone!!

This morning, our little "ham bone" woke us up at 1:30 a.m., and decided from that point on she would yell / whine / cry for us until we came to get her. At 4:45 a.m., I gave in a brought her into bed with us. That went well - considering all she wanted to do was play. She kept poking me in the nose and then she'd say, "Nose!" really loud. Then she'd put her hands under me and say, "Up!". By 6:30 a.m., she had the entire house in shambles and was cranky and tired. Hmmm... imagine that.

Facebook Bully

Have you ever heard Kramp and Adler's "Facebook Bully" bit on 102.1 in the a.m.?? It's quite hilarious actually, especially to someone who had not yet caved to join the rankings of facebook addicts that seem to be taking over the world. They basically use a few minutes each day to bash random "friends" on their facebook site and the stupid comments they post like, "I just washed my hair and it still reeks of bar", or "I am so hungover I want to die".

Well, I've done it. I've given in to my own personal facebook bullys and am now among the group of addicts who can't stop thinking about facebook, who may have "poked" them recently, who might have accepted or ignored their request to be their "friend", etc. Ahhh!?!?!?!?

We'll see how this goes. So far, I can't stop looking at it and searching for people. I didn't think I'd care, honestly! But this is just crazy! I've already found so many friends who know people that I know... someone. It's like six degrees of separation or something.

Does this make me a follower, because everyone's doing it? Or a realist, because everyone's doing it?

Spring has Sprung!

This weekend was awesome. I had Friday off, as it was Jake's last day of spring break and I thought I'd take the day to chill w/the family. It was our first day of super nice weather, so we spent most of the day outside. I baked on the deck with my vampire book, Eclipse, and Jake thatched the lawn and busted his hump getting the leaves raked and trashed. I ended up with a sweet farmer burn, including a giant white "strip" across my wrist from my watch. I'm such a geek.

Saturday was just as gorgeous, and Layla had a blast out in the sun, caked with sunblock. She has a water table and a sand table that she played with for the entire afternoon. As you'll see, there was no shortage of fun on our deck on Saturday. I didn't have to do a thing. All mama was needed for was the water to fill the water table. After that, miss thang went to it and only asked for me when she thought she needed more "wawor".

Washing dishes. I mean, playing with her water toys and her water table - courtesy of neighbors Ron and Lisa.

That's melted chocolate chip cookie on her chin - courtesy of neighbor Lori!

This is the greatest day ever!

I'm too sexy for my swim suit.

Always so busy... little miss busy.

Nosey Hudson had to have his grill right up in Layla's face while she was sitting in her water table. I think he thought we filled it up just for him. God knows the dog thinks he's in hell when the temp rises above 60. You'd think we were out in 90 degree weather the way he was panting.

Posing for the camera, refusing to take her juice bottle out of her mouth. She has another ear infection and has to take meds for it... the only way we can get her to take the meds is with a bottle.

This is the look I got when I told her it was time to come in for a nap.

She doesn't even look like a baby anymore, does she?!! She looks like a little girl!

Vacation Rules!

A quick explanation on the updated pic for our blog header -- I don't really have one. I just thought this pic was irresistable and cannot believe how much she's grown!! Remember how chubby she was?!?!

Now, on to vacation stuff...

Dude... They need to make Miller Chill boxes in bigger sizes. How are little Layla Bean's supposed to get around in these suckers?!

Look closely... Layla's not the only toddler in this pile of leaves!

Layla: Oh yes Auntie Theresa! Yes please can I drop another color pellet into the water?? I love coloring easter eggs!!

Logan: Mama, can we color rocks?

Layla: If I concentrate really really hard, I will have the best egg!

Logan: Why can't I drop this camera case into one of the color waters?

Layla: Jesus, man! Chillax! Don't you know we're on vacation?

Logan: Uh, yeah! Vacation is AWESOME!!

A few quick glimpses of our first "family vacation" to the Dells. We went with the Meyers, who have posted a good majority of the pictures from our big vacation events. I'll post more when I get the disk from Tee, but until then, here's a snap shot. And, you can check out the Meyer Ranch to see their awesome pics and videos of our trip.

We had a flippin' blast at the Dells and packed in way more than I thought we'd be able to. We went to Mt. Olympus water park and daddy took Layla down a big grown up slide (she loved it, but didn't want to go again, that's for sure), went on a few rides and played games at the Mt. Olympus theme park, went to feed the deer at Deer park (I think that might have been the kids' favorite thing), explored the cabin, went on some walks, went fishin', the mommys got some alone time to shop (thanks for the help pickin' out the jeans, Tee), and the grown ups had a blast playing the Meyer's Wii (see video of my dumb ass playing tennis on the Meyer blog).

Oh, and if you're wondering whether a "vacation" with your kids is really like vacation - where you relax, kick it and do notta mucho... please view video above. Lighting is awful (the cabin we stayed in was attempting to be "romantic" when really they were making it hard to see and walk), but you'll get the jist if your volume is up. This was just before nap time - something you shouldn't attempt to skip on vacation with the kids.

All in all, the vacation was a success. The kids did great and had so much fun playing together. 3 days was the perfect amount of time... by Sunday morning, the kids had had ENOUGH and we're ready to GOOOOO!!! I think we were in the car for maybe 3 minutes before this happened...

Thank you St. Anthony!

Hallelujah! We found our camera!!! Well, Jake found it with a few thousand prayers to good ol St. Anthony! While searching, he also found the safety latches that I bought for all of our cabinets months ago. Both items were under the bed. Poor Layla, she's been taking the heat for a while for those missing items. ;)

Here are a few latest and greatest of Bean...

Bean trying on a pair of Nonnie's comfy shoes. :)

What's in here mama?

Awe! Look at little girly girl's blond pony tail! Love it!!

This video is hysterical. As mentioned above, daddy just found the safety latches for the cabinets. So, he installed them right away. The island cabinets are Layla's favorite. She empties those suckers out at least twice a day and makes one giant mess that drives us (mostly daddy) bonkers. So, this is a video of her figuring out that her favorite fun activity is now on lock down. She starts having a tantrum, but then realizes she's on camera so starts hamming it up for a bit, then goes back to having her tantrum. Man kids are fun.

Tomorrow, we're headed out on our first family "vacation" to the Dells. Staying in a cabin w/our awesome friends Theresa and Brian, and their 1 yr old, Logan. I am so flippin' excited! We're taking the kiddies to a water park (Mt. Olympus) on Friday, then Theresa and I are sneaking away on Saturday for some mommy time while the boys hang back w/the kids. The Easter bunny will be coming to the Dells this year for the kids, and we'll be coloring eggs, hiding easter baskets and playing our hearts out! This vacation is LONG overdue!

Hoppy Easter everyone!!

Dear Grandpa Ice ... My sled

Dear Grandpa Ice,

It's me, Layla Bean. Here are the pictures that mummy and daddy have been hording to themselves for the past few months. I would blame them for being too busy to post these pictures themselves, but frankly, I've been pretty busy too. We'll get into those details later.

Look how much fun I had on my very first sledding excursion with the bestest sled in the world, just for me from my Grandpa Ice! Grandpa, I love my sled! At first, I was a little nervous, wondering why mummy thought it was okay to just set me in some strange contraption on the snow and start pulling me around. But then I realized how much fun it was and whenever mummy or daddy would stop pulling me, I'd just yell, "Noooo!!! Noooo!!" and they would laugh and keep going. I'm not sure what's so funny about that... sledding is serious business.

Next, mum and dad took me down the "big" hill behind our house. It was SCARY, but fun. I tried to be brave and act like I wasn't scared the first time I did the hill, but Grandpa, I was scared. Once I took the first hill ride though, I couldn't get enough!! It was so much fun and mummy and daddy must have been having fun too. They just kept laughing and pulling me back up to the top of the hill, then pushing me down again.

The best part, is that I tried out your new sled on Valentine's Day, which is also you and G'ma D's Anniversary! Oh, how sweet! Thank you again, and I can't wait for it to snow again (mum said I shouldn't say that for another 9 months, but whatever).

As far as me being busy, well, let me tell you... running, running, running. That's what I do. I run. In circles, straight lines, whatever. I've been doing lots of exploring and singing and I think I've found my passion - acting. Maybe dramatic comedies will be my thing... I seem to have both down pat. I'll do anything to get a laugh out of people, and of course, because I'm a beautiful little girl, I need to keep the drama coming. My fake crying is really getting good. Same with my evil frowns and sad faces. Can't wait to show you!!!

Love,
Layla

Finley Lorraine

Congratulations to my dear friend Rachel and her husband Kevin on the birth of their first baby, baby girl Finley Lorraine Pings. Finley was born on Monday afternoon - three weeks early. She weighs 6lbs, 2ozs and is 20.5" long. I actually went to lunch and a movie with Rachel on Sunday, just hours before she ended up going into labor! I remember thinking that I needed to call her and tell her to go get her "pre-labor" pedi becuase I could tell from her belly and the things she was telling me that she was going to have that little one early. I just didn't think it would be the next day!!

Mama, daddy and baby girl are all doing wonderfully and are headed home today!!