22 Months!

Laurelea you have become so expressive this month. You have started to put words together and are forming sentences. Most of the time it is still in command form, "Mama come", or "Daddy up, please". Your Daddy went on a trip this month to Vegas and when he got home he remarked that your vocabulary had doubled in the few days that he was gone. As we are with you all the time, I don't think we often see all the changes and developments.

You are amazed with the holiday season (this is genetic of course). In the evenings on our way home from day care we have to drive through the neighborhood to "look lights". We went to the mall the other day and we stopped by Santa's workshop at least three times. You are very curious about this Santa person and are always on the lookout for him. You are not quite ready to get up close to him or say hi to him, but you do enjoying looking at him. 

You are becoming more timid  and cautious in new settings and it takes you awhile to warm up to something new, which is alright by us as. 

You have always loved reading but this past month you have started reading books to us. You have a few favorites that you like to read to us. You enjoying identifying animals, babies and motor vehicles. 

The last few weeks you have been fighting a cold, but seem to have beat it without the aid of antibiotics. This is probably only the second time in your life that you have done this. It's a great thing that your little body is starting to fight colds and viruses on your own. It still seems to hang out in your chest, but that is just you and we are getting better at learning what you need to kick these nasty bugs. 

This time of year is our favorite and we can't wait to share the holiday season with you this year. We love you lots and lots Sugar Bee! 

Hugs, Mama and Daddy

Not a lot of love for Woody today, so we touched his nose

hugged on daddy

had daddy sit with Woody (smart cookie, look at that grin)

big girl

Look who is at our house! 

Daley's 3rd Birthday Bash

Daley had her third birthday party at the Little Gym in Silver Spring. It was so much fun and L loved running around and playing on all the play equipment. What a neat idea for a little ones birthday party. 

L and Lola (Daley's sister) 

birthday girl showing off her moves. She was so good at this

dancing with the instructors

this was L's favorite

balls! 

a certain someone was so excited with herself that she could do this

I think she was a little surprised that her arms could hold her

Telling Lola some secrets

Pizza and cake!

George Turns One!

George is one! It's hard to believe that he is already a year old. Lonna and Clay went all out and had the best birthday bash for the little man. 

George all smiles in his new cozy coope

2 cute kiddos in a cozy coope

L and Naomi

L sneaking in a smootch ...

adorable car decor

all the adorable car themed food

L having a snack with the cute decorations in the background

adorable car cake

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Advent Calendar- Day 1

This morning Laurelea got her first gift from the advent calendar. I told her that Santa was leaving little presents for her each day until Christmas. She was very worried about it and asked me to make certain that it didn't pop. Often presents from family are wrapped in bubble wrap. On a few occasions I might have thought it was fun to pop them. She is super sensitive to loud noises and so with the promise of no bubble wrap and no pops we opened her first little stocking! 

It's a car! She loved it. 

Crafty Family

I realize that this is a blog dedicated to updating everyone on the life of L, but I could not resist the chance to post on some of our recent projects...

Mom and I made adorable sheep to take to a neighborhood party

Had to include a picture of L with her crafty turkey day hat that she made at day care!

I took my baking skills to the next level by making my own fondant. It actually tastes better than store bought and although messy, is really fun to do...

Here is a bat cake that I made gluten free for a friend's engagement

what I'm most excited about is the advent calendar idea that I came up with...

I found these little stockings at Big Lots, added numbers, hung them in our kitchen and taa daa- Advent Calendar!

O' Christmas Tree

We went to Home Depot to get our tree this year.... 

We checked out all the options

L decided on this one

so we went with it and brought it home

she had fun helping decorate the tree

Antietam

On our way home we went by Antietam, known as the bloodiest civil war battle fields. It was a driving tour of over 8 miles of sites and scenic beauty. L even enjoyed the tour.

at the visitors center