Who knew?

That apples could solve all our problems? We had the chance to catch up with Fiona and Heather over the weekend and Heather had a nice bowl of apples sitting out. We were amazed at how much time both girls spent with their prospective apples. Apples are the baby sitting tool that we've been looking for!

L working her way through an apple.. skin and all

Fiona showing her mad apple eating skills

Fiona-double fisting!

11 Months Old!

11 months have come and gone in a blur. You had quite the month, from experiencing Christmas festivities to meeting your nemesis (Santa). But the best part about this month was the opportunity to travel to Seattle and Dallas to see family. You loved getting to meet all your great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Your first holiday season was celebrated in 3 States, spanning 6 houses. You became quite the world traveler and loved every minute of it . . . especially the opportunity to meet animal friends along the way.

You took your first steps this month. Every day you get braver and takes a few more steps. You also have become quite the communicator, expressing yourself and your likes and dislikes as best you can. You also have formed a strong bond with several Christmas toys and are demonstrating a real love of dolls. We got the horrible parents award this month and took you to get tested for allergies, but the positive part is that we found out that you are allergy free, which is a huge relief for us. We have such an amazing little daughter and it is hard to imagine that in just a few weeks our little Bee will be a year old. We can't wait for all the fun and exciting things you will be up to this month. Big hugs!

Trying to get L to sit for her picture...

Added Stella to the mix to see if that would keep her still

But she prefered jumping from the couch into Dad's arms

still would not stay still

So Cory sat with her and Woody :)

Independent Eater

Check her out. She was not a fan of eating tonight and Cory figured out why...

4 Generations!

L in her New Years hat from Neen

4 generations!

Grammy and her L

Love this picture of Grammy

:)

Cousins!

On New Years Day L got to meet her cousin Caroline. We've been waiting a long time for the chance for them to meet. They loved each other and L was very gentle with Caroline. We've been working on this quite a bit!

The girls meet

Alyson, Caroline, Cory and L

We are right handed finger suckers. It must be genetic!

Don't we look alike here?

L practicing her gentle touches

Christmas with Grammy and Neen



L and Grammy playing with her Jack in the Bear. Thankfully she got the hang of it and loved trying to figure out how it worked.

We celebrated Christmas with Grammy and Neen next. We are up to 5 Christmas celebrations! Laurelea is one lucky girl. She had really gotten the hang of opening gifts but most importantly it was such fun to spend quality time with all the family. Here are some of the highlights from our day:

Laurelea checking out the tree

She loved Grammy's gingerbread people

Hugs with Neen

Hi-Five

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's

Opening up gifts from Grandpa and Grandma

From Seattle we traveled to Dallas to celebrate the holidays with family. Our first stop was at Grandpa and Grandma's. We had Christmas together in the morning and then they hosted all of Grandpa's family that afternoon. There were a lot of people so unfortunately I did not get many pictures of the party. Laurelea charmed the entire bunch and we look forward to another Carlyle family get together!

Thanks for the headband. I'd rather play with it than wear it!

Grandpa and Grandma opening gifts.

L playing with Stella

Playing with the camera settings

L and Cory in the tree in the front yard

L taking her Dad for a walk

Cory and L flying around the yard! It was so nice in Dallas that we got to play outside.

Chris, Spring and L.

Love this picture! 3 generations of Carlyle.