9 month pictures

Here are Layla's 9 month pics . . even though it's still chilly here, I tried to make them "springy"!

Our house!

Our offer was accepted on a house this past Friday!!!!! :) We are setting up the inspection this week and I'm going to try to take a few pics so ya'll can see it! It is 1,770 square feet (built in 2005), 2 story with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. It's about an hour south of where we are now, but we are very excited about the neighborhood! It's in a quiet, no thru traffic, cul-de-sac area with Mount Rainier in our backyard - literally!! The house has a fenced in back yard - not big - but just enough room for the girls to run around and we can put some play equipment out there at some point! Danny will be taking the train into downtown Seattle for work, which is keeping his commute time the same as it is now! We spent today checking out flooring and paints :) Very reminiscent of Will Ferrell and his wife from "Old School" . . . we had a busy Sunday hanging out at Loew's :) We are looking at a closing date on or before March 28th so the next month looks to be busy busy busy . . but in a great way! I'm so excited about finally being able to paint Ella's bedroom pink if I want to :)

The search . .

Danny and I looked at 12 homes yesterday and fell in love with one :) We made an offer on it today and we should know something by the end of the week! Please keep us in your prayers! If the offer is accepted (I'm afraid to get my hopes up) I will go into more detail about the house :)

Sunshiny day!

The last 2 days have been amazing here, so I took advantage today and let the girls get some fresh air at the park with friends!

Sooo happy to be out of the apartment!


Grayson was eating a healthy snack of Cheerios and Layla
found a woodchip to eat off the ground!


Grayson is such a gentleman - letting all the girls eat his food!


They both seemed to have found something!

Little moments

Well it's pretty hard to get Ella to sit still, let alone pose, for any really good pics, but I've got a good story to share! On Wed, we had a repair man from Verizon out working on our phones, and during the time he was here, Ella decided to find and put on some of my most "mature" underwear and run around the house saying "mommy, I tootied" (which she gets a big kick out of right now)! How is it they know exactly what to say/do at exactly the right moment to make you want to crawl into a hole!?!? Luckily, the repair man just laughed and explained that he had 3 boys of his own and he's remembers having toddlers! Oh goodness! I could go on and on about all the funny stuff she does - or atleast what she thinks is funny :) She is speaking in full sentences - most of them clear, but it helps if I'm around to translate! She's begun to get embarrased whenever she gets in trouble and will run away and hide her face from you - and she even has given me the silent treatment - no joke!! She's definitely my daughter!!! Her favorite word at the moment (besides "I tootied") is "what's that?" - usually followed up with a "that's mine!!" Although I am sure she is going to give me gray hair eventually - she's so much fun!


Doesn't she already have that "too cool for school" look down!!

Bed Head?

No, that's just how her hair looks all the time! It's too fine to hold a barrette, but too long not to go crazy!


Grayson came over to play for a bit today - they just sit on the floor and smile at eachother! You couldn't find two easier babies to watch!

V-Day!

Danny and I aren't big Valentine folks, but he did bring home Twizzlers for Ella, a love she inherited from me, and Toblerone chocolate for me - YUMMY!! He even took us to Dairy Queen after our Little Ceasar's pizza! Sounds pretty normal for our family, though :)

Hanging out at DQ!


Trying a blizzard for the first time :) I'm so proud!!


We've passed on the hat to Layla!


Layla tried and tried to rip into my candy bar! It's as big as she is!!

9 month check-up!

Layla was 9 months old this week! We had a few "hiccups" at her visit today but nothing major! She's grown an inch in the last 3 months - she is now 29 inches long, keeping her in the 95% for height. Unfortunatly she has not gained any weight which was a little weird (although she is still in the 90%) so I'm switiching to formula to see if that helps, and in 2 months she'll be able to drink whole milk! We found out she's anemic so we have to put her on some vitamins for a bit, and our pediatricina has her on a "gross motor watch" (not my words) because she won't bear weight on her legs and she's not pulling up or trying to crawl at the moment - so they've put me on alert to just work with her and see if I can strengthen her legs. It's hard to get her to move when we have Ella wanting to do EVERYTHING for her, so I'm going to have to put the hammer down on that for a bit :) I'm not expecting anything to be wrong with Layla but we will check it out again in May at her year appointment. No shots today, so that's always a good thing!!

Layla was reading over the dr.'s notes :)


Really, NO weight gain?!?!? Look at those legs :)

Friends

We went to play with Isabella and "baby din" (that's what Ella calls him) Fin today!

Having a pre-lunch snack!


Snuggling on the couch!


Dancing to "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"! (what a great book!!)


Layla saying hi to Fin!

House Hunting - FINALLY!!

WOW! Danny & I will be married 5 years in July and we've lived in 4 states, in 6 apartments and now we are finally getting to find a house of our own!! I'm sure many of you reading this are shocked, since I have been very open about NOT wanting to stay in Seattle :) but you would think I would've learned by now, never to say never! After many talks with Danny and many more prayers, I finally feel at peace with our decision and am excited about finding a home for our girls to grow up in(atleast for a while)! It makes it even better to know that I have a wonderful group of friends here who I've come to love and who the girls love as well!!
We are looking south of the city, because you can get a lot more house for your money, and although the commute is longer, Danny will be taking the train in rather than the bus! We are hoping to move before summer but we are trying to taking it one day at a time . . we know that God has something out there waiting for us!
I'm a bit overwhelmed and anxious about buying a home, but luckily Danny seems to think nothing of it :) I guess that's why we make a good pair!! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this next part of our lives . . although I guess moving cross-country was the hard part! We'll keep you posted!

Caucus for Obama!

So Danny & I went to our first caucus yesterday, girls in tow, and really got excited about it all - atleast I did!! It was a bit disorganized but in the end Obama won our pricint and took the state of WA as well :) Danny and I both gave 1 minute speeches (that's all they would allot you) about why we were voting for Obama and had a good back and forth dialogue between the Clinton supporters! In fact, I got so involed, I am now a delegate for Obama!!! Which means I am going to the Legislative District caucus in April to "spread the word" about why people should be voting Obama! I would love to get to go to the DNC in Denver this year, but I won't hold my breath! All in all - it was a good day! I feel proud that instead of complaining about what is wrong with our country, Danny & I are actually trying to do something about it!!

I am seeing a run for the president of the PTA in my future :)

Rally for Obama!

Barack Obama was in Seattle today at Key Arena! Celeste & I were making the trip down, when we were told that the arena had reached capacity and even the crowds in the street were causing problems! It's amazing to witness all the support for one man! I was very bummed not to get in because after hearing Hillary speak (posted below) I was sooo pumped to go hear Barack! My friend sent me this video from YouTube . . pretty cool!

Rally for Hillary!

OK, So I've never been the poster girl for politics and I'm still trying to decide who I'll be caucusing for tomorrow (yes, we caucus here in Washington!) but on my quest to become more involved and informed, Celeste and I went to hear Hillary speak at the Port of Seattle last night! Although I am not a backer of Hillary it was quite an event to witness and even I could not help be energized! There were 5,000 people there and Celeste and I were in the thick of it - high-heeled boots and all :)If nothing else comes from it, I love that I will be able to tell Ella & Layla someday that I got to see and hear the first woman to run for President! And whether you like Hillary or not, or agree with her politics - what an amazing time in history!

We were smack in the middle of the crowd!


It was hard for me to get a good shot!


We stood for 3 hours amongst Seattle's best and not so best :)

Pretty in Pink

Just a few pics of Layla today! She is growing more and more! She finally cut her first tooth yesterday! I've been saying for months, "oh, she's must be teething" and I'd finally come to terms that I was going to have a toothless child but she has proved me wrong yet again!! She's not crawling yet, but instead just rolls to get everywhere - which is fine for us! She has her 9 month check up next week! She is drinking from a sippy cup with every meal and although she will eat baby food still, she really wants whatever we are eating - especially if Ella is eating it :) She just remains such a happy little girl and I love listening to her laugh all day!!

Funny babies!

Grayson, one of Layla's many beaus, came to play today and I thought this picture was too funny! It looks like there was more than milk in their sippy cups :)

Rainforest Cafe!

We went to the Rainforest Cafe tonight! Let me say that if you have kids and have one near you, you need to go! A little on the pricey side, but pretty good, and honestly you go more for the atmosphere! Unfortunately for us, it will most likely be the only time we go for a very ling time! Both the girls kept freaking out and wouldn't really go near anything!! If you don't know the restaurant here's a bit of background - it's done up completely like a rain forest - tress and animals and all! And about every 30 mins there is a thunderstorm and all the animals "wake-up" and start moving! Because it is a very dark restaurant, flash photography was a bit tricky but I tried to get a few :)

Ella was never quite too sure about the place!


Layla chowed down on some pizza crust!


I tried to get a little bit of the ambiance


This guy actually moves towards you, with his mouth open
and growls at you! I guess I can see how it might be a bit scary!!


They have a huge fish tank that spans over the eating area!
The fish actually scared Layla the most?!?!?

(sorry for the bad lighting!!!)