January's Pictures

January has been a long month. With all of the snow and cold temperatures we have been going a little stir crazy! Thank goodness we have the new playroom to help beat the winter blues. Lyla is talking more and more everyday. She is starting to learn some letters and colors (so far brown is her favorite?). I'm amazed at all of the new things she is doing everyday. She comes up and rubs/kisses/hugs my belly several times throughout the day and says, "Baby!" I have no idea if she actually knows what is going on but it is really sweet nonetheless. We have also joined The Little Gym here in St. Louis and Lyla goes to gym class every Thursday morning. She LOVES it. I love this opportunity for her to interact with other kids her age, burn off some energy, and work on confidence and coordination. This last week she was doing somersaults…won't be long til they are back handsprings! :) I'm really enjoying this age and I'm trying to soak up every moment with her before the baby comes, which will be here before I know it! (Warning: there are a lot of pics this month)

Enjoying her New Year's day breakfast

Hugging baby sister :)

Where's Lyla??

This girl is obsessed with socks…even though she is barefoot most of the time

Third trimester!

She was having quite the conversation with her dog

Watching Mommy get ready for family date night

Love these two!

Pi Pizza with the Trotts

Lyla and her friend Easton

We finally had a couple of days where we could get outside and play. This girl would not slow down!

Tuesday mornings are very exciting when the garbage truck comes

Feeding her lamb

I let her go for a ride with Daddy in the driveway, he revved it a couple of times and she LOVED it

All ready for church

 Why wear one necklace when you can wear 5?

Now on to the bracelets...

"Lyla, do you want to give the kitties treats?"

For some reason they just won't come to her :(

Shootin' hoops (Heath has her saying "Boom" now every time she makes it)

Having fun at Easton's birthday party

At least someone can fit into my old clothes

Play date at Monkey Joe's with Jude

Her first gym class

Our Weekly Winter Escape

I have finally found the perfect place to take a toddler who LOVES animals but has a pregnant mom who doesn't want to venture out in the cold to the zoo or the park - Petco. This has become our weekly escape. I can let her run through the store and some days we have spent almost an hour looking at the cats, fish, birds, hamsters, mice, and of course her favorite, the ferret. God bless the Petco workers who practically know us by name now and know we aren't there to buy anything, just to burn off some energy.

All you have to say is "Petco" and she runs to put on her shoes

I think this is the one time this cat is glad to be in a glass cage!

Snow-mageddon

Going to the grocery store the day before a big snow storm hits is a HUGE mistake! It took 15 minutes to find a parking spot, then there was a line to get a shopping cart, and the checkout line took almost half an hour. Luckily Lyla was very patient! However, we were able to get everything we needed to brave the storm - especially since Daddy had taken off to sunny Phoenix for his annual sales meeting. We ended up getting around a foot of snow, which then drifted like crazy! Once the temperatures were out of the negatives, Lyla and I were able to go out and enjoy the snow for about 20 minutes. One major downside to being pregnant and having the hubby out of town when a snowstorm hits is the fact there is no one to shovel snow - which means we didn't go anywhere for five days. FIVE. DAYS. Needless to say Lyla and I were both a little stir crazy! We did enjoy lots of time reading books, coloring, snuggling, and we may or may not have gotten dressed a couple of days :). Here are a few pics from Snow-mageddon 2014.

Waiting for the snow to start

Not quite finished yet

Some days had a few of these moments…not just from Lyla ;)

One morning as soon as we came downstairs she grabbed her coat & hat - "Please, mom, can we go somewhere today?!?"

We spent a lot of time in the new playroom 

Probably my favorite part of being snowed in (our house was so cold & dry, her poor chapped cheeks)

One afternoon two neighborhood boys offered to shovel my driveway (for a fee of course), they only lasted about 20 min. and I still couldn't go anywhere

Finally "warm" enough to venture outside

Helping me make pancakes one morning

These two enjoyed the extra snuggle time as well

She was so excited the morning she woke up and Daddy was finally home! (So was Mommy)

This was taken a few days after all of the snow had melted…she wasn't too happy we couldn't keep sledding