16 months old today!

Lyla is 16 months old today! I thought this was a classic picture of her to celebrate! She loves to show us her belly button and she posed nicely for me.

Updates:
It's been a couple weeks since my last post and need to update you on Lyla's 15 month appointment. She is 31 inches tall (60%) and 21 pounds 6 oz big (40%). She is still right on track so that's great!

Goddaughter's baptism:

Matt, Lyla and I went up to the Green Bay area for our goddaughter Allison's baptism. My friend Stacey came up from Florida to have her triplets confirmed. Here are her triplets (Allison, Tanner, Jasmine) along with Mason and Father John.

Allison, me, Matt and Lyla at the party afterwards!

Lyla's best buddy Natalie was along as well. Lyla and Natalie play during the week at our sitters and she was at the baptism too (her parents are godparents to Tanner). Of course I can't get any pictures of children looking at the camera!

Trip to IL:
Last weekend we made a trip back to IL to see my family. We finally got to meet our nephew Colin for the first time too!

My cousin's threw a party for my aunt and uncle's 60th birthday and my mom and I threw an Open House for Brett, Megan and Colin the following day. We got to see a lot family and friends!

Here is Lyla and Anne (my cousin Jody's daughter). They are only 3 months apart but this is as close as we could get them for a picture on the couch.
Lyla and Colin.

Lyla and Keira (my cousin Nick's daughter) played at the open house.

Great Uncle Jon with Lyla and Anne. Now they are warming up to each other.

More pictures of Lyla:

Showing off my teeth. I now have 7 and the 8th one is coming in shortly!

Smiling pretty

Playing dress up with my sunglasses and backpack

That's it from us! Enjoy your weekend.

Happy 4th of July!

Lyla and I went back to IL to visit family a couple weeks ago. I thought about it and I haven't been back since Christmas! Needless to say we tried to see as many people as we could.

Great Grandma Knox with Lyla and Alicia

Grandpa and Grandma Knox with Lyla


We had a relaxing Father's Day by staying home and spending time with family. My parents came up for the weekend so I could finally give my mom and Peggy their Mother's Day presents= pedicures! We had to get pampered for the day but I think it was well worth it! On Sunday, we got ice cream and a slush for Dad and went to the lake for Ella and Lyla to go swimming.

Lyla loving Ella once again!

Lyla continues to be a big helper around the house. She loves to be where you are and help with anything you are doing. She just loves mowing the grass with dad too! If dad starts the mower or 4 wheeler, you know she is ready to go for a ride! Good luck getting her off too!

Lounging on Dad's John Deere. Am I old enough to mow by myself?

We just went to the Milwaukee Zoo yesterday with a few of my college friends. We had a whole clan of kids! My friend Stacey who lives in Florida has 4 (3 triplets and her son Mason) and my friend Mandy has her son Jonathan (which Lyla has had play dates with). The kids did great and we had a great time seeing all the animals.

Mason giving Lyla a big hug

First time on a carousel with Daddy

The big clan at the zoo! 6 adults and 6 kids! I'm holding Allison Marie which is Matt's and my goddaughter. We will be going to the triplets baptism next weekend.

Big smile for the camera

Petting the goats. Mom, why aren't they as soft as Ella?

Big smile with momma

Today is the 4th of July and Matt and I plan on going to the Zac Brown Band and Dave Matthews Band tonight. Hopefully the rain holds off! Lyla and Ella are having a slumber party and Grandma and Grandpa Brown's tonight!

Have a great long weekend!

Who is Lyla Marie Brown?

Since many of you don't see Lyla on a daily/weekly basis, I decided to give everyone a snapshot of who little Lyla is since she has been 1 year old.

• Words she says: "dada", "daddy", "mama", "ba" for objects she points at, "lala" for Lyla and Ella we think, "na na" for night night, "hi", and "ma" for more. Of course she has a lot of other words in there but I don't know what they are yet!
• 2 word sentence: Matt called on the phone last Friday and I said to Lyla, say "hi daddy" and she did! She said it twice so I know it wasn't a fluke. Too cute!
• Tantrums: We have a little girl that likes to throw tantrums already. If she didn't get her way, she will start crying, lay down on the floor and sometimes hits her head or pounds her feet on the floor. A little early for this aren't we?
• "No": She also doesn't like to be told no. What child does? At first she would start crying but now she just looks at us like she doesn't care! Of course this depends on her mood. She knows when she shouldn't go somewhere or touch something so when she hears the word "no" she typically will jump a little and look at you with a smile.
• Kisses: She has been throwing goodbye kisses for a while but she has been giving kisses too. As long as we make her kiss sound like "ma", she may give you a kiss on the cheek if you are lucky!
• Teeth: Lyla still just has 3 teeth (2 on the bottom and 1 on top). Someday she will get a matching top tooth!
• Food: Lyla is a good little eater. She typically eats whatever we are having. She likes veggies like peas and green beans and just loves fruit like peaches and applesauce. She's really big into french fries too. That's her mom's favorite! Even with 3 teeth, she can gum a lot of food!
• Mom's little helper: Lyla is already a clean little girl. She knows when something is out of place and will point to it and talk (Like when dad keeps the kitchen cabinet doors open). She also knows where most things go. She might take something and play with it but then she will put it back when she's done! Let's hope this continues!
• Miss Independent: She definitely has a mind of her own. When she wants to do something, she will let you know!
• Shoes: I think we already have a shoe fetish on own hands. She just loves shoes! Every time we go up to her room, she will open her closet door on her own and grab as many shoes as she can and walk around with them. She will also grab Matt's and my shoes (matching mind you) and try to put them on. She loves my heels!
• Active: She is a very active girl. She is into everything and doesn't want to sit still. Maybe that's why I'm so tired today!

Well there's a little update on Lyla and what type of little girl she is. She is such a blessing to our family and we couldn't be any happier!

What has Lyla been up to?

We went to the zoo 2 weekends ago for the first time! Lyla saw many animals like giraffe, monkeys, rhinos, tigers, and bears oh my! She was really interested in seeing the animals too. She even had a little conversation with the bison since they were up close to listen. She can talk a big talk!

Getting ready for the zoo


Looking cute in my sunglasses

I even kept my sunglasses and bow in the whole day!

Come on dad! Let's hurry to see the giraffe

Lyla's new thing starting last week was climbing on everything! Did I say Everything? She loves to get up on chairs, couches, her toys and anything that will make her taller. She was climbing in the pop up last weekend when we were camping. She was going from the floor, to the area where the table is, to the bed. She definitely amazes me how quick she can climb up on something too. I heard she maybe following in some one's footsteps too??? Let's hope she doesn't try to climb out of her crib or I won't be sleeping too soundly anymore.

Playing on my toy!

Life is rough

Lyla went swimming for the first time a couple weekends ago. We went to a lake so Ella could swim too. Lyla watched Ella the whole time and we helped her get deeper and deeper in the water. She even had the water up to her chest! We also went swimming last weekend and she really did well then. We may have two girls that love to swim.

Looking cute in my swim gear

We went camping for the first time this year over Memorial Day weekend. It was nice to get out and do something away from home. Lyla decided not to go to bed too early (probably around 9:00ish) b/c it was still light out and then wanted to get up around 5 a.m. b/c the sun was shining in. To say the least, we didn't get a lot of sleep but it was still fun to go.

Hanging out with Ella on her bed (which Lyla climbed up to)

Lounging in my own camping chair

This weekend we stayed close to home. We think Lyla may have allergies b/c her eyes have been pink for over 1 week. We took her to the doctor and they said it wasn't pink eye. Her eyes looked very good yesterday (since we were in all day Friday and most of Saturday) until we went out that night to Matt's cousin's graduation party. I'm hoping she doesn't have allergies but I don't know what else it could be.

Well I'm off to be productive. I see I have a lot of weeds coming in but not sure if I feel THAT productive!

Lyla the big helper

I just wanted to send a quick video of Lyla this morning. She is a big helper and she loves taking care of Ella.

Enjoy!

Busy Days

We continue to stay busy and find lots to do over the weekends.

On Mother's Day weekend, we had a friend from college wedding to go to on Saturday. We got to see all our college friends and it almost felt like old times...even after weddings, babies and more babies! My friend Stacey stayed over on Saturday with her son Mason. Lyla just loved following Mason around and playing. On Sunday, we had my parents and Matt's parents over for lunch so we didn't have to deal with the crowds. It was nice and relaxing; just what all of us needed. I got a nice card and gift card from Banana b/c Lyla knew how much I liked that store. I think she just wanted to go shopping!

Last weekend Matt was fishing with a friend so Lyla and I decided to go shopping. She is my little shopper. She did great the whole day and she even got clothes out of it too! Let's hope this continues!

It is going to be beautiful this weekend so we are taking Lyla to the zoo for the first time. I'm interested in what she will think with all the animals. Tomorrow it's supposed to be almost 90 so we will see how we handle the heat wave!

Swinging with my buddy Mason

Pulling pedals and trying to put them back on

I'm ready for Devil's Lake climbing the rocks!

Trying to put the pedals back on the flower

Laying on by buddy Ella like usual

I'm cool!

Isn't this how you are supposed to wear a hat?

Have a great weekend!

Happy 5th Anniversary

Matt and I just celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary this past Friday! We celebrated by Matt coming home and surprising me with red roses, Toppers cheese sticks (our favorite!) and my favorite beer Spotted Cow and watching a movie. Matt has been sick all weekend so we have taken it easy and stuck around the house!

Lyla loves to smile and crinkle her nose lately! I caught a few pictures of her doing this recently!

See my teeth?

Here is Lyla helping dad cut the grass.

That's it from us! Have a great week!