Sweet Pea, Apple of my Eye

Lyla girl is 10 months old now!  I can't believe she's this old, but I'm also a little relieved to be past the little baby stage and into the fun, learning stage.  We are loving this spunky girl.  I still think she is going to have quite a sense of humor and fun-loving personality.  It's so fun seeing her personality unfold, trying to figure her out.  Here are a few stats about her:

-At her 9 month appt, she was 75% for height, 30% for weight, and 50% for head.  She currently wears 6-9 month and 12 month clothing.  Size 2 shoes.
-She surprised us at Christmas by walking her little push toy.  We didn't know she could do that.
-She is so active.  She is a very fast crawler and sometimes she reminds me of a little spider.  She cruises all around furniture and basically gets around.  She loves to be in the action too.
-Praise God, she started sleeping through the night, only like a week ago.  But I already feel much more rested.  Consequently, her eating has improved too.  When she was still doing night feedings, she was not so interested in nursing or solids during the day.  Now she loves both.
-She has taken 2 steps at a time, but doesn't go further than that.  So, I think we will have an official "walker" in a few weeks.
-I can eat dairy now, but I had ice cream last night and she was pretty fussy today, so I think more creamy dairy like that still affects her a little.  But I'm very glad she seems to be outgrowing this.  Caffeine still affects her.
-She is into toilets, trashcans, and diaper pails these days.  Sigh.
-She is starting to obey "no, no" sometimes.  She has finally given up on the dog food.
-She really loves mama right now, especially if she gets hurt or is fussy.  However, she gets very excited to see Caleb when he gets home from work.  It's pretty darn cute.
-She also says "mama" now and I love it, because Emerson didn't say mama til he was 1.  And she definitely associates it with me.  I got a massage today (thanks, hubby!) and while I was gone, Caleb said she kept asking for me saying "mama" repeatedly.  "Dada" was her first word, however.  She has possibly said "dog" and "bubba", but I'm not totally convinced.
-She can point out some objects in books.  She loves to point in general :)
-She is not one for kissing lately, but some mornings, after I get her out of bed and feed her, she'll give me a great, big kiss and I soak it up!!
-She recently got both top front teeth, so she now has 4.  I think she is working on the ones beside her top front two, though.
-She hates taking medicine.  Loathes it.
-She is very mischievous.  Pesters brother.  Determined to get into the toilet.  And get this... the other day, after I sucked her nose (she's been sick since Thanksgiving), I picked her up to comfort her and she deliberately grabbed my hair and pulled it!  And when I moved my hair, she started looking for my earrings to pull!! She knows those are both "no, no's" so she was purposely trying to get even with me!  I didn't know whether to laugh or worry about how full our hands will be with this girl!  Oh, dear.
-She is still a mini-me.  I can't tell you how many times I have heard these exact words: "She looks JUST like you!!"

Ok, I think this is a long enough list.  We are having lots of fun with our two littles these days.  We do have the sharing disputes and picking on each other issues, but we are also enjoying having an older baby and the freedoms that come along with it.  My heart bursts with love for my babies and I can't believe they are growing right before my eyes.  Am I really about to have a 1 and 3 year old?  I'm baffled.  I'm blessed.  Here are some pics!

Lyla's First Snow... She didn't quite know what to think.

 The following picture was one of my most favorite moments.. both kids had just woken from their naps and were very cuddly.  My arms and heart just felt SO full.  Please notice how Emerson and Lyla are looking at each other.  And how Emerson is touching Lyla.  Be still my heart!

Big girl!

Look at me, mom!

The dog crate is always a favorite among kids this age :)

My Blog

Hey friends!  So, if you are a regular-ish follower you may have noticed that I've been slightly absent from the blog lately.  To be honest, initially I chose to take a little break to kind of examine my motives behind having a blog and also ask myself what the purpose of my blog is.  When I first began my blog, I was pregnant with Emerson and wanted to start a blog to just document our family life.  But as time went on, it became very easy to fall into the blog world, caring too much about page views and comments and comparing myself to other bloggers, even though this is just a little old family blog!  Silly, I know.

So, after considering it, I have decided to continue blogging semi-regularly and to mainly keep it about our family.  I know this is not a topic that gets big time page views, but that is not the purpose of my blog.  I want to document our family life just so I have it to look back on one day when my little ones are not so little anymore.  And, who knows, maybe they would like to look at it too one day.  So, I'm sorry I won't be blogging about popular topics.  I will probably only blog about other things if I really feel led by the Lord to do so.  Maybe one day when the kids are in school and I have more time, I will devote more time to the blog.  But for now, it will be about the fam.

Along with the new year, many desires spring up within me to do better at things.  There are so many things I could do better at  right now... cleaning, eating, exercising, home projects, blogging, to name a few, which are mostly worldly things in my opinion.  Since it is not very realistic for me to devote lots of time to those things right now, I feel led to make a few things my priorities.  One, spiritual growth.  I want to write His Word on my heart.  I want regular Spirit empowered prayer.  I want to be used by Him, however he wants to use me.  And I want to be all here, with my family.  Caleb and I are challenging ourselves to put away our phones.  I'm tired of carrying that thing with me everywhere I go.  I don't want to be glued to it anymore.

So, yeah.  That's what's going on here I guess :)  I will try to write a Lyla update this week!  Enjoy the beautiful winter wonderland and stay warm!