Recent Videos of Laila!

Laila doing karate!






Knocking on the door!







Showing us her dancing moves!

We think it is so cute how she says "uppy" for up!

Laila loves going around the circles in our house! On this video she grabbed Daddy's hand and took him around with her!

September & October

I can't believe it is coming up on 2 months since I've updated our blog! These past few months have been super busy with moving into a new house and all that entails. It seems like it has taken extra long to get organized and settled with a little toddler running around and getting into everything! We are loving our new home though! We are so excited to have our own space again and we're thanking God that He provided this situation for us.

Even though I have not been good at updating the blog lately, I've still been taking plenty of pictures of our sweet little Laila...surprise, surprise! :) Those of you who keep up with us on Facebook have probably seen most of these pictures already, although there may be a few new ones and some new videos as well (coming in another post). Hope you enjoy!!!

Enjoying a dinner out with Laila's Aunts!

Laila loves lemons!

Aunt Susie and Aunt Bekah!

Enjoying her new chair!

She loves cuddling up in her chair with a book (or an old VHS cover!)

She has found another use for it as well!

16 months old!

Helping unpack all the boxes! :)

The bows never last long!

Telling Mama she is hungry!

Trying on Aunt Holly's high-heels!

Cuddling with Aunt Holly!

Laila's 1st big boo-boo! She tripped and fell into a ledge/step up in our house. She cut the inside of her mouth pretty good and it was gushing with blood. At the time it was a little traumatic not only for her but for Mama and Daddy as well, but she was a trooper and was over pretty quickly. Her lip was swollen for a little while (which made her talk funny!) and she had a mark on the outside of her face for a few days, but her teeth don't seem to have been affected and she didn't need stitches, thank goodness! Even though she's okay now, it still makes my stomach turn and my heart ache just thinking about it. The crazy thing was that I had just thought about that happening the night before, but then thought what are the chances. Ughhh...should have listened to my Mommy instincts! Of all the places she could trip and fall, why did it have to be in to a step? Later in the day after we calmed down from the event, we went and bought edge protectors for the step down in our house...hopefully it will never happen again but if it does there will be some extra cushion there!

The Kantor Family, our friends from Tallahassee, came to Orlando for a vacation and we got to spend some time with them at Sea World! We had a great time!

Somehow she convinced Daddy to let her bring her lamby to Sea World! She wants to take that thing everywhere now!

Josh and Ben!

Laila playing the drums!

Laila and Ben!

Laila loves Sea World!

I am still so amazed by this everytime I see it!

Papa Schuck came to visit and Laila wanted him to read her a story!

On our daily visit to play with Scooter!

Walking Scooter in her new shoes from Oma!

Laila knows how to zip and unzip Scooter's carrier now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Daddy!!!!

Laila and Daddy are getting ready to enjoy a yummy breakfast for Daddy's birthday here!

This is her new silly face! It's hilarious!

Holding her nose and saying stinky, thanks to Daddy! :)

At Kobe's for Daddy's birthday dinner!

Kisses for Daddy!

To my fellow Nole fan friends....Yes, Laila is wearing a Gator jersey. This is because she loves her Daddy very much, but she was born in Tallahassee and I know she bleeds garnet! Go FSU! :)

Mommy and Laila in our Maggie Valley, NC t-shirts! Actually, the one Mommy is wearing belongs to Daddy and the one Laila is wearing belonged to Aunt Bekah when she was little, I think. They used to vacation there quite a bit growing up. Now it is one of our little family's favorite places to visit too!

15 Months!

Today was Laila's 15 month check-up! She weighs 21 lbs, 13 oz and is 30 1/2 inches tall! We are so thankful she is healthy and happy (most of the time!) and doing great! We praise the Lord that up to this point she has rarely been sick, just a few runny noses and coughs. Right now she has 6 teeth that have popped through (4 on the top and 2 on the bottom), but it looks like a few others will be coming in soon. Laila has added a few more words to her vocabulary (at least that we can understand) since the last time I wrote about her development at 12 months. Her new words are baby, bath, teeth, cheese, and up (she says uppy!). She has even said Mama a few times this past month...finally! Along with some of the new ones, her favorite words are still hi, bye, Scooter, Daddy, Papa, uh-oh, and Holly! She attempts a few other words like water, hat, and hair, but they are a little harder to understand if she doesn't use the sign with it. We have started doing a few more baby signs with her these past few months. These are the signs we've taught her up to this point: more, all done, water, milk, please, thank you, friend, play, ball, banana, bath, and baby. Laila absolutely loves taking a bath and brushing her teeth right now. Daddy is the one who gets her ready for bed most nights. He has taught her to fold her hands while he says a quick bedtime prayer....it is so sweet! Another one of our favorite things she does right now is how she smiles or shows us her teeth when we ask her too! We love her smile! A few of her favorite things right now are dancing (or shaking her head to the music), giving hugs and kisses, talking on the phone, listening to the alphabet song, eating goldfish (she also loves yogurt, cheese, bananas, broccoli, and applesauce), taking Scooter on walks, and playing peek-a-boo!

Mommy and Laila have also recently joined a "Mommy and Me" group and have been doing more play dates with friends lately. Although Laila seems to take after her Mommy and is a little shy at first :), she does so well sharing and playing with others. Some of my friends have commented on her sweet disposition. Laila is a sweet girl and has a great demeanor about her, although like I've said before, she will definitely let you know when she is not happy! We have had to be a lot more firm lately in our discipline with her and try to put an end to those little temper tantrums of hers before they get too out of control! :) I've been reading a book that was recommended to me called "Don't Make Me Count to Three" by Ginger Plowman (it's similar to "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp). I'm really enjoying it and learning a lot about discipline, but I feel like I still have so much more to learn. I pray the Lord will give Nate and I the wisdom and strength to know how to handle each situation.

On another note, Mommy has gotten a new part-time job! I am doing administrative and marketing stuff for a construction/roofing company. It is great because I am able to do most of it from the computer or by phone so that I can stay home with Laila. So far it is going well, and although it is only about 10-15 hours a week at this point, it is still great to have a little extra money coming in.

It looks like these next few weeks could be very busy for us. We are finally going to be moving into our own house again in 10 days! We are super excited! We've appreciated my parents generosity in opening up their home to us while we've looked for our own place and saved some money, but we are so looking forward to having our own space for our own little family again! Please pray for us that the move will go well and that it will be an easy transition for Laila. This will be our 3rd move this past year. We are so grateful that we'll be in a place now that we can stay for awhile!

Thanks for taking the time to read my long blog posts and look through the millions of pictures I take! It is so great to have family and true friends that care about us, pray for us, and are there for us no matter what. We love you all more than you know! xoxo

Enjoy the little photoshoot and two videos at the end that Mommy took of Laila at 15 months old!

Walking in Mommy's shoes!

Video of Laila at 15 months old

Video of Laila calling Papa's name and giving him a big hug when he came home from work!