Update

Well - I have been a bit tardy on the posting which is why I am here with an update.

Lets see.... what have I been up to..
I had a horrible sore throat last week. Like no other. It kept me up at night and I have a dry hacking cough that goes along with it. On Friday, after having this sore throat for now 4 days I decided it was time to go to the doctor. That coupled with the fact that I looked in the mirror at my throat and saw the nice white blotches all over my tonsils, and still no further cold symptoms. So I figured I had strep throat. Anyways, I headed to the MD on Friday and am now on antibiotics. It was not confirmed to be strep but since I was so symptomatic the MD decided to treat me anyways. Withing 24 hours my throat was improving no longer does it feel like a razor scraping down my throat. So that is an improvement. I still feel quite tired day to day and am looking forward to just a relaxing week at home with Lyla.

Today we went off to the border to get my work visa renewed. This took a little longer than normal because of a "typo" error placed by my HR representative. So Lyla and I ended up hanging out at the border for a couple of hours waiting for clarification on the letters contents. All and all it turned out fine and Lyla was a star. People make mistakes... that is just being human and I don't harbor any ill feelings as everything worked out as planned by the end of our visit.

Lyla continues to want to walk pretty badly. We continue to work on trying to get her to crawl and she may have done like one crawl today in her crib, but it can not be definite. She loves to sit and play - sit on her bottom and play with her toys around her. But if you put her on her belly she squawks! So that is a work in progress, because she knows that if she can get us to walk her than she can get where she wants that way.

Exciting news is that I won a prize from the Ultimate Blog Party!! I never never ever win anything so this is super duper exciting. I won 20 birthday party invitations from www.scraplesspress.com so I am pretty excited because we will use this for Lyla's upcoming 1st birthday party.

And other excitement is that I don't have to work this whole weekend. I actually get to be home with Ryan and Lyla!! Yippee! So this weekend is totally family weekend and we are so looking forward to this!

Hope you are all well and talk to you later.

Ultimate Blog Party 2009!

Well, it is that time of the year again! Time to get out and party - blog style!



First of all, WELCOME to all of you for dropping by! Come on in - I am just putting on a warm pot of tea - seeing that we are still in the 30 degree weather here in Michigan!



Let me introduce myself - I am Kelly. I am a mother of one - our daughter Lyla who is ten months old. She made me a mommy on Mother's Day last year! I am a wife of one as well! A wonderful guy named Ryan who I fell in love with at University 10 years ago!




Ryan and I were both raised in Canada and 5 years ago, 2 months after getting married, we moved to Michigan. I mostly started blogging as a way to keep in touch with all my friends back home. But now I am enjoying meeting new friends via blogging and hope that we too can become virtual pals!



So, go ahead, take a look around. You will mostly find stories of our daily lives - I will forewarn you.. a lot of baby talk goes on here, as I love talking about my little one!



Enjoy the party!

Prizes I am hoping to win include:
1; 100 gift certificate to a rocking horse to love, 41; simply precious photo tile necklace, 53; signing time a parent sucess kit, 75; original baby name gift, 88; Carrabba's Italian grill,
107; scrapless photo party invitations, and USC 12; see Kai run shoes

Aloha Friday

Over at Kilani's blog she started the Aloha Friday, in honor of in Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So she thought that on Fridays she would take it easy on posting, too. I thought this is a great idea so therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

This past week we went to our accountant and got our taxes assessed. This year we are getting a return! Yippee!!

So this is my question to you -

If you get money from your taxes; what do you plan to do with it ? Do you plan a trip with the 'extra' money? Do you do home improvements? Do you put it in savings?"

Our money is going to go towards home improvements. Namely our roof. Thanks to our friend Raccoon who took up residence in our roof a couple of weeks ago- we are starting to prepare for the roof to be redone. Then the rest will go towards savings... Nothing too extravagent but it feels nice to not have to dip into savings for our roof.

Hope you all have a great Friday! Aloha!!

Fun times at home

I have been enjoying my days at home with Lyla so much. It is great to be a mama. We are so fortunate that I have been able to work on the weekends. This has kept Lyla out of daycare. I would really wish not to work entirely - but it isn't that bad. At least 2 days of the week I get out and converse with the adult population. HAHA! Being able to be home with Lyla is a gift that I am fortunate to have as I think this is a very special time that will quickly be gone. This first year is amazing as she is changing and learning every day!

Any who - here are some of Lyla's latest antics at home....

She is a jumping queen. The other day Ryan raised up her Jolly Jumper and she is now jumping with a vengeance. She will get in this jumper and jump and jump and jump without a break for like 3 minutes straight!
This is just a picture of her peeking out of her hood once she is bundled up to go out. Check out her teeth. We are now up to 6 teeth as the third tooth on the top came through on March 17th - just right of the front two.

For Christmas, we got Lyla a walker/car. We recently got it out and she has been enjoying exploring it. Here she is sitting on her car. She will sit and push herself backwards kind of jumping as she does so. She likes the walker as well and will take off when you put it up to the walker. Of course, she still needs us to hold onto her back. But she is wanting to walk really badly right now. In fact, yesterday at Gymboree class that is all she wanted to do... walk around. She continues to not enjoy tummy time too much but with some perseverance she will stick it out and then start to roll from side to side and crawl somewhat.. it is like a stationary crawl moving her upper body in like a 360 but not getting her legs in gear yet.

She likes to open and close this front flap in this car. She especially likes it when you put something in the front flap and she get get it out!

Lyla loves to help me sort through her clothes or even our clothes. About once a week or once every couple of weeks I go through her bins of clothes and reorganize them, usually this is when we are putting laundry away. So, she will help take things out of the bins and out of the laundry basket too. She is starting to sometimes put things back as well. She just realized how to tip it so she can get better access to it.

She also likes to go for rides in certain things. Particularly her diaper box and recently the laundry basket. She will shake her body and kind of hum to get you to get the car started. She likes the diaper box the best because it fits her perfectly!

Lyla continues to LOVE books. She would be absolutely happy with only books to look and play with. When we put her down and let her walk to where she wants to play 8 times out of 10 she will walk towards the book shelf. She loves flipping through the pages of her books and loves opening flaps. We have seen how flap books are great but little fingers can be strong to pull those flaps right off!Now I said 8 times out of 10 she will head to the books. Lately, the other percentages have been heading towards this activity table. This is a toy I actually bought for our nephew Matthew when he was young. It came home with us a couple of weeks ago and Lyla loves to play at it. It is great because it is something she can stand at and play. Of course, as you can tell from the picture we still need to be standing with her but she loves the music and lights, and the stuff is relatively easy for her to operate.Lyla also loves stuffed animals.. which is great because I have a huge box full! It is funny but from day to day she has her favorite toys. The cow was her favorite for a couple of days. Him having to go where ever Miss Lyla went. Upstairs - downstairs - to breakfast - like I said everywhere. And to all of you who knew me through out my child hood you will recall my friend Rory. He went everywhere with me - kind of like my side kick! He even made the move to Kingston with me! Anyways, Lyla found him the other day and was oh so happy to have meet him! Here is a picture of them playing together.

Anyway, I hear Lyla starting to wake up - so I better run. I will leave you with a picture of Lyla clowning around with her favorite clown and true best friend - GYMBO! Hope everyone has a great day!

Spring is in the air!

Finally! We seem to be getting a break from the cold grasp of winter and the last couple of days have been just heavenly. The weather started to warm up on the weekend and yesterday we were seeing high 60 degree weather. Lyla has been enjoying the warm weather by being outside as much as we can these last couple of days.

We have been out for walks with Daddy once he gets home from work.

And most excitedly, Lyla got a swing! This is her Easter gift which came a bit early because the weather turned nice before Easter this year. Yesterday when she was sleeping I put up the swing and then when Daddy got home we went for a ride! Oh boy! It was fun!

Notice the blue triangle in her hand - that is her newest Gymboree toy that she adores. I bought these air blocks yesterday and she never let go of it all day yesterday!

Today it is supposed to rain and turn cold again :( Hopefully we can enjoy some more fresh air before the weather changes and the swing will have to take a break again until it warms up again!

10 months have flown by..

Well, our family of 3 has been just that - a family of 3 for 10 months and some days I feel like we were just coming home from the hospital and other days I wonder what I ever did on my days off without Lyla. Here is Lyla's 10 month old photo... Gotta love the side pony tail - I am a 80's child you know!

Lyla continues to amaze me. He is speaking fairly well. She says "Hi!" very clearly. When we go into Gymboree now she says "HI!" as soon as we walk in the door, and she eagerly says hi to her instructor when she comes up and see her. She is saying - mama, dada, teddy, pretty, puppy. This past week she heard Ryan say purple, and she said purple very clearly. She also said "Hi Lyla" very clear as well. She claps her hands, clicks her tongue, puts her hands up high in the air when you say "Up high", and she is waving hi and bye. She is rolling and wanting to walk. She will roll herself to where she wants to get. She is very eager to get walking and walks around at Gymboree pushing a milk crate on wheels with someone holding on to her back. She is walking quite good holding onto just our fingers now.
We weighed her and she is about 18 pounds 3 ounces on her ten month birthday.
Her favorite toy right now is her teddy and books. She could sit and look at books all day and be content. She has become pretty attached to me over the past couple of weeks. It is so sweet when I come home from work and she smiles and reaches for me then gives me a big hug. Gotta love that!
For about a week now, she has been sleeping very good. Last night was an expception I hope. She now seems to be going down to sleep around 8:00 and will sleep until 8:00 or so. It is nice to have a good nights sleep again! Last night she didn't sleep well. Something was bothering her, either she is getting sick, getting teeth or gassy.. but she just wasn't herself, and even today she isn't herself.
Anyways, must run.. Ryan is bringing home take out.. Yum - Kruse and Muer pizza. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Aloha Friday

Over at Kilani's blog she started the Aloha Friday, in honor of in Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So she thought that on Fridays she would take it easy on posting, too. I thought this is a great idea so therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

This Sunday many NCAA Basketball fans will be filling out their 'March Madness' basketball bracket. Every year my husband and I fill out our own bracket in some competitive fun.. A prize is set but nothing too extravagant and sometimes we don't even get our prizes completed - we do it more for the fun (and to make having to watch sports a little more enjoyable when there is a prize at hand). I don't research the teams, rather I usually go for the under dogs...I like upsets - you get more points!

This year Detroit is hosting the final four - i.e. the semi finals and the finals. This is pretty cool for us Michiganders....

Anyways, this weeks question is ....

"Will you be filling out an NCAA March Madness basketball bracket? And if so, who is your pick? And how do you pick your pick?"

Happy Friday - and Happy March Madness to all you basketball fans!

Wordless Wednesday

We go to Gymboree Play and Learn every week for Lyla's class and often we go to open gym once a day... We go mainly for Gymbo.Lyla's love for Gymbo - wordless..

Mahalo Aunt Pam

Mahalo (Thank you) Aunt Pam for finding this awesome skirt for Lyla at "Palm Tree Princess". She definitely looks like a Hawaiian Princess.

Now, we just have to wait for the summer heat - as you can see we have the sun, but no heat yet!

'Oh Where? Oh Where has my little dog gone?"

Okay, so I don't have a dog, but it may indicate that we have been missing in action from the blog world these last couple of weeks. And oh, what a couple of weeks they have been. First of all, I alluded to the fact that about a month ago we had water in our basement. For some yet to be discovered reason our sump pump malfunctioned and we ended up with some water in the basement. Luckily no water damage occurred but a lot of headache happened. Our pump was working efficiently but there seems to be a outside problem either with the drainage tile or with the drainage system from the house. Things are working OK now, knock on wood, but things are not yet perfect as we had a lot of standing water in our back yard.
Then came our house guests - the in laws, my parents and then the RACCOON. Yep you heard me right we had a raccoon in our house. Honestly, we don't live in the ghetto but it seemed like our house was falling apart. I told Ryan I was going to put a "Free" sign on the lawn for our house as we were both at our wits ends with this house.
Anyways, a couple of Fridays ago I was home with Lyla and I thought I heard someone walking upstairs. We had just come home from Gymboree, so I thought someone had come into the house while we were away. Upon investigation I found no one in the house and then I heard what sounding like someone trying to open the door. When I followed the sound it lead me to outside Lyla's window and low and behold I found a hole in the roof. The animal control people where there within a hour and told me that we had a raccoon in our roof. They left a trap, instructions and good luck and I was left worrying about the fact that our house had a large rodent in it and it was probably pregnant and going to have its babies in our house. The raccoon came in on a mild afternoon and the weather turned cold that day. So it took a week for the weather to warm up to but last Thursday night the raccoon came out right into our trap. Here she is... doesn't she look pregnant??
This past weekend I had the entire weekend off. A true rarity - something that won't happen again until Lyla's birthday. So we decided to go home to surprise our niece Emily for her 11th birthday. It was great to see everyone and Lyla really like to play with the girls - Emily and Jillian.
Anyways, that is why I haven't been around in a while.. hopefully I will be better over the next month. All Ryan and I know is that we are looking forward to a house free of "guests"!