Christmas Extravaganza Complete!

I didn't want to bore you with a bunch of Christmas pictures, so I just collaged my favorites.

We stayed home and had Christmas under our own tree on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day, this year. Of all the days, our girls slept in late, and we ended up waking Evelynn up so we could get the show on the road! (Don't forget, you can click on the collage to make it larger and actually enjoy the pictures!)

On Christmas Eve, we headed to KC to spend the rest of the holiday weekend with family. On Christmas morning, we had presents with the Busers (the majority of the pictures), then headed over to have Christmas with the Henleys (pretty much the rest of the pictures). Sunday, we went to church, and then headed to my mom's to finish off a wonderful Christmas season!

Thank you so much to all of our family and friends who gave so generously to our family, not just for Christmas, but throughout the entire year! We love you!

75 Degrees on December 20th!

We had an absolutely gorgeous day yesterday! I don't think I have ever seen 75 degrees so close to Christmas, but I can tell you that I was more than thankful to have the opportunity to release some energy in the out of doors! It was actually the first time Lyla has been able to go outside and play since she started walking (a bad cold has kept her inside recently). It was so much fun watching her explore all of the things that she was only able to look at from the swing before. To say the least, she had no desire to sit in the swing yesterday! I tried to take some pictures of Evelynn too, but everyone knows that can be futile at times. Here are some of my favorite pictures!

I should remind you that you can click on the collages to make them bigger!

The Best of Evelynn's Pictures

Evelynn has been asking for the camera "to take pictures!" almost daily lately. I thought I would share a collage of the highlights. Well, at least some of them. There were over a hundred pictures downloaded off the camera all of Evelynn's! Pretty much an entire inventory of our house, everything from her tennis shoes to the remote control. I gave you some of the better ones!

Evelynn's Portrait Studio

The other day, Evelynn was begging me for my camera. This isn't exactly unusual, so at first I just put her off. Then she brought me to this and explained that she wanted to take pictures! For those of you who don't recognize it, this is Evelynn's portrait studio (notice the pillows covered with blankets to make a place to sit). She thought of everything!

I love how she lined toys up around it to create some ambiance!

Once I gave her the camera, she made Sammy sit in her studio so she could take his picture. Doesn't he look thrilled?

Well, she was then upset that Sammy wouldn't sit on her pillow mound, so she recruited Mommy. Please excuse my wet hair and lack of makeup.

Of course, then I insisted that I take her picture. Why did her picture of me turnout better than mine of her? I suppose there is a little raw talent there!

Lyla's First Birthday Party!

Since Lyla was born on Thanksgiving weekend, we had her birthday party at my mom's house while we were visiting family. It was so much fun watching her in the lime light, not knowing how to take having everyone look at her (rather than her big sister!). We had a nice, low key, teddy bear birthday party.

There were way too many pictures that I wanted to share! This collage includes the tool bench that Evelynn picked out for her Sissy, Brad getting Lyla to show #1 after bath time, fun toys, and of course a good cake picture! Hope you enjoy!

The Haircut!!! AHHHH!

The story of the haircut.

So, it all started when we noticed that Lyla's hair was not exactly growing evenly. As a matter of fact, almost all of her hair was on the front portion of her head. This meant that anytime she didn't have a clip in her hair, she looked like this!

So, Mommy started pulling it up in cute little ponytails, and keeping it in a clip almost all of the time. However, sometimes Lyla didn't like the clip or ponytail and it was starting to exhaust Mommy to have to put it in all of the time. Mommy mentioned possibly cutting her some bangs until the rest of her hair grew out a little. Daddy thought this was a great idea, and before talking to Mommy about the length of the bangs....

WHAM! Lyla lost most of her hair! Mommy cried. Daddy apologized. Mommy forbade Daddy ever cut their girls' hair again. Daddy resigned his position as stylist of the family.

The good news, we can still put it up in a clip. The bad news, she looks like a boy when she doesn't have one in!

By the way, this is a picture of Lyla with her great grandma over Thanksgiving (Les's mom).

Evelynn in November

I am really behind in my posting! That always happens when we go out of town! We have also been fighting colds for what seems like forever. Someone has been sick in our family, nonstop, since the end of October! I can finally say that we are all better (knock on wood, quick!).

This is pretty much what Evelynn loves to do all day. Her doll house, her Barbies, back to the doll house, maybe watch a movie, then back to the doll house again. I cannot thank Aunt Carrie enough! It's the gift that keeps on giving!

And this was just too funny, I had to post it. Evelynn made this Thankful Tree for Thanksgiving out of her hands...but it is what she chose for her teachers to write on the branches that just killed me! I would have loves to be a fly on the wall for that lesson!

Christmas Letter 2010

Hello friends and family!

It's been an eventful year in our home. Lyla has grown from an infant to a little walking one year old, and our first born is already three! There have been lots of messes to clean, trips to visit family, library, swimming pool, and zoo outings, groceries to buy, and now 2010 is coming to a close. It's been a fun year. Here is a little update on our family.

Lyla turned one in November. She is walking everywhere and getting into everything! She loves to fill and spill, climb on everything, and loves anything musical. She has a shy, sweet personality that everyone loves. She also likes to make people laugh, especially at the dinner table. Her favorite activity is definitely following her big sister around. I would describe her as a laid back, sweet, yet stubborn little monkey.

Evelynn turned three in September. She loves to use her imagination. She loves role play and can usually be found playing with her doll house, Barbies, or some other form of imaginative play. She is a very active little girl who literally bounces all over the house. She has been a super big helper this last year, and truly is a great big sister to Lyla. I would describe her as a very outgoing young lady, who is still learning to control her (ahem) sassy nature.

Kira has been staying busy at home with the two kids. She has been working child care at church one day a week, taking a book study on Wednesday nights, and of course supporting Brad in his work endeavors. Her newest hobby is saving money! Though that doesn't sound like much of a hobby, she has really enjoyed learning to pair coupons with sales and making the family's dollar stretch quite far. Our family likes to call this mommy's coupon deals!

Brad has had a very eventful and productive year. He completed a large project as project manager, and it has been a huge success! You will definitely have to check out Republic at Classen Curve (another of Brad's projects) when you are in town. He did a wonderful job! He has also been working diligently on attaining his architecture license. He has passed four of seven tests, and is well on his way to having his own stamp! We are super proud of him, not only for what he does at work, but for all of the work he puts in at home too.

In lieu of a Christmas card, we hope that you will enjoy the update and this little video. We also just want to encourage you to take some time with your family, before digging into your Christmas presents or turkey feast, to remember the reason why we come together this time of year. As we have been explaining to Evelynn, we give gifts at Christmas to show our love and to say, "Happy Birthday, Jesus!"

With love,

Brad, Kira, Evelynn, and Lyla Mae