YFZ is not cool

Dear Cousin Celia,
Thank you for this cute dress from the Gymboree but my Mom thinks I look like a sect kid from the Yearning for Zion ranch in Texas. Maybe it's the shoes/dress combo.
Love,
Cousin Lola

first birthday proves to be eventful

It's official, as of 12:08 this afternoon Lola is a year old! Wahooo!
The morning started out great, Lola was in a wonderful mood and so happy to be a whole year old. She got dressed for school wearing a birthday t-shirt, jeans, new polka dot shoes and a cute hair clip. Off to school we went arriving with OUT the hair clip! Mild panic set in. After I dropped her off John and I went out to my car to search for the hair clip. We took apart the car seat and looked all over. Nothing. Aaron looked around the house and in the driveway. I was sure she had it in her hair when I belted her in this beautiful birthday morning.
I called the doctor who sent us off for x-rays. Still no sign of the hair clip, we have to wait for the radiologist to read the pictures but as far as the girls saw it wasn't showing up on the x-ray so hopefully she didn't swallow it and it's lurking in a good hiding place in the car. She was such a good girl showing the technicians "how big" she was so that they could capture good photos of her tummy.
Before we headed off for x-rays Lola had a super fun birthday celebration at school!
Click here for more photos

Lola's first birthday party!!!

Lola had her first birthday party today! We had a beautiful day and are grateful to have shared it with so many wonderful people!

Thank you all for helping us celebrate Lola's first year!
Click here to see photos from today's event!

Rowan's party gets a little out of control...

Lola's friend Rowan celebrated his first birthday by throwing a huge bash this afternoon (right before nap time). Lola got to see her friends Max & Finn as well!





The cupcakes were fabulous and Rowan scored some sweet loot!
Everything was going really well until these two showed up...




Handsome Joe and the Total Package Ryan had a little too much party action... your wives must be so proud.

Beanie Babies are frikin AWESOME!

Back in the 1990's my Mom and I thought it would be a great idea to collect every single Beanie Baby that the TY corporation came out with and thank God we did! I filled Lola's cradle up with these fantastic little purchases and every morning when I am getting dressed I dig a Beanie Baby hole and put her right on in there. She reaches in and never grabs the same one twice.
See Chuck, at 7 bucks a pop they have finally come in really handy! You used to wonder why we (and when I say we I mean Mom) were buying Sylvania out of Beanie Babies... we were thinking ahead. You've got a couple of smart girls on your hands!

Fun at the fair!

Our small town had its annual fair this weekend. I love the fair and was so excited to get down there Friday night and eat! We packed up Lola & Bruce and headed down. Bruce was greeted by many dog friends including this tough guy above. This little guy decided to growl at Bruce. Bruce of course was like "What is his problem?" And on we went. He had lots of free kisses to give out to the random kids who wanted to pet him. Maybe next year we'll set up a Kiss Bruce booth!
Saturday was a lot more fun as the Lemaires & The Browns came to town for the festivities. Unfortunately due to Rowan & Lolas nap schedules they missed the parade & marching band... those two!
See Katie's blog for GREAT photos!
Of course a day at our house isn't complete without some gaming (and not by my choice). Katie took a whirl at Guitar Hero and totally rocked the house! As you can see Ryan & Aaron are partying pretty hard at the concert! Chill out you guys!
With all of the fresh air and good food Lola has been sleeping great! The weather is finally getting nice so I look forward to a lot of outside time with her!

Sports Day

Spirit week came to a close today with Sports Day and the Spring Fling. Being the enthusiastic sports family we are we have tons of sports themed outifts for Lola to choose from, NOT! She borrowed and OSU jersey from her friend Brody. She looked like she should have had his class ring on a string around her neck as well. I have to say, the jersey suited her, she looked adorable!!!
After school Lola & Brody attended the spring fling and had so much fun catching ducks!

crazy hair day!

It's spirit week at Lola's school and yesterday was crazy hair day. Lola takes school activities very seriously and was more than willing to participate. So along with crazy hair comes a crazy outfit. I decided to have Lola dress a little on the punk rock side without going overboard. Lola wore her baby hand devil horns t-shirt and apparently was living up to the outfit all day long as you will see in the below video taken by Brody's Mom...

Aaron said he was glad to see that we aren't the only people she ignores.

Brody wore a mohawk to school but it had fallen down by the end of the day.


Editors note: The staff of Lola's blog along with Lola & her family do not support the devil however they do support cute infant t's.

Dear Rowan

Let your Mommy clip your nails.
Love,
Lola

P.S. Do you want to hang out this weekend?

Baby still looks like Mom

Thanks to Angela for this excellent idea I copied straight from The Daily Squink.
This "look-alike meter" states that Lola looks more like me by 13%. Clearly it's wrong, she looks more like me by 98%.
She got a pretty nice tan in Florida so we'll give 1% to her Daddy for providing her with great skin and the other 1% for that skinny figure.

Lola still loves Bruce

Lola and Bruce make quite a pair.
He is the best dog and loves his baby sister so much!
She is the only one that can successfully get the tennis ball away from him without a tug of war.

skills

Lola demonstrates how big she is for her GiGi.

Lola celebrates first of 1st birthday parties

Lola celebrated her birthday a little early here in Florida. This way she has a chance to celebrate with her family & friends here. She looked seriously cute in her little crown GiGi got for her. And she clearly loved having her cake and eating it too!


Below are more vacation photos, enjoy!

















Lola's new scrunchy face she makes all the time!





Date Night! Wahooo! Party!
We had a very nice dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale. I had the moussaka and Aaron had a gyro. We walked around some of the classy shops where we didn't purchase souvenirs such as the one shown below.