Annual Fredericksburg Trip 2012

Fredericksburg is one of my favorite places to visit, especially during the holidays.  Each shop, and there are several, is decorated to the hilt as is the entire town.  For a Christmas lover like me, it's next to Heaven.  Unfortunately, I was busy shopping and missed many photo ops but I did manage to snap a few during down times.

In no way do I endorse this picture...

Playing Catch Up...

Halloween has passed but yet, I feel obligated to share pictures of Lyla.  I loved her costume this year.  She really pulled it off.  I know this post would've been more appropriate about a month ago, but such is life.

First we celebrated Halloween in Austin:

 



 Heeeeeere's Dorothy!

 

The Ninja!

 

Cousin Love

Livvy was having issues with her antennae

 

All the kiddos...

 

The Rackels

 

She's braver than I am!

And we celebrated in Brenham:

 



 

 Happy to be Dororthy!

Our Little Pumpkin Is 18 Months!

I cannot believe it! Gone are the days when people ask me "how old is your baby?".  Nowadays, it's "how old is your little girl?".  Sad, I know. 

Lyla is up to all kinds of things at 18 months but mainly, she's just plain SILLY!  She loves to monkeyshine for pictures (my Mom says it's pay back from when I was little), she always wants to be chased and tickled, and she has some pretty groovy dance moves.  Personality wise, she's very shy and guarded at first, but when she warms up to you, the silly Lyla above comes out.  She observes everything and doesn't miss a beat. 

Her favorite things and people right now are choo-choos, doing anything outside (especially swinging), bath time, Daddy, blueberries (as usual), prunes, shoes (at her convenience), purses, pretending to be a mommy to her 6 babies/stuffed animals, pretend cooking, chicken, ravioli, BUTTERED green beans, CHEESE, coloring and reading books.

Lyla dislikes wearing shoes (on my demand), wearing jackets, chocolate, having her hair fixed, potatoes, and a few things I'm sure she'll remind me of soon.

While she can repeat several things we say, her favorite words are uh-oh, Daddy, choo-choo, her version of blueberries, shoes, bye-bye, baby (with an accent I might add), got you, cheese, and Papa.  She also knows the color purple and the sounds that a snake, cow, horse, sheep, dog, duck, lion, and seal say!
You'll have to excuse the quality of these pictures.  They are from my phone.  I find that my phone has the best pictures that portray everyday life (not so much for the quality, though).

So proud of her Dorothy shoes!

This is her on our commute taking care of babies even while she's napping...

Avery, Lyla, & Livvy in Fredericksburg...

Happy Fall!

We are just loving Fall 2012!  So far, we have gotten to celebrate birthdays for Matt, Kevyn, Dad, Scott, Mom, Mandy and soon, Kelby.  Matt and I took a weekend trip to spend some alone time in honor of our 4th wedding anniversary. We even managed to make it to Chappell Hill's Scarecrow Festival for the first time.  Chappell Hill is a town where maybe 100 people reside.  When we arrived, we couldn't believe how many people were there!  We literally had a hard time walking down Main Street because people were shoulder to shoulder.  We did manage though.

Avery was lucky enough to find some ponies to ride.  She's a natural!

Lyla and Livvy braved the petting zoo, although, I use the "braved" loosely.  They stayed extra close to their Mommies while checking out the animals.

This look says it all...

This donkey snuck up on her.  She didn't think too much of him.

We were forced to find shelter because the on again/off again rain showers.  No one seemed to mind though.

Avery must have had something pretty interesting to say, as usual.

When the last rain cloud passed, we managed to do a little shopping.

Lyla especially liked the entertainment...

And some shots just for fun...