Lyla's 2nd Birthday

Lyla turned two this week! I really wanted to keep the day low key, but fun for her. We kicked things off the day before her birthday by making her birthday cake together. She loved baking with me, and kept saying "mmm, yummy badder", as she repeatedly dipped her finger into the mixer and helped herself to cake batter.

On the day of her birthday, we ended up going to chick fil-a in the late morning to play in the play place and have lunch. They even sang happy birthday to her and gave her a little ice cream sundae, which she loved!

My girl is two!

We went home for a nap and Emme and Eliza stopped by later in the afternoon and gave her the cutest little doll stroller. Daddy got off work a little early and we celebrated with Little Caesar's pizza. Then we went outside and waited for Mimi and Papa to show up. They pulled up and Lyla was so excited to see them, and even more excited when they pulled a shiny red balance bike out of Papa's trunk! She was in heaven getting pushed around by Mimi, Papa, and Daddy!

After riding her bike for a while, Todd suggested that we go inside and have ice cream. Lyla was pretty excited about that and wouldn't stop talking about it. It was a little early, but we sang "Happy Birthday" and lit her candles and she had a lot of fun trying to blow them out. She didn't eat a bite of her cake but reeeeallly loved the ice cream!

After dessert, we gave her our present, which was a baby doll. I have been looking forward to giving her a doll for months now, and I was so happy that she loved it. She pulled it out of the bag and immediately gave it hugs and kisses and pats on the back. Shortly after we came inside, Lyla was requesting her bike again, so Papa decided to bring it inside. Once she got her baby, she wanted to combine her presents, so the baby got rides on her new bike too. You get away with a lot on your birthday!

Right after pulling her doll out of the bag

It was such a great night, and it was so fun for Todd and I to spend some time with our cute two year old and her grandparents. We love our girl so much, and are so glad Lyla came to our family two years ago!

Lyla's First Haircut

In the middle of September, I took Lyla to get her first real haircut. I had trimmed the bottom of her hair lots of times, but had been toying with the idea of cutting bangs for a while. Her hair in the front always fell right into her eyes unless she was wearing a bow. One day I finally got so frustrated with the hair in the face, that I decided to take her in.

We went to Cookie Cutters and it was really great! They let Lyla choose the little car she wanted to sit in. There were a few cute fire engine style chairs that were made out of metal, and a little more realistic, but she went straight for the little plastic car in the back. I just thought it was the sweetest thing because it reminded me that she is just my little baby girl still. Her hair turned out so cute and it hurts my heart a little looking at these pictures because she has pulled out so much of her hair since then. She finally had a hairstyle, but now she has a bald patch on the left side of her head. We're hoping to get that worked out soon...

Lyla getting her haircut in the cute little car she picked

Getting styled

The finished product

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Summer Boating 2014

We got to go out on Papa's boat three or four times this summer. It was so awesome! Lyla had a really hard time the first we went (new experience/runny nose made her pretty cranky), but she absolutely loved it the other times. We talked Todd into going with us twice and it was so much fun to spend some time with him. Pineview is so beautiful, and hanging out with the Barfuss clan is always fun. I got to wake-board a bunch of times and I even got the tiniest bit of air on my last run. No one saw it, of course, but that was my goal for the summer and it totally happened! Seeing these pictures makes me so sad that summer is over. Boating was definitely a highlight this year!

Isn't the lake so beautiful?

We went early one morning and Lyla got to cuddle with Mimi and Papa to stay warm

Lyla loves jumping in with her dad

The captain's chair ended up being Lyla's favorite spot on the boat