Bathing Beauty

Lyla has so many cute swim suits this year. These are two of my favorites. The first one her Nino embroidered and the second is from her Nana. She is wearing her matching cover-up and her Teva sandals. Her daddy thought she needed a pair since he loves them so much.

Swimming Lessons

Lyla and I took Red Cross Infant Swimming lessons this summer. As much as Lyla likes the water, we thought it would be a good idea to teach her water safety. We took them with our friends, Lauren & Bryn. Lyla did a great job of kicking and did ok with the dunking. Mommy was more afraid of that than she was. She had a pretty short attention span, but hopefully that will grow with her.

Our Class

Lyla and Mommy working on kicking

Lyla and Bryn

Graduation with Daddy

Crazy Driver

On a trip to Home Depot, Lyla got her first taste of driving. She wanted to use BOTH steering wheels. She had the best time and was pretty skilled behind the wheel in her NASCAR.

Indian Princess

On our way back from Oklahoma City, we stopped at the Cherokee Trading Post. This was my favorite place to stop as a kid and I accumulated a pretty impressive collection of Indian Dolls. We got Lyla her first Indian doll, a soft baby, we named Red Feathers. She loves her, especially her shiny black hair. TJ's grandma Josie was a full blooded Cherokee Indian and I want to make sure Lyla appreciates her heritage!

Playing the drums

Warrior Princess

Herding Cats

Nino made these really cute outfits for the girls so we wanted to take their picture. It took four adults to get the pictures below. It really was like herding cats.


Alayna, Lyla, Alijah & Mazi

Mazi, Lyla and Squeeze Baby

Alijah's 4th Birthday

On July 6th Alijah, our nephew, turned 4 years old. Teri and Allen were in from Georgia and Allen was starving for a Chile Relleno. The Plaza's are just as good as Lorene's and since the Plaza serves adult beverages, we went there. Nothing tastes better than hot mexican food and cold beer! I have MISSED mexican food. It was terrible in Tennessee and only decent in Louisiana. We have pigged out on all things tex-mex over the last two months.

After dinner we went to Aunt Brenda's house so Lyla could play with Alayna, Braylynn, Taci, and Alijah. She loves to be with older kids!

The Birthday Boy

Lyla crashed out after playing with her cousins

Fourth of July

We had a fun Fourth! My whole family went to my Aunt Sherry's house for a cookout. We had had lots of great snacks and "what-not" (my 17 year old cousin's favorite term), hamburgers and homemade ice cream! My cousin Tyler and his girlfriend Marci came home from A&M and took Lyla swimming. She had so much fun swimming with the "big kids" and not just mom. We met my friends, Kimberly and Laura (used to be Black), to watch fireworks. It was raining almost the entire time but that didn't stop the firework stands from holding their annual "war". It almost never rains in the panhandle but of course it would on the Fourth, but since we needed the rain, you can't complain too much!

Lyla in her mandatory holiday bib. I love them and TJ thinks they are dorky, but who dresses her?!?!?

Terminator Baby

Lyla loves walking

Swimming with Marci and Tyler