Lola at week 17

All dressed up but nowhere to go...yet. We love Le Petit Shoppe consignment for clothing that Lola will only wear once. Grandma Harvey bought her this dress and the santa outfit for Christmas. We are looking forward to seeing her in January for a nice long week visit! For New Years this year we will venture out to a friends house, but will bring along the Pack N' Play if Lola will let us put her down in it. If she isn't digging the party, then we are not adverse to heading home at a decent hour and watching the ball drop in New York on TV. I don't even know if her parents are up to the challenge of staying up past 10pm. I guess we will all be needing our naps that day! Notice another smile in her picture, amazing I must say, because we took 25 shots to get that one smile!

My niece Evelyn's Birthday

December 26th is Evelyn's birthday and this year she was turning 2! This is a picture of her looking somewhat disgusted that there was frosting on her fingers even though she did it to herself. The funniest part of the night was when everyone started singing Happy Birthday to her and she just looked at us in what looked to be fright since there were 20 or so of us singing to her. She sure did do a great job at her celebration though despite all of the people around her. Her aunt and uncle were very impressed!

Christmas at the Vandervorts

Christmas this year was at Chuck's brother Travis' house along with his wife and their two children. Joining us was my sister-in-law Michelle's parents and Chuck's parents. We always have a nice time with everyone, as this is how our last year was spent as well. Michelle and Travis have been so gracious to open up their house to us the last two years, they have a beautiful big house, so everyone is always very comfortable with lots of room for the kids to run around. Well, really only our niece is mobile right now at the ripe age of 2 and my nephew and Lola just like to sit on grandma and grandpa's lap. Any grandma or grandpa will do, because it feels like everyone is family. Here is a picture of Noah and Lola sitting on Nana's lap in their special Santa Claus outfits. Too cute!

Sometimes people can get a little crazy during the holidays and my nephew Noah at 8 months of age decided to hit the bottle hard. Throw in a new fuzzy football , a golf hat and you have yourself a disaster waiting to happen. But, luckily he didn't have to drive home that night, he just had to be carried to bed after he couldn't walk anymore.

This picture of Travis kissing Lola was too precious to leave out, he just loves children and is such a good daddy to Evelyn and Noah.

Visit to Santa and Lola at 16 weeks

No Christmas would be complete without a visit to Santa, so we had to bundle up and stand in line for an hour (which actually wasn't that bad) to get this picture of Lola looking skeptical of being in Santa's lap.

Nothing would be more fitting than to have our Sunday night picture (16 weeks) before Christmas be one of Lola in her Santa outfit. She looked so darn cute, and it is the first time we have been able to get her to smile on camera. Getting a smile at just the right time is a daunting task in itself, but fortunately, there will be more of this to follow with her 17 week picture which I will post in a few minutes.

Recent Lola Happenings

Well, we have been so busy lately, we haven't even had a chance to update everybody with the latest Lola happenings. So here goes....
Lots has been happening in Lola land, but where to begin. English class was never my strong suit so we will just dive in and tell everyone what we have witnessed.
For everyone that is familiar with Lola and her sleep ethics, I captured a picture of her sleeping on the go. And in a very funny position. She was mid-roll (which by the way, she has not completely rolled over yet) and she just kind of fell asleep with her favorite new toy in her hand. We were at one of our fellow Pepster friends houses, and they just couldn't believe that she can sleep literally anywhere. This picture definitely proves this!

I have also spied Lola feeding her self a bottle when in Daddy's care. I try to tell him that she isn't old enough to feed herself, but he insists at this age they are quite self sufficient. Next we plan on teaching her to make us breakfast in bed. Mmmm, I can smell the bacon already.

Sometimes when Lola is really tired, she likes to climb up on our big person bed and fall asleep. She never seems to make it to her crib though, until naptime is already over. Such a bad mommy am I! But, she seems so cute and innocent, I just can't stand to disturb her rest.

When daddy was a little boy, he liked to play sky pilot in a crocheted hat a friend of the family made him. I just had to capture Lola being a sky pilot as well, and she seemed to take to flight fairly easily.

Lola at 14 weeks

Lola at 13 weeks

Here is Lola's Sunday night picture. She seems to be signaling touchdown, which she does a lot. Especially when just getting out of her swaddle sack in the morning. I can't believe she is 13 weeks. She has started discovering her hands and loves to chew on them. I found her sucking her thumb (I think accidentally) the other day. She is so into her hands! I have included a picture of Chloe cuddling her sister. This is the first time she has ever done this. It was so precious!

Playdate with Evan

Lola's friend Evan came over for a visit this week and Lola was so enthralled with him. She really has gotten more alert and aware of her surroundings.

Bumbo fun

My sister-in-law let us borrow her Bumbo recently so I had Lola give it a try. She seemed pretty chill sitting in it. I can't wait until her neck is really strong and she can do tummy time like a pro!

Viva Las Vegas

Lola went on her second airplane ride last week to visit family in Las Vegas. We stayed with my brother and sister-in-law. We had such a nice time, but it is always great to get back home. We realized that even touring the hotels is tough because everywhere is so smoky for a baby.
While we were there we went to the top of the Stratosphere to see a birds eye view of Vegas. It was neat, but we decided that the Space Needle is definitely more scenic! My family just ate Lola up every minute they could get their hands on her. I always get sad that they can't see her as often as they would like.
Chuck and I got to have a night out with my brother and his wife while grandma and grandpa babysat so we headed downtown to old Las Vegas. This is by far my favorite part of Vegas. They have a light show every hour and we saw motorcycles racing in cages. It is just so alive down there. We listened to a band play 70's cover songs, and then I got a little crazy and decided to join the congo line. It was so much fun to let loose for a change!