If you are family or a close friend, the picture above is probably familiar to you because it was the second annual Lyla Christmas Card

Someday I’m sure we’ll all get into the action, but for now, it’s so much easier to put that cute little face on there instead.

So Jina had been bugging me and bugging me to take some photos of Lyla that we could use for our 2010 card. Okay, not bugging me really, but gently reminding me that I’ve been a putz for putting it off and basically forgetting. I was so busy with OTHER people’s pictures back in November, I hadn’t much time to just shoot around the house.

Before you thank Jina for the outfit Lyla is wearing, I’m the one who went into the closet, slapped this little number on her and away we went. I thought the hood, jacket and everything looked pretty “Christmas-y”, so we tried to make it work. We did the shoot in the backyard and used the garage door as our main backdrop. There were also a few shots with the bricks that make up the outer walls of the house.

Now, in case you think this picture crops off the places where I handcuffed her to the wall so she’d pose like that, it doesn’t. I had the camera, I told her we needed some pictures and that I wanted her to stand against the wall.

The little model…erm, girl…walked over, turned around and spread her arms out just like that. Unbelievable right? I don’t even know where she got that from or why she did it.

I guess you girls are just born knowing how to do girly stuff like that.

So we just took some photos there and then walked around to take a few more in random places. I thought the family might like to see all of the ones from that day, so here they are! Hope you enjoy!

I know everyone is dying for an update on what’s going on with our little family, so the wait is over!

Before I start though, I want to make a note on how hard it is to type on my laptop now that Lyla has destroyed my “x” key and rendered my left shift button semi-workable. It would be nice if she just wanted to push the keys, but instead she’d rather curl her fingers and just rip them up!

So as I wrote last time, Jina and I are picking up and moving to downtown Phoenix to help startup a new church called Day Twelve.  At that time we were in the process of listing our house and seeing what might happen.

Well, fast-forward to this week and we actually had an offer after only SIX days on the market. We of course accepted it and now the waiting begins. We have around 2-3 months to wait for the short sale process to get done…and hopefully not much longer than that.

So that is really good news. We’re sort of anxious to look for a rental now, but we know with 2-3 months to go, we should just sit back and wait awhile. Many rentals we’ve sort of found online in the last few weeks have already been rented out, so it’s kind of pointless even looking right now.

Otherwise, things are good, if not busy. Jina heads out to Memphis this week to see her sister, who is pregnant and finds out the sex of the baby on Thursday morning. Jina is soooo excited to be there when they find out. After that they are going to start some work on the baby’s room depending on the gender verdict!

I’ll be playing single dad for about four days and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m super-busy at work, but I’m hoping to get all 40+ hours in before Friday so Lyla and I can spend the day together and maybe go somewhere fun. Who knows where, but we’ll find something.

So that’s the story of us right now. Lyla is crazy as always, learning things all the time. In fact, she just learned how to open the doors in our house (see picture to the right), which has opened up a whole other set of issues. She’s pretty good about closing them when we tell her, so it’s not awful…but just one more thing to add to the things to watch out for pile.

She also is in the habit of answering”No” to any question you ask her. It’s always in a very happy tone too.

“Are you hungry Lyla?”

“No.”

“Are you full Lyla?”

“No.”

We had some fun in the car the other day.

Me: “Lyla, do you love mommy more than me?”

“No.”

A nice retort from Jina:

“Lyla, do you love daddy more than Riley?”

“No.”

LOL

For those interested…she’s still sleeping about 12 hours at night (6:30pm to 6:30am) and then a 2-3 hour nap during the day (naptime is around 11:30). She turns 17 months on Thursday! She’s getting the speed-walking-running thing down, she can climb on furniture way better and she’s more adept at going down slides at various parks.

Below is a video of her from last weekend playing in the fountains by Liberty Market in downtown Gilbert. She was mesmerized by the water spouts for awhile then got the courage to get closer.

Such a huge hit, the questioning in her eyes when it finally disappeared was super adorable.

The weekend itself was awesome…the church we’re helping startup in downtown Phoenix (Day 12) had its first preview kind of service on Sunday afternoon and it was so amazing to be a part of it.

So here are a few pictures of Lyla from Easter Sunday, in her cute little dress. Also one of her and Jina, they looked so great!

She’s so amazing right now. Growing up so fast, learning things. She says “Hi!” to everyone she sees.

I could go on, but today is a busy day in our house…we have the realtor coming at 3pm to take pictures and then the house gets listed. Yikes!

Also, enjoy the video of her at the end…putting a puzzle together, look how smart she is!

Here they are!

This one above…we’re cleaning out the garage, she climbed up the lawn mower and then slid down into the catcher…and was stuck. Had to run get the camera!

At Joe’s Farm Grill.

A new shopping cart courtesy of Daddy Pushover.

Playing at Chick-Fil-A!

And now the videos:

I was in Utah four days last week, got home on Friday night and left again Sunday evening and shall return on Friday. After that, the travel should end and become very spotty at best for awhile.

Jina was sick late last week and over the weekend, so mostly I took care of Lyla and Jina got to rest both days I was home. I was so glad to do it…she’s been taking care of everything at home and that can get old, tiresome and boring. Plus when you are sick…it’s brutal.

Lyla is so independent now, so stubborn…she’s a handful when she’s not feeling good or needs extra attention. Sometimes she’ll be on her own for hours, othertimes she demands so much from you. Been loving her temper tantrums of late where she dances for a few seconds before sucking in a ton of air and letting it out in a major crying fit of rage *grin*

But she’s also amazing right now too, this phase of her life is so great. A few weeks ago I taught her how to say “Rain” and now she pretty much knows WHEN to say it too. She brought Jina one of Jina’s slippers from the closet the other day, so Jina asked her to go get the other one. Off she went and returned with the matching slipper! Amazing right?

She can also reach the doorknobs in the house now…and is about an inch away from being able to open them on her own. Yikes.

There is so much more, but no time to write much else. Just a quick update while I’m on break up here in Salt Lake City. Hope you enjoy the pictures below!

This above one was shot on Sunday afternoon a little before I left for the airport. This photo actually made Approver’s Choice on Wunderground.com! Was a fun shot…set the tripod, had 10 seconds to run ahead and pose…also was a bit tricky to get the clouds right. Had to actually combine two layers to get the foreground lit up and the clouds dark and ominous!

This is Lyla’s first time out in the rain on her own. She loves it…she just stood there and laughed a few times. I had to drag her inside from the cold.

Jina bought this tricycle quite a few years before Lyla was even conceived…as something just in case we had a kid someday. A few weekends ago, our friend’s daughter found it and rode around. We put Lyla on it and she loved it. On Sunday, she went out the frontdoor, into the garage and stood right next to it. Hint hint daddy!

As you can see, her feet are nowhere near the pedals…but she likes being pushed around on the thing. It’s amazing to me how old she looks here…growing up so fast.

Yesterday I was running out on an errand and she was waving to me from the kitchen window, and then when she realized I was leaving, I saw her face curl up into a cry. Oh man…that was tough.

But I had a great last few days with her…we hung out on Friday afternoon, spent some time together this weekend with friends and then this afternoon we went to the mall, played on the kiddie play area, saw the puppies at the store, drank some Diet Coke through a straw and chased birdies around.

She loves birds…she sees them and says “biiirdeeee!” Today she was like a little golden retriever chasing them around.

Here are some recent photos…this first one was taken just today while we were out playing. She just loved being able to sit in a chair.

Concentration…

Love those eyes

The tree well is the spot to be

Laughing at her buddy Hudson, visiting this weekend

My angel

We’ve spent a lot of time together this past weekend. I was gone last week for 2 days, but I didn’t see her from Tuesday morning until Friday afternoon. That Friday we went to the park for an hour or so and just walked around, her exploring, me documenting her exploration.

Most of these photos are from last Friday, but on Sunday we went out a few times chasing the storms and so the first and last pictures are from Sunday.

Ready to drive I think?

One of the best I’ve taken of her to-date.

I taught her the joy of peeling bark from a tree trunk. She loves it.

Picking up leaves.

Great smile on her face.

Flowers!

Really love this one…the wind was blowing.

More wind. This is looking down a drainage tunnel under a road.

My little stormchasing buddy/sweetheart!