Pictures

I let Layla run around the house half-naked when it's hot. It makes me wish I were a boy so I could do the same. She LOVES to wear necklaces and bracelets and will find them and put them on all by herself. It cracks me up how girly she is. She is also very affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses. Sometimes she will walk up to Mitch or I, out of the blue, and give us a hug and/or kiss and pat us on the back. I think it's her little way of saying "I love you!" It melts our hearts! She has such a sweet personality.

We spend time outside almost every day just walking around and pulling out the grass. Excuse her outfit- it's really half of one outfit that got dirty and half of another outfit that got dirty. It was one of those days...

Layla loves to be startled. Sometimes we play a game where Mitch and I each hide behind different corners and Layla walks back and forth between us while we jump out and scare her. Every time we scare her she laughs then gives us a hug. It's awesome.

She loves to read books, especially books about dogs, and will carry a book around the house while looking for someone to read it to her. Then she insists on sitting by you, but preferably in your lap, while you read it to her. It makes me proud; even if it's inconvenient I can't help but to stop whatever I'm doing to read to her. How can you say no to that? Oh, and she even gives kisses and hugs to the dogs in her books. And she says, "mmm!" which is her version of "mwah!" when she gives kisses. So cute.

Layla had her 15 month checkup last week. She was upset the entire time due to those nasty molars making their appearance (she's getting two at the same time!). She weighs 22 lbs (45th percentile) and is 31 inches tall (75th percentile). She's starting to fill out I guess.

She learned to say "water" last week and it's pretty darn adorable. She also learned to fold her arms for the prayer. I didn't even know she knew how ... I always say a prayer out loud to bless our breakfast in the morning, and today when I opened my eyes after the prayer she was sitting so reverently in her high chair with her arms folded. It brought a tear to my eye. But she's not an angel all the time- I've started putting her in "time out" when she plays in the cat's food and water.

Mitch and Kevin took Layla and Oakley out to lunch with them the other day while I was busy. Afterwards they went to an outdoors store (can't remember which one) and pushed the girls around in this cart. Cute!

I brought this box home from Sam's club and can't throw it away because Layla and Harvey both love to sit in it. Sometimes they sit in it together, usually with Layla sitting ON Harvey.

Backing up to sit on Harvey

Harvey is such a good sport ... usually.

And she's still obsessed with her stuffed animals- the kitty, lamb, and Piglet. She usually has at least one of them with her at all times. Even while she's eating. At least she remembers to wave for the camera, right?

Sometimes she tries to carry all three at once. It makes us laugh. She is always giving them hugs and kisses. And she makes Mitch and I give them kisses. The things we do for our kids. (Kinda like the other day when Layla was crying in the car so Mitch and I sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" IN A ROUND over and over and over again. Hey, it made her laugh and she clapped for us every time we finished.)

On a side note, Mitch and I finally went and did our Valentine's date: I-Fly. It's a skydiving wind tunnel. Definitely the closest I will ever come to real skydiving due to my intense fear of heights. We had a blast and totally recommend it. If anyone wants to go, we'd like to try it again. The end!

Last Weekend

Nothing too major happened last weekend, but enough happened that I wanted to write about it. The cyst I had removed last year returned and I had it removed again last Thursday. It hurt much worse this time around and I spent a couple of days wearing a ghetto, home-made sling to relieve pressure from my shoulder. Luckily I had Layla to help me feel better by putting her arm around my shoulder while we read books.

On Friday Mitch and I went to the temple. I must say the temple really does bring blessings because the next day I woke up and my shoulder didn't hurt anymore! The constant pain I had for two days before was gone. I kept telling Mitch it was a "temple miracle."

On Saturday Mitch worked like a slave tearing out the rose bushes and planting a Flame Maple in our front yard. I contributed by bringing him water, offering my opinion, and turning on the hose. Layla slept through the whole thing and kept pointing at the new tree when she woke up. I love our new tree, thanks Mitch!


Saturday night we went with Kevin and Nicole to dinner and a movie. Unfortunately we decided to see the third Transformers movie and it sucked. Seriously not worth seeing. Unless you like movies with absolutely no story line, that is. But, we still had fun and enjoyed our date night. Thanks to Katie for watching Layla and putting her to bed even though she wanted to stay up and play with you!

Now we're trying to enjoy the rest of summer before Mitch starts school in 5 weeks! Ahhh! We have some boating trips planned, which I cannot wait for. This might be the summer I finally learn to wakeboard... One thing I have loved doing this summer is taking Layla in the jogging stroller while I run. Here she is before a morning run with Mitch.

Yay for summer!

Coldplay

While Coldplay's new song is quite different from their original style (e.g., "Parachutes" album), it is growing on me. Especially when Layla dances to it. I think it will make an excellent addition to the running playlist on my Ipod. It would totally pump me up. Coldplay is still my all-time favorite band. I hope they make it back to Utah soon!

Races

I ran in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay last month. It was awesome! Ragnar is a relay race run with a team of 12 people- 6 people in each van. You run all day, all night, and then all day again. Some teams are really creative and think of the best team names like this one:

My other favorite name was Rapid Thigh Movement. It made me laugh every time we saw their van. We were team Dude Where's My Van? (because everyone drives mini vans during the race.)

We got very little sleep and what sleep we did get consisted of sleeping bags on the wet grass in a park in 38 degree weather. I kept asking myself if I was crazy.

The answer was usually yes, but that I was also having so much fun that it didn't matter.

I can see why people run this race again and again. Thanks girls, for making it such a fun experience!

Mitch and I ran a half marathon on the 4th of July. Let's just say we don't recommend this particular half. The course was really difficult with lots of steep uphills and not enough downhills. (Their website totally lied about the elevation gain!) I hurt my knee and didn't make my goal. Mitch did make his goal and did awesome though! Now we're both hobbling around like a pair of 80 year olds. We actually had this conversation last night:

Lacey: Wow Mitch, seeing you hobble around just gave me a vision of what you'll look like at age 80!

Mitch: Ugh, I feel like I'm 80 right now.

Lacey: Me too. Only when we're 80 we'll be visiting grandchildren and stuff.

Mitch, in an old man's voice: No, I don't want to go visit them. I don't want to get out of my chair! Make them come over here.

Lacey, in an old woman's voice: No, because I don't want to make them dinner! Can you believe we used to run half marathons?

Mitch, still in an old man's voice: I know! That was stupid!

Ha, ha. I wonder if it will really be like that? Hopefully not.

I didn't take any pics of the race. I may have been slightly disappointed when it was over. We spent the rest of the holiday hobbling around and complaining about how sore we are. It'll probably take a day or two to recover. We also spent the weekend travelling around to see the Parade of Homes. It was great! Mitch and I are addicted to HGTV and loved seeing the new home ideas. We did light off some fireworks with Katie to make it feel like the 4th of July weekend. And we got together with both of our fams to eat and visit. Overall it was a low key and fun holiday.