What the hotdog say when he ran by the hamburger? It's KETCHUP time....

Alright, so I will fully admit to the inappropriate length between my postings, but it's hard for me to write about Laney when I enjoy playing with her so much instead. That, and the computer is in her room, so when Laney goes to bed, so does my compy. April finds us with life just whirring by. Laney is already six months old which is hard to believe. She is learning and growing so much each day, and watching her learn new things kind of renews my own perception of amazing things that I take for granted: like how those fingers on the end of my hand move so well, how exciting it is just to be outside and feel the breeze in my face, what amazing texture and crunching sound dry leaves make when you close your fist around them (or put them in your mouth). Recent milestones include sitting up, crinkling her nose and beginning solid foods, and growling...yes, I said growling, it's pretty cute, especially when you get a full-body growl with shaking fists too. Laney is amazing in her ability to make anyone's day, just by smiling at them. It's hard to hold back a smile when she gives you one of hers. Lots of busy times at our home right now. Laney unleashed her full power as a maneater tonight in the literal sense of the word. Hopefully she'll grow out of that habit.

This weekend was full of bike races. Here I am at mine. "I don't like to brag, but, I'm kind of a big deal" Of course, it isn't hard when your competition is 8 years old (or as big as an 8 year old in Austin's case :) j/k pasta, you know I love you.

Oh yeah, and then Chet also had a little bike race this weekend called El Tour de Phoenix. Not quite as cool as mine, only 74 miles. I love a good bike race, but it is even better that Chet can share the good times with his fam. Pictured below are Chet, Josh B, Dad, and Jeremy. Props to Jeremy who gave in to peer pressure and did the race even though he had less than a week to train. Jer is used to the one wheeled unicycle variety of bike but made an exception for this weekend.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support our biker boys, especially Austin and Stacie who sacrificed one of their few days to sleep in to come and see Chet and the boys off. You guys are great, and Stacie doesn't show it, but there's a little girl in that tummy that we can't wait to get here in August.

Chet did amazing! He qualified for the gold class and completed the race in 3 hours and 31 minutes. Laney got a hold of dad's medal and checked it for authenticity.

As you can see, she was in a great mood after the race. This is her new crinkle nose trick and it is a-dor-able. I love this little sun hat we found at Old Navy.

Chet finally found a bike that he likes, so now he'll be racing a lot more. He keeps trying to talk me into riding a tandem race, but I don't want to be hauling that boy up all of the steep hills! JK :) That, and I LOVE my mountain biking! It is always fun to be at the race and feel the excitement and energy.













Last weekend we traveled up to Show Low. It was the coldest weather Laney had seen since Christmas, and we decided she has the best of both worlds: bundled up one weekend...swimming the next. Meanwhile, summer keeps creeping closer, so I'm sure our trips to the cold country will become more frequent.


This is Laney show off her sitting up skills and her maestro skills at the piano. I thought the tu-tu was a nice touch.

Laney's other favorite thing right now is her toes. I wish I was still flexible enough to suck on my big toe!

We took time for a little photo op. It didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but I did get a cute picture of Laney sneezing.


Our other adventure is starting Laney on solids. Rice cereal was a definate no, oatmeal wasn't met with much enthusiasm, but grandma Gibson's home-grown green beans have been a hit. As you can see, rice cereal only ends up outside of the mouth, since Laney blows raspberries instead of eating it.

In March, Laney finally got to meet Grandma Lila. It was one of those fuzzy heart moments to show her my baby. Laney went right for first base, giving Grandma a slobbery open mouth kiss on the nose. Lucky for you, I sensor my pictures and you get this one instead...

February was fun, hanging out with my two favorite Valentines. They are a pretty good lookin' crew, when they are all cleaned up. Chet, thanks for being the love of my life and the best daddy ever. You will always be my bestest friend. I wish I could be half of what you are to me.


Laney's first February brought lots of Valentines, unfortunately, this is as close as she got to the candy...wrapper on. But she loved the crinkle.

More fun pics of Laney, my little hippie baby (Thanks for those boots, britt), Laney wearing her elephant hat-don't worry we don't believe in poaching...it's rude. Laney warmed my heart the day she tried to brush her teeth with the hairbrush-that's dedication to your oral hygiene.



In January we took a weekend trip to Cali and stopped in Quartzsite. An interesting place (because town is a totally unfitting description), where from November to April harbors snowbird squatters and their R.V. tent cities. If you have never seen quartzsite in it's glory you have got to check it out-it is unbelievable. The whole valley fills up with R.V.'s and there are million of swap-meets at each cluster. We stopped to feed Laney and couldn't curb our curiosity. Their are all sorts of treasures that would make any senior citizen salivate (unless they had medication induced xerostomia- a little dental hygiene humor for all my girls). Lots of gem and mineral shops, booths as far as the eye can see, brimming with "As Seen on T.V." items. Check out the wrench that Chet's dad found and tried out with Caroline. The interesting thing is we had Laney in the stroller and people would stop us and exlaim..."look, a real baby!". I was beginning to think maybe it was because the general population was just too old to remember that we all start out that way, until I saw my first Canine Caddy. The picture below is not a fair representation, but a good percentage of the population had some cart or stroller of some sort with a dog or cat in it. Half of these people needed a walker or wheelchair themselves, but there they were pushing pookie up and down the isles, because well, dogs like to shop too. Besides it's quirky population, I would stop in quartzsite any day of the week if I could have another taste of the amazing barbeque we had for lunch.

My favorite part of January was cashing in on my birthday tickets for LION KING on broadway. Taking pictures is kind of illegal, which is a shame because it was incredible. There is a reason the show has won so many awards. The imagination of the costumes and choreography was so entertaining for any age. Wicked is coming in April, so now I've got a bit of broadway fever.
And, just to recap Christmas, Chet and I decided we got Christmas a little early this year, so we spent the day playing with our real present Laney.

Kristin and I had a good time with Jessica and Laney with all of the leftover ribbon and wrapping paper. They on the other hand were not so sure of the practicality of dressing up in paper products.



Christmas was wonderful, being home and enjoying the snow. Chet suprised me with a B.O.B. jogging stroller that I love, love, love! I have used it almost everyday since. Thanks bud!