When I Grow Up...

No more crib!  Celia is a big girl and she now has a big girl bed to prove it.  She loves it.  John and I like it too, although we're a bit sad about our little baby growing up.  What she loves most about it is jumping!  Here's a video of Celia jumping on the bed telling us some of her favorite things, what she wants to be when she grows up is so funny.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year.  We spent time at all the grandparents house, ate a lot of food and picked up a toy store's inventory of toys.

Celia, Rachel & Mason

Celia, Daddy & Moma (daddy has his eyes closed, but this was the best picture we got all Christmas)

Opening presents.  Celia wasn't really into Santa this year, but she loved presents.  This was a guitar.

The Loyd girls.  Me, Celia, Cathy, Rachel & Jennifer

Celia on Christmas morning at Nana's house.  She was racing back and forth and jumping around like a jelly bean.

More presents

Loving my aunt Whitney

Got a trampoline from Grandpa & Mimi.  Couldn't get her off of it.

Daddy & his best girl

Lunch for Grandpa's 60th birthday

Family pic.  Aunt Whitney was trying to get Celia to smile and she started making funny faces

Grammy & Gramps brought Rachel & Mason down for some after Christmas fun.  For Christmas John gave Rachel a map of the United States and challenged her to learn all the states on the map.  Rachel named all 50 states and John had to pay her $50 ($1 for each state)!

On the playground

Rachel & Mason on the carousel in the mall

The cousins being silly

With Grammy & Gramps

Daddy & Celia riding a fun ride at Lego Land

The Loyd's European Vacation

John and I were so lucky to visit Europe the week of Thanksgiving!  Celia stayed back in the states with grandparents and I know she had a blast getting spoiled everyday.  John and I flew into London, took the train to Amsterdam, another train to Paris and flew home in 7 days.  It was a packed trip, but we hit all the highlights and it was so wonderful.

Arriving in London.

 Our first beer at the pub:

 Buckingham Palace:

At Harrod's

Big Ben!

Westminster Abbey

River cruise on the Thames

Another beer, another pub in Leicester Square

The Tower Bridge

Hanging out with the Beefeaters

Amsterdam

We stayed on a houseboat - it was so much fun!

Inside of our houseboat

The "coffeeshop" with John's namesake

Dutch pancakes were AMAZING!

Our last morning before catching the train to Paris.  I don't know how many chocolate croissants I ate on this trip, but it was way too many

The Dutch ride bicycles everywhere. Noticed the bicycles on the first, second and THIRD level.

Paris

The Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe

Our dinner after walking Champs-Elysses

Saint-Chapelle

Notre Dame

Touring the sewers of Paris

The Louvre

Venus de Milo

Me & Mona Lisa

That's John in a front of the largest painting I've ever seen.

I still can't believe I walked 60 miles!

My friends and I try to get together every year for a girls weekend.  This year we decided to not only have a fun weekend away, but give something back.  We decided to walk the Susan G. Komen 3-day for the cure.  We went to Altanta since my friend Elsa had just had a baby.  Me, Elsa, Monica and Stacey (in order in the first picture below) all walked 60 miles over 3 days together.  The first day was pretty good, although we had to get up really early and it was really cold in the morning.  The second day we swore we would never do this again and really wondered why we volunteered for this.  The third day was a bit better.  We came around and decided that we might try to do this walk every other year.  The years in between you'll find us on a beach with a drink in our hands!

First morning before we got started:

In Atlanta they put us in the convention center, which is SO much better than camping outside.  We all had to pitch one of these pink tents.  Luckily I brought an air mattress.

This was the last day in the morning before we got started

Crossing the finish line!

Closing ceremony, look at all the walkers.

 This is all of us right before we get in the car to drive away.  It's so wonderful to have such great friends.  And after spending all that time together over the weekend, we still were hugging and smiling and so glad to be together!