Cousin Miranda's in town!

My cousin Miranda's in town! That means Mommy and I have abandoned our daily schedule in order to hang out and play with Miranda!

Here is a picture of Nana, Miranda and I at the zoo:



Miranda and I eating breakfast together Sunday morning

Mommy-and-me awaiting the adults Sunday brunch (I slept through it, x'cuse Mommy's bedhead!)

Back to the Zoo pics!

Too much excitement wears me out!

We both walked and took stroller-rides around the Zoo!

One of the cool animals we saw:

Miranda and I making our escape!

The next day we went to the Children's Museum. Here we are at my favorite part of the Museum -- the water pond I could splash in!

It was so much fun seeing Cousin Miranda (as well as Uncle Gabe and Aunt Nicole) Mommy and I can't wait until all the Heidinger sisters are in town with their families for Thanksgiving Weekend!

love Lilah

My friend Roxy

Here is a picture of "Roxy", the horse I am riding in my reining lessons. Roxy LOVES reining and I am learning so much from her. I'm having a blast, and she likes it too. :)

Happy Fall!

It was a close call, but it looks like the flower won for the Halloween costume. (I'm sure she'll still end up in the cowgirl outfit again at some point though before Halloween)

Happy Fall everyone!

-the Tyrrell (JRs)

What should Lilah be for Halloween?

A flower?





Or a cowgirl?



Or a construction worker?




Cast your vote today!!

The Perfect Pumpkin Patch

We took advantage of a beautiful October day and took L to her first pumpkin patch. It was a great place with a petting zoo, corn maze, straw bales maze for the kiddies, pony rides, a pumpkin launch, and hay rides. If my sister doesn't already have Bi-Zi Farms on her company's website (http://www.onethousandthingstodo.com/) then I will write something up and post it there! Let me know Nicole.....

L in the straw bale maze

Going through the petting zoo:

(I want one of these! Look how cute he is!)

And searching for the perfect pumpkin:




(I love this picture....)


Lilah says, "I love my daddy, but I'm tired"


Lilah holds the map to get us out of the corn maze....





Going home with the pumpkins we found

(Just kidding)

It's just like Christmas!

Nick informed me on Thursday that he arranged to have L spend the night at my parents on Friday night. So I dropped Lilah off Friday afternoon and hurried back to Vancouver. In my excitement, I got pulled over by a cop outside of Delta park. SIGH. It was a like another "I love Luc-- err, Heather" moment, 'cause the ticket was not cheap. (Luckily Nick is developing the patience of Job.)

So, after playing with the Appy project (see below post), Nick took me out to a nice sit-down dinner downtown. (Read -- the Panda Express off of Burnside.) Then, we gathered a group of friends for a night on the town. We stayed out until the wee hours in the morning, then slept in this morning until 10:30. It was awesome. (As a sidenote -- I can't believe all the nights we did this sort of thing before Lilah and just took it for granted. That's a thought for those of you that don't have kids!!) Anyway, after a quiet, adults-only breakfast, we happily went back to parenthood.

Thank you Nana and Grandpa Paco for baby-sitting! We had a great time!

I Did It!!

I have still been working with the 5 year-old unbroken App gelding. I have learned his name is "Whisky", but I don't think the name really fits. So I refer to him as "the app" or "that horse" or simply "Whisk".

He is a challenge to work with -- he is accustomed to doing what he wants, so he likes to tune me out at the drop of a hat and find scary objects to spook at. He also has a little bit of a temper on him, so when I ask for his attention again (or otherwise piss him off) he likes to turn his butt to me and kick out. Bad, bad, bad. He is also super-athletic and can put his feet and body together in an impressive display of bucks, kicks, spins, and bolts.

However, he is coming along. His temper-tantrums are becoming fewer, and he's learning to look to me as the leader (which means he's kicking towards me less) Believe it or not, he is very sweet and friendly, and is very curious about new things. He is also pretty smart (for good or bad) and likes to have a job to do. It is a shame to me that someone just left him in a field to rot for the last four years.

I think it has been about a month now, and he has gone from this:


To this:


To this!! :


Nick helped me climb on him the first time. I got on and off about three times, and each time Nick led the horse (with me on his back) in a small circle back to the mounting block.

The poor horse did a Frankenstein-stagger walk, fish-tailed, and stalled out a couple times with me on him, but never tried bucking or any other explosive maneuvers. Nonetheless, I'm going to go back to ground-driving him until he's more comfortable being steered via reins. Then I'll have Nick come back out and help me some more.

I do like this horse. Anyone know of a good home for him?