Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree...

We had the privilege of performing at a Christmas Concert hosted by our church last night.

Around Thanksgiving, we were asked if we would be willing to participate in a casual evening of Christmas tunes. What an evening it turned out to be! About 100 people showed up as we sang 8 of our favorite songs. We teamed up with our favorite percussionist Drew.

Our friend Chris (Logan's father) took some beautiful pictures of the evening. Thanks Chris!

I believe we were in the middle of The Little Drummer Boy here...


Kacy pleasing the crowd...


Kacy, her parents and Linden enjoying another performer.


Logan and his mom Jess were there in support. Logan came sporting a Billy Idol look. (see here for the story.)


Chris showing off some of his skills.

1 year check up!

Linden had her 1 year check up on Friday. Here are her stats:

Height - 30.75 inches (93rd percentile)
Weight - 20 lbs 7 oz (40th percentile)
Head Circumference - 18.5 inches (93rd percentile)

It looks like she still has "bobble head" status...

Here's a review of her past measurements:

9 Month

6 Month

4 Month

9 Weeks

1st Birthday with the Family

We decided to forgo the big birthday bash for Linden's first this year. Instead, we took advantage of the family being together for Thanksgiving and had a little celebration a few weeks early. It was a complicated act, but I'm pretty sure we were able to convince Linden it was December 9th while in fact it was only November 26th...

As expected, Linden approached her cake very delicately...


A cautious taste...


Holy cow!! It's amazing!


Kacy teaching her to blow out the candle... or reach for the flame.


The grandparents spoiled her with many new toys!


Linden hurried to save her new baby doll from bondage!

Happy Birthday to the Sweetest Little Girl!

Today, Linden turned 1!

Here's a quick look at her transformation over the last year. What a rewarding and challenging year it has been! We are SO blessed and thank God every day for both her and each other.

The hat given to her by the hospital still fits! Albeit a little tighter...


Here's to the quickest year of our lives! (we'll post some birthday pics over the next few days)

New URL, New Look, same ol' lame content!

We figured that since Linden was approaching her first birthday, it too was time for our blog to grow up a little.

Welcome to the new "yardley's yard". It has bigger pictures, a more personal touch and way more space to spout off nonsense!

We've changed our URL to "theyardleysyard.blogspot.com" because our old URL "kacyandbrian.blogspot.com" didn't quite represent our family (Otto and Linden had a meeting and confronted us with this concern).

Anyway, we hope you enjoy. And if you like, please adjust your bookmarks and the like!

Hunting for the perfect Christmas Tree

I use the word "hunting" very loosely. It's more like foraging through a pile of trees in straight jackets, cutting them loose, allowing them about 3 seconds to state their case before you move on to the next one... oh, and there's the meandering through the sea of endless people. Because when you enter the dense forest known as "The Home Depot", it's really all about survival.

Apparently we decided along with the entire city of Santa Barbara that Sunday was the day to buy Christmas trees!

Despite our circumstances, we were determined to find "the" tree.

Linden was more interested in watching others shop for their tree.


We found the perfect tree, strapped it to our car and got it home!


Linden couldn't stay awake long enough to finish up. So we had a stand-in for the photo-op.


Otto too couldn't hack it... He didn't even have the energy to hang his own stocking!

Charging the sheep!

Turkey in the Desert!

This year we decided to do something a little different for Thanksgiving... a vacation in the desert!

We arrived at Rancho La Quinta Saturday afternoon to a pleasant surprise... our house was awesome! It's always "hit or miss" with renting a vacation rental through the internet... and let's just say this one was a "hit"!

Views of our wonderful pool and house




Kacy and Otto relaxing poolside


Brian's mom enjoying the scenery. (Otto too)


Linden preparing to get in the pool on Nana's lap


Think she's having fun?




Linden drying off in the grass


We played a lot of Wii. Brian's mom had quite the back hand.
Kacy has a bruise to prove it.


Linden enjoying the swing at a local park.


The family joined in the fun.


Uncle Scott and Grandpa even decided to get a workout in!


Needless to say, we had a great week away as family!

Happy Birthday Otto!

4 years ago today, Otto joined our family! We love you little guy!

Daughter's first car...

Why delay the inevitable??

Eyes on the road kid!
(although, you may notice her hands at "10" and "2")


Giddy over her new ride...


Warning oncoming traffic about their impending doom.


Why not toss a ball behind your head while driving?

Dinner time flirting

Linden was in a playful mood during dinner tonight.

Yogurt smile...

Trying to lick up the leftovers...


She can't dodge the camera!

To bark... or to dance?!

Well a little of both actually.

We were a bit torn about what to dress Linden up as for Halloween this year... so we decided to take two routes.

#1. A Grandparent pleasing route:

Woof

Our little dalmatian climbing over Daddy's guitars

Dogs at play...

And...

#2. The FLASHDANCE route!!!

Trying out her sassy pose...

Does this headband accentuate my ears???

Mom was a Go-Go Girl (ala Foxy Cleopatra)

And Dad was... well... just weird.

We headed over to a friend's Open House and strutted our stuff over pizza... their neighborhood can be what's described as an "Isla Vista... but with kids" (in other words: Halloween chaos+children).

We then came home to what's become our annual tradition: "Scary Movie Night". We watched The Orphan. Not too terrifying, but scary enough.

Giant Orange Squash

Today, Linden experienced her first pumpkin patch at Lane Farms. We thought to ourselves, "no nap... no problem!"

Look Mom and Dad, a giant drum!

Oh, not a drum...

Then maybe a comfy seat?

Fine, then I'll sit here.

Well, if I must select one of these weird "not drums, not seats", then I pick this one.

Off to the corn maze...

Immediately got lost... (note the fear in Linden's eyes)

Look Linden, it sprouts magic pumpkins!

Despite the lack of nap, she seemed to enjoy herself. Truth be told, we couldn't complete the corn maze. How sad is that?

But at least we got a few magic pumpkins out of it...