The "unseen" shots....

So, my sister sent me some pictures that she has had on her camera for a long time... I love getting pictures that you had no idea someone took and then loving them so. Especially when you get them so long after they were taken. Anyway, here are a few that she sent that I thought were good. These first two black and whites were from Christmas....

This pic was from a day when Elaina was hanging out at her Aunt Nell and Uncle Dave's. She enjoyed wearing Dave's shoes...

This post brought to you by the letter "K"

Elaina newest sound is the "k" sound. This past weekend she started using it. It started with pronoucing the "x" in Jax's name. She really pronouces the "ck" sound with force. Since she has started this, she has popped out so many words. Take a listen. Maybe it's just me but the way she stresses the "k" sound on the end of each word cracks me up. She very careful to make sure she stresses it.

The Good Stuff

This weekend was filled with... well, very little actually. It was extremely nice. After the holidays and moving, we really needed a weekend to do nothing. Today, we all took naps and for those who know me, I don't nap. However, today I needed it. I think Elaina needed a weekend to do nothing more then we did so it was good to offer her that. The only down side to the weekend was that the Titans lost but life goes on.

Tonight, as we lounge around the living room, I watched Erik and Elaina sit and read a book together. As I watched them I am filled with emotion. I realize that things like that are the good things that we need to take in and really enjoy. Sad as it is, these moments will be over sooner then we wish. Here is a shot or two of the sweet moment...

On a funnier note, we recieved our furniture on Friday. It came wrapped in plastic so the couches were filled with static electricity for a while. While Elaina rolled all over couches, her hair came out looking like this... Pretty funny :)

Elaina is 18 months old!!

A year and a half old.... Sounds weird to say and type. I missed posting on Elaina's 17 month milestone. As always, she has grown so much the past few months. The biggest thing is the talking. She is saying A LOT. Its great to be able to actually communicate with her. Her most recent word is "Nell" - needless to say, her Aunt Nell is thrilled about that (she claims that means that she is Elaina's favorite but I don't know about that). Today, I swear she said "Where Jax go?" Then she walked around the house and looked for Jax.

She is also:

• Putting together puzzles - she put together one of the 8 piece wooden puzzles all by herself the other day. Erik and I were amazed.
• She can identify where her eyes, nose, teeth, hair, head, chin, feet, toes, fingers, hands, belly and knee are. She can say eyes, nose, and teeth. Today we learned where her elbow was.
• She eats with a spoon/fork at every meal. She is beginning to express her independence a lot with things like helping her stir her yogurt and cut things up. she gets very upset when you help her do those things.

It is amazing to watch her grow. She has been under the weather the past few days so we hope feels better soon. Here is a shot of her posing with her daddy and his hat on New Years Day last week. Notice Jax assuming his position to claim ownership (as much as he can anyway) of Erik.

Busy, Busy, Busy.....

It's been hectic to say the least over the past week and a half or so. We have done so much that I need to make this a long post so we can catch you up on what's been going on... We have seen Santa, had Christmas celebrations, my mom got married, we moved into our new house, and we looked forward to New Years for a day to be able to relax...

Dec 19th - I took Elaina to see Santa. It went about as well as you can expect an almost 18 month old to do. She sat in his lap and for the first 20 seconds or so had no idea who or what was holding her. However, when she tried to get down and he was clutching her in an effort to keep her on his lap for more pics, she began to scream. I had to put the camera down when that happened to get her but I do have a pic from the photography people of her screaming. It's a momento that every mom should have I guess. These photos are of the non-screaming times.

This was taken waiting in line... she was happy - she was clueless as to what was coming.

Just chilling with Santa - she about to crack.

This is me trying to convince her that Santa was an okay guy. She calmed way down when he gave her this gingerbread cookie.

Onto December 24th.. we had our usual Christmas Eve festivities at my mom's house. We went to church first and then came home to eat and let the kids open presents. Here are some pics of that evening:

My mom always has some sort of game to play at all our family gatherings. This time it was the battle of the cookie decorating-girls vs. boys. This is a pic of the boys in their aprons. Erik won the cookie decorating (hope he doesn't kill me for telling you all that). His really were very good though.

Elaina opening her presents with her Granny. She was not wearing her clothes because we were battling what my family likes to call the "back door trots." She had diaper rash so bad that each time she had an incident, I had to give her a bath to cool her little bottom :( After the festivities at my mom's we went home. Santa stayed up late putting all Elaina's presents together. Here is a final pic of her presents from Santa.

Dec 25th - Christmas.... we had a wonderful day. Elaina of course loved all her presents. The one thing I was amazed at was when I said "Elaina, let's open your presents," she brought it to me, sat on my lap and knew just what that meant. She tore that paper like a pro... Guess you don't have to teach them that. Here are some photos/clips of the day:

Playing with her kitchen - complete with her bedhead and all... this is pretty much how her hair looks every morning. It's cute.

Riding her bike that Santa got her..

Here is a clip of Elaina playing with her kitchen. She giving "bites"

December 27th - my mom got married. The ceremony was beautiful and everything went very well. We are all so happy for her. Here are some shots of the day:

Elaina in her dress. I just loved these dresses.
Mom, Gale and all the grandkids.

They walked down the isle with all the grandkids in tow. Here is a pic of my mom with Elaina just as she is about to hand her back to us. Walking down the isle with their grandkids (8 in all) was very sweet.

Okay... sorry to bombard with so many pics but I figured since I had time this evening I would. Hopefully, I'll get back into the swing of posting regulary now that we are somewhat settled. We got everything into the house with thanks to many wonderful friends on Sunday December 28th. We unloaded the entire POD in less then 1 hour!! It was awesome! We've just got about got everything in place.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you all many blessings for 2009.