Cousin McKayla spends the night

Last weekend, Elaina's cousin, McKayla, spent the night. Erik was at church all weekend doing the lights for the Sacred Storm drama so we got a lot of girl time with the 3 of us. Elaina enjoyed having her here. Sunday was so beautiful so we had a picnic lunch outside. It was fun. Here are some pics of that event.

Later that day, we went to my aunt's house for a "pre-Easter" dinner. I got Elaina's eggs out for her "pre-Easter" egg hunt. Here she is examining each egg.

Okay, so here's what's been going on...

I've not been good at updating our blog lately so I've got a lot of updating to do. With Easter being today, I can't possibly put all the Easter/family pics in one post so I will do a series of post over the next few days.

To start, let's talk about Erik and I going away for the weekend about 3 weekends ago. It was fabulous. We only went to Gatlinburg to a cabin so not very far but we needed a get away with each other badly. We went with two other couples from church but it was our first full weekend away from Elaina. And, I surprised myself with how well I did. I missed her but not like crazy bad like I thought I would. She stayed with my sister one night and my mom the second night. Needless to say, she had a ball and was spoiled emmensly. In fact, my mom rocked her to sleep when she stayed with her so I had to "re-calibrate" Elaina over 3 nights to know that mommy doesn't always rock her to sleep. So, here are some pics from the weekend - I think this is the first blog post where Elaina does not have a pic posted. First time for everything....

This is pretty much where we sat all weekend...

The happy couple....

We were all in charge of one meal - we were over breakfast. So, breakfast a la Stringfellow. Cinnimon rolls, eggs, and bacon. Breakfast of champions.

Dave and Tonja cooking dinner in the kitchen - a lot of eating went on during this weekend

This is the second most sat in spot - around the table playing cards - Uno to be exact. We played the longest game of uno known to man. I thought it would never end.

So, as always, the Gatlinburg cabins are decorated a bit oddly at times. The theme of this cabin was bears. This paticular decor looked very odd - it looks like these bears hung themselves.

Dave and Tonja... Dave took most of the pics so this is one of the few pics with him in it

Carl and Sabrina playing Taboo - laughing. In addition to eating, a lot of laughing happened over this weekend.

The gang..... (from left - Carl and Sabrina, Dave and Tonja, Erik and me)

Elaina's new eating style

So, lately Elaina has been doing this funny thing when she eats. Erik and I will be eating dinner with her and look up at her and she will have her eyes closed tightly shut and shoveling her food in. It's pretty hysterical. I have not been able to get it on camera because she does not do it for very long periods of time and I don't usually have the camera on hand when she does it. But the other day, I held the camera in my lap aimed at her and got these shots of her. I was not zooming the camera - just picking up the camera and aiming and shooting as best I could to get some pics. Here are a couple that I got.....

This one's for you, Miss Bitt

As you all know, Elaina goes to school everyday while Erik and I work. She LOVES her school and especially loves her teachers. Erik and I are very blessed to have such a wonderful place that takes such good care of her and loves her. Elaina has a teacher named Brittany whom Elaina refers to at "Bitt." A few months ago when Elaina would be at home playing with her puzzles, she would do this thing where she took a puzzle piece and put it on each ear and then yell. I was telling her teacher, Miss Brittany, about this and she said that she used to do this with the kids when they were younger and weren't very good with putting the puzzle pieces together just for something to do. Well, Elaina still does it to this day and it's pretty cute. She gets pretty loud with it - this video is tame compared with how she normally does it. Take a peek.....

Spring Time Fun & Aunt Nell Fun

The weather last weekend was AMAZING. We are ready for spring to come and to STAY. I hate that it's gotten cold again. After Elaina had been sick for a week she was super excited to be able to play outside. Here are some cute shots of her sitting under the swing set on the built in picnic table...

Also, this past week, Elaina's aunt Nell came over and did this thing she always does where she pushed on Elaina's belly and Elaina makes funny noises. Take a look....

Elaina is 20 months old

March 6th.... So we've been a little out of touch more then normal on the blog. It's been a busy couple of weeks. Today, Elaina turned 20 months old. I guess when she turns 2 I'll stop counting her age in months. For now, I still refer to her age in months. I missed her 19 month post - it slipped past me. I keep having to stop myself from saying she's 18 months old because she's past it and time is flying so fast that she'll be 2 before I know it. She still growing and learning new and exciting things every day. Her favorite word these past few days is "no." It's a bit annoying. She still expresses her independence more and more each day. Overall though she is a very sweet kid.

She has been sick this past week. She went to school only a day a half this week. She just had a bug but I think she had one then another right in a row. Her fever would not go away. She is better today - not 100%, but better. She loves her school so I think she has hated being cooped up in he house most of the week and weekend. She misses them.

Now onto current events.... we have just been enjoying this age so much. About 2 weeks ago, we went to a b-day party for her friend Jack at Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, the b-days parties have already started. It's crazy. But, she LOVED it. Erik and I are still deciding if we like it. It was SO crowded. If it wasn't so crowded, I think it would have been better... Here are some shots of the day

When we let her loose into the game side she spotted this Barney ride and made bee-line for it. For those of you who don't know, to say Elaina LOVES Barney is an understatment. Look how excited she is in the picture.

This is her playing skee-ball (well, as much as she could play it). She loved that too. If you will notice the purple shirt behind her - that is me. My shirt is the exact same color as Barney. Hmmm??

Talking on the telephone (not sure what kind of game this was but she, of course, loved it)

One more video to add... this is just Elaina showing us where her ears, eyes, etc... are. This is not anything new but I have never captured this on video. She gets shy at the end and does not want to play anymore but it's sweet... Just a side note, while I was watching the video to edit out some parts, Elaina was sitting behind me listening. When she heard me asking her where all her parts were in the video, she was sitting behind me pointing to all those parts as the video playes. It was pretty funny!

Valentines Day/Rain Day

We hope everyone had a very Happy Valentines Day!! We hope you were able to spend it with the ones you love. Ours was a pretty uneventful Valentines Day however, we did get to spend the day together as family so that made it fun. It rained a lot so since Elaina is a big fan of being outside, she would not let us relax until she got out of the house. We backed the cars out of the garage so she could play out there. It was fun for all of us. I have video but they are long and I don't know how to edit them so here are some pics of the day.

She crawled around on the floor chasing this ball - needless to say she was filthy but she had fun so I guess that's all that matters

She had the most fun swinging the tennis ball that hangs from the ceiling that helps me know where to stop when parking in the garage. She could have done that all day

This is her expression as Erik is chasing her.

Erik getting his Valentines Day love...

After playing in the garage, while Elaina napped, I attempted making chocolate covered strawberries for Erik for Valentines Day. I have never made them before (not that it's hard but I usually don't brave very much in the kitchen). However, they turned out pretty tasty if I do say so myself..... Erik enjoyed them. I had left over chocolate and stumbled across some cashews in the pantry. So.....we had some chocolate covered cashews too. Yum!!!

Swingset fun...

For those of you who don't know, our house came equiped with a swing set suitable for a certain 18 month old that you may know. Since the weather was amazing today, we spent some time outside playing on it. Elaina LOVES the slide. This is a clip of her climbing up and sliding down - she has very little fear. It was fun to watch her have fun on it. Can't wait for spring time - I'm sure we'll spend many days playing on it.

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.