girls will be girls.....

This past weekend while we were in the other room, Elaina got her baby doll that she got for Christmas out. She hasn't really played with it too much since she got it. Anyway, she got out a diaper too and attempted to put it on the baby. Then she pretended to feed it, and hold it. I realize that this is not abnormal for a little girl to do but we have never really shown her how to do this. It just come natural to little girls, I guess. And, it's just so darn cute to watch. We spent a lot of time helping her diaper the baby and then she would take it off. It was a continuous process.. Here are some shots of her taking care of her baby doll. I think it's just too cute....

Diapering the baby doll

Feeding the baby doll

"Shhhhh" the baby doll to sleep
Talking to baby doll

Easter

Okay.... so now on to Easter. We had a wonderful Easter. After our trip home from Nashville, we got up Easter morning to a surprise from the Easter bunny. He of course went crazy. Elaina got lots of fun things from him... My Aunt Ellen Jane sent a blue Easter bag full of goodies as well...

Next, we were on to church. Our church had a big Easter service (with everyone at the Colliseum). We usually have 5 services but they had one big one this year. We tried to sit in the regular section and it worked for a very short time. Elaina danced to the songs but soon tired of that and realized she could run up and down the isle and climb chairs. So, it was off to the family section in the back. Unfortunately, we could not pay attention very well to the service because of her and all the other children playing. But, she had a good time. see....

They had buckets out -(for offerings I think)... she thought it was fun to climb in it....

and put on her head.....

Peek-a-boo.....

After church it was off to Erik's parents house. We had a blast -the weather was gorgeous. Here is a family photo in our Easter garb....

Me and my little girl....

Elaina enjoyed being able to walk around outside and play

Here she is on her first "official Easter Day Egg Hunt"... she did good and enjoyed it....

Afterwards in Elaina fashion, she took her eggs that she found and laid them on the table to "examine" each of them... she is so funny...

It was a wonderful Easter weekend and we enjoyed spending it with Elaina and our family. Until next time - love to you all!! Hope you all are well.

Trip to Nashville to see Elaina's cousins

This is the 3rd post in 3 days.... Like I said, we've got a lot of catching up to do. The Stringfellow clan packed up this past weekend for a trip to see my sister, Abby, and her family in Nashville. We only stayed one night so we could be back in Knoxville on Easter. Nevertheless, we had a fabulous time. Elaina really enjoyed playing with her cousins, Sadie and Celia. She wanted to do EVERYTHING they did. She was so mesmerized by them and just thought they were the coolest thing coming.

The weekend was filled with lots of excitement. The first exciting thing to tell about was that on the way to Nashville, we had to stop in Cookeville to avoid the bad weather. We thought we'd walk around the mall until the storms passed. Well, we made it into JCPenneys and they made all the shoppers take cover in the JC Penney's break room/office area for about 20 minutes. We got to meet a lot of people and it made for an interesting story. All was well, the weather passed and we were on our way to Nashville again. Our hearts go out to those who were affected by that storm in Murfreesboro. That was so sad... Now onto the rest of the weekend...

Elaina sacked out in the car while playing with her computer....

Cousins Celia, Sadie with Elaina - Elaina has started to do this silly "CHEESE" face when the camera is on her. She looks up and squishes her face up.
We grilled fish and shrimp Friday night - YUM. We also had grilled squash which Elaina LOVED. Here is her Aunt Nell feeding her some.

Elaina woke up Saturday morning first (since he is on Eastern time). Celia was not far behind her. So, I got to enjoy Celia and Elaina eating breakfast together. Her is another shot of Elaina's "CHEESE" while eating her yogurt

After breakfast, we went outside where Sadie and Celia have a battery powered car. Elaina loved riding in it with Celia. What a sweet shot....

Another good shot.....

After playing outside, it was egg dying time. Elaina liked this too. Here she is putting stickers on her dyed egg. Yellow to match her shirt.

Celia and Sadie dying eggs....

Elaina and me

After nap time, we walked down the road to feed some horses some apples. This was Elaina's first close encounter with a horse. She liked them and was not afraid like I thought she'd be

Here she is touching one

On the way back to the house with her mommy and Aunt Nell

We hooked Abby's dog, Marvin, up to the stroller by his leash and he pulled the kids the rest of the way home What a funny dog - the kids thought it was hysterical. Marvin did not seem to mind

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!