Notre Dame Trip

So, if you know anything about Erik, you know he loves Notre Dame football. Before Elaina was born we used to go to at least one game a year. I have not been since before Elaina was born. Erik hasn't missed a season traveling up there. Normally, the first game of the year is a "boys" trip but his buddy has a new girlfriend that he wanted to take so I got an invite this year. I was happy to go. I am happy to report that Notre Dame came away with a victory, 35-0. It was a fun trip but short. We drove up Friday, visited campus (saw all the normal sites), hung out on campus (which is gorgeous) all day Saturday, watched the game, then headed back south on Sunday. It was a beautiful day - perfect football watching weather.

We thought we had seen all the sites of ND campus but we found one thing we had never seen before - the Knute Rockney House. We took our picture with the Knute statue and rubbed his nose (for luck). As you can see from the pic - his nose has been rubbed a few times before. Guess this will become part of the routine when we go to games

A pic of the Golden Dome... I am not a big ND fan, but I will tell anyone that has a chance, you have to go to the campus to see it and its beautiful architecture and landscape. It is really gorgeous and if you like football, there is a great feeling in the air on game day. on the way to campus - Daniel (Erik's long time friend) and his girlfriend, Wendy. We really enjoyed hanging out with them

Me and Erik...

Pregame... That is the ND Quarterback before the game... Oh wait, that's Erik

Wendy and Daniel

Me and Erik again...

Daniel and Erik with a pre-game pose....

The whole gang....I evidently missed the memo that said wear your blue shirt....

Post Game Celebration.....Daniel and Wendy giving the "Weiss" victory sign

After the game - posing for a pic - little did I know that Daniel was behind me doing this...

Keeping in line with the previous post (the pic of the squirrel).....This bird sat on this wire for almost the whole football game. Erik and I found ourselves checking to see if he was still there. This wire is the one that holds the field goal net. Each time they kicked an extra point or a field goal this wire would shake as they raised and lowered the net. You should have seen this bird try to get back on the wire as it was moving. Pretty funny. You really had to see it.

Traveling Stringfellows

The past 2 weekends, we have traveled - once with Elaina and once without. Two weekends ago, we traveled to Aiken, SC to visit our friends Russ and Jenn. They used to live in Knoxville but moved to Aiken due to their jobs - we miss them terribly. They got married a year ago and are expecting thier first child in March. We are so excited for them. The weekend consisted of eating, relaxing, swimming, relaxing, eating, relaxing, eating, relaxing, and did I say eating??? Holy cow, did we eat well while we were down there. This was our kind of weekend - no agenda, just visiting with friends and enjoying company. They have a pool so Elaina was thoroughly entertained (and tired each night so she slept pretty well). Sadly, I don't have any pics of Russ and Jenn - what?? I am not sure what I was thinking. Here are some shots of Elaina enjoying their pool....

This picture was taken just seconds before she fell back into the pool and bruised her leg hitting it on the ladder. She was fine but she cried for a bit.

She tried out the diving board.... she would let you drop her down into the water. She loved it.

They have a squirrel who quinches his thirst in their pool - look at that stance. I can't believe he does not slip in.

Elaina has become quite the traveler.... she's a good traveler. Here she is cheesing in the back seat on the way to Aiken

During the final 30 minutes of the car ride home, I had to climb in the back seat to do some entertaining. It happened to be with stickers - Elaina covered her face.

Then mine... :)

Our second trip was to South Bend, Indiana to see Erik's favorite team in the whole planet play their season opener. Notre Dame... stay tuned for pics from that adventure.

Baby Doll funnies... and one random video

Elaina is pretty enthralled with her baby doll lately... Pretty much everything she does, she has her baby doll do (as evidenced in recent photos of her taking her baby doll potty). Here are some shots of her playing with her baby doll. I think these shots are so precious.

She put her baby doll in her high chair and then got a bowl and spoon and was feeding her. BTW, her baby doll's name is Becca. Erik tried to get her to name it Erika and it came out Becca and it has stuck.

Next while outside, playing on her swing set, she said "get Becca" So, inside we went to get Becca. Here is what happened....

Climb up the ladder and lay Becca on the platform...
Give Becca a kiss because she hit her head on the platform

Down goes Becca..... Down goes Elaina....
Brush Becca off....
Smile for the camera....
Now lets attempt to get Becca back up the slide (this did not work)
And just for giggles, a short video of Elaina. I had the camera on her and she started to smile. I asked her "what do you say?" to see if I could get her to say "cheese" and she said this instead....

In case you could not understand, she said "umm, please." We ask her to say please all the time when she ask for something and we prompt it by saying "what do you say??" This made me chuckle.

August B-Day Party

So we have a lot of birthdays during the month of August in our family. So, every August we pick a Saturday to get together with all my sisters and their families and my dad to have a b-day party and just hang out together for the day. Normally we go to Chattanooga to my dad's house but this year we had it our house. We were going to go to our swimming pool but on Friday a big red sign that said "closed by order of the Knox County Health Dept" was posted on our pool. It was closed all weekend but opened back up on Monday. I still don't know why. So, we did not get to hang out by our pool. So, instead we just hung out, ordered pizzas, and had a swell time visiting with each other. Of course, the kids played and entertained us. Here are some shots of the day......

Celia giving it a pose.... Sadie showing off her gymnastics moves while everyone watches in amazement
Elaina's version of gymnastics

Celia showing off her gymnastics (while Elaina trys to mimic her)

And what would a birthday party be without cupcakes - Elaina had 3 I believe, someone who will go unnamed kept giving her one.....

More yoga and gymnastics poses

Elaina's pose
Sweet Alexandra...

Sweet Sadie

The gang hanging out on the couch - Leah, Elaina, Nell, and Abby

Nell and Abby (and don't forget Jax)

Izzie (Alexandra's friend), Alexandra, and Leah

So, because the festivities started at noon (Elaina's usual nap time), we decided not to lay her down for a nap. At 5:00pm, the girls sat down to have some quiet time and watch some TV, Elaina fell asleep upright in this rocking chair. It took her less then a minute to sack out.

Of course, Nell had to get in on the picture taking action

Pajama Day #2

Back in December Elaina's school had pajama day. Last week they did it again. You would think pajama day would be easier but I think for me it's actually more prep - with the hair in pigtails again and put on the robe, and picture time. And, of course, Elaina had to wear her Dora pajamas... Here is a shot of her before she left that morning...

All smiles - and yes, she is standing on the couch. I normally don't condone that but it happened okay - weak moment.

Just for comparison - here is a shot of her from her Pajama day in December. Look how much longer her hair is.... I could barely get them in pigtails back then.

And the paci.... I found out yesterday that she has not been taking her paci during her nap time at school for the past month (the new teacher didn't know she took one and Elaina never asked). So, we are minus a paci now during nap time (we'll see how that goes at home). Next step - no paci at night.... We're on our way.

Swingset project

This past weekend, we had a project to make the swingset in the backyard a bit nicer. The swingset is landscaped out and had mulch underneath and all around it. Well, slowly the mulch became overgown with so many weeds that we could not control it. It had started to look like part of the grass it was so green and overgrown. So, our brother-in-law, Kevin, and nephew, Ryan came over Saturday to help dig out all the mulch and replace it with wood chips. They dug out all the old stuff and we laid down new wood chips underneath. It looks SOOOO much better. Not only does it look better but now Elaina won't carry mulch in on her shoes and track it inside on the carpet - especially when it's wet. I took a before and after pic... see how much better it looks!! I love it.

Before......

After....

Thank you very very very much to Kevin and Ryan for coming over and helping with the project. You guys are awesome!!!

New Camera

So, if you don't know (and I don't know how that's possible), we got a new camera. I LOVE it - so much so that I've blogged about it once already and I am positng a special blog about it today. I was just getting so frustrated with the old camera that I am so happy about having a new one. Thank you so much to my wonderful husband who got it for me for my birthday. It is really just an upgrade of the camera we had before that was about 7-8 yrs old. It had served us so well, we decided to get the same kind in the most recent model. Anyway, now our blog pics won't be so blurry and discolored. Here are some shots with the new camera of our favorite subject... little Miss Elaina.

with the flash

without the flash... and, what would a picture of Elaina be without her "cheese." it will never get old to me but hey, I am her mother after all :)

More Potty Fun

One of Elaina's new loves is her baby doll.. She enjoys changing it's diaper, kissing and cuddling her, as well as taking her to use the potty??? Yes, that is what I said. I caught her in the bathroom holding her baby doll above the toilet letting her go potty. I caught some shots. These shots were with the old camera so the color and lighting is terrible BUT..good news, I now have a new camera so future blog photos will be better quality :) YAH!!

Also, Erik and I caught her rubbing one finger along her baby's bottom. We wondered what in the world she was doing. As we walked closer to her, we noticed she had the diaper cream open beside her. Yes, she was putting diaper cream on her baby.... Too cute. We had a good laugh on that one.