Putt Putt

Elaina recently said...."Mama, I want to go putt putt again soon." 

A few Friday's ago, we had a free night so we went.  And, had a great time.....

Just some action shots from the day.  Our dear friends, Carl and Sabrina, met us there.  She texted me hours before to see if she could meet me to drop something off.  I told her where we would be and asked if she wanted to play too.  And, the rest is history.

Elaina has been really into wanting crutches.  So, in between holes, she borrowed my and Erik's putters and turned them upside down to make crutches.  She loved it.

We all scored a hole in one....Elaina scored more than 1

Afterwards we blew some money in the arcade.  All those tickets and she picked out candy and these things...a silly straw that is in the shape of glasses.  

I broke them while washing them the next day - before she ever used them.  

mom fail!  

But, at least I got this picture of her with them on before I did that.

Sweetness

I had to go on another business trip for a few days.  I am having crazy luck with my trips lately.  I got stuck in New Mexico in February for 3 extra days due to snow and ice.  Then this last trip, it took me 6 hours to get back from Atlanta.  Atlanta traffic  - *sigh*  No need to say any more.

I got back after Elaina was in bed and found this outside her door....

This is the good stuff, I tell ya.  

Good. Stuff.

When I flipped it around....

The "your sweet love bug" slayed me!!!

I know, I am 100% biased.  But, I am 110% sure she is the sweetest!!

I was happy to oblige and go in and kiss her on the cheek.

These moments.....treasure.

Easter 2014

Easter snuck up on me this year.  But, it was filled with all the usual...egg dying, egg painting, egg hunting, egg eating.  And, an Easter bunny.

She painted eggs with my mom but that was done one afternoon after school.  I wasn't there, not anyone else.  Just my mom and Elaina.  But, I know it was a special time.

We kept a friend of mine's kids Friday/Saturday.  My friend is a CPA so early April is busy month for her.  We were happy to have her kids.  Here they are dying eggs and posing...

They dressed up for church Friday night....fancy!

The next day we met up with their mom at an Easter egg hunt.  There was face painting there...one of Elaina's favorite thing to do.  This one turned out cute - and matched her dress.

Elaina, Gracie, and Katherine with their loaded up baskets

The next morning was Easter...the bunny came and left these goodies.

And now some Easter day family poses in our Easter best....

Afterwards we went to Erik's parents for a low country boil.  No picture of the food but let me just say it was DELISH!  Complete with crab legs, shrimp, corn on the cob, potatoes, and kielbasa.  I think that was it.  Elaina enjoyed a round or 4 of egg hunting.  Weather was perfect.  A very good day!

More random catch up stuff

Just some things happening in the Stringfellow household lately.

Elaina and her friend decorated Jax...he looks thrilled doesn't he?

Elaina had her spring picture day at school...here is her that morning.  Big?  Yes, she is!

And finally, Elaina got this skill down one day recently...

Spring Break....this happened

Let's take a look shall we??

Please ignore the crazy mom in the background.  I was a wee bit excited

She was SO excited...as were we.

She was close at the end of last summer.  It's hard at our house for her to ride with all the hills.  So, it took one night at this flat track and she got it.   Needless to say, she is way into it now.  It's very exciting.

It brought back a lot of memories for me when I learned how to ride.  Do you remember how freeing it was?  I was re-living all that while watching her.

Excited girl :)

Where do I begin??

Let's just start here....

Happy New Year!

This was from New Year's Eve...midnight!

Yes, that is how far behind I am.

Next up was Valentines Day.  Erik and I celebrated the weekend before at my mom's lakehouse for the weekend.  I am glad we chose that weekend because it was gorgeous!!!  Perfect weather, relaxing time, good company.

Once lakeside selfie to commemorate the weekend.

 Valentines Day weekend, Elaina's friend Laurel stayed the weekend with us.  They made Valentines oreo cake pops..

As usual when Laurel comes over, they love to make us breakfast.  This was on Valentines Day so it was a celebratory breakfast.  This time (unlike last time) they made the coffee and tea last so it wasn't cold :)  Laurel said "my daddy told me that next time we do it we should make the coffee and tea last."  

They even rolled the silverware up in napkins

  Next up for the day...they delivered their oreo cake pops to the neighbors.

It was so nice.  They were able to pass out a few to the neighbors.  Elaina kept saying "let's go sell these."  I had to remind her several times that we were GIVING them away.  Lol

And, then sometime during the days following Valentines Day, we got a lot of snow.....and ice....and some more snow.  Like last year, school was called off a lot.  It was nice...and at times not so convenient because I was out of town for some of those days which makes it hard on Erik

Anyways...on to the snow...

Erik showing off his photography skills...very nice!

There was lots of playing in the snow but it was always short lived...it was COLD!

snow angel

Her friend, Katherine, came over one day - can you see the love?

Icicles

Yum!

And we did some sledding one of the days...  this is the best video from the day.  There were lots.  I must say, we have a pretty great sledding driveway.

Ginormous icicle

 And finally...while I was out of town Erik took this picture of Elaina (I mean, Elsa) in the snow.  Aunt Kate's idea....Cute.  You can see how cold she looks, I mean frozen - Ha!

Christmas in a cabin

The weekend right after Christmas we headed to Gatlinburg for Christmas with my Dad and Brenda and all my sisters, nieces, nephew, and brothers in law.  It was super fun.  Again, not much picture taking went on this weekend.  Not sure why I am so out of that habit.  We went on a hike on Saturday so I did snap few pics from my phone of that excursion.

Elaina with her two favorite people on the planet - Celia and Sadie.  

Family pose - let me just add that Elaina is all smiles here but about 15 seconds into this walk she was not a happy camper.  Complaining, crying, flailing about....but she (we) persevered through and she made it the whole time.  

Everyone (some stayed back to go shopping and/or relax)...Dave, Nell, Alexandra, Celia, Elaina, Sean, Abby, Sadie, Doug, me, and Erik.  Sloane was there too, but she was asleep in the stroller that the camera was propped up on to take this very picture - so she is not pictured here

My dad made peanut butter fudge with the little girls.  Elaina talked about this for days.  We now have the recipe and she is a happy girl about that.

A cabin selfie...always fun!

We played games, watched TV (mostly football) and had a great time.  Oh, and we opened presents too!

One thing I wish I had pictures of were the games we played.  We always play games and they always end in roaring laughter over some crazy stunt someone pulls.  And by someone, I mean my dad.  He will literally do anything to win.  You don't out grow that, apparently.  Let's just say that the game became a physical game of musical chairs ending with my very own dad pulling the game winning chair out from underneath my very own sweet husband as he went to sit down causing him to land on his butt....just for the win.  We all laughed...Erik didn't know what happened....Elaina cried when she saw her dad go down.  In the end, it was hilarious.  Erik is a good sport.  During the prize ceremony, Elaina screamed - "YOU CHEATED!" to my dad which cracked us all up.  I love it!  Sticking up for her dad.  And, I think my dad felt bad...but not for long.  It was classic and a good memory.  We are already planning our games for next year.

Okay, that wraps up Christmas. Until next time....