Eliana is Three!!!

Plan A: Have a combine birthday dessert gathering for Kyle and Eliana on June 16th with family in our hometown.

Problem: Eliana threw up 5 times that morning, so we didn’t travel.  She was then happy as could by by dinner time and ready to greet the day.

Action Taken: Make new plans.

Plan B: Share the desserts at Aunt Marcie’s Taco Night and open presents with Kyle’s side of the family!

Action Taken: Good times, dresses galore, and sweet treats enjoyed by all!

Plan C: Join Father’s Day with celebration for birthdays with my side of the family!

 
Action Taken: Art supplies to last us months!!!

 

Plan D: On her actual birthday, go to the zoo with fabulous friends and family (Rachel, Ruli, April, Sophia, Amelia, Natalie, and myself.  See her favorite animal of the day, elephants, multiple times.

 Action Taken: Successful elephant siting with fantastic people!

 

Plan E: Make “purple” cupcakes with pink frosting for dessert with Rachel, Ruli, Kyle, myself, and Natalie.

 

Problem: Forget to have cupcake papers OR cooking spray on hand.

Action Taken: Send Rachel to the store who then splurged with fancy candles and icing.!!!

Remembering Natalie's 6th Month

 Things Natalie did during her 6th month:
*sat up well
*had growling conversations with Uncle Troy
*learned to roll from her back to her belly

 *continues to chew on anything put near her face (including flowers to smell)
*has 6 feedings most days
*waking up 1-2 times in the night
*stretched and scooted places to get toys

*visited with a lot of family in our home town including:Cousin Kallie, Aunt Aimee, Uncle Troy, GramE, Nanny, Grandpa Brad, Aunt Taylor, Aunt Tanya, Cousin Madison, Aunt Tara, Cousin Ashlee, Cousin, Donald, Aunt Trisha, Uncle Zak, Aunt Marcie, Uncle Michael, Uncle Sean, Aunt Rachel, and Uncle Ruli,

*brought smiles to them all!!!

*got her first two teeth without a fever!!!

This picture reminds me of the photo of Eliana's from when Eliana was 8 months old.  They are close to the same sitting position, but they sure do look different.

More Reasons to Love Spring

 When we were in town for my Mom's surprise party last month, Eliana and I went for a walk and found these extraordinary flowers.  Trisha let me use her nice camera while she and I went for another walk to enjoy the spring flowers.  The picture above doesn't even compare with how amazing these flowers were to find.

Many of the blooms are gone, but they sure are stunning while they last!

Bubbles and More

 Eliana got to spend some time with my parents for two nights this month!  It was a little hard for me to let her go out of town without us.  She had a lot of fun and came back with several containers of bubbles!  She just might end up with some curly hair after all!

 Is anyone else impressed that Ruli blew bubbles and then caught several of them at once?  I know I am:)

 This is one of my favorite pictures of these two special people!!!

 This could be titled "Super Eliana to the Rescue!" or "It always helps to have a giant sidekick!"

I'm so blessed that Rachel and Ruli live in town and love our girls! 

March Happenings

 Oh, how I love spring!!!

Eliana has continued to improve on her picture taking ability!  These two photos of Rachel and Natalie were taken by Eliana!  I'd say not bad for a 2 year old!

 Aunt Marcie came for a visit!  We love having family come and visit us!  Aren't you impressed with Rachel's ability to hold both of the wee ones at once?

 For the first time since we moved away from family, we spent Easter weekend back in our hometown.  It was great to see friends who moved away the summer we did, friends from our old church, and lots of family!!!  In the picture above, Kallie and Eliana are "hiding" their faces while Troy hid Easter eggs.  They loved it!!!

 Eliana was purely delighted with the hunting.  We had about 5 hunts that day, 2 the next, and several more at home.  Eliana enjoys hiding the eggs and then helping you find them.  You have to be quick to find them, otherwise she will help you find them before you've even searched for them.

 Natalie slept okay while we traveled.  She ate about every 3 hours instead of every 4.  Which is actually AMAZING compared to how Eliana traveled at that age!!!  Eliana is doing so much better in the car!  I think it helps that she has someone to look at in the backseat and that she can hold conversations with us up front.

What is this???  Eliana wanted to hold her sister AND smile for a picture?!?!?!  You bet I took a picture before she changed her mind!

When Natalie was 5 Months Old!

Natalie is now a few days into her 6th month, but let's step back in time for just a moment to high light her 5th month!

 She is at the wonderful age of smiles!  Since I know that is a season and not forever, I am enjoying these easy smiles while they last!

 Natalie learned how to make raspberries!  She has also enjoyed looking at other babies like her friend on the right Amelia!

 Natalie has joined us up at the table during meal time.  She was getting lonely down on the ground.  She is still just being breastfed, but she does enjoy chewing on her toys and hands.

 Natalie loves rolling over and enjoys sitting up.  She is much more content when she can sit up and enjoy her box of toys. 

She found her feet this month!  She is still waking up in the night.  She is having a feeding somewhere between 10 and midnight, and then again between 1 and 4am.  We're praying that she'll drop one of theses feedings.  Thankfully, the extra wakings beyond these feeds have stopped for now:)  Kyle has been a SUPER help in the morning.  If she gets up before he goes to work, she joins him for a little bit until she gets hungry.  That means I can get between 15 and 45 minutes of extra sleep.  Hooray for my fantastic husband!!!

February Recap

For the first time in nearly three years, I got to see the see the ocean.  It was only for less than half an hour, but I'll take it! There is just something about the ocean that soothes and excites me all at the same time.  I think it is in part because growing up we spent many family vacations visiting grandparents and seeing the ocean.  Awe.  We were near the ocean for Rachel's dad's funeral.  So, you may notice that Eliana wasn't with us.  She had an amazing day with my family.  We figured her seeing some of her favorite people mourning would rock her world a bit.  Natalie thankfully slept through the whole service and brought joy and comfort to those around us.

Any guesses what you are looking at to the right?  Well, I had cooked a turkey and then made broth from the bones.  I happened to notice that we had run out of freezer bags.  I was a little worried that the regular bags would open, so I put all 8 or so small bags in one large bag to freeze.  Can you tell what happened?  At least one bag did open and then all of them were frozen together.  They had been sitting on a bag of frozen veggies that had a bird chip clip keeping the bag closed.  As you may see, it was frozen stuck.  I hadn't planned on using all of the broth at once, but I ended up making some soup.

 Awe, cheesecake!  We had Jonathan and Julia over.  They brought yummy cheesecake for dessert!  Since they were mini cheesecakes, we got to sample all of the flavors!  Amazing!

 Eliana loves collecting things.  Lately, she has been collecting rocks!  It is starting to warm up a bit, so we are outside often again!  Praise the Lord for spring coming!!!

 Playtime with Kyle and Eliana is always an adventure!

 Dane and Natalie are distant cousins.  Just like Eliana and Dawson below. 

 If you look carefully, you'll see that Eliana is wearing a baby carrier.  It was so nice to have some company in the morning!!!

 Can you believe it?  They are both smiling at the same time!  That is a miracle!!!

Eliana continues to love changing her clothes multiple times a day.  Lately she likes to change into her Cinderella pajamas as soon as we get home from a walk or playing outside.  I don't mind so much since I know it will be different within a couple of hours.

 Sometimes I think God made dirt just to play in:)  Sofia and Eliana love dirt, throwing balls, and kicking balls.  I had so much fun with these two girls.  I had them run, run, running!

 All of that good running caused Eliana to fall asleep while we were praying before bedtime.  At least she made it through Bible story time!

It was challenging to get a one arm photo of us when we were a family of three, and it is simply humorous to try now.  I figure this one didn't turn out too bad.