Our Baby Elaine is 18 Months

Elaine turned 18 months on Wednesday, January 8.  When I write this post she actually just turned 20 months , but I wanted to write down her milestones before they all become a blur and she is 2!   Elaine is the sweetest, silliest, smartest, most fun, gorgeous girl on the planet!  She is truly awesome and always brings a smile to our faces.

Her milestones to date include:

-She is an amazing dancer and can be seen grooving away, arms swaying back and forth in the air.  It is hilarious and she totally came up with those moves all on her own.  She also enjoys doing this fun horse trot, jump thing throughout the house.  I tell you she is a blast to have around!
-She is the best little Mommy to all her babies.  She has three that are her favorites.  She prefers the real looking dolls as opposed to the stuffed.  She must have them in the proper baby carriers at all times (either a stroller or her baby car seat). She knows how to put them to sleep and rocks them and gives them food.
-She loves playing with her brother and sister and is the best playmate for each.  Evan loves chasing and wrestling her and Evie enjoys playing house, kitchen and babies with her.
-Ultimately, she wants to do everything Evan and Evie do and if she can't figure out how to it at first, she will try until she can.
-She does not like sitting in a highchair at dinner, but would rather sit in a big person's chair or with Mommy.  If she does sit in a highchair it becomes a climbing toy.  However, one of her favorite pastimes is still connecting the buckles.
-She is a pretty good eater, but just like her sister loves all thinks sweet and can very clearly say, ice cream, chocolate, candy, and cookie.
-She enjoys singing and can be found reciting, "A, B,C, D, E, F, G know my ABC."  It is the cutest thing!  Evie takes credit for teaching her this song because anytime she would get upset Evie would always use this song as her go to song, in order to comfort her and help her not to cry.
-She loves to laugh, be ticked, play peek a boo, and give cuddles.
-She is a good sleeper; takes a nice afternoon nap and goes to bed with the big kids.  In the morning she usually has to be woken up right before we take Evan to school.
-She loves the bath and playing with water.  Her favorite things are to pour water into different cups and to have a washcloth.
-She is talking all the time and can say most words if asked.  Some of the cute phrases we hear daily are,"Thank you Mommy," "Okay Mommy," "More Please," and she can be found saying Evie and Evan several times throughout the day too.
-She is an outside girl!  Elaine could probably be outside all day and would not care.  She putts around with her siblings collecting rocks, playing on the slide, climbing, swinging on her tummy, swinging on her baby swing, going in our new playhouse we made out of a box, you name it she loves the out doors!
-She prayers with us at night and can be found folding her hands and bowing.  She will even say Amen.

I could probably keep going on about all the wonderful amazing things this little girl can do, but these are the main highlights I will feature.  All you really need to know about our beautiful daughter is we can't love her any more than we already do.  She is a true treasure and such an amazing, one of a kind gift from God!  Love you forever and always Elaine Grace!!!  Happy 18 months!!!!

Our first time hosting Thanksgiving

As you entered into our house on Thanksgiving.  You were greeted by this beautiful piece of artwork by Evan saying, "Welcome to our Thanksgiving Feast!"  

This was the first time ever that we hosted Thanksgiving.  We loved it and had so much fun getting into the Fall festivities.  Here is how the table looked.  I love how you can see the kids artwork in the background.

Jim was in charge of the Turkey.

Here he is carving the bird too.

Here are me and the kids working on some of the sides.

The kids and I also made a Thankful Tree for everyone to write down what they were thankful for this year.  Here is Evan kindly pointing it out for this picture.

Evie cut out all the leaves for the tree.  Here she is with Aunt Debra helping her to fill hers out.

Here is an up close picture of our Thankful Tree after everyone completed their Thankful Leaves.

While we waited for food to finish cooking.  Evan was very excited to play video games with Uncle Rhett (another avid video game player).  Here they are battling playing Lego Star Wars.

When the food was ready the big kids got to have a special table just for them.  They thought it was pretty cool.

The adults table was nice too, which included Elaine.  Here is the happy bunch right before digging into the yummy food.

Last I leave you with a picture of me and my Dad after all the fun of a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

We are so blessed and thankful for all the amazing family and friends in our lives!  Thank you God!

Halloween 2013

We had so much fun this year for Halloween and seemed to be able to celebrate the whole month of October it was fantastic!  We feel blessed to be able to live in an area that has so many fall festivities.

Here are the kids posing pretty on Halloween Night before our big night officially began.

I got some really fun pictures of the kids in their costumes.  Bare with me as I share with you several of my favorites.

I love this one!  Elaine running out of the picture and Evie's face.

We also attempted some outside pictures.

Finally scored some pictures of Elaine smiling in her Tangled Costume.

Love this girl; had to put her in one of her favorite place,s on the play structure to get a true smile!

Evan with some more awesome poses!

He loves using the golf clubs and weapons too.

Elaine and Evie didn't want to be left out holding extra items in the picture too.  As you can see they also are posing with some props.

Had to also feature the kids count down to Halloween Calendars they made and them taking off their final ring.

Finally a picture of Daddy and his girls!

Mommy and her boy!

Our Jack-O-Lateran Pizza.  It was as scrumptious as it looks.

I couldn't resist putting on this fun hat and apron set my Mom and Dad got for me this year and capturing a picture.

Then it was time for our big night.  This year's Trick-or-Treating was extra special because we were able to do it with our awesome friends the Pray Family.  The kids were loving it and had so much fun being together.  You can barely see Ninja Jon, but he is in their with the other Ninjas.

Best Friends Evie and Ariel

Super Ninja Buds Evan and Cameron

We all got to eat dinner together.

Then it was off to Trick-or-Treat.

We have the best neighbors with some super cool decorations!

But, one of our favorites is Ms. Nilda!  She always spoils the kids and this year was no different.

Friends holding hands.

Elaine enjoying the ride.

More awesome decor.

Evan's cool ninja moves with his glow necklace.

The Dads...

and the Moms.

Finally, Elaine decided she had enough of just riding in the stroller and wanted to get a try at this thing the big kids were doing.  She was a natural!

Just look at her go.

This picture cracks me up, the big kids tired and now Elaine going to town Trick-or-Treating.  She was little machine and couldn't get enough of the fun!

We were so proud of our adorable little babe!

Can you say tired?!

Our final top for the night was to another one of our favorite neighbors, Ms. Judy.

Then it was back to our house for candy sorting!

And Eating!

Evan cracked us all up by putting his candy into categories.

Can't forget Elaine who was also getting into the fun.

Another fun highlight of the night now that we were done Trick-Or-Treating was the kids got to pass out candy to the Trick-Or-Treaters at our door.  These were some of our favorite Trick-or-Treaters, Ms. Nilda's kids with her hubby, Mr. Dave and children, Christina and Joshua.

It was another fantastic holiday.  Our family had so much fun celebrating and really loved being able to do it with the Pray family this year too!  Hope you all had wonderful Halloween Celebrations too!