She Loves Her Daddy...

...especially when he's silly...

Happy Father's Day Daddy...

We had a fun afternoon celebrating Father's Day last Sunday. Elina tried to give her Daddy his gift before church but we were running late as usual. So she gave him his gift after lunch. Daddy was ready to get out of his church clothes after lunch, so by the time we reminded him that we wanted to give him his gift and take Father's Day pics...he was well on his way into comfy clothes. So here's Elina waiting on Daddy to get redressed...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY...

Here's your gifts...I'll help you...

Our Little Walker...

Unfortunately I didn't get much of Elina's 'learning to walk' caught on camera. I really don't know why. I got some, just not great shots or bloggable videos. This pictures sums up most attempts to get some pictures...
I wanted a picture of my brightly colored beauty this particular day, so I resorted to putting her on a high stool where she couldn't quickly climb down. :)This is how I find Elina sitting these days...doesn't seem too comfy does it!?...her video was playing at this time...can you guess what must have caught her eye!?!?

Happy 13 Month Birthday...

(this was about a week ago, I'm hoping to take some 13 mo pics today though)

Working on birthday 'Thank You' notes...I promise she is thankful, she just didn't enjoy Mommy's little idea so much!

Elina's First Birthday Party...

Although it's been almost a month I wanted to post about Elina's birthday party day...

For those of you who were able to come to Elina's party...thank you so much for enduring the heat with us! For those of you who weren't there...you may be glad! :) It really was a sweet time with friends and family and I think the kids had fun. However, it was so hot! I tried so hard to plan out every detail...jump house and play ground for the older kids to play on...mini ball pit for the pre-walkers to play in with umbrellas for shade (a large tarp under the ball pit so the kids could get in and out without getting in the itchy grass, with butterfly pinwheels to anchor the corners down)...hotdogs, chips, and fruit for lunch...cupcake caterpillar for the 'Birthday Cake', and Party Pails w/ foam stickers and pinwills for the kiddos, . I say all this mostly for documentation so I can remember what Elina's party was like (my memory is shot these days). Also for a learning lesson for myself: if it's hot outside, try to have everything set up in the shade (otherwise everything might get moved to the shade anyway!), if it's windy don't tie balloons to the center pieces unless they are really heavy (otherwise your party pails might get blown off the tables!), if someone offers to come early to help set up (Kristy!) accept her offer (otherwise your guests will arrive and things won't be ready and they will end up working instead of partying!). As you can tell, my baby's 'perfectly' planned party didn't turn out as I had envisioned it for the last several months, but everyone was so forgiving and amazingly helpful! Thank you all for making this day so special for Elina (and her mommy and daddy!). Elina seemed to do great with all of the attention and even the heat with the exception of the birthday cake picture moment (I think she got over heated)...
Here are some pictures (I hope to get to see all the pictures everyone else took soon...hint!)

I'm amazed at this picture since it looks like she's actually blowing. However, she's not...so what's she doing? The only thing I can think of is that she may be making her animal noise...

Maybe she was making a butterfly noise! :)

She likes the pinwheel...

A picture with some of her beautiful guests...

And...that's the end...she's not happy anymore...no more pictures please...get me outta here...(I even tried giving her back the blue butterfly that was previously taken away b/c she put it in her mouth and got glitter allllll in her mouth!...This picture makes me laugh so much...look at Elina's best friend Madison...since Ellie was done with her pinwheel Maddie decided to take a turn!) Too Funny!

The blue butterfly DID NOT work!

A little break and a snack makes everything all better! Time to open presents...

Elina was really good at opening her gifts!...She was so excited about each gift and ready to play right away...

Too bad we had to move on...it was really hot remember!...Towards the end she got a little fussy...the cure all for fussy toddlers??? what else but a cell phone of course (Thanks Brenna!)Here she is doing one of her favorite things as a ONE YEAR OLD!...'awky, awky' (Rocky, Rocky!)

Must have seen/heard the dog next door! :)

"Hold Hands"...

We always say "hold hands" to Elina before we pray at meal times. Until tonight she has done one of the following: refused to hold our hands, accepted only momentarily and then pulled away, or willingly let us take her hands. Tonight, I was the first one to say "hold hands" and as I reached out, Elina's hand met mine! Then SHE reached out for her Daddy's hand and held on for the entire prayer! THEN...she cheerfully agreed with us by letting out a big 'Aaem' (or something like that) and clapped her hands! I, of course, Cried!

Almost a Month!?!

I'm really sorry it has taken me so long to update our blog...again! I hope we still have some readers! :) At least we know Papaw will read this (our page is set as his home page...we're so special!)...
Anyway, I changed the background since it's not Miss Elina's Birthday month anymore. Hope you like the new background. I picked it since Elina loves looking at the birds so much. She's so funny...she'll see a bird and make her dog sound.
Elina is quite the little walker and talker these days, infact that's all she does all day long! She's getting smarter by the second it seems. Jason and I were just talking about how much more Elina seems to understand what we are saying. For example...I'll ask her if she wants to take a bath and she'll walk toward the bathroom...I'll ask her if she wants to eat and she'll walk toward the kitchen...and just today we surprised Daddy when I asked her if she needed a new diaper and she took off walking toward her bedroom. (She tried to trick me though and took off the other way when I got back there! :) I'm pretty sure she's going to be a runner!) Say a prayer for me and other parents when you see us running all over creation after our children...then say a little prayer for my daughter's behind! :) Anyway, back to the sweet stuff...we love watching Elina's changes. She has started dropping to the floor to lay down for a quick break, she'll also back herself up to the couch (since she's just the right height) and lean her head back for a quick rest, and she likes to help me unload the dishwasher while I'm trying to load it (to which my response was to cram four drawers worth of our stuff into three so that Elina can have the bottom drawer to play in while I'm in the kitchen). So far so good with the 'Elina's drawer' thing...added bonus was getting all of those random tupperware pieces out of my other cabinet...I never used them anyway and they always got pushed back and forth while I was trying to reach other things! :)
Well...long post...long enough...how about some pictures!

5.26.09
At exactly 4:59 pm Mommy and Daddy sang 'Happy Birthday' and took pictures of the birthday girl with 1 pink balloon!


Later on that evening Emily and Molly Beth came over to finish the Birthday Shoot. I'll post those pictures later if I can get it to work. But these are some that Jason took of our little butterfly...


Her fisrt time to wear her new swim suit and first time to play with the sprinkler on her first birthday...