Easter

Did everyone have a lovely Easter? We sure did and it was a lot of fun having Elanor for Easter. Holidays are so much more fun with kids!

 

 On Easter morning, I got up and hid the Easter eggs (we had to since we dyed them!). First Elanor looked through her Easter basket to see what the Easter Bunny brought. Most of it was from Gran, but we got her a cup and this food thing for when she starts eating solids in a month or so. We got her a cup because she is always wanting to drink out of our cups for some reason. She loved it!









                                                
               Good Morning!                                                                                        Looking at her gifts!

Colored Eggs

I love Easter. Dying eggs, baking, tasty food, family, and most importantly taking time to remember Christ.

We began our Easter festivities today with the dying of eggs. It was quite fun and Elanor seemed to enjoy it as well (she liked watching and grabbing!).

 Elanor and I with the 'Elanor' egg I made for her.

 A close-up--- I did this with water colors--

 It takes a lot of concentration.                                           Tyler made her a pink egg...

I am looking forward to going to church tomorrow. I always love church, but I love Easter Sunday's message.   Christ died for our us, so that we can, if we choose, have the capability to return to our Father in Heaven. Christ has given us that chance to repent. The most glorious thing about Easter is that Christ lives, because after death comes life! He was resurrected, and because of Him we will all be resurrected as well. I am so thankful for my (and everyone else's) Savior and for a Heavenly Father that loves me. Isn't Easter wonderful? We have so much to celebrate. Life! That is what we have and life after death because of him! Spring is the most wonderful time to celebrate this because all of those dead trees are coming to life with blossoms and leaves! Winter is over and the promise of summer is in the air--very symbolic of our own journey.

For your Easter Sunday, watch this beautiful video made by the LDS church: http://lds.org/pages/his-sacred-name-an-easter-declaration?lang=eng

Happy Easter everyone!

More pictures coming after Easter... Oh, here's another video of Elanor: http://www.youtube.com/user/elizasolveig She's just talking to herself :)

This little lady just rolled over!

Here is the video link to watch all the action: http://www.youtube.com/user/elizasolveig . Tyler did not want me to put this on because he said his voice sounded silly... It is the best video we have so far of her rolling though! Enjoy!

Four Months

Elanor turned four months old on April 10th (my brother, Ian's birthday!). I cannot believe that it has already been four months! Elanor is a lot of fun and we are loving parenthood. She had her doctor's appointment today and is a healthy little baby!

Her stats:
weight: 12lbs 14oz--50th %
height: 24 3/4 in.-- 75th%
head: 15 3/4in.--30th%

A little bit about this four month old:

Elanor is a very social baby. She talks all day to herself or to anyone who will listen. She also likes experimenting with her voice and makes some very high pitched noises. She laughs when I squeeze her legs or kiss her cheeks. It is a pretty funny little laugh. I have tried to record it, but have been unsuccessful thus far. Elanor loves to play on the ground and can roll onto her side, lift her head and chest up pretty high, grab and hold toys, when on her tummy she tries to crawl (she can't go anywhere yet cause she can't lift her upper body), and she can sit up by herself for a little bit (if she is in the right mood) and if on my lap can sit up really well. She has not yet rolled completely over, but has tried to do so unsuccessfully. Elanor is a pretty good sleeper and sleeps for about 12 hours each night, she does tend to wake up a few times but goes right back to sleep. She also loves being outside. If she is upset we go outside and she calms right down. She loves looking at everything outside and touching flowers, leaves and bark. We have a lot of fun on our outdoor adventures. She is a lovely baby and so much fun. We love Elanor.

The doctor gave me an article about feeding babies solids (we are not starting until she is 6 months) and it was very interesting and I felt that it made sense to me. Basically, feed the baby what you eat. It is an interesting article and you can read it here.

Tyler and I are doing great, but the future is a little foggy for us right now. We have graduation on the April 30th and then we are unsure. Tyler has applied to so many jobs. He wants to go to grad school in fisheries or wildlife sciences, but it is pretty difficult to get in and much different than most programs. For one, a professor has to accept you into the program before you can even apply to the school. Which means, there has to be a spot available, the professor has to have enough funding to take on a student, and you somehow have to get to know professors so they will accept you. It has been difficult and we may have been a bit naive to assume we would get into a school on the West Coast. We are now looking at the West in general and Utah might be an option as there are two schools there with programs and it is a fairly central location for the other schools (if he needs to go there for interviews), also Utah has the lowest unemployment in the nation. We still have no idea where we will be going, but preferably a little closer to home.

 We will let you all know our plans as soon as we find out (which will hopefully be soon...)!

Lovely sun, fixed computers and a cute baby

First things first, my computer (that fell off the couch last semester, which resulted in a destroyed drive) is now fixed! I finally bought a new hard drive and David Taylor (one of our home teachers) kindly fixed it for us. So now I can upload pictures (Tyler's computer could not), which means I can blog much more often. I am so excited!!! It is almost like getting a new computer!

We have been having some lovely sun here the past few days (except today). Tyler, Elanor and I went on a hike the other day on the Appalachian Trail. The hike started out great, but Elanor cried for a good portion of it. Her nap was not as long as it should have been and she might not have been quite ready to go in the backpack as her head was bobbing a lot. Next hike, we will take her in the front pack.

Spring has come.