The Weekly Photo

My very good friends, Caitlin and Mallory (yes, they are twins) came and visited last week. We had a jolly time exploring Salt Lake City and staying up way too late!

This Kid...

...purposely makes faces like this just to make me laugh.

Elanor is no longer a baby and has not been for awhile now.

 It makes me a bit sad and I miss having a baby, but she is growing into such a fun, hilarious, and adventurous little girl.

 "Take a picture of my messy face, Mommy!"

 We were playing hide and seek the other day and I was hiding on top of the washer (it is in the bathroom and if the bathroom door is open the washer is blocked from view) and she could not find me. I gave her several hints by knocking on the door and she eventually found me. When she saw where I was she said, 

"Mommy, get down from there, it is not safe!"

 I said, "Who says it is not safe?" 

"I do!", Elanor declares in a quite grown-up voice.

She makes us laugh everyday. Elanor is a fairly spirited and imaginative child. I love listening in to conversations she has with her dolls or stuffed "amials", as Elanor calls them. She talks to them like she is their Mommy and puts them in time out or gives them to the count of three to do something she asked. 

She still sucks her thumb (we need to somehow wean her off it!), but in many ways she is so grown-up. She talks sooo much...pretty much like a regular person. She has been speaking in sentences for almost a year now, but her sentences are pretty complex and only occasionally does she make some grammatical errors.

She has her fair share of tantrums, whiny days, obstinate "no's", and bed-wetting (we are trying to night-train her=lots of laundry). We are so extremely grateful to have her, especially since having a second is proving to be very difficult. She is such a joy and brings so much happiness to our little family. I especially love it when she wants "to cuddle for just a minute" or give Tyler and I a "family hug", as she calls our group hugs. 

Elanor is our favorite.

The Weekly Photo

Friends

This post has been floating around in my head all week, but I have just now sat down to write it. 

Sometime last week, Elanor announced, "I like my friends, Mommy, know dat?!?!" 

{She ends a lot of sentences in "know dat", meaning "did I know that?" ("that" meaning whatever she had just announced).}

Eli and Elanor (about 11 months old)

This little statement got me thinking. Elanor really loves her friends (Grey, Micah, Eli, Hazel, Noelle, Malachi and others at church). We see our upstairs neighbors a lot, since they obviously live upstairs and have twins the same age as Elanor. She loves them and her day is not complete unless she has seen Grey and Micah at least once. She often talks about how much she loves Grey, how she wants to hug Micah, how she wants to walk to Eli's house, or ask Hazel to play. She seriously loves her little friends so much. It amazes and inspires me that such a young little person already loves and needs friends so much. We, humans, are born with a desire to love and be loved. We are not complete unless we can love and be loved. I love that this is evident in two year olds. Of course, I already knew that about the parent/child relationship, but seeing it in a peer to peer relationship is something new (well, it has developed over the last year). I love it. I love that Elanor loves other people so much (sometimes a bit much--she is a hugger and kisser--and some kids do not always want so much attention). That is not to say that there are not fights (there are plenty), but parents are there to supervise and two year olds forgive each other in about a second. 

Elanor and Malachi (Elanor--about 16 months)

Elanor with Grey and Micah (Elanor--21 months)

This gives me hope for this human race of ours. You know, that race that kills other people, bickers over gun laws, starts wars, and such. If a two year old can love so much and is born with the need to love and be loved, then what is our problem? We need to be more like children (in a good way, no fighting over toy cars, boots, or baby dolls) and love and forgive easily. Everyone needs a friend (or several) no matter their age. I know when we first moved to SLC it was hard because I had left so many good friends in Virginia. I made friends here eventually and it makes me so much happier to have friends. It sounds cheesy, but everyone needs friends. We need other humans. So, lets try to be more friendly, more free with our time to help others, more likely to give hugs, and more willing to play/talk. After all, if a two year old can do it, then surely an adult can. 

{And since I could not pick just a few pictures, here are a ton more adorable pictures of Elanor and her friends. I actually had more, but limited it to non-posey pictures, if you get my drift.}

Eli and Elanor at the zoo (Elanor--26 months)

Elanor and Grey chillin' in the hammock.

Elanor with Malachi (and Tyler of course)

Elanor with Grey and Micah (and Becky)

Cake!


Friends are the best.

The Weekly Photo

April showers bring May flowers.

Growing Up (3 years of Easter)

I was looking at pictures of past Easters (of which Elanor has been present for three of them) and it is so amazing how much she has grown up and changed in almost 2 1/2 years.

Elanor's first Easter:

 She was 4 months old, but was already showing a lot of personality and spunk. We were living in Buena Vista, Virginia and were about to move to Utah in one month.

Just look at those cheeks!

Elanor's 2nd Easter:

Elanor was 16 months and turning into a real little person. She could talk, walk, run, etc. We lived in the same house we do now in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Elanor's 3rd Easter:

She is pretty much a kid now at almost 2 1/2. She talks really well,  has opinions, is very capable in many ways and is such an amazing little girl. It is a real treat to be able to witness her grow up (even though I do look back and miss those baby days) and see who she is becoming and all the amazing possibilities that are before her. She is a unique, intelligent, sweet, and beautiful little person and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

Easter Weekend

My brother came down from BYU-I for Easter weekend! It was so nice to have Ian here for Easter. I took quite a few pictures so this is mostly going to be a photo post, with limited dialogue (maybe).

On Friday, we went on a little hike. It was refreshing to be in the mountains and be out in the lovely spring weather!

It was pretty hard to get a group shot (Tyler was at work, if anyone was wondering). We all look sort of silly here. Oh, well.

Easter treats! Meringue and Whipped Cream Sandwiches, recipe here.

Decorating eggs! We dyed all of our eggs while they were boiling with this powdered German-made stuff. It is supposed to all-natural?! Who knows as it was all written in German... They make very pretty colors though and Elanor had fun putting these Easter themed (bunnies, birds, and eggs) foam stickers on her eggs (thanks to Tyler's mom/Mema!).

Hard at work.

Ian drew on his, as he is quite the artist...for real. Though, he drew mostly silly stuff like this:

(It is Humpty Dumpty)

 Elanor's Easter basket. 

Elanor kept going on for weeks about how the Easter bunny was going to bring her a lollipop. I am not quite sure how that idea got into her little head but she was so excited about it (she has had a lollipop maybe once or twice). The lollipop is in the basket handle and Whole Foods gave it to us for free. She is easy to please. Elanor was also pretty excited about the book about Jesus and loves to give Jesus hugs and kisses (she hugs and kisses the book).

She is so excited about that lollipop.

Yes, I am aware this is ridiculously blurry but it is the only picture I have of that all important lollipop. She was jumping all around with joy that I had a hard time getting her to stand still long enough for picture.

Easter egg hunt in the morning all around the living room!

She found them all! She only needed help with a few eggs, but she mostly did the hunt on her own this year!

Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns, one a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns.

Breakfast on Easter morning!

 All ready to go to church (Elanor had two Easter dresses, so the lucky girl was able to get dressed up twice in one day!).

 Home from church and it was such a warm Easter day!

 Family pictures, sort of. There was a weird filter on in the first one and Ian was taking them and not too keen on spending much time getting a good picture with a wiggly toddler.

 Elanor and the Jesus picture she got in her Easter basket.

Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I forgot to take a picture of our dinner, which is a pity since we ate a roast leg of lamb (bone-in) and it looked fairly impressive.

 After dinner we went on a walk (Elanor got in Easter dress #2 after her nap--dress is from Mema! Thank you!).

Dancing with her Daddy along the way.

 She has dandelions in her hair.

Spring is finally here and I am so grateful for Easter and the time of year we have it. It means so much more because it happens in Spring when all that was dead and brown all winter is suddenly reborn in a riot of color. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and all he did for everyone. Literally, everyone. I am grateful that Jesus was resurrected and lives again and I love that he made it possible for all of us to do the same. We had such a lovely Easter!

The Weekly Photo

My brother, Ian, came down from BYU-I to visit with us for Easter! 

Easter weekend pictures coming tomorrow.