Diaper Derby.

Today we took Elena to My Gym for a fundraiser for the YWCA. If you brought a package of diapers or pull-ups your child got to play for $1! There were also some baby races which were pretty funny. First was the ball pit. Here are Lunden and Elena playing~

Yep, that is Elena in there! Daddy helped bury her!!

All the kiddos always love the ball pit! Skylyn and Elena were laughing so hard!

The trampoline is always a big hit too!

This was a new obstacle that Elena hadn't ever been able to do before. She started climbing on it and made it to the top all by herself!

I'm telling you she is such a little monkey!! She had a blast! 

 

There were also baby races! First were the younger age groups - which was so adorable to watch! Then Elena, Lunden and another little boy competed for their age group of 16-18months. Elena took off from the start and was in the lead, but then veered off to the monkey bars and never quite made it over to the finish line, go figure! Lunden ended up winning the race. It was pretty funny to see them running around all over! Robert was too excited in trying to get her to the finish that he didn't take any pictures! :)

Quite a workout for a little one! Time for a water break before we headed to lunch! :)

 

Flashback Friday - Potty Training.

In honor of our purchase of a new potty chair for Elena I would like to post one of my favorite pictures of Robert as a toddler. Apparently he peed on the floor and his mom made him grab a mop and clean up his mess!! I laugh everytime I see this picture - it is so cute!

Reading.

Elena really likes reading, okay, she LOVES reading. Anytime the house gets really quiet and I am wondering if she is getting in to trouble, I can usually find her in a chair, or on the floor looking at a book. I am so happy that she loves this and hope that it continues for a long time. CJ was over tonight and they were both sitting on Elena's couch reading and I just had to grab a couple pictures - it was just too cute not to! :)

6 Teeth!

Elena has officially doubled the amount of teeth she has in less than a month, she has gone from 3 teeth to 6! What a difference seeing her with teeth in her mouth and not the big gummy smile that we got so used to. :) It makes her look so much older!

Potty!

This weekend we bought Elena a potty chair. We don't really think that she is quite ready for it yet but we thought we would get one so that she could get used to it and understanding that it is for her to go potty in. She sat on it a couple of times with her clothes on and thought it was pretty fun. She even sat on it and then tapped on the big toilet and said "caca" - so we think she is understanding it's purpose. Tonight I went in to use the bathroom and when I walked out and shut the door she had a fit and wanted to go in and sit on her potty. So I let her and then I explained that the real way to use it is to take off her pants and diaper and then go pee pee. So I took them off and she sat right down and peed in it!! I was literally shocked - and still am to be honest! She even said "pee pee" when she was done!! It could be a fluke or just really good timing but I am so proud of her and hope this is a good sign for the potty training to come!!

Babysitting.

Robert and I have never babysat another child together, ever! But on Friday - while all the cool people were at the George and Reba concert, we babysat our friend's little boy, Drake. He and Elena are only a few days apart and they have spent a lot of time together so we figured this would be a piece of cake, and for the most part it was. They played really well together - high-fives, sharing sippy cups and toys, etc...

Mr. Drake is a pretty mellow guy. He was pretty content to hang with Robert on the couch and watch Elena run around like a mad woman most of the evening. She was even trying to do somersaults by herself!!

The funniest thing about the evening was that as soon as Elena went to bed, Drake did a total 180! He was running around and jabbering and lauging and playing - it was so crazy! It was like we were suddenly babysitting a totally different kiddo - not qutie so mellow anymore! He is too funny!

I think we did a pretty good job with two kiddos running around - but we decided we are definitley not quite ready for baby #2 just yet! :)

Flashback Friday - 1st BFF.

Do you remember your very 1st best friend? I definitley do - it was Lindsey! She and I lived down the street from eachother and we were absolutely inseperable while we were growing up. Honestly from the age of  4 to about 12 we were totally attached at the hip! We have some really cool pictures to prove it too! Lol!

I have so many fond memories of our adventures together! Who would've ever thought that 20 years later we would still know eachother, let alone be friends with eachother?!

I consider myself very lucky to have many friends like Lindsey, that I have known for a very long time and am still very close to!

Super Suppers.

Last week I got together with a group of "mommy-friends" at Super Suppers. This is a place where you go in and put together meals that you then take home and put in your freezer and thaw out when you want to use them. Very handy when you find that you don't have time to make dinner and/or don't want to pick up something quick and possibly unhealthy for the family. Another great thing is you put it together so if you know that your family won't eat onions, for example, you simply leave them out! 

So now I have 3 meals ready to go in my freezer; Parmesean Chicken with a Creamy Sage Sauce, Santa Fe Baked Cheese Tortellini, and Chicken Cordon Bleu w/ Rice Pilaf- I am really excited to try them out! I also got a small tub of Pumpkin Pie Dip (YUM!) that I hear is very good with graham crackers! Robert and Elena are going to love that one!! Another random fact - Super Suppers actually catered my wedding, and I got many compliments on how great the food was!

A long road ahead.

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers regarding my Aunt. I'm afriad she is going to need more prayers though, she made it through the surgery but the mass did turn out to be the same cancer she had previously been diagnosed with. It had impacted her kidney and the doctors were forced to remove it. She is doing better and getting stronger each day. She is also going to have to go through another round of chemotherapy, which is not the news we were hoping for, but I know how strong of a woman she is and truly believe she will be able get through this. Please continue to pray for her to get stronger and beat this, as well as for her family to help her get through this tough time. Thank you.

PURE Fun?

Today we went to one of Elena's friends birthday party at PURE Entertainment. This place is very cool - check out all the inflatables for the kiddos to play on!  

  Robert and I thought Elena would love this place...but as soon as we walked in she was terrified!

Poor baby! I have never seen her this scared before - she was shaking! I guess those huge inflatables are a little scary for someone so little! So at the beginning there was quite a bit of this~

But we found this area for little ones and she warmed up a little bit.

 

Then we managed to get her into one of the smaller moonwalks without crying.

 

Little Miss Willow, on the other hand, was a boucing machine! She was so cute! 

One last inflatable before we went in for cake, she really liked this one!

The party had an Olympic theme - very cool idea!

Everyone got a medal that went to the party - Elena was checking hers out to see if it was gold! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Skylyn!