Spring Break!

Spring Break 2011 took us down to South Florida to visit the Katz Families!!! Grandpa, Ronnie and Family, Eric and Family and Mimi!

We had such a great time. The weather was perfect and our days were filled with swimming and birthday parties and fancy fun dinners. Aubrey swam like a fish but Eliana, this being her first time in the water with floaties, was NOT a fan.....she is terrified! Clings to us for dear life. I'm hoping as the summer goes on she will learn to love the water but for now she is content to sit on the stairs of the pool and splash around!

We took advantage of Granpa's beautiful neighborhood and enjoyed the pool and clubhouse and I enjoyed a beautiful, quiet run every morning! We went to my sweet neice Leila's 5th birthday party at a beautiful park and the kids had a blast. It was definitely alot hotter than us Georgia folk are used to but we had soo much fun. Quinn, Aubrey, Leila and Eliana had a blast together the entire week. We also got to visit with Aiden and Ethan and they all enjoyed each other so much! Aiden especially loooves Eliana!! He loves to talk to her and play with her, so sweet to her.

Our last stop of the week was up to Mimi's house where we spent the day just relaxing and visiting and letting Mimi take a million pictures of her granddaughters........the girls love Mimi's house and all the fun dolls and toys and her amazing movie collection!!

We enjoyed getting to visit with her and hearing all about her flying adventures these days as a corporate flight attendant.......

We enjoyed our fun in the sun on Spring Break!!!

We love our family so much and were so glad to spend time with them all!!!

more photography practice......latest favorites......

Still practicing, still learning and still loving every minute!!!

Just a few of my favorites from the past few weeks.....trying to get my pictures ready for my final project!!

eliana photo shoot.....2 years old

Eliana Grace...... 2 years old

March 28, 2011

Our sweet little Eliana turned 2 years old today!!!

I just can't get over it. How she got to be so big, so fast I will never know. I will never forget trying to get pregnant for so long and finally, finally finding out I was.......it seemed like she would never get here and now it's already been 2 years!

The past year has been a HUGE one for Miss Eliana. She started out her first birthday not being able to walk and now on her second birthday I can't keep her from climbing on everything in the house! She started preschool, music class, and is quite the chatterbox. She can say anything!! She loves to sing......twinkle, twinkle, ABC's, itsy bitsy spider, all the music class songs, and her favorite of all time- jingle bells....

:)

She is still the happiest little girl ever. She wakes up smiling, smiles all day and goes to bed smiling.....happy and sweet and such a clown!! She's so silly and fun. Although now that we have hit 2 she is definitely having a touch of the terrible twos in there too.....some tantrums, lots of fake crying over being told "no", and the favorite new phrase,"that's mine!".......but thank goodness this time around I've" been there done that" and all this isn't quite as scary as it was the first time!! I'm actually pretty good at ignoring it altogether.......

We had a wonderful birthday weekend......

Started off on Friday with birthday cupcakes at preschool.....I was out of town the whole week so the only thing I had time to do was stop by the local bakery on the way to school that morning and let her pick out whichever cupcakes she wanted! She picked the pretty ones with tons of icing flowers of course.....and she had sooo much fun sharing cupcakes with all her little friends in class. They were all sooo excited!

The next celebration came on Saturday night with our friends The Youngs......I baked a "celestial chocolate cake" alllll day...(it's apparently a traditional southern birthday cake according to my "southern cakes recipe book") and we ordered Thai food and just hung out at the house. It was actually a nasty, rainy, cold night but we had fun! She opened presents, ate yummy food, sang happy birthday, blew out her candle (her favorite part) and looooved her cake. The cake was a hit.......and there were chocolate crumbs in every corner of my house!! :)

Sunday was "Family Day"......we started off our morning at The Waffle House...mmmmmmmm..

Eliana scarfed down a waffle (as did the rest of us) and loved every second of it! We played and had fun in the house all day (another nasty day outside) and then did family presents with her. She got a jewelry box, an "E" necklace and a Barbie doll from her big sister (which Aubrey picked out and paid for all by herself!)

It was a special night and we were just reminded how blessed we are to have two beautiful, healthy, and happy girls. And we are so thankful for our little Eliana........always reminding us to be happy and always making us smile!!

And last but not least........her actual birthday on the 28th.......Jon had to leave town that morning so I got up, took Aubrey to school and took Eliana through the drive thru at Starbucks for a Vanilla milk and pumpkin loaf. Once again it was pouring down rain so we went back home and just played and cleaned up a bit. A little later some of her little friends from preschool came over and we had a little playdate and of course........more cake! This time just some good old fashioned Betty Crocker cupcakes I whipped up........yellow cake, chocolate frosting and some fun sprinkles. She had a blast with her little friends over.......sad to say but it was her first playdate with her own friends over here! She was in heaven. She put on a fancy cinderella dress up gown and just had a ball..........

I took advantage and went crazy on a 2 year old photo shoot for her..........(those pics to come soon......)

We finally ended our evening by heading up to Twisted Taco for some mexican food.......our family favorite.

It was a wonderful weekend for a wonderful baby girl. We are so proud of her and so blessed.

We love you sooooo much Eliana!!!!!

Happy, Happy 2nd Birthday sweet baby girl.

Atlanta Half Marathon

I ran my first half marathon on March 20, 2011 here in Atlanta!!!

13.1 miles.......my official time was 2 hrs and 19 min....... yay!!!

It was absolutely amazing, exhilirating, and wonderful. Hard at times but I was sooo pumped, so ready and it was just too much fun. Lucky for me I had the company of some awesome ladies (Hillary, Sherry and Renee)......and Renee and I stuck together for the entire run.....lots of encouraging, lots of complaining and alot of fun.

Can't wait to do my next one!!!

photography practice....

just a few fav photos from my photography class I'm taking. just practicing a bit around the house with the girls and the cat (who is my FAVORITE subject.....Georgia will sit and pose for hours ..... :)

Trying all different settings on my camera, different lighting, etc. Trying to learn!!! And having soooo much fun......

Aubrey......

is completely and totally "in looooove". Everyday she comes home talking about Baker. "Baker says he loves me! He wants to marry me Mommy! He loves the other girls in class too, but he loves me the MOST. " She giggles uncontrollably, cheeks get all red and it is the cutest thing ever. She is so smitten! While I find it adorable her daddy is not so sure. I don't think he was quite prepared for this yet!!! I assured him that this is as innocent as it gets! Enjoy it and encourage her while she is still willing to share her feelings of love with us, her parents, because I"m sure those days are numbered!! I hope not though. I hope she will always share her little crushes and loves because to me it is so precious.

Here's hoping!! My little love-smitten-kindergartner..........soo sweet........

jammies....

another fun girls night sleepover.......with jammies courtesy of "Ms. Leslie" all the way from Singapore!!

The girls were so cute in their special jammies and Eliana was beside herself to be dressed like one of the "big girls"......

:)

Peter Pan....

I decided to take Aubrey to see "Peter Pan" the new version straight from London, complete with real flying and simulation, etc, etc here in Atlanta. I was soooo excited, she was sooo excited and our friends the Young's all went with us for a great night of theatre/live entertainment. Except that about 15 minutes into the show, Captain Hook "slit the throat" of one of his pirates and that was it for Aubrey. She panicked. Refused to watch the rest of the show until intermission when I decided to take her to the lobby and she and I watched the rest on the big screen TV. :(

My big girl, who has seen at least a dozen live theatre performances, was so distraught by this particular show......it was sad but what can you do?? We made the most of it, talked about it, and enjoyed it from the comfort of the lobby TV which made it alot less scary. As I watched the show, thinking about it from a 6 yr old's point of view, I realized Peter Pan isn't quite as happy/innocent/fun as I remember it to be!! It's actually quite a violent little story! But all was well. We walked away from it realizing that sometimes it's ok to be scared and most important is that we were together. She's ready for her next show already so I'm guessing it didn't do too much damage. :)

I love that my big girl shares my love of theatre and isn't afraid to share her fears and cuddle up with her mom still. After all, how much longer do I have for that to happen????

Aquarium

so the aquarium was the last adventure outing on our winter break 2010......we met up with our sweet friends The Federico's (emily, juliana and sweet baby gus)........and had a blast @ the aquarium!

I brought along my camera, eager to take pictures with all I have been learning from my photography class, and could not get a decent picture to save my life. So once I realized the failed photography was taking away from my aquarium adventure with my girls and friends, I put the camera away and enjoyed my day. :)

And then my sweet photography instructor later told me where I went wrong.....

But the aquarium day was wonderful. The girls looved seeing all the fish, playing on the big playground and just being together. They especially loved touching the sting rays and sharks.....

It was a fun ending to a wonderful week. I'm glad we made the most of our break and had so much fun together and spent so much time with so many different friends........