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.
My girlfriends and I threw our dear friend Olivia a little shower/luncheon at the famous Swan Coach House in Atlanta. This was baby girl number 3 for her!! We had a fun, girly Saturday afternoon with great food and great girlfriends.
This year we went to Nana and Papa's for Easter and met up with the entire Foster Family at Jekyll Island. The had a HUGE Easter Egg hunt, pony rides, food and of course all the amazing trees the island has to climb on......limbs stretching all the way to the ground. We hunted eggs for awhile and then headed on over to the beach where we soaked up some sun, let the kids splash around and then headed over to the Foster place for a delicious low-country boil. Yuummmm!! 
So my last day of class Eliana had to tag along with me and was more than happy to be our smiling, willing subject for the morning!! She posed and laughed and smiled and had a great time. I learned so much from this class and most of all realized how much I truly, truly enjoy photography!!! I can't wait to take more classes and learn more. 
