Trip to PA for Hyrum and Tanner's Baptism

Last week the girls and I went on an adventure and took off to PA--without Daddy!  I will admit, I was pretty nervous to drive 8 hours without Geoff, but I just didn't allow myself to think about it too much.  We went to attend Hyrum and Tanner's baptism and because Geoff was scheduled to go to the Mayo Clinic for some testing, we figured it would be a good time to be out of town as well.  It turns out, Geoff's appointment was cancelled, so he stayed  home all alone, but I think he enjoyed his 'man time' and opportunity to conquer the skunk that moved in under our shed.

The drive was uneventful and pleasant--each way.  The girls were wonderful and we only stopped once to fuel up the car and our tummies.  I was grateful the weather was kind to us as well.

Hylie passing the time in the car by figuring out some new 'dos!

We had a wonderful time with family!  Eliana took a little while to warm up to everyone, but she fortunately gave family some pleasant moments.

Hylie had an absolute blast playing with cousins.

Hylie showing off her mad "Hide-n-Seek" skills...

Great Grandma doing her birthday tradition of 'pulling ears'

We had a great time celebrating Tanner and Hyrum's eighth birthdays and were so grateful to attend their baptism.  It was a beautiful occasion and being surrounded by family made it even more special.  Hylie even got to participate in singing "When I Am Baptized" in the cousin ensemble.

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of playing in a violin ensemble with Pap Pap, my nieces: Leah and Kaitlyn, and Mom on the piano.  What a beautiful privilege this was.

Leah even humored me and agreed to play along with my rusty fingers in Bach's double concerto! Thanks, Leah!

After our long drive home on Monday, Eliana was cracking us up at dinner--you could tell she was super excited to be out of the car and in more-familiar surroundings.  It is nice to be back home with Daddy!

Eliana Loves to Eat!

Our little girl has been insisting on using a spoon or fork all by herself at mealtime.

It works really well if the food is kind enough to stick to her utensil!

Our Girly Girl

Hylie definitely loves dress-up, and princesses, and just recently: make-up!  She kept talking about doing her own make-up, so we decided to make a trip to the dollar store where she picked out her lipstick, eye shadow, and blush.  We got home and she immediately began her make-over.  Then wanted to give MOM one too!

Almost every day she asks to put on her make-up, but thankfully she understands that this stuff only goes on when we are not leaving the house that day, ha ha!

Hylie's ABC's

These past few weeks I've been tying up a few "loose ends" with Hylie's Preschool unit about the letters of the alphabet.  She is getting more and more familiar with her letters and is excited about learning more about the sounds they all can make!

Here are all the letter crafts she made these past few months.  I loved how she really wanted to take the initiative on a lot of these projects and assemble them all by herself and add 'details' as she likes to call it.

A Few Fun Projects...

Just before Eliana became mobile, I basked in the easy-living of having a stationary baby and worked on a few projects.

I made a window treatment for the kitchen and hung a new (super cute) fruit basket:

Gave my spice jars a little bit of a face-lift by making new labels:

I've been wanting to do a square wreath for quite a while...I'm not crazy about the bow, so it may experience some revisions.

And I finally made the seat cushion for the mud room bench:

Check out this super fun door knob hook I found!

All-in-all, I'm pleased with how everything turned out, especially since this was my first attempt at a cushion (and piping!).  The funniest part was fitting the foam inside the cover--it seriously looked like I was trying to wrestle an alligator through the entire process, but it was worth it when I saw it actually fit!

Eliana Lately

Eliana's  hit a few milestones lately and has been keeping us entertained with her cute little antics.

This little girl LOVES to eat!  Sometimes she'll eat more than Hylie at dinner time!  We still can't get her to eat any bananas, pears, or oranges, but when she likes what's on her tray, she can be pretty amusing to watch her self-feed:

Eliana also doesn't mind being spoon fed, especially when it's food from your plate.  Sometimes she'll refuse food if she sees that what you're eating is different from her:

Even though I think her first official word was "Hi" (she would say it while waving) she hasn't been saying it lately, but she is super consistent with saying "more" while she does the sign language.

Every once in a while she'll humor us and echo some sounds like "mamamama" and "dadadadada", but only when she's in the mood and it's on her terms.

This cute kiddo LOVES bath time with her big sister.  She will get SO excited and giggle and kick with delight when she hears the water running but will pitch a fit if we walk away from the bathroom instead of putting her in tub.  However, when I take her in her room to get undressed for the bath, she realizes what is going on and will begin squealing again to show her approval.

She's still a little finger sucker.  When we were in PA, my Dad noticed that when she had her right hand in her mouth, she would suck her first two fingers, but when her left hand was busy in her mouth, it was the middle two fingers.  I looked back at pictures and the earliest ones I found showed this was even the case at 5 months old!

Eliana continues to be a die-hard mama's girl.  She starts crying anytime someone comes into our home because she's worried I am going to leave.  However, when it comes to toys, things are changing a bit.  About a month ago, when she'd be playing with her toys and I'd walk towards her, she would fling aside whatever was in her hands and put her arms up to be held. (I won't lie, it melted my heart...) Now, if she doesn't want her playtime to be interrupted, she'll bat your hands away and cling very tightly to her toys.  Ha!

And for the final tidbit about Eliana, she's officially mobile and is pretty proud of that fact, too!

Happy 2016!

We rang in the New Year with some friends at a Chinese Restaurant and then went home, put the kids to bed, and quietly wished each other a Happy New Year at midnight.

So far my New Year's Resolutions include: to blog more consistently (umm, already broken), to send out our 2015 Christmas cards by Valentine's Day, and to not put any crazy expectations on myself.  Ha ha!  Seriously, we are grateful for the blessings that came and the lessons that were learned in 2015 and I am hopeful to live in more gratitude and be more observant in 2016...and eventually set some specific goals for myself.