Eliana - 18 months

Eliana keeps growing and is starting to get the hang of this mobility thing.  She's crawling everywhere, pulls herself up on everything, and has even mastered going up and down the steps!  Now she just has to get the courage to stand on her own and take some steps.  She's tried out the nursery these past few weeks and usually settles down the second half after mom or dad leaves.

When it comes to opinions, Eliana definitely has been gaining her own!  At mealtimes, if she is not excited about what we're eating, Eliana will scream and point to the fridge expecting a specific food to appear that isn't already on the table.  I think she's starting to realize I'm not catering to everyone's food wishes, so she's starting to be a little better at eating, but we have a ways to go.

Words are not anything Eliana is concerned about right now.  She points, grunts, and shakes or nods her head.  Every once in a while she'll repeat "Mama" and "Dada" and even gives a little roar when reading about a dinosaur in one of her books, but she is perfectly content not trying to build any type of vocabulary.  A few tantrums have occurred due to her lack of communication skills, so I'm hopeful she'll be motivated to start verbalizing things.  She definitely understands a great deal, she just doesn't want to talk about it.  ;)

When Eliana sees her picture is being taken, this is how she 'smiles'

And, of course, it's time for some side-by-side pics of when Geoff and I were her age.  It's pretty obvious who Eliana is getting her amazing looks from--she looks just like Geoff did when he was little.  In fact, when I showed this picture of Geoff to Hylie, she asked when Eliana was wearing that outfit, ha ha ha ha!

Family Vacation to Wisconsin Dells

Geoff took a few days off work and we headed up to Wisconsin Dells.  We had wonderful weather and just a great time on our get away.

We experienced Circus World (which included Hylie riding an elephant!), a Duck Tour, and swimming at the hotel pool and Noah's Ark.  We didn't take any pictures at Noah's Ark but Geoff and I had to chuckle, the girls enjoyed the hotel pool more than the water park, ha ha!  I also got to celebrate my birthday while we were away with some yummy Wisconsin macaroni and cheese and ice cream.  Delish!  (I was enjoying the evening so much, I didn't get pics of that either...)

Trip to PA with Hylie and Eliana

The girls and I decided to take an impromtu visit to PA (thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa were okay with this!)  Hylie was thrilled to go, she had been asking on a regular basis when we could visit Grandma and Grandpa again.  Plus, in a recent library class, the instructor asked the kids where they would go if they had their very own magic carpet.  Immediately, some of the kids shouted out: "Disney World!" "California!" but when the teacher turned to Hylie, her response was, "Grandma and Grandpa's."

We didn't get there on a magic carpet ride, but the girls were sure good in the car for the eight hour drive!

We had a wonderful visit, enjoyed some great weather, and had a blast with family.  We even got to attend Grandma's piano recital and loved hearing all the kids perform--including cousin Tanner!

Hylie got her hair trimmed and styled by Grandma!

Eliana hasn't been warming up well to anyone other than her mom recently.  But she did have a few moments of fun with the family...

Grandpa has been working on this swing project for a little while and we were thrilled to have the honor of testing it out while we were there.  Needless to say, IT WAS A HUGE HIT!  The kids absolutely LOVED this new attraction and I have a feeling it will never get old!









We also got to go swimming with Janna in a 90 degree pool.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed their experience and Grandpa worked with Hylie to show her she truly could float in the water with no human assistance--she was thrilled!

To end our visit, we enjoyed a quiet little cook-out, complete with hot dogs and s'mores.

Each night we got to video chat with Dad, can you tell Eliana was pretty excited to see him?



Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa for such a delightful visit.  Looking forward to next time!

A Day Downtown with Dad

Geoff's boss offered him a free day off in thanks for all the extra time and help Geoff has been giving to the company.  We were thrilled to take him up on that and enjoyed a day in Chicago.

 Eliana found it very amusing that someone would take a nap on the bus

Visiting the downtown office of Dad's work, Sentinel 

 Hylie posing as a mermaid

Mother's Day

A few days ago Geoff and I were discussing Mother's Day and I said all I would like is for him to make dinner and do the dishes.  Well, he went a 'little' above and beyond and on Saturday surprised me with appointments for a pedicure and massage!  Wow!  I really enjoyed them both (and as a note, this was the first pedicure I have ever had where the technician didn't make a comment about the size of my feet! ha ha!) and felt completely spoiled.  That evening Geoff also picked up Thai food and we all savored the delicious feast.

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day where we enjoyed a laid-back morning before we attended a touching sacrament meeting centered on women of God.

I am truly enjoying my role of mother to these delightful girls, Hylie and Eliana.  They fill my days with laughter and surprises, keep me humble, and remind me what matters most in life.  I'm extremely grateful to be a mom and look forward to our third bundle of joy to join us this fall.  I'm also abundantly blessed with wonderful mothers in my life: my sweet mother-in-law, my loving grandmothers, and my dear, beautiful mother.  Each of these women exemplify selflessness, hard work, devotion, and unconditional love.  How I hope and pray to bring my children the same love my mothers give to me.

Unsolved Mystery

Okay, cue the creepy music from that classic TV program we watched as kids even though it freaked us out and kept us up at night wondering if the escapees from Azkaban were lurking in our backyards.

Last week, I was taking the girls with me to run some errands and when I entered our garage, my eye caught this:

I pulled it out and saw it was a 1,000 Brazilian note.  I never noticed it there before, so I called Geoff to see if he found it and tucked it behind the conduit--he hadn't, but he looked up the currency and found out it is worth $285 US dollars!

I left for my errands but kept feeling a little creeped out wondering how it got there, so just to be safe, I called the Morton Grove police to see if there were any recent incidents involving Brazilian money.  There hadn't, but they asked to come check things out.  An officer came by and said it was suspicious but, of course, there was nothing to be done.  They told me to keep the money (woo hoo!) and if we heard anything skeptical going on outside, to call them immediately.

I'm happy to report that absolutely nothing has happened, but I still would like to know where that money came from!  Geoff thinks it's been there ever since we moved in but I really don't think we wouldn't notice it for three years!  Plus, the people who lived here before us were from India, not Brazil!

Well, I guess now all we have to figure out is where we need to go to exchange the money and then decide how we want to splurge!  ;)

An Evening of Music

So this post is two months late but...

in March I put together an Evening of Music and invited anyone in our ward to come perform.  March was a crazy month of sickness for our family and Eliana was running a fever this particular weekend, so Geoff and Eliana stayed home while Hylie tagged along with me so I could run the event.  I was sad our whole family couldn't attend, but the evening was filled with some wonderful music.  Many individuals came to perform and some came just to listen.  We had little ones playing amazing pieces on the violin, piano, and cello, some adults performing some pretty impressive guitar solos, vocalists, pianists, and I had the pleasure of playing with a very fine violinist, Stephanie Goold.

A friend of ours recorded the numbers I was in so Geoff could hear them, so here are the YouTube posts:

Hungarian Dance

A Change in Me

Bach's Double Concerto

I can assure you, the notes out of tune on the violin duets are me!  It was so fun to get my violin out and take the time to practice and play--and what a joy it has been to play with Stephanie.

To thank the participants, I put together a little thank you treat with a classic ABBA song.

I'm hopeful to make this an annual event, we'll see how on top of it I am next winter!