Elaine Climbs the Stairs

Special update featuring Elaine's latest performance - climbing the entire flight of stairs!  And then a mini flight ( for extra credit).  Ta da!

Finally enjoying the outdoors!

With a much needed break from the heat, we have been spending as much time outside as we can!!

This is my first blog post from my phone so hopefully it is a success. We went to the fair, saw the animals, played a little on the playground, watched all the people and returned home exhausted!

Elaine is enjoying exploring and has found the stairs! For a little girl who is too afraid to let go of our hands to walk solo, I'm shocked she is brave enough for this!

Other pics of our target run and her first piggies (pigtails) make her mama and papa smile!!

Birthday - Part 2

Last week, we headed to Peoria for my grandpa Frost's funeral. We left Wednesday, just after Elaine got her 12 month shots. She did pretty great with those, but she did hyperventilate a little, I think from the pain/fear.

Thursday Night
We got to have a belated birthday celebration for Elaine on Thursday.  Here is Lauren giving her cousin a little snuggle.  She loves to point at Elaine and say "bee-bee"  (baby)!  It is the most precious thing.

I took a bunch of my decorations from her ladybug party, so here are 3 generations with their party hats on!

I love a good party hat pic, and you can also see the Elmo balloon from Aunt Missy in the background.  I think every single kid took their turn playing with it that night.

Here is my cousin Shannon (although I think of her more as one of Elaine's aunts) with Elaine.

Missy did her usual magic with the cake - it was the coolest Elmo cake I've ever seen!  Elaine thought so too.  Here she is sneaking a taste.

Yup, it tastes every bit as good as it looks!

Here is the banner (thanks pinterest) that I made and kept forgetting to get a decent photo of.

And of course we had to pile the kids on the couch for a cousin photo!  Here are all 5!

Lauren had just a little more love to give Elaine. 

I can only imagine what they're saying to each other in their own secret language.

Here's a photo of the boys playing "Guess Who?"  I forgot how much I LOVED this game!  We ended up playing 3 on 3.  I am loving remembering all the games we played for hours as kids!

Here's Elaine playing on one of her new toys the next morning!

One last stop to see our cousins before we had to head back!  I love being an aunt and I love being a mom.  And I love seeing these two recreate so many scenes from my sister and my childhood.  It's so much fun to watch and I only wish they got to do it more!