BLUE!!

It is still so crazy to me that I have a blue-eyed child being that I have such dark features, but I love it! She is so darn cute! :)

Cousin Time

 

Kristine, (Nate's sister) was in town for two 

weeks visiting from Missouri. It was so fun to 

spend time with her and their adorable almost 

7 month old Thomas. They call him T-man 

and he is seriously the cutest little guy ever! I 

guess I can't say little because he weighs more 

than Elliana!

 

Nate with the kiddos.
 

Mayley, Porter and Annie are so sweet to Elliana. She absolutely loves her cousins as you can see on her face.
 

While Kristine was visiting we spent one afternoon over at Matt and Lindsay's. We thought it would be fun to put the camera on timer and grab a picture of all of us. It's impossible to get the kids all looking at the camera, but we did our best.

One More Action Shot

I had to capture the frosting face. She loved it! I still can't believe our little baby is already one. She has made some huge progress over the last month or two. She can walk pretty good holding onto hands and is just figuring out that she can walk holding onto the couch or coffee table. She makes all sorts of babbling sounds and comprehends way more than she did just a month ago. For some reason she has just exploded with her development. She has been going to physical therapy for two weeks to help build up her strength but I don't really think she needs much more of it. She is still delayed in things but they can see a lot of progress so they just think she is a late bloomer. Everyone tells me I should be glad that she took so long to crawl because we had that much longer of not having to child proof everything. Some of her most favorite things right now is clapping her hands when music is playing, waving goodbye, sippy cups, kisses and walking everywhere. She is so much fun! We love our little Elli!

Elliana and Landon turned 1!

Grandpa Lunt and Elliana reading some books together.
The action on opening presents. Elliana actually opened her first present almost by herself. After that she wasn't too interested. It was so cute!
Landee's and Elli's cakes that Heather and I made.
The results of the yummy cakes. :)

The 4th of July!!!

The neighborhood that we live in does a little 4th of July parade. We thought it would be fun to go out and watch. We were completely drenched in sweat by the time it was over because it was over 100 degrees! We had fun anyway.
Uncle Mark brought his little puppy to the birthday celebration and the kids absolutely loved it!
We had to catch a picture of the kids in their festive gear at the beginning of the party before the fun started. :)
It was so refreshing to be able to swim. The kids had a great time on the raft.

Circus

I am still amazed how these motorcyclers can ride in this dome without crashing into each other. I have seen this circus for the past three years and every time I am just in awe at their timing. This video is probably pretty boring but I just think it is so amazing.

Totally into it

At first when we walked into the loud, full of lights circus, Elli and Landon weren't quite sure what to think. After a few minutes they warmed up and seemed to really enjoy it. Hunter was in all his glory. I love going to the circus!

Thanks Emily and Geoff...

Hammonassett beach is only about 30-40 minutes from where Emily and Geoff live. It was perfect. We went to this beach the morning before we had to leave and it was the best way to end our vacation.
Elli watching the waves wishing she could go in.
Cute family!
She was pretty wired for the plane ride home so it was quite the trip. I was SO ready for her to fall asleep.

Photo Shoot!

Emily and I went to a class that gave some basic pointers on taking photos. We came home from the class and wanted to have a little photo shoot of our own. As you can see I definitely need to go back to the class cuz I stink. To all you photographers out there...I have a new respect for what you do. We had fun attempting and the kids were great!
The look

The girls had matching headbands which was fun but we couldn't get them on the same angle.

Elli loves to have the light on her!

More Adventures

How sad is it to say that this was Elliana's first time on a real swing. She seemed to really like it so we will have to make it to the park again once the weather isn't so dang hot! It was neat because these swings were right on the beach.
This was the view from a park we walked around at that is only a few minutes from Geoff and Emily's place. I just love all the green!
Elli and Audrey got to be pretty good buds in the car because we spent quite a bit of time going from one place to the next. Audrey is much better in the car than Elli.
Sporting the mohawk

More New Haven...

We went on a tour of Yale and as you can see it is so green and the buildings are amazing. We saw the library which just reminds me of Harry Potter times and the resident dorms. According to our tour guide most all students live in the dorms, even as seniors! Crazy!
Nate and Elli watching the waves roll in at the beach at Lighthouse Point.
Elli wanted to eat the sand more than anything, which she accomplished even after us pushing her hand away from her mouth several times.
Me, Elli, Emily and Audry sitting on a bench in front of an old light house. It was the perfect weather this day.

New Haven, Conneticut

Elliana sporting some pigtails. Her hair starts way back on her head but it is just getting long enough to make some pigtails. Her forehead is still huge, but hopefully she will grow into it in the next couple years. :)
Geoff and Emily had some great things planned while were visiting. This river is just 5 minutes from their house and it was gorgeous. It was a little scary to take Elli canoeing but Nate convinced me and it was a blast.
Some dad and Elli pictures I had to post. They are so darn cute!
Playing at the playground right before a storm.

Crazy Rain!

We were walking around New York City and it started to get a little dark. After a few minutes it started to sprinkle. We didn't think much of it and then a few minutes later it turned into crazy rain! We rain as fast as we could to cover but still got soaking wet. It added a fun element to our trip for sure!

New York...

Elliana slept in almost everyday on our trip. What really probably happened was she never got switched to the east coast time. She didn't go to bed until 10 or 11 every night too!
This was the boat ride out to the Statue of Liberty.
Still on the boat...

I'm a slacker in posting, but here it goes...

This is Elliana going to town on an ice cream cone, without the ice cream of course. It is quite the challenge to entertain an almost one year old on a airplane for hours. It was a full day flying from Phoenix to Hartford, CT. Elli was a champ though.
Elli was pretty excited to roam free once we got to our hotel in Manhattan, NY. She doesn't love car rides and it took us 2 1/2 hours to drive from CT to NY.
Central Park was one of my favorite places to visit. It was fun to people watch and of course enjoy all the green.
The airline lost our stroller so we were ever so lucky and got to carry Elli all over New York City. She of course had no problem with it but Nate and I were pretty exhausted by the end of the night.
We ended our night with a Jamba Juice treat. Yum!