Summer Lovin'

Here's how we've spent our summer so far:

Lots of trips to the zoo. Eleanor is actually smiling for a picture!! Can you believe it??


Lots of popcorn and Icees at Target... (with our friend Katherine)


(Eleanor reenacting her brain freeze)

"Reading" the children's hymbook...

Lots of organizing... (Done by Eleanor, not me. She is quite particular about where things go and how you're "supposed" to do things)

Lots of Dance Central on our new Kinect that we got for Andrew's birthday...

We celebrated Andrew's birthday at a baseball game. His work has their summer picnic at the ball game every year. We even stuck it out during the pouring rain, it was quite the adventure.

Instead of a traditional birthday cake, Andrew opted for "The Screamer" (a pound of brownies, 30 scoops of ice cream, topped with whip cream and sprinkles!!) Don't worry, I didn't let Andrew eat it all on his own, although I think he probably could have. We had some help from our friends that were with us!

Penelope wasn't really sure about the fireworks after the game...

We got to celebrate the 4th of July with my mom, 2 brothers Jacob and Freddie, and my sister Amy. They drove up from New Orleans. It was so fun to have them here!!! Eleanor thinks uncle "do-do" is so funny. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of our company:(

Freddie also spent one of the days cutting our grass and weeding and edging.
I don't think our yard has ever looked so nice.

Of course we had ourselves a nice little bar-b-q...

Penelope decided 4th of July would also be a good day to start walking. She took quite a few steps and can now walk pretty good all on her own! She loved playing with Granny Nanny and my was also pretty attached to my sister Amy and would just cuddle up on her shoulder. She is such a sweet baby!

It's always so hard to say goodbye to family, so my mom had the great idea for us to drive with them on the next leg of their journey to St. Louis to see my sister Jessica. So Eleanor, Penelope, and I loaded up with my mom and 3 siblings for a 9 hour drive to St. Louis. The girls did surprisingly well on the drive, except for a puking episode courtesy of Penelope. My sister Emily was also visiting with her little girl so we were able to see all my siblings except Laura who was stuck in Provo working (way to be responsible, Laura! we missed you a lot!!) It was so fun to just lounge around and be with family and watch all the little girlie cousins play together. There is only one boy (and one on the way) and 6 little girls. I really wish they could play together more often.

I mainly took videos, but here are some pictures of all the cute kiddos playing...

Grace and Eleanor

We had a little water balloon fun for Ethan's birthday

Lots of dressing up...

Sophie, Grace, Pearce, and Ethan

Eleanor and Sophie doing puzzles

Can't forget about cute little Jane

I think this post is long winded enough so for the play by play
of what we did you can check out Emily's blog :)

When we got home Eleanor kept asking when we were going to Grace's house. She had such a fun time, and now I'm sure our house seems pretty boring. Oh I forgot to mention, on our last day at my sister's house, Eleanor swallowed a quarter!!! Scariest moment of my life. She was choking on it and then was able to swallow it! Who knew you can swallow a quarter??

Also since being back home, Eleanor has dressed up like a princess almost every day...

Andrew also surprised me with an early anniversary present and ordered some crawfish! We had a nice little crawfish boil in our backyard. It was so delicious and definitely will become a new tradition for sure! I keep calling it the first annual Whitman crawfish boil :)

Eleanor was a good little helper and helped Andrew peel all the onions



Finished product = YUM!!


Eleanor kept calling them bugs and opted to just get in her swimsuit and go for a swim!

Moments

"Moments are the molecules that make up eternity."  Neal A. Maxwell

 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

I'd say my eternity looks pretty good!

Reader's Digest version

So I know you're dying to know what we've been up to for the last couple of months :)

First of all, Eleanor has been practicing her artwork any chance she gets. She made this lovely mural with eyeliner one Sunday while we were downstairs visiting with some friends. Luckily I was able to get most of it off with a Mr. Clean eraser thing. Consequently, Eleanor also been practicing her time out skills!

We went to family night at the student rec center. Eleanor was so excited to see Zippy, the school's mascot. They also projected Toy Story 3 onto the wall so the kids could watch the movie while playing in the pool.



Here's a video of Eleanor giving Zippy a high five. She loves Zippy!




Penelope turned 8 months and is still cute as ever!





Eleanor went to her first birthday party and she LOVED it. Everything was princess and Eleanor is still talking about Pepper's birthday party to this day.
Here she is with her friend Hannah.



You can also see in that picture that Eleanor got her hair cut, it was getting so long.
I decided it was short hair time so I cut mine as well!



Andrew's mom (Nana, aka Ya-Ya) came in town to watch the girls while I went to Utah for my brother and sister's graduation from BYU. (That's another blog for another time. It was so much fun to be with my mom and all my siblings and so nice to have a little break!)



We brought Nana some flowers and Eleanor was SOOO excited
to give them to her when she arrived.




Eleanor got some big girl underwears and a potty book for Easter and we attempted some potty training. It was slightly unsuccessful so I think we'll try again in a couple of months :)



Penelope loved having something new to chew on.




Isn't this the best picture ever? She LOVES mealtime!




The Cleveland Zoo opened up a new elephant exhibit, which was always my favorite animal to see at the zoo when I was little.





Here's Eleanor and Andrew at the petting zoo. Eleanor loved talking to the animals.
She kept saying, "goat, what are you doing?"



Penelope is a messy mouth as usual, but still smiling!






Eleanor made a great discovery to keep her hands warm while eating freezie pops...



Penelope wanted in on the treats...



Smoothie making with dad...



Penelope turned 9 months (can you believe that??)




And lastly, we love when the weather is nice and that we can finally go outside and go to the park. This summer is going to be fun because Eleanor can actually "do" the park all by herself. I won't have to climb on the equipment and go down the slides with her. She even has a new-found love for the big swings. She used to be terrified of going high, but now she loves it! Bring on the nice weather!!

Time flies when you're having fun

I can't believe how much my girls are changing everyday! Eleanor has been doing a lot of pretend play lately. She is so imaginative and creative when she plays. I think this is probably much different than I was as a child. I imagine I just sat in a corner and counted things or something like that.

She likes to play hide and seek with Donald Duck, he's usually hiding in the closet in the family room. The other day she even wanted me to take a picture of him, which is pretty big for Eleanor because she LOATHES taking pictures. Here is Eleanor pointing to Donald Duck. He's sitting on the picnic bench next to Buzz Lightyear - you might not be able to see him (he's imaginary).

She's very much into tea parties with all of her bears. And lately has even added smoothies to the menu.

Today we had a pretty rainy yucky day so we stayed indoors. Eleanor kept talking about going to the park and finally I found her in the living room "going down the slide" and asking me if Penelope wanted to swing.

Then she wanted to ride the choo choo.

Eleanor is so full of energy! She is exhausting and wonderful and fun all at the same time and brings so much joy to my life!

Speaking of bringing joy to my life, Penelope is pretty good at that, too! You can't look at her without getting a smile out of her. Oh, she is cute!

Remember this little baby...

Well, I'm happy to report she now LOVES bath time.

Penelope is my little sweetheart. She is so patient and smiley and full of life. She wants to do everything that Eleanor is doing. She has even mastered going up the stairs. I love watching Penelope and Eleanor's personalities develop. They are so different in so many ways, but I just know they are going to be best buds!