Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Birthday girl!

I can't believe it was three years ago that we brought home this little cutie from the hospital. I remember sitting on this couch holding her for the first time outside of the hospital. It was so exciting to know she was mine and I just remember feeling so grateful for this precious gift.

And now three years later we are celebrating with our spunky little (big girl) Eleanor! She is such a fun little buddy to have by my side all the time. We are so happy that she is in our family.

She got lots of fun packages in the mail from family...


Then it was time to party with some friends.


We borrowed some chairs from the primary and replaced the dining room table with our coffee table. Eleanor was thrilled to see the set up when she came downstairs the morning of her party.
We drew some princess pictures and made necklaces...

We had bagel bites and grapes and juice boxes...


We sang happy birthday...



We had cupcakes...

We tried to take some mother-daughter pictures...


We opened presents...




We played with makeup that our friends gave us...

And just had a really fun time with all our princess friends!




October happenings

October seemed to fly by. We stayed pretty busy, especially with Andrew having 2 different weekend classes and out of town about 7 days (2 business trips and 1 trip to the BYU law fair to recruit for Akron).

I started the month throwing a baby shower for my friend Emily. We had a great turnout and some good fun girl time. She had her baby 6 weeks early so I just wanted to keep the shower low key. We were able to just chat and not play any silly games



We didn't play any games, but I typed these up and had everyone fill one out. My sister gave me the idea and I think it is really sweet and a great keepsake.

I didn't remember to take pictures until the very end, so that's why the food is all gone :) I saved the decorations for Eleanor's birthday and she was so excited to see the little pom poms still hanging up every morning until her birthday.


Next up was Akron's homecoming. We did some tailgating with Zippy and then went over to the football game. The weather was awesome and the girls had a great time!



Go Zips!





Next: Penelope got sick, then Eleanor got sick (so sick she didn't even want her ice cream cone).

Of course this happened while Andrew was out of town. My kids rarely get sick, but it seems like every time they do Andrew is out of town.

Next: Penelope's been brushing up on her math skills. (She gets it from her mama)


Next: I finally convinced Eleanor to wear pants. Even if it was just jammies, I consider it a huge victory. She has insisted on wearing just skirts (and was even reluctant to wear tights underneath). She says she's hot all the time and still won't wear long sleeve shirts or socks. She'll put on a jacket/hoodie when we go places but it comes off the minute we get inside. And sometimes she'll even pull it off in the car claiming she's too hot! After she got sick I told her she needed to wear pants to keep her legs warm and keep germs away, so I think she's slowly coming to terms with it.
On our way to the church for young women's...


Next: Enjoying the last few weeks we'll be able to play at the park. Let's hope the snow will stay away a little bit longer.


Next: Eleanor's birthday party, I think I'll post about that later. But here's a glimpse at all the girly bugs.


Next: We met up with Andrew for lunch on campus and discovered that he's famous. (This is a new mural they just put up on the wall when you walk into the business building)
Where's Waldo?



Next: Trunk or treat. I had to help with a game/booth and Andrew had class that night so I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of the girls. Eleanor was, of course, a princess and Penelope wore some skeleton jammies. I think it goes without saying that the girls loved all the sugar! At one point I noticed Penelope had a dum dum stuck in her hair and I found myself wondering, "how long has that been there?" haha It is so fun to watch them have fun!
(I stole this picture from my friend. These are Eleanor's buddies, Brenden and Kyleigh, who live down the street.)


Next: Law School Halloween Party. Just in case everyone didn't get enough sugar at Trunk or Treat, we headed over to the Law school for a fun little family Halloween party. You can't go wrong with a spacewalk (aka bounce house/jump house), cupcakes, candy, popcorn, pizza, cotton candy, games and prizes. Here's Penelope enjoying her cotton candy...

Taking a break with some cupcakes...


So that's how our October unfolded. And now it's November and that means my sister Laura is coming to visit tomorrow!! We are so excited!