Portraits

A few weeks ago, I had Elyana's Nine month pictures done, as well as some new pictures of the kids together. 

 

Ayden - 6 years old

This one is my favorite!

Elyana - 9 Months old

Valentines fun!

I had so much fun dressing Elyana for her first Valentine's Day this year!  She wore Valentine's outfits for the whole week prior to the actual day!

 

Even though it's blurry, you can still tell these jammies are the cutest!

Daddy's little sweetheart

Hearts even on her outfit for cousin Violet's first birthday party!

red & pink

Conversation hearts for Valentine's day

and one with big brother for good measure
He won't let me dress him in hearts though!

Snow Fun!

On the way home from Reno, we stopped to play in the snow.  After a few tries, we finally found a good spot!

 

Ayden was in heaven, even if his jacket was slightly too small!

Dominique and Violet

Elyana "the starfish", as Ken kept calling her since her snow suit looked a little silly!

The girls were having a hard time crawling around in the bumpy snow

 Sledding was a must - everyone took a turn!

Elyana even go to have a turn - she giggled the entire way down the hill!

Uncle Matthew dug Ayden a snow cave. 
Unfortunately, Ayden's paranoid mom wouldn't let him play in it because
I was afraid it would collapse on him :-/

Snowball fight!!

Ken on baby duty!

Beautiful Violet!!

Quick trip to Reno

We made an impromptu trip to Reno over MLK weekend, thanks to a great Living Social deal.  We just went for one night, but packed in lots of fun!  My brother, sister-in-law, and niece joined us, as well as my mom and my grandparents.  I guess I didn't really get any pictures of the grown-ups, but plenty of the cute kids!

 

Hotel room + baby doesn't always equal fun, but Elyana was great, other than not falling asleep until after 10 (despite Grandma's best efforts)!

 

We enjoyed a few of the delicious restaurants in the hotels.

 

Elyana and Violet spent lots of time in their strollers taking in all of the sights!

 

The biggst perk of Circus Circus is the Midway.  Ayden (and Uncle Matthew) had hours of fun and won too many stuffed animals.

 

We (Ken & I, Matthew & Dominique) enjoyed a couple of hours doing a little gambling and having a few drinks thanks to Grandma staying with the kids!!

Eight & Nine months old

Where does the time go?  At this point, Elyana is well over 9 months old, but here's a re-cap of the last couple of months for blog book purposes...

 

Eight Months - you weren't crawling yet, but rolled around plenty.  You eat anything - puffs, cheerios, noodles, bread, cheese, as well as the purees and cereal you've been eating for a couple of months.  We are also starting to work on using a sippy cup, but it's more of a toy at this point.  You are enjoying playing with the new toys you got for Christmas!  You light up when Ayden walks in the room or if you hear him.  You are definitely a Daddy's girl too!

 

Nine Months - this was the first time you noticed the sticker on your onesie and tried to get it off.  You are crawling everywhere!  You started crawling at about 8 1/2 months, army crawling at first, and after a couple of weeks started to get the belly off the floor.  You stand for long periods of time, but still can't pull yourself up to stand.  You are beginning to let go when you stand and cruise around.  You love to feed yourself, but don't mind when we feed you the purees that we still have in the freezer.  Your hair is beginning to change - it's still curly when wet, but straightens out when it's dry.  The days of the curly faux-hawk are gone.  You love trying to get cords and will giggle and try to crawl away when we tell you no!  You got your fifth tooth this month.  We've been waiting, since it's been four months since your last tooth.  

Sweet Little Girl

So many cute pictures - so hard to choose!  As Elyana gets older, she is doing so many fun things!!!

 

This was our attempt at pig-tails. She's not quite ready for them yet, I guess. 
Maybe when she's got a little more hair. 
 

She absolutely LOVES bath time!  We either give her a bath in the sink, or in her bathtub set in the shower or big bathtub.  She splashes around, and plays with the fun bath toys she got for Christmas!

She spends a lot of time standing at this activity table.  She can't pull herself up yet, but if we stand her there, she plays and plays!  She also can't won't sit down, so when she's done, she just screams until we come sit her down.  Nope, not spoiled at all!  This picture also shows the crazy hair that happens when she pulls her clip out.

With crawling, comes getting stuck sometimes!!

She's the best little shopper!  This is how she rides when we go to Costco.  That way, Ayden can sit in the big part of the cart and we still have room for groceries.

Showing off her tricks

Aunt Sarah has been waiting for a video....and here it is!  Crawling with a little waving thrown in for good measure!