Birthday Time Again!

Happy Birthday Eleni!!!!

I can’t believe she is two already!!!

4th of July!

 

We had a great Independence day here in Boise!  We spent the day at my sister’s house where they had enough food to feed an army.  Kalua pork, Fo’ou’s famous chicken, baked beans, macaroni salad, watermelon, rice crispy treats, cookies, I’m sure there was more. 

Eleni was looking patriotic thanks to Tyler’s grandparents. Who needs a pool when you have a 40 gallon tub in the driveway.  Looking at this picture makes me think we should have either taken her diaper off or put a swim diaper on her instead.

Eleni did much better than I thought she would with the fire works.  She loved looking at them and and only showed some apprehension to the loud whistling and crackly ones.  After showing her how much fun a 3 foot sparkler can bee she decided she could hold it on her own.

Next year we work on fire safety.  Here she is coming straight at me to show me her sparkler

Here are a few videos of her with the fireworks and having some fun of her own.

Family Visits

We had a lot of family come up in June.  My sister Ellen and her boyfriend Danny came up at the beginning and I was HORRIBLE at taking pictures while they were here.  This is the only picture I have of them and Eleni, it was the night before they left and Eleni wasn’t happy about it.

Then Tyler’s dad, step-mom, uncle and cousin came up for the last weekend in June.  I did much better with the picture taking, as you can see.

They were here for three short days and we made the best of them.  Friday we went and walked around downtown Boise.  We went to the Capitol Building and walked around for a little bit. This is Tyler’s cousin Hannah.  She is one of the only members of Tyler’s family that actually enjoys all of our animals.

We went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and while we were there Eleni found this ball.  One of the advantages of being the only grandchild on one side of the family is that it’s hard for the grandparents to say no.  We have a common area behind our house and when we got home we went and enjoyed the sun and the new ball.

 

We also took them to Zoo Boise and the World Center for Birds of Prey.  Patrick and Cassidy were able join us at the zoo and everyone had a good time watching the two girls together.

At the Bird of Prey Center we were able to pet an Aplomado chick and John proved that grandparents will do just about anything to make their grandkids happy.

 

They were great visits and hope to see everyone again soon.

First Hair Cut

Eleni’s hair has been in her eyes since about November of last year.  I've been bugging Tyler to cut her bangs since then and he always said she didn’t need it yet.  Well, finally one night after her hair had dried form her bath Tyler couldn’t take it anymore.

This is how Eleni’s hair would always be after a bath.  She would constantly walk around like this, like there was nothing wrong.  If we wanted Eleni to see the world without a veil of hair in front of her we would have to put it up.  If you wanted to put her hair up you were in danger of starting WWIII.  So, Tyler asked me for a pair of scissors and voila!

It’s great now because all we have to do is brush her hair (not WWIII but still a battle) in the morning and be done with it.  Tyler now agrees that we should have done this MONTHS ago.

Hiking with Daddy

Tyler wanted some daddy/daughter time with Eleni so on Memorial Day they went on a hike while I went to a Memorial Day program at the Idaho Veteran’s Cemetery. 

Of course Tyler had to dress them in matching outfits. 

 

Tyler said she did pretty good.  She found her own walking stick, got nice and muddy, and even found a frog all by herself.

Easter!

This year was a fun Easter.  We went over to my sister Beth’s house for dinner and an egg hunt.  Eleni is just old enough to understand what to do with the egg hunt, and difficult to get a decent picture of.

First we had a completely non-traditional but just as good and much easier dinner of pulled pork sandwiches.  After we were done with that, Beth and I took her three kids and Eleni for a walk so the Easter Bunny could come over and do what he does best.

Eleni saw this ball and had to take it along on our walk.  She stayed in the wagon for about three minutes and had to walk for the other 27ish minutes.  In the next neighborhood there are a few horses so we decided to go and see them.  I don’t have any pictures of it, but once Eleni saw the horse all she wanted to do was go and see it.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get it to come to us.

 

As we were walking I saw this house with these red tulips and thought they would be a good background for a nice picture of her in her dress.  As you can see she didn’t quite cooperate and this is the best I got.  This other picture is another attempt.

       

When we got back, we were told that the Easter Bunny had hidden the eggs in three different difficulty levels.  Hard for the two big kids, Ilai and Eden, a little easier for the middle kid, Anela, and obvious for Eleni.  There were 105 eggs to find and it was a free for all to find them.

Eleni did better than I thought and we had to re-hide her eggs so she could keep hunting.

Over all we had a great day and only wish we could spend it with our whole family.

Happy Birthday Papa!

I was able to go to Salt Lake City for the weekend with my mom and my aunt to see my grandpa for his 85th birthday.  It was a quick three day visit but it was really fun.  The last time I had seen him was when he went to California for his 80th.  Papa loves all nine of his grandchildren and all 14 of his great-grandchildren.  He tried so hard to hold Eleni all weekend but as you will see in one of the pictures she wanted nothing to do with him.  She did let him touch her hand on Sunday so I think if we would have had more time with him she would have warmed up.  I am so grateful for the chance I had to see him and wish I could see him more.

Papa’s marble game.  The object of the game is to remove all but one of the marbles.  He’s an expert at it and is able to do it almost every time.

This is at Chuck-A-Rama on Friday.  One of the best buffet chains I’ve ever been to.

Here we are at our four generation photo shoot.  I wanted one picture of the two of them together no matter what Eleni thought.

Lunch at the Nauvoo Cafe.  Aunt Janet is demonstrating a happy face while Eleni is still working on a sad face.

 

The California people wanted pictures with the snow.

 

Here we are, four generations.

Toast!

I absolutely love the way she eats her toast in the morning.  Just picks the tasty parts then feeds the rest to the dogs.

And then there is the way she eats anything that is dip able.

 

Daddy’s Home!!!

 

This happens every day.  It is so fun to watch.

Young Love

Our friends Pat and Shayna, the parents of Eleni’s best friend Cassidy, had a baby boy about two months ago.  Shayna came over last night with with the babies and I think Eleni fell in love with little Sean.  She kept trying to give him his pacifier, got upset when he started crying in her lap, and was VERY upset when I took him.  Whenever Eleni wants you to sit on the couch with her she pulls you over there and starts hitting it.  Whoever was holding Sean was given this treatment so she could sit next to him. 

I can already tell that these three are going to be a handful. When Eleni wasn’t preoccupied with Sean, she and Cassidy were getting into EVERYTHING together.  These next few years are going to be great!