Christmas

Can’t believe it’s almost been two months!!   Since the last post our computer crashed and I lost a lot of pictures so I lost my motivation to blog.  But now it’s back, and here are some pictures of our Christmas festivities.

Eleni saw us putting the lights on the tree and decided to help with one that had died.

Here she is enjoying a Christmas classic after dinner.  She isn’t normally nekkid, I think we had pasta that night.

Her Christmas pretties.

She wasn’t too happy about meeting Santa.

Mmmmmmmmm, lasagna on Christmas Eve.

Milk and cookies, check.  stockings hung by the entertainment center with care, check.

Eleni made out like a bandit.  I think three or four of those are for Tyler and me.

We went to my sister’s house Christmas night and I completely forgot to take pictures except for the group picture.  So here is the Boise half of my family.

Say What?

Now if only we knew what she was saying.

Halloween

Eleni’s first year of participating in Halloween was really fun!

First we carved pumpkins.

 

Then we got ready for “trunk-or-treat” at my church.

 

Lastly, we enjoyed the spoils of the night. 

 

 

I forgot my camera when we went real trick-or-treating, but was able to get a picture of this house at the end of our cul-de-sac.  This family has nine blow-up yard ornaments, a ghost on the roof, Halloween movies playing, and in the garage they were giving away popcorn and hot chocolate.  I hear their Christmas decorations take up the entire space above their garage and they also give sleigh rides.  This should be a fun time of year!

Mrs. Texas Ranger

We officially have a walker.  She no longer prefers to crawl.  Hopefully this transition in our lives will go as smoothly as the others.

RRRRR!

 

Just something we have been working on lately.

California Gurl!

We Drove down to California about a month ago to celebrate Eleni’s birthday with our family down there and to go to the North American Reptile Breeders Conference and Trade Show.  Eleni was awesome on the car ride, sleeping most of the way.  On our way down we made sure to stop at the LA Zoo.  It is one of our favorites and we brought our friend Brian with us who had never been.Here is Tyler Showing Eleni the meerkats. Tyler, Eleni, and Brian looking at the Komodo Dragons.  We had to go back and look at them a couple of times.GO-RIL-LA!  (quoted from Tarzan)Of course there was her party. (For more pictures, see previous post)

 

All she wanted to do at the show was touch all the animals.  John got her this snake and she was fine after that.  She refused to lay down without it.

I was able to go to Camarillo and spend a few days with my dad and his wife.  It was a good few days.  Eleni got to go to the beach for the first time.  She was pretty good about it.  She thought it was funny to walk in the dry sand but wasn’t too keen on the cold water hitting her feet.  She liked watching it go over mine while I was holding her though.

 

Dad had a set of dominos that he would stack and Eleni would knock them over.  It was hours of entertainment.

She did great on the flight home.  Slept the entire first flight to Phoenix, then had a good time on the flight to Boise.  We had an entire row to ourselves so I took advantage and had her sit by herself.  She was flirting with the flight attendants and all the people sitting around us.  She got many compliments on how well she did. 

It was a great trip and I can’t wait to go back. 

Party Time!

Eleni had two birthday parties for her first birthday.  Here are a few pictures from both.

Boise Party 8-29-2010

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California Party 9-11-2010 (Eleni’s Due Date)

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Both parties were a lot of fun and it was so fun seeing both of our families in California.  Here is to another year of fun and memories!

One Year Old!!!

  

It’s hard to believe that my little baby girl is a year old today.  I can’t believe how fast time has gone by.  We love her more and more each day and can’t wait to see what she becomes.  Here’s to another year of great memories and happy days. 

Like Father like Daughter

I don’t think this kind of love can be taught.

A Couple New Tricks

Ok they aren’t exactly new, I've been lagging.

 

She has more I need to post but the batteries in the camera died.

I also think she has a secret desire to be a vampire.

BBD 2010

Ever since I can remember, there has been an annual camping trip the weekend after the Forth of July.  My family and I would go to some destination and camp for an extended weekend.  This year we treated it as a family reunion since four of the eight kids now live out of California.  So instead of picking somewhere that is a threeish hour drive from everyone, we went eight hours and went to Fallen Leaf Lake about a mile or two south of Lake Tahoe.  Eleni normally wakes up around 3:00 in the morning so we decided to leave when she woke up.  She slept most of the way there and Duke did too.  After checking into the campground and parking in our site, we noticed a bunch of people standing in a little parking lot a few sites away.  This is what they were looking at.  After a day of trying to keep Eleni clean, I decided to forget it and let her have her fun.  At first she did pretty good at staying on the mat but soon became braver and braver and eventually found the dirt.

At least she didn’t do this.

We were lucky to have our sites close enough for us to be able to walk to the lake.  I think of the 30+ people there in our group, some went everyday. 

 Duke’s first trip to a body of water big enough for him to swim in.This is Tyler sampling the cuisine. The water was a little cold for total enjoyment but once you got in it was nice. These were the two youngest campers.  Lilly and Eleni are 8 months apart.I took Eleni to the showers with me once and that didn’t work as well as I had hoped so we did this instead. The drive home was not as pleasant as the drive there but Duke helped keep Eleni entertained.These were the best times of the drive.

Can’t wait until BBD 2012!!!