For Christmas, Annie (J's mommy) gave us a pack of cupcakes that were all ready to be decorated. What a cute idea, right?! We didn't have to cook them or anything. Just take them out and make them pretty. Elayna had lots of fun making cupcakes with Daddy!

Note: I had some major lighting issues trying to take pictures of this (which I conveniently figured out the minute we were done!), so no making fun of my shots. Ha!

Just hanging out, eating grapes and reading books ;)

Elayna would love if all her days went like today. She got to snuggle a lot, read a lot, and eat grapes a lot. Her dream come true! Hahaha! It was just a casual day at the rental house... and so much fun!

The photo shoot, Part 1

So, I highly doubt that this will be the last time I title a post "photo shoot," but I couldn't resist anyway. I love my new camera and have been using it a lot (as you can see). Until this shoot though, I wasn't really sure about much of any of what I was doing. I messed around a bit with my manual settings and really liked some of the results of this "shoot" of Elayna, which I did at the rental house one day. A lot of them are too soft, but I still love them!

I could see this becoming a serious hobby, if not something bigger someday. So, stay tuned for more!

ZooLights. Fun and Cold!

Elayna really enjoyed the Zoo Lights. It happened to be about 30 degrees and chilly that night, so we were all bundled up and cold, but it was worth it. It was pretty cool to see how they lit the place up. E kept going up to the lights that covered the sides of the paths and looking at them up close. Super cute. She also looved the train ride. When we got off she said "We rode the train. That was so fun!" Ha ha! :)

Oh, Uncle Ted.

While he was in town, Uncle Ted stayed at our place and Elayna loved seeing him in the morning and hanging out. After he left (Ted had to get back for work, so he left before the rest of the family), she asked me several times "Where Uncle Ted?" and said "Go find him." Ha! After I told her a few times that he had flown on the plane back to Iowa, she would randomly blurt out "Uncle Ted went to Iowa."I think she misses him.

We couldn't resist...

... dressing E up in her Iowa State University cheerleaders outfit and taking some shots. After all, Papa and Gram are the ones who sent it to her for Halloween. She looks so cute in it, and loves to swish her pom-pom around and yell "Gooooo State!"

Just another day of fun!

Elayna seemed to enjoy the change of scenery while we played at the rental house. She took a few of her toys over there and kept busy playing with them, reading books with Papa, and jumping on every bed she could talk us into. ;)

This brought back memories

When I was little (quite possibly as small as Elayna) I used to love sitting on my grandma's lap and looking at her hand while she played Skip-Bo with my mom and other family members. Seeing Elayna doing this with G.G. (Great Grandma) Ruth really brought those memories back to me!!

E loves to watch us play cards, or to get in on the action (sometimes telling us what someone has in their hand). She also likes to "play cards" like she was doing with Jackie in the pictures from the day before. She will either locate the card you ask for in the pile, or she will identify what you draw.

I see some card playing in our future with the little miss! ;)

Fun with Papa and Gram

Elayna certainly loves having family from Iowa here.

The second day of their stay we hung out at the hotel for a while (where Elayna enjoyed some serious jumping on the bed, and some card playing with Gram) and then checked out Powell's Books downtown. She had some very sweet reading time with her Papa there. They looked so cute snuggled together at the kiddie table reading book after book. What a precious moment. :)

{ **A note to our readers: If you are printing pictures, please do so from the flickr site. Most of you are probably doing this already, but as of now, my images on the blog will be a much lower resolution than those on flickr. It makes it easier to keep up with blogging if I am not constantly waiting for my system to upload a huge file on here. The high resolution images will still be available on our flickr account though. Thanks!! :) }

Look what else Santa brought!! ;)

That's right! What could be better than a new play kitchen? Well, Papa Steve, Gram Jackie, G.G. Ruth, and Uncle Ted all showed up on Christmas day too. Elayna was thrilled to see them all, of course. She knew they were coming and had been talking about it, and she was all to happy to play with them the rest of the day.

Yay for Christmas! :)