"I play guitar just like Daddy!!"

Elayna loves playing her little guitar. I think its mostly just because she has so much fun dancing and singing to Jake's guitar playing. 

I love how she looks so serious about being a musician in these. She holds it with her fingers on the neck as though she is playing a chord... and she really strums with her pick and sings songs to her playing. Even if she only thinks she is playing the song she is singing, it results in the most beautiful music I've ever heard. ;)

Trick or Treat!! Our fun at Night Eyes.

We had so much fun at Night Eyes (at the Blank Park Zoo). 

Elayna was an adorable Minnie and did her first trick-or-treating ever. She was over the moon about the candy (and ice cream!) she got, and she enjoyed seeing all the other kids dressed up. 

Her favorite thing about the event was, hands down, the lovely princesses that greeted us when we walked in. She talked about them throughout the event and we even had to go back at the end so she could hug them goodbye! She really likes those princesses, even though she hasn't seen enough Disney movies to know who they were. Oh, and Jake's favorite part was obviously meeting up with the Star Wars guys. ;)

Beautiful afternoon.

Happy Halloween! Love, Minnie.

Elayna looks so adorable as Minnie Mouse this year! She told me she wanted to be Minnie for Halloween a while ago, so I had been keeping my eyes open for a costume. Well, we really lucked out! I came across this Minnie dress at a consignment store and a friend (thanks, Andrea!) gave us the ears. Score!! We just had to share some cute shots of E enjoying her costume. :)

Fall Craft!

Elayna and I had fun recently with some other mamas and little ones (thanks to friends Jenn and Neena) doing a fall craft. We all met at a lake nearby on a nice sunny day and let the kids explore and discover some leaves and things (which we held onto for them). After checking out the water for a little while, we all strolled (hiked if you are a 1-3 year old) back to our tables and made some leaf collages. :)  E really had fun sticking her leaves (and a stick for good measure) to her collage and was very proud of it afterward.

She made me giggle when I was taking her picture and she tried to let the leaves "be free" by throwing the collage towards the lake at the end. Luckily, it didn't *quite* make it in, and we were able to bring it home with us. :)

Happy Fall!

She .... READS!

I can hardly believe how big my sweet girl is. I know I say that too often, but it still amazes me each day to watch her and realize that she has learned another skill, become a larger, smarter, little girl version of the baby that I once had to do everything for. She has become quite independent lately. A sure sign of her third birthday coming soon, I hear. ;)

Well, some of you wont be surprised to hear her latest skill. She has known what sounds each of her letters made for months and months, but beyond getting her to tell me that "cat" was the letters c-a-t and telling me the individual sounds, she never really got stringing it all together and recognizing the word. I will admit that she is so darn smart already that I let it go for a while, and hadn't tried in several months to get her to read a word. So imagine my surprise when I hear Jake writing words with her on the magnadoodle and her reading them! She would sound the letters out and then happily say the word, so proud of herself. I nearly fell over. She can read your beginner words like cat, bat, mat, sat; sad, mad; dog, log, and many more. More surprising is that she can sound out words like glad, look, book, pup, moon, and more. She likes to tell me that two o's makes the sound "oo" so I won't forget... and she can spell words for you without looking at the letters too by sounding them out a bit. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I am so proud of her and so excited because of my love of reading (which started at an early age as well)... this is the beginning of lifelong adventure through books and it is a blessing to watch her face light up as she starts out.

Wow...

I feel awful having just realized that it's been over a month since my last post. I have been feeling very busy since the news of the move came a few months ago, but I hadn't intended to neglect the blog so badly! I apologize to those of you in Oregon, who are finding yourselves on the other side of the blog now, and who might have been looking for pictures and updates about E.

Just for you, I am going to put up some fun new photos of Elayna. Don't judge... they aren't edited to the best of my ability, but I wanted to share and am in the middle of editing a couple of client sessions still.

Anyway, we are doing fine. We miss Portland some days, but E is still laughing and dancing and lighting up the world... all the way over here in Iowa.

xoxox