One Year Old!!

Elsa turns ONE today!!

I can't believe it! Having kids really shows you that a lot can happen in just one year.

Elsa had a birthday party yesterday. It was so fun having family and friends over to celebrate and have fun.

Birthday cake!!

She ate it like that the whole way through and didn't get a crumb on her clothes.

The ending product. YUM!

Mommy had fun unwrapping presents but Elsa had more fun playing with them!

This is how much she loves her presents!!

We had such a fun time with everybody and are very grateful for everyone that came to share this special day with us! Thank you!
And for you that couldn't make it...
her are the yummies you missed out on!

Strawberry Cupcakes

Mini Vanilla Cupcakes                         Fruit Pizza Cupcakes

Happy Birthday Elsa!

This past month...

Elsa kinda had a hard time, she got a fever and just hasn't been her cheering self.

All because of her BIG silly front teeth!

This picture doesn't do them justice, plus both of them have come in a lot more since this picture was taken but she has got some chiclets for her front two teeth. She'll have a pretty smile just like her daddy when she grows into them.

Elsa LOVES loves loves anything stuffed and soft!

This is one of her favorites, Douglas! That is what the tag on his bottom said, Douglas. We liked it enough to go with it.

She loves him so much she wouldn't even let go to eat lunch.

Elsa's other favorite softies are Zippee the zebra, Ashley the giraffe, a few others that aren't named and now a  bunch more she got for her birthday, some even light up and sing songs!!
By the way, I found some super soft and cute teddy bears at the Dollar Store the other day and she loved them! A buck, Score!

Elsa would eat a bunch of bananas a day if we let her. She eats them every day for breakfast and sometimes another for a snack. She could live off of them she loves them so much!

Elsa will use anything to pull herself to stand, including daddy's head.  We play with her and send her back and forth between us but she hasn't gotten the courage yet to walk by herself. Even when she's holding on to you and she only has one finger she'll look at you like "are you sure?" Whenever she's ready.

We love our Elsa so much!
This past month/year has been so wonderful, every single day of it!

Elsa is going to be a big sister!

Surprise, Surprise!

Baby #3 is on it's way!

We are approx. 15 weeks, the doctor said he couldn't get good measurements so we don't get a due date until next month. With the 15 weeks guideline we are guessing this little bundle of joy will be here sometime at the end of August! I know I know, just do the math from your last period, if I had had one I would, the pleasures of breastfeeding! Blake is still shooting for another September 4th baby, he has also nick-named this little guy Blake Junior, maybe he'll get at least on of his wishes. According to the old wives tale you are sicker with girls, Duncan was moderate, Elsa I was sick until month 7 and then the nastiest heartburn ever, with this little guy it has been heaven! I'm hardly ever sick so... maybe? I honestly don't care. IF we have a girl then I already have most of the clothes, although some of the seasons will be opposite but it's better than starting from nothing. I will be happy with either, but we don't have to wait long to find out. Next month!

More FUN!!

I always think that Elsa couldn't do anything cuter than what she is doing now... I'm so glade I am wrong!

She has always got a new trick up her sleeve or a better version on the latest.

Elsa is such a jabber mouth! I always know where she is because she is constantly jabbering. She loves to mimic you! She loves to say "hi" on the phone, pet you or her animals and say "soft", she loves to eat "bananas" for breakfast with "dada", she is such a good tickler and has the "tickle-tickle" down, she says "please" and sometimes "thank you". It's so cute to hear her little versions of them all.

Elsa is hardly in the same place for very long. She loves new places to explore and new "toys" to find. Every once and awhile she'll sit and play on my lap but she's starting to prefer daddy's more. She loves to play the standing game with you. Stand her up and she falls straight for you. I know she could stand up if she paid attention to it, but it's more fun trusting mommy and daddy to catch you.

Elsa got a surprise on her oranges after dinner one day and was in heaven!! Who doesn't like cool Hwhip?!

I love her hill-billy smile!

Cousin Pepper came over to play! She is so cute! Such a personality! She loves playing with all of Elsa's baby toys! The jumperoo and walker where her favorites!! They kept her entertained for a majority of the day! Elsa loved following her around!

Elsa keeps life busy and full of smiles, laughter and LOVE!

Eleven

This month we didn't get a lot of pictures but we got a lot of videos!

Elsa is very mobile these days! She gets around and into everything and if your close by she'll pull herself up just to be closer. I love the white leggings turned to black after church every Sunday.

Elsa loves to talk on the phone! We tell her to say "HI" and she says "AHH". She's talked to a few people on the phone with the help from mommy and daddy but she actually speed dialed Aunt Micah and I didn't even know it until Micah called back wondering what was going on. Elsa is such a talker with or without a phone and the funniest part is she'll look at you like she's dead serious and have the tone in her voice like she knows what she's talking about. I have no doubt that she does! At the end of the day, Blake and I will lay in bed and laugh our selves to sleep mimicking the little conversations we've had that day.

Elsa loves her soft animals! She loves to talk and snuggle with them, it's so cute!

Notice at the end of the video when she's headed somewhere and looks back at me? That's because she knows that she's headed somewhere that's a no-no.

Give Elsa a brush and she'll brush her hair but she knows she's got pretty hair!

Elsa has just melted our hearts this month, she loves to snuggle! She'll crawl over and lay her head on you and say "aww". Some mornings we will lay in bed and repeatedly lay our heads together and say "aww". She is the sweetest! She even has learned to be "soft". She could tear your face apart, especially when I had neglected to trim her fingers nails, but not anymore! If she's getting a little too rough all you have to say is "be soft" and she'll pet your face softly and make a noise that mimics the sound of "soft".

I noticed Elsa was starting to get her front two teeth so I wanted to get a good picture of her fangs for you!

You can almost see all 4 teeth in this one. Elsa has been insistent on "using" utensils while she eats. We don't eat a lot of baby food anymore because it's super messy! So now I just give her a fork with her finger foods. 

Everyday is such a joy with Elsa, whither it's playing, talking, or snuggling. I don't think we could have gotten more blessed with Elsa in our lives.

On the MOVE!

Per request here is Elsa in her walker!

She really loves it and really loves all the treasures she can find by moving around and being at a great height to start opening drawers in the kitchen. Thank goodness the walker gets in the way to open cupboards. She also loves to look at her reflection in the dishwasher and oven. She favorite is helping mommie load the dishwasher or should I say unload the dishwasher, what I put in she pulls out. She also found out she can tip over the trash can, yippee. More work for papa. I think she'll be a great kitchen helper!

Elsa started talking her first crawls this week!!! It's so cute to see her concentrate on moving those little legs. 

New pictures of Elsa's little fangs.

10 Months

Getting into the double digit months makes me feel like Im losing my little baby girl to a bigger grown up version of our little Elsa. Well, she'll always be my baby girl, 10 just seems like such a big number for such a tiny little girl.

Happenings of our little 10 month old.

We started the month off with Christmas and New Years. Always a joyous time of year!!

Blake started school again and Elsa and I went back to our simple play at home all day routine. I love being able to be home with my sweet little girl.

We finally got a good picture of her two little snaggle teeth.

Since then, she now has her other middle bottom tooth and another just poked through up top.

 Elsa is getting very good a using her little teeth too. It's so cute to watch her tear and bite through crackers. Just don't get your fingers too close.

Babies in towels are the cutest thing in the world!

A friend of mine made Elsa a hooded towel, my new favorite baby accessory. We have a few of the store bought ones but they are so thin and I always feel that she's going to freeze before we get out of the bathroom. I love the one my friend sent us and had to duplicate it. Now Elsa's little buns can stay warm after a nice bath!

Our little white fang still loves to be with her papa. Although she gets a little too involved with helping out with the controller when playing video games.

This month Elsa went on another little road trip to visit her Great Grandparents in Etna, Cal.

We picked up Grandpa Thackeray and Uncle Slade in Reno on the way.

It was so nice to see and spent time with Great Grandma Elsie and Great Grandpa Bill. We love them so much!!!

Etna is such a cute little town. It was really neat to see where the Thackeray's come from and see all the history just driving around town.

Elsa got spoiled by Great Uncles.

Elsa is becoming quite social. At church she'll stand up on the pew and smile, giggle and wave to whoever is behind us. Her wave I have to add is probably the cutest thing ever. Her left hand does the open and close fist wave but her more active right hand does the Miss America all from the wrist wave. The combination of her Gooney smile and her Miss America wave melts everyone's heart.

Elsa loves to clap! All you have to say is "Yay!" and she'll clap up storm.

She still loves her tongue. Now when she sticks her tongue out little "ladle-ladle-ladle" noises come with it.

Elsa is our little jabber mouth. "Tuck -a- tuck" "dadada" "nanan" "LLLa" "raa-raa-ra" pretty much everything but mama it seems like. She reminds me of the little Ewoks from Star Wars. She even talks when she's crying.

Crawling just doesn't seem to be on her to-do list. She spends plenty of time on her knees reaching for things but if its beyond reach she'll sit back down or end up on her face over reaching. She can still scoot on her bum and she gets around just fine, can't get too far too fast that way, which is nice for me. We are not in a rush for her to be too mobile. She has conquered the walker she got at Thanksgiving. She can get into every little corner in that thing and fast.
Our family decided to end Elsa's 10 month with a bang... I mean barf. Elsa spent Monday night throwing up, saddest thing in the world. I spent Wednesday night throwing up and Blake got Thursday night. Fun times! We all spent the rest of the week recovering.

Life is so great with our little family and can't wait for new adventures!

All I want for Christmas...

This year was our first year celebrating Christmas just as a family. We celebrated Christmas with Blake's family and my family prior. No in-laws/family, no friends, just us on Christmas morning. We really didn't know what to do...

 It was a fun five minutes!

Knowing before hand that we would have Christmas to ourselves we said this would be a practice year. Practicing to see what traditions we wanted to keep or add additional. Christmas dinner on Christmas eve with the reenactment of Luke 2 was a must for Blake, we spent it this year with Chris and Amy and all the little cousins. Christmas morning was pretty much the same for the both of us growing up so that'll stay the same; open stockings, eat breakfast, then to the presents, opening one at a time around the circle. Breakfast being Russell Goulash, Blake's version. I want to do presents a little different. Growing up we would have a Christ centered devotional type thing Christmas eve but once I woke up Christ was not on my mind for the duration of the Christmas season. I had heard of this idea wear Santa brings you 3 gifts to remind you of Christ and the reason why we get gifts, because Christ received gifts when he was born. One of the gifts would represent Gold, one represent Myrrh, and one represent Frankincense.

Gifts of Gold. Gold was a gift fit for a king. A great symbol it was for Jesus to receive such an offering from the wise men, as he is indeed the King of kings. The gift the is received as the "gold" gift should be something that is of great importance to suggest how valuable your child is to your family. Something the child would really value.

Gifts of Frankincense. In Exodus, God specifically requests that frankincense be used as a sacred incense in His temples. The gift that is received as the "frankincense" gift should be something spiritual or along those lines. Example, scriptures, journal, church music, church clothes, etc.

Gifts of Myrrh. In ancient times, myrrh was used to scent oils, perfumes and embalming liquids. Jesus being born that He would die for us. John 19:39-40, Nicodemus anointed Jesus with myrrh as part of his burial preparation. The gift that is received as the "myrrh" gift should be something for their body.

I think this is a cool idea but we haven't decided what we should do for our family.

I'm probably making Christmas too hard. I just never want to hear my children cry or whine because they didn't get what they wanted or it wasn't exactly what they wanted. I don't want Christmas to be centered around the gifts. I want Christ to be the focal point but I do want it to be fun. 

How do you make Christmas Christ centered and fun??

On with our Christmas, Russell tradition we eat out at a Chinese restaurant. This is Blake's favorite Russell tradition and insisted that we keep it. 

We also went to the Temple Square so Elsa could see the lights.It being freezing, she still loved it!

Elsa also loved opening presents, well she loved playing with the wrapping paper and curled ribbon. She now loves playing with the toys she got. It was fun sharing this time with her and Blake.
We had a wonderful Christmas!!
Thanks everybody!! We love you!!

The article that I found that explain each of the gifts I found in a forum at Babycenter.com so you have to scroll down a bit to find it or you can also find it  here . It's called Begging for Myrrh by Trina Conner Schaetz.