Our first home

Purchasing our home was one of the best decisions we have made!  It was SO much time, effort, money and stress... but we have created so many memories and put in so much hard work that it has been an incredible process that we are so thankful for!

BEFORE

AFTER

Coming soon: backyard before and after!

A Waffle Bar Shower

My girlfriend and I hosted a baby shower for a dear friend who was expecting baby boy #2!  We did a Waffle Bar and it was a total hit!

 

The mama-to-be looked stunning!

Since the shower Melissa and Matt have welcomed baby Reid - he's precious!  Their oldest son, Quinn, and Eliana have been buddies since birth and I can't wait for Reid and baby Boy Beckstrom to be best buds too!

Rainy day activity

We FINALLY had a rainy day a few weeks ago and it was heavenly!  We enjoy hanging around the house, which since that is only fun for so long to a toddler, we did a few crafts.  This one was the favorite for sure.

Just drop vinegar tinted with food coloring onto a pan filled with baking soda and you get plenty of colorful fizziness!

Thanks, Pinterest!

Big news!

In late June we had big news to share!

And in late September we found out: (let me know if you can't view the video!)

Cannot wait to welcome him into our family!  ETA: March 4, 2014!  Between now and then we prepare for the CRAZY ride that it will be!

Potty Training

While we were home together over the summer we had lots of fun going potty on the toilet!  Eliana made huge gains, picked it up extremely quick (only had a few accidents) and was really enjoying wearing big girl undies!  It was actually a lot of fun for all of us!

She got a pouch for every #2 in the potty! 

Crack kills, girlfriend.

She was doing such a great job at home and while out with us we decided to give it a shot at daycare!  Well, 2 months and 1 week in I'm sad to report that she has not gone ONE time with her teacher.  But get this... she HOLDS it!  In the morning she waits until they put her nap diaper on and in the afternoon she waits to go with us when we pick her up.  This girl kills me!  SOMEONE is stubborn and I do not know WHERE she got it! ;-)

Oakland Zoo

Over the summer we went to the Oakland Zoo with the Amazquita family.  It was a perfect half day trip!  Looking forward to going back to this zoo or maybe the SF Zoo!

Seattle summer 2013

Eliana and I took a trip up to Seattle for 5 days when Geoff was at home working hard.  We had a wonderful time hanging with Sitti & Giddi, seeing old friends and enjoying the Seattle sunshine.

Giddi teaching Eliana how to safely cross busy city streets. 

This is how you skip rocks, Gid

Saw our friends Stacey and Mason! 

Visited the Seattle Aquarium 

Hung out with the Wallace twins & fam in Snoqualmie! 

Played at a park in West Seattle with the Whooge family.

Enjoyed lots of special treats.

Since she LOVED watching the boats from S&G's condo we decided to take a taxi ferry over to West Seattle - we took it there and back, not even enough time to get off!  Very thrilling ;-) 

Summer days

Mommy and Eliana had almost 5 weeks off together!  Daddy was home for about 2 of those weeks (he was the assistant principal for summer school - what a job!) and each day we did something fun.  We feel so lucky that our schedules allow us to have summers together!

Many days at the beach. 

A fun weekend at Pine Mountain Lake with our good friends.

Enjoyed the bounty of our garden.

Geoff and I got away for 2 nights for Geoff's bday - we went to a Beer Festival in Paso Robles and then headed to the coast and stayed in Cambria.  Such a fun getaway! 

My dear childhood friends came to visit!  It was a REALLLLY fun weekend filled with laughter, food, drinking and incredible company. 

Lots of trips to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo!

Spent some last moments with her dear friend Haley before the moved to Portland.

Cousin play dates! 

Chores!

Play dates with the day care crew while we were all on summer vacay.

Stayed cool during a heatwave in our $4 pool from Walmart

Danced the night away at Campbell music in the park

Spent the 4th of July up in Sonoma with my brother and family.  Fun cousin bonding time!

And this is only SOME of the fun stuff we did! Phew! It was a busy, fun summer!

Gym Kids

Eliana still spends Tuesday with Grammy and continues to love her special 1:1 time.  Last year they took a "Gym Kids" class at our district office and it was lots of fun and a workout for both of them!  I think it really helped Eliana feel more stable on her feet, improve her balance and overcome some anxiety of new things!

Since it was so close to my school I was able to stop by a few times and get some pictures.

This year they are taking a "GymVentures" class at the YMCA and they both like it just as much!

Eliana's School Bus themed 2nd birthday!

I CANNOT believe I haven't posted since April!  The thing is, I always look back at my blog posts to take a walk down memory lane and I love it, so I REALLY need to get back to blogging!  It's such a great way to document Eliana's growth and milestones, and also record fun things we do as a family.  And now with #2 in the belly (yay!) I need to start documenting that too!

Since I never blogged about Eliana's 2nd birthday I thought I'd start with a few pics from that!  It really was a day we'll always remember and so fun to have everyone together!

Per tradition, Sitti made a cake for her grandkids bday! Eliana was a huge help.

On her birthday morning, we made her eggs and pancakes!

THE CAKE! It was a huge hit.  Eliana was the driver and her cousins were the passengers :-)   

All the kids had a sack lunch complete with a PBJ sandwich, tangerine, crackers & juice box

Party goers left with a little gift bag of crayons and bus coloring sheets, mini bus chocolates (wish I had a pic - they were so cute!) and home made playdough! 

She had all her buddies AND family there and had a great time!