Santa came to Fort Polk!

The housing center has lots of fun free events all year long. For Christmas they have pictures with Santa. We got there about 30min early and about 10min before the big kids would get off the bus and ended up being 8th in line. Eli had lots of fun while we waited in line. She watched all the other kids run around and smiled at all the elves, Mrs. Clause, Frosty, Rudolf, even the Grinch. And everyone loved her. She got some reindeer ears and a candy necklace from the elves. I was a little nervous that she wouldn't like Santa and we would have a screaming child Santa pic, but I should have known better. Eliana looked at Santa for a second and he held out his arms and she went right to him. He was wearing glasses and she planned on eating them. They got a great picture and Eliana got a candy cane. They had crafts and treats available for after, but we just talked with friends for a bit and then our picture was ready. P.S. Thanks Aunt Becky, everyone said the dress was adorable!

She was too busy watching Frosty to look at Mom.

Waiting for Santa

Merry Christmas!

A Day in the Life of Eliana: 9 months!

I know I know I'm way behind. So I'm going to update and tell you how here day went and give you lots of pics.

So Eliana is crawling now! One day she just got on her knees and that was it, no more army crawling. She is also pulling herself up all by herself. And she can walk along the edge of things. She loves to walk around with Mommy or Daddy holding her hands. She really explores the house now too. She is also working on getting off baby food. I blend or mash what we are having for dinner and that is what she has too. I think she has discovered more things in the last month than ever before. We also started letting her cry it out at night rather than me nursing her back to sleep. It was really hard for Mom the first night, but she only cried for 30 min around 11:30 and then slept till 8. 2nd night was only 20 min around 11 (I think) and then slept till 7:30. 3rd night we didn't hear her at all! She (and Mommy and Daddy) got a cold at Thanksgiving. Poor girl was so congested she couldn't use her binky. It wasn't in the plans, but binky has become a just nap time and bed time thing. 1 step closer to no binky at all!

So normally Eliana would tell you about her day, but there wasn't much to tell...She slept in until 8 and played and went down for a nap at 10 and slept for just over 3 hours! When she got up we went out and did a few errands with Daddy. We cam home and she took a little nap on the way home. Then a bit more playing and then it was bath time and bedtime.

Ok so now a few pics, I didn't get many of her that day because she was either sleeping or we weren't home, but here are pics from the week!

Riding on her lion walker

She is so strong she can hold on all by herself

Her first bruise...can you see it on her forehead?

Being a ham

Eliana playing with the elephant Aunt Becky made for her

Eliana loves to drink out of my water bottle so much that I bought her
new sippy cups that use straws.

This is how she crashed in the car on the way home from chruch

She was out cold

Eating noodles like a big girl

She wouldn't sit still for me to put her pants on so I put them on her head.
She didn't mind

First time standing up with her jumper

And she is wearing the pjs Grandma made for her.

A Day in the Life of Eliana: 8 Months!

There is so much new this month, and Eliana is discovering new things everyday! I absolutely love this stage of life. She can play by herself and go and explore, but she isn't quite fast enough to get into trouble. She army crawls all over the house! Just this week she has discovered 2 new things, but we will get to that in a bit.

7:00 The day started off just like most days

(No this is not how I found her this was posed by Daddy)

In the morning we eat breakfast and play. I go off and explore for a bit.



I help mommy with the laundry too

This is my new favorite chew toy.


And here is my stash of leftover Halloween candy.


Ok so now for my 1st discovery of the week, my tongue. I like to stick it out, blow raspberries, and try and catch it.



I really LOVE to eat. Sometimes Mommy thinks that is all I do.



Sometimes I play while I eat.

Just playing on the floor.

I also LOVE to play with daddy

Here Daddy is teaching me what a .50 Cal sounds and feels like.

And this is a game I made up! I slap the table (or floor) and then Daddy does it too!

At the end of the night it is bath time!

This is my second discovery of the week, how to get back on my bum from laying down.

I really like chewing on this blue thing

Daddy styled my hair

Here you can see it better

I'm working on pulling myself up.

I can splash in the tub.

And I can pull the plug out when bath time is over.

Daddy styled my hair while it dried too.

I snuggle in Mommy and Daddy's bed to warm up a bit.
Then it's time for pjs and bed.

So that's my day.

Bye Bye!

I'm outta here.

A Day in the Life of Eliana: 7 months!

First a message from Eliana:

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Can you believe little Eli is 7 months old? I can't. The time has flown by and she has grown so much. She is sitting up like a pro and getting up on her hands and knees, but has no idea what to do next. I imagine by next month we will have a crawler! She now eats in her highchair now and she seems to really like that. Her newest "word" is uh-oh. It is very cute and will probably become a favorite word in the next few years. She still isn't sleeping through the night, she usually wakes up twice, about 12 and 4 and then up for the day at 7. For her 7m birthday, she woke up only once at 4, but she then woke up a little early at 6:30

6:30- Woke up very happy and played in my crib for awhile before I was ready to get up.

7:00- Ready to get out of bed now, get a fresh diaper and snuggle with mom

7:30- Time for breakfast! I love eating. This morning I had rice cereal and half a banana, yum.

7:45- After breakfast I get to roll around and play on the floor

I can pick up my binky
Such a ham

8:45- I am super tired so mom puts me down a little early. I'm trying to learn to sleep with my arms out of my swaddle. Sometimes it works pretty well, sometimes I wake myself up to soon (like this time)

9:30-Woke up from my nap way too soon and cranky mommy spent the next half hour trying to get me back to sleep.

10:00- I win the battle of nap time and get to come out and play.

Reading my Nemo book

It's my favorite book right now

A friend from church brought a bunch of baby food that her baby
wasn't going to eat. Lots of cereal and meat baby food. I decided
to check it out.

Mom decided to clean it up a bit...I thought is was
even more fun in the bin

11:45- Nap time again, we will see if this one goes better...

1:00- Wake up happy!

1:30- Lunch time! Carrots are super yummy.

and I still really like Gatorade

2:00- Mommy and I catch a lizard under a cup. It was super fast but I blocked it from coming back into the living room

2:30- Nap time...again...I'm tired, but I don't understand why I need to nap so much, I'd rather play

4:30- I took a good long nap and I'm ready to play, play, play

4:35- Mommy and I go outside to check the mail. We try to go outside at least to check the mail everyday. I really like to look around and see the trees and clouds and anything else that goes by.

This is part of my Halloween costume
Mommy was sewing while I napped and wanted
to try it on me to see how it fit.

4:45- Mommy had to hang up Daddy's uniforms today so I helped


5:00- Mommy cooked up some peaches for me while I napped and I helped her blend them up.

5:15- Dinner time. I had Barley cereal with some chicken mixed in then some plums. Mommy discovered if she sings songs while we eat I don't get so bored and distracted. I'm going to learn my ABC's while I eat!

5:30- Time to roll and try to crawl on the floor again.

6:00- I'm getting fussy and tired again, but bedtime isn't for another hour, so Mommy takes me outside to swing.

Sometimes my sunglasses are too tight and
leave marks on my face

6:30- I want to talk to someone online. First we try Grandmommy on skype, but she is busy, so we talk to Grandma on facebook chat. I had a lot to say to her. I also wanted to start my blog post for the day.
7:00- Time for bed, it was a fun day full of lots of excitement, but now it's time to dream sweet dreams