I have a two-year old daughter! How did that happen?

I swear she was just born a couple of months ago.  How is it possible that 2 years have gone by already?  Here are some recent pictures of Ellie.

Below is a video of Ellie helping me sing Happy Birthday.

Trip to Mexico

Here are some pictures from our trip to Cozumel, celebrating our 5th anniversary. (Love you, Dave!)

We had a great time!  Yummy food, a nice place to stay, and lots of cool things to see.  Our Thanksgiving Dinner was empanadas at an Argentinian restaurant in Cozumel.  We went horseback riding, explored ruins, went snorkeling (ok just Dave did), took a nap in a hammock (ok just I did), got massages, and enjoyed the beautiful island of Cozumel and the Mayan Riviera.  It was a nice break from reality, but we missed Ellie, and it was good to get home to our own home, bed, cars, etc.

October is over already?

Time flies when you're having fun!

Here are some Halloween pictures, and some from visiting Staheli Farm on the 29th.

Arrrgh!

Dave and I went to an early Halloween Party dressed as pirates.  We rented the costumes, and had a great time!  Ellie liked our hats!

For any further Halloween celebrations this year, we are going to dress up like a doctor and nurse.  Oh, and Ellie will be an owl.  I don't have a single decoration up at my house, but we are having a great time doing Halloween music at school.  I like this time of year--it is fun to be silly.  :)

Signing Time Foundation Concert

Okay, so I might be kind of obsessed with Signing Time.  I do have the complete collection, which I enjoy watching with Ellie, as well as with the Kindergarten students at my elementary school.  I think sign language is fun, and I am so amazed at how quickly children pick it up!  Ellie easily remembers signs after just seeing them a couple of times.  It takes me longer to pick them up.  So she sometimes signs things that I don't understand--until I watch one of our newer videos and recognize it.  It has been so nice to be able to communicate with Ellie while she is still developing her speech.  It is fun to hear her try to say new words, but they are almost always words she already can sign.  

Anyway, we bought tickets to this Rachel Coleman Concert a month ago, and I've been looking forward to it!  Yesterday, as soon as school was out, I rushed over to pick up Ellie, and headed down to Las Vegas.  The concert was at a Baptist church in Henderson, and was quite full.  Ellie loved being around all of the other kids.  When Rachel and Leah came out and started performing, Ellie stood on my lap, and stared the whole time.  It wasn't until towards the end of the show that she finally started to sign along, and after each song, asked for "more, more!"  We waited in a long line to get our picture taken with Rachel, Leah, and Lucy, and have Ellie's Signing Time T-shirt autographed by both Rachel and Leah.  It was so cool to meet them in person!  I couldn't believe how grown-up Leah was!  (She grows up on the dvds--from age 4 to about age 11?).  But now she is 14 and just about as tall as her mom!  Well, I won't go on anymore, because you guys probably haven't watched the show, but I highly recommend it to parents of young children!  

By the way, they announced that "Potty Time" will be released in November, and we got to watch a preview of it.  I have been dreading potty training, but maybe if Rachel tells her to use the potty, she'll do it!  :)

School Picture

Eliana's Daycare/Preschool has portraits done every year about this time.  Here is her current school picture:

 Isn't she super cute!  I just love this little girl.  She surprises me every day with the new words and signs she knows.  Ellie can identify the numbers 1-20, 12 different shapes, most colors, and all of the upper case alphabet letters, too.  And she's exactly 22 months old today!  Two more months and she'll be in her terrible twos!  Although, I'm hoping they won't be too terrible.  :)  I love you Ellie Sue!

Summer Fun

Sorry that I haven't posted much lately.  I lost the adapter to take pictures off my camera, but I finally bought a new one.  So here are some pictures of our summer fun!

I'm hoping our 100+ degree summer days are coming to an end.  I'm ready for a very mild Mesquite fall!

Ellie's photo shoot with Kasi

More pictures on Kasi's photography blog: http://kasigoodphotography.blogspot.com/.

Thanks Kasi!  I just love these pictures!