Spring is here...

Spring has arrived and the cherry blossoms here are in full bloom. (And so are the allergies and the sneezing!)

We've been spending more and more time at our local parks.  There is one that is within walking distance and another with a more interesting playground a short drive away.  Here is Eliana dutifully pushing her little sister on the swing, which is a novelty for both girls.

Karina definetely enjoys the swings and is enjoying the park more in general now that she is really stable on her feet.

Karina is also getting better and better at building with Legos.  Not content to build boring towers, she picks out the pieces with wheels, connects them like a train, and then builds on those.  She is our little engineer.

And she says "choo-choo!" while pushing it back and forth.

When Eliana was this age, she was talking a lot better and so we were disciplining a lot more.  Because Karina is not talking nearly as well, she somehow gets away with a lot more.  Such as dumping all the hair clips and rubber bands into the sink and turning the faucet on.

A few weeks ago, it was Eliana's 6th and last ice skating class.  It was a mixed success.  She definetely made progress and can now skate-shuffle forward across the ice.  On the other hand, she doesn't follow the technique that her teachers tell her to do (put your hands forward, bend your knees) and so she falls on her bottom every once in a while--and HATES falling.  So we think we will wait a little while before signing her up again for another class.

But we wanted to end it on a positive note and so Eliana got a special treat after she 'graduated'.  She got frozen custard at Sheridan's, with caramel on top.

The other day, Grandpa came over and decided to teach Eliana tic-tac-toe.  Elvin scoffed because he didn't think Eliana would understand.  But ever so patiently, Grandpa explained the strategy of looking for two in a row to block the opponent, etc etc.

To Elvin's surprise, Eliana started catching on...

And even beat Grandpa!

If you remember from before, Eliana has been doing chores as a way of earning spending money.  For the past month, she has been working towards a little Hello Kitty stuffed animal/doll that she picked out from Amazon.  So some weeks she would feel very motivated and do a spurt of chores, earning 10 cents at a time towards her $5.00 goal.  But on other weeks, she would do nothing.

 

This past week, she finally did a spurt of chores, which put her over the top.  Out came the money from her piggy bank...

 

And she finally got her coveted doll!  It has accompanied her to many places this past week.

And just because, Karina also likes doing chores.  Probably because she likes copying everything her big sister does.  And we are impressed that when putting silverware away in the drawer, she is pretty good about putting everything in the right place.

Elvin's parents came to visit a couple weekends ago.  Probably the highlight of the visit for Eliana was the fact that she got a new Princess kite from Costco.  Yeh-yeh assembled it... 

And because there was not wind, Yeh-yeh also had to put in the effort to make it fly.  It was very exciting for Eliana.

All in all, the girls are growing up very quickly, it seems.  We are also in the midst of reconfiguring rooms in preparation for #3, who will be arriving sometime in late May.  More on that later!

A Three-Year Old's View...

Eliana got her own camera for her birthday a while ago.  She has taken pictures off and on...  Here's a collection of her artwork from the past year or so.

Portrait of Daddy.

Self-portrait while brushing teeth.  (The camera is semi-water proof.)

The rack in the dishwasher where the silverware goes.

Eliana's toy cooking set in her room.

When riding in the van in her carseat, Eliana can reach the back of the driver's chair with her feet.  A self-portrait of her feet.

The shadows that the leaves on a grapevine make on the window shades.

Daddy and Karina.

Cousin Millie with a crazy smille.

Another self-portrait.

Yeh-yeh (grandpa) in a restaurant, backlit.

Mommy!

Her panda wearing a necklace.

Trip to Denver

Sorry that we haven't posted an update in a while.  We were very busy last week and then this week our computer died.  Luckily, our neighbor is a computer doctor and revived our computer for us.
We made a trip out to Denver, CO a few weeks ago to visit Emily's sister and brother-in-law.  Our last trip out there was over 3 years ago when Eliana was just 8 weeks old and we wanted to come out again before our #3 arrives.

We also wanted to come out so that the girls could play in the snow.  Denver weather cooperated and when we got there, they still had a couple of inches on the ground.  The girls suited up and went outside to build a snowman.  Karina was very uncertain about walking in the snow.  She is very stable on her feet now, but didn't like something about the snow. 

Eliana, on the other hand, loved it.  We built a snowman in the shade so he would last longer.  Uncle Darin helped out with the body and head.  He also found Eliana some sticks for the arms.

Eliana used rocks for the eyes and mouth and a carrot for the nose.  Darin found pine needles for hair.  Karina is helping rearranging the charcoal brickets stuff on snowman's belly.

After the girls were done, Libby the lab come over to inspect their handiwork.

Jen and Darin have a rambuctious chocolate lab and semi-shy ocicat.  The dog was a little too much for the girls, but they were obsessed with Lida the cat.  Karina was constantly searching for the cat saying "kitty!  kitty!?"

We were there for four days and thought that the novelty might wear off.  It didn't.

Eliana wanted to hang out and pet the cat.  The feeling was not mutual.

The girls were willing to pet the dog as long as they were sure that Libby wouldn't lick them. 

Darin is an avid hunter and hiker.  During a hike, he found some shed antlers on the ground.  Eliana pretended she was a buck.

Uncle Darin was fletching a few arrows in the basement.  Eliana took a liking to him and would hang out with him downstairs.

Eliana slept in the same room as we did, and slept better than we expected.  She had a mini-mattress laid out next to our bed and picked out blankets that she liked.  And being the nester that she is, made up a little nest for herself.

On Sunday, we drove out to some hills to go sledding.  Elvin pulled Karina along flat ground on a sled, then asked her, "Do you want to go again?"  "No" was her answer.  Apparently, Karina is not a fan of the cold and does not have a need for speed.

So she spent most of the time in her mommy's arms.

Eliana, on the other hand, LOOOOOVES sledding and inner tubing on the snow.  She went down about two dozen times and had a huge grin on her face every time. 

Later in the afternoon while Karina was napping, Elvin and Eliana went with Uncle Darin to run some errands.  We passed by a Cabela's-like store and Eliana got to see a bunch of wild game stuffed and mounted on the walls.  But her favorite was a statue of a bear holding a fish.  She was holding her stuffed animal cat and thought the bear was holding it's stuffed animal fish.

And here's a video of the girls playing with/tormenting the cat.  Emily says it's time for us to get a cat but Elvin continues to veto the idea.