the lighting of the lanterns

My parents celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in July and Ari's parents celebrate 40 years in August. Thats a lot of L-O-V-E. In celebration of my parents anniversary we lit 2 lanterns (one orange and one pink) and sent them thousands of feet into the air. It was a pretty cool site to see.

15 months

Eleanor has adjusted well to the new surroundings in the new house. She has quickly found which cupboards and drawers in the kitchen are the most fun to get into. She likes the new bathtub and having her very own room. She definitely sleeps better when she isn't entertained by her big sister.

She totally tricked us!! We have been waiting for tooth #3 to appear for 5 months. I have been watching her upper gums as these are typically the next to pop through after the bottom two. Well the other day she was lying on her back with her mouth wide open laughing and I got a good peak...MOLARS. Two of them. Little stinker had been working on those all along while I was hunting for incisors. We had no idea. She has been in such good spirits lately and no evidence that she was crabby while popping them through.

At 15 months, Eleanor...
has 4 teeth.
says mama, dada, duck, dog, agua, leche, car, shoes and adios.
sleeps hard for 12 hours straight.
wakes up happy and ready for the day.
dances and rocks her body back and forth to the music.
loves to carry around a baby doll, stuffed animal, or blanket under her arm.
is less of a mama's girl and more equal opportunity.
eats most everything we eat and is not too picky.

We are loving our new neighborhood

We moved into our new house on July 2nd and are having the best time in our new neighborhood. We are within walking distance to lakes, library, bakery, restaurants, coffee shop, co-op, ice cream shop, play ground, wading pool, several beaches, shops, and friends. It is awesome.

Nearly every evening we go out for a stroll in the neighborhood and explore something new.

One night we walked down to the lake and over to the rose gardens. They were absolutely stunning. We enjoyed smelling all of the varieties and soaking up the evening sun. As we passed the band shell on the lake, live music played as couples and families laid on blankets enjoying the sounds.

Another night we walked to see the "elf tree" ... a place where children can leave notes for the elf and get a response in return.

We are so close to the wading pool that a late night dip in the pool before bed is no big deal. Just load up the little red wagon and off we go.

We love bike rides around the lakes (kids in tow) and after dinner trips to the ice cream shop. Yum!

Living in our new neighborhood makes me feel like I am on vacation...it just has a resort like feel. We are loving it!

watching the sail boats on the lake 

strolling in the double Burley

views of downtown from the bike/walking path

the elf tree

Happy 4th of July

Us girls went to the 4th of July parade in a neighboring community. Evelyn had a great time watching the floats and gathering candy. She wasn't sure what to do at first and was fairly disappointed when the candy wasn't nicely placed in her bag. I think she had the impression that it was supposed to be like halloween...where you don't have to work for the sweets but instead just stand their looking cute. After a while and a bit of coaching, Evelyn was able to get in with the rest of the kids and scour for the tossed candy.