April 2016

Elsie loves to play in the car or motor home, and pretend to drive. Grandpa Parker got a big motor home and is especially fun!

Here's a little glimpse of her hair when it's brushed when dry and gets a little straight. It's so long! The curls hide it well, but this girl has got a lot of long hair!

She loves to brush her teeth. Mommy does it first, and then she likes to play with it for a while. 

Helping Daddy put together a new fire pit. She just loves spending time with Mike. 

I love having a girl and trying out all these cute hair styles. Crown braid:

Mike and Julia and I got tickets to go to a session of the April General Conference. It had been a while since I'd actually gone to a session in the Conference Center. It was wonderful!

So happy the families can be together forever! 

Elsie was too young to go to General Conference, so she spent the afternoon with Uncle Steven and Buck. She loved it!

Awwww! Look at those fresh-from-the-bath curls and those baby blues! Angel!

Playing at the Hardings while Mom works. Elsie loves to hold and cuddle little baby Ruth.

Her little voice is the cutest! She is so fun to wrestle and tickle too!

One of my favorite hairstyles yet. Beautiful, curly, 3-pony mohawk:

Overalls with her hands in her pockets....there are not enough words for this amount of cuteness

Chow time with cousin Ivy. Curly hair cousin twins.

Another night at a BYU volleyball game. So fun! These were always my favorite to attend when I was in school. I don't like to watch many sports, but volleyball can hold my interest longer than most.

Spring has sprung! The tulips we planted back in the fall are finally making an appearance and they are so beautiful!

Elsie sometimes likes me to make capes or dresses for her by tying her blanket around her in different ways. I love this little pose. 

Elsie photography - not bad, not even that blurry!

Look at this cute picture my parents sent me of them matching on a Sunday. 

My good friend Erin is prego after a long time of trying, and I couldn't be happier for her! She started an infertility support group that I'm part of, and is finally having her own miracle, IVF baby! She had the cutest baby shower where we decorated onsies for her little boy. So fun! Love her!

Mimi and her kids arrived mid-April along with my mom and dad and Steph and Teague - so basically the whole family. They came to watch Elsie while we went on a trip to Hawaii for a whole week! We got to see most of them either before or after the trip, so that was great, and Elsie had so much fun, she didn't have time to be sad that we were gone. 

These cousins don't get to see each other often enough since they live in Seattle. It was such a treat to get to have them here for almost a whole week with Elsie. I know she loved it!

Leaving her behind was the hardest part of going on the trip. She didn't even cry - too occupied by cousins and family. I did cry, on the way to the airport. 

We face timed with her every day and once we were there, it was really fun and relaxing just spending time alone together. Plus, we knew that Elsie was well taken care of while we were gone.

We went to the Big Island of Hawaii and stayed in a fun resort there. We went to a luau one night and watched hula and fire dancing and ate till we were stuffed.

This is the black sand beach. We hiked down a mountain to get to it and it was so beautiful!

Back at the top of the hill to the black sand beach, there's all this lush green farmland with cliffs that look out right onto the ocean. There's the most delicious shave ice stand there too! This is probably similar to what Heaven is like, right in this spot.

The last couple days of our trip, we went to the other side of the island (the rain forest and volcano side), and we stayed in a treehouse.

We went to see a ginormous waterfall and volcanoes all in the rain (not cold rain though)

Here's where we stayed. It was so cool! The entire thing had walls of glass too. It was tucked back in the trees and you couldn't see anyone around so it was really private. Yay for Air B&B!

By the time we got back home, we were so overdue for some Elsie time. 7 days apart is too long! Elsie snuggled up to Daddy after trying on her Hawaii gifts (hula outfit).

Here we are at the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. They plant thousands of tulips throughout the huge gardens every year and it is a gorgeous sight to see! Elsie loves to stop and smell flowers, so it took a while, but was really a fun little outing.

Here's our own flowers and tulips in our yard:


Playing in the car and dancing around the house with neighbor girls in Mom's heels. Always fun!

Elsie turned 2 on April 25th! We had a big birthday party with all of her neighborhood/church friends (I know, I'm crazy!). It was really cute and fun! She loved the presents, balloons and cupcakes.

About a week later, we had another birthday party with just the Parker family. Elsie got all shy when everyone was singing to her and had to hold my hand. She's adorable!

Falls, bumps, and bruises are a frequent occurance now days with this little adventurous one running and jumping all around 24/7. I think this one was from tumbling down a few steps on the front porch - ouch!