Our little Monkey!!

Here is my favorite picture from this past weekend on our mini vacation to San Diego. Brianna loves the gorillas at the zoo, so here she is giving one a big hug. We had a wonderful time, seriously every minute was great!

Apple Picking Time!

We went up to Oak Glen on one of my Fridays off and had a great time. It is so pretty up there and always twenty degrees cooler. Brianna really liked this activity and the best part was making my first apple pie with her later. Surprisingly it was really good!

Our week at the beach!

We spent a really fun week at Newport Beach with Karen. She rented an awesome house which we were luck enough to stay in for 7 nights. Brianna is definitely a beach girl and even though some days were a little chilly she loved every minute! These are a few of my favorite pictures. More to come of course because we did lots of things that I want to share!

I was so relieved that she took long naps right on the beach it allowed me to stay on the beach and relax, so nice!
We bought a boogie board for $10.00 from a traveling salesman, and it was well worth the money. Our little daredevil has no fear and jumped right on!
These were the best moments for me watching the two loves of my life having the best time!

Sea World!!

So we decided last minute on a Monday morning to go to Sea World and make a fun little get away by staying the night and going to the Zoo the next day. It was such a great time!

Brianna watching Shamu, which I must say is not as exciting now that the trainers do not get in the water, but for Brianna it was AWESOME! She still talks about Shamu jumping up into the air :).
Cleaning our table after a pretty good dinner, oh and singing while she is doing it of course!
I cannot believe that my 18 and 3/4 inch daughter has grown to 34 inches so amazing!
I love this pic, it looks like Greg is riding a flying Elmo all by himself, but of course Brianna is next to him, so excited for her first ride!

The bottom pic is Brianna waiting to watch the pets rule show, she was so good for the shows, a very nice surprise for us!

Bubbles, bubbles, and more bubbles, she loved the bubble gun which was definitely worth the hefty 10.00 we paid for it! Especially since it still works, added bonus!

Easter

One of the great perks of living in an association are the activities that are within walking distance for Brianna. The Easter egg hunt today was a hit with our family of three, so I thought it was worth putting on the blog.

They put out 3000 eggs and separated it by age, besides playing with Olivia, this was Brianna's favorite part of the morning.

Walking through the rocks in a very loud voice!Posing with Olivia in their cute dresses.

Awww Olivia with her Daddy, Mommy was at home with baby Ava. So excited for her first Easter!

Awwww Brianna and her Daddy, I am of course taking pictures :)

This was not Brianna's favorite part, maybe next year!

curly hair!

So right now Brianna has curly hair I hope it stays. If it doesn't I will be calling on lots of my straight hair or blown out straight haired friends to help me :)

Oh pacifier, how we love you, please don't go!

So Brianna had her 18 month check up on Friday and her Dr. who we love said to prepare myself because at her dentist appointment which is next week they will probably tell me to ditch the pacifier. What???? No way!! We and I do mean we love the pacifier. It has so many good uses, the pictures below demonstrate my case....Car rides always a nice comfort for Brianna to have and it helps to get her in the car when she doesn't want to leave somewhere.
Calming Brianna into the night time routine of reading books while I am exhausted from the day.
Taking naps in other places like Grandma's house at Thanksgiving.
Comfort for big Owies or Boo Boos like this one on her noggin.
And of course the biggest one of all sleep! Brianna begs to go in her crib so she can try her many pacifiers out, since she only gets her pacifier for sleep times, she loves to go to bed so she can get her pacifier fix.

So I think I will start saving now for the inevitable braces and ignore the dentist, as well as pretend that I don't see her teeth already showing signs that the pacifier is making them shift in the wrong direction. Her smile will always be beautiful to me! Besides now that I have my sleep back I dread the day when we do get rid of the pacifier like maybe when she is 5 :)

My Gym

So with the upcoming layoff looming ahead of me I started to think about how much fun Brianna has at daycare with her little friends. Not wanting to keep my social butterfly from making new friends since she won't have daycare anymore, we looked into Mygym. We tried a free class and it seems perfect. She is definitely more social and wild than the toddlers that were there during the freeplay time, but I think she still had a really fun time. So basically I think we found a good activity for us twice a week.Brianna doing a toddler sit up, she has some serious abs!
Watch out for my little gymnast! Feet in the air and everything, she thought that was so funny.
Of course Brianna's Favorite part the multiple swings that they hung from the ceiling!

On another note, why do I have my hands on my hips in two of these pictures? I think I need to work on a different stance, I look like I am judging something, anyway weird observation....

Coco the hamster!

So we decided to get a pet for Brianna something that could teach her how to be careful with animals. A hamster seemed like the perfect choice because they only have a 1-3 year life span, can be watched by anyone willing to take his little cage into their home when we go out of town, and only costs $9.99-therefore, perfect pet for the Elgans. For some reason however, I forgot the whole hamsters are nocturnal part which has led to Coco being downstairs in the laundry room for the night for his marathon running he does between 10 and 2. Overall though he has been a great pet for Brianna who loves Coco so much she has to see him every morning when she wakes up, somedays I think she is more excited about him than me :)

Calling him, she says Coco yea Coco yea as she opens and closes her hand, so cute!
Trying to give him a kiss :)

Great Christmas!

Brianna loves to smile for pictures for her Uncle Danny! Especially since she got to be in her fancy dress on top of the end table :)

The first Christmas was special because it was our first Christmas with our baby girl, but the second Christmas was fun! She loved opening her gifts and the ball pit from Santa, pictures are on the way, it is still a daily ritual to jump/bounce her way into all the balls. Santa is known as ho ho ho in our house, and I think she was sad to see him placed along with the many decorations into the tub for storage. All the fun of Christmas is just magnified by a thousand when you have kids. I can't wait until our third Christmas; cookies for Santa, driving around to see lights, and shopping for gifts for family that she picks out. I hope everyone had a great Christmas!