Happy Easter!

I'm sad to admit that Easter didn't get a lot of attention around here this year. Matt was right in the middle of writing a final paper and studying for a final, and the stress level in our house was HIGH. (We're still waiting to hear if he's qualified for graduation on May 13, but he is pretty confident that his tests turned out ok-- whew!)

We snuck in a quick egg coloring session on Friday evening. Elaina's favorite part was dipping her fingers in the coloring and licking them. Eww.

We ended up with some pretty eggs and not as many casualties as we had last year. Elaina was convinced that the eggs were balls last year, and quite a few eggs ended up cracked when she threw them. This year, she just wanted to smash them together for fun. Believe it or not, we were able to control this a little better than last year's throwing.

We had a nice Easter service at church then ran home for a quick meal before Matt headed back to studying. Next year, we will have NO studying and TWO girls on Easter. We're looking forward to it! (If you look closely in the photo below, you can see a little (18 week) baby "bump". I'll post some more belly shots as the bump grows. )

Look out, September!

Here comes Rust baby #2!

Christmas

We had an enjoyable Christmas here in NC, and with our families in Indiana. Elaina really got into the decorations this year. She enjoyed saying "Good morning, Christmas" when she came down the stairs in the morning and looking for the (sh)Elf. Her favorite part of the Christmas decorations, though, was the pretty new books that came out especially those with Carols ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." and "Deck the Halls" were the favorites).



Some interesting developments came when her knowledge of the religious aspects of the season bled over into the decorative aspects. For example, when we first pulled out a Santa ornament she pointed and said, "Jesus." This made perfect sense, because Jesus did have a beard in the Easter decorations and books, but now--confusingly--Jesus was a baby surrounded by farm animals.

The other crossover was when Elaina said her first prayer. For some time now, she has been clasping her hands and closing her eyes when we pray before meals, chiming in with an "Amen" at the end. Then, one evening while Victoria and I were preparing dinner we heard Elaina sitting at the island in the kitchen mumbling. We looked over and saw her praying with eyes shut and hands together: "mumble, mumble, mumble, Reindeer. Mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble. Reindeer." Her first prayer, for the reindeer.

Victoria got a nice treat the last weekend before Christmas: she met up with some Butler friends (Amanda and Talia) in New York. She had a great time catching up and seeing the sights in NYC. Elaina and I had a rough time without Mommy, but we were glad she was getting a fun vacation after all the single-parenting she's had to do while I've been in classes three nights a week.



Then, we did the unthinkable. We packed our RAV4 to the gills and drove the entire way to Southern Indiana, with a two year old... and we only stopped twice! We saw my family first where we got to meet my niece Laila Grace Silva. She was sleepy and peaceful the whole time we were there. Elaina had fun watching her and holding her and she loved playing with cousin "Coby" (formerly "Doby"--actual name: Jacoby).



My parents seemed to really enjoy having all their grandkids there at once, so I tried to capture their joy in my favorite art medium: snow.

We enjoyed getting to play in the snow, but we actually would have had more snow in North Carolina (Raleigh-Durham had its first White Christmas on record with 6-7 inches!)

Here's the best thing we found under the Christmas tree:

Next up, we headed to Victoria's folks' where Elaina found more cousins to play and be silly with. Grammy Sally got the girls "Pillow Pets" and Elaina and Addison had try them out right away.

All three girls also had to make sure to feed the reindeer out front. They might have eaten more than they fed to the reindeer.

We spent New Year's with Victoria's family as well (following through on our resolution from last year to never again stay in a hotel over New Year's Eve). We started back on New Year's day, arrived on the second and I was back at work on the third. Victoria went back to work (and Elaina to daycare) on the fourth, and I'll start my last semester of law school this coming Monday.

Elaina had a rough first few days back at daycare and she's been struggling with going to sleep at nights. A little detox is to be expected, though, after spending so much time away from home with so many exciting cousins and loving grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

The Twelve Days of Shutterfly

If you're like us, you're starting to think about getting those Christmas cards out. If you're smart like us, you'll want to use Shutterfly for all your Christmas card printing needs. Allow us to share our appreciation for Shutterfly through a song.

The Twelve Days of Shutterfly

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Shutterfly gave to me…

A blonde boy playing Tarzan


A bow-tied, bearded man


A snow-faced, little redhead


The bottom half of mommy


A multiethnic family


Free Babies from the Sky


Sally strangling Daddy


IN-APPRO-PRIATE SHIRT


The other half of mommy


Free-range kids


Unabomber’s daughter


AND a bunny in a baby mask!


I love Christmas songs almost as much as I love Shutterfly. And I love Shutterfly almost as much as I love getting free Christmas cards from Shutterfly… just for blogging about their Christmas cards! Actually, we did use Shutterfly last year to print the most amazing Christmas card you’ve ever stuck on your fridge. Remember it?


Shutterfly offers a lot of great products including Calendars, Canvas Wall Art, and Personalized Thank You Cards. Most importantly, they are offering free Christmas Cards to anyone willing to hawk Shutterfly products on their blog. Victoria and I are above that sort of thing, but if you know anyone who might be interested, tell them to check out the details at: http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

"Customizable" and "quick" are two words I’d used to describe Shutterfly’s printing services. "Sell" and "out" are the two I'd use to describe us.

She's 2- it's true!

Our little lady turned two years old last week. We celebrated by taking her to the Marbles Children Museum in Raleigh. She also had a Minnie Mouse party with some friends.

At 2, she LOVES to sing (itsy bitsy spider is her favorite), knows her ABC's, counts to 13, recognizes a few colors, and loves to snuggle. She has a very silly personality, and she can be a little bossy (kinda like her Mommy, I guess). :)

More pictures are in the photo galleries.

Trick or Treat!

Elaina had her first experience Trick or Treating last night. Halloween fell on our normal church small group night, so Elaina went Trick or Treating in our friends' neighborhood along with their little girl. I think the girls were a little confused about the whole process, but they definitely loved the candy at the end of the evening. More photos have been added to the October album in the Photo Galleries.


P.S. A special little lady around here turns 2 years old next week!

Fall 2010

It's hard to believe we live 630 miles away from our families considering how often Elaina gets to see all of her grandarents. This month she got to see both sets of grandparents over two consecutive weekends.

Grandma and Grandpa Rust were here for the weekend of the 16th, so we checked out a Durham farm with a real pumpkin patch (i.e., we pulled them off the vines and couldn't find any walmart stickers on them). Elaina loved the corn crib.

While they were here, Grandma and Grandpa gave Elaina an early birthday present: an activity table that she can sit at to color and play with her animals. Here's a collage of some of the fun.

Last weekend it was Grammy's and Papaw's turn for a visit. They were driving up from Orlando where they had been visiting Victoria's brother, Jordan. We met up with them in the Boone, NC area (Fleetwood--same place we went with some friends back in September).

We had a very cozy cabin in the mountains and felt especially safe at night because Papaw Jim kept a large stick strategically hidden between him and the front door. On Saturday we drove up to Damascus, VA to do a 17 mile bike ride... all downhill! We had been to this trail (the Virginia Creeper Trail) back in 2006 and had assured Papaw and Grammy it would be more relaxing than one would expect a 17 mile bike ride to be. The weather and the leaves were beautiful.

More photos of all the fun are in the photo gallery.